Sad knitting, Happy knitting.

More retail therapy... it's been a sad week.

There have been a few reasons...

A good friend's mom has colon cancer - but all looks well. She had surgery this week and came through like a champ. They're still waiting for some more results but it seems like things are good. But still, your mom is not supposed to get sick. Your mom is supposed to be strong and make you crazy and ask why you aren't married or pregnant or skinnier or less of a slob. My friend is handling this all beautifully - it helps that all of the news is good, but I would give up chocolate to learn to handle stress with such grace. I wish I could help.

Of course, I did teach her to knit so maybe I helped after all.

One of my professors has a brain tumor. She said that if you're going to have a brain tumor this is the one to have -there are no symptoms, it looks benign, it's in an operable area and has well-defined margins. I don't know her very well - it's only the fifth week of class and I missed two classes - but she is a fantastic teacher. It's probably totally inappropriate, but I'm going to make her a hat. I even ordered Rowan Calmer in a beautiful plum. It's too cold to have a bare head - even if they only have to shave a spot the size of a quarter. She lives with and cares for her parents - they're in their 90's - but it is more than that. The brain is a crazy thing
and she is a researcher. Her brain is her life and her living. I think the scariest thing I read as a child (or since as far as that goes) is Flowers for Algernon - have you read it? Holy shit. In a nutshell: Charlie is mentally retarded and becomes part of an experiment and becomes a genius - then looses it all. The worst part - the most horrifying part - is that once he looses his intelligence he still remembers that at one time he was smart. Alzheimer's and dementia scare the bejesus out of me. Mostly because you know you're sliding. There are moments of lucidity that happen... not like Gray's Anatomy, more like when you wake up from a dream and you think, "I need to buy apple juice and cat litter ," and then you go back to sleep and three nights later you wake up again and think, "Shit. I still need apple juice and cat litter."

But I digress. What a shocker.

Anyway, if it were me I would be terrified - not necessarily about the possibility of death, more that I might lose my thoughts. So she needs a hat. I have only knitted one hat and it was well intentioned if not attractive. I have also never (successfully) done cables. The hat I found is from Knitty's breast cancer special issue. It's a hat full of cables. Soft and stretchy and warm. I could knit it full of good energy and send it to her, all plummy and soft.

So I ordered the Rowan and I ordered some yarn from Knitpicks - Andie is knitting Danica with me and after the shaping that Danica requires I think she'll be ready for socks. I ordered her sock yarn and dpns and when we're done with the scarf we'll knit some socks. Yay!

I'll have Danica pictures soon - and also a pair of socks that I have been working on... though I didn't check my needles first and grabbed size 3 dpns instead of size 2 so they're a little, um, loose. Maybe I'll dry them in the dryer for a little teensy bit.

You know, when I said nobody else can get sick I meant NOBODY. So let me try again.
NOBODY ELSE CAN GET SICK.