Busy times

Suri and angora yarn. 

 I spun the suri worsted and the angora was long-draw.  This has all gone to the Advanced Spinners Group for the annual challenge.   I've got more angora to spin here and this was the first time spinning angora ever, no recovery at all meant I needed something to ply it with that had the same characteristic.  Suri is lovely and shiny, but drapes with no bounce; perfect!

Top is merino/silk, the bottom is suri plied with silk

 Just like the previous one I wanted to ply the remaining suri with something that had no recovery and draped well, silk to the rescue.  I need to spin more of it as I have only plied about half the suri; that will be an after surgery spin I think, I'm getting low on time.

My next knitting project - it's a test knit for Valerie of Wandering Cat Yarns and I wanted to get it started before surgery.  The yarn is Touch Yarn's 4-ply Merino and it's yum!  The beads are from stash, and perfect.

Forgive the fuzzy shot, eldest was using my cellphone and had issues focussing.  This is my third dress for post-surgery wear.  It's cute, but not something I'd normally wear.  Fabrics are a quilting cotton for the yoke and some very old rayon from stash for the rest.

And my final finished dress with quilting cotton around the neck and the body is a merino/nylon blend; the colour is perfect and I might actually wear this in the winter as well.  The pattern is a frankenpattern as the sleeve for the dress pattern wasn't right, so I did some re-drafting to use the Ottobre t-shirt sleeve.  It fits so much better!

Before and After next!

My hair before hitting the hairdresser last week; for the first time in at least 2 years

and after!  Much easier to take care of post-surgery and everything is about that at the moment.

As well as all the above I have finished spring cleaning the house now, done a list of upcoming stuff that Dh needs to be aware of while I'm out of action and have almost finished reorganising the studio. I'm not sure if I'll have time to warp the loom, but I'm going to try.  We've also organised eldest's birthday party for the day before my surgery; I won't be able to eat anything, but I'll cope and it's important for him. 
One thing he wanted to do was to decorate pillowcases using fabric crayons.  I've got the crayons but had to order in pillowcases; could only get European ones in decent quality on special, so spent yesterday and today unpicking and then cutting and re-sewing to make them normal sized.  I hope he realises how much I love him!

A little over a week to go now, really hoping I don't come down with a cold in the next week; am taking echinacea at the moment, but have to stop that on Sunday to ensure there's no interactions with the anaesthesia or anything that could increase bleeding.  Sounds good to me, don't want to mess with that at all!

Finished the week feeling better

In part due to physically feeling better, my stomach is feeling less unhappy and in part due to further testing ruling out gallstones.   I'm still having stomach pain, but it took till about dinner time to start going ouch properly, whereas yesterday it was like that all day.   I'm still really tired, but hopeful I might be more me tomorrow.

I did finish my socks a couple of days ago, and then washed them in the wrong wash by accident so had to wear them to bed last night wet to reverse the felting that happened.  Aside from that they're lovely though

this is the yarn from Wales, love that they don't pool!

Also today I visited a friend.  I've not seen for for quite a long time and before that we'd only met once properly, but despite this we're still friends; not acquaintances but real friends.  I really enjoyed the morning spent there and we got to connect again.  We have some things in common that a lot of other mums don't, we both have children who will find it a little harder to make their way in the world than neurotypical children do.  I think she's doing an amazing job as a mum (yes, I really do!) and although she's suffering some self doubt as we all do I can see that she's got the right attitude and enough love to pull through.   All parents have dark days, even those without the extra challenges we face, but the bright days make it worth it.   We'll meet up again, I don't think I'd realised how much I needed to talk to someone who got it until I saw her today.  Yes, I get to talk to other mums at school, but pretty much all of them have neurotypical children and although they have empathy, they don't really understand what life can be like on bad days for us.  I really hope we get the chance to sit down again before my surgery, it's amazing how much better friends make you feel and I hope she felt the benefits too.   I know she'll read this, so, when you do read it, remember you're a great mum and you're doing an amazing job with a young person who will one day get on in life because of the effort his parents put in at the beginning, believe in yourself, I certainly believe in you!

And on that note I'll sign off for the night, do a little spinning or planning for sewing or maybe kill some nasty creatures on the Xbox; Dh is out with the kids at the Scout fireworks and youngest has strict instructions to stay with dad and eldest has strict instructions to tell dad if youngest forgets his instructions and I'm wondering where in the heck the cats have got to cos the fireworks are already going off despite it being daylight!

A Step Backwards and Some Forwards as well.

I have made 2 dresses I showed you in a previous post, neither of which I'm 100% happy with, but considering they're pretty much only for wearing for 6 weeks or so I'm not too bothered.  1 needs a bit more fabric at the front, and I'll make the next one with more and the other is a stretch fabric dress and the upper arm is a smidge too tight; however the body is perfect for what I want.   I've also got 2 dresses on their way from China which are "linen" supposedly, but are also loose fitting and if they've put the measurements correctly should fit well.   I'm going to make at least 1 more dress which would give me 5 total.

the one that's not quite full enough, will make a lovely nightdress afterwards though

and the one who's sleeves aren't quite right.   I'll make another of these, may compare the sleeve with a Kwik Sew pattern or Ottobre as both of them fit me better in the arm.

I've almost finished the second sock of my current travel knitting too, I need to get that finished and a new pair past the ribbing before surgery as plain knitting will be my limit for a bit I think; that and Ian desperately wants a new pair of socks after a pair I hadn't knit blew out in the heels.  They weren't knit using sock yarn and it showed.

In spinning I've finished the angora spin for the Advanced Spinners Group and I sent it off today, photo to come, it's still on the good camera and I can't be bothered hooking it up to the computer for just one photo.   I'm now spinning plain silk to go with the rest of the suri alpaca, once that's done I can ply and also ply some merino silk Navajo style and I'll have finished my planned spinning for the year.  I need more practice on long draw, the angora proved that to me, but it'll wait till I'm back to normal as there's a fair bit of trunk movement in long draw and my trunk is going to be ouchy for a while after this.


On Friday I had a gastroscopy (or whatever it's called), no sign of the ulcer which is good, however I do have a small hiatal hernia.  They took biopsies and I felt fine, right up till this morning when my stomach started feeling hot and hurting.  I'm still hurting tonight, but the hot is gone at least and I'm back on Ranitidine and paracetamol.  I was running a bit of a temperature as well, but that's now dropping which is good.   More money spent at the doctors due to that, they think the pain might be due to the biopsies effectively causing a new raw spot (aka ulcerlike nasty), but the temperature thing is apparently unrelated.
As well as the ranitidine and paracetamol I've also been taking a little colloidal silver and active honey and sodium ascorbate (vit C).   Tonight I'll take a final lot of colloidal silver and some aloe vera juice to promote healing.   I'd rather get through this faster than last time.  My back is also aching, but I think that's a reaction to the stomach pain and also all the work I've been doing.

In other news I now have all the costings for my surgery, I won't tell you how much, but I will say I'm darned glad I've got health insurance with no excess!  I emailed it all off this afternoon.  I'm now awaiting a bunch of forms and to get an appointment for a pre-op check at St George's hospital.  I'll be staying there from 4-7 days depending on how things go and then home for recovery.  Apparently I can drive after 10 days, I suspect I may disagree on that one when it comes to it, and luckily I'll have my beloved to drive me if I need to go anywhere.  I also have to shave certain areas fully, I've not done that since I was in my early 20's and that was a one-off as I hated the look of it.

In the meantime I'm busy doing spring cleaning and gardening.   All the veges are in, just in time for a nasty cold snap, but at least I can hope they'll survive it ok.   In the house I've fully cleaned the main bedroom, toilet, bathroom and shower room and the laundry.   That leaves the kitchen (including fridge and cupboards), the dining room and the lounge and conservatory.  I've also got more sewing, spinning and knitting to do, plus the school presents before I head off for surgery.