Category Archives: Injury

Moving right along

Posted on January 8, 2012 by Terri | 3 comments

Still stiff from Wednesday’s tumble but am thankful that’s all that has shown up. It’s still rather uncomfortable getting up if I’ve been sitting (i.e. stitching) for a long time, or first thing in the morning when it’s time to come downstairs. I’ve ditched the slippers for now and am even more cautious than before. I hate falling. I’ve always been afraid to fall. It’s why I only went snow skiing once in my life. I don’t know why it kept me from it since I used to ice skate, and water ski! Oh well. More cautious on the steps.

I finished up my 10 hour rotation on Peacock Tapestry yesterday. I finished the gridding Thursday evening at my weekly stitchin, then put it away until I was home and better able to concentrate.

I’ve decided to take Hannah Beeby out of my rotation and make her my stitchin piece until I finish her. The chart’s easy to read, there are only 3 colors, and the fabric is 28 count, making her easy to stitch on, and not mess up, while enjoying the company and conversation at the stitchins.

But, back to PT. When I picked her up again yesterday, and started stitching, because of the gridding I found a couple of small stitching mistakes that would have made it very interesting when it came time to backstitch. I made great progress on it, even with the little bit of actual stitching I did. I did something wrong with my camera when I took the before picture, so there’s only an “after” this time around:

Peacock Tapestry by Teresa Wentzler

The Great Spreadsheet spoke again, and now I’m working on Haiku by Dimples Designs. I started this during one of the Guilt Free January’s I participated in. 2004 to be exact! Here’s the before shot of the little stinker:

Haiku by Dimples Designs

The stitching is going rather quickly. This is the third WIP that fits into the Theme-a-licious-ness for January!

I’m getting a lot of stitching done but I know it will slow down when I start my quilting class in a couple of weeks.

I’m making slower progress on one of my other yearly goals (which I didn’t publicize). I want to become more familiar with all the technology I own! I made a tiny step by changing my tabs up top to drop down (I’ve had this blog for how long and didn’t know I could do that?) Part of my problem with it all is that I don’t understand the terminology. I figure if I could master the latin of law, I should be able to better handle technology terminology. Right? We’ll see 😉

3 Comments

Posted in Haiku, Injury, Peacock Tapestry, Stitching, Theme-a-licious, WIPocalypse

2012 Stitching Thoughts

Posted on January 5, 2012 by Terri | 3 comments

I was going to post this yesterday, but yesterday didn’t go as I thought it would. It started out as any other day — get up at 3 a.m. to watch the Quadrantids meteor shower, go back to bed at 4 a.m., get up at 7 a.m., fall down steps from kitchen to family room, nearly faint from the pain of falling down, while trying to not freak M out too much when I yelled for him….yeah, not so much what I had planned. Spent as much time as possible getting up and down all day so I wouldn’t get too stiff. Was shaky all day and very thankful that the worst injury seemed to be to my pride. Don’t know exactly what damage I did but when I finally came to a rest I was sitting on my butt with my left leg bent out to the side of me. I heard a loud pop when I fell and was scared to death to move afterward, thus my yelling for M, who was still upstairs sleeping. In the end, I hurt my right palm, left wrist, left knee, left ankle, and my neck and shoulders were stiff. This morning I’m stiff, but not feeling anything like I was worried I would be feeling. I’m moving sort of slow and walking around like an old lady, but I’m up and about, and not going to miss going to my Thursday evening stitchin or to Vegas next week.

Now, for the original reason behind this post:

As shown by my ort jars for 2011, I had several months where I barely touched any of my stitching. Even then, I stitched more in 2011 than I did in 2010. I’m hoping, now that I’m no longer working, that I can at least double the amount of stitching in 2012!

For the past couple of weeks while unpacking my stash, I’ve been thinking about what I’d like to accomplish in 2012. It’s been fun reading what other stitchers are hoping to accomplish and nice to know I’ll be in good company whether or not I succeed. I think I do better with goals, or rather putting down what I’d like to see happen, on “paper.” Sometimes I get caught up in the crowd mentality and forget what I wanted to do if I don’t have some sort of written plan to bring me back to earth!

So, for 2012 I plan on:

Get back to blogging more frequently. I stitch more when I blog. I am a horrible photographer, but I enjoy sharing my stitching just like everyone else!
Get back to rotating my stitching and tracking my time. I know a lot of people think this is too much work but when I was doing it before I felt such a sense of accomplishment and I seemed to stitch more, just like when I blog more.
Stick to my WIPocalypes goals and keep my page updated.
Post to the Theme-a-licious challenge as often as my rotation works into it.
Post my monthly TUSAL.
Participate in at least 6 Fair and Square exchanges.
Finish out all 6 received Fair and Square exchanges. I plan on taking advantage of the great finishing tutorials in bloggy land.
Stitch 3 Santa ornaments for my Santa display.
Take at least 1 stitching related class.
Finish logging my charts into my spreadsheet.
Start organizing my freebies.
Organize my magazine designs.

When I read back over my list I feel like I’ve set an extremely overloaded year for myself and am so tempted to “downsize” that list.

What I don’t plan on doing….depriving myself. I don’t handle deprivation well. Just see how I respond when you try to take chocolate away from me — and it never fails that just as soon as I say “I’m not going to buy anymore stash until I stitch ____ number of pieces” someone publishes something I can’t live without. I’m just going to take it month by month. Or maybe, newsletter by newsletter 😉

I have non-stitching goals this year too! But those, I’m keeping to myself.

I picked up Peacock Tapestry Tuesday and immediately remembered why it became a UFO instead of a WIP.

Back in 1999, when I first started it, gridding was something new to the stitching world. I didn’t grid before I started it and while I love stitching on it, the backstitching is what got me. I have requested a copy of the backstitching chart. I tried to backstitch it Tuesday, but gave up. Yesterday I started stitching on it, but decided the smart thing for me to do is to grid it. So, that’s where I’m at. I’m 5+ hours into it this rotation. I’ll finishe the gridding during this time, and get some more stitching done, too. Next time I pick it up I should have the backstitching chart and I’ll go back to that before adding more stitches.

I’m trying to decide whether or not to take it with me tonight if I don’t finish up the 10 hours by then, or to take Hannah Beeby again, since she’s so “easy.”

3 Comments

Posted in Goals, Hannah Beeby, Injury, Peacock Tapestry

What to stitch next?

Posted on January 29, 2010 by Terri | 6 comments

I don’t know what I did but yesterday late in the afternoon at work my right wrist started bothering me. By the time I left I could barely use my right hand to drive home. It was hurting me so much by the time I got home I seriously contemplated taking some of Kahuna’s ‘left over’ oxicodone. Needless to say we didn’t make it out to town to pick up the puppies’ new clothes. Plus, I couldn’t find my brace so didn’t sleep all that well last night because it bothered me when I turned in certain positions. So this morning I’m pooped and very much glad it’s Friday. It’s still bothering me, but not near as much. In fact, I haven’t taken any sort of pain killer.

Anyway since it hurt to move, I didn’t stitch. I thought about trying it but was worried the constant, repetitive motion might make it worse since I don’t know what I did to hurt it.

Instead, I dug around in my stash looking at smallish patterns for my new project, while watching Vampire Diaries. Here’s what I’ve narrowed it down to:

Chessie & Me – Love Liberty

Katidid – Come Gather

Little House Needleworks – Home of a Needleworker (too!)

Little House Needleworks – Necessities Sampler

Sheepish Designs – Eagle

Little By Little – Black Heart Samplar

Lilybet – Spots

Ewe and Eye and Friends – Primitive Sheep

Blackbird Designs – Grand Old Flag

I had 3x this many pulled when I first began going through them! 😆

Now, which one should I stitch?

6 Comments

Posted in Injury, Stitching

Follow-up on doctor appt

Posted on February 4, 2008 by Terri | Comments Off

I am a happy person.

I walked out of there with customized inserts, a night splint, personal physical therapy advice, and a “go forth and walk on the treadmill, swim in the pool, cycle your fanny off” blessing from the doctor.

No incline on the treadmill and absolutely no concrete, asphalt walking.

NO running of any kind for at least 6 weeks (follow-up appt).

I have to wear the inserts for 1 hour tomorrow, then increase the length of time each day following. I also probably need to be wearing them for at least a week before I attempt the treadmill so my arch will get used to having that hard thing holding it up.

I’ll have to start out slouchy with the night splint and increase the stretching tension on it over time. My achilles is also not stretched properly which is probably leading to some of the heel problems.

I must wear stiff soles shoes when cycling, which I do anyway since I wear clip in cycling shoes.

Guess who’s going to the gym tomorrow 😀

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Posted in Fitness, Injury

Not exactly what I wanted to hear

Posted on January 24, 2008 by Terri | Comments Off

The dr. appt. sort of went like I was expecting, instead of how I was hoping. I’m being referred out to a podiatrist. What I wasn’t expecting was that once I receive the paperwork I can pick any doctor of my choice that will accept my military insurance. So, I put the word out to our tri-club that I’m hunting for someone near where I work or live who can get me back on the road to training for my first triathlon.

The bad news is that this most likely means I won’t be able to run the Carlsbad 5000 and probably won’t be able to run the triathlon I wanted to run in May (a later race might be more appropriate) because of a late start in training for the run, if I do get to start training again.
She told me at one point that I might want to think about giving up running altogether for awhile because of my weight, but I told her “no” that since I’ve stopped my consistent weight loss has stopped as well, even though I’m still cycling and swimming. She even mentioned my not doing any sort of activity until I see the podiatrist.

I’m trying to keep a positive outlook but so far, no good. I have already received several responses to my “podiatrist” request, including a military doctor who specializes in sports medicine. I’m going to be taking the advice he sent me to heart until I can see an actual person.

No stitching last night. Too bummed out. Will be getting on the bike today after work for however long my behind can stand it.