Who Knew?

Who knew the reason why after almost dying from heart arrythmias, drug interactions and miscommunication among doctors, W would live to see another few months painfree, regaining weight and having the best health in months?

Who knew that all our financial obligations and health care costs would be taken care of so easily without much stress or trouble when W. was diagnosed with cancer?

Who knew that we would be blessed with supportive friends and family who would continue to give us the courage to hang in there, with their love surrounding us?

Who knew that W.’s health would improve so dramatically as to make him a good candidate for a stem cell transplant in four weeks?

God knew!!


God knew that when his attending cardiologist had given up on him, and asked if we considered hospice for his cancer, that W. would live to prove his assumptions wrong. God was not finished with him yet.

God knew that when I was called to the hospital at 3am because W. had been having seizures for over an hour that I would again see him alive and breathing.

God knew that when W. took so long to wake up from his sedation, hearing my prayers to be able to speak with him again, I would be able to carry a conversation with him without any loss of cognition or his wonderful sense of humor.

God knew when I needed to be home with him, driving him to doctor appointments, handling the little ups and downs of his blood levels, his heart issues and very complicated medication needs, my work would generously allow me a family leave to help him recover.

God knew when I asked and trusted him to provide for all our bills, he knew our insurance would be there for us and that there would be few problems among the complicated maze of co-payments and provider reimbursements. God knew that the expensive chemotherapies would be covered. God knew that our application for disability would be accepted with lightening speed allowing up to keep up with health insurance and car payments without my income to help.

God knew that our family and friends would care and be there for us when we needed emotional support. God knew he would give me an extra measure of calmness of spirit and courage to do what needed to be done.

God knew that when we were disappointed that his living siblings were not good matches to donate some bone marrow stem cells to give him the best chance of long remission, two cord blood donors would be found in the world to give him that chance.

God knew that while we had no idea of when a stem cell transplant would be scheduled, we would be notified that he would have one in FOUR WEEKS.

God knows how we love him for loving us, and that no matter what happens, life or death, he has our humble gratitude and adoration for being so good to us and giving us a future.

Are we there yet? …….No!

I am feeling quite blessed that W. is doing so well. His flaky skin has cleared. It looks soft and smooth as a baby’s skin. A sure fire confirmation that something is going well is that he is growing hair on his body again. W. is looking very human again.

He is getting stronger and able to do more activity, but must still watch himself. He wants so much to resume all of his pre-cancer activities, he forgets that he is not completely whole, yet. His independence has allowed me to go to work for a few hours, however, I have a new worry to think about, W’s stubborness. The other day, we talked about putting together a corner desk our son has abandoned in the garage in pieces, as he moved to his new home. This would make an excellent workspace for W. to start to do things he used to enjoy like model building. He purchased a Skill level 2 model of a Clipper Ship that he spied at a hobby shop. He was anxious to get started. He is moving around better but his strength and stability are not 100%. I cautioned him not to move the heavy desktop part without help. It had taken the two of us, my son and I, to move it to the garage and weighed at least 40+ lbs.

One day, as I left him to attend a work meeting for a few hours, he decided he couldn’t wait any longer. He moved the small pieces of the desk into the house. Mr. Genius thought if he could put the heavy desk top on a rolling dolly, he could roll it into the house. Well, he thought wrong and has lived to regret it. The desk top slipped, sliding down his shins and scrapped them up. By the time I drove up, saw the dolly and the desktop moved from its place, I was horrified to think what had happened. As a rushed in, he was calmly sitting on the recliner with his legs up, looking as calm as could be. He was sitting as proud as a peacock of taking care of his leg wounds all by himself, which extended on both legs from his knees to his ankles. I wanted to wring his neck! I couldn’t help but smile at his resourcefulness, but also was disappointed to have a long ordeal of healing his open wounds without getting an infection, which could be potentially devastating.

It didn’t stop there. He wants to drive again. He wants his independence back. I guess I should be grateful he is wanting to be more independent, but this can be dangerous. The other day, I was baking cookies for a Dr. Seuss event at my preschool. The oven was on, cookies were baking, my arms up to my elbows were covered in flour and sugar sprinkles. Suddenly, W. announced that he wanted to drive to Home Depot to get some screws for his desk. Over the past few weeks, he has started carrying his car keys in his pocket. The light in my head started to go on. I am realizing that the desktop fell on the wrong part of him. If it had dropped on his head, perhaps it would have knocked some sense in him.

I asked if he could wait until I finished my cookies baking. He could not. My whole being was panicked. We were unsure W’s legs were strong enough to brake. He had been exercising his legs and they were stronger but I wanted to make sure I was with him if his strength suddenly failed, at least on the first time. Well, as I was trying to convince him to wait, lo and behold, his guardian angel brought our son walking through the door just then, and I asked him to go with him just in case he needed rescuing. As W. got into the driver’s seat, God made it clear to him he was not ready as he tried to step on the brake pedal to start the Prius. He couldn’t lift his leg high enough to do this simple move. Thank God for small interventions. Lord, help me to prevent him from killing himself……or I may kill him first! ;)

Ravelympics/Olympics Come to an End

The Olympic torch has gone out. The Olympics have ended. Let us shed a tear of sadness as it disappears into the sunset.

I enjoyed watching the Olympics this year. My favorites were everyone else’s favorites…the Snowboarding, the figure skating, the skiing, and the short track events. Every American seemed to behave with respect and decorum, even when they were disappointed not to get the Gold or be disqualified. Our athletes behaved very well and I hope gave the world a demonstration of the goodness Americans are all about. I am very proud to be an American.

I participated in my own Ravelympics and won a Ravelympic medal for finishing my Red Splendid Shawl. It came out beautifully. I finished one day before the closing ceremonies.

I’ve been itching to start the Waves of Leaves shawl with my newly redyed wool yarn. This is going to be a challenge for me as lace knitting takes so much concentration. I have already ripped out rows about 5 times to figure out and correct a mistake. Yet, I am determined not to give up. Once the pattern is established, I will find my mistakes sooner and be able to correct them without too much trouble. Perhaps I should think about using “lifelines” on this one. I heard on a podcast about someone who used Knit picks needles to make a lace project. She threaded dental floss into the small holes of the Knit picks needles that were interchangable, knitting as she went and…..Voila! Instant lifeline! What a great idea. I will have to try it.

Hit between the Eyes

Just when things are looking great, there is always something that hits you between the eyes and upsets the delicate balance of life.

My husband was making wonderful progress since coming home from a month long hospital stay in January to address some heart problems. Every day he seemed to be making progress. He was eating well, his diabetes practically disappeared, not needing any medication for it. His heart had been doing well with perfect blood pressure and good rhythm. He was gaining some weight back and his atrophied muscles were getting stronger, allowing him to graduate from a walker to a cane to aid him in his balance. Even his skin was looking wonderful, in response to a new chemotherapy treatment he had been receiving. We were talking about my returning to work part-time and perhaps venturing out to take some day trips around Southern California, which is now so green and beautiful, in response to the recent rains.

Then all of a sudden he woke up with a fast irregular heart beat called Atrial Fibrillation, which seemed to upset everything. Over the weekend the doctors and I attempted to adjust his medications to get everything back in balance. After a very long weekend and a big sigh of relief, I think we did it! However, it reminded me what a very fragile condition W. is in and how I should not take anything for granted.

You may have heard of the term “fragile diabetic”, which is a person with newly diagnosed diabetes, whose blood glucose goes up and down needing constant adjustment in medication. Our visiting nurse called W. a “fragile patient”, meaning that with so many conditions that needs to be monitored, any one of them can throw his body out of balance. I am thinking that God made me a nurse for this purpose, for it would be difficult for the average lay person to manage all of this without some medical knowledge.

Life is full of challenges, isn’t it? I try not to see challenges as God’s punishment for something done wrong, but challenges for what God wants me to learn. He always seems to be preparing me for something…..an encounter with someone who might benefit from the knowledge and experience his puts in my path.

The Seeds of Inspiration

It is a mystery how inspiration can start from the smallest of things and bloom into something that promises to be wonderful. I was knitting my Ravelymics shawl which is very simple and easy to knit. On bulky yarn, it is likely that it will go quick. Actually, in the interest of preventing my hands and wrists from being strained I am taking my time and just coasting along.

As I knit, my mind wanders in some regret that the beautiful lace shawl I originally planned will be left unknit. I browse though the Ravelry shawl patterns and drool at the lovely shawls before me. And behold I spy a shawl so lovely made in variegated colors I can’t take my eyes off of it. I put it in my Ravelry queue, a knit waiting list of projects to be made someday. As the days go by, my thoughts return to the lovely shawl named Waves of Leaves Shawl by Malcolm and Marcus Design. I start thinking, “ Do I have anything in my stash that could make it. No?” Then I looked hard at the Sesame colored yarn I was going to make the first shawl out of. I learned that knitting a big project in this beige color can be boring very quickly. Then a light of genius strikes me…..what about over dyeing it. What is overdyeing, you ask? It is taking a colored yarn and redyeing it to get a completely different yarn. I have the yarn-I have the dye colors-Do I have the knowledge? Well,…..maybe.

I am needing to do this with repeated results for several skeins? It’s going to take some research, mathematical calculations and measuring, and a little bit of chemistry. This is going to be an experiment. What have I got to lose? Nothing but a few skeins of wool purchased on sale.

Testing for dye color

Dyeing small skeins

Dyeing the Big Skein in Red, Violet and Green

My first skein was a learning opportunity. The results were not too shabby. It gave me a great appreciation for the master yarn dyers who make hundreds of beautiful skeins of color. It is understandable why they elevate the cost of a skein of yarn. Their efforts are worth the cost. Nevertheless, as long as God gave me a brain, a love of colored yarn and a desire to figure out how to make it, I will forge on. I love making and learning things.

Good Strong Color

The Repeatable Results

Does it look like changing leaves?

In skeins

A False Start

As I’ve been watching the REAL Olympics, I see that there have been a lot of false starts in the Short Track Skating Events. The Event I am competing in the Ravelympics is called Short Track Shawls. I knit over 12 rows which amounts to about 5500 sts, when I realized that the gauge on my shawl was smaller than I thought it would be.

I misunderstood the construction of the Faroese shawl, which is two triangles connected by a center panel. You start by making the bottom wings of the shawl and work up decreasing. I was thinking I was making the top edge, working down. This is why I thought my gauge was too big and changed my needles to two sizes smaller than what was called for. There was just no way I could salvage what I knitted. If I had plugged on, after knitting 30,000 sts, I didn’t want to discover the shawl was too small. So I decided to scrap it. A lesson was learned.

So why didn’t I just restart it? I could feel my wrist straining to make the 1700 sts goal and I happened to reinjure my right hand again, twisting a jar open. Will I ever learn? My tendons and ligaments in my right hand were severely stretched again and I just didn’t think I could make my goal. I hate getting older.

What was I to do? As long as I could hold my knitting needles, I felt I should make something, but perhaps take my time and not push it. I was doing a “Lindsey Vonn”, the skier who injured her shins and is determined to try for her medals anyways. After two days of knitting, I started thinking how I could pick another project that would be less stress on my wrist. What would help me fall in love with it? This is what I was thinking as I raced to Michaels to pick out some bulky yarn for the new easier shawl I had selected called the Splendid Triangle Shawl by Lion Brand.

What would make me fall in love with it? Answer: COLOR! Since tomorrow is Valentines Day, I thought of shades of Red. With 10 minutes left till closing I spied a bulky yarn, County Loom, in shades of red and blue called Caravan.

So as the starting gun goes off again in the Olympics, my Ravelympics starting gun has gone off and I am skating/knitting my way to the finishline. So far, I am loving it. I am feeling like the speed skater, Apollo Ohno, feeling fairly confident this project will go quickly.

Training and “On Your Mark, Set, Go…!

I spent the days prior to the start of Olympics practicing my chosen Project, the Faroese Shawl. Unfortunately, I made a mistake and realized I am not ready for this particular lace project. So I was back to the drawing board and trying to pick out a much simpler project.




I chose the Stora Dimun Shawl from the “Folk Shawls” book by Cheryl Oberle. It seemed much easier. However, it is also a garter stitch shawl which may drive me nuts and give me carpel tunnel. I am thinking about revising it somewhat by inserting some stockinette pattern in the middle to make it more interesting. I learned from the previous attempted shawl that may need to reduce my needle size so the shawl does not become too humongous and heavy with the light worsted weight yarn I will be using.



I love the Olympics! I love the Opening Ceremonies, the competition and the rooting for the home team!. Since I am fortunate to be spending more time at home taking care of my husband, I will be able to catch some of the coverage. On the times I am away from home, which are usually long waiting in doctor or chemo visits, I have a chance to sit more and knit. The shawl looks to be knitting that doesn’t need too much concentration, especially since most of it will be likely a lot of garter stitching with long periods of knit stitching.



So as the Opening Ceremonies have begun, I am off and knitting like a mad woman. I have figured that my project has a total of approximately 30,000 stitches and I have to knit about 1800 stitches a day to finish it by the closing ceremonies.

Ravelympics 2010

Woohooo! Four more days to the start of the Winter Olympics. That means Ravelympics Time!!!!
What is Ravelympics, you ask? It a knitting, spinning, dyeing Olympics for the crazy people who love to knit, crochet, and spin, etc. It is a challenge to make a project within the 17 days of the Olympics. Thousands of us knitters participate and sign up on a Community Internet Site called "Ravelry", thus the "Ravelympics". We cheer each other on by joining teams and enter in events according to our project.

Since I am spending alot of time waiting in doctor's offices while my husband receives treatment for his lymphoma, I have picked a project. I hope its not too tough. I am going to make a Faroese Shawl from the book A Gathering of Lace. I have figured that if I do 2700  stiches a day or more, I will make it by the end of the Olympics. I chose a beige Wool I found on Clearance.

As we cross the finish line, or rather finish the project, we are acknowledged with a cheer and medal from Bobicus Maximus, the Ravelry Mascot Dog. 

My needles are ready, my fingers are itching to start. I have been training hard. Let the games begin........