Cold hands, warm hearts

As requested by Duffy, I bring you co-workers in hand-knits.

From left to right: Lynn, Cindy, Lori, yours truly, Ashley, and Nic. Michelle was off this day, so she didn't get her baby blue mitts until later.

Git 'er done

That's what I'm trying to do - during breaks in Dancing With The Stars. This is my favorite part : when it's down to five couples and they're all great.

I got ToolMan to take a picture of the Swallowtail during one of the commercial breaks.

I LOVE this pattern! It's small enough to be very versatile to wear, knits up quickly, and is very elegant looking.

I've already worn mine several times, but not with the new shawl pin ToolMan finished for me last week.


I've done other knitting, but it's planned for Christmas gifts, so nothing to talk about on that front.

And I got a bunch of spinning done last week, too. I have some time off that has to be used by the end of the year or I lose it, so I've planned to take off some Wednesdays to join my Spinning Sisters at the Grange.

And some plying has been done, too. Again, this is planned for gifts to be made, so really can't talk about that, either.

These are some Barbara's Buns that she brought me when she came up for SOAR. It was such a delight to have her company for the afternoon, and even more fun when we all went out to dinner. The picture really does not do these justice; they are dark chocolate brown with lovely burgundy and lavendar bits, and some sparkle, too! I'm thinking this will become a laceweight for another triangle shawl for my wardrobe.


Enough about me; Toolman is doing much better. He's feeling better, getting his energy level back, and getting his medications all worked out. The only thing left to deal with now is the skin cancer, which is fairly minor, out-patient surgery. A cake walk, considering what we've already been through this year. In fact, he had one of the surgeries today, on the top of his left ear; he has a humongus bandage on the ear and on the back of it where they had to take skin for a graft. They said he would have some pain, so they gave him a prescription; he said it's worse than he expected. But he says what bothers him more is the intense desire to start painting sunflowers and starry nights.

Short and sweet

Well, we think we've got all the shoes back on the rack; hopefully, they'll stay there!

We heard from our oncologist on Friday; the Tumor Board recommended no chemo or radiation. They feel sure that the number of carcinoma cells are minimal (of course, one is all it takes) and the side effects wouldn't outweigh any benefit that might be gained. They'll be doing a blood test for cancer markers every three months from now on and if the markers rise, he'll get a full-body CT scan to locate any new invasions. And he'll need a colonoscopy yearly from now on. So the only thing left now is the Mohs surgery for skin cancer, which should be pretty routine.

Jack has had a lumbar epidural for pain; he's going to try that before resorting to surgery. At least now, he's able to sleep in bed rather than the floor as he has been the last few weeks.

Joe is supposed to have a biopsy next week, but he has a cold and was running a fever on Friday so that will likely be postponed when he talks to the doctors tomorrow. He says he's really tired (high white blood counts do that) but hopefully that will go away when he's able to start treatment.

I forgot to tell you that last week, I met Cindy, Tammy, Judy, and Joan Schrouder for dinner. We met at the shop where Cindy works, All About Yarn, and went to dinner at Newport before going to the Tigard Knitting Guild. What a joy to see Joan again; and even better to see her presentation to the Guild of things she had knit through the years. I think my favorite was a Baby Surprise Jacket she made for a grandchild. Joan bravely knit the jacket in Oregon Beavers' orange and black, per the request of said child's father, being an Oregon Duck herself. But as they say, "the devil is in the details" so Joan sneakily put in a shadow knit pattern on the back; "GO DUCKS" in large letters. She says "the devil made her do it".

I also made it to Wednesday Knit Night last week and this one, too; I'm still working on those fingerless mitts for my co-workers. I felt nice to be "back in the fold" again!

And yesterday, my dear friend Barbara flew in from Phoenix for SOAR; she and Cindy both going for the whole week. I had the pleasure of entertaining her for the afternoon, which not a hard task at all! We sat in the living room in the fall sunshine with the fireplace going; she was knitting and I was spinning and we talked and talked and talked. I didn't realize how much I missed seeing her at OFFF this year! Then Cindy and Judy came to meet us for dinner. ToolMan stayed home (USC was playing), so the four of us had a wonderful dinner at Chinatown Restaurant. It may not look like much, but this place has the best Chinese I've ever eaten. Judy took home the doggie bag and I brought a family dinner home to ToolMan; he loves their pork chow mein!

After some good news and some good times with good friends, I feel very much rejuvenated and ready to face the world again.

Just how many shoes are there?

For the last two weeks, it seems like every time we had the worst behind us, another shoe fell.

We got the first biopsy for ToolMan, indicating clear margins around the tumor. Then another shoe fell when I talked to my mother, we found out two of my brothers are facing serious health issues; one needs spinal surgery, and the other has been diagnosed with chronic lymphoma leukemia ("CLL"). We've known Jack would need back surgery sooner or later, and now it seems he won't be able to put it off any longer. Joe has been sick the last few months with numerous infections and now a biopsy of his lymph glands showed the reason. His oncologist says CLL is very manageable with medications, so we're hoping they can get it under control pretty fast.

ToolMan saw our regular internist as a followup from surgery; he was concerned about a spot on ToolMan's ear and on his cheek. He's had minor skin cancers removed before, but the doctor was concerned about the look of these and sent him back to the dermatologist. Turns out the biopsy showed invasive squamous cell carcinoma. Another shoe hit the floor. They're going to do Mohs surgery, an all day procedure where they take microscopic slices and run instant tests until they show clear, and then do reconstruction all at once. They'll do the ear first, in November, and the cheek second, sometime in December, so he has healing time in between.

ToolMan had referrals to a radiologist and medical oncologist, as followups to his surgery. He saw the radiologist on Tuesday, who said he didn't think radiation would be necessary, given that the tumor was stage 1. We were starting to feel like we had turned the corner, crested the hill, and were on good road again. Then we saw the medical oncologist on Thursday, and another shoe fell. It turns out that there were cancer cells found in the blood vessels going into and out from the tumor; it called angiocarcinoma and means basically that cancer cells are floating in his bloodstream looking for soft tissue to invade. It turns out that this development from stage 1 cancer is the hardest to treat. In stages 2, 3, and 4, the doctors have a clear plan; kill the cancer. In stage 1, it's less clear; the chances of a re-occurrence after doing nothing range from 5% to 28%, depending on whose test results you read. And with treatment, the numbers don't seem to change all that much. And we don't know how many cells there could be; is there 1? 100? Thousands? The treatment is chemo by pills daily and radiation 15 minutes per day for 6 weeks. The side effects of which can be pretty brutal. In short, we really like the medical oncologist, she's very open and generously took a lot of time to go over the biopsy, medical papers, options, and treatments. But she can't make a decision for us. We ended the meeting with an agreement that she will present this to the Tumor Board at OHSU to get further opinions, and she'll call us next week when, or if, there is a consensus from the Board and we'll make a decision from there.

Thankfully, there were some bright spots in the last few weeks. Like Spinnerati last weekend:

It's always nice to get back amongst my Spinning Sisters for an afternoon of fiber. And the hugs didn't hurt either.

Then a package showed up in the mail from Dave Daniels with my booby prize for the Summer of Spinning. This may be the softest superwash merino I have ever touched! And this picture does not do the color justice; it's more of a lavender blue; I can hardly wait to get started on it!

I didn't make it to Westside Wednesday a week ago; I was just too tired from all the ups and downs to make it. I think the Knit Sibs were trying to tempt me back, because on Thursday morning, when I went out the front door to work, this was hanging on the handle:

Definitely no trick here; it was all treat! Inside 12 balls of lovely blue bulky yarn! I'm not sure what I'll do with this yet, but I'm thinking it will make nice hats either for chemo patients or for Outside In.

There's been very little spinning going on, other than Spinnerati, though that will change now that I have that fiber from Dave. But there has been some knitting, but not much. I did finish a Swallowtail scarf, but it's too dark tonight to get a good picture so that will have to wait until next week.

Our new office has huge windows on two sides and we can't seem to hit a happy medium between the folks near the window (who are freezing when the thermostat say 71 and warm when it says 78) and the folks on the other side (who are roasting when the thermostat says anything above 73). Guess which side my team is on? I actually saw one of my paralegals wearing her down-filled coat and mittens last week. At her desk. The result? Mindless knitting to the rescue!

Simple 2x2 rib fingerless mitts in worsted weight; I'm on the third pair in less than a week. One pair for each of female paralegals and assistants on my team so I'm making 6 pair. I do have one male paralegal; he's been seen wearing polar fleece vests in the office of late. I don't think he'd wear the fingerless mitts, so I'm thinking short finger gloves for him. Any other suggestions?