just call me gimpy

It's Elizabeth's fault. My sister Darcie decided that she would rather save up to buy herself a Majacraft Rose than buy my Ashford Elizabeth**. She already has the Maja Pioneer and she likes the idea of the accessories being interchangeable between her wheels. So the Elizabeth came home after a long sleepover.

I sat down to do some plying on her last weekend. When my right knee started to complain about the single treadle I just put both of my feet on the treadle to finish. So not a good idea. I woke up the next morning with tender butt muscles. Then I leaned over to pick up the Ladybug and something snapped. I seriously pulled my left butt muscle (I think the real name for it is the gluteous maximus). Whatever it is called, it hurts! I had no idea how much that muscle is used in everyday life until I hurt it.

At first, I thought it was kind of funny that I pulled my butt and figured a couple of days of going easy on it would do the trick. I am now at the seriously grumpy stage of this injury. It is showing no sign of healing and has developed this spasm issue that is going to drive me to drink. Meanwhile, Dan got sick, really sick for him, and went to the doctor yesterday to learn that he now has a sinus infection as a result of whatever virus he had (not H1N1, thank goodness). We have been a fine pair.

Then Geoff came home from work on Monday with a swollen ankle. He was coming down off of a ladder and didn't see a clear light bulb that someone had carelessly left on the floor, stepped on it, and rolled his ankle. The light bulb remained unharmed though which is weird. He was quite ticked that the light bulb didn't break because then his ankle wouldn't have rolled. His painting partner heard a pop and thought it was the light bulb but it was Geoff's ankle.

The original plan for this week was to strip the '80s wallpaper off of my kitchen and give it fresh coat of paint. Needless to say, none of us has been up to doing this so I don't think it's going to get done this summer. Oh well. My garden is also ridiculously over-run with weeds and perfectly good vegetables are getting old without being picked and there's nothing any of us can do about it.

Here is where I've been stationed for most of the week.
The seat cushion is memory foam and is the most comfortable place for my injured tush. Bentley is unimpressed that I haven't been able to lift the foot rest of the lazyboy chair so there hasn't been room on my lap for him.

To occupy my mind while dealing with a spasming butt muscle, I started to make the Elizabeth Zimmermann Baby Surprise Jacket. I'm using handspun superwash merino.
It is a very interesting little project. I have the how-to video to follow because EZ's instructions assume knitting knowledge that I don't have. I have been tempted to fast forward to where Meg Swanson shows how to fold it to make a cardigan but I've resisted so that I can try to figure out the puzzle myself as I go along. I think I can see how all this is to happen but I won't know if I'm right until the end. The handspun merino is lovely for this project - soft and squishy in garter stitch.

**Elizabeth is for sale again. $700 takes the whole shebang.