cough, cough, sleep, cough, cough, boring TV

It's been a boring week and a half. The title sums up my activities, and unfortunately the exhaustion that hit me took away any and all knitting interest I had early in the illness. I have very little to show for my time at home. Now it seems like such a waste of time, but at the time it seemed the only way to go. When picking up your needles and knitting a few stitches tires you out, there's no point in bothering.

I am healthier now, though, and back to work and back to knitting. I have been enjoying the sunny days. The knitting I did mange while I was home included several rounds on Rob's Riff sock (the second) and the mindless (almost) stockinette knitting on the Swirl sweater. I tried to work on Bob's texture sweater but I apparently lost the ability to count to 5 (the number of  stitches in each block) so I gave up. ; )

Spinning has not yet resumed.  I am still to fatigued to handle spindle spinning and my next effort on the wheel is plying. Given how much I dislike plying, I am not going to attempt that while not feeling great.

I am going to test knit a hat that Melanie designed - I like it because it is a bit different. I can't wait to buy the yarn for it - hopefully Thursday (if I make it that far this week) and Saturday is my fall back shopping date. I will also buy some superwash wool to make another neckwarmer for my brother. He never asks for anything but asked for this when we were up there 2 weeks ago. I have to find something nice and non-itchy, hopefully in blue or red, which are the NY Giants colors. These two projects will be my Iknitarod projects.

Yes, Iknitarod. It's a Ravelry group inspired to challenge themselves in some way as the mushers are doing in Alaska.  The mushing race starts in just a few days. I have always been interested in that race and thought this would be a good time to manage a short (about 2 weeks) challenge. The challenge is anything you want it to be. I have the website for the race bookmarked and I will knit along. Much fun, little stress, lots of inspiration to get going. Just what the doctor ordered.

bronchitis

Wow! I got so sick while up in NY. I thought it was a reaction to different pollen up there and the misty, rainy weather they had on Thursday that caused the coughing I had on Thursday and Friday. I was wrong. It's a good thing we left on Friday because I would not have been able to drive on Saturday (too sick) and I would have exposed Mom to my sickness for a longer time. I had a fever and very bad coughing yesterday. Today seems to be somewhat better though I have an entire pharmacy on my nightstand. : )

I want to thank you for your good wishes regarding my family.

I spoke with Mom and my brother yesterday and they are doing OK. Steven's throat is still sore from the scrapings but otherwise he feels fine. Mom hurts all over but was able to get by without pain medicine. She says she won't go out in public for several more days - she now has 2 black eyes in addition to the sutures on her lip and rug burns on her cheek. She is also discovering other places that she hurt when she fell.

It was a heck of a day

Bob and I drove up to NY to be with my brother. He was recently diagnosed with throat cancer, he had a PET scan on Monday and was having a procedure done to evaluate the extent of the cancer in his throat.  I went get Mom from the waiting room to spend time with my brother in the prep area. She walked about 30 feet, got dizzy and fell on her face. Literally - she didn't put her hands out to catch herself and fell face first! I spent the next 6 hours rotating between the ER where Mom was and the OR area where my brother was, taking turns with Bob. I did get to talk to my brother's doctor, thank goodness. The news is not good - stage IV cancer of the throat. He apparently has a "light load" of cells in the throat, which is a good thing, but there is lymph node involvment, which is bad. Chemo (if his body can handle it along with pancreatitis) and radiation therapy. It's gonna be a rough couple of months coming up.

Mom had a CT scan of her brain (she had a huge lump on her head and with her history .... lots of bruises and 5 stitches in her upper lip. This morning she looks worse - the eye under the lump is black and she hurts everywhere, which was what we all expected. Poor Mom. She doesn't take ibuprofen after her head bleed episodes, and Tylenol doesn't do much for that kind of hurt. Sigh.

We'll head home either later today or in the morning, depending on what Mom needs today. My brother is fine physically, and had some thinking and research to do before he starts his treatment. He is determined, though, to tough this out with a positive attitude and that's good.

I started a new cowl on the trip. I wanted something very simple to knit so I could knit and talk with Mom while waiting. I used some handspun yarn (yippee!) and cast on for the Elis. (sorry. I could only find a Ravelry link)  Just what the doctor ordered.

Big Blue did it!

The Giants won, and it was a great game. No blowout but a great battle between two good teams. Sigh. Football season is now over for this year and now I have to figure out what I will occupy my time with on Sunday afternoons, evenings and Monday nights.

The Swirl sweater grew by 1.5 welts last night.

That's all that's new. Have a good day

Superbowl Day

The Ravens aren't there but I'll cheer on the Giants. I was, after all, born in NY. Besides, the Pats bumped us out of the playoffs. Go Big Blue!


I spent a lot of time knitting yesterday. I dropped a metal shelf on my foot on Friday at work. It didn't hurt until several hours later, but when it did, it hurt a lot! So, I spent the day on the couch with my foot eleveated and knitted. I finished the first glove of the pair I am knitting with Carol, who gave me the yarn for Christmas.



 
 
I'll cast on the second glove in the next few days. First I want to finish up my mawata mittens. The one on the left is almost finsihed, then they both need thumbs.



 
Topiary is a very enjoyable knitting project. I have just started the 4th pattern repeat. They take a while, but it's fun knitting - lots going on but not so much that I feel like I am struggling to pay attention.
 

 
 
I bought a spindle. It's a kundert that someone in a Ravelry group was de-stashing. It's 1.5 ounces and spins forever! I am now a Kundert fan. Cherry wood, posed on my shetland roving that is one of the study group fibers for this month.

This is the status of my jeweled cowl. I had put it aside to work on other projects but have taken it out and it gains a couple of rows at a time.

Teeswater - my first sample skein. It's not as even as it could  be so I'll be working on that as I spin the rest of the locks (seen below)

Teeswater locks, washed and ready for combing.

This is Shetland raw fleece, received during a swap last year.

I flicked most of it and plan to spin it as is. I haven't even washed it. It's lamb shetland and feels soooo nice.

I took a small amount and combed it. If I have trouble spinning the flicked fiber, or don't like the result, I'll comb the rest.

The Swirl sweater will be growing tonight - it's a wonderful football game knit.

Go Big Blue