The rainbow mitts turned out almost just right. Hard to believe both mitts came from the same skein of yarn, but they did. I’ve sent them on their way to my BFF who has been wearing them to bed. She’s an artist and loves bright colors, so she had no problem with all the different colors.
So, I tweaked the pattern based on that pair and I’m knitting up a second pair using a skein of Caron Simply Soft in a grey heather colorway and the pattern as tweaked. I got one knitted except for the thumb and saw more tweaks I want to make in the pattern. It was a right mitt. I’m in the middle of knitting a second right mitt with the retweaked pattern, so I’ll frog that first one and use the yarn to knit the left mitt. When I get it how I like it, I’ll publish it on Knits From The Owl Underground.
I spent the morning working on the first right mitt and binge-watching back episodes of “Must Love Yarn’s” podcasts. I’m up to episode 44, and their latest episode is 118, so I have some catching up to do. But then, I have a lot of projects going and they’re fun and entertaining. The two podcasters have great personalities and great chemistry. Watching their podcasts and knitting is almost like being in a knitting group with them.
I may have mentioned that Michael’s and Joanne’s both had yarn sales and because of Must Love Yarn, I have fallen down the Joji Locatelli rabbit hole. She’s a knitwear designer who lives in Argentina. I realized that if I could get 7 more skeins of that purple yarn, I’d have enough to make this. They had exactly 7 skeins left. See there? Fate.
I’ve been noticing something interesting in the last four or five blog posts, that instead of transferring pictures from my camera, I’ve been transferring them from my phone. I suspect lot of it is from now being on Instagram, but it started before that. My phone has a pretty good camera on it, and I’ve had my digital camera for six or seven years, and the picture quality between the two is pretty much the same. There’s this program called SideSync which allows me to link my phone and my PC through either Bluetooth or a USB cable, and I’ve been transferring photos that way from my phone. (So does that make people who take pictures with their phones “phonetographers?”)
So, I’ve been going round and round with the VA again. I ran out of a particular prescription on the 28th of December because my cardiologist increased the dosage, and the change didn’t make it to the VA pharmacy. I put in for a refill in a timely manner, but I kept waiting and waiting for the refill and it didn’t come. I thought that the fact they’re closed the same as other government offices over the holidays and that might have been the problem, but when I went on their website to track the refill, they said it wouldn’t be refilled until 1/24 because the prescription hadn’t been updated. So I’ve been without it for two weeks now while I tracked down the problem and got everybody on the same page. I’m supposed to be able to pick it up Monday. Being without the medication for the past two weeks has been a bummer.
While all this was going on, I got a reminder from the VA to make an appointment with the optometrist to get my yearly eye exam. When I called to make the appointment, I found out that we haven’t had an optometrist in our clinic here in town since last May, and that I’d have to go 125 miles to Amarillo for an eye exam, which would include having my pupils dilated so they can check my retinas. (Dad with macular degeneration, aunt with optic nerve cancer. . .) I’d then get to drive 125 miles on the Interstate with dilated pupils through herds of trucks to get back home again. They’re supposed to be trying to hire one. I don’t think my glasses need to be changed, so I’m just going to wait until they get one. When I get new glasses through the VA, they mail them to me, and if I have to have the frames adjusted or a lens replaced, I have to drive 250 miles round trip to Amarillo to get it done. Our government in action.
While I was out getting yarn, I got a skein of black and a skein of white in fingering weight yarn. Deathflake may strike again, y’all.
The Owl Underground 
Is the vaunted g’ment shutdown making it even more difficult to work with the VA? There are a few things I’ve tried to do and haven’t been able to, since they involve departments like US Fish & Wildlife. My daddy used to say the best way to get a mule’s attention was to hit it upside the head with a 2×4. I think there needs to be some kind of 2×4 applied to someone, somehow.
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