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........

Thankfulness and Compassion

I need to breathe a sign of relief and have a humble appreciation for all the prayer warriors that have prayed for my husband and I. The prayers were answered. W. is recovering from the worst health crisis he has had yet in this struggle to battle lymphoma. These two weeks have reminded me that God is very gracious to heal my husband’s heart and give me more time with him. We hope that he will be home this week.


As I come up for air, my heart breaks for the people of Haiti and the desperate need for survival that they are experiencing. Stephanie Pearl McPhee, AKA The Yarn Harlot, has put out a call to Knitters to help by donating to Doctors without Borders. In answering this call, I can’t help but feel this is such a small gift for a very great need. Yet, we knitters are many and mighty. Together, we can make a difference.

This event makes us realize how fortunate we are to have so many resources. Haiti, the poorest nation in this hemisphere, has very little. It is a wonder to see the capacity for compassion that many have, that would sacrifice their money, time and even their own comforts to help humanity in need. This is what God calls us to in any way we can.

My favorite verse:

Matthew 25:40 Jesus said “ I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”

A Hard Week and A New Purpose for the New Year.

I finally received my computer repaired. The keys now work just fine. Lately, I haven’t had much time for anything and this has been the worst week of my life. My husband fainted in my arms as I helped him to the bathroom on New Year’s night and was gravely ill with heart failure and the severe complications that can result from this. He’s been in ICU since and as of today I can say his condition is upgraded to guarded. I’m just living day to day trusting God to keep me and my husband going. I’ve been sitting by his side daily, trying to help the nurses and communicating with the doctors as they treat him.

Taken on Christmas Day 2009

Yesterday was a deep sigh of relief as he seems to be awakening and able to answer questions by nodding in his weakened state, despite the tube in his mouth helping him breathe. I thank God for granting this to me. However, he is still not out of the woods yet.



All of this happened at the same time as my two sons bought a home and moved. It will not be easy for me adjusting to the change, but I know God will help me through it. He has always given me a purpose. Perhaps, this purpose is now to take care of my husband full time.

This has been the most challenging time of my life, and I thought raising 3 sons was the challenge. It’s like I’ve stepped into a new purpose. As my last son launches himself on a life of independence, I was beginning to question what next? I’m proud of all my sons and the good independent lives they are leading. I do not worry too much about them. I feel my husband and I have done well in raising them.



I’ve been thinking about how I can knit down my stash of the Acrylic yarn. I love listening to CogKnitive podcast. They are starting a Knit Along for the Mother Bear Project that knits bears for South African children who have HIV. There is a myth that adults with HIV can be cured by having sex with virgins. Many children have contracted HIV in this way, along with the emotional devastation that comes from being raped and loosing ones parents to AIDS. A teddy bear becomes a small comfort for these traumatized children. This would be a great project to start. I’ve made one bear but still have to embroider the face features. My next bear will be a ballerina bear.

So…as I sit by my husband’s side in ICU, I knit not only for my own comfort and peace, but with the hope that as I sit attending my husband, a child somewhere in the world can also be comforted with the bear I make for them.

Computer Disaster!

I used to pride myself of having taken very good care of my laptop computer. It has lasted about 6 years, which for a laptop is quite long, given the potential for abuse that can happen to a portable computer. My fortune came to an end on Christmas eve, when I was suddening interrupted while working on my laptop, to put it down on the floor, and attend to my ill husband who was nearby in the recliner. While giving him his medication I attempted to set down a bottle of water, which slipped from my hand and water spilled across a tray table onto the floor. Unfortunately my laptop keyboard was in the path of the dripping water. I quickly tried to rescue it by drying it with a blow dryer but realized my luck ran out when I started having trouble getting some keys to work, including the left click key.

So as I attempt to take the laptop to the Computer ER to see what can be done to fix it, entries will have to be made somewhat delayed by the fortune of borrowing other computers.

Christmas Anticipation

As Christmas gets closer this person must reflect on the life situation and think that this Christmas is very different! Of course, there’s my husband’s weakened condition. He used to be able to put up our outside Christmas lights. Now, we have to figure it out ourselves. We’re still looking for the outlets to plug the manger display into. Only two more days to go……Perhaps the neighbors won’t notice the unlit lights and admire the manger scene during the day. The beautiful angel that hung above the manger last year with her trumpet will have to shine during the day hours.

Christmas shopping is not very fun or thoughtful this year. Gift cards seem to be the easy thing to do. Thank goodness for the variety of gift cards available at the one-stop grocery store. I cannot imagine having the time to go from place to place to get gift cards. My time has been spent shuffling my husband from Dr to Dr and treatment to treatment, caring for him at home, and working to make up some missed time off, etc. His energy level is non-existent and this is not a cheery time for him.

We decided it would be too difficult for him to travel to other people’s houses for Christmas, so this year we are having a small breakfast with just the single sons’ and sister-in-law, and a few family over for Christmas dinner. My sister-in-law and son’s have been helping me clean house and get ready.

As a double whammy, my two youngest single sons’ are starting to pack up their stuff to move into their own home. That is, once escrow closes. We are crossing our fingers for Dec. 24. I am starting to have that tug of heart as my youngest son leaves the nest. We will truly be “empty nesters” when that happens. I know it is an important right of passage that all parents raise their children to become…..independent, self-supporting, responsible human beings making a life for themselves. I feel somewhat mollified that I will be able to see my youngest son every day, as we work together.

As this grieving process is initiated, I find myself barely able to think about a whole spare bedroom to put my fiber/yarn collection into. Suddenly my house is become too big for us. I'm sure I am the envy of every fiberholic out there.

Nevertheless, God has been good. He has brought us through another year. I have a lot to be thankful for. I feel blessed each day. God gives me a ray of sunshine to reflect of the goodness he brings to me and my family. It is the little things that are the best…..my husband pain-free, my son’s wisdom at work, my grandchild’s smile, a kind word of encouragement from friends and family. I am blessed.

Shetland Spinning

I have been making some big plans lately. I’ve decided that my house is too cluttered. In my attempt to simplify my house, I started going through my fiber stash. This year I committed to use a lot of my stash but I haven’t done much with the fiber I have collected over the years.




I discovered a pillowcase filled with a beautiful grey soft looking fiber. I was almost heartbroken that some of it appeared to be felted. This fiber had been in my stash washed over several years and I had not done much with it, except to toss it around from bin to bin as I sorted and resorted this fiber over the years. Yet, I could not give up on this fiber. I wanted to salvage this beautiful alpaca-looking fiber. I was picking through the fiber and trying to loosen the locks. I finally ended up using a Louet single row comb or hackle to untangle what I could. These midevil looking devices that look like torture tools, help to align the fiber, making it somewhat separated and able to be drum carded into batts which followed. From the batts I was able to start spinning. Its a lot of work for just a pound of fiber.



As I worked with this fiber, I realized this was not alpaca at all but possibly Shetland. How I knew this? It has a long staple with guard hairs. This is a double layer coat where the long tips are darker and courser than the downy undercoat, which is soft. I had heard that Shetland fiber makes nice gloves and socks, so I planned to spin it thin but had some trouble getting a consistent thread. I changed my mind and started over, spinning it to a slightly thicker using an easy forward draw technique. I changedthe ration to the lowest on my Ashford Joy which is a ratio of 6 spins/ per treddle. It seemed to make a better single this way. I experimented with several techniques….the long draw, the back draw. The only way I could get any control of the feeding of the thread was to feed 2 in at a time after 2 treddles. The yarns is coming out very soft.