Monday, November 22, 2010

Knitters Review Retreat - The Review

Here is Clara Parkes official writeup of the Knitters Review Retreat 2010.

Check out the group picture - you can actually see me in it, if you zoom in close.


I'm in a blue sweater, with a white shirt underneath, in the 3rd row from the front, just to the left of the "W" in the Williams Inn (find the "W" in the Williams Inn sign, follow it straight down to the 3rd row from the front).

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Surgery Update

Just an FYI for everyone...

My surgery on Tues Nov. 16 went very well - longer than originally expected, but still very smoothly. Nothing unusual was found, and surgery was a success.

I woke up in the recovery room around 12:30pm, then waited until close to 6:30 pm for a room to be found for me. Tim arrived on the floor where my room was before I did, but the area had a small waiting room so he could wait, then he saw them wheeling me into my room.

I have to say, I didn't have a lot of patience with my room mate - she was not the room mate from hell (which I've had before), but she was elderly, and seemed to need constant attention from pretty much everyone. Every time I buzzed for my nurse for something, she had to talk to the nurse too, even though it wasn't her nurse.

Seems strange to me that they would not assign the same nurse to both patients in the room, but that seems to be the way it works.

Every time I answered my phone, she would call out and start to talk to me - I finally had to say "I'm On the Phone" to get her to shut up.

Also she gave out my hospital phone number to all her relatives, instead of her phone number - so my first night in the hospital, I had to talk to at least 4 of her relatives, when I just wanted to sleep. I finally started telling them "No, xxx is not here", and hanging up.

Wed during the day was spent trying to get rid of the itchiness I get from morphine, and also it now seems, Dilodid (spelling??). I was feeling really groggy most of the day, but started to get better towards the evening.

Tim came by Wed night to visit again, and ran into my surgeon, Dr. Perugini. So we all three had a chance to chat (BRIEFLY).

I also spent the morning out of bed in a chair, and took several walks around the ward, to try to clear out the anesthesia and grogginess.

Thurs AM, I was not feeling well at all, not sure why. I decided at that time I may not be going home this day, because I knew I couldn't go home feeling that badly. But things got better and better during the day, I started walking around the ward on my own, with my strength coming back all the time. By the time that Tim came by, I was feeling pretty good and ready to go home.

So we came home Thurs night.

Friday and Sat were spent mostly trying to get in all the liquids I'm supposed to - but while my mouth is hungry (desperate for some flavor), my stomach is just not that hungry. Then I start watching something on TV, lost track of the time, and forget to have a shake.

Starting tomorrow, I'll keep track of things on a spreadsheet I'm putting together, a sort of check list for the day, to make sure I get in everything I"m supposed to, at pretty close to the time I should.

Good news/Bad news - while my diabetes is much better, I am still taking insulin. When I left the hospital, they told me to stop my long term insulin (I was taking approx. 140 units a day, just to maintain a stable blood sugar, then I supplemented with short term insulin to take care of any food that I would eat).

So no more long term insulin, and I"m using a sliding scale for short term during the day. Right now, I'm taking between 5 and 10 units of short term insulin a day, down from 30-60+ units of short term every day, on top of the ~140 units of long term insulin I was taking.

So diabetes is MUCH better, good news. But is not as better as I'd hope for (bad news).

More good news - diabetes will likely continue to get better all the time, and I do hope to get off of all insulin eventually.

Today, Sunday, I took a long walk for me - out of the house, down the entire length of the driveway (maybe 80 yards each way). Then sat outside for a while, enjoying the sunshine (out of the wind, it was not too cold to sit).

I've also been doing a lot of knitting - mostly on my New Beginnings project from the Knitters Review Retreat. Here is my project - Cabled Cardigan out of the Runway Knits book.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Knitters Review Retreat

Well, I'm home from the wonderful Knitters Review Retreat. It was WONDERFUL this year too, even better because my friend, Judy, came with me.

I met a lot of great new friends, and hope to hear from them in the next few weeks.
Let me see if I can get some pictures posted....


This is our lovely hostess, Clara - she organizes this retreat, with help of course!

She's the author of several books on yarn & wool, and is just an all around wonderful person. She's very warm, and genuinely excited and happy to welcome both returning attendees and new people each year.

There were 120 attendees this year, 10 more than last year. And while I enjoyed the entire retreat, I always enjoy the Thursday Extension best - about half the number of people, it's so much easier to talk to people, get to know them better, before the rest of the attendees arrive, and it's just much more crowded and busy. Still loads of fun, of course, but I really enjoy the more intimate setting of smaller groups of people on Thursday.

I didn't take very many pictures, but here's some amusing pictures of Judy with her stash (acquired both at Webs and at the Knitters Review Retreat, some free from the Stash Lounge, some purchased from the vendors):















more stash acquisition! And YES - she had to do a lot of packing & rearranging before she could sleep in the bed that night!! Luckily, we managed to get everything back into the car, without it exploding!



Judy also brought her spinning wheel, and did some spinning during parts of the Retreat.



The last day of the Retreat, we all gather together, and "marry" our New Beginnings project - this is a project that we bring that has to be for ourselves (it's very common for most knitters to knit only for other people, and rarely for themselves). Clara leads us in a commitment ceremony to our New Beginnings project (she usually posts the "vows" on her website later, so I'll have to link to them once she has them posted). Then we all cast on the projects together, then walk around and have others that we've met and enjoyed cast on some stitches on the project - it lets you have a wonderful memory built into the project - with many different people's cast ons on your project.

This year, I've started the Cabled Cardigan from Runway Knits. The yarn is Cascade Venetzia, in the lavender colorway, the color of the yarn at the top of the page.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Stitches Day 2

Day 2 for me for Stitches saw me sleeping in a bit later than usual. My friend Judy arrived at my house around 8:30, and she drove us there. We got to Stitches around 9:30, and got our stuff, and waited for the shopping/vendor floor to open.

Our plan was shopping in the morning, then we each had a class in the afternoon.

I did a little bit of shopping, I did buy some yarn from Miss Babs – a great independent dyer who had a major crisis this summer – she lost her entire inventory due to smoke damage from a dye pot accidentally left on over night. So both Judy and I went to support her, and we both bought some yarn

I also ended up purchasing a shawl kit (pattern, yarn & beads all together in a nice project bag), and a pair of Signature needles to try. Signatures are the Rolls Royce of needles, and I wanted a pair to try.

After I was done shopping, and I’d gotten a bite to eat, I found a quiet spot at the convention center, and cast on my new shawl kit using my new Signature needles.

My afternoon class was Chart Writing with JC Briar – what a great class! She’s a technical editor, and it absolutely shows in her teaching and hand outs. There were also exercises in the hand outs that we did as we went through class. She’s so organized, and really knows her stuff and how to teach it – I will be very happy to take another class with JC!

After our classes were over, Judy and I both agreed that we didn’t need to do any more shopping, so we got back on the road and she dropped me at home.

It was a great day, and I’m glad Judy had a chance to share it with me!