Still here

I grew something.

What else I have been up to: A little knitting (gifts), working at the bookstore (as often as I can), resting (more often these days), having tests and scans and chemotherapy (good results), preparing for a minimalist Christmas (I've taken "keep it simple" to a new level), and watching my collection of holiday movies (I never tire of "Meet Me in St. Louis," "Love Actually," and "Christmas in Connecticut").

Next week, in between Christmas and New Year's Day, I'll be treated to a visit from my nieces Amy and Sophie. They're coming to stay with me during my next round of chemo (what a thrill, eh?). I haven't seen them in forever!
~:~
With best wishes and blessings and peace to all of you on this Christmas Eve --
Love, Jane

Emerging

My Christmas Cactus bloomed on Election Day this year -- a good, healthy omen. The flowers looked like angels, or birds. This plant astonishes and delights me every single year!

Life is so hectic these days -- with work (busy as we prepare for Thanksgiving weekend), and chemo (going well; four down, three to go), and the Knitter's Review Fall Retreat (I've started sorting and packing, and I can't wait to get on the road!) -- I don't know where the time has gone.

I have a little knitting on needles, but nothing to show and tell. My goal is to have something simple to knit while I'm at the Retreat (socks, of course), along with an idea for a more complicated project to start while I'm there. I'm on the way to finishing up a pair of socks that I might take along. There's a little spinning going on, too -- some Spirit Trail Targhee/Silk/Alpaca/Cashmere roving that's been marinating in my fiber stash for long enough. We'll see.

My sister Ellen came to stay last week, while I had chemo. I love having my sisters around me. I'm surrounded by so many wonderful people all the time, but there's something special about being with a sister, who can giggle with me and tell me that now that I don't have any hair, I look just like our grandmother (no, she wasn't bald!).

There's a little more packing I can do before it gets dark, and before I lose the rest of my momentum. All is well enough, and I'm so pleased that I can travel a little, work, and enjoy the good days. I wish the same for you!

Swirling

My (very late) Rhinebeck report:

This is the only picture I took. We had a wonderful time! I managed to maintain enough energy to make it up and down and around the fairgrounds on both Saturday and Sunday, and the four of us enjoyed our meals at the Eveready Diner and Gigi Trattoria (best calamari ever). There was some consumption of maple sugar cotton candy, but no artichokes. We'll take the cotton candy.

Short but very sweet visits were had with the crew at Spirit Trail, both during the show and back at the motel (oh, those scones Lanea made!). I didn't make many purchases -- a bit of fiber from Botanical Shades, a Grafton corriedale batt, and some pretties from Lavender Trifles -- but I did come home with a beautiful pair of Sheila and Michael Ernst's glass knitting needles. Now to find something worthy of knitting on US 7's...


Back at home, I finally photographed the Honeycomb Hat I made before I left. It's so comfortable and warm that I'm wearing it right now. It's cold today, even indoors.


This is the neckwarmer I'm knitting to match. It's a simple Mistake Rib, round and round, which is all my chemo-brain can handle right now. Chemo brain explains everything if you want it to, and it's as good an excuse as any for being forgetful and distracted!


I like the way the trees outside my house look woven, like a basket. The colors are almost at their peak here, and the wind blowing the leaves on these stormy days gives off an energy that's hard to resist. I'll take some, store it up, and use it later, thank you. It seems that Autumn is whirling and swirling past at a crazy pace -- or is it just me?

It's time to move on to thoughts of the Knitter's Review Fall Retreat -- in just a few weeks I'll be in Williamstown, MA for a weekend with my peeps. Better get started on that class homework!

Time for a break

Waiting Socks, Working

They did their job well during chemo last time -- every time I looked down at my feet I felt better, and they kept me warm, too. Two treatments down, five to go.

That photo will have to represent all the knitting I've been doing. I haven't had time to photograph the three hats in Malabrigo and two in Morehouse Merino that I've completed for this year's Knitters Review Retreat charity project. I don't have a picture of the Honeycomb Hat in The Knitter's Book of Yarn that I made for my own hairless head in a lovely plummy shade of Sundara's Aran Silky Merino. (Hmm, my hat looks almost like Clara's!) I'm trying to finish the second blue Hedgerow sock for one of the Remarkable R's before we leave for Rhinebeck on Friday. She wore the first one last year, so I think it's about time she had the pair, don't you?

Rhinebeck is my goal for the week. I'm working my way towards it in a methodical way. Do this much at work. Get that many hours of sleep. Pace myself with the laundry and the errands. On Friday afternoon I'll be fetched by Judy and the R's, and off we'll go on our yearly adventure. Road trip + yarn and fiber sniffing + good food x four friends = a blissful blast! I hope to get to spend a little time with Jen, Martha, Lanea, Beth, and Purlewe, and I hope I'll run into lots of fellow knitting friends.

It finally occurred to me that I am in dire need of a break from my life. Just a wee one will do for now. My world has been constrained since June, confined to a little corner. I spend all my time tending to the necessary concerns of my health and my spirit, which is as it needs to be. This is my chance to break free for a little while, and it comes at at time when I have some energy and I'm experiencing relatively few side effects.

The chemo cycle starts again next Thursday. At the beginning of all this, when I counted the days on the calendar, I was relieved to find that Rhinebeck and the KR Retreat fall in between treatments. That one-week delay made all the difference! I don't want to mess up the schedule, so I just have to make sure I take really good care of myself, and that my blood counts stay high enough each week (there's only so much I can do about that, but I like to think I am in charge of my bone marrow, you know).

Time to get on with the day, I suppose. There's work to do at the store, and since I'm grateful for every spare bit of energy I have for it, I'm happy to do it!