Let's try this again

The pictures. Will blogger cooperate and let me prove that I'd been knitting my tuchus off?

Why yes, it did. Right now on the screen where I'm typing this post, it looks like I'll be able to comment beside each picture. We all know that once it gets published, who knows how it will turn out.

The blue dress and wrap are what I made for the Atlanta Knitting
Guild's annual bear presentation to the Georgia Center for Child Advocacy. The dress is made from Caron's Simply Soft with some Fun Fur added in to the hemline. The wrap is Fun Fur. I had them both in my stash, and it gave me a way to use them.

Next, we have some items I made for a swap amongst knitters who knit items for cats in shelters. I'll confess that I haven't knitted any cat blankets for donation yet. As I've mentioned
before, there are so many worthy charities out there, and I just
don't have time to knit for every single one of them. I do make an effort to knit for the local ones.

That said, the swap was to include a handknitted gift for the knitter and her cats. As you can see, the ones I knitted did pass Grey's seal of approval. Once again I was able to use stash yarn. The gal for whom I was knitting mentioned that purple was one of her favorite colors, and I had several skeins, whole and partial, of Plymouth Galway in my stash.

Thank you, Ravelry. I perused my target's favorites and found a hat that I would enjoy knitting. It is the Lotus hat, and the details can be found on my Ravelry projects page.

The mouse pattern was a free one that I found. I bought a mega sized container of fresh catnip to stuff the mousie after I felted it.

I had to take several pictures of the mouse since I thought it was

so cute. The one for my swap partner does have eyes that I embroidered.

Next you'll see a hat I knitted from more of the Simply Soft that was in my stash. This was for admission to a knit party I was attending. All the hats were donated to local charities, either Chemoflage or to the Atlanta Knitting Guild for distribution.

The Atlanta Knitting Guild also supports the Atlanta Women's Day

Shelter, so any hats that may not be soft enough for chemo patients will find good use.




Next, you will see 5 blind mice. My sister in law has started fostering kittens. I'm afraid that I encouraged her onto the slippery slope of cat rescue, and now they have 3 cats and

currently 2 fosters. I thought the least I could do was take her some cat toys. (Honestly, if she were more of a drinker, I'd take her bottle of her favorite beverage, because rescuing animals can be as challenging as it can be rewarding.)

Here is a hat that I have since finished. I can't remember if I've taken pictures yet as the battery died on the camera, and I need to recharge it. More stash yarn.

This final picture is a sock sample I knitted from my very own Chris Sock Yarn in the colorway Butterfly Bush. This is one of the yarns painted to pool if knitted in the proper way.

Have a great Sunday! We're having our high temperature right now. High winds and falling temperatures are on our agenda today. Possibly some snow flurries too. Thank goodness we have food, so let's just hope the power doesn't go out.

Falling off the face of the earth

No, that's not what happened to me.

I've been knitting like a fiend, but blogger is being difficult this morning and acting like it's loading pictures, but it's taking sooooooo looooong. (I'm probably blaming blogger for something that is actually AT&T's fault. We pay for fast DSL, but since my neighborhood isn't one the ritzy zip codes, we get crappy DSL. I'm thinking of switching to cable for the faster internet, and because I just plain hate AT&T. Damn you, Bellsouth, for merging with AT&T!)

Rant over, but I miss real customer service.

Since I have no pictoral proof of my knitting, I'll just mention that I've been quite busy.

I decided to start researching Hashimoto's Thyroiditis and see if I can get some real answers. Don't get me wrong. I think my doctor is wonderful. However, modern medicine has a tendency to treat symptoms, and when one has an autoimmune disorder, you start wondering about what causes it. After all, treating symptoms leads to a cascade effect of adding new medicines for each new symptom, and frankly, that's not something I want to do. Why not see if I can get a handle on what caused the Hashimoto's in the first place and treat it?

Thus, I've been reading Why do I still have Thyroid Symptoms when my Lab Tests are Normal. One of the very first and biggest things is that Hashimoto's patients are gluten intolerant. This is not negotiable. I've got to give up gluten. Hmm, I live on wheat. Breakfast toast for those days when I'm in a hurry. Wraps with tuna or turkey and veg for lunch. Brownies for dessert.

Starting the day after Thanksgiving, I've given up gluten. Ok, I've cheated a time or two. After all, I could not resist the chocolate cake with the gooey chocolate frosting at knitting guild last week. I did finish a few leftovers of squash casserole.

I feel better. I feel lighter in my midsection. I immediately lost several pounds. I mean I lost 3 pounds in 3 days.

I did gluten free, dairy free and sugar free about 15 years ago. I felt great, but it's very difficult to eat that way. I slowly caved and started eating normally again, and the weight crept up. I went in search of the books I'd used back then and started also following the guidelines in Eat Right 4 Your Blood Type. I know some people don't think this makes a lick of sense or even works, but I know it made a difference for me. However, it says for my blood type, no grains at all.

Let's face it. That just plain sucks. This is the time of year when a bowl of warm porridge is awfully nice in the morning. On the flip side, I'm prone to migraines if I don't eat enough protein (meat), and it's wonderful to have a book that says go eat that lean beef. Don't mind if I do.

Needless to say, I've been spending so much time in the kitchen doing food prep. I've purchased foods I've never tried before, and I've cooked couple of them so far this week. Buffalo is actually pretty good. I've got Jerusalem artichokes waiting to be cleaned, boiled and mashed later this week. I try to eat cultured vegetables with every meal. I discovered that dinosaur kale is a little bitter, but it improves.

However, all this food focus eats up (no pun intended) a lot of time. Cooking fresh meals 3 times a day, well, let's say I was so happy to get Chinese food last night. No more egg rolls or fried egg roll wrapper chips for me, but there are items on the menu I can enjoy. I just won't eat very much rice.

I will attempt to get the pictures of all the knitting posted too. I've done a bunch of small projects. I'll give it another try later today.