Something Old and Something New

So here comes the old news.

I have been trying to find ways to explain what caused me to not post as much as I would like and it has always been difficult so I have decided to use this picture of something I made and go from there.

These are 3 chemo caps I made to give the the Kaiser radiation department I went to for 30 days for radiation treatment for breast cancer.  But before you get all upset it really was not horrendous as I only had a lump less than 1 centimeter in size and it was all contained in the one lump.  The lymph nodes were clear and they only removed one and there was no cancer cells in any of my margins.
I had great people treating me very well and it all went well.  I am one of the very fortunate people who did not have to have Chemo therapy.  I am blessed.  Yes, cancer is bad and yes it was very traumatic at the time, but I am one of the lucky ones.
It all started the Monday after Thanksgiving, the two guys I call my other husbands and I were going to celebrate one the their birthdays.  We went to this really neat cafeteria type place at William Jessup University in Rocklin.  It has been written up in the paper and so we were heading off.  I was waiting for the Birthday boy to show up when I got my phone call,  and it was couched not in the form of a request but a demand that I was going in for a follow up with the possibility of a sonogram and more to follow.  It was the way they told me, and I had other occasions when they thought there was something and there wasn't so I was a little shook up.  Of course being me I couldn't tell my guys about it and ruin a birthday, so off we went, of course the Fisherman wasn't available he was at a meeting all day.  They only made me wait a few days for my appointment, that was also a good thing as you get really stressed waiting for the outcome of these things.
The day of the appointment came and I went from mammogram to sonogram to lumpectomy but again I was fortunate, the Fisherman was with me and they spelled everything out for us including the fact that from what they were seeing, the size and location and the sample they saw it would not be bad.  I was scheduled for the 19th of December for surgery.  Me being me, did not tell anybody about it.  It was Christmas time and I sure didn't want anyone else to be miserable.  The Fisherman ended up telling our daughter and his sisters, who are probably one of the best support groups I could have at any time.  And they rallied round me, it is hard for all of us as I lost my sister/aunt to breast cancer and my husbands mother.  But that is why early detection is so important.
Surgery came and went and I had the best surgeon ever, she was hoping to get the official news and she did on Christmas Eve and called me with the outcome.  She was as excited as I was.  So, I only had to have 30 days of radiation and then I take Tamoxifen for 5 years.  The 30 days did drag on forever (you don't go on Saturday, Sunday or Holidays) and I did get a pretty good sunburn, but I had very little pain so I am grateful.  After Christmas I started telling people when I would see them.  I say I have radiation brain as I seem to be slightly scattered sometimes in the things I do.  I feel like Dorie in Finding Nemo.  I also had a positive side there is a Professional Knitter, who creates and writes patterns for knitting for publication, books and magazines and she had posted right before all this looking for someone to help her do some project work. She has become a dear friend and for that too I am grateful, as she kept me focused on some goals and that was a good thing.

These are for all of you out there who have family members or yourself that has had to deal with Cancer.  May you and your loved ones always stop and smell the roses and share them with other people.

Here is the new News.
As for me, maybe now I can start to blog again and share some of my fun things I have been doing.  As long as the mouse thief does  not strike again, you never know when that will happen.

Something Current Before Something Old

This sprightly chicken came to me in the mail on Thursday, he managed to make me very happy.  Just looking at him makes me smile.  His creator is a fellow blogger "Yetzirah" and she makes these marvelous cards and little pictures.  She sells them in the summer at a farmer's market in Etna, CA.  She is a friend of the heart, a fairly new one that makes me feel like I have known her forever.  She is very crafty and creative. Her felted purses are phenomenal, they are tastefully colorful and have special little touches.  She is becoming a very good gardener, and wants to actually own live chickens.  The little one on the card is a start.  She was doing some cleanup and when she got done she passed it on to me.  This kind of cleanup I will take on any time of course if you can't figure out why you don't know me very well.  Here are some hints. They are destined to make me use my brain and be more creative.

Great colors!

Soft and squishy, Yummy.

Did you guess?   What else would make my heart go pitty pat but yarny goodness.  I will take that kind of cleaning out any time.  I am still smiling 2 days later.  But of course I have all these other things in the works that need to be finished first, a shawl for a designer, a pair of socks for a friend, 2 of my Fake Fair Isle hats, a chemo cap, and a deadline gift that my daughter needs.  They are all languishing on the needles, waiting for me to get my act together.  The shawl and the socks are top priority and then the next things.  Oh dear not enough knitting hours in the day, and of course I have to do some reading in there somewhere.  Sometimes I can knit and read on my Kindle at the same time, lately not so much and that is the lead in to the continuation of "Something Old" (besides me)

It all started to snow ball the day before Thanksgiving, it was a kind of over cast day in the beginning and the Fisherman wanted to go fishing.  But first I had to go get my mammogram and we both wanted to get flu shots.  We got both done really pretty early in the day and went up to the Yuba River.  The Fisherman fished and Pippi and I sat in the car and I knitted, I was working on some socks for a birthday gift.

Before we left I had finished this short sleeve sweater as a test knit for another Raveler.  it came out great, too small for me, but was passed on.  But I digress.

As you can tell it was a little warm in the car.  Pippi and I did get out except for some reason I didn't take any pictures.  The Fisherman hooked a few and we drove home.  The best part of the trip was seeing all the migratory birds in the rice fields, there were swans and geese and of course ducks.  When they would take off and move in a group it looked like a huge wave in movement.

We spent the next day with the Bubber and his mm and dad.

The photo above the Bubbber is what I was working on that day, they were washcloths and so much fun to make.  I found the pattern through Pinterest.

The Bubber was his usually smiley self, always a joy to be with.  My SIL made the turkey the way we had made it the year before, we split it in half and put stuffing under the halves and roasted it that way.  It takes a lot less time, stays moist, the legs get cooked through and you have lots of crispy skin.  You know the unhealthy part.  I got to retell my story of the turkey with no skin.  My children were taught to cook very early and we ate turkey once a month at least.  So when I was Real Estating they would put it in the oven to cook.  I came home a little late one day and the turkey was resting, when I peeked at it I was a little surprised, it had no skin.  The two of them had been picking at it the whole time and picked it bald.  Needless to say this current turkey went to the table pretty bald too.  

The skinless turkey can barely be seen on the left.  

He was enjoying the caveman or Renaissance Fair approach and didn't put the drumstick down till he was done.  It was an excellent meal.  And of course it wouldn't be complete without PUMPKIN PIE! as my grandson says it.  He said quite emphatically as he actually helped make a PUMPKIN PIE from scratch so he gave us all the details and served the pie.

Finished Objects The Blogger Returns

 I kind of left you with my starting on a project.  This had been in the works for a while.  I found the plain orange-rust yarn, it is a single ply 4 weight 100% wool.  Then I found the same yarn in a multi stripe.  I had always wanted to make a Fair Isle something so here was my chance.  At first the yarn seemed too thin for a 7 or 8 needle, but when I worked on it, it bloomed.  And softened and became yummy.  It was neat to get into the rhythm of knitting Fair Isle, something I have probably not done since I was 20.  My goal was to work on this fake version ( I have 2 more hats in the works) to prepare myself to make a steeked (eeek) sweater.  Or maybe I will just make a flat version, sewing and cutting scares me.

I was really pleased with the finished project.  The hat is a semi beret and the pattern is on my Ravelry projects page.  The next ones I am working on are random Fair Isle patterns.

I also started on baby boy sweaters.  My only married niece was pregnant and we didn't know the sex.  I wanted to make sure to be creative in making boy sweaters.  

I didn't have any baby boy baby yarn kicking around so I got to look for yarns that appealed to me.

This was yarn that I got in a thrift store it is Caron Simply Soft and I ad just enough blue to make the sweater and a hat.

This is yarn from JoAnne's and off the top of my head I cannot remember what it was.

I got this yarn at a thrift store also and decided to make a hat.

And then we had some more company who also had a great time, and all too soon it was time to move out.  

I am very fortunate to have a copy of this picture.  It makes my heart happy and brings me joy.  It is a smaller version and I had enough copies for special people.  

This kind of takes us to the end of October unless I find some more pictures with stories, so good night all.

The Disappearing Mouse and the Disappearing Blogger

The Fisherman stole my mouse.  That is my story and I am sticking to it.  Not really, well he did steal my mouse and that was how this long, long, hiatus happened.  When we were at the lake the wifi would have issues.  And sometimes being on long enough was tricky.  I think every time more than 5 people were on someone was dropped and it always seemed to be me.

The mouse doing a disappearing act happened because the lap top the Fisherman inherited from me was hard to use unless you used a mouse.  And we only had 1 mouse that was wireless and I really love that mouse.  It is small for one thing and it can sit on the corner of a laptop for a mouse pad.  And finding a replacement became tricky as I am very parsimonious when it comes to replacing things that I already have.  When I realized the mouse was not returning home to my computer it was October, and a lot of things were happening.  But first I am going to catch you up.

This is the Pip squeek waiting to catch up.  She is doing the typical terrier sprawl.  It is one of my favorite things she does.  Our Schnauzer used to do it too and so do "The Boys" up in Seattle. 

In early August my Nephew JC and his mother, one of my Sister's in law came for a few days.  We had such a good time with them and we convinced JC to come back for a visit to go up to the lake.  Everybody loves the pictures with the tree so we had to showcase another one.  When he and his mom visited the Boober and his mom and dad had a conflict.  But the Boober came with his dad and spent the day with JC.  They swam, they had water gun fights and they just hung around.  The Boober told JC all about the bats at the lake, and how they came out at night.  We were heading up there that night and JC was really looking forward to sitting on the porch and watching them fly off into the night on their quest for bugs.

It was a typically beautiful night.  We had a goofy quick dinner and the deck and waited for the bats to appear.  And waited, and waited.  We had built this whole scene into a big production, flying bats everywhere.  Swooping on bugs soaring into the night.  OOps, guess who decided to migrate in the last few days we had been there.  We had a big no show.  We had a disappointed nephew, who told us that if the Boober hadn't told him the story about the bats he would have thought we were pulling his leg.  We went to bed.

The next day the guys got up and went to do a survey, at least the pelicans did not disappoint.  There were so many more than the last time we were there.  They were also obviously migrating.  Even the deer showed up to prove that they existed.  And the Bald Eagles, so he wasn't completely diappointed.

While they went off to do a survey I worked on a fake Fair Isle hat design. 

Long Time No Post

Mea Culpa.  It has definitely been a while.  We came back from the cabin and had to get ready for some very important guests.  This was a view of Lake Shastina as we left.  The water of course is being drawn down for the ranches in the area.

The day before our important guests came I told them they needed to look for the the chicken in my kitchen.

He sits in among the plants in my garden window.

Here are two of my very important guests with the fisherman.  My darling granddaughter age 2.5 and my darling grandson soon to be 4.  It was a gorgeous morning.  The last time they were together he was going to be age 2 and she was 6 months old and crawling on the floor.  They immediately fit together like 2 peas in a pod.  Their temperaments are very much alike, almost always happy and easygoing.  Especially if they get to be with Grampa.  He is the 3rd most important person in the their lives, their mothers are first, fathers second and and I hope I come in as 4th.  She was calling him "honey and sweetie" and he wanted to be included in everything she did.  

This is "Bubbles" movie star pose.  Notice the big grin?

This is the 'Bubber" doing a Tarzan imitation.  He loves when Grampa puts him up in this tree and he gets to sit among the leaves.  

The week before "Bubber" helped me make Peach Yogurt Ice Cream.  It was a lot of fun for him.  He loves to wear hats and I found a red Chef's hat for him.  He was making the Ice Cream in anticipation of 'Bubbles" coming to visit.  We facetimed her and promised her we would make her favorite Yogurt Ice Cream when she came.  He also promised to save her some of the peach.

Here they are getting all the ingredients together and discussing Bubbles favorite flavor which is strawberry.  He shared his hat with her.

She isn't as much of a hat person as he is, but she loved putting it on and giving us a big smile.  

They got to send almost 2 whole days together swimming and playing.  It was warm, but not too warm.  It meant so much to me to have the 2 of them together.  It actually was a birthday present for me.  Probably one of the best birthday presents I will ever get.  It was hard to see them leave.  I know we will get to see Bubbles in the fall, and we do see Bubber at least once a month.

As a side note, the nicknames for the two of them came from when they were infants blowing bubbles.  As a grandmother I had read somewhere that it was a good idea to have a special name for your grandchildren.  Liam when he was blowing bubbles made the funniest noise so we called him "Bubber",  Hailey's were more just Bubbles and so her name became that.  He knows that is his special name and so does she.  If you ask them who Bubbles and Bubber are they will tell you, who is who.  And they seem to love the fact that they have a special "code" name.

I still have more to talk about and will tomorrow.  There will be some finished objects and some works in progress.  Or maybe some almost finished objects.  

Dog Days of Summer

It was really hot the other day when I took this picture.  I think it was 97 degrees.  Pippi kept going outside and sitting on the chaise waiting for me to come out and join her.  When the weather is in the high 80's I will go out and sit and knit.  It was way too hot for that, but she thinks if she waits there I will come and join her.  Instead I was sitting messing around on my computer.

You can tell what she thought of my being on the computer as she tried to edge it out of the way.  I had been reading a knitting magazine previously and she didn't like that either.  It was the Autumn 2013 Creative Knitting.  It has quite a few great patterns in it. 

When I didn't respond the way she wanted, she really got in my face.  This is her PLEASE, please face.  It didn't work.  We did go out when it was starting to cool a little and swim.  She loves being in the backyard with someone.

10 Pound Dog Swims the Sacramento River

I know the picture is hard to see of the dog, but you do get to see the Fisherman with something in front of him.  The water in the Sacramento river where it flows into Lake Siskiyou is just below the Fisherman's knees.  Pippi isn't that tall.  She was on a leash, but took off into the water to swim.  He followed along for safety sake.  She made it across.  It was a gorgeous day.  The Fisherman and his buddy fished in Lake Siskiyou, the fish were too wily and they did not catch any.  But they had fun trying.  The buddy's wife and I joined them after they had been there a while.  It is a great little lake.  Lots of people take advantage of it.  There is a path around the lake for hiking and biking.  There is a beautiful picturesque suspension bridge and plenty of beaches.

View of Mount Shasta from Lake Shastina Golf Course

The Fisherman, his fishing buddy and the buddy's wife went golfing on the morning of the 4th of July.  They were very fortunate as the temps stayed under 80 till they were done.  In fact the whole time we were there the temps weren't too bad.  At night it cooled down into the 60's so it was even better.  The course has 27 holes.  I do not golf, in fact it is a standing joke about my inability to golf.  I was and still am (sometimes) quite athletic.  When I met the Fisherman I was still in college, he and his parents were avid golfers.  So being the person I was, I decided I would take golfing as a PE requirement in College.  I thought I did really well, until the time came for me to go out onto a course for longer than an hour with the Parents and the Fisherman.  After 9 holes (it was an 18 hole course) we decided I was hopeless and left it at that.  I haven't golfed since.  The interesting thing is the course we were on was at the Hotel (resort) I grew up at.  Famous people played on this course, one being Dwight David Eisenhower, you know one of the ex presidents.  People loved this course.  It was beautiful, has great water hazards, and a neat landscape but it did not help me to be a better golfer.  

When we were ready to come home I found 3 more of my unfinished projects.  I had been looking for them and thought I brought them and they were tucked away.  Something to work on this week and I will post the finished objects.