update.

Gord has been doing awesomely. He was released a whole week & a half earlier than they had originally anticipated. The first week home was a lesson in what his limitations were, but he got a lot of good rest. It's so nice to take the streetcar *home* after work each night. I started my new job the day after Gord first went into the hospital - I'd go to the hospital straight from work & then home. Now I know what it's like to cut out that pesky middle part & just get straight to the good stuff.

He had an appointment with his doctor on Wednesday - they did another bone marrow biopsy & the good news is that Gord is in remission (yay!) the not-so-good-news is that he's still not done treatments. Next week he'll begin phase two of his protocol. Radiation therapy. Lets hope that he does as well with this as he did with chemo. It seems somewhat unreal that he's already in remission, but I guess the Leukemia was detected early enough that it was a little easier to blast it out of his body.

It's been great having him back. I love coming home from work to Gord's awesome dinners & a delicious smelling apartment. I love sitting next to him on the couch & while I may not love the steroided out snoring, I certainly missed falling asleep beside him. The apartment feels like home again. Today we have to put up our christmas tree & make this place holly & jolly.

It's hard to believe that Christmas is coming so soon. By this time last year I had practically all of my christmas crafting under control. This year I barely have any gifts - I'm worried that a lot of people will be getting I.O.U's from me. Last week I went to City of Craft in an effort to cross some stuff of my shopping list.

This show was on the same day that I had made plans to go to a church bazzar, buy winter boots & be home by noon to visit with Gord's family. I had to go to City of Craft early & good thing I did, too, because I got this awesome tote!

Inside the tote was a whole bunch of really great free stuff:
Awesome!
I bought some very nice handspun yarn, and something for Gord. The place was jam packed & the vendors were top notch, I hope this becomes an annual event.

There's been some crafting going on, but most of it is for work. My job requires many swatches to be made & there's a lot of "OMG! We need a pair of socks knit in 3 days!" kind of knitting. I like it though - I like knowing that if I really need to, I can get a project done lightning fast. But I have been trying to get knitting time on my own projects in as much as possible.

Which leaves me with a fantastic segue to talk about *Thermal.*

*DONE*. I weaved in all the ends, put some buttons on it & I declare it officially & totally complete.

I cast on the first weekend in June, at my friend Peter's cottage. I had several false starts - I twisted the stitches a couple of times without noticing. About an inch into the 1x1 ribbing I started to seriously doubt my decision to make a Nicole-sized sweater in fingering weight yarn. But now, snuggled up on my couch typing this & wearing the finished piece, I'm glad I soldiered on. It's gorgeous.


I used 18 balls of elann Baby Cashmere in 'pewter', on size 2 needles.
The pattern is great, I had no problems with this other than my own tortoise-y approach to getting it done. When I snipped the thread after sewing the buttons on, I felt as though a million pounds had been turned into billowy soft cashmere clouds.

I could say that my puffy eyes in all these photos are from knitting this sweater for the past 6 months, but really I think I still need major naps to catch up on the last month of no sleep.

So what now? I still have my Tangled Yoke Cardigan on the go, I have a few Christmas gifts on the needles & a simple everyday cardigan to replace the one I currently wear.... everyday. I am about to cast on for a *gorgeous* cabled thing. There is certainly no lack of things to take Thermals place in my "to do" basket.

Hmm, that post wasn't so long after all.