I put my Best Foot Forward!

Just a quick update on my foot malady....I went to the foot doctor and he told me what to do. "He said, "Oooo-eeee-oo-ah-ah-ting-tang-walla-walla-bing-bang." Sorry every time I say "Foot Doctor" I want to break out into song. Any way, this is what he said:

I do not have a broken foot. I have extra bones in my foot, which are not causing any problems because if they were, I would have found out about these extra bones earlier in the 37 years that I've been on this Earth. I still think that God or a doctor or someone would have told me about this before. To think that I've just been walking around thinking that I have the normal amount of bones in my feet - when really I must have gotten into the foot bone line twice (go figures I'm always getting into the wrong lines or lost!). But I do have plantar faccitis, where the tendon in the bottom of your feet gets strained and gets little tears in it - so basically your feet hurt. And my feet, trying to heal thy self, grew the bone spur to help protect the foot from further harm (I'm a self healer...or would it be "heeler"?...maybe I should open a shrine to my feet? hmmm....maybe going a bit far there). Here's something to help you see what I'm talking about:


So what do I have to do to fix it, you ask. (Well if you didn't, you should have..). They put me on the "3" diet. That is 3 Ibuprofen, 3 times a day, for 3 days. It doesn't sound complicated, but maybe it is because the doctor quizzed me on it before I left (maybe the blond hair threw him off). And then gave me heel supports to take the pressure off the area. He also prescribed no exercise until Monday. Ah, now that's the kind of prescription that I can really get behind (I have to because I feel like my behind is getting bigger every day!). Anyway, my feet feel SO MUCH BETTER that I cannot tell you how much sore feet effect your life. So do me a favor and look down at your tooties and tell them how grateful you can walk and that your feet don't hurt. And if they do hurt, take my advice, don't wait a year of pain before you go to the doctor - like I did.

I hope that I didn't burden you with my health issues. If you want, you can totally disregard this whole entry and go about your day and think socks or something :-P

Bottoms Up!

Drum Roll please..........(you should be doing a drum roll with your tongue if you don't have a real drum set at your disposal. "drrrrrrrrrrrrr")............without further ado, here is the finished bikini bottom:

Tah Daaaaaaaah!!! (I can almost hear the cymbals crash)

I really like how they turned out. I chose purple as it is my favorite color (as Julia Roberts said in "Steel Magnolia," Purple "is my signature color." Ok, she liked pink, but that was the 80's and there was not accounting for taste back then.). I made the bottoms flare out sooner in the front to give more coverage in the front. I then added the teal stripe because I thought that I needed more height to the bottom to cover more of my stomach. Plus I was out boating and noticed a girl with a suit with a stripe like that at the top which I thought makes your eye go to that part that I thought was nice. I just hate the low cut styles that are out there. If you are not 15-18 years old and have rock hard abs (note this is the part of the advice that most young girls miss) it just is not attractive. You may as well just show your whole "good girl" if that is your goal (again another term I picked up in the South - I liked it and now I'm calling it my own. If I ever have a daughter, I'm going to use it with her - it has the right subliminal message between morality and guilt to keep her on the straight and narrow :-). I originally didn't connect the sides and was instead going too attach wide pink ties on each side (front and back) that would tie together and give side coverage that I felt my sides deserved. But that didn't work because there was nothing holding the top of the bottoms up. So the sides were covered - but the top and top just drooped. Not attractive. So I did my best frog impression (rip it- rip it) and then sewed the sides together and made a channel for the tie to go through so the tip could be cinched in to keep them in place and on. I made the tie pink because since that was a tie color of the top it sets off the shorts quite nicely.

Just to remind you, this is a picture of the original suit pattern:
( A skinny girl's suit for sure!!)


And here is the suit that I made:

I actually like the colors and modifications that I made better than the original. But of course, I may be a little biased.

So I have been wearing the suit around the house to see if I would actually wear it out in public and if I really thought that it would be "boat worthy." I'm pretty sure that Todd thinks I'm nuts. I put it on the morning before going to work before changing into my work clothes and when I get home before I put on whatever I'm going to wear for the day to give it a little showing and to see if anything has changed. One time he caught me off guard as Todd had returned early from a business trip and he sneaked into the house (ok, he said he walked in with his normal stealth like moves) and caught me talking to myself as I was trying the suit on in front of the mirror. He looked around to see who I was talking to (because surely I wouldn't be talking to the suit - which I was!). So just to make him think that I'm not nuts - I made supper with it on and wore it all evening until I got too cool and put on my pajamas (I showed him).

So the only part of the suit is that the bottoms are "cheek chillers." I'm used to a more modest cut and these bottoms show at least a half cheek each (so if added together is a full cheek!! Which would be illegal in most states - but luckily I'm in Illinois and not serving alcohol so am legal). Todd says that they are "definitely boat bottoms" - meaning that the most of the time you are sitting down anyway. (I'm sorry, I really want to come up with a Sponge Bob - Bikini Bottom reference here, but just can't come up with anything witty so, I apologize to all you Sponge Bob fans out there!)

So I had to try the suit out in the water without being in public (just in case) so I jumped the in the shower with the suit on and came out and had Todd check it out (I'm pretty sure that I've blown my cover and any thoughts that he had of thinking he was married to a normal person is right out the window). He laughed at me and couldn't believe that I went into the shower with the suit on. Plus I dripped all over the living room rug. But the final result is what I needed to hear. It was water tight and kept me properly covered even though wet. I decided that it was now boat ready. So we went boating on the Thursday after the 4th and it was a success. The only problem with the suit is that it takes at least 2 days to dry. So like a normal nylon suit will dry in the sun in a matter of minutes. This suit stays wet for days! So a change of clothes is absolutely necessary to bring boating or the seats of my car will be wet for week and I will probably catch a nasty cold from being wet. The other issue is that the suit's cheek chiller properties have been confirmed. The suit stretches more when wet - which can give me more coverage - but then it doesn't snap back completely into place (while still wet for those 2 days) so kind of is loose in the bum area. Maybe if I didn't pull at it, it would be fine. But I'm not used to that my derry-aire showing. I think it's fine for the boat due to the inherent sitting properties of the sport. I will wear it again and see what I think, but I may be purchasing some more purple and trying to knit up the sides a bit - or maybe I'll send my arse to a diet - which may be more fool proof because I wouldn't want to ruin a perfectly good suit.

Anyway, that's all I have for today - except, it looks like I have been walking around on a broken left foot for at least a month now (probably longer). I don't really know what I did, so I'll have to make up with a good story to tell - but just know that my feet have been killing me. So I went to Urgent Care yesterday and told them that my foot was bothering me and they took Xrays and found a bone spur in my heel (which is where most of the pain is coming from) and a bone chip on the outside edge of my arch. So they wrapped it - they wanted to put it in a splint that I couldn't take off, but I promised not to walk on it so they just wrapped it in an ace bandage and I was told not to walk on it until I saw an orthopedic doctor on Monday. So I'm at home alone with crutches and an ace bandage. Thank goodness that I cleaned my apartment before going to the doctor and that I know how to knit and have a materials and a pattern that I want to try. I'll keep you all informed on my affliction (or injury or whatever it is). Hopefully I'll know more on Monday. Gotta go put up my foot and start knitting and watching movies (this is going to be hard on me - I can see that already. ha-ha).

Happy Gradulations!!

I'm sorry that it's been so long since I've blogged (I hope that I haven't forgotten how!). Last weekend I went on a 6 hour drive to the Twin Cities to visit my BRO and SIL for their son Jake's High School Graduation Celebration (hence the title). So I took some pics to preserve the occasion. I know you are dying to see what my family looks like so here they are:

So - can you see the resemblance?

There was a little disagreement over the cake. Jake thought that the cake was for him....

....and Michelle thought that he should share - well at least the frosting.

Jake said he agreed and then made a break for it....with the cake in tow!

So gradimication parties are a great opportunity to visit some of the knitting that you've made and given away (it was nice to see family too :-). I had knitted Michelle a Safari Coat for Christmas this past year, but the pictures had accidentally been erased by my delapitated computer. So even though it was in the 80's and way too hot for a coat, I took out the coat and snapped some pictures of it. I'm really proud of this coat. I got the recipe (oops that was from the last blog)....I mean pattern from Creative Knitting Magazine - September 2006. It is made with Lion Suede and Fun Fur. It was a really fun project - except that suede is kind of tricky to work with. I think it looks quite nice - Let me know what you think:

I spread it out on Mark and Michelle's new couch -which is really comfy and matches the coat quite nicely (remember it's all about the knitting with me :-). But just to be sure that you get the full effect, I tried it on too:



Well at least I was smiling behind the plate. That's the funny part - I was! Sometimes I crack myself up!!

Another thing that gradulation parties are good for is checking out the knitting of others. Michelle has made some really cute tube tops that she made the pattern for out of her own. They are so cute. I took the picture of some of them - but they really don't do them justice unless they are on. As Michelle always says when I ask her "How do you know that they you would like them" and her reply is always, "They looked good on the dummy!" So Michelle has one of them on in the first pictures (funny how that story illustrated her point exactly - LOL! I know... I know....I'm just amusing myself again! Since I'm sharing...Michelle-isms - another one of my favorites is, "If you are the only one laughing - is it really funny? My answer is and always will be - "Of course, as long as I'm the one laughing!") . Anyway, She did a really nice job with the pattern making it change at the waist line (go ahead and scroll back up to the top and look - I'll wait here......).




Or here it is without the dummy:

The other one she made that I just loved is the yellow one with a black ribbon. Now, Michelle was not happy that I made her put it on early Sunday morning before I left - but for the best interest of the blogg - she complied. It's so pretty - really..... don't take my word on it - take a look yourself:

Where have I seen that look she has on her face again? Hmmmmmmmm........

Project update: I've been working on the bikini bottoms and had them almost done and had to rip them out because my pattern just wasn't working. They would have never stayed up in the water - well maybe into the water, but I never would have gotten out of the water. I think I have the dilemma solved and having been knitting all day to finish. I should have it done shortly so stay tuned!

Also - For all my Canadian friends and family - Happy Canada Day!