Fighting Depression

Although knitting has been my salvation as my husband and I go through the ups and down of his illness, his emotional reserves are beginning to wear thin. With three hospitalizations since February and the interruptions these events have caused in postponing some of his chemo treatments, there hasn’t been the expected remission. Doctors are considering a different kind of chemo. W’s battles fatigue daily and he is starting to have pain in his legs when standing, which leads him to be even more sedentary and weak.

The other day I mentioned that there is a wool festival in Oregon called Black Sheep Gathering in June and asked if he wanted to go. He said yes! That very night he wanted to go for a walk to build up his strength to attend the festival. We have one full month to work on planning it. My boss has approved some time off for me so we can attend. We are both excited to be going. Of course, I am hoping his new chemo won’t interfere with this weekend trip. We are praying we can work around it and have plans in place so we can go.

On the knitting sphere, I finished the baby sweater to go with the socks I made with Bernat “Sox” yarn. It was a simple dropped sleeve stockinette cardigan with a shawl collar. I am blocking it so I can put it together. I love the color. I am hoping it can be worn by a boy or girl.

Having made this sweater, I am getting an itch to start another sweater. I have always admired Elizabeth Zimmerman’s patterns. I would like to try the Yoke Sweater from the Knitting Workshop. It looks simple enough. The problem is finding the perfect yarn that will not break the bank. I bought some Caron pound yarn to explore using it for a sweater, but I think this yarn is more appropriate for a blanket than a sweater. I am also considering using the skeins of Cascade Ecological Wool I have. I have some time to explore options of colors for the yoke as the body and sleeves are knitted up first. By the time I finish with these parts, I will have picked a pattern or chart for the yoke and either found some colored yarn in my stash or dyed it to the colors I want.

Warmer weather also leads to thoughts of spinning and cleaning fiber. I started to sort though my fiber stash today and have carded some batts of Coopworth for spinning. After all, if we go to Black Sheep Gathering, I would like to purchase a fleece if I find a good one at a reasonable price. I am going to try to spin a worsted weight yarn. I am trying to choose a color to dye it. Perhaps I will spin it with a ply of alpaca so it would be softer. I also received my order of Mill end rovings from Sheep Shed. I've been spinning up a lovely blue roving into a dk to worsted wt yarn. It is really lovely. So many choices and there is so little time.