Long time between posts

I haven't blogged in a couple of months, because my fibering habits have been altered.  On April 12, my mother fell and damaged her spine.  She is now a quadriplegic, and is coming home from the rehabilitation center after being in hospitals and rehab for 12 weeks.  John and I have been back and forth to Missouri for me to be with her at the hospital and rehab, so my knitting is not of the complicated or time-consuming nature. I now am carrying mindless knitting with me, and doing it while waiting for therapy to get over, or while sitting in her hospital room chatting.

There are a couple of exceptions to this.  I have been carrying along with me the Tree of Life afghan.  It was a Knitting Paradise knit-along, and I couldn't resist.  It actually knit fairly quickly, and the pattern was intuitive once I learned to read the vines and leaves.  It was supposed to be a crib blanket, but it's big enough for a full-sized afghan.  I haven't decided what to do with it yet.  Maybe someday I'll adapt the pattern and knit a bedspread with it.  It was that much fun!

I also finished (finally!) a pair of socks using Liat Gat's toe-up heel gusset that allows you to add extra room in the instep.  That's really important to me, because my instep is so high that I can't get my foot into a short-row heel.  I always carry socks with me for waiting room knitting. The socks were made with one ball of Opal ZwergerGarn 4ply (462 yards is a lot of sock!)  I did a 3-1 rib all the way up the leg, adding 4 stitches of increase every 1-2 inches.  There was still yarn left when I got most of the way to my knee, but by then I was so tired of the sock, I just quit!

I made a prayer shawl for my mother after she was hospitalized.  Now I have orders for 2 more for her favorite nurses aides that have been really kind to her, and will be making shawlettes for 2 more of them.  Those are the kind of knitting I can do on the 12 hour drive from Cheyenne to Lake of the Ozarks, which John and I have made 4 times since April 15.  More knitting!