This is my desk

Today I felt like posting a picture of my desk.  What does your desk look like?

Feel free to steal this image and pass it on!

<– See that?  I got it from AutumnLeaves.  Thank you, Sherry!  I’m honoured that you thought of me (in the interests of full disclosure, I should mention here that Sherry and I have the same hair, but other than that, we are unrelated).

This award has a couple of rules: Tell the world seven things about myself, and pass the award on to seven other bloggers.

So, here we go with seven things about me:

1.  I like Ontario winters and by the time February comes around, I’m as tired of hearing people complain about the weather as they are of the snow.

2.  I once had more than a dozen cats (not all housecats, but they all looked to me for feeding and vet care, and yes, I had them all spayed or neutered).

3.  I almost never remember my dreams.

4.  I own ten pair of shoes and one pair of slippers.

5.  I love to watch and listen to the wind move over a field of tall grass.

6.  I think I finally know, now that I’m 52, what I want to do when I grow up, and it is the same thing I wanted when I was a child, but it got lost somewhere in the intervening years.

7.  I am almost incapable of following recipes without changing something.

Now, to pass this award along.  In no particular order, seven blogs I find interesting, inspiring and/or just plain fun to read:

1. MAOMA3 – Elizabeth is not just Oma to three grandkids, she keeps a watercolour journal with such cheery paintings, I can’t help but smile when I go to her blog (and she does watercolour, which I think is very brave!).

2. Jean Levert Hood – I love the passion and gutsy brushstrokes in her paintings, and she has just the most adorable ducklings that deserve an award all by themselves….

3. A Day Not Wasted – Lee’s blog is about pursuing one’s passions, and I find his positive attitude inspiring (he paints well, too, lol).

4. Life at the Stone Jug – Jami hasn’t updated her blog lately, but I enjoy her creative photographs and fibre art and writing, and I hope this award prods her into writing again.

5. Chris Knits in Niagara – Chris writes and shares marvellous knitting patterns — thank you, Chris!  Having written a few of my own, I’m wowed by her creativity and productivity.

6. Crafty Gardener knits, quilts, gardens, cooks, crochets, etc., etc., etc. — is that creative, or what?

7. Color Sweet Tooth — Even Steve’s luggage is an artistic marvel!  His buddy Grenouille has a certain Gallic charm, and finds himself in some odd places….

Thanks again, Sherry.  I’m eager to see your self-portrait, now that I know about the hair!

Amelia has that top fashion model aloofness down pat

I finished the hat for Elisabeth (made out of that yummy llama/bamboo yarn I mentioned a post or two back) last night, and this morning convinced Amelia to model it out on the back deck in the fall sunshine.  I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out, and if I can scam obtain some more of this yarn from Elisabeth, I’ll try it with a few different cable patterns.

Autumnleaves has bestowed a blog award upon me, which is so sweet of her!  I will write more about that in my next post, after I’ve had time to take care of the responsibilities that come along with this award.  This afternoon I’ll be outside working in the glorious sun, dealing with a different sort of autumn leaves, and contemplating the seven things about me that I have to share with you in my next post….

A shot to show Elisabeth's lovely garden

My friend Elisabeth raises llamas and alpacas and has their fibre processed into yummy knitting yarns.  She invited me out to play with a new llama/bamboo blend — how could I say no?

I’ve been trying out some bamboo/sheep yarns for socks and shawls and thought that an alpaca or llama blend would be a wonderful thing — all the luxury of the camelid fibre, and the silky sheen of the bamboo….  Elisabeth agreed and had an 80/20 llama/bamboo yarn made up, which we spent yesterday dyeing (the natural colour of the yarn, a light fawn, is great, too!).

Elisabeth has a commission for some navy blue yarn, so we made that, and then moved on to turkey red, and a multi-coloured red/purple/blue that she’ll be making into the Newfoundland mittens and mitten kits she sells.  I’m looking forward to seeing a finished pair of those mittens in this bamboo blend, hint hint Elisabeth.  We finished the day with a pot of green and I brought home a skein of that to make into a hat.

Still a bit damp, but soon to be a hat

Here’s a closeup of the yarn — it’s a lovely tweedy green with lots of shine from the bamboo (which doesn’t show up in the dim light I took this shot in, unfortunately).   As soon as it’s dry, I’m going to wind it into a ball and start working on that hat, which I’m already designing in my head.

At the end of the day, six skeins of laceweight alpaca in natural browns and fawn found their way into my bag — have I mentioned that Elisabeth is a really, really *good* friend? 

Ouch

Put my fingers into the business end of a stick-blender while it was running, that is.  Sigh.  I am ever so grateful that the emergency room folks kept their comments to themselves and just patched me up and sent me on my way.  Dressing comes off tomorrow, and stitches come out in a week.  Except  for a missing bit on the side of my index finger, I’ll be good as new.

Now, time to repair to the chaise longue with a box of bonbons and a good book, to be waited on hand and foot by hunky slave-boys while I recuperate over the next week.  Oh, wait a minute, that’s someone else’s life….  I guess I’ll just go to the video store to return some over-due DVDs, instead.

All of you knitters out there are probably wondering what my “hospital knitting” is!  I am working on the “Juliet Scarf” by Louise Harding.  (I’m doing it without the rosette, which just isn’t my style.)  It’s straightforward, fairly easy lace which I can do while still having a conversation, which is important, and it’s looking lovely.  I’m doing it in yarn I got from my friend Moira (she of Moira’s Scarf), a marvellous, whisper-soft blend of angora from her own rabbits and merino, in a silvery grey.  Beautiful, beautiful stuff.  Right now it’s looking like Frank will be out of hospital before I finish it, which is fine with me….

An evil, evil breakfast

Well, it’s been a riotous couple of days….  On Wednesday night, Frank had another attack of abdominal pain and fever (a couple of weeks ago, we’d attributed it to the flu).  Thursday morning I took him to his doctor, who said “run, don’t walk” to the hospital.  So, off to the emergency ward we went.  It was so packed in there, it was difficult to find a chair (and they have a biiiig waiting room with lots of chairs).  Anyway, a letter from his doctor apparently greased the wheels, and after about four hours he went into observation and was looked at by a variety of medical personnel.  They started him on a saline drip and gave him some tylenol.  Eventually, he went for a CAT scan.  Turned out to be pancreatitis, which can be pretty nasty.  There are three common reasons for pancreatitis — excessive alcohol use (he doesn’t drink), gall stones (he didn’t have those), and high cholesterol (he had that).  He was admitted to the ICU (about eight or nine hours after we’d first arrived).

It was kind of hard to see him in pain, and so weak and uncomfortable from the fever, but it was good to know, finally, what was really going on.  We were informed that his blood cholesterol (or lipids, or something — it was a bit too much for me to take in all at one time, so I don’t remember exactly) was 3,000 — the normal level is *3*.  Well.  Talk about discouraging!  And frightening!  I had to leave him there in the ICU at 9:00pm, all full of IVs and looking pretty miserable.  I didn’t have a good night’s sleep, and reading up on pancreatitis wasn’t that reassuring, either, since his case was quite bad….

This morning I went back to the hospital, and he looked much better, although still very weak and in some pain.  A doctor came in and informed us that the cholesterol level was a mistake — his level is actually 30, not 3,000.  Ok.  That sounds much more in the realm of “we can deal with this”.  Still high, certainly, but not astronomically so.

So…. Today he’s full of more IV lines than ever, and they did an arterial tap by his collarbone so they can continue taking blood for regular testing — any large blood vessels in his arms and hands had retreated in protest over the repeated jabbing, and who can blame them?  Anyway, the news is quite hopeful.  It doesn’t look like surgery will be required, and given a few more days in the ICU for observation (and testing), he’ll be able to transfer to a regular ward on Sunday or Monday.  He’ll likely also be able to start eating again then (if you can call a liquid diet eating).

And, speaking of eating, he’ll be going on a cholesterol-lowering regime, which will rule out the type of food in the photo above.  Not so bad.  He can still eat sushi. 

I’m sitting here at my desk with the window open to the amazingly raucous sounds of the frogs out there (I’d complain to the neighbours if their stereo were making that much noise!), and I’m missing having him here with me.  But he’s getting excellent care, and everyone’s optimistic about the prognosis, and he’ll be back home soon.  I don’t like seeing him so weak and tired and uncomfortable (and so attached to beeping and bonging machines), but I am so relieved….

"Four Trees" -- this one is in

“Four Trees” is a painting I finished this morning, inspired by the stormy skies we’ve been having the last couple of days. I know that objects “should” be grouped in odd numbers, but I wanted to try an even numbered group, just because.  It’s my painting and I can do what I want.  Phhht.

“Red Yellow Blue” is a picture I did a while ago, but just recently sold (thank you, Jason T!), so it will shortly be out of the house.  I always like to think of my paintings being out in the world, brightening someone else’s space.

For everyone who’s waiting for the Aquitaine sock pattern — I will work on it this afternoon (I’ve been busy with lots of non-knitting things lately, that’s my excuse for not having it done yet!) and should have it finished except for the photos, which are waiting on Frank, the house photographer, who has been downed by a nasty flu or something (no, we haven’t been to Mexico lately) and is draped over the sofa mostly sleeping and occasionally moaning a little.    However, this is day three of the illness, so he should be perking up soon, right?  After all, my model socks are waiting, eyeing me expectantly from beside the phone….

"Red Yellow Blue" -- this one is going out

Happy mother’s day to Mom, and Nellie, and all the other moms out there!

The inspiration

On a blog somewhere (sorry, I don’t remember where exactly), I saw an “inspiration spot” and I liked the concept so much I stole thought I’d try it.

My inspiration was the top photo of an approaching storm.  I love those greys against that blue.  What developed from that inspiration was a skein of lace weight yarn (lower photo).  Not surprisingly, I’ve named the colourway “Storm Clouds”.

What inspired you to create something this week?

The creation