New Shoes

A few months ago I knew I was facing a whole day on concrete floors by attending Stitches Midwest 2008.   For as long as I can remember when I stand for long periods of time on a hard surface such as concrete my toes will cramp especially when I take off my shoes.   These cramps hurt and will continue into the night.  I soak my feet in hot water and it helps at the moment but doesn’t stop the cramps later on.   I deal with intermittent neck pain from some bad disks and frequent sinus issues.   Those types of pain I can manage but when it comes to my feet hurting I will do anything to prevent it.  Well, anything doesn’t mean giving up Stitches Midwest!!  lol   Just previous to leaving for Chicago I read about Earth Shoes.   I wasn’t one of those back in the 70’s who wore them so they are relatively new to me.   But what I read sounded like it might be the ticket for me.   I have high arches and I knew having good arch support would help my aching feet.   So Marjie and I went to a shoe store here in Norman and I tried on some Earth shoes.   This is what I bought.   I was on concrete from 9:30 AM until 4:00 PM with a few rest stops along the way.   I am very happy to announce my feet did not cramp a single time.   Not while on the concrete nor after I took the shoes off that evening nor in the night.   Don’t get me wrong, my feet ached from the concrete and standing ( I have a desk job).   But it was so pleasantly different not to have those cramps I’ve suffered with for years that I had to share my shoe story and give them a plug.   An old friend from Tulsa met me for lunch today and she started having foot pain many years ago.   I told her about my shoes and took her to the shoe store after we ate.   She ended up getting the this pair .   Just walking around the store her feet quit hurting.   Anyway, this is my shameless plug for Earth shoes.   I see many more pair in my future.   🙂

I am embarrassed….

There will be no pictures in this post.   I can’t bring myself to take pictures of my embarrassment.   You’ll have to dream up images in your head.

It all started with a trip to Gourmet Yarn yesterday.   Karen and I wanted/needed to spend the day knitting with like-minded people.   We drove up to GY and joined Liz, Sherry, and Sandy.   Pretty soon Karen J. and Ellen came in to join us.  My plan was to swatch the Rowan Handknit Cotton in order to get gauge to make some baby socks.   Ugh.   It failed.   I learned a lesson that some yarns cannot go down in size no matter how small the needle size.   I was itching and wanted to start something new, startitis.   I always succumb.   I had recently found a great pattern on Ravelry for the Knotty glove.   After polling my table with my contenders, I bought some yarn.   I won’t name it so I don’t plant any preconceived ideas into your head.   It’s a well known yarn and has gorgeous colorways.   It’s just too thin for me.   I cast on and started the cuff on one glove.   I knew the yarn didn’t have the body I find in most fingering weights, but I continued on and pretty soon had a couple of rows of ribbing.   I tried to visualize how nice this would be but there was tiny nagging voice in the back of my head.   That voice said this is going to be so thin.   This may not be the yarn for you.   I came home and ripped out the ribbing to start again.   I had split several stitches and needed to correct.   So once again I cast on and had about 5 rows of ribbing when I finally listened to the voice in my head and ripped it out.    I put the new yarn aside and went in search of some yarn I’d bought in Colorado for gloves last Christmas.   I could only find one skein.   I couldn’t remember if I had bought 2 or 3 skeins.   This was important as two wouldn’t even get me close to a pair and 3 were required.   So I start digging in my corner where I have a small cart on wheels.   This is the corner where I seem to throw lots of new yarn.   Most are still in the bags from the various stores I’ve been to.   I dig and dig and find lots of forgotten treasures.   I even found WIP’s I had long forgotten and some that are not recorded on Ravelry.   Truth is, most of my WIP’s are not listed on Ravelry.  (blush)

This morning I started knitting the cuff edge with the one skein I was able to wind and I love it.   This yarn was perfect for the gloves.   But I’m still concerned about the remaining yarn.   I looked in my stash on Ravelry and much to my relief I see that I logged in 3 skeins.  Whew.   I know I have enough for the pair of gloves but where are the other 2 skeins??  I decided to get all the store bags and empty the contents (yarn) and store the empty bags (as if I’m going to make use of all of them at some other time-It’s my mother coming out in me).  When I realize I have a lot of yarn to put up I go to my closet to see what bins I can use.   It didn’t take but a few minutes to see and realize I don’t have much room at all.   I have each of my bins labeled and stocked with ‘like’ yarn; that is alapaca and silk is in one, Mission Falls cotton in another, one whole bin of Cascade 220, two bins are full of 100% cotton and it goes on and on.   I had a big enough mess on my hands without pulling every bin and bag out of my closet.   So I quickly decided to grab one of the huge Ziploc bags I bought a couple of years ago.   Those are pretty good size, extra large, heavy duty.   Funny, it just came back to me that I tried to put my stash in two of those bags about 2 years ago.   It fit, then.   There is no way I could get my stash in even 4 of those bags.   Sigh.   I grabbed one and started piling the yarn I’d just removed from store bags into the extra large, heavy duty Ziploc.   I filled it.   I filled it so full I had to fight to get it closed.   Guess what?   I had more and more bags and small samples of  yarn all over the room.   I looked in the closet and saw that I had more store bags stashed in there with yet more yarn.   I go get one more extra large, heavy duty Ziploc and bring it back to fill.   And I did.   Full.   Although not quite as full as the first.   I managed to zip it closed without the battle I had with the first bag.   So here I sit, blogging, when I still don’t know where to find the other 2 skeins I need for the gloves.   I am not digging in that closet.   I can’t handle it today.   I absolutely despise making a big mess on Sunday when I need to get ready (laundry, cleaning etc.) for the coming week.   I am so embarrassed.   I cannot buy anymore yarn until…uh….well…..I can’t say.   I won’t embarrass myself more so by telling you how long I need to abstain.   I know I won’t make it.   I fall under the spell of lucious, squeezable, beautiful yarn and I buy it.   Ok, one step at a time, right?   Today!!  Today, I will not buy any yarn at all.   🙂