Friday, March 15, 2013

Knitting and crocheting away this month

Figure I should do an update since I haven't written on my blog for a while. John and I are doing fine after Randy passed in January. I've been plugging away at the to do list and have everything in my name and have managed all the red tape issues that go with having your husband pass away. His memorial is next week.

As far as my fibro goes, I had a couple flares in the last three months, but I'm doing better now. Funny how I can stress a part of my body and not feel anything until later that day or the next, and then it takes weeks to recover. My survival, right now, depends on me being able to walk everywhere and be alert when I'm reading and filling out forms, so having an ankle go out or my knees just isn't acceptable. I stressed my arm on the day that Randy went to the convalescent hospital by trying to straighten him on the gurney when the medical transport guys wouldn't do it, and I wasn't able to reach over my head with my arm for days afterwords. Made getting food out of the cupboard really interesting. It doesn't help that my medical care right now is pretty etchy. I was changed from SSI to Survivor benefits (disabled widow) and that changed me from medicaid to medicare. Now I have a deductible and have to buy my own prescriptions.  Not easy when you make as little as I do.

My knitting and crocheting are coming along. I have been trying to sell it on ebay and ebid, but haven't been real successful. Right now I have several things I'm trying to sell
 I attempted to sell my doily, but if I'd have continued, it would have sold for less than what I spent on the thread so I canceled the sale
 These didn't sell either and I ended up donating them to a thrift shop in town that uses what they made from selling things to help out victims of domestic violence.
 I gave this bag to the thrift shop as well.
 As well as this doily
 This bag is still on e-bay, but it doesn't look promising. I've ran it three times and nothing so far.
This is the only item that I made that has a bid on it. Hopefully it will get more before the auction is done.

I'm having a lot of hand pain (my knuckle in my left thumb keeps stiffening up), but I keep pressing on. Right now I'm working on a throw rug made from plarn and the thrift shop gave me a ton of fabric to use to make throw rugs to donate so I need to get to work on them.

I got this book in the mail from Abebooks.com. It has some great ideas on how to knit using items you find around your home instead of yarn. "Rags to Riches-Ideas to Inspire the Thrifty Knitter" by Mary-Jane Holmes. Looks like some great ideas in it.