Another Year has Passed! Not possible!

Where does Time go? Another year has passed and another birthday come and gone. Being born on the Fourth of July has advantages...and disadvantages. First, no one forgets your birthday! And on the other hand...no one forgets your birthday! And for some reason, they want to add up the years and remind me of fleeting time. Good grief, I have to hang around long enough to knit up my stash, OK?

Back to the Fourth, I always think of my poor mother having her very overdue first baby on Independence Day, July in a hot climate in a hospital with no air conditioning. Most miserable I am sure. As children, of course those of us born to firecrackers are told all the foll-de-roll is just for us. And I do have great fondness for and fascination with those pyrotechnic displays. Living in Europe for many years, my birthday wasn't "special" in the sense of a holiday. Usually we were already in Monte Carlo for the summer so every day was vacation in good European custom. Someone always gave a dinner outdoors near the sea. We could watch the fireworks competition over the harbor. It was quite different from sweltering in the Texas heat where even tissue thin clothing is too much. Yes, I had a HOT outdoor dinner in my honor this year before going for the fireworks display.

My mailbox was overstuffed with birthday goodies. I will stick to reporting only the knitterly ones. Dear thoughtful Proseknitic sent Socks 2 at a Time (which I have been meaning to tackle) and a positively charming little book, The Radiation Sonnets (a loving and humorous look at a cancer patient's ordeal), which I read each night before falling asleep. CelticMemory Jo sent a huge skein of undyed "Stinky" (silk & cashmere???) which is named for its pungent fragrance when damp. Mmmmm, perhaps you shouldn't wear it for walks in the rain? This woman knows how to make me smile. Gorgeous lovely stuff, it arrived with its own delightful clear plastic project bag bearing an impressionistic Parthenon on the front, booty from a recent trip to Greece.

My dear "old" friend Kay from New Orleans (now Vermont) sent a dreamy skein of QUIVIUT, hand dyed by Mountain Colors!!! Delicious stuff. Kay wanted something special and hunted this down. A Knitspot "little nothing" scarf should be perfect for this treasure. And it will be so much fun to go around saying quiviut, quiviut, quiviut...don't you think?

And this lovely wonderful exciting skein is from Micki's wheel. I'm sure you could hear me squealing for miles when she gave me this. How sentimental to knit with yarn a friend (and a very talented friend at that) has spun with her own little hands. I've had so many ideas for this. It's just too special for socks so I'm sifting through ideas for shawls or scarves. As the knitters know, this plotting and planning is a huge part of the pleasure of the craft.Second son David presented me with an elegant project bag and a sweater's worth of gift certificate from Yarns Ewenique. When I expressed pleasure with his choice of shop, he was quite surprised as he thought I didn't know about it. Now stop laughing. Tried to explain to him that there wasn't a LYS in a hundred mile radius that I (or any knitter worth their needles) didn't know and that his inheritence was going to be yarn so he had better learn to knit or marry someone who does.

OK, just one non-knitterly gift will show up here, and this because the picture is just so gorgeous I can't resist. My Hungarian Ex and his current wife Betsy sent the most beautiful bouquet of roses. Can't you just smell them?

Many, many thanks to all my dear friends who went out of their way to make me feel special knowing how difficult this year has been. I love and treasure all of you. I owe so many proper hand written thank you notes and just don't seem to get there these days. Please forgive me, I shall return to normal soon.

And now for the obligatory knitting content after all that yarn pron, here is the front and back of The Blues. This has been frogged and tinked as much as it was knit for one reason or another, usually having fallen asleep on it mid row and doing very creative knitting when I came to consciousness again. It is finally to the point of joining the shoulders, basting the sides, and trying on, hopefully to find a perfect fit. The pattern called for knitting everything in pieces then joining. But I like to use a 3 needle bind-off on the shoulders for neatness and stability. Then I think I will just pick up stitches around the armholes and knit the sleeves down instead of cuff up. For now this will not be a mindless project and it will become bulky and cumbersome, so I shall have to find something else (a new project?) that is simple enough to take on clinic days for the long waits.

Steven ended up back in the ICU for eight days with a couple of infections. He got out of the hospital again last week and came here since Lisa had surgery on Thursday. He did well for three days, then had a 48 hour stretch of non-stop puking over the week-end. I thought I would have to take him back to the clinic a day early on Monday, but finally the meds kicked in and he was able to eat and keep fluids and pills down, so we waited until today's appointment. It was a tough call to make. He goes from OK to very sick so fast. The good news is that no leukemia has shown up yet in his labs. He is still not producing red blood or platelets, very slow on that and they aren't sure why. Nothing transfusions can't fix for the meanwhile. No leukemic cells...Life is good!

All the News That's Fit to Print, and Then Some

Where have I been the last month you might ask. On an emotional roller coaster would be the answer.

First the good news. Steven received an amazingly good report on his first bone marrow biopsy. Donor system 100% of marrow and they don't see any leukemia cells for now. His doctor said it is a miracle. He has put on some few pounds and gone out in public. After seven and a half months in the hospital, a trip to Sam's Club is totally exciting. He is still dealing with extreme fatigue, tremors and unbelievably bad mouth and throat ulcers, but that is a small price for what he has been through.

And yes, I am still knitting, sort of. It is more knit one row, tink half a row for the moment, when I can keep my eyes open long enough to do so. I started a Manos pattern, The Blues, in their Stria cotton. It is a lacy wide cropped top which I am hopeful can be worn in Texas in some season. Here is the pattern:

And here is the back:

And here is a close-up of the lace:

And here is what a skein of Stria looks like when you break it at each knot and hand wind it. Six knots in one 116 yard skein is bloody annoying. Look at that little piece that is not much more than a yard long. Working in all those ends on a lace pattern will not be what I would call amusing. These darn knots, which they cut very short, are the main reason for all the tinking I've done while knitting this.

The Manos pattern is cryptically written. A newbie knitter would be very frustrated. I seriously scratched my head at one point, but after knitting and frogging a couple of times, I came up with a solution. Unfortunately at my current slow pace, a sweater which should take only a couple of weeks has required almost a month just for the back. Oh well. I've got to pick up some speed if I'm ever going to use up my stash.

What I am really being tempted to do at the moment is make jewelry. Some of you may not know, but I have a background in precious jewelry design in France and Italy. Of course at the moment I'm dreaming more of stringing seeds and glass rather than setting rubies and diamonds. I could make a hundred parures in the time it takes me to knit a sweater, or a pair of socks for that matter. Think I might set aside the knitting for a week-end and see what happens. Of course, I should also be painting the entry hall and the guest bathroom and the cabinetry that was eaten by the Irish Wolfhound Katrina refugee. Though putting my office back in shape should be the priority at the moment. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

The Leukemia Society is collecting donations today. I should have taken a photo of the piles of bags on my front porch waiting for pick-up. All I can say is I wish I had managed at least twice as many.

Now for the sad news. This week I lost my adored cat Tujagues. He was an Exotic (short-haired Persian) only barely four years old and totally healthy. My friend Doreen, an emergency room doctor, had just come in the house. Tujagues came up to be petted, then walked away a few feet and had a seizure of some sort and was gone instantly. Thank goodness Doreen was with me and she really took care of me as I was simply in shock. And thank goodness we had just gotten the good news about Steven. I wanted to mention this here because of how important Tujagues was in keeping my spirits up these last difficult months. He could put a smile on my face no matter what was going on. Here is the little guy's baby picture and yes, he had attitude with a capital A.

Jo called him the Beautiful Bowl Cat. His absolute favorite place was in this Mexican bowl. He was a splendid little representive of his species. It is way too quiet around here without him.

There is still a report to be given on WWKIPDay, but that shall come next time.

Transplant Day!!!!!!!

It's Transplant Day! My son is receiving his bone marrow transplant today, which is exhilarating and terrifying. I couldn't sleep. I won't go into details here, but it is all on Steve's Blog.

Knitting has been sporadic lately. Basically I fall asleep on the first row I try to knit. I've even bungled Clapotis, which is very, very hard to do.

I did finish another chemo cap, in a cheerier color of dark red Rowan's Calmer this time. Shedir again, but with a cuff which Steven likes. He's still bald as a billiard, and perhaps this will comfort him through the fevers.

And then there is the anticipation of the next pattern in Sock Madness II. My cousin MtMom has designed one of these last two patterns. Is this THE ONE? We'll know shortly. I just checked her blog and this one is hers. Way to go, Cousin!

RAVELRAISERS...You give, you take! RAVATARS!

This is my second post of the day, so to find out what's going on in my normal (?) knitting life, scroll on down to the next one. These photos are gifts to generous RavelRaisers!

Here are some Ravatars which are yours for the taking. All photos were taken by me of my possessions, and you have my permission to use them for your Ravatars. Some are already photoshopped. Others are photos which you may grab and edit for your pleasure. You can take them to ROFLBOT to add text.

Artist's works photographed are by Elizabeth Taggart, Jana Napoli (parrot) and Martin Laborde.

Please enjoy them and thanks for your donations to Ravelry!

Here be Zombies

Finally I was able to take photos of the Zombie Socks! It is a bit sad that Sock Madness closed the first division early because I actually would have finished them in time and perhaps gone through to Round 2, but I'll get over it. Since I like my socks longer and my feet are hardly petite, I am already at a speed knitting disadvantage. Friends made me promise to continue knitting along, but I can do it without pressure while also altering my socks to fit. Not so bad. I've found both patterns that were released so far to be quite attractive, so complements to both the organizers and the designers.

Drumroll.........Here be Zombies!!!!

To better see the color and stitch design, we have this photo:
One of my sons gave me the most lovely Christmas present, a rare orchid every month for a year. This last one looks very Zombie-esque, don't you think?
One of my fiber friends is headed to the island of Crete. It made me think that 35 years ago on a trip to the Greek Isles, I had bought several lovely carved pieces of spinning/weaving tools on the island of Santorini. Amazingly enough, I knew just where one was, living in my umbrella stand, most logically. I took photos of this delightful distaff. Those of you who know how many marriages, relationships, transcontinental moves, thefts, etc. that have occurred over these years must share my astonishment that I still possess this little bit of history. The other spinning utensils and old textiles and rugs have disappeared, sadly but not surprisingly.
This piece is about 3 feet long, and a close-up of the head will show you the lovely carving, almost Celtic in feeling. Oh yes, it was pouring rain when I took the photos. There is a wooden hook on the back of the head to hold the fiber for spinning.
Fun news of the day for fellow fiber fanatics, Ravelry is in the black! Some devoted Ravelers decided to launch a little fundraising drawing for some pretty incredible prizes (like each prize is an entire stash of yarn or fiber or whatever) and they very quickly raised $30,000 and the total is still rising. Jess and Casey were able to pay off their initial investment and buy a new server. They have put together such a wonderful concept, I hope they will also be able to pay their new employee and perhaps buy some new shoes and premium kibble for Bob! It reminded me that I had been meaning to donate again. And once you donate, you can give yourself a cool new Ravatar. I went into ROFLBOT and created these:

All of these were done using paintings of my friend, the Irish painter Elizabeth Taggart. And just for good measure, I made one for Celtic Memory using the most spectacular photo taken by Richard, the bird lover. Perhaps she will make her own, but I couldn't resist.

Now isn't making yourself a cool new Ravatar a good reason to make a donation?

*PLEASE RAVELRAISERS...These are not mine to give away. I have used these copyrighted photos with permission for the blog. But, I PROMISE I will make more for you and post them tonight!*

Feeling a bit better. I was laid low for 48 hours due to either food poisoning or some nasty hospital acquired bug. It hit from one minute to the next while I was at the hospital with my son, who is toughing it out through the latest round of chemo, pretty miserable. I wasn't sure I could make it home, but have survived and things are looking up. I missed knitting night so you know it was pretty bad.

Knitting is sporadical. I tried to work on the second sock of a Christmas pair for a cherished friend. The complex pattern quickly fried my limited brain function these days. I'm so ADD it has ceased to be funny. After botching a repeat, I tucked the sock away for a calmer day and pulled out an old friend, which I re-discovered in a knitting bag that had gotten squashed behind a larger project bag. My Clapotis, my very first one, knitted in Lavold's Silky Tweed. I was thrilled to find it (out of sight, out of mind) as it is just the perfect level of mindlessness for my current situation. Quickly memorized, possible to stop in the middle of a row, just what I needed. Already thinking about making another one in Wollmeise.

It has been quite difficult to finish this post. There is an unbelievable storm going on. The electricity has cut out umpteen times. Just as I save and prepare to shut down the computer, the electricity comes back again so I've managed to finish more or less. I just peaked out into the back garden which is littered with large branches and some broken pots. Think I'll go look out front now. Ooops, there went the electricity again. Fun times.

This and That

Not much posting lately. Just checking in to assure you I'm still alive and kicking. The flowers are blooming, actually, they were blooming 3 days ago and now the heat has withered them. They were beautiful and such a lovely color of yellow/chartreuse with the orange stamens.

The gardener finally arrived today and there are 28 huge bags of leaves and debris sitting on the curb to be hauled off.

Finished my Zombies for Sock Madness 2, unfortunately too late to qualify. But very close. Photos coming. Watching everyone starting Round 2, which they sent a day early...April Fools! That caused quite a stir. Lots of moaning about the 72 stitch cast on. Jo's having a real problem. I've worked socks successfully from 60 to 86 stitches, but perhaps it is my tight knitting.A bit of new Wollmeise laceweight arrived. That's Brombeere, Pfaunage and Spice Market. One is for a gift and there are projects for the other two, to be revealed. Just looking at these beautiful yarns is therapy. Now...serious yarn diet. Serious, serious, serious!
Know what these are? They are the little sample skeins of worsted that the Wollmeise tucks into her shipments. Now those who know me know blues don't work into my color schemes, so...if anyone has some sample skeins in not blues they would like to trade, just let me know. I have an idea how to use them.

Go over to Bea's blog and wish her Happy Birthday. Then take a crack at her fun contest. It has to do with the English bulldogs Abby and Gus and involves a bit of dog psychology. Prizes include her really beautiful yarn. And please mention I sent you, which will give me an extra entry. It's all in the rules.

Now, anyone know WendyKnits middle name?????