Bee's Knees Knitting

Making slow progress with healing from the lasik. It's been a week since surgery. Every day i notice a little less dryness and a little less haze over my vision. Still not 20/20, but that can take months to slide into place. The cornea has had a trauma, and the tissue is probably a little swollen (we're talking on a very small scale here), so it takes time for the tissue to mend back together and the swelling to go down. The cornea needs to be the optimum thickness for it to refract light correctly onto the retina, so swelling will change the depth of the cornea, making it refract light not quite perfectly. It could take 6 months for the most improvement to happen, with one to two years to heal completely. Each person heals at a different rate, too. I've been using my eye drops faithfully and sleeping a lot. Closed eyes are good for the corneas. Now I am starting to feel it's worth getting the lasik, though. I have to keep reminding myself that i don't have contact lenses in! Especially when my eyes feel very dry. It's a feeling I associate with wearing contact lenses. I am so glad I never have to wear those again! (I never had an easy time with contact lenses, that's why.) Anyway, maybe I can start spinning again next week, we'll see. Tomorrow I have the one-week check up with the eye doc.

So 3 days ago I had Intralase lasik surgery to correct my nearsightedness. I didn't want to say anything ahead of time in case it turned out my cornea wasn't thick enough or something. (As it turns out, my cornea is thicker than average, so I was a good candidate for surgery.) I have needed glasses since I was 12 - when I was 17, I got my first pair of contact lenses. I wore those for 26 years (not the same pair!), and finally had to stop wearing contacts altogether (7 years ago). I had thought about eye surgery off and on the last dozen years, but have been waiting until the technology improved. It wasn't until we joined the new YMCA here that I decided to go for the lasik. I got tired of my glasses slipping down my nose while exercising! Anyway, the worst part of the lasik was my own nerves. I had a lot of anxiety about it, so the day of the surgery was not a good day. It was quite an exeperience. My husband got to witness the whole thing from a window in the operating room - the procedure was being projected onto a large screen on the wall. I wouldn't recommend watching the procedure to anyone who is thinking about getting it (I didn't). My husband tells me it would have scared me more to watch. Anyway, I got through it. The procedure itself isn't bad, it's just that I was such a nervous wreck that made it seem bad. The rest of that day, I couldn't really see much or even keep my eyes open. They tell you to just go to bed the rest of the day and night, and things improve by the next day. That's true, but I still have a "white haze" over my vision and my vision hasn't stabilized to 20/20 yet. That will take some weeks. I also am having dry eyes, and need to use eye drops frequently. That is normal, from what I understand and should get better. How weird it is to not need glasses to see far, but now it's the reverse! Now I need reading glasses instead (I knew I would ahead of time). But still, it's been a strange last 4 days. I have to sleep with these goggles on to keep myself from rubbing my eyes. I can't exercise (to prevent sweating into the eyes) or wear makeup for the next week. I should probably stay away from carding or spinning wool for a week, as that would throw little fibers up into air which could irritate my corneas. I get tired and need to rest a lot, just to close my eyes so they can rest. The corneas heal better with closed eyes. I won't be able to spend much time reading, on the computer or watching TV for the next week or two. Same thing with knitting. So the jury is still out on whether getting the surgery is worth it. I'm sure most people are ambivalent at first until their vision clears up and the dry eye goes away, and that's how I'm feeling now.

I was very sad about Flower's death on Meerkat Manor. I've been watching the show since the very first episode, and Flower has been one of the mainstays. Poor Flower. Will the Whiskers ever be the same?

It's taking me a while to adjust to moving. It still doesn't feel like home, but the other spouses (of those who moved here from Wisconsin to work for BASF) and I have been making an effort to socialize with each other and make the best of things. In the meantime, I just haven't felt like posting here much, and I've only recently started spinning yarn again.

Regarding spinning, I have only been managing to spin yarn or make spinning batts a few hours a week for Bee's Knees. Since moving here, we have joined the new YMCA, so I'm spending more time exercising and less time on fiber. At least I've lost weight, improved my cholesterol, lowered my blood pressure, and am eating a healthy diet (no junk food except for rare occasions). I'm feeling better physically, too. It's just the mental part that's been difficult since moving.

I started knitting a clapotis for myself. I must be the last person on earth to jump on the clapotis bandwagon, since it was a 2005 phenomenon. I'm using Cherry Tree Hill Silk & Merino DK yarn, and I'm really liking this yarn!

We seem to be done renovating for now. We painted some rooms, and that's about it. Our adult kids came to visit a few weeks ago, and we went with them to Wisconsin to visit the rest of our families. That was all lots of fun. Now we are back in Michigan, and I am starting to spin yarn and make batts again. I'm enjoying that. I have my spinning and carding stuff set up in the guest bedroom. So I don't have a "real" studio space once again, but that's ok, I can get by. Anyway, I've finally done a Bee's Knees Knitting website update, and have some new goodies to offer. Check it out (new yarns on the yarn page, batts on the fiber arts page):

We are just about done with the interior painting of our house for now. I just have a tiny bit left to do in the master bedroom. We've got the great room and hallways done, and the master bedroom and master bath. We are both so sick of painting now, that we're not going to do the other two bedrooms or bathrooms right now. Also, I had my studio set up in the guest bedroom, but we moved most of that to the basement to make way for beds for our grown kids, who are coming to visit next week. I am starting to think about yarn again, so hopefully I'll be starting to spin again soon. My spinning wheel is still set up in the guest bedroom, though, so I have easy access to it. My carding and wool picking equipment are in the basement, though, so I won't be doing any of that until I have a studio space set up again. It also depends on the economy, and how well handspun yarn is selling these days. I'm kind of out-of-touch with all of that now.

Anyway, thanks to all of my customers who have been patiently waiting for me to get going on spinning again!

Oh, and happy belated Harry Potter Day!

Wow, I've really been MIA lately, over two months since I last checked in here.

So, here we are in Michigan, all moved, unpacked and sort of settled in. It seems like we've moved to a foreign country, almost. When you're used to living in one place for a while (9 years at the last house in Wisconsin, plus I'm a Wisconsin girl at heart, having been born and raised there), then moving can be very unsettling. It's all seemed very surreal. I have been quite discombobulated actually. My husband has had to travel every week since we've been here, and sometimes has been gone a whole week. So that was pretty hard, and made things more surreal. Now, though, the traveling should be over for a while, so things should be a little more normal.

I've been doing a little spinning and actually did a special order for spinning batts. Other than that, I haven't worked up a lot of energy to really get going on the spinning again. Yesterday we started repainting the walls of our new house here in Michigan. Almost every room needs to be done. I wanted to buy a home that didn't need repainting, and I thought we wouldn't be repainting, but after moving in, we just can't live with the colors. The great room is a medium terra cotta, and it makes the house look very cavelike. It just swallows up the light, rather than reflecting it, so we have grown to dislike it. Here is the mostly painted largest wall in our great room. You can see the old orange color in the background, and the new pale golden peach color in the foreground:



The terra cotta color really looked nice at night, but during the day, the room has been so dark. So we sacrificed some style and color for brightness and happiness, as the brightness makes us more cheerful. Here is the great room looking toward the kitchen with the unpainted orange walls:



Here's a shot of the kitchen with one of my cats posing on the counter:



Our master bedroom and bathroom has an ugly potato peel color, so we will be painting that a pale gold. We also need to recarpet the bedroom. Here's a part of the bedroom, the color looks darker than the picture shows:



The other two bedrooms are now off-white, but I don't like the color of offwhite, so we'll be painting those pale golden peach too. Plus the other two bathrooms and hallways. And recarpeting the other two bedrooms. The rest of the house had wood and tile floors, so only the 3 bedrooms need recarpeting. The only room I'm not painting is the laundry room. The previous owners didn't use the laundry room, so it's in pristine condition (they ran a laundry business out of the basement, so they did their own laundry down there).

Anyway, this house is a nice brick ranch built in 2002, with an unfinished room over the 3-car garage. After we finish all the painting, we have to decide whether to finish that room off. It would make a great yarn studio for me! Right now, my studio is set up in one of the smaller bedrooms, but I'm rather cramped in there. Plus I would like to use that room as a guest room. The smallest bedroom is currently our office space.

Anyway, that's what I've been up to lately, besides getting to know the area, and shopping for things for the house. The shopping is all very close, so that's fortunate. I'm only a mile or two from just about any store you'd want to go to. Plus we have a nice woods behind our house, our lot is double long as well as our neighbor's houses along our little street. So we have a nice buffer between us and the rest of the busy city.

Sorry for being away so long, and hope all of you are well!

Next week (the week of April 23rd) is our household move. On Monday and Tuesday, the packers will be packing everything. On Wednesday, they'll be loading everything into the truck, and after that we drive to Michigan. On Thursday, we "close" on the house we're buying. On Friday or Saturday, our stuff is delivered to our house (in Michigan) and unloaded. Then begins the long task of unpacking everything. So I will be away from my computer for a week, anyway. Our house here (in Wisconsin) is not sold yet. So we will probably just take the buyout that my husband's company is offering. We are lucky to have a buyout available, in this poor housing market.

I've almost finished spinning the bunch of Navajo plied yarn I was working on. I have some of it dyed. I will eventually get it listed for sale after we move. Our new house needs studio space for me to work in, though – we plan on finishing off either the unfinished room above the garage or part of the basement for my studio. We're not sure which will work best yet, as we've only seen the house once (at the initial showing).

My thoughts and prayers go out to all those mourning the victims of the massacre at Virginia Tech.

I'm working slowly on some navajo plied yarns that I will then dye after they are spun. I also hand-painted 4 skeins of 2-ply yarn that I spun in the early 90's. I found them hanging around in my stash all this time! I'm also starting to knit colorful socks to put on sale at Bee's Knees. I just started the first sock, so it will be awhile. Meanwhile, I'm still cleaning almost daily for showings of our house. No offers yet. Too bad the housing market is so slow. There's a glut of houses, especially new-builds, in this area. Needless to say, I'm really sick to death of the whole "selling the house" thing. As it is, it's going to be a while before Bee's Knees is running at full speed again. We move in 6 weeks, then in our new house, we're going to finish off the attic or basement to be used as a studio for Bee's Knees.

The last 4 days here were so beautiful and sunny, at least there's a hint of spring coming! (today it's back to reality with normal March weather).

I'm cleaning out my stash – I'll never get to all this yarn. Check it out! • Stash Yarn Sale •

I won't have any new yarn to list on Bee's Knees this weekend. It's just been so busy with my cleaning every day for showing the house, going out of town to visit my mom, etc etc. I've been working on spinning fine singles from these sampler batts I carded a while ago. I've got to use this fiber, as it's been sitting long enough. I'm planning on making 3 or 4 ply yarn, or even maybe some coil yarn. So it's going to take me a while to get through all these batts. Anyway, March is in like a lion around here, we had thunderstorms and snow in the same day! It's strange to see a downpour of rain coming down over lots of snow. Yesterday, everything was just totally white – the landscape, the sky, even the rain seemed white! I was driving to see my mom, and the weather was strange. Today we've had lots of wind and drifting snow, and COLD!

I'm finally finished with the new look for my website. It's really the same layout, I just really simplified the background so my yarn and other stuff would be the focal point of my site, and not the background colors! I know it's really simple and even plain, but I like it better this way (for now). This is the 4th time I've changed my site, so I may do it again next year. Sometime I would like to learn fancier code to make my site do fancier stuff, but I've done the best I can for now. I hope you like it! See the new look here.

I am currently working on updating the look of Bee's Knees Knitting. I want it very simple so that the yarn is showcased, not the colors of my website. (Hence the absence of color on the site, except for the product!) So I haven't done much spinning this week, and won't really have a yarn update this week. I've also been cleaning the house every day, as it's been listed this week on the MLS. Just trying to keep it tidy for showings, should we ever have any! They keep saying the housing market is soft, especially during the winter.

The marathon cleaning is done! It was a long road and a lot of work. Now I just have to keep it fairly clean until we move. I had to laugh to myself when the home appraiser came yesterday and said "you're a good housekeeper - these floors don't even looked lived on!" I didn't tell him how much work I've done to get this house ready to sell. The realtor comes back on Sat to list the house. We've already gone to Michigan to pick out a house, and the closing is near the end of April.

Anyway, I'm ready to get back to spinning, and even picked out the goodies to go in the next yarn. So I can get started on that tomorrow. I should be announcing the next yarn update soon. Thanks to my faithful customers who have been waiting for me to get spinning again!

So clean even your mother-in-law would approve! I'm making lots of progress with the cleaning, room by room. Today some new carpet is being installed. I've still got three rooms left to do. It's been a massive undertaking, going through everything, sorting stuff, throwing away stuff, cleaning every cupboard and drawer, dusting, vacuuming, scrubbing, wiping, polishing, washing, you name it, I'm doing it! Anyway, in 2 weeks we go house-hunting in Michigan, so I plan on having the cleaning all done before then. Meanwhile, realtors and moving company people are coming around to do their thing. The realtors will be back for the formal listing of the house after all the work is done. Anyway, I'll just keep on truckin'…

Well, I'm still working on cleaning, but not whistling quite so much! It's a huge job! It's the most thorough spring cleaning I've ever done (or ever needed to do), since we've lived in this house longer than any other (as adults). I'm cleaning every nook and cranny in each room, and I'm barely half done. I'm making my way through the house room by room. Another week of this to go. I just hope I can maintain this level of clean until it sells. I'd hate to have to do this again any time soon.

So I thought I would just start spinning again after taking a break over Christmas, but knew I couldn't ignore the house that needs cleaning to get ready for moving, so I tightened my belt, and have started the really thorough cleaning again (I made a brief start to it last summer). Anyway, now that the moving is only a few months away, I've got to really get every inch cleaned. Not my favorite thing to do. And it has to be kept cleaned for showings.

So, anyway, the next yarn update is postponed while I get my house ready to put on the market. We will be moving from Wisconsin to Michigan, so at least the drive won't be far. I've got to get everything cleaned over the next two weeks, then get the appraisers in, then get the house listed on the market, then get over to Michigan to look for a house there. All this in the next 4-5 weeks. My spinning area has got to be really de-cluttered, with most of the fiber etc put away too. It even seems like spring out, to go along with all the spring cleaning I've got to do! I heard the cherry blossoms were budding in Washington DC, such a warm winter we're having.

So, this week I'm working on a Happy New Year yarn, here's the progress so far:



I finished one more christmas yarn, but it is being offered first to a special customer who missed out on my other christmas yarns. With Christmas coming soon, and all the family activities involved in that, I probably won't be doing any yarn updates to my site until January (except for the New Year's yarn I discussed above).

For those of you who have shown an interest in more christmas yarn, I've finished the white and red christmas yarn today, and am starting a white and silver holiday yarn tonight. The plan is to list both of them on Sunday afternoon/evening on my website.

Happy 23rd birthday to my beautiful daughter, Michelle!

I'll be doing another Christmas yarn this week, plus re-working some other yarns. Yesterday I did the carding for the Christmas yarn, today I start spinning. Stay tuned…