Stash Reducing

Finished the last of the doubled fine cotton warp tonight. I could have woven on this warp for a long time, partly because I still have so much more stash that would have been perfect as weft on it, partly because it was just so dern purty. :^) But all good things come to an end, and so has this warp as of 8:30 pm tonight. Hooray!

I'll get Karena to cut and serge the towels on Monday and then I can wet finish a batch of towels in preparation to hemming etc.

Since I brought a bunch of towels with me to LA/Tucson and managed to get them all hemmed while I was away, I'll probably do the same on the next trip. ;)

I didn't actually get very much done today as I spent a good chunk of the morning waiting around at the lab to get blood drawn, then a meeting in the afternoon sliced a good portion of the rest of the day away as well.

However, I did do an article for WeaveZine I promised, (if Syne likes it, it may appear this spring sometime - watch for changes in WeaveZine's format) prepared some handouts for the bobbin lace Show and Share scheduled for this Sunday and made the proto-type bracelet the students will make for themselves, and last but not least, pulled some more warp yarns for the Boise Magic in the Water part II workshop. All that's left for that is to wind a couple of warps, write the intro letter, make a list of the warps and the equipment required (table or floor loom, how many shafts, how many shuttles/bobbins), pack it all up and get the box into the mail on Monday. If you say it fast, it hardly sounds like anything at all. :}

While I was staying with one of my hostesses in Tucson, we had a talk about cholesterol and it turns out she can't take any of the Rx medications but she can take a dietary supplement called plant sterols and has been having good success with those along with a good diet and exercise. I did some research when I got home, found an interesting article published by what looked like a reputable medical journal and brought that in to the doctor with me yesterday.

He had been concerned because after I got home my bp had spiked again, but when I told him I'd used my ashtma puffer to try to control the inflammation in my lungs (due to a severe allergic response during my trip - the good news is that it worked - whew!) he told me that the blue asthma puffer will definitely spike bp so I'm going to stay on the same regimen that I've been on since Dec. 22 as that seems to be keeping things pretty much under control (except for those dratted allergy response spikes). :(

At any rate, I've also added a supplement with the plant sterols, so in addition to checking my liver (still tenderness under the right ribs, more annoying than anything else), he decided it would be a good idea to check my cholesterol level and monitor to see if the plant sterols help. My goal by using the plant sterols is to keep the Rx medications at as low a dose as possible.

I was a little bit leery when I found out the plant sterols are also called plant 'statins', given my body's response to Rx statins, but decided to try them and see if I can tolerate them. So far, so good, so we'll see how things continue.

The weather here has gotten cold again, so I am really looking forward to my trip in February to Birmingham, Tampa and Columbus, OH (although Columbus could also be cold.......) Can hardly believe that January is nearly over!

currently reading: Tony Broadbent - The Smoke