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Knitting Friday

 

I'm beginning to wonder why people praise hospice care so highly. Maybe I'm being too fussy (after all their patients are dying) but couldn't they wash their hands before the touch the patient? Of all the nurses (regular and sub) only one came in, said hello and then "Let me wash my hands first." And now there is this snafu my hospice is embroiled in. Our regular hospice nurse didn't come on Wednesday but the company called and said she was sick. Thursday, no nurse by 11:30 a.m. so I called and was told our nurse is still sick but a substitute would be coming in the afternoon. And then, in a most serendipitous moment, I asked: Could you tell me the nurse's name? and when she returned from checking, she said: Oh no, no one is coming today. Someone will be there on Friday. Jesus H. Christ! This is an organization which eases the pain at the end of life? I'm just getting a good dose of angst from all this! Finally, I spoke with the Case Manager and asked point blank: Has our nurse left the company? and got: Oh no, she needed a break. She'll be back on Monday. Another J.H.C! Am I to believe that this company which doles out 12 cents an hour raises to their nurses also gives them 5-day long weekend breaks, leaving their patients in limbo? More on this next week. I have my money on our getting a new hospice nurse then. I'll be shocked to see our regular one return. But, I will "eat crow" if necessary.

 

Dealing with end-of-life issues as I am, I start to look around and say: I have collected a mother-lode of yarn which will be left, one day, to a bunch of non-knitters. This is why I Russian-joined together 2 and 1/2 small containers of remnant yarn to make DM this hospital bed cover:

#1 Corner to Corner Afghan

It's the Red Heart Corner-To-Corner Afghan:

http://www.redheart.com/free-patterns/crochet-corner-corner-throw

 

which was the pattern I used for the first lace shawl I ever made. The pattern above just goes from the increase section to the decrease section so you produce a square. However, I remembered the way you make this into a rectangle: At your width, increase at the beginning to the row and decrease at the end. Keep the increases on one end and the decreases on the other until you reach your length. (Just read the directions for the decrease section, it's very easy to figure this method out.) Once you reach the length you want, work the pattern for the decreasing rows. You'll find that a lot of yarn gets used in this decreasing section. Here's a close-up picture of the pattern detail:

#2 Pattern detail

I have to say this was the most fun in crocheting or knitting that I've had in a long while. Mindless but the color changes kept me interested.

Also this week, I'm working on another Bow Tie Pi shawl (see last Friday for pattern link.) That also is such a fun pattern to work. I'm making it in white since I only have one white shawl. This is more of a caplet style shawl. I wore the other one I made in beige cotton thread to Sam's Club last week and I was very pleased that the cluster edging (see last Friday) made a very soft "collar."

 

Here's the new one:

#3 Bow Tie Pi

And finally, remember the black cotton cardi which became the black cotton top? Well, it now dwells in the frog pond. I really don't like heavier black cotton but I keep knitting it. However, I tried on a black shrug I made some time ago in a heavier black cotton. Here's the pattern:

http://cache.lionbrand.com/cgi-bin/patternFinder.fcgi?language=&store=%2Fstores%2Flionbrand&search=1&searchText=lacy+knit+shrug&submit.x=0&submit.y=0

 

and that one looks good. So, I hope to make another one in black, ASAP.

 

Some suggestions for this shrug:

1. Read the comments for hints.

2. Work the sleeve ribbing in seed and in the round.

3. Work the sleeve ribbing on smaller needles and fewer stitches then the body.

4. Once you finish your last row of seed ribbing, increase to the number of stitches you need for the body (it's a P row so this is easy) and change your needle size up.

5. Work across to the other sleeve ribbing, keeping a few stitches (add these to the count you increased to) in seed on the long ends.

6. Once you reach the other sleeve ribbing, decrease your needle size, stitch count and start knitting in the round again.

 

That's it. Easy as pie!

That's it for this week. See you next week. Happy knitting.