Saturday, March 12, 2011

Happy but weary ...

describes Bear, myself, the cubs and my knitting right now. Bear is fine, he is weary after the angioplasty but happy, today was the biannual cubs school fair and there I scored knitwear, the blanket lace edging goes on (and on), and I am about to knit some socks .....if only I can find the right yarn in my stash. There are photos today, of knitting, yarn and insides, but none of my knitting, that edging extends further along the blanket but looks pretty much the same as before.


This is a knitting blog, but sometimes non-knitting things creep in, like today. There were so many messages for Bear, wishing him well, sending good thoughts, and caring about him, I thought there might be some interest in the 'before' and 'after' photos. I'm not a medic, so my understanding and descriptors are fairly generic. Apparently these photos are made possible by injecting a special dye into the bloodstream that is recognized by the scanning equipment. This image shows Bears arteries, some where hidden in them is the ten year old stent.

And this is 30 minutes latter, following the new stent insertion and removal of the tools used - the much increased flow shows up as darker in this image. I think they must have repositioned the camera, same bits inside Bears body, but different view. And Bear - well he has his 'bounce' back, bouncier by the day - but still is weary part way thru the day. I can't remember much about his recovery 10 years ago .. but expect that improvements will continue for a while.

This was my score at the fair, a 'retro' cardigan. I love the cute little texture detail around the neckline and front edges. It is a a Verona, made in Mosgiel, barely 15 minutes drive from here. The Alliance Woolen Mill that produced it is long since closed ... but in their heyday made beautifully fully fashioned knitwear in pure soft new wool. This one is sized to fit in inches, not cm or numerical sizes .. and New Zealand metricated in 1969, although I suspect that clothes were sold in inches for a wee while after that. The only flaw is the loose thread from the button ... I think I can deal with that.

Yesterday I took the eldest cub to the stash room, no not a whole room (wouldn't that be nice?), but the room that houses the set of draws in which most of my stash is stashed. Together we selected yarn for his next socks, pink, pale blue, and purples were ruled out by him, the stuff with cashmere ruled out by me .. together we settled on this - Slippery Jim. Last night I hand wound it on a nostepinne into a ball, which for me always unpull nicer than ones that have been mechanically wound. Then I felt tested it ... just in case ... and it failed. Bother ... must be one of the non-super wash ones that I had not marked as such, and it is best to know before I knit the socks than after I knit them. That would be just too sad. Still it will make a lovely hat or scarf, or wrap, or mitts. He has the largest paws in the house, larger than Bears, so needs more hand knit socks for the winter. I will have to go and play in the sock yarn stash drawer again and select something else, and this time it might just be me ... .. all going well my next post should feature a new sock project.

Take care
na Stella

2 comments:

KathyR said...

Glad to hear that Bear is feeling the good effects of the angioplasty! Bloodflow does indeed look much improved, even to my untrained eyes.

Great find at the fair! The Verona label twigged something in the far recesses of my memory. Possibly from my Grandmother - I can remember her wearing cardigans similar to that. They also used to live in Mosgiel (long before I was born). Manufacturer's back then certainly did know how to make clothing which lasted well when taken care of.

Knitting Linguist said...

What really amazing pictures - you can see so clearly why he's feeling better after the surgery, now that he's recovering a bit! I'm so glad that it's working as it ought, and that he's feeling the benefits so quickly.

Also, love that sweater that you found - you're right, the collar and buttonbands are wonderful. Good luck finding the right sock yarn for the young cub (I just spun some sock yarn for myself and am still feeling amazed) :0