First of all, thank you so much for all your good wishes. I really appreciate them! The KOARC (who has taken extremely good care of me) read all the blog comments and emails to me until I was able to sit a bit more comfortably at the computer and read ‘em myself.

So . . . it’s Thursday already, huh? It’s been a strange week.

I was here at 6:00 Monday morning:

Hospital

The KOARC thoughtfully took some photos, in case I wanted them for blog fodder. I don’t have much else to talk about, so today this is a medical blog. Here’s the back of my head in pre-op.

Wendy in Pre-Op

Exciting, no?

It was all over and I was back home before 11:00 a.m. It’s kind of surreal that you can have surgery, complete with general anesthesia, and be discharged the same day but I’m glad they do it that way — I’d much rather recover at home than in a hospital.

I was very impressed with the facility — Reston Surgery Center. All the people I came in contact with there were extraordinarily kind and efficient.

And I am cautiously optimistic about the outcome of this surgery — I do think it will fix my back issues.

My mom and dad came over that afternoon and my mom brought food to stock my fridge so we wouldn’t have to worry about preparing meals.

Here’s Lucy, happily ensconced in my dad’s lap.

Lucy 101807

And I’ve done a bit of knitting.

Sock 101807

The yarn is Fiesta Baby Boom in the “Dreamsicle” colorway, purchased at The Loopy Ewe. The pattern is a re-do of the Lacy Rib pattern I worked up during the Summer of Socks. I adjusted it slightly because I wasn’t completely happy with it. Now I am. Completely happy with it.

Okay, I think that’s all for now. I can only stay at the computer for short periods, so it’s time for me to quit. But first take a look at this:

Card 101807

Inside:

Card 101807a

That’s a card I got yesterday from Reston Surgery Center signed by all the people I came in contact with there on Monday. Pretty nice, huh?

And just because it’s so darn cute, a card L-B sent with a “care package” for me.

Card from L-B 101807

Awwwwwww!

And thanks again for the comments, emails and cards I’ve received. I really appreciate them all.

Lucy sez:

Lucy 101807a

Being a nurse is hard work!

This is KOARC with a quick note to let everyone know that Wendy’s back surgery went according to plan this morning.

Wendy is already at home and resting comfortably with kitty and painkillers, and will be back to competing in triathlons in just a few weeks.

She asks that I thank you for all your kind comments and emails.  However, she won’t be able to respond personally since she’ll only be able to sit at the computer for short stretches for a while.  But she appreciates all your kind thoughts very much!

Sorry, almost no photos of Stitches. It was all I could do to drag myself around, let alone think about pulling my camera out of my bag.

But I had a great time and covered the market pretty darn thoroughly, considering I way over-estimated my physical abilities. Saturday was definitely a highlight — L-B and I met up with Daisy and Jill for breakfast, and then later in the market, blogless Linda joined us. Much hilarity and yarn acquisition ensued.

Here is the only picture I actually took at Stitches:

Stitches Insanity 101407

L-B is on the phone with Neuroknitter while Linda, clutching L-B’s new alpaca teddy bear, has her foot up on the table, showing us the fun socks she is wearing.

(See what party girls we are?)

Which reminds me, I finished the Butterfly socks.

Butterfly Socks 101407

The close-up:

Butterfly Socks Close-up 101407

To recap, this is Cherry Tree Hill solid sock yarn in “pink” knit on a 2mm needle.

I did take a couple of photos on the train coming home.

Alpaca Bear 101407

I almost kidnapped that little guy from L-B. And here’s L-B’s foot encased in her L-Bee sock:

L-Bee sock on Train 101407

(Never expect me to accurately photograph an event.)
So I got home at noon today. Now I’m doing laundry and trying to make sure I’m all set for surgery tomorrow. I think I’m ready. All bills are paid through the end of the month. All friends who might even have considered sending flowers have been asked not to — Lucy would just shred and eat ‘em and make a mess for me to clean up. I’ve got plenty of bottled water and diet soda. And chocolate.

The KOARC will post here at some point tomorrow to let you know I survived and am being a lousy patient.

Lucy sez:

Lucy 101407

“My daddy took awfully good care of me, but it’s nice to have my Momma home too!”

There will be no blog post tomorrow because I’m heading up to Baltimore in the morning for a nice long weekend at Stitches with L-B.

The other day someone asked in the comments how to recognize L-B and me for “real.” Apparently my field guide was not specific enough.

L-B and I consulted and came up with the following:

L-B is just an ootch under 5’3″ tall. Wendy is just an ootch under 5’6″ tall.

L-B has long (though she had it cut today so your guess is as good as mine!) greying hair, hippie-style. Wendy has light reddish brown hair that badly needs cutting — it’s about 150 different lengths, the longest being shoulder length. And it hangs in her eyes.

L-B has beautiful blue eyes and will not be wearing glasses. Wendy has green eyes and will be wearing glasses.

L-B will be wearing birkies, Wendy will be wearing tan Earth shoes in the “Hippie Vegan” style. I expect we’ll both be wearing handknit socks.

That’s the best I can narrow it down for you.

Speaking of handknit socks . . .

The first Butterfly Sock.

Butterfly Sock 101007

This shows the color better:

Butterfly Sock 101007a
Lucy Sez

Lucy101007

“My daddy will be looking after me this weekend. I know he’ll put catnip on my favorite fish toy for me!”

Okie dokie, I’ll be back for a quickie post on Sunday. Hope to see some of you at Stitches!

Wow, it’s hard to believe that it’s Leif Erikson Day again already. Time flies, does it not?

Leif Erikson Day or not, today I did go to work. So there is just a bit of progress on the sock.

Butterfly Sock 100907

There have been a couple of comments recently, asking me about my sock design process. Like — what software do I use for charts.

I have Stitch and Motif Maker v3.0 and I use it occasionally, but more often than not, I use a Knitting Symbols font by Aire River Design and Microsoft Word tables. If I am doing a huge chart, I’ll use Excel, but for socks, tables in the body of a Word document usually work just fine for me.

But I usually start out with graph paper and pencil and doodle up something I think might look good. Sometimes I knit a swatch, and sometimes I fearlessly start a sock and incorporate my lace pattern into it. Sometimes I have to rip back to the toe and adjust. This was true of the Butterfly Socks — I didn’t like the placement of the lace motif I had decided on initially, so ripped back and re-did it. So this sock has actually been started three times.

Several of you have asked about the fate of the patterns for my latest completed socks. For the next little while, they are going nowhere — I’ve too much on my plate to deal with at the moment.

But you may have noticed that Sheri did a shop update at The Loopy Ewe — I think all of my current patterns are in stock right now. I sent her a huge order, so they should stay in stock for a bit.

Mystery Fibers

Here is the last installment of mystery fibers from Clara:

Mystery Yarns 100907

They are both from large animals .  .  .

Meanwhile Back at the Ranch

Lucy 100907

Lucy is doing an interpretive dance in celebration of Leif Erikson Day.