Greetings and Dear Laura:
First of all, let me say how much I love your sweater!! I'm impressed with the results of your focus, and hope to turn that into inspiration for my own UFO's.
The theme for the weekend was "emergency room" and having said that, I will assure you that the biggest scariest things were eliminated pretty quickly, for which we are very thankful.
Friday night, my brother called to let me know that my niece Amanda, who is 24, was on her way to the hospital via ambulance with symptoms which could be a stroke. (You don't normally think stroke for a healthy young woman, but several years ago, one of my cousins had a stroke within a few weeks after her baby was born and we found out that is somewhat of a risk group. My cousin got immediate help and after months of treatment and rehab made a full recovery.) Amanda's doctor quickly eliminated stroke - she was having a seizure. They gave her medication which reduced and then stopped the involuntary movements and relieved her headache. By 2 am, we knew that a CT scan was clear and they would do further tests in the morning. Her husband stayed with her at the hospital, and my brother and sil came back and took over with the kids. (Amanda has 3 little girls; 4 1/2, 2 and 6 months.) Saturday's MRI was also clear. Today they got the results from the EEG, and the doctor says that they didn't find any tumor or damage from a stroke. They will still run some more metabolic tests, but they have ruled out the scary stuff.
Saturday afternoon I got a call from a friend. She was having symptoms that you should not ignore and asked if I could watch their children while her husband took her to the emergency room. I was happy to do so, and again they were able to quickly eliminate the scary diagnosis and start her on medication. She was home again in about 4 hours, and by Sunday morning was much improved.
The only issue to deal with on Sunday was my flat tire. Since it had the courtesy to happen in my garage, so that I didn't have to deal with it in cold, rain, traffic, etc, I had no complaints. In fact, my father has a "spare car" in the upstairs garage, so I didn't have to mess with the spare or anything. I drove his car today, I have the tire in the trunk and will have it fixed after work and be back on the road. Doesn't even count as a crisis, after having the previous two days to put it into context.
However, over the weekend, I had to think of the quote from Elizabeth Zimmerman which is the title of this post more than once. I had the comfort of faith and prayer for my heart, but my hands still needed something! As I headed to the hospital Saturday to see if they needed anyone to bring food or run errands, I packed knitting. I remembered my father's heart surgery, and spending several days in the hospital waiting room. I finished my WIP's the first day, except for a project that was too complicated for my state of mind. Not wanting to repeat that, I knew I didn't want to work on my two-at-a-time socks on size 0 needles! I remembered a sock project that I started last fall - basic socks on size 3 dpns, and so I packed that. Knitting at Lunch gave me an emergency sock bag for Christmas, but I hadn't filled it yet, so in went the sock project! I also grabbed a ball of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino and the appropriate needles and packed that in another project bag. I can cast on 100 stitches and make a cabled-baby hat from memory. So, now I am prepared for knitting emergencies!
Last week, I grabbed a ball of Puffin by Crystal Palace that I had on hand. (Yes, I'm avoiding the socks on size 0! I love small, but it IS slow going and sometimes I want fast!) The Puffin is super chunky, so fast is the word. Knitting at Lunch found a pattern for a Bunny Blanket Buddy and we each cast on and finished one last week. I did another one yesterday while I was curled up in my chair, decompressing. The pattern called for the head to be reverse-stockinette double-knitting, but I changed it to stockinette. I also went with little ears instead of bunny ears. The blue one is a bear - I think the pink one looks more like a cat, but Knitting at Lunch thinks fox. I'll give it to a child and let them decide!!
So - keep knitting!
Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter)
First of all, let me say how much I love your sweater!! I'm impressed with the results of your focus, and hope to turn that into inspiration for my own UFO's.
The theme for the weekend was "emergency room" and having said that, I will assure you that the biggest scariest things were eliminated pretty quickly, for which we are very thankful.
Friday night, my brother called to let me know that my niece Amanda, who is 24, was on her way to the hospital via ambulance with symptoms which could be a stroke. (You don't normally think stroke for a healthy young woman, but several years ago, one of my cousins had a stroke within a few weeks after her baby was born and we found out that is somewhat of a risk group. My cousin got immediate help and after months of treatment and rehab made a full recovery.) Amanda's doctor quickly eliminated stroke - she was having a seizure. They gave her medication which reduced and then stopped the involuntary movements and relieved her headache. By 2 am, we knew that a CT scan was clear and they would do further tests in the morning. Her husband stayed with her at the hospital, and my brother and sil came back and took over with the kids. (Amanda has 3 little girls; 4 1/2, 2 and 6 months.) Saturday's MRI was also clear. Today they got the results from the EEG, and the doctor says that they didn't find any tumor or damage from a stroke. They will still run some more metabolic tests, but they have ruled out the scary stuff.
Saturday afternoon I got a call from a friend. She was having symptoms that you should not ignore and asked if I could watch their children while her husband took her to the emergency room. I was happy to do so, and again they were able to quickly eliminate the scary diagnosis and start her on medication. She was home again in about 4 hours, and by Sunday morning was much improved.
The only issue to deal with on Sunday was my flat tire. Since it had the courtesy to happen in my garage, so that I didn't have to deal with it in cold, rain, traffic, etc, I had no complaints. In fact, my father has a "spare car" in the upstairs garage, so I didn't have to mess with the spare or anything. I drove his car today, I have the tire in the trunk and will have it fixed after work and be back on the road. Doesn't even count as a crisis, after having the previous two days to put it into context.
However, over the weekend, I had to think of the quote from Elizabeth Zimmerman which is the title of this post more than once. I had the comfort of faith and prayer for my heart, but my hands still needed something! As I headed to the hospital Saturday to see if they needed anyone to bring food or run errands, I packed knitting. I remembered my father's heart surgery, and spending several days in the hospital waiting room. I finished my WIP's the first day, except for a project that was too complicated for my state of mind. Not wanting to repeat that, I knew I didn't want to work on my two-at-a-time socks on size 0 needles! I remembered a sock project that I started last fall - basic socks on size 3 dpns, and so I packed that. Knitting at Lunch gave me an emergency sock bag for Christmas, but I hadn't filled it yet, so in went the sock project! I also grabbed a ball of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino and the appropriate needles and packed that in another project bag. I can cast on 100 stitches and make a cabled-baby hat from memory. So, now I am prepared for knitting emergencies!
Last week, I grabbed a ball of Puffin by Crystal Palace that I had on hand. (Yes, I'm avoiding the socks on size 0! I love small, but it IS slow going and sometimes I want fast!) The Puffin is super chunky, so fast is the word. Knitting at Lunch found a pattern for a Bunny Blanket Buddy and we each cast on and finished one last week. I did another one yesterday while I was curled up in my chair, decompressing. The pattern called for the head to be reverse-stockinette double-knitting, but I changed it to stockinette. I also went with little ears instead of bunny ears. The blue one is a bear - I think the pink one looks more like a cat, but Knitting at Lunch thinks fox. I'll give it to a child and let them decide!!
So - keep knitting!
Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter)
3 comments:
Again, I will say I am glad you got to use the "emergency" knitting bag... but I hope in the future you don't have to use it often! Glad everyone is safe & recovering.
I bring along mindless knitting for those long distracted waits too. I love the emergency knitting kit!
I love the emergency knitting bag. Yarn Harlot was just here in MN, and in her presentation she mentioned an article on repetitive movement and trauma prevention, with a line that said something like "well, since you can't be expected to carry around emergency knitting..." and the audience roared, of course. Where can I get one of these bags?
Glad you family/friends are ok.
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