Catching Up, Yet Again!

Wow, where did 2 weeks go? It's been an up and down time Chez CBM. Read oh, 8 books, knitted madly, made some deadlines and missed a few others. Ya know, the usual. STILL haven't tackled the problems with my email - now I can't get to my Yahoo groups, so I guess I better get serious about fixing this.

Onward to the knitting and other news:

I finished the vest I was making for Afghans for Afghans and sent it off on Wednesday, along with a nearly-matching hat and a pair of socks. Then yesterday I found where I'd put the other 2 pairs of socks. OK, part of the next A4A campaign is already pre-knitted. I used the vest pattern linked from the A4A website, and I don't recommend it. It's a nice idea, starting at the center front and knitting vertically all around, with just the shoulders to seam. But the increases and decreases which form the V-neck are done too fast, and that makes for curling. I put several rows of garter stitch around, which covered a lot of sins and ends, though I should have decreased more around the armscyes. This was made with leftovers of WoolEase, Nashua Creative Focus Worsted, Cascade 220 and Patons Classic Wool - the back is solid dark green.



I started and finished a Comfort Shawl for my dear friend Fran, who had her second surgery last week, relating to colon cancer they found last spring. Her doctors dragged their feet for approximately forever about doing the second surgery, which they insisted she had to have. First she was too dehydrated and run down from the chemo - well, duh!! She's 82, fergossakes! Then they couldn't get her heart rate stabilized. Twice. The last time, she was *in* pre-op when the Chief of Surgery at the local hospital decided it was too risky to be done in his hospital. After more dithering between her oncologist and her cardiologist, Fran forced their hand and made her own appointment at one of the best cancer centers in the area, where the surgery had been approved. Way to go, my spunky friend!!

When I talked to her niece yesterday, Fran was still in ICU and giving the nurses occasional fits, but the reports from the surgeons said they'd found no recurrence. Happy Dancing!! Hallelujahs!! Through all of this, Fran has kept up her snappy comebacks and saucy attitude, even though she's become very frail and pretty thin in the hair department. When her niece said they'd found no new lesions, I felt like a knot came undone inside me, one I didn't realize was there.

I'd hoped to have the shawl done for her before she went into surgery, but I'll take it over as soon as they move her to a regular post-surgery room. I made the shawl from some Schoeller + Stahl Hobby yarn, an easy-care wool blend I had in stash (thanks for the reminder, MT!!)


While I was blocking it, I re-blocked my Sun Ray shawl, which was a tad too small at 56in by 33in.

This time I got another 10in across, which makes it 66in by 33in, a good proportion and a better fit.





I also blocked a Sun Ray shawl that was knitted by Gaye, one of the most talented knitters in my seniors' group, using some donated alpaca. I blocked it severely, and the alpaca blocked out farther than the wool in my shawl, plus she had more yardage; the finished shawl is 8ft by 4ft, and it's as light and airy as can be. Gaye looks smashing in it, but the shawl will be for sale at our Holiday Boutique.


While Gaye was modeling her shawl, the rest of our seniors' group was sorting our yarn into bags by color. We have to do this periodically, and it's a big project. Here's a view of *part* of the 'leventy-hundred skeins of acrylic yarns we have in our stash.


And I close with yet another picture of the inventive efforts of our resident squirrels to drag an old rug off to make nests; this morning we discovered it wrapped around the legs of our patio table and strung clear up to one of the hanging pots under our lime tree. I'd toss the rug in the trash where it belongs, but we're enjoying the fun.