Barely Back in the Saddle

 After nearly two months of no riding, my physical therapist (for my knee) cleared me to get back in the saddle, albeit on a very limited basis.  Like "only do 25% of what you would normally do while riding" kind of limited.

After much thought, I decided that was rather a tall order, to keep things at 25% or less, especially as just the motion of mounting was rather a stressor on my knee.  The way I saw it, mounting was about 50% of the workout, but I was determined to try to obey.  So, my current plan is mount, do elementary walk work, get off after 15-20 minutes and build slowly from there.

Which is what I finally got to do this week.  I found that a) mounting does still create a brief twinge in my knee during the moment of springing up and swinging my right leg over the saddle, and b) 15 minutes of walking my horse on the very minimum of contact (ie not allowing his head to be in the air or at his knees) tired my knee/leg out very quickly.  After 15 minutes I was more than ready to get down for fear of reinjuring my knee.

Honestly, I was rather paranoid about maybe all ready having pushed too much--with my idea of mounting being a huge percentage of the work-- and after also having to clean stalls that morning, my knee was more sore than it's been in weeks.  Not nearly as sore, and not swollen, as it had been most of the summer, but there was definitely discomfort there that I hadn't felt in a while.

Still, the physical therapist, upon me reporting on my experience of riding again, encouraged me to get on again, but wait 3-4 days between rides.  So that is the plan for now--riding only a quarter of an hour, at walk (definitely no posting trot for a while) every 3-4 days and increase only as my knee dictates (like, no more pain on mounting, and not tiring so quickly).

Meanwhile, Camaro still gets longed a couple of times a week.  And the weather has turned cold (and wet) enough that he now sports his waterproof turnout sheet.

I also, in a super dressage diva kind of way of worrying about rebuilding muscles unevenly, sprang for a brand new pair of stirrup leathers.  My old ones were OLD (2+ decades old!), and uneven.  So I decided that in the interest of starting riding again with proper balance as much as possible, new leathers were a must.  

Ironically, my totally identical to each other brand new leathers, while looking like the right iron hung a titch longer, feel like my right leg is shorter than my left.  After consulting others for their eyeballing of my irons both with my feet in and out of them, we decided to trust the holes on the new irons.  It's very likely I'd been riding uneven most of this year and now having my legs identical feels weird.

Sewing/Stitching Update, October

Zero sewing has been done in the past month, despite my intention to start working on a quilt that is planned to be a Christmas gift.  Nothing like putting pressure on myself to whip off a large throw sized quilt in just two months!

I do have the pattern chosen, and the fabrics pulled from stash.  I'm using 10" neutral precuts as the background, and going with just two other colors (that I need to cut into 10" squares), so hopefully once I actually get my rotary cutter slicing into fabric everything will go quickly.

I wish the colors were truer in the above photo, the white-looking fabric is actually ecru/natural tones and the greenish is much prettier than pictured.

I'm going to use the Disappearing Hourglass pattern by Missouri Star Quilt Co., altering it a little to make the quilt slightly smaller.  My plan is 5 rows of 5 blocks each, and then the borders widths as written.

While I wasn't sewing at all, I did do a whole lot of counted cross stitch while Faline napped on my babysitting days. She's taking an hour to hour-and-a-half afternoon nap these days, so that really gave me lots of crafting time.  

I finished the Nordic Santa I was making as a gift for my Mom.

Then, since that went so quickly, I decided to see if I could start and finish another perforated paper beaded cross stitch design before DD2's birthday in early October.  Yes, I could, and I did!  And she loves it.  It reminds her of the study abroad she did in Peru back in 2017, which was what I was hoping, as it is an Andean Santa.

I have to confess that I might be slightly addicted to these little cross stitch kits.  I found many more on Amazon and Ebay, and have about 4 more waiting to be made.  There's another 4 on my wish list and watch list. . .   

At first, I was intimidated by the thought of doing the beading, but the directions are very clear and once I started stitching on the first bead, all fear went away. It really was easy (although it definitely requires me to wear my reading glasses while handling the beads!)

Knitting Update, October

 Whole lotta knitting happening lately.  Mostly because I've still been under restricted activities so that my knee can rest.  Ha.  I'm getting rather tired of going about 40-50% of my normal daily anything and not having my knee be all rested and better by now.  But, that's a subject for a different post.  This post is about knitting!

DD1's Christmas stocking (#2 of 3 for her family) is done!  Well, the knitting anyway.  It still needs embellishing with button and beads, but that won't take nearly as long as the knitting did.

Faline's Christmas stocking (#3 of 3) is about 1/4 completed. I'm through her name and ready to start the part with the wreaths and Christmas trees (one tree front, one tree back).  Should definitely be completed by the end of this month.

When I don't have the elbow room for a big basket with multiple colors of yarn feeding out of it into a Christmas stocking, I've worked on the Rubia socks for my Dad. I'm doing them in sort-of Detroit Lions colors; light gray and a royal blue and decided to do the leg and foot in gray with blue in the colorwork, heel, and toe.

In August I had gotten the colorwork on the leg done, but it seemed too tight for a man's leg, so I unknit it back to the cuff, went up to a size 2 needle, and began the colorwork again. Ahh, much better.  It looks huge and loose in the picture, but in person (in sock-son?) it is not gigantic and baggy.  I decided, for the sake of time, I wasn't going to learn the heel included in the pattern, and subbed in a regular ribbed heel flap (in blue).  Currently I'm about six rows into the gusset.  This morning I have to drive DH to and from a medical procedure, and should be able to complete the gusset and at least an inch or two of foot while waiting for him.  That's my plan, anyway.

Reading has been way less than in the previous update.  I gave up on Murder at the Cherry Festival, just couldn't get into it; the writing was a bit jumpy--like just not smooth or well edited--for me and it was interfering with my being able to concentrate on the story line.  So I gave myself permission to set it down and read something else.

Turned out I read three something elses instead:

Lost Hills by Lee Goldberg sucked me in and I read it quickly.  I'll definitely be looking for more in this series.

Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center was another just plain enjoyable book by this author.  I like that her books don't have flashy characters or ritzy settings. Rather, they are like ordinary people in real-life situations you might come across.

Piece by Piece by Laura Bradford, I found a little predictable, but not too bad.  I'm rather a harsh critic, but I might look for more by her.  Or not.  Depends on my reading mood, I guess.

Right now, I'm between books. I have several on request at the library, one of which came in today.