If you have been keeping up with the adventures of Casa Hannah and the CoalBear you know that I have been feeling just freaking wonderful for the last two week and getting more done than at any time in the last two years. I’ve been planting lots of new plants and getting all the gardens into order (for the first time in years because… next door pit bull who has now left the scene… yay… adios, pit bull…), and dragging out lots of things to get working on that have been languishing for years. The garden is starting to produce some color with the perennials now which is awesome as I’m seeing hot pinks and purples. Lavender, bougainvillea, and sage. Perfect!
Um… and then the party came crashing to a halt a few days ago as I started weaning myself off prednisone (marvelous stuff, prednisone!) and I got a little dizzy, and I… fell off the stairs. I literally realized I was going to be airborne at the last second and managed to push off enough to twist around and land on my feet in the living room where I pretty much crashed landed into the couch. Sad outcome. Did you realize that you can actually bruise your lungs? Okay, my lungs are less than pristine, but still… my ribs aren’t too happy, either. There was some talk about my liver… I had to stay indoors over the weekend and go back onto daytime oxygen.
That, however, did not stop me from going down the fiber rabbit hole!!
I’ve been considering how to attack the variegated roving. Should I separate the colors? Do pencil rovings down the length of the larger piece? Just take it off in strips and let the colors end up however? Still thinking about this one, but I am tending towards pencil rovings.
I love, love, love the yarn that I am using for this sweater. Isn’t that the perfect color for summertime knitting? This pattern is racing right along and I’m racing to get it finished because… some new patterns dropped on Ravelry and I am dying to knit one of them.
This is the Lace & Fade Boxy by Joji Locatelli, and that first picture is swiped off the Ravelry page and has her copyright. I have four skeins of a dark grey fingering yarn with smoky/woody tones that I am dying to use for this sweater. My first idea is to knit the entire sweater in the main color (lace and all… ignore the fade, we don’t need no stinking fade because I have four skeins of this color…) and then go back and knit I-cord trim at the neck, bottom, and wrists in that really cool multi yarn. That will look awesome, right? On the other hand, if there is enough yarn, I can do the lace in a fade with the pink yarns. I only have just over 100 yards of each color, so that may not work, but it might look pretty cool. I really am tending towards doing the whole sweater in the solid fingering. I have knitted two boxy sweaters in the past (the Vneck version) and I know them to be comfy layering workhorses in cold weather.
Then there is the crocheting. I haven’t crocheted in years because of my dodgy wrists, but I loved this bag (Square Scramble Sack) on Ravelry so much I bought the Noro yarn a week ago. Like I need more yarn, right? I had to order the crochet hooks from Amazon and then I was off to YouTube to learn how to make the puff stitch… that first little square has too many puffs in it, but I felt pretty successful and I’m now making a few squares every day that I don’t fall off the stairs.
There are two more sweaters that I want to knit, but I’ve got them on the back burner at the moment because I’m so far down the fiber hole at the moment I am just focusing on working steadily on each project for a few hours each day. Or maybe every other day so I don’t wear out my hip (spinning) or wrists (crochet). So far I’m making progress and I’m recovering from the fall okay at the same time so all is good. Except… the days of prednisone wonder are coming to an end as I feel the energy and the good times fading away. I start the lowest dose tomorrow and after a week it will be over.
Still, if you look at all those pictures that I put into this post, the days of color continue. Yay! My gardens have been returned to some semblance of order, I am making good progress on a number of projects, and I also got some chores done.
Hannah: I was put into the carrier and then put into the car and then taken to the vet and then I got cat-handled and there were some shots and would you believe that the vet said that I was slightly pudgy…
Hannah: Now I have to eat Indoor Cat food and the Mother of Cats has cut back on my cookies. Ugh.
That was my week. 🙂
You all watch out for those stairs!!!
Yarn, Books & Roses 
I do NOT like the falling part; but the rest is pretty well all ace ! 🙂
Will you be having more of these wonderful prednisone periods, Marilyn ? – mebbe a couple a year ?
I don’t think that they will do the prednisone again as it was an emergency measure that served as a bridge as my immunosuppressant drug dose was increased slowly over four weeks. I am being more careful on the stairs these days. 🙂 I’ll be more careful with the next dosage drops.
Luckily I had a fiber hole all ready for me to fall down!
Why can’t they just keep giving you prednisone, is it the long term side effects or the cost? That’s frustrating to have something that makes you feel so much better but you can’t take it forever. The rest of the post is amazing. Beautiful spinning, all the purpleness in this post is giving me the urge to go back to knitting purple yarn. Poor Hannah being insulted by the vet with his podgy shaming 😉. Hope you recover well from your fall.
Prednisone is a drug that carries some serious long term side effects (osteoporosis, mental health, kidney, vision) so it is usually used in short courses to get you over the hump while other drugs are kicking in. Osteoporosis is a huge issue in my family, and I already have chronic kidney disease (thanks, scleroderma) so this was a drug that all my doctors weighed in on before I started it. Glad I did it, sad to see it go, but best to be safe. 🙂 I thought you would love the purple! The sage (it is Russian sage, actually) is blooming like crazy all over town and everywhere I go there are clouds of purple greeting me on street corners and in the medians of the roads. Don’t you think that I should try to weave with purple yarn once I get it plied? I have some gold silk homespun too that might go well with the three, and there must be some pinks!
Hannah: the Mother of Cats called me Miss Pudge this morning as she gave me only HALF as many cookies as I was expecting!
Ooh purple and gold will be beautiful woven I’m sure. I remember the vet once told me Ylva was fat and I said isn’t that just all the extra skin she has from being half akita, he replied…I’m talking about her waist not her neck 🤣
You write with the same zest as before the fall. Let us hope it will not be repeated. I looked up pencil roving.
Ha! You looked up pencil roving! 🙂 It is a pain to pull off the larger roving, but so much easier to spin and will keep the colors from getting muddy while I make the yarn. I am treating the stairs with much more respect these days and am committed to no more falling!
You are doing so much with your spinning and knitting and gardening and now crocheting! It is good to see you feeling so much better and having so much energy 🙂 That fall does not sound good, but glad the effects were not too bad. Take care of yourself!
Hannah – that vet has some nerve! You are a beautiful girl 🙂
It is amazing what you can accomplish when you are awake all day! 🙂 I’ve gone from sleeping 10-12 hours a day to sleeping 7 hours and snapping awake ready to take on the day. It has been great and I’m making hay (well, fiber…) while the sun shines. I certainly am being more careful with the stairs. I do have the loom out and another quilting project, but I think that I should work my way through the current projects before I spread myself even more thinly.
Hannah: I am a beautiful girl!
So glad you are feeling so much better! That is a very good plan – you will keep things moving along that way 🙂 Hannah – yes you are!!
I too have experienced the power surge that prednisolone brings. Great that you’ve harnessed it and been so productive. Glad you are able to reduce it down and avoid the long term effects though (I ended up with osteoporosis and weight gain)
Power surge is right!! Osteopetrosis is a huge problem in my family, and I do want to avoid it if possible as I already have osteopenia. I have one more week to go on the lowest prednisone dose and then I’ll be off. I am gardening as fast as I can while the power surge is still in effect. 🙂
Glad you are ok! Beautiful yarn and knitting. Hannah does not look happy about the vet. I wouldn’t be either, taking my cookies away!
It was a crazy moment when I realized that I was going backwards off the stairs! I am now keeping one hand on the railing like a sensible person should! Hannah was actually meowing when I caught that picture, but she sure does look annoyed, doesn’t she. Poor girl. I’ve cut her cookies down and I’m trying to get her to run around a little more.
Falling from the stairs sounds rather frightening! I’m glad you’re doing okay after that.
The only time I’ve spun up pencil roving, I bought it pre-prepared that way. However, I have some variegated fiber that I’d like to spin up and keep the color pattern exactly as-is, so I think I will need to learn how to make my own pencil roving. I keep forgetting that is an option.
The yarn for the sweater you have in progress is perfect for summer! Actually, I love the way it looks so much that I really think it is perfect for any time. It’s lovely.
I’m thinking of using my diz to draw a thin strip of fiber off the length of the roving. I’ve used it with combed fiber… I’m hoping that it will work for this. I just don’t want the colors to get all muddied together!
Hopefully it will work well!