Monday, September 22, 2014

I'm Back at It!

We moved from California to Washington! John and I made the move the first week of August and it's been wonderful to be out of the heat. The first summer we lived in Randy's old house in Barstow, we were able to stay cool enough by using the old swamp cooler that was there, but the second summer was horrible. We moved into the larger home in front of the small one and the cooler in the big place was on the roof and was just as old as the one on the converted garage. After fighting with the landlord to get it updated and a new switch on it, the best we got was a servicing and it wasn't enough. By July it was in the 90's in the house and I was in misery from my fibro. I complained on facebook to my daughter and my brother posted "come home". After thinking it over, I realized that I really had no good reason not to. I worked it out with Michelle so that she could rent a truck and come and get us and we made it happen.
We have a small, two bedroom, apartment in Lakewood WA. now. I have a little work area put together for all my needlecrafts and even added an old 1930's era Singer treadle sewing machine to my work space. 
I took a while to get us settled in, then got to work on some socks. My plan is to get some things made up and then sell some and donate some to the VA. I'll probably make up a blog just for sales once I get things caught up and a few things made.

Some of the things I'm working on are Halloween themed items, designing and donating some socks made with diabetics in mind, and some dog sweaters. These socks are the diabetic socks I'm making. I finished one pair in soft yarn and gave them to my daughter and made a pair with worsted weight baby yarn that I'm wearing. I wanted to make them for myself first so I could see how practical they would be.
They turned out just right. I used a larger needle for the cast on and started with the stockinette stitch right off the bat so that there wouldn't be a ribbing to cause discomfort and cut off circulation. Then I used a short row heal so there wouldn't be a lot of bulk around the heal and finished up with the kitchner stitch for the toe so that there would be no seam to cause irritation. After I made mine, I started a pair for the VA hospital (still working on the second one).
The Halloween socks have been just a ton of fun to work on. I made the first pair with pumpkins.
They turned out so cute, I made a pair with a spider on one of the socks.
Now I can't wait to get to the store and get yarn to make some with candy corn decorating them.

In between my sock adventures I got a couple other projects done as well: A scarf using some cotton yarn and that I experimented with beads for the first time ever!

And some baby booties for my neighbor who just brought a brand new baby girl into the world.
So, as you can see, I'm right back into my needles and yarn. Things have been good financially since combining my income with my daughters and, even though we haven't felt the benefits yet (moving taxed our purses pretty good), we are feeling hopeful. 

I got back into the VA system here and was pleased to see that the VA clinic was very close to where I live. I go to the American Lake complex and it is gorgeous! The building was built in the 1920's and is right next to a beautiful little lake, surrounded by evergreens. Not only has the staff there been wonderful (they have a nice woman's clinic where the building on the inside has been fixed up really pretty and the ladies that work there are wonderful), but the setting is very relaxing!  The PA I'm seeing as my primary care doctor is very into being proactive with my healthcare and goes with a more holistic approach for my fibromyalgia that is closer to what I like. She did blood tests last week and found that I have hypothyroidism and is keeping an eye on that for me.
Well, that's about all my babbling for now!