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Knitting Friday

If I were bringing excuses into the teacher, I would have to use: The computer ate my homework for Website Wednesday's excuse. (I did find the e-mail with my website picks on another computer's e-mail so this excuse is valid and, I have my picks done for next week.) For today's dirth of pictures however, I would have to say: With the grind of caring for a hospice patient it gets more difficult to knit. (Though I'm not complaining because, of course, the grind of being a hospice patient is so much more difficult than finishing knitting projects.)

I've learned something interesting about hospice and heart failure patients: a family caregiver with a few web clicks can become as informed as and even more informed than the hospice nurses. This is because less than 18% of hospice patients are heart failure patients probably because most heart patients keep taking treatment and surgeries to the end: their treatment of choice is aggressive, not pallative.

I did find an excellent, but preliminary study (only 40 white males studied; published 2013) in the Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine which was very comforting to my patient. For the first time, she was able to realize that her symptoms were not unique. It's interesting that heart failure is still the "orphan" care in hospice though it is the number one killer.

So reacting to lack of sleep and time, let me post "My Knitting Day on the Net." Similiar to what I did on Wednesday but with a craft emphasis.

My first knitting hit is usually Ravelry:

http://www.ravelry.com/

where, as I said on Wednesday, I can spend a mother-lode of time. However, sometimes my first hit is All Free Knitting patterns:

http://www.allfreeknitting.com/

which comes in frequently as a e-mail with new patterns.

Then there's Knitting Pattern Central, which has a sister site of Crochet Pattern Central:

 http://www.knittingpatterncentral.com/

This used to be a cornucopia of new patterns (twice a week on Wednesday and Saturday) but the site has been sold and the new patterns only trickle in periodically now. However, all the old patterns are still listed and it's a excellent site for that sudden brainstorm of: I wonder where I could find scores of  knitted jewelry patterns stat. (or pet, coaster, Halloween, you name it; plus your "typical" clothes patterns)

Garner Studio's Drops patterns:

http://www.garnstudio.com/lang/en/kategori_oversikt.php

is another treasure trove for the advanced beginner and beyond knitter. I say this about Drops sometimes short-hands their instructions and the true beginner may find an easy looking pattern which presents a challenge. (Drops has one big advantage for me: all the patterns are on this site, you don't have to click other sites and perhaps register to view the patterns.)

And finally, knitting videos for the simpler knitting procedures:

http://www.knittinghelp.com/ 

While a simple search will get you a panoply of excellent knitting videos, Knitting Help has some great, free ones on some of the basics of knitting like casting on. And, while you may say Cable Cast On videos are for the beginner, a German Twisted Cast On video is not. Take a look at Knitting Help. There's a lot of free good stuff there.

OK, I'll leave you now with a lot of sites to explore, I hope. Next week, I should have an orange cotton knitted top to show you. Happy knitting.