Saturday, May 16, 2009

A scarf for Zee, back story, beads

Hi,
My friend Zee was in the hospital, so I knit her a silly lime green scarf in an easy lace stitch.  Hope it cheers her up.

Here's the free pattern.

Easy lacy scarf
Cast on an even number of stitches and knit 1 row.  (I used 22)
Row 1: K2, *K2tog, YO. Repeat from * to last 2 stitches,  K2. Don't forget the last YO before the final K2.
Repeat Row 1 to desired length.  If you work loosely, it will go faster.
Knit 1 row and bind off in knit.

Then I made a couple more since they are fun to make, like potato chips, you can't make just one.  Here's a picture of one of them, a skinny one made with 12 stitches. 



Can you see the pink miniature roses blooming behind?  They are just starting this year.
I strung a necklace to wear on the cruise this afternoon.







I had a massage the other day and my massage therapist, Wendy, was talking about my back issues.  I told her this story.

Around 2000 there was a weekend Buddhist study conference in the San Francisco Bay area.  Dan and I signed up and bought our airline tickets using some coupons we got when an earlier flight messed up.  The week before the trip, I hurt my back by reaching deep into the bottom shelf of the refrigerator to pull out a big bowl of homemade ravioli for a party.  As I dropped the ravioli into boiling water to finish them, my back was popping and extreeeemely painful.  I went to the Chiro twice before the trip and he did his best, but my back was really messed up.  I was walking so funny everyone was asking me what happened.  I got tired of the ravioli story, so I started telling them it was the work of my new 26 year old Brazilian lover.  Ha!

We packed for the trip and were waiting for the taxi to take us to the airport when I figured out I had forgotten to cook the salmon I bought for dinner the night before.  So, I quickly seared the salmon on the grill pan and put it into buns with lettuce and tartar sauce.  I zippy bagged them, dropped them into my carry on and dashed out to catch the cab. 

The bay area was fogged in and our flight was delayed.  I knitted and did not mind the wait, as we would not be late for the conference.  We were traveling the day before to allow us time to enjoy the trip.   We ate the salmon for lunch and everyone asked us where to get one like it.  Better than airport food.   We finally were put on a flight to LA, with the idea we would transfer to a flight to Oakland from LA.  Sorry, homemade.  But SAn Francisco was still fogged in.  A couple flights were going thru to Oakland and the airlines offered me a bunch of freeebie coupons if I would give up my seat for some folks who just had to be there today.  Ok, we're in no hurry.  After an hour they did the same with the next flight, more coupons.   Dinner time came and the airline sent us to Wolfgang Puck's on their dime.  We eventually got to Oakland later that evening, on time for our conference the next day.

Meanwhile, my back is still out.  It was difficult attending the conference and sitting on the hard chairs for an hour at a time.  So another attendee, a Chinese lady named Ellen, asked me if she could help.  She did some kind of body work for a living, I did not recognize the name of the practice.  She asked me to lie down on the carpeted floor of the lobby.  I feared the hotel would object, but she said we would be done before they noticed.  She chanted Nam Myoho Renge Kyo three times in unison with me to get us synched up.  Then she walked around me looking intently.  From time to time she would stop and poke my shoulder, or hip, or back.  Not a big movement like a chiro adjustment, just a nudge.  Then she said I could get up.  I was astounded.  My back was fine.  I enjoyed the rest of the conference.  I asked her for her card, since I wanted to see her again.  It would be worth the flight.  She refused.  She said if she gave me her card, I would be her client and she would have to charge me.  Since this was a freeebie she could not give me her card.  She had some strange logic.  She had a big problem with spiders in her house.  She was constantly being bit by spiders, but she would not spray.  She had decided they were her reincarnated ancestors who had done such bad things they had to come back as spiders, so she could not kill them.  This is not standard Buddhist doctrine.  Her Buddhist leaders tried to convince her to do something about them, but she was adamant.

When I got back to San Diego, I kept my Monday appointment with my chiro and he was amazed.  My back was perfect.   He wanted her card so he could fly to Oakland and take a master class from her.  He was astounded that she had refused to give it to me.  A couple of years later I heard from a mutual friend that she had died of cancer.  I will always remember her body work. 

Good night,
Julie

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