Monday, August 27, 2007

Happy Halter

To get this knitting thing started, here's my latest creation. This was supposed to be a brainless knitting project from a kit. However, my daughter has some ideas of her own. So, it became a design project.

I've knit the entire thing 3 times - making design changes each time. Once I had the main body settled, I then knit the top 3 more times to get the finishing with the ties like I wanted them.













She's pleased as punch.











And, she's more than happy to pose for us.



















And just for good measure, here's the back. (Um, yes, she's only 7. I'm in trouble when she hits her teens....)

2 Year, 2 Words

Lyme Disease.

I've written that I don't want to use this blog to discuss my health issues. But they do affect my business ownership and community leadership.

Two years ago, I went to a doctor and asked to be tested for Lyme, at the insistence of my acupuncturist. It came back negative. What nobody told me: there is at about a 35% false negative rate. Since then I've been told that I can't manage stress or that my symptoms are psycho-somatic due to childhood trauma. (How about the trauma of getting this sick?!) Two years later, at the continued insistence of the acupuncturist, I pushed for further Lyme testing. It was positive.

There's some explanation for how that happens here (especially #6 & #7.)

If you'd like to have a sense of what I've been living with, go here. I have the vast majority of the symptoms.

If you'd like to know how I've managed to keep any part of a business alive, I haven't found a link for that, yet!

I'll be starting treatments soon. If I respond well, I could be a lot better in a few months. In the meantime, I'm likely to keep the Circles activities to a minimum. Running the shop with a few classes and events on weekends only. I'll focus on the Pattern Collaborative until then - designing pattern templates; setting up an online shop; knitting samples; and writing patterns. Hopefully, when we're ready to relaunch, we'll have some solid movement on this front in place. So, in the next few months, I don't know how much I'll have to say about running a business and hosting a community. I'm sure I'll have some reflections as I get closer to rebuilding. Until then, I think I'll post some fun stuff. I mean, like, knitting, like, totally....