Update...

as promised, a peek at the knitting that has been going on here in post-op world...

my B-Side Cardigan

The flash makes it a little shinier than it is, but the fabric, which is wool and silk, has the nicest weight and drape...

the Metropole sweater coat

yeah, it's boring to look at - charcoal grey linen stitch ad nauseum... but I think it will be most serviceable when done...

Shibuiknits Transition gloves, made with their sock yarn, which is SO YUMMY


these socks, made using Flat Feet yarn, were finally wrapped up - they were started in May!!

When I started these, I wasn't wild about the yarn - felt plastic-y, not very soft - but perhaps my fingers have changed or something, because I'm actually quite happy with them, and looking forward to wearing them.

There's been some sample knitting:




and there have been sock clubs:


including a couple of the BEST sock club packages ever unleashed on knitters


Between you and me, I am overloaded at this point, and will be stopping all but two or three of these clubs in the very near future...

There's been some Hallowe'en
My son is on the left, wearing a sign saying "Pull my finger for $1", because he figured that a hobo would have to do something creative to earn money. Yup, he gets it all from me...

Leaf raking (ohhh, did I mention I can't rake? Gee... those poor boys...).
And not 12 hours after they got the backyard cleared, both big trees just kind of stretched and sighed, and now you can't see any sign of lawn whatsoever...

I have discovered that, although I can't rake, I can use a small leaf blower, and I am having fun (yeah, that's right, yard work can be fun) with it - in small doses, of course.

I'm just wondering if I'll be able to spin this post-op fragility out a little more, once there's snow on the ground (which feels like it could be tomorrow!) ... I probably won't be able to shovel till... hmmm, maybe May?? Think they'll buy it?

4 weeks and holding...

Yes, it's actually been 4 weeks since I joined the ranks of the Wombless Wonders, and I am amazed and surprised by some of the things I've learned...

* people waiting in pre-op are sitting ducks for students nurses wanting to "practice" for their IV certification.

* I have a 2-poke limit, after which I get bitchy and insist that the supervisor put the damn thing in.

* it hurts to knit with that many holes in your hand.

* the quality of hospital food seems to have deteriorated since my last stay 10 years ago, for an emergency appendectomy.

* however, they now attempt to make it seem better by providing menus with "clever" names for the food.

* in hospital-ese, "ham with gourmet sauce" = inedibly salty meat with heated applesauce.

* this is no way to seduce those with fragile appetites back to the dining table.

* no matter how surreal your morphine/gravol induced fog may feel, it can always be made more so by the addition of a few long-term elderly patients to the acute surgical care ward.

* it's even more surreal when one of said long-term patients has a penchant for warbling song tunes at all hours, usually with nursing staff participation (imagine "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" at 2am, with a nurse hollering, "Come on, Bill, sing us another chorus").

* 2 full days in hospital is considered a luxury, and the second day must, in fact, be bargained, nay, pleaded for.

* when they say 'major' surgery, they mean it.

* when they say 'no heavy lifting', they mean it.

* I am more of a control freak than I knew. And I mean it.

* I am also a bad patient, which surprises me. All my life I have nursed images of myself as a lady of leisure, sitting and knitting and reading, sipping my mint juleps and having 'people' do things for me. The reality is that I HATE having people do things for me. Yet another myth disspelled.

* I am, however, extraordinarily grateful to have people who will do things for me, and sincerely hope that my control issues were relatively well controlled. If not, I blame the morphine, pure and simple.

In addition to the many life lessons, I have been knitting, and will have pics next time, which I promise won't be another 4 week wait - OKAY, MOM???!!!