And there has been knitting

I cast on for the 28thirty on March 20. Finished the collar section over the weekend and much of the upper body on the 25th - the day of the surgery. I have separated the sleeves and am now heading down the body.



The Rowanspun Tweed is nice to knit with, and I hope it will get a little softer after wetblocking.

I decided to go for the small and it was a good thing I double checked the pattern. The smallest is an XS. I almost went down that road. It would definitely been too small. As it is, I think it will grow a little.

Anyone care to guess who might have been here?



Maybe one of these?



They've never bothered with yarn before, much less yarn inside sealed ziploc bags.

Must have been the cashmere/silk blend. Those were balls of Laines du Nord Cashsilk, and they didn't snag the yarn - amazing.

They (the yarn) have now been put in a safer spot.



Behind Bars.

Breathe

Easter had special meaning for us this year. We all got together to celebrate with my sister and her family on the eve of the surgery.

He went in Monday for placement of a shunt to relieve pressure on the brain.

The surgery was Tuesday and was successful. Now begins the long road to recovery. The surgery itself was 14 hours long, and included a "cardiac stand-still". He was responding appropriately to painful stimuli and will be weaned slowly from the anesthesia over a period of several days.

So far, so good. We feel that every day without incident is a giant step toward a good recovery. Brain aneurysms are very tricky things.

Curly Mo is Done!

I actually finished something!

Well, I do still have to sew in all the ends… but it's finished! And it fits! Yay!



Now I have to resist the urge to cast on for something new. I have so many other WIPs, I can't possibly be thinking of something new?! Can I?!

HA.

I woke up with a headache this morning. One of those, "my vision isn't quite right" headaches. I feel almost guilty for even having a headache, with all that my sister and her husband are going through. He is at home, waiting for his surgery, which will be done on the 25th. Perhaps I should cast on for something new. Mindless knitting will be done at length next week. We are expecting a 7-10 day period following the procedure where he will be heavily sedated and intubated while they monitor his brain for something called vasospasms. Spasms in the vascular system inside the brain. These can resemble stroke. Scary.

More later. Tomorrow is YPF. I have more yarn.

Wow.

I have been a little distracted lately. My last post was March 5.

That night my sister's husband went to the ER with a bad headache. They did a CT scan and gave him meds and sent him home. The next morning, they called him to come back in. They did MRIs and MRAs and admitted him to ICU.

He has a basilar tip aneurysm and will have to undergo brain surgery on the 25th of this month. The delay is to assemble the surgical team, a difficult one because they also plan to do a heart bypass to relieve pressure in the brain during the procedure. It has not burst, which is one good thing, but it has to be clipped with a titanium clamp by way of a craniotomy.

Unbelievable. Scary as hell. Sobering. I could go on…

My sister and her husband are both 45 years old, with three kids, house in the DC suburbs, a business, and a large extended local family, thank God. It will be a long road ahead even if the surgery goes without complications. I have done a LOT of research on Brain Aneurysms and Surgical Procedures in the last several days.

And I have done a LOT of knitting while sitting with my sister in various waiting rooms.

And in the car. Our son was home for Spring Break last week. Not great timing, but it was really good to spend time with him. We drove down to Richmond on Friday to see him run in an invitational track meet. He ran the 5000K. No records broken, but it was a decent run for him. Then we took him out for dinner. We went to Comfort. Incredible food, funky old city building. I highly recommend it if you're ever in Richmond, VA.



Did some thrift shopping in the past couple of weeks as well. I scored a huge bag of yarn for $4 at the Village Thrift that included 8 balls of red Lion Microspun, two balls of purple and one of lime. There were also 4 large skeins of red acrylic without labels. I need to find a home for those. And there were two skeins of a bulky spun wool yarn, varigated blues. I have no idea what they are. Both 45 gram skeins. Any ideas?



Then yesterday I found a really cool box-o-yarn. Circa 1979. Softball.



The idea was to turn the ball on its side inside the box and knit from the box, thus keeping your yarn "clean". Cool. Plus it's a pretty pink. Looks a lot like the unidentified cotton I got last year at the same Goodwill. But this stuff is a teeny bit heavier in weight and darker pink.

Prayers for J & J…

Happy knitting

My Space

Well, it IS his space. After all, I left a large soft thing on the floor…



I was re-blocking Juliette. The sleeve areas were a little on the tight side.
We'll see tomorrow.

I am well into the body section of Curly Mo. I'm at 12" and I need to go to 16" before I do any more decreases. At 17" I will add the 3 rows of ribbing and then it's collar and seams, baby!

I just couldn't resist posting the pic of Diesel. Couldn't make him move, either. He's such a sweetie!

Ok, So I missed YPFriday…

But I have a really really good excuse! I was buying yarn!!! Knit Happens is having a LEAP YEAR SALE!!! And boy, I did some damage! But if you look at what I SAVED…

I got sweater quantities of Debbie Bliss Astrakhan, Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk, Laines du Nord Cashsilk, Patagonia Nature Cotton and Angora Cotton. Then there are the skeins of Artyarns Ultramerino, Koigu Kersti, Manos, Alchemy Lone Star, Claudia Handpaint Fingering, Artyarns Regal Silk and a single skein of DB Soho. And 9 pattern books.













I saved $672.42!

I can't buy ANY MORE YARN! EVER!

Hah!

Aside from the yarn buying, we had a rather stressful week. Diesel was not acting himself over the weekend last weekend. Through Monday. He wouldn't move from his position in the chair in my office, where he lay upside down and scraggley looking. When we realized that he hadn't asked to go outside - or used the litterbox in two days, we got a little worried. We called the vet Monday evening and tried to get him in. They said they were backed up and could we bring him in Tuesday morning. Agreed. Then I get a call from the vet, who told me I should really get him to the emergency vet if he had not peed in two days. Again I agreed. Went to collect him and he was coming out of the litterbox! He peed! Another call to the vet, now closed, so I had to page the vet on call. She called back and agreed with me - to bring him in Tuesday morning again.

$385 later - his white cell count is slightly elevated, his bladder was large, but not blocked and liver enzymes a little high. All pointing to maybe a urinary tract infection - maybe. We all think he was injured Saturday night either being "rolled" by a car, or something that beat him up a little with no visible wounds and he was really sore for a few days.

He seems to be back to his old self now. Climbing in laps and beating up his stuffed toys at night.



Oh, and Curly Mo Light has a sleeve! And is growing a second one!