Getting the boot

One doesn't realize just how complex the structure of the foot and the ankle are until an anatomical picture is viewed. I think if I had done better in chemistry in high school I would have been pursuing a medical career because I find the human body just so darn interesting. Researching the medical issues that have surfaced over time in my body has been so fun to do. But I'm not a hypochondriac. Case in point: my ankle and foot aching several days and my being reluctant to go once more to the doctor after having seen him just two weeks before for my cholesterol.

But it turns out that I was wise in seeking medical advice. In the last couple of days I had been thinking twice about going to see a podiatrist because my foot and ankle were feeling better after treating them conservatively like a sprained ankle. You know the routine. The R.I.C.E. method: Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate (if you don't know it, you know it now). But after seeing the ultrasound pictures of my foot and how the affected area appears compared to healthy tissue, I was glad that I didn't listen to my head and opt to not go. Turns out I have a torn ligament (the peroneus longus). Everything is still attached, but the tissue is very inflamed within my foot and making it and my ankle immobile for 6 weeks is the treatment required. After that will be a follow up visit to see how it's doing and whether it is ready for physical therapy or if I need to have surgery. So now I have a lovely walking cast boot to wear for 6 weeks. The price of going shopping for new clothes.

On the needles

I've put projects on hold because of my tendonitis flaring up in my hands (a lot of data entry and mousework at the office) but it hasn't stopped me from doing stuff. I took a cone of the Pendleton wool and my niddynoddy and started skeining up the wool for washing later, finishing up two skeins today. My partner in crime at the office looked at me funny while I was doing it at lunch. The look didn't change when I explained what I was doing. It is a big cone of yarn. Futile? Not after it's washed.

One of the women who is active in the company's Mission activities came to me with a proposal of selling craft items for one of the women's shelters here in town. I suggested a silent auction and said I would think of what I could do. The event will happen the third week in October, so I had to think of what I could do that would be quick and portable and attractive. I have a skein of Lorna's Laces Helen's Lace in a lovely colorway they call cedar which is a nice heathered olive green. Last night's insomniac reading took me through EZ's Knitter's Almanac and I read her story of the Pi Shawl. My first shawl was a Pi Shawl and I finished it in a month. I could do another. So all afternoon my mind was whirling with possibilities. Now I find I have a nice stash of Cherry Tree Hill laceweight in blues and purples and more yardage and already wound into balls to work! Ai!! Which yarn? What size needle? Plain or eyelets? Or work a single line of spiralling eyelets and do a backwards e loop instead of a yarnover for the increase row?

I think I have it worked out. First dinner, then sit down with the needles and start knitting.