Friday, December 04, 2009

The TickerFactory measure has re-set itself! So exciting! The most profligate among us often go a month without buying yarn – the achievement is negligible. But it feels good.

My system, if you can call it that, of thinking about the stash and sorting it and forming a mental list of possible projects is going to be helpful, I think. But danger lies everywhere, as for a recovering alcoholic. The Faculty Meeting Knitter bought some unbelievably beautiful yarn the other day – fortunately for me, a limited edition which had already sold out. Helen C.K.S.’s Red Sandstone Jacket (Wednesday December 2) is another form of temptation – I want one like that.


Yesterday went well enough, up to a point. I racketed about in the morning and hit all my targets. I was exhausted by lunch time, but it was my husband who succumbed to hypoglycaemia so we didn’t, after all, go to the Coen brothers’ new film in the afternoon. Soon.

I’ve read about Vitamin D in the NIH link Gerri provided. I seem to have hit upon the NIH upper limit all by myself – 2,000 IU a day. The symptoms of overdosing sound dreadful and seem to encompass most of the human condition: “fatigue, somnolence, headache, dry mouth, metallic taste, vertigo…”

I haven’t got to Schulz yet.

As for knitting, I keep fretting about the length of the ASJ. How long is a piece of string? Is it reasonable to measure it against a cloth jacket? It is currently 24” long, I just measured. The edging will add another inch.


I consulted Vicki Square’s ever-useful “Knitting Great Basics” – she thinks that’s enough for a medium-sized adult jacket. I have embarked on what is meant to be the final horizontal stripe – “Franklin’s Panopticon”, of course, which is going to go in all the important places. I think I’ll knit a bit more of it this evening, and then proceed to the edging, the Panopticon stripe narrower than originally planned.

I’ve had a frustrating morning of computer slowth – I’ll stop here. Here is a picture from the family Thanksgiving in London last weekend – Hellie and her boyfriend Matt and the Miles boys from Loch Fyne.

4 comments:

  1. GrannyPurple11:46 AM

    If you have the "wrong" side facing when you get to doing the icord edging it curls to the outside & is very handsome.

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  2. A final stripe of Panopticon sounds excellent. Best wishes for a calm weekend.
    Lisa in Toronto

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  3. Anonymous3:05 PM

    Vitamin D is great stuff but too much can cause problems. A family member attended a professional research symposium where Vitamin D results were presented. He grew very enthusiastic and started taking 2000 units straight away only to give himself a painful kidney stone!

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  4. A physician friend forwarded along an article on the vit. D topic. For the most part, it appears that you can actually go significantly higher on the dose without trouble - as in 50,000 IU for a week or two to replenish depleted reserves, then maintenance doses on the order of 5,000 IU daily through the winter for those of us in northern climes and 2,000 IU daily through the months where we get more light. This assumes, of course, that you monitor levels with your physician.

    The recommendations tend toward higher doses in the elderly, as well, though it's not clear if that's because older people tend to get out in the sun less or if they assimilate it more poorly. And it seems that the form taken is very important, as well, with ergocalciferol or cholecalciferol being safer than calcitriol. And of course, tablet forms need to be taken along with at least a slightly fatty meal, since it's a fat-soluble vitamin.

    One of the best ways to avoid kidney stones of any sort is to drink plenty of water - half gallon per day is the standard recommendation.

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