FINISHED PROJECTS

Today I am going to show you lots of pictures!!

First picture: The yarn I used to make my Ishbel. My Ishbel Shawl is COMPLETED!!! Yippie! As I write this I am wearing it! I will get pictures up here soon.... I haven't pulled them off of the camera yet.

Pictures 2-5: The hat I made for Chelsea!

Pictures 6 & 7: The completed Martha Shawl!

Picture 8: Caden. If you look closely, you can see the Sue Bibs tag! That tag is on his Taggie Blankie that I made him. Sue Bibs is the business that my mom, Naomi Sue and I (Karen Sue) are trying to get going.... Slowly but surely.... Taggie Blankie is a recent trial. Obviously, Caden is a fan! By the way, he is amazingly handsome!  (Also, this picture was on his dad's Facebook page! YAY for free advertising!)

Picture 9: Well a picture would be here, but that would be stealing! After I make my sister's Ishbel in a beautiful Cotton/Rayon/Silk blend in sunny yellow.... I am going to make a new capelet... however, there is no pattern. I will be doing a trial and error as I go along.... I saw this capelet idea on someone's www.etsy.com page. I didn't want to purchase it.... I wanted to make it. I keep telling myself that I copying is the sincerest form of flattery... and since I am not buying hers, then making one from that I feel that I am not stealing her design.... just the idea/style. Would this be any different from seeing a cute sweater on someone at the grocery store and going home to make something that looks similar? Can you see I feel a bit guilty about not only stealing her photo... (for reference.... but I will not be posting it... that seems REALLY wrong) but now her Idea..... Oh the dilemma!

I stand in awe....

I stand in awe of a girl named Chelsea. Young and beautiful and going through cancer. At 22 years old she had her abdominal lining removed (you know the part that holds all of your organs in place....) and a mesh insert put back in, to hold/support her internal organs. She is going through her cemo right now. You would think that she would stay home and sleep and cry and do all of the things that I think I would "choose" as my coping mechanism.... However, she doesn't do that... instead she comes to school every day and stands in front of her 5th grade students and teaches. She is a student teacher. She is bound and determined to graduate from college in May. She has even used her cancer and explaining to her students about her condition to teach her 5th grade class about inferencing... She is AMAZING! I stand in awe of her beauty, her courage, her determination, her strength, her perseverance, her sense of humor, her heart, her dedication. I am making her a knitted hat. It will look like this (only black):

http://www.headhuggers.org/patterns/kpatt18.htm

I hope that it fits her comfortably and is super soft on her skin! It should be soft because, it is made of  blackRowan RYC Cashcotton DK  a luxurious mix of 35% cotton, 25% polymide (nylon), 18% angora, 13% viscose (rayon) and 9% cashmere.

(from www.yarndex.com)

I may have to make myself something out of this amazingly soft yarn!

I was sitting in the 5th waiting room of the morning (out of 6 on Monday) waiting to get a head CT of my sinus. A man came in and sat down heavily. He had a tattoo of a tear drop below his left eye, and F*** YOU! tattooed across his knuckles. He looked like he was unhealthy, tired, alone. He began angrily flipping the pages of a magazine, (flip, flip, flip, flip) then turned to me and said "You got cancer?" (flip, flip, flip, flip) "Well I hope not," I responded. (flip, flip, flip, flip)"I hate cancer." He said gruffly, then asked "what are you here for then?" I told him that my Doctor was trying to find the cause of headaches. (flip, flip, flip, flip) (ok so this flip, flip, flipping went on for a while.....) He continued to tell me about his cancer, it was in his neck. He told me about how wouldn't wish anything like this on anyone. That if the scans he was about to have showed he had cancer, he didn't think that he would go through it all again. That he would rather be dead. He was very angry. He told me that he had no teeth, because the cemo and radiation had turned them to gristle, and how his drs. didn't think about that happening until his teeth needed to be removed. He had to have surgery to remove all of his teeth, they couldn't be pulled because they just broke apart in his mouth. He told me about his 35 treatments he had, about the hole in his leg where they took a camera through his artery to his neck to determine where to shoot in the cemo drug. He showed me the feeding tube still attached to his stomach. Talked about how the cemo and radiation burned him internally as well as externally. He spoke of not being able to eat and how he asked the Doctors to keep the feeding tube in just incase he had to go through this all again. He showed me the port that was imbedded under his skin just under his collar bone that they would shoot iv's into. He explained how the internal burns formed bumps that kept him from eating and that it hurt him to swallow his own spit. He talked about how the burns on the out side of his neck kept him from being able to sleep and as they healed would break open and bleed. He was angry. He was there to get his PET and CAT scans that would tell him and his Doctor's if he was done with the treatments. During all of this I put my knitting away and turned and listened to him. At the end I said, "Sir, I believe in God and I believe in prayer. That God listens to our prayers. Can I have your name. I would like to pray for you and pray that your PET and CAT Scans show that you are cleared of cancer." His name is Herb. After I wrote his name in my prayer journal, my name was called. I hope that God has a positive plan for Herb. It is so heartbreaking to hear some one say that they would rather be dead. I will continue to pray for Herb. I hope that God continues to put people in his life that tell him that they have faith in God. Maybe He does believe in God, maybe he doesn't. Maybe he will begin to wonder if he should believe in God.