In the hospital

 Immunotherapy was a disaster. It caused ulcerative colitis and put me in the hospital for 3 nights. 

I have almost recovered from the treatment and will see my oncologist Friday to see what we can do next.

Thanksgiving was good.

Cancer Still Sucks

 The latest CT scan on the 7th wasn’t encouraging; the cancer is growing. Even so, Dr. Pederson is prescribing immunotherapy which will begin this Friday, the 14th. I asked if we could wait until January, after all the holidays, to begin and the oncologist said that if we wait 3 months, I would be feeling sick. So I guess it is growing fast.

This particular cancer, secondary small-cell carcinoma of the liver, often occurs in cases of colon and rectal cancers, so I am not special. There is no cure, only management. 

There will be no more chemo. Surgery? Sloan-Kettering offers surgery, but it is rather cutting edge from what I can gather. Immunotherapy it is, and I get to keep my hair. 

In other news, I finished the skull socks for Sweetie and they fit! Maybe a little loose but better than too tight. And I have begun another pair for him because why not? 

I need to make 7 more snowflake blocks, out of 34. I knit a quickie scarf: cast on 200 st. and knit. Cut yarn. Change yarn and knit back. Rinse and repeat. 

Cancer sucks

 So, here we are almost 3 weeks out from my visit to the GI cancer specialist, Dr. Pederson. I was surprised because she took a long time with me, asking questions and then listening to my answers. Long story short, this cancer is something I will die with, but maybe not from. The game plan is to wait until the next CT scan on Oct. 7 to check the status of my liver and then, depending on the results, we will either wait and see if it is not growing and stable. If that is the case, we can try immunotherapy. If there is growth, we might go for more chemo or a clinical trial. So there are options.

All I know for sure is that I am tired and lack energy every day. I can't even bake bread. I think this may be the new normal, although it may be that I am still recovering from the last chemo treatment. That one was hard. I don’t want more chemo, but there’s no need to worry about that right now.

. Oh, and I believe I am losing some cognitive abilities, which may be due to chemo-brain or it may be just that I getting old. It’s worrisome. I don’t have much of an appetite; the texture of many foods repulses me. Because of that, I have lost 5 pounds.

I have finally engaged a house cleaner to come every 2 weeks something I have been meaning to do ever since my last cleaner retired three years ago. I’m trying to plan ahead for the time when I won’t be able to clean. I want her in place for when I am gone since Sweetie and School Marm are not people to notice grime or dust. However, School Marm has taken to gardening with a passion. I cheer her on.

I can still knit, which gives me great pleasure. These are skull socks for Sweetie, and it's a free pattern from Knitty (sometime in 2011.) It's a slog sometimes as I have ripped back to the cuffs twice. The other day I noticed an error and I said I would be damned if I was going to rip out anymore. 

After the second rip-out, I put the socks aside and began a crochet project. It's a hexagon granny square throw made of washable wool. The little things desperately needed blocking so I made this device from a piece of wood and size 10 DP knitting needles, with no glue used. Cute and easy snowflakes.

If anyone is reading this, hello and I hope you are doing well!

Just some photos

 Nothing much new but someone wanted to see some of my mosaic knitting and since I don't do tweeter or Instagram, this is the best place for me to post. Click to embiggen.

Scarf 

School Marm's Socks

Banana for Scale

And just because they are so lovely, 

here's a shot of the Surprise Lilies

I'm so tired

So the most recent CT scan was not encouraging - the chemo only shrank the tumors but they are still there. 

Funny thing is, is that I recently went to see my primary caregiver, herself a cancer survivor, and in the course of our conversation she said it sounded like I had already given up. Which I had. But she succeeded in giving me a little hope that maybe things weren’t so bad. For a couple of days, I had that little bit of hope until I had the scan. No more chemo. No more hope.

Except for experimental treatment or immunotherapy. I now have an appointment with a specialist for my sort of cancer in a few weeks.

All the while, I can’t help but think the cancer is growing and spreading. I am still tired almost all the time and the least exertion exhausts me. The oncologist's best guess is that I have two years of life left, but I think that is too optimistic. We’ll see. I am already losing weight because most food is unappealing and I have little appetite.

All I seem to do is knit, which makes me happy. Here is another pair of socks for Sweetie made from Berroco Sox. Currently on the needles is a pair for School Marm. Her pair is mosaic knitting, a pattern by Caryl Pierre on Ravelry. I just switched from double-pointed needles to 2 circular needles per sock and I am amazed at how much I like making socks this way. No more little gaps between needles and since the new ones are chrome-plated, knitting is faster because the needles are so slick.

Flower bed

Raised bed of vegetables

 Photos of the garden taken on June 16th. Everything is bigger and more lush every day.

 

I don’t know how long it’s been since my last post, but I bet it was before my 4th and last round of chemo, for now. (I checked and it was June 2.) I was laid low for 10 days and very weak. Now, 2 and 1/2 weeks out, I am feeling better. Not 100%, but better. I’ll see the oncologist July 8, and will get another CT scan then. I am trying to have no expectations, but I do hope that I won’t have any more chemo soon. 

Sweetie is having to work 8 days straight, for various reasons, and I worry about him. And he worries about me. The new company, who bought out the old company last October, has gutted maintenance and their budget and the mechanics are quitting and they wonder why their company is not as productive as they once were. Duh. Sweetie has seen it before and he says he will keep his head down and do his job. Around this area, his job pays really well (and there is the, you know, insurance and I need that insurance.) I was scouting out a local snack plant and the pay for sanitation workers was $13 and production paid $12. That’s a hard nope.

School Marm has ended her public school teaching career and is casting about for something part time locally. Her commute had been an hour each way, and even with her Toyota Corolla, it was costing her $70 a week in gas. She was not alone; about a quarter of the high school teachers also quit. I found out that a starting teacher here in Missouri makes $25,000. School Marm has a Masters and some other advanced certification, and I won’t say how much she made, but it wasn’t enough. It’s shameful. I’m too tired to rant. 

The garden and the entire back yard is looking great, so that’s a joy. I will hand all the glory for it to School Marm who has diligently started seeds, transplanted seedlings, dug in the dirt, and so much more. Most days I have had so little energy that all I am capable of very little. Sweetie has gotten into the spirit with the weed whacker and loppers and so the fence line is clear. 

I finished the Night Shawl, but I don’t have photographic evidence. My twitchy hands needed a project so I bought some sock yarn from Simply Socks in Ft. Wayne, IN. (I am pleased with her service; my order was shipped within an hour.) And because my brain needed a project, too, I am learning how to knit socks on 2 circular needles. I have been resistant to changing from my bamboo double points, of which I have many, but I will be attempting to knit a pair of socks using mosaic stitch and every online tutorial and pattern I ran across suggested 2 circulars. So here I am knitting a pair of vanilla socks with them and once I got into the rhythm, it has become pleasurable. I had to order the needles from Knit Picks because I did not have any. These are chrome plated size 1, and they are comfortable and smooth to knit with. I think I am a convert.

 

Priorities, people!

 

The last round of chemo left me weak. 

It’s the little indignities that get to me; being incontinent until a week before the next round begins so I try to balance how much fluid I should drink versus how often I want to change my pee pad. It’s like I think, “I have to go pee” and my body says, “Okay!” and I say, “Wait until I get to the bathroom!” and my body says, “Oops! Too late. lol.”

I have been tired and depressed and out of sorts. Even a little weepy. The tired and depressed part very well could be allergies as I have been outside in the pollen-verse trying to garden. And the other reason is, of course, the cancer. Last time, I at least thought I was going to get well. Now, I know that I can only prolong my life at the cost of being made ill by the chemo, the next round of which begins June 8. 

There is something about growing plants from seed that makes it nice to visit the greenhouse twice a day to check their progress. And they do give me hope that I will see the vegetables bear fruit this fall and enjoy the perennials again next year. Of course, I have way too many tomato plants but I am sure I can find a home for them, just not in my garden. Ditto with the zinnias. I have saved the zinnia seeds every year now for 4-5 years. They originally came from a neighbor I call Farmer Paul because he always had a huge vegetable garden that he devoted a lot a time and energy and love to. He also would have several rows of zinnias that he saved seed from for the following year. One year, he gave me a handful of seeds and thus my surfeit of plants this year. But last fall, Farmer Paul got an infection in a cut on his foot from the garden soil and it was pretty bad. I haven’t talked to him lately, but his garden is unworked and forlorn and I know he must be missing it.

Anything else of interest? Well, the Night Shift shawl is almost done; I am working the I-cord bind off so maybe I can block it tomorrow. I am anxious to return to Mosaic Knitting. I took the book, ‘Mosaic Knitting’ by Barbara Walker to the local print/u-Haul rental and returns/office supply/USP drop off/and gift shop to have them make the paperback into a spiral bound book. (There is nothing quite so aggravating as a pattern book that will not lay flat.) This was a week ago. Long story short, the lady tasked with the job screwed up the process and the book was not satisfactory so the owner ordered me another copy of the book and I truly hope they get it right this time. 

I am not sure what I will knit first, but I may try a tubular scarf, knit in the round. The other thing would be an afghan made with mosaic knit squares. This would require me to order more yarn and I am not sure I want to commit.

Such is my life. Small plans.

Damn, girl.

 

My first Wordle in a long time today; solved in 5. 

I have been alternately pessimistic or upbeat about the CT scan tomorrow, but yesterday I decided to stop looking at the situation that way. Instead, I am trying to have no expectations because I just don’t know. School Marm says that is very zen or philosophical. In either case, there is nothing I can do about it. I will go and have my scan and then see what the doctor sees. It will be a long day no matter what.

I have a lot of time on my hands these days but I have so little energy. I started watching old baseball games on youtube some months ago, but I now have 4 games in rotation: the 1990 World Series featuring the Cincinnati Reds and the Oakland Athletics. Spoiler alert - the Reds win in 4. It may be weird, no, it is weird but it is soothing to me. I don’t have to listen or even watch them in order, what matters is the fact that they are being piped into my ears whenever I want, but mostly at night because it helps me sleep.

Sweetie’s brother thinks I am on the spectrum, which is something that I have sometimes considered. It would explain my dislike of certain noises such as the clattering of dishes or jazz. I like to count, even though it is not about math. It is the counting that I find comforting, and maybe that is why I like knitting. I often have felt and still feel that I don’t fit in. I used to say that I felt as though everyone else got a book of instructions at birth that explained how one should act, but that I never got mine. There was so much that I didn’t know but I marked it down to bad parenting. Why didn’t my parents tell me these things? I learned to shut up and act as if I knew whatever it was that I didn’t actually know. Emotionally crippled, I thought. I self-medicated with drugs and alcohol because I was depressed or anxious or because I wanted to feel differently. I find other people exhausting.

Then there are the phobias. Ceiling and floor fans on high, windows opened all the way, tailgating, and cabinet doors left open or ajar make me uncomfortably anxious.

But there are things I can do, such as teach classes on knitting or spinning or natural dyeing. Fuck. Is this making sense?

At my age, I have learned to pass as normal and shut up if I don’t. 

Fuck the Patriarchy.

 

Still no Wordle. My chemo-addled brain seems not to be capable. 

I am still quite tired from the last treatment and the whole process starts again next Wednesday. I’ll get another CT scan then, as well. Can’t say that I have good feelings about what the results will be, but maybe I will be surprised. I mean, my blood work looked good 2 weeks ago. This cancer is treatable, but not curable. I just hope I can gain a little strength and not have to keep getting chemo every 3 weeks until the chemo stops working. At least I am still not in any pain.

I knew a woman who had cancer similar to mine - metastatic. This was 15 or so years ago. She had had surgeries, a colostomy bag, and chemotherapy. It made her so sick. They would treat a tumor in one spot and get rid of it only to have another tumor arise somewhere else. Several trips were taken to the Mayo clinic. Anyway, after some years, she didn’t want to have any more treatment but her husband begged her to do it for him as he did not want to lose her. So she relented and had chemo again and again a different tumor appeared and this time she said “no” to any more attempts to ‘cure’ her. And she died, on her terms. She was a beautiful person and I think about her a lot. This is what I hope for. I want to die at home, not in a hospital, and as high as possible. 

With the help of Sweetie, we managed to get the plastic on the greenhouse. The previous 4 mil plastic disintegrated over the winter so this time it’s 6 mil. School Marm helped me get seeds started last Sunday and the zinnias and basil are already sprouting. It’s been terribly hot here (mid-90s) this week, along with much of the midwest. I will wait until Sunday or Monday to move more of the succulents out there; cooler temps should have arrived by then. 

If anyone is reading this dreck, could you please comment?

Just because

 

No Wordle. Maybe I can get back to it today.

Seven days out from my last chemo treatment, and this is the first day that I have felt almost normal, albeit still very weak. I have 10 days until I get to do it all over again. I do not hurt anywhere but my brain is thoroughly fucked. I accidentally paid School Marm’s credit card bill, not mine, and boy did that lay me low. I beat myself up for half a day because I hate that my brain is thoroughly fucked. I’m better now and all bill’s are paid. I just need to get that payment back from School Marm and get over myself. 

I wasn’t able to get my head shaved before my hair started coming out by the handfuls. I looked like the Crypt Keeper from Tales of the Crypt for a week and now it’s all gone except for a few stragglers. Interestingly, going through all this for a second time is easier; I know most of what to expect and so it freaks me out less.

Got to see a friend for the first time in a year-and-a-half; she moved state. Was so good to know she is doing well. Only wish I had more energy when she stopped by. 

Another acquaintance is in Scotland for the 4th time. I want to go and if I am able, I will go to England and Scotland this summer or early fall. Maybe Ireland, I don’t know. I’ve been an Anglophile for as long as I can remember and going there has been on my I’m-gonna-do-this list. So if not now, then when?

Had a short IM with my eldest brother. I told him I have metastatic cancer and we chatted about our health problems and death, etc. I told him I was at peace and he asked how I was able to be at peace. I said a few philosophical things and then said that not believing in an afterlife was helpful.

All I got was crickets after that. Maybe he just didn’t know how to respond to what used to be called a free thinker. I am trying to be generous.

I'm not special

 

So glad to back solving Wordle on the regular. My last three tries were solved in 6, 4, and 2 and today was another 4. 

Chemo starts again on Wednesday. It hit me so unexpectedly hard this time, and this round will be worse. My hair had just started falling out. I googled why chemo makes ones hair fall out and I learned this: the chemicals in the chemo attack fast dividing cells. Hair follicles, the mouth, and stomach have a lot of fast dividing cells so the hair falls out, one can get mouth sores and a white-coated tongue, and also have stomach issues. 

I will get my hair cut very short again, I guess, but I will put it off as long as possible. 

Still awkward and anxious

 

                                                                I have 7 of these traits.

Thank goodness for Reddit, my happy place. Please check it out if you have never been there.

Someone asked me about the Awkward Family Photos watermarked on my last post and what? That's your mother-in-law? Yeah, right. The story is true. School Marm sent in the photo many years ago to AFP who liked it and posted it on their website. They wanted to put it in their first (and only?) book but School Marm said they had too many hoops to jump through and so declined the offer. 

It's a dreary, gloomy, rainy day. Spring has burst forth, as they say. Every day is more green and colorful than the last. It's nice. 

I have been sitting in a comfy chair and knitting. Finished Sweetie's socks and he put them on and kept them on for 2 days and nights. I think he likes them. 

I am still working on the Night Shift shawl. It gets 1 stitch wider every other row, so as it grows each pass takes a little longer. I do get tired of the repetition at times, but sometimes that is what I like most about it. I also like that while there are only two charts, I can change yarn, and the perceived pattern shifts. 

I am worried about Knitting Jean in Edinburgh. She had been missing in action since Thursday.

Whiter Shade of Pale

 

Sorry about my absence, if you noticed it at all. The above photo is courtesy of my late mother-in-law who, after the divorce, either cut out or whited out her ex-husband from as many family pictures as possible. So yeah, kinda funny, except now the kids have very few photos of their dad. 

Chemo kicked my ass worse than I thought it would because last time I sailed through first round. This time, I wasn't as strong to begin with and so this first course prostrated me more quickly and thoroughly. Fortunately, I have a comfy couch in a dark room so I can just flop there, out of everyone's way. Either our little dog Snoopy or the elderly kitty or both keep me company.

I was too weak and chemo-brained for Wordle. 

But this course is done and I have almost 2 more weeks before the next round. And it's a lovely day today; warm and sunny with beautiful blue skies. Yesterday was springtime midwest at its finest: hard rain, strong wind, and lightning.

Waiting for the Glow Up

 

My last chemo-free day for a while. I will begin a 3-day course tomorrow. I have done this before and I expect no surprises; I will feel okay this week and I may feel okay after the second course at the end of the month, but the third course is bad and the last course can fuck right off. That’s when I will need the most assistance and I am so glad that School Marm will be around to help me since school will be out at the end of May.

I might try to re-pot a huge, root-bound aloe plant today if it warms up just a little bit more because I want to do it outside. The plant needed to be repotted last year but I never found the energy. I told School Marm that she will inherit all my plants and I am not sure she wants all of them but Sweetie would surely allow them all to die from lack of attention even though most of them are succulents. 

I am continuing to knit on Sweetie’s socks. The yarn is Berroco Sox or something along those lines. I particularly like this yarn because the self-striping repeat is about 6 or 7 inches, and the color changes often enough to keep me interested. I am at the heel flaps.

Wordle today, as yesterday, took four tries. What an interesting game it is. I like the logic required to solve it.

Drum Drum Drum

 

6, 2, and 3 describe my Wordle scores for the last three days. I’m particularly proud of the 2 because I started with GRIPE and the word was TROPE.

I’m wandering around the house looking and gathering and planning. What do I sell, what do I give to friends, what do I donate, and what do I just trash? I sold a couple of books and tablet weaving cards on Marketplace and even though I said local only, I ended up mailing anyway. If I want to continue to mail things off, I need to acquire some boxes. I’m feeling scattered and somewhat lost, but doing this “Death Cleaning” makes me feel better. And it all comes down to not leaving too much for Sweetie and sister-in-law, (whom I should start calling School Marm), do manage. I want to take care of whatever I can before I die. I’m doing research and have filled out a Power of Attorney for Health Care Directive, and looked at simple wills. 

It was hard to type that, “before I die.” While all the time, my brain is saying to me, “you’re going to die soon”. It’s all I can think about. Well, no, I am thinking about other things but the drumbeat in the background is “you’re going to die soon.” 

The cancer is metastatic. I imagine I can feel the damage being done to my innards, or maybe I do feel it. I don’t know.

Handle Me with Care

 

Wordle in five tries today. I am also pretty good at the Spelling Bee and the sudokus from the NYT. Word puzzles and counting make me happy. 

So, the oncologist confirmed his first diagnosis of small cell carcinoma in the liver. I will begin chemotherapy next week. It will be the same regime as for the first cancer: three days of infusion every three weeks x 4. With luck, this will slow or reverse the growths. However, as he said, this is very bad and this will eventually kill me because even if my liver gets better, the cancer will migrate to another location. After this treatment, he will assess my case and take it from there. 

My slightly crazy, blown-dandelion hair will fall out. I don’t know yet if I will have my head close-cropped again or just let it go as it wants.

I’m glad that Sweetie will have his sister around so that they can take care of one another. I have put down the Night Shift shawl in order to finish a pair of socks for him. 

Therapy Dog

 Wordle took me 6 tries before I solved it. I had 4 letters in the right place by try #3 and all I needed was that last consonant. 

To the oncologist today. It is raining cats and dogs with thunder rumbling every so often. Just the sort of day to drive an hour on the interstate, right. I hope the sump pump holds up.

I am calm, knowing that I am just a vessel from now on, a passive patient who will have things done to her and there are no decisions to make. I got my 4th Covid-19 booster yesterday. I literally shot out of the door to the nearest pharmacy when I heard the news that the FDA had approved it. I still had to wait while the manager called the owner, (it’s a small, independent drugstore), and I had to explain what medical condition(s) I had that made me eligible. So I related the tale of the anal cancer which was small cell carcinoma, and how the cancer had returned and that I would be getting chemo again. She recommended prayer and I scoffed. She asked if she could pray for me and I said that she could do whatever made her feel better but that I didn’t care.  

Just Dropped In

 

Wordle in 4 today. Not too bad, really. 

Went out to a pizza place with Sweetie Sunday night. We hadn’t really talked about ‘my condition’ until then, so it was good. I mean, it’s hard to talk about but there are practical aspects that need to get sorted out such as him getting the FMLA paperwork filled out for the doctor to sign. Sweetie said that his sister plans to not renew her teaching position in order to be available for my care. When I objected, he said that she was not thrilled with her 1-hour commute morning and evening and there wasn’t anything closer or better and so she was just looking for an excuse. Okay then. 

The other thing we talked about was taking a trip to England or Ireland, but only when my condition was so bad that it won’t make any difference if I drink. I quit drinking in 2012 because I am an all-or-nothing drinker. I still want to drink but I just don’t. 

We’ll see the oncologist tomorrow and I reckon I’ll get the chemo schedule then. He had also said that immunotherapy is an option so maybe we’ll find out about that then, too. I am so not looking forward to the sickness that the chemo brings but I don’t want to not do it, either. 

Last Spring I bought a pattern for a wooden whirligig in the shape of a P51 Mustang airplane but I was too sick to work on it and then it got put on the back, back burner. I may get a friend to cut out the pieces for me to assemble and paint. I would like to have it done and installed as a gift to Sweetie.  

Uncomfortably Numb

 Wordle in 3 on Friday, in 4 yesterday. I haven’t solved today’s; it’s still too early. Edited to add: Today's puzzle was hard! Took 5 tries.

The biopsy went well. It wasn’t painful but I was a bit tired yesterday, so I took the day off and lazed.

The doctor who performed the CT-guided biopsy, who had read my previous scans, said that the growths in my liver are most likely related to the anal cancer. Small cell carcinoma. The little buggers like to migrate. My feeling is that soon it will spread all over, and both I and the oncologist know that there won’t be a “good” outcome this time.

And yes, I am depressed. I saw this on Reddit: If someone says, “Don’t be depressed, there are people worse off than you,” you can reply with, “Don’t be happy, there are people much better off than you.”

I am also just sort of numb.

Thursday

 Wordle in 3 again. Knitting progresses.

Liver biopsy tomorrow.

A Sucky 'Journey'

I ripped out the first iteration of the Night Shift shawl and have begun again with a different palette of sock yarn. I don't have a lot, but I do have enough leftovers in purples and burgundies and greys and brights to match a new light purple skein. I’m pleased.

Wordle in three today, after not getting a single letter right in the first word. But that meant I eliminated 5 letters from the running. The second guess left me with 2 green and 1 brown, and the answer was easily discerned after that. 

I’ve been having mini panic attacks of the existential sort and I have no one to talk to about it. I don’t want sympathy, but a therapist to listen would be nice. I haven’t told Sweetie everything the oncologist said, because he doesn’t need to know just yet. I’ll let him remain optimistic until after the biopsy when we meet again with the doctor. Maybe my doctor is wrong, but I really don’t think so in my heart of hearts. 

I hope to continue writing about this sucky ‘journey’ I’m on. Sweetie and Sister-in-Law don’t read this blog and I don’t know if anyone else does, either, but that’s okay because just writing makes me feel a little better. I’ve never been an avid, or good, journal writer, being embarrassed by the crazy inner monologues that are my thoughts. And I feel that my writing skills, which used to be okay, are now shit. 

I’m 65 and the last chemo messed with my cognitive skills and while I’ve gotten most of those skills back, I can’t say that I am just like new. And I also want to say here that I have noticed a few things going on with my body over the last 2 or 3 weeks that have had me a little concerned.  Instead of my physical strength increasing, it was slowly decreasing. I had stopped getting better.

What Do I Know

 

Wordle in 6 again today. I hear that it is poor form to discuss ones Wordle score, but since I have so few accomplishments otherwise, I will keep posting about these successes.

Other news is that I had a CT scan yesterday, three months after my last scan was clear. This time the doctor saw, I think he said, 6 golf ball-sized growths in my liver. He was surprised and saddened since we thought it was going to just be a routine scan.

I was, and am, strangely calm. I had gone through all the emotions during my first cancer diagnosis, though, and so pretty much all I had to say was, “Well, shit.”

I will have a biopsy this Friday and will meet with the oncologist again next week, and he said that I had options including more chemo as well as immuno-therapy but the prognosis isn’t good since the golf balls had grown so much in such a short time. I have more than 6 months but most likely less than 5 years to live is his best guess. 

It’s weirdly comforting to have a time frame to get my affairs in order.

Happy Equinox

 

The daffodils are blooming and the houseplants are ready to go outside soon. This is half of them.

Wordle in 6. Yesterday was also 6. In spite of that, I really like this puzzle and am glad it only comes once a day. 

I'm okay

 Wordle in 3 today. I had a lucky starting word. 

My cold is getting better, but it's a cool and dreary day. In other words, a Good Day to Knit. 

Also me

 

I have a cold. Sister-in-law caught it from one of the Petri dishes in her classroom. She was afraid it might be Covid but tested negative. I asked Sweetie, who now has it, how this could have happened, what with all the mask-wearing we still do, like, all the time. And he said that there is no vaccine for the cold. Dammit.

I had forgotten what a fountain of mucus feels like when leaving my face. May you all be well.

Also, it took me 6 tries to solve Wordle today. My average is 4 but I have two 2s and a sprinkling of 3s.

We Live in the Land of Cheap Gas

 

Amoeba Cartoon

 

Click to embiggen.

Knitting and Bread

Here it is March and my daffodils look like they’re ready to pop and the few little crocuses in the backyard are blooming. Spring is trying but March is a treacherous month and not to be trusted. For example, it was almost 80º Saturday and today we’ve had flurries and will barely get above freezing. 

It’s a good day to stay inside and bake bread and knit. I make a kind of ‘slow rise’ loaf that takes about 4.5 hours but most of that time is hands-off. So in the meantime, while I’m waiting, I’m knitting. (I tried sourdough bread making over the summer along with some so-called artisanal bread and finally realized after a few months that I didn’t much like either one.) 

Fell into a rabbit hole of mosaic crochet a while back. It was fun and easy and I watched many videos about it by a jolly Icelandic woman named Tinna Thorudottir Thorvaldar. I even bought a pattern from her off of Ravelry. Now, I have been crocheting longer than I have been knitting, which is a long time, and I have never had any issues with my tendons or had pain of any sort from crocheting. This time, though, after a few weeks my right arm was so sore that I had to stop. I bought some of that K Tape (kinesiology tape) and that helped. I also cut the toes off of some compression stockings and wore that for a couple of weeks. My arm seems healed now, for the most part, but I am sad that I cannot pursue the mosaic crochet.

However, there is such a thing as Mosaic Knitting! I made a scarf as a first project and it turned out reasonably well. I made it to particularly go with this sweater coat.

I bought Barbara G. Walker’s book on the subject. (And what an interesting person she must have been.) 

I have now embarked on the Nightshift Shawl by Andrea Mowry. Again, I bought a stand-alone pattern which is something I have seldom done in the past, but I don’t feel I have the time anymore to figure shit out, re-invent the wheel, and so I will now happily pay someone else who has already done the work. 

The shawl calls for worsted weight yarn in 6 or 8 colors, but I had the idea to use 2 sock weight, self-striping yarns. It will take me forever, I am sure, but it is interesting to see how the different yarns interact. Banana for scale.

I am still knitting socks for Sweetie. This is Berroco Sox yarn.