bec. knits’s

After having a nice dinner with my in-laws who were visiting, J and I hit the LYS to return some needles (only the new ones were not in yet) and make a donation to the roof sit fund raiser that was going on. Knitters were gathering in their jammies. Spinners were spinning and oh how I wanted to join them, but I needed to get home to finish some last minute things before J and I leave on our big adventure. I did manage to spend a little bit o cash though. Really I did not mean to, but my friend found out she is having a baby girl and her shower is in July. So currently I am working on three projects.

• Lily of the Valley Shawl that was supposed to accompany me on the trip. Oh well. It is just beautiful, but not finished. And I have a little mistake that needs to be fixed.
• A pair of socks that will be part of my photos along the trip. You'll see.
• It's a Girl so that mean Helena! Right Holly Bee? Yes, I love this sweet sweater that much and yes, I am that lazy that I don't want to learn a new pattern.
  

Both of my children have had experience knitting. J has said she has no desire to make anything. She tried once, but did not enjoy it. She picked out a hat pattern for me to make. J looked at the yarn and then I had her feel it. She met alpaca. Mmmm. Love. I could hear her talk about knitting. Then she asked me if I was showing her all of this to get her interested in knitting. No that was not my plan, but if she is so inclined to do so, so be it. We will see.

The big adventure starts tomorrow. My next post will be in July with many, many pictures.

This will not be done in time for me to take on my trip but that is ok. I was jamming along even to the point where I took it along in the car. Then something happened and now it is tink time (knit backwards.)

Since I had this gift certificate to use at the yarn store, I decided to knit myself a shawl. I bought myself some beautiful yarn. Well they call it yarn but it may be left over fiber optic material or angel hair. The netting is holding the yarn together otherwise it will just slip into a clump.

Oooooo. Fun. This is the pattern I chose:

Lily of V

When I picked my name here at Vox, I was already keeping a blog on another site. Vox was new and somehow I got in at Beta and thought it might be a place where I could keep track of my knitting. My knitting is just ok, so sometimes I felt like people might expect more of my knitting that what it really is. My knitting is simple stuff. Then I left my other blog site and it now is my life blog. The thought has occured to change the blog's name, but it is what it is. Today I had a fun thing happen because of my knitting.

I have been lucky enough to find a couple of groups of knitters to hang out with during the week. When I am not subbing, which is often these days, I like to meet up and knit. On Thursday's a group of knitters meets at our local knitting store. To me honest, I have been feeling bummed out about my work situation. Thing 2's school has pink slipped at least 5 teachers. There are some openings in other districts but there are so many of us out there in that pool. I am nervous about my upcoming sub job. Blah, blah, blah. So, today I was content to sit around the house being blue. A friend called me to see if I was going to the yarn store and she ended up talking me into joining her. Getting out was really what I needed. Plus I had some stuff for her and I wanted to show her my vest that I finished that was too big for me. My plan was to rip it out. Now before you freak, this yarn was expensive, for me. What is expensive? $13.50 a skein. I had bought 7 or 8. This vest took 5. It is an Alpaca yarn and just wonderful to work with. Plus I wanted to make something for myself. I could have given it away, Mary's birthday is coming up but she is tiny. No, ripping it out was my best option.

At the yarn shop Julie had me show it to the store owner, Kelly. Kelly slipped it on. It looked good on her. Really good. Somehow we struck up a deal. She ended up giving me yarn to replace the yarn I used in the vest and she said she would give me a gift certificate for my time. She gave me $100! I am floored.

Isn't she cute. It still needs to be blocked and the ends cleaned up, but you get the idea. The new yarn I picked out is not the same color, but I will use the same pattern with a few modifications to that it is not so big on me.  Boy am I happy that Julie called me!

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What three things do you regret not learning to do?

1. I regret that I cannot speak Spanish. It was my Mom's first language.
2. I wish I had better eating and exercise habits instilled in my life at a younger age so maybe I would not have to try so darn hard right now.
3. A backhand spring.

Number one and two are doable, number three could kill me.

Yes, knitting keeps me sane. Well, I like to think it does. Being at the hospital with Mom gave me some knitting time. First I finished Ang's Smashing Scarf.

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I like this picture, but you can see how uneven my stitches are.(Yes you can.)

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Another perk to knitting socks on circs is that you can try them on a lot easier than with double points.

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Oh look there is my tat. Speaking of which. I kept her hidden during my interview today. What is nice is that by hiding her, it keeps me from fidgeting. I just sneak her gracefully behind my right foot. Only today as I was leaving, wearing an eye-catching shoe, she may have been spied by the principal. Oh well. I had all ready rocked the interview.

I should know by the end of this week if I got this long term subbing gig. The socks could be done by then.

My initial thought for a title was something to do with a whirlwind. That seemed to overstate things. A vortex though seemed more appropriate. Maybe they are the same thing, but I picture a progression of intensity in a vortex. At first, I think there is just riding along on the edge. You know you will get sucked in sometime, but depending on the conditions you just go with the flow for a bit. Maybe it is a density issue. Maybe a more dense particle will get swept in sooner. Right now, I am on the edge of this vortex figuring out how to navigate the current, but I can see a little bit ahead of me and I see there is no way to get away from what lies before me.

Mom is not having surgery. They think there was only one small stone that passed and when it did it irritated the pancreas. Her levels are now decreasing. However, a bigger problem has come to light: Alzheimer's. Oh she has been forgetful for a bit now. And I still have to tell you about when she accused me of stealing. This morning she called her sister-in-law to come and get her because she was checking out of the hospital! Why didn't she call Daddy? Also, she thought she had left the hospital. She called him last night and told him that she was going back to the hospital. He was wondering where she had been (he knew she did not really leave.)

While we were waiting for the doctor to discharge her she and Daddy and I talked a bit about it. I tend not to hold back. I told her that she needs somebody with her at all of her appointments. Then I told them that I think she should not drive. Both of them balked at this. When the doctor came in, he gave me the low down on what was going on. I brought up her memory. He said we are looking at Alzheimer's. He has her on some medication for it. I asked him his opinion on her driving. He agreed with me. Mom and Dad's argument is that she does not drive far. Holy crap! What if she forgets to turn and ends up in Chicago? It could happen. I called my brother who live with them, Ric, and gave him the information. Then I told him that if either of them says anything different than what I said, they are lying. OK maybe lying is harsh, denying. Either way, she should not drive.

Right now I don't have a plan. I think I need to find a support group or just begin reading and getting more information. I told Alan that we may need to make a room downstairs for us so if Mom needs to stay with us (not permanently) she can sleep in our room and we can sleep in the basement.

I don't think Dramamine is going to alleviate my motion sickness during my ride in the vortex. Actually, I am allergic to it. Guess I am just going to have to learn to use the technique of spotting. That looks hard on the neck, but I will try. 

Mom's room was full of friends when J and I went to see her last night. It was nice to visit with everybody. One of my mom's friends is Bev. Bev is 73 years old. She was talking about pitching for her softball team. Her coach keeps wondering if his 73 year old pitcher is going to make it another season. She does. What is amazing is that she showed us a picture of her team. All of her teammates look to be in their TWENTY'S! She told us about how she had bypass surgery and then went Christmas shopping 3 days after getting home. Bev is on my hero list.

Back to Momma. She is having gallbladder surgery. It sounds like a gallstone got lodged in the duct of the pancreas and caused it to become inflamed. I still have not seen anything about some of her other symptoms, but I am just going with it as I am not a doctor. One thing that is frustrating is the fact that she has a difficult time remembering things. Her friends seemed concerned too but made excuses. Not in a defensive way. They just saw it differently than I did. J seemed to be more understanding too. I however know that her older brother has advanced demensia and recently Mom accused me of stealing something from my brother. It really is a funny story. I will tell it someday.

My mom asked a nurse to take notes for her. Mom realizes that she cannot remember everything. That is normal. I remember when Alan was first diagnosed, or getting diagnosed, I had his Mom come in (She worked for the doctor who was treating him so she was all ready in the office. That too is another story.) Milly, mil, helped me by remembering things I could not because I was overwhelmed with information and had questions that I had not thought of. I had questions for Mom's nurse but she had left. However, I did ask if her new nurse would please write things down for her. I was-a butt kissing, but it was true; I realize that he is busy and has other patients but I would truly appreciate it if he could do this for my mom. Somebody is writing thank you notes to nurses who took care of her momma.

I am not sure when she is having surgery. She is not sure when she is having surgery. I will take a note book up to the hospital and have them use it so we have the notes in one place.

I took the book At Home in Mitford to her. She has read it before but she said she cannot remember well so it will be like reading it for the first time. Hahaha. She laughs at her memory too. Mitford changed my life. The book was given to me as a gift one Christmas. When I was stressed I would go back to Mitford. I got other people to read the book about a tender priest named Father Tim. However it was not the pages and the story that changed me. Mitford brought me two of my dearest friends. We were separated by land and an ocean and found each other in a tiny ficticious town in North Carolina. Hopefully it will offer Mom a little escape and maybe a little familiarity, a feeling of home.