1. Woven Panel II, 2. Fetching I, 3. Fetching II, 4. Dashing, 5. Evangeline, 6. Millie’s Fetching, 7. Dashing for Reece, 8. Twisted Cable Rib, 9. match, 10. Fat Bottom #6, 11. Round dishcloth, 12. Swiffer, 13. 4 corners dishcloth, 14. 21 vs 16, 15. Rick’s Clogs, 16. Fat Bottom #7, 17. Amble, 18. mom amble, 19. allison’s blanket, 20. done and done, 21. Lichen Cowl, 22. Rick’s Raglan, 23. cheddar 2.2, 24. Candle Flame Shawl, 25. Simple Yet Effective Shawl, 26. Clapotis, 27. Clapotis #2, 28. Stocking #1, 29. Stocking #2, 30. Christmas Stocking #3, 31. Christmas Stocking #4, 32. scarf for Chloe, 33. Hat for Logan, 34. Hat for Katie, 35. Need for Tweed Dog Sweater, 36. Turn A Square for Rick

It’s been quite the year and the last month or two have been more than I could blog about to be sure. Rick had his surgery in October and just when he was beginning to see the benefits of CAPD at home, he slipped on rain-slick steps, fell and broke two ribs on December 10th. He is only just now beginning to not think “OW” with every motion and we’ve had some lovely blood pressure scares just for kicks as well.

My most wonderful and darling grandfather passed away on November 18th at the age of 90. Not a single day has gone by that I do not wish I could talk to him and tell him I love him. I was lucky enough to speak to him the evening he passed and did tell him then… I wish I could still tell him today. I know he knew that I love him. I just miss him. (See why I haven’t been blogging lately? Sometimes I think my brain was broken when he died.)

My grandmother is still with us and I do my best to call her in Michigan three or four times a week to help keep her from feeling so alone. It is really hard to be so far away.

The biggest bright spot in our lives since I wrote last is the addition of a four-legged trouble maker to our little family. I found (or was found by, most likely) a sweet dapple dachshund with no tags, collar or chip on December 5th. Rick named him Bosko after an early Loony Tunes character and the chocolate syrup. Because we’re just that cool. No signs have been posted, no ads published; we’re given over to this little doggy for better or worse. I think (though Lightning would NOT agree) that Bosko is the best thing to happen to us during a really difficult and sometimes painful few weeks in our lives.

How can you not love a little guy like that? We may never know how he ended up running up the street toward my car that evening but we sure are glad he chose me. I kind of needed the cuddles.

I’ve got some projects to blog about in the next few days that are pictured above but no real time this evening. I’ve also already started on what will be the first FO of 2009. I’m hoping to start writing more, both here and elsewhere. I miss it but have tended to run heavy on the emotion which drains me and everyone else. Twitter is great and I’m completely addicted and update fairly regularly but it isn’t the same. I will be back.

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42 years later, I’m finally back to write.

Rick’s surgery went very well, first and foremost. He had surgery for the placement of a peritoneal dialysis catheter on Oct. 23 and will start training class this coming Monday. He’ll be doing CCPD dialysis in our home, at night while he (hopefully) sleeps. I expect the first few weeks will be very rocky until we get used to the process, and indeed the last few weeks have been a whirlwind of doctor’s offices and hospitals and medications. Things are starting to smooth out and I hope and pray they will continue to do so.

In the meantime, I finished the second (of many to come) Clapotis last weekend. It took a whole week for me to find the time to finally blog about it. Poor thing.

My friend Katie is a willing model but not so willing to give back the shawl.

I’m bigger and older than she is, though. I win.

Plus, I share my meringues with her.

A little bribery will get all handknits returned and consolation handknits renewed love.

Clapotis #2
Bernat Satin Solids in Plum Mist Heather
Four skeins, size 9 needles

This one is for Rick’s niece, though she doesn’t know it yet. I still have to get it in the mail to her. Boxing it up would be a good start. I sense many more Clapotis in my future but am winding my way through Christmas knitting with football team colored stockings for my sister and her family. I never knit so fast in my life, lol!

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I missed you today. I thought of you while I was sitting in the waiting room at the hospital, waiting for nurses to be done poking and prodding Rick in preparation for his surgery on Thursday. I missed you so much. I know it’s partly because I’m sick. Stupid cold. Everybody feels lonely when they are sick. I just sat there with my arms crossed for that hour or so he was in the back, waiting, thinking of you and work craziness and life in general. About expensive orange juice and shoes. I missed you.

It’s the same hospital where Grandpa had his bypass surgery, you know. Was it a bypass? I can’t remember now. Five blocked arteries though, I do know that. And I sat there and thought about the last time I spent any amount of time in that hospital. You were there. You and Grandma and Dad, all four of us sitting silently in a row of chairs, waiting for news about Grandpa. I wondered how far I was from where we sat those few days; did we eat in the same cafeteria? Did we even eat? I remember the anxiety, the worry. I remember how people all around us carried on as if nothing was happening in operating rooms to their loved ones. We sat and thought and worried and tried not to worry Grandma any more than she already was worried. No conversations of any importance at all, just bad coffee in styrofoam cups and nervous smiles. The waiting room phone would ring and we would jump, anxious to hear if it was for us or someone else. I remember the waiting most of all. Long hours of quiet waiting.

But that was what, ten or eleven years ago? You’re in Michigan now, visiting Grandma and Grandpa and I miss you. I’d send this to your email but don’t want to freak you out while you’re so far away. I know the stress and sadness you’re dealing with now and I feel for you. I wish I could be there to help, not that I’d be much help at all. I’d hug you though, lots of hugs and make you coffee. Such silly words. I hope you’re able to have wonderful, perfect visits with your sisters. I hope everything is going well. I hope Dad is giving you all the hugs I wish I could give you and then even more from him. I hope you get irritated and grumpy from all the hugging, and then just know how much I love you. I hope you’re smiling.

So I’m posting this on my blog because I really REALLY want to tell you these things tonight but can’t. An open letter to my mother on my blog; I’ve never done that before. Maybe you’ll see it while you’re in Michigan, maybe you’ll want to show Laura or Linda my blog and what a shock you’ll get to read this. Hello and love to each of them if you do. Please know that I’m okay, really and truly. Just a little blue, more anxiety than I care to own up to about Rick’s surgery and flooded with so many memories. You know me very well and I AM OKAY. If you don’t see this until after you get back home, well, tell me I’m a dope and to get over the drama. By then, for sure, I will have.

I missed you today and wanted to tell you.

I love you.

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Clapotis. I already cast on the second. I am a serial multiple knitter. I cannot be stopped or dissuaded. Just let me knit in peace.

Yarn: KnitPicks Imagination in Damsel, 3 skeins
Needles: KnitPicks Options, size 8
Pattern: Duh. I did 16 repeats of the straight section, give or take one or two. I may have lost count. It’s plenty big and I wanted the recipient to be able to wrap up in it.

The yarn is really nice. Incredibly soft and the drape is unbelievable. I was able to stay warm while knitting it, spread out across my lap. Always a plus in my book. (Makes me miss crocheting afghans but I do not have the time. Seriously.) The only possible drawback to this yarn in this pattern each line of dropped stitches. The yarn is just a teensy bit wispy, and all those lovely soft wisps lock together and keep those ladders from running like they should. I usually had to help each dropped stitch along, all the way down the length of the shawl. I’m not complaining, just passing along the information. I would absolutely knit another Clap in this yarn, except my next two (ahem) are already planned.

I cast on the second Clapotis yesterday in Bernat Satin, sort of a prayer shawl for a family member soon to undergo cancer treatments.

The third, eventually, will be for me. Unless I gift it out to someone (as I usually do). Melissa convinced me to use JoJoLand Rhythm for that one. It didn’t take much of a push to be honest. ;o)

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It’s windy this morning, not bad but a strong breeze blowing through the trees. Just enough that every five or six minutes an acorn hits the roof. BALAP!! - bap! - bap! - tap - tap - tap - rolllllllllllll off the slanted roof and to the ground. Or BANG again when it hits the back deck, or even worse, one of the cars in the driveway.

I like acorns.

Just not when they hurl themselves onto our roof when we’re trying to sleep. It’s hard enough to come by sleep these days as it is, just ask my poor sweetheart. His blood is overloaded with toxins his failing kidneys can’t remove and darned if he sleeps well, if at all, at night. (He will be starting dialysis in the next month or so.) Last thing either one of us needs is acorns blasting their way across our roof.

*sigh*

I’m thinking about getting a circus tent to put up over the house, that would solve the acorn problem sufficiently.

Except all the neighbors would be coming by looking for clowns and wanting to ride the elephants. I’m not sharing any of my popcorn with them so they’d best not ask. I don’t know how to make cotton candy, either.

I think this is a no-win situation if ever there was one.

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I may have already caught the bug and have barely knit enough to think myself susceptible.

I cast on my first (heh) clapotis last night. Having resisted for nearly four years, now I can see at least one more in my future before I even get past the increase section. A lot of it has to do with my yarn selection - KP Imagination in Damsel. I am in love with how incredibly soft this yarn feels.

Here’s hoping this will be a fast knit. I’ve got lots of other things to get through in the next few months. Shocker, I know. ;o)

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My Candle Flame Shawl.

I couldn’t be happier to have this finished. Poor neglected thing.

I just read through my earlier posts on this shawl and feel even more sad that I left it set for such a long time. I had such optimism for it at one time. Now I’m just glad to have it finished.

Although, I have to admit that when I tried it on I suddenly want to go to the semi-formal Christmas party the office is having this year (semi-formal? me? Ha!). Dress and all. So I must like it more than it seems right now. I’m taking it to work for show and tell tomorrow to further cement the feeling of ‘I like this’ and to help get over the fact that it took me two years and three months to finish it.

That being said, if any coworker wants one, I’m totally telling them it took two years to make so back off! LOL

Pattern: Candle Flame Shawl
Yarn: Knit Picks Shadow in Sunset Heather
Needles: Size 3 KP Options
Size: 80 inches x 20 inches

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So my dear friend Katie is bound and determined to be THE cat lady of the office. I always thought that would be me but I have to admit she wins the prize. It’s a miracle I even have an intact esophagus, she was so happy when she saw her birthday present yesterday. Such hugs that girl gives!

I knew for ages she’d love a little amigurumi cat. I’d been showing her pictures of various ones on Ravelry and etsy, just to gauge her desire for all things feline. She said she was really very surprised when she opened her gift yesterday, thinking I was too busy to make her one.

Cheddar 2.0 because her cat at home is named Cheddar. It’s appropriate.

Pattern: Chaos A. Cat from Cute Little Animals
Yarn: Bamboospun from Hobby Lobby and a little RH SS in aran for whiskers
Hook: size G
Felt for eyes; I cheated horribly and used a little glue. I was in the midst of sweater knitting and tried, honest, to hand stitch on the eyes. It was way more fiddly than I had the patience for at the time. I used a little spray stiffener on the whiskers to keep them out as whiskers should be.

I would absolutely make another pattern from this booklet. There’s a cute dog and elephant. I wish there was a frog but with a little looking I’m sure to find one. Lots of fun all around in both the making and the giving.

One more repeat on the shawl, if you’re wondering, and then the edging and cast off. I’m almost there. It’s a wonderful feeling!

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I’m bound and determined to finish this shawl this time. The Rav project page says I started this in June 2006. That’s sad.

It is maybe 62″ long now and the pattern suggests I knit to a length of 70″. I was optimistic delusional last week when talking to my mother; I said I only had four or five inches to go. I think I even emailed someone that from here. SO optimistic. So blind. I have had waves of boredom and complete blahness over this during the past week so for a couple of days I only knit two or three rows. Shame on me. I have done much better this weekend though still far less than I’m capable of when I’m in love with a project.

It doesn’t help that I can’t conceive of wearing it, along the lines of ‘where’ and ‘how’. I guess as a scarf but that will be determined by final measurements once it’s blocked. Without blocking wires. Bah.

That being said, I will knit and knit and knit as much as I can (stand) each evening this week. On Thursday I will start the final garter stitch edging, 18 rows of garter stitch. It will be cast off this weekend no matter what.

I love it when I boss myself around.

If only I’d listen to myself I’d be in much better shape with this project.

I’d be done.

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And he likes it, too. 76°F outside and he’s still wearing his brand new wool sweater in the house. With his fingerless gloves. A girl can’t ask for much more than that.

Pattern: Men’s Top Down Cardigan
Yarn: Wool of the Andes in Pidgeon Twist (12 skeins)
Zipper: It’s black, best I could do in this area. Maybe someday I’ll find a gray or purple (gasp) longer one and swap it out.
Needles: Size 6 and 9 KP Options

I would absolutely knit this again though probably not for Rick. Even with my massive frog session this was a super easy pattern to follow. Any mistakes were mine and let’s face it, miles of stockinette is pretty relaxing knitting. But I’d rather tackle a different pattern for him next time, maybe after the first of the year. I have a couple sweaters in mind for me (ever so optimistic) and a little bit of Christmas knitting to look forward to very soon. I do have a notion to knit this sweater again, maybe for his dad or my grandfather… my own father wouldn’t wear a sweater (I feel confident this is so, because he lives in Florida and it doesn’t get cold there - or so he claims) unless forced.

Hopefully I’ll be blogging more often again. The sweater consumed all my thoughts and it seemed to take so long that even I couldn’t fathom endless ‘added another two inches’ posts every other day or so. I didn’t realize it had been so long but at least it’s finally finished.

I’ve started working on an old lace project (2 points if you know which one) again and hope to be able to call it finished by next weekend. We’ll see. I also made my first amigurumi anything but as it is to be gifted to a possible reader, mum’s the word on that for now. Very cute though and super fast to work up. I like fast!!

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