Menopause, hot flashes, lack of sleep and knitting

Ah yes, menopause. It is hitting me in waves lately. Heat waves, as it were. Working the graveyard shift, I get to lay down at about 9am. That's after the boys are fed and on their ways to DHS. I sleep for about 2 - 2 1/2 hours and wake up drenched in sweat, heat radiating from my core. Hubby, sweet thing that he is, suggests that I take a cool shower or dip in the pool. Surely that would cool you down. I snarled, no it won't work. You should try; my fangs bared, I growl, "no, trust me, it's from the inside. standing in the pool will NOT work." Then one night, the dear man reached over and felt my hot, sweat soaked skin. (No, not amorously; rather to see what all the ruckous was about with the hot flash). "OMG!" he exclaimed; you feel like a furnace. "Yeah, I TOLD you so......" Never was a dip in the cool refreshing pool brought up.
Anyway, yesterday was a day when the hot flash racked my body, sitting me straight up in bed at 11:30 am; I had fallen asleep around 9am. Hubby snuck out the door to work his noon to 9p shift.....personally, I think he slunk away a little early, just to escape the snarling and growling from my lack of sleep.
Unable to sleep, I decided to surf the net in search of learning to knit info. I have been an avid crocheter since I was 8 years old (thanks, Grandma Till!!), but knitting has always eluded me. I don't have the patience to watch someone and do what they do. We usually both end up frustrated and I give up. Reading the directions is like me trying to read Greek....uh, yeah, I don't get it from a 2-D picture. I have a couple of really cool EASY knitting patterns I want to make. So, I stumbled to You-tube. There are instructional videos to teach you almost anything you want to learn. I found the basic knit and purl stitches, plus the cable cast on required for the first attempt; The Garter Ridge T-Top from e-patterns central. I made my test swatch, no holes and no problem. Didn't even rip it out, as the son expected me to do. Like I usually do when I don't like the way something turns out. I proudly bound off and showed my little 2 x 2 inch creation to my boys. "That's nice, Mom." I am very happy that I was able to learn this! Can't you show a little more enthusiasm at my accomplishment? Uh, nope!@
So then I progressed to the 89 stitch cable cast on. Almost gave it up, as it took me 2 1/2 hours to get it right......10 stitches was a breeze! I perservered, frogged, tried again and again. Finally, all 89 little buggers were on the needle. Garter stitch for 10 rows. Easy, peasy. Then came the purl stitch. I forgot. Oh no, what will I do? Lion Brand has lovely photos and diagrams to jog the memory. Ah yes, there it is!!! Not as difficult as you were trying to make it.......DUH moment set in.
I am well on my way to the front of the sweater. I am still very excited that there are NO HOLES! Keeping my fingers crossed that my luck holds...So, if it were not for the hot flashes and onset of menopause, I would not be unable to sleep and needing something new to attempt, in order to stay awake until said hot flash passes. Perhaps I will be able to de-stash a bit with this new little twist in my life. Guess we'll find out soon enough!!!!

More FO's!!!!

Yea! I finished the Hearts and Gingham Nap sack I started in April 2008. The great nephew that it was originally for is wayy to big for it, so I had to make it for a friend at work. She was due Oct.22. but had a beautiful little boy on Sept 30. If the kid had been on time, I would have been done in time!
This was fun to make, but I hated putting it together. The string took about 2 hours to weave around the outside. Hope Johanna and the little guy like it!