I haven’t done any knitting in weeks, except for the “knitting together” of tissue & bone that constitutes healing from hip replacement surgery! It’s been both easier & harder than imagined… it’s my first major surgery of any kind, so all new territory.
The quick & dirty facts on that:
July 7th: Surgery & home the same day
July 9th: First PT (whoa)
July 13th: Second PT – kicked the walker to the curb
July 15th: Third PT
July 17th: Fourth PT (seems like so many more)
July 20th: Has it only been two weeks?? And also feels like six months?? Follow-up w/surgeon – dressing removed, incision looks good (even though it feels really weird). I’m a “fast healer” & ahead of schedule on all fronts (YAY)!
I have PT scheduled out through August, and I’m cleared to start slowly easing back to work. I can drive as soon as I’m finished with the narcotics (I only have three left & only take one an hour before PT… so that means early next week). I can navigate a flight of stairs (carefully), and have wheeled the grocery cart around the store a few times — one can only take so many turns around the house, y’know?
I’m still sleeping on the couch (upgrade from the recliner), using the “ice machine” all night w/only occasional ice during the day as needed. I think I’ll be finished with that soon, and then I’ll try sleeping in bed again (my back is starting a little revolt against the couch). I’ve been pretty diligent about PT exercises at home + walking (with a cane, though I’ve been known to misplace it… so doing OK, I guess).
CROCHET:
As established, there’s been no knitting… there’s been not much of anything until just the past few days. It seems easier to wield a hook & work on something small, so after days of thinking about doing it, I finally pulled out a crochet hook & all my Felted Tweed — just the leftovers for now — to make some granny squares.
This was the start… it wasn’t quite the size I’m after for the project that this might become. It’s a very loose plan at the moment… barely even “a plan,” really.
So, I made it bigger, then made a second, and a third is underway. I’m pulling random yarn balls from a basket & depositing them into another when finished, so there aren’t any repeat colors (yet). They’re all from either the Temp Blanket project, or from the Brandon Mably workshop that I did in Nashville last fall.
READING:
I read a couple of books! I’d finished John of John just before surgery, then didn’t read much for a couple of days, but I had The Giver of Stars handy. Ali had given me the book at Christmas, and it seemed like it might be the perfect “recovery read.” And it was!
I’m woefully behind on blog reading, but hope to start catching up soon!! I miss you!
As part of the kids’ Christmas present last year, I gave them some shirts & dye & a promise for a future ice-dyeing date. Well, I decided that it had to happen now!
The kids each brought at least one other item to dye. The items all had a good soak in soda ash fixer while Junah & I ran for ice.
I already had a few sifting/sprinkling devices — everyone’s favorite were some swivel spoons meant for powdered sugar, I think — and found a few more while out thrifting. Turns out, I had WAY more fiber reactive dyes than I realized… which all added up to lots of colorful fun!
Rusty, Kate & I each dyed an item, too.
Photo by Kate!
Now we wait…
This was late yesterday after much of the ice had melted. Tonight I’ll rinse & wash & fix the color (hopefully).
I report for surgery at 5:30 am tomorrow, so I’ll post t-shirt results when I can!! Send your best juju for everything!!
Here’s a quick peek into some of what’s been going on around here (no pics of the plumbing problem in the bathroom*).
Last Saturday, Kate & I drove up to Door County for the day. The weather was amazing! It wasn’t in the plan, but we ended up hopping on a ferry to Washington Island — it was my first time visiting the island! The tiny Jacobsen Museum was the main impetus, and worth it, but we also visited a gallery & nature center, a local tavern (though not the “Bitters” one, for that we’ll have to return), the Stavkirke, and Sievers School of Fiber Arts.
Stavkirke
Sievers School of Fiber Arts
I’ve known about Sievers School & have been on their mailing list forever! Janine Bajus, designer of Parcheesi (and many other wonderful things) has taught there. Someday…
We cruised through Peninsula State Park, mainly to get a read on internet connectivity & whether/where it could work for Kate if she camped up there.
Green Bay (the actual bay) from Peninsula State Park
We stopped at Olde Orchard Antique Mall — the original & the best, IMHO — where my mom & I had a booth in a lifetime or two ago. We both found a few things. I spotted this mug from afar…
…and immediately recognized the design as one that my sister Sharon painted years ago for a pottery company she worked for in Ohio. We had a Sister Weekend there once, and Rusty & I stopped with the kids on our way to the east coast — stayed overnight & the kids all made a couple of things (many of which are still in daily use around here). I know I have a piece or two in this design from that era (or maybe my mom did). Naturally, I had to walk over & pick it up.
Kate was a booth or so ahead of me at the time, and called out when she heard me gasp to make sure I was OK! I was, but wow… it was actually one of Sharon’s. Her birthday had been just a few days before & the next day I was picking up Ann for a quick Sister Weekend! IT was a nice “HELLO” from my dearly missed sister.
On Sunday, I swung through Madison to pick up Ann on our way to Viroqua for a couple of days. I’d never been there, either, and it turns out that we could have planned a little bit better — many of the businesses in the area are closed on some combination of Sunday, Monday and/or Tuesday. We were able to enjoy a couple of meals at Maybe Lately’s (including my first ever Detroit-style pizza), which I learned about from Wisconsin Foodie, which is hosted by Chef Luke Zahm, whose own restaurant, Driftless Cafe in Viroqua, was one of the things that initially attracted us to the area, but was closed while we were there (and, turns out, we would have needed to make a reservation well in advance, anyway). I keep a running “Wisconsin Wish List” on my phone, populated with foodie locations across the state that I’ve learned about from that show — Noble Rind, where we had lunch on Tuesday before heading home, was another from that list.
Though many places were closed, still found plenty to do! The father of a long-time family friend of Ann’s family lives in the rolling hills between Viroqua & La Crosse, and we went out for a tour of his beautiful garden.
Roger’s house is the green one toward the right, his neighbors on the left are an Amish family. It’s idyllic. He grows all sorts of things — fruit, flowers, veg — and a lot of it for tea.
He also has a mushroom farm! It was fascinating — some parts of the “farm” had been established for a while, others were new. The mushrooms looked amazing!
Our Airbnb in Viroqua was in a little house right on the main drag & walkable… though my tolerance for that activity is not great, I did my best. One of the places we visited was Ewetopia Fiber Shop. We didn’t make it over to the mill, but that’ll also be for another visit! The shop was a lot bigger than I imagined, and in a great old building that was probably a furniture store or department store many years ago. The whole downtown was very cute.
June was Quilt Shop Hop month in Wisconsin, so we visited a quilt shop in Viroqua and I stopped at another on the way home on Tuesday. I was able to visit all the shops in my “section” of the state, which was fun & educational.
By the time I returned, Kate had towed Ducky out to High Cliff for a few days of camping with Kai. Rusty & I went out one evening for a campfire & dinner.
Grilled cheese sandwiches & tomato soup never tasted so good! haha.
The sky was absolutely gorgeous on our way home. I just had to pull over & snap some photos.
Ali & the kiddos will be over on Sunday to do an ice-dyeing project — a group gift at Christmas, and it’s time! Annie will be coming up on Monday to stay (& help) for a few days.
I’ve less than a week before surgery… there’s some borrowed medical equipment in the garage that needs disinfecting before being moved into the house. I haven’t been rushing into that chore, but I’m going to have to do it this weekend. I’d normally be off on Monday, but I’ll be going in to work to button things up before I’m off for… an extended period that I hope isn’t too terribly long!!
*Drip, drip, drip. Not a sound I (or anyone) want to hear emanating from the basement (or anywhere) at 8p on a Tuesday (or anytime). The toilet, of course. The toilet that I’ve complained about on more than one occasion over the past year or so because it’s been taking so painfully long to refill after a flush… and, y’know, it’s all related. Rusty turned off the water, which is fine — we can manually flush with a bucket — but in doing so, the cold water was also shut off to the sink & shower in the (our only) bathroom. Luckily, the apartment is vacant, so I went up there to take a shower yesterday morning (it’s been decades). So fine, fine, fine, Rusty’s able to fix everything (sink & shower restored yesterday, toilet today), and I’m more than grateful that it happened this week instead of next. I’m huffy about it, though, like steaming… I don’t understand why, when there’s a known problem, that it can’t be fixed (he did “look at it” a couple of times)… and why we always have to wait until it’s a disaster! I could go on, but I won’t. /rant
Or maybe that’s HIP-perdrive… my hip replacement surgery date is looming and, apparently, I’m getting all my summertime stuff (and them some) done in June!
I’ve been trying to write a post about “last weekend,” which is actually the weekend-before-last because… HYPERDRIVE! Time is flying.
Rusty & I went to DC for a few days! We visited the Renwick Gallery & the National Gallery & ate some great food & relaxed. I have the first post started but it may sit in “drafts” for a while longer, as I realized that I’ll have a bit of time on my hands post-surgery & can maybe get caught up then. It was a great trip!
LAST weekend, I took all the kiddos to the Green Bay Blizzard game. The “Blizz” are part of the professional Indoor Football League and, wow, that was something else! Short field, barely any sideline, lots of action — a cross between football & rugby, with a Nerf-ish football, and extracurricular antics that rival those at a softball game. So.much.going.on! The kids all stayed overnight!
The next day, I dropped everyone at home except Malina. She & I headed to Green Bay where she took part in a Blizzard Youth Camp. I was stunned (still am) that of 70-ish participants, SHE WAS THE ONLY GIRL!! She did great, too, for the first half — the second half got a little too technical & overwhelming (it may have been different if she’d started at another “station”)… so we went shopping at the Packers Pro Shop (she wanted a jersey) (and also got a cap) & out to lunch & stopped for some glorpy cookies to bring home for dessert. Then I kept her for a solo overnight, which was long overdue — we watched movies, she helped with dinner, and just hung out. Rusty took her on a hike to the studio & a park on Sunday morning. Ali picked her up at 11 & shared a photo of Malina completely zonked out in the car on the way home… “safe to say she had a great time!”
THIS weekend, on Sunday, I’m swinging down through Madison to pick up Annie & heading off to Viroqua where we’re having ourselves a short “Sister Weekend”! It starts on Sunday, so it still counts as the weekend.
In between all of the above: dentist appointment, surgery prep call, pre-op doc appointment + labs, locating & gathering equipment (cane, walker, etc.), jury duty, a run to Door County, and all the usual stuff!
I have my surgery date & all the PT appointments set for July… I’ll be working hard on recovery! Hopefully, things will really start moving along in August. I’m getting a little anxious & nervous about it all, but the pain & discomfort are increasing (regularly interrupting sleep now), so I’m also looking forward to just getting it done. I really can’t imagine how shitty this summer would be if I’d stuck to my original plan to wait until September.
Anyway, I’ll check in when I can… I’m not saying I won’t be posting until after surgery, but it definitely looks like posts will be more sporadic than usual.
