It Won't Just Be About Worms

   I thought I had put all of my pony beads in one spot, but it seems I was hiding some from myself.  If anyone is worried that I'm only going to make Worry Worms from now on, you don't need to worry, I'm just able to catch up on all my scraps now.  The scrappy hats also aren't going anywhere, so I won't be turning all scraps into worms.  I am pushing to get more done because I wanted to have a lot done for T.A.P.S. but I'm also wondering if any other organizations might want them.

  So far, my dad is off almost all of the machines.  He was put back on the insulin.  The dialysis machine is gone.  He ate sometime on his last day in the ICU.  According to the doctor that is a better normal.  When people come off all the things he was on they usually don't want to eat anything.  So far he's on the same floor, but the other tower, so he hasn't gotten his view of the helicopter pad back yet.

  My dad is acting more alert and coherent.  He's been moved back up to the 9th floor, but doesn't have the view of the helicopter pad back because he's in a different room farther down.  He wants his laptop to work on things but also tires easily.  My mom says they have started him on some physical therapy to try and get this strength back.

Second Round of $1.25 Tree Yarn

Pattern: Worry Worms - Yarn: Crafter's Square in a dark blue color - Hook: 5.5mm

  I really liked the Premier Just Yarn.  This Crafter's Square yarn is interesting.  It's very springy, spongy, and very slippery.  It's almost slimy while being dry, which means it doesn't want to stay knotted.  I'm not worried about them coming apart, but it was annoying that I could pull out the slip knot when tightening the loop around the hook.

  It also stained my white crochet hook some and my fingers.  I did not really enjoy working with it at all, but I kept going because I didn't want to waste the yarn and they feel very interesting when made into a worm.  I will not be buying that yarn again.

  I added a bead kind of trim to one as a test.  I would start the single crochet normally, slide the bead down and complete the single crochet.  I then would pop the bead through the loop closest to it, flip the working yarn to the front, and pull it tighter.  It looks pretty cool but takes so long I don't think I will make many more of them.

  I've recently learned that Claire will be coming out this way for T.A.P.S. so it seems that the worms will have a place to good after all.  I didn't think that they would want individual cards to go with each one for the kids to lose, so I made a sign for Claire to put out near them.

  I didn't mention this before because it hadn't been as big of a deal before, but now it's gotten more dramatic.  My dad went to the doctor because he was feeling tired all the time.  They said he was anemic and sent him home with some iron tablets.  Those didn't do anything, so he and my mom went back.  He was then diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia and was admitted.  This is apparently one that people usually get when they are middle aged and the doctors were surprised he got it so late in life.

  The plan was then to give him some chemo pills and keep an eye on him until everything that didn't belong in him was nuked with chemicals.  The chemo caused his white blood count to sky rocket, so his chest felt tight because his blood was thicker.  They said this is fairly normal.

  However he had started having breathing problems.  So they sedated him while they give him oxygen and kidney dialysis.  The doctors don't know which way he is going to go, so we could use some good vibes and well wishes.

  When we went to visit him it was great how kind the staff were.  A lot of them, like Jenn, talked to him when doing their checks.  They let him know that they were there and what they were doing.  The "air hugger" was an interesting thing.  It reminded me of the air pillows used in shipping, but it has warm air being pumped through it to help warm people without adding too much weight on them.

  Less than 100 people per year get acute promyelocytic leukemia, 16% of those people get differentiation syndrome, and 9% of that get it severely.  So if anyone is wondering why I'm sometimes dramatic, that's where I get it from. 

  On day two he's already off some of the medication he was on before.  They tried to wake him some but he tried to take out the breathing tube, which I don't blame him.  He also squeezed my mom's hand a few times.  His heart is now doing a lot of the pumping, so that's another good thing.

  So far on day three he is breathing on this own and moving his limbs.  The good limb movement means that he hasn't had a stroke the last few days.  The plan now is to change the sedation medicine to see if he can become more alert and they want to get him back up to the 9th floor to finish treatment.  The 9th floor was fun because he had a view of the helicopter pad.

Special Dinner

   Mike and I had a special dinner together.  We tried to go to Gopchang Story KBBQ before, but even though they took our phone number, they never called to say there was a table for us.  I saw Tzuyang have grilled beef large and small intestines on YouTube before and I found out through Google that I can get some here.  She was going on about how good they are, and I now agree.

  Since we were feeling adventurous, we also got beef heart.  We still had some room after those, so we got some pork belly too.  When we arrived they didn't have any flavored Soju, but part of the way through dinner they got an order in and our server offered us some.  The yogurt flavor is really good.

  The heart had a flavor similar to liver, but way more mild.  The intestines were very interesting.  The small were more chewy, like calamari, but had absorbed the marinade better.  The large were really good with a crispy outside because the inside tasted very fatty and soft.  Our server said that the large was his favorite.

Pattern: Worry Worms - Yarn: Premier Just Yarn in Turquoise - Hook: 5.5mm

  The whole skein is 109 yrd/100 m and 1.76 oz/50g.  I got 16 whole worms and good part of another out of one.  I had 0.05 oz left over, so the math tells me that I used about 6.62 yrd/6.07 m for each one.  I know I could have worked one and then taken it out again to measure it, but that sounded like too much work.  Emmy suggested that I weigh the skein, make one, then weigh the skein again, but my scale isn't sensitive enough.  I've knitted a row on a hat with the scale telling me that I had the exact same amount of yarn left as I did before, so I didn't think these would be big enough to get an accurate measurement.  I'm also fairly sure that I haven't used the exact same amount on each one.

  I'm looking forward to doing the same with the other skein of yarn from the Dollar Tree.

$1.25 Tree

   I got both of these from Dollar Tree.  I was impressed when I found some Premier yarn there.  I know I don't need more yarn, but I wanted to try and make some worms out of them.  I'm also curious if you can get this yarn anywhere else and if the smaller skeins for $1.25 (plus tax) is a good deal or not.

Pattern: based off Crochet Showtime Hat by The Crochet Crowd - Yarn: Sportjarré Neveda in 7053 6559 - Hook: 6.5mm

  I got the cowl done that I started on the way to NYC.  I had expected to have more time to work on it but since we had to smoosh so much each time, I couldn't work on it during taxi rides.  I might be hooked on the pattern again.  Get it?

Pattern: based off Crochet Showtime Hat by The Crochet Crowd - Yarn: unknown - Hook: 4mm

  I got this idea in my head on Wednesday and just had to try it.  It's a top down version of the Showtime Crochet Hat.  I have what I did written down and I'm thinking of putting it out on here, but I might also make it a free Ravelry pattern.  It's a very loose pattern, so it would be more like a recipe style pattern.

Pattern: based off Crochet Showtime Hat by The Crochet Crowd - Yarn: Sportjarré Neveda in 7053 6559 - Hook: 6.5mm

  When I first saw the yarn I missed the fact that it was purple with blue, yellow, and pink pieces.  I'm not sure what they are, but they are just short bits of extra color.  The picture of the other cowl is closer to the correct color.

  For this one the drop downs are climbing in the other direction because I did a number divisible by 5 plus 4.  I was pretty sure it was going to work. but I wasn't totally sure.  I can see how it mentally makes sense for the pattern to work with a number divisible by 5, but that only works when you work in rows and not in a spiral.

  The reason for this is that if you have a number divisible by 5 your rows look like this for the first three:

    1: sc 4, drop stitch

    2: sc 3, drop stitch, 1 sc

    3: sc 2, drop stitch, 2 sc

  If you were working in rows, you would get that last single crochet before you end the row which would be the fourth one you need.  But if you are working in a spiral you don't get that last one in for that row, it counts towards the next row.  So with the last single crochet from your second row with the two from the beginning of row 3, you only have 3 between drops and not the four you need.  The extra stitch offsets that first loss, so you don't notice it at all and you just need to keep working *sc 4, drop stitch* until the piece is as long as you want it to be.

In a New York (Long Weekend) Minute

 Friday:

 

  Our gate (J26) wasn't announced until 1:04pm when the train was scheduled to leave at 1:15pm.  There were just a bunch of people waiting by the monitors until it was announced and then all moved at once, like a large flock of birds.  I thought we had assigned seats, but you just find one you like in the Coach area.

  We rode the Northeast Regional Amtrak for a fairly quick three hour and forty minute trip.  I got the turkey and Gouda sandwich, it was pretty good.  There was a really good squirrel mural near Baltimore, it had a purple background and showed the squirrel eating from a bird feeder.  I didn't manage to get a picture or find one online of it.

  Steven managed to get a seat-mate that liked Star Wars.  He told him about the 501st Legion.  The new guy's lady-person also liked Star Wars and she had a Darth Vader suitcase.  The lady behind me from Delaware was blown away when her seat-mate from New York told her about Cat Cafes.

  On our walk from the train to the hotel we saw a bunch of very fashionable people.  One girl had a horizontal slit peek-a-boo t-shirt cut super short and it looked really edgy with a blazer on top.

  Our Homewood Suites room looked like an apartment.  I like how there are so many space-efficient pieces of furniture exist now.  In our room the couch folded out to be another bed.

  Tony's Pizza sounded good for dinner before the show.  I got the veggie, Bill got the pepperoni and bacon, and Steven got one BBQ and one bacon.  They were thin and just the right amount of floppy while not being too greasy.

  Since we got to the venue for Stomp early, we did some people watching while we waited for the doors to open.  We did get to hear someone warming up for the show when we picked up our tickets.

  The stage and seating area had a bunch of city things all over.  There were street signs, a crossing signal, hub caps, a traffic signal, and so many other bits and bobs.

  The show was amazing.  I love how many characters there were, like the one who wants to be the center of attention, the chill guy, the cool girl, the tough girl, and the awkward guy.  The awkward guy was my favorite.

  The scene transitions were super fast.  Even when it took longer to get set up they had something for you to watch.  One scene even looked like stop motion animation.  I recommend going to see it, I know I wouldn't mind seeing it again.

Saturday:

  I had wanted to go to The Bagel Store to get the original rainbow bagel, but they were temporarily closed.  I then found Liberty Bagels Midtown who also have a rainbow bagel.

  I got the rainbow bagel with spinach and artichoke, Bill got the rainbow bagel with strawberry, Steven got the sausage egg and cheese on sesame.  It was good enough that we talked about going back again before the trip was over.

  I was really hoping to see Swatch since he is starting to look a bit old when they show him on Project Runway.  I wondered around but didn't see him.  The employee said that the best time to see Swatch is around summer because that's when they film Project Runway.  It was a bit weird that he also told me twice that Swatch was still alive, just at home.  Since walking all three floors I'm so confused how the Project Runway contestants manage to find what they need in so little time.  The store is organized so well, but there are just so many fabric options.

  The Ghost Busters Headquarters.  It's a working fire station, so the gift shop isn't always open.  It was fun to stop by and see.

  We went to frenchette for lunch, it was just a short walk down the road from the fire station.  I got the duck haché with Chiara Vigo to drink, Bill got the poulet roti, and Steven got the tartare frites.  Everything was a bit pricey, but so good and worth it.  I even had some leftovers to take back to the hotel.  When you get a box for extra food, they give you a playing card to turn in before you leave.

  Everyone else took a nap, but I went out to get a Geocache.  This one was a bit hard to pull out of the hiding spot because of how strong the magnet on the container was.  It was a nice walk and helped me to digest all the food I had eaten.

  On way to the show, we saw a guy pulling his food cart and just walking with the traffic.  He even got a Taxi to back up for him because he had to get through that spot.

  We wanted to see one show on Broadway and Beetlejuice won.  The show was really good and now I want to learn all the stage magic.  I also got a bit emotional when everyone gave them a standing ovation because everyone's hard work came together to make a great show.  There was a mic issue at the beginning, but that didn't ruin the show at all.

  For a midnight snack we got some more pizza.  2Bros Pizza had a line out the door, but they were working quickly.  The cheese pizza slices were only $1 and very good.  I would go there all the time for a late-night bite if I lived nearby.

Sunday:

  While waiting in the line to check our bags at the train station the guy at the front of the line was having problems with his credit card and then the other people didn't have their tickets available to scan easily.  The poor employees were trying to get through the line as quickly as possible.

  We then went to the The Fans Strike Back Exhibition.  I took a million pictures of everything.  Steven and I did the VR experience.  I really like flying in space, but I probably would have made a few different flight path choices.  It was also really cool to be able to see some of the costumes up close and see what they were made out of.

  Osteria 57 won for lunch.  We got the Truffle Ricotta Toast for the table and sparkling water.  I got the Poached Egg and the Body Language drink, Bill got the Papperdelle and the Perfect Darkness, and Steven got the Spaghetti and the Vodka Lemon.  I really liked the little outdoor building they made for seating.  A bunch of restaurants had them and though it meant that there was less street parking, it was really cool.

  Steven had been requesting that we get ice cream at some point.  Bill did a quick search, and I knew I wanted to come here.  He showed me one picture of the ice cream flower and I wanted one.  Amorino is where you should go if you want to get your own ice cream flower.  They also have cups for ice cream.  I saw that they just get tiny slivers and press them on the outside to make the flower, so it isn't too hard, but it is fiddley and would take practice.  I got mango, mascarpone & fig, and banana with a pistachio macaroon.  She forgot to put it on top, so I just got it on the side.

  We were trying to think of things to do, so I suggested sitting in a park and people watching.  The nearest park was Washington Square Park.  I wondered around to see if I could get another Geocache and while trying to find it there were suddenly a ton of people on bicycles riding through the middle.  After a bit I saw a different group go down one of the streets next to the park with three LAPD officers on scooters behind them, it was really cool.

  Steven had been to the Museum of Sex the last time he was in NYC but said he wouldn't mind going again with Bill and me.  It was both educational and amusing.  I would go again some time and try and win a prize.  The girl in front of us won one and I was jealous of her.

  We still had some time to kill and were feeling a bit hungry.  We had planned to stop by a roadside stand but kept having meals that were too big or they were all closed for the day when we wanted a late-night snack.  This was the last chance we were going to have before the trip was over.  It was so good and I was glad we were finally able to get one.

  While waiting for the train I saw someone with an MTA Homeless Outreach bright orange jacket that had Magikarps embroidered onto the cuffs of her pants.

  Shane hooked us up with some business seating upgrades.  We got in just a bit too late to take the Metro back home, so we waited in line for a taxi.  The one we got was a bit small, but we had been managing to get all three of us in the back of the NYC taxis, so we did one more New York Squish.  This taxi driver ran a red light soon after leaving the station and was not comfortable driving on winding back roads at all, but he was really nice.

  It was a really good trip overall.  I will have to remember to pack some Band-Aids or something for a next trip because the sides of my little toes got rubbed raw.  We got all the things we really wanted to get done in and had some time for a few more things.  We even have something we want to try and do the next time we are in town.

For another time:

  The NYCRHPS show for that weekend was on Saturday, but it was happening at 9pm which was only an hour after Beetlejuice was supposed to start.  We would have tried to go if it had been a midnight showing.

  Houndstooth Pub was near our hotel, and we kept meaning to try it, but the timing was never right.  We were either too full or arriving too close to closing time.

  We had also planned to try and find somewhere where we could buy some of the Rogue River Blue cheese by Rogue Creamery.  We had found a few shops that carried that brand of cheeses but ran out of time to stop by one of them.

Going Keppi Crazy

Pattern: Jazzy Knit Hat by Lion Brand (older version) - Yarn: Lion Brand Keppi Sparkle in Rainbow Cupcake - Needle: US 6

   From some of the other project pages on Ravelry, either other people didn't have their skein start with the novelty yarn, they started from the other end, or they just cut off the first bit of novelty yarn.  Not everyone added notes about their projects, so I have no way of knowing.

Pattern:  Jazzy Knit Hat by Lion Brand (top changed) - Yarn: Lion Brand Keppi in Taffy - Needle: US 8

  Overall, it is a really fun idea and I think it had promise.  The fact that one skein made a small hat is good.  Different sections having different colors and/or different textures is also a pretty fun idea.  Having each section of yarn be a different weight isn't ideal.  Lashing or glueing the different types of yarn together also isn't the best way to go about things.  Having the skein begin on a yarn that is tricky to work with would make it very daunting to quite a few people.

Pattern:  Jazzy Knit Hat by Lion Brand (top changed) - Yarn: Lion Brand Keppi in Little Boy Blue - Needle: US 8

  This is how I like the crowns of my hats to look.  Nice and smooth and not too gathered.  I'm sure there are people out there who like the look of the gathered top.  I didn't like how the largest size of the pattern left a huge hole because you are trying to gather over 40 stitches together.

Pattern: HDC Hat - Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in 300208 - Hook: 5.5mm

  I'm now really falling behind on patterns I want to write.  I was messing around and trying to get the hat to look like the Jazzy Crochet hat.  This is what I was able to come up with and I really like it.  I am thinking of writing it up and making it into a real pattern.  I think it will work better as a top down hat however.

Good News!

  On Monday I got a call from my mom.  She had any appointment to see if she was able to get the body brace off.  While there they took a bunch of x-rays of all over and told her that she was able to ditch both the body brace and the neck brace.  The bones aren't fully healed, but they are enough to start supporting weight and movement.  She was making sure to make no sudden movements to not upset anything.  She wasn't sure if she was allowed to drive or not yet.

  She let me know on Wednesday that she went through her first round of PT.  There were some leg things like bridges, shoulder blade squeezes, and my mom was told to try and keep her head back more in general.

  Everything is going well so far, and we can all knock on wood and keep fingers crossed that it keeps going in that direction.