Shortly after my last post my mother-in-law passed away. We knew it was coming and was only a matter of time, and she suffered from dementia to a degree where she no longer recognized anybody and didn't appear to find enjoyment any longer in her life, but nevertheless it was hard to say goodbye.
We gathered the troops and prepared to drive down to Pennsylvania for the funeral. There were a lot of little things to take care of, like appropriate clothing for the kids (the boys have been growing so quickly that we didn't have suits that fit them) and what to do with Aya (our Japanese exchange student), as I felt there was no need to drag her to a family funeral and make her miss 3 days of school. We got the call just in time to pull our oldest son off the plane (he was on his way back to college for his second semester) with about 15 minutes to spare. In a way, it helped me to focus on all the little details until I was ready to experience the funeral and the sadness. It was a difficult time, but as my husband's Aunt K said, the silver lining was that all the family was together.
Since then, we've been back at school and work, kids have survived midterms, and DH and I have caught up with our work too. I've been feeling really up and down over the last couple months and haven't blogged because I was afraid it would turn out sad and whiney. But here are some highlights of the beginning of 2012:
I drove up with a vanload of ladies from my knitting group to visit Susan, my running partner and fellow knitter, in her new house outside of Boston. It was a great visit, but of course it ended too soon. We made it a day trip, leaving as soon as our kids had left for school, but with a 2-hour drive each way the visit couldn't be terribly long, and we ran out of time before we ran out of conversation!
I've almost finished knitting a top-down raglan cardigan that I've been working on for ME! I just have buttonbands to finish knitting, and buttons to buy. I have pulled out my notes from a class on buttonbands that I took at Stitches a couple of years ago with Leslye Solomon (who is an excellent teacher, but the way!). So glad I kept the notes. I am just about out of yarn, and have unravelled my gauge swatches and now I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that I'll have enough yarn to finish. At least with a top-down sweater, I can pull out an inch from the bottom of the ribbing if I really need more yarn and the sweater will still look good and I won't have to reknit anything.
 |
| Cardigan ready to bind off |
 |
| close-up of yarn - more accurate color |
Maybe I'll be able to accomplish more now that I have space to work and think! It has certainly helped me find more energy - I've gotten my dresser top cleared off too! There are more areas of the house to go, but I do feel like I'm making progress, and it feels good to get rid of the clutter.
Two of the kids are participating in the school spring musical: one in the chorus and the other playing in the pit orchestra. They've been staying late at the school for rehearsals every night this week and they opened last night. I know the kids have been enjoying the experience, but they are getting tired and fighting to keep up with homework, so I suspect they'll be a little relieved when all the performances are done. I went to see them on opening night and it looks good. I'll go see it again next weekend too.
Time to go finish up a sweater, or work on a quilt, or (more likely) do more of the never-ending laundry.
Shelley in CT
No comments:
Post a Comment