my kitty has cancer

This is going to be one of the hardest posts for me to write and eventually come back and read.

On Wednesday, 10/21/2015, after a week of uncertainty, the specialist vet called me to let me know that Callie has small cell lymphoma (a type of cancer).  She is only expected to live for 18-24 months.

On Friday, I decided to go with the recommended chemotherapy medication in addition to the prednisolone we started on 10/15/2015.  The order for the Leukeran was placed this morning and should arrive in a few days.

Some history:
Callie has been throwing up about once a week this summer.  The previous summer, she threw up about once every 3 weeks.  A few weeks ago, she refused to eat more than a few bites for 3 days, at which point I took her in to see our regular vet.  They did blood work and couldn't find anything wrong with her, so they wanted me to take her to a specialist for an ultrasound.  She started eating again after the vet visit, so I put it off for a few days until my work schedule calmed down.  The ultrasound revealed inflammation in the small intestine, so they did an endoscopy.  The initial results were inconclusive, so we had to wait for the more detailed test.  Given how long this has been going on in a low-grade manner, I was shocked with the diagnosis came back as cancer (as opposed to IB).

The prednisolone seems to be helping her feel better, and she wants to eat again.  She is especially thrilled with the Pill Pockets (chicken flavor) which hide her pill every night.

I've been taking lots of pictures of her, since I know our time together will be limited now.  She is my perfect angel, and I'm having a hard time grasping the thought that she will be taken from me much too soon.  She is only 11.

Patchwork Parfait - another needlework eclass

I've been interested in needlework pieces designed by Laura J. Perin for years.  I remember seeing a booth of her designs at the San Mateo Quilt Show many years ago.  Recently, I found her online, and I've been watching for one of her classes to come along that I wanted to participate in since then.

My supplies for Patchwork Parfait showed up today, and the class starts next Saturday.  It's an e-class, so I'll get instructions and can complete them when I want.  No deadlines, just fun.

Once I had everything laid out, Callie came over to give it an inspection.

It was going along well until she noticed one of the threads was on a spool.  She gave it a few bats initially to see what would happen, and then (with a little encouragement from me), she decided it needed to die.  I'm so proud of her.  (It's very difficult to convince her to play, so I take as many opportunities as I can.)

When she was satisfied, I put everything away and went to Exclamation Point to buy 16" stretcher bars.  I think I'm all set now for the class to start.

I feel a little guilty, but I haven't done much stitching on my other needlework e-class.  Some people posted pictures of their progress, and I realized I didn't like the way my chosen color-way was working up (way too much white and not enough color).  While I was at Exclamation Point today, I picked up 3 additional threads that I hope to substitute into the piece in place of the ones I don't like.

the sweater - fixing a mistake

I was super happy with my sweater progress.  I managed to finish an entire ball of Cascade 220 Superwash in 5 days while on vacation.  When we got home, I joined the second ball of yarn and knitted it onto a longer cable to try it on ... and noticed I had completely messed up one of my raglan increases 8 rows back (it veers off to the left at the marker).  This is not a mistake I can live with.

First things first, the sweater went into time-out.  I was upset, and that is no time to be trying to fix a mistake that involves increases.  The brain is a wonderful thing, and within a few days I had a plan of attack for how to fix my mistake.

Some of the tactics I used:
1.  I specifically picked Sunday, early afternoon, when the sun is at its best in my living room.  I have a nice light carpet to use as a background for the dark yarn.  I put on the Oakland Raiders game so there was something in the background, but nothing I actually needed to watch (they lost, again).
2.  I used a size 1 circular (recently freed from a sock, so it was easy to grab) instead of a lifeline to mark a good row.
3.  I used some size 4 dpn's (again, recently used and easy to grab) instead of size 7's (which is the needle size I'm using for the sweater).  I put one in place for exactly the stitches I intended to rip down to, which was one row above the "lifeline".  I selected 4 good stitches and got a second opinion.

4.  I followed those edge stitches up and placed markers on my cable so I knew which stitches I would be dropping.  That was 12 stitches.  I used a fresh size 7 circular to knit up to the first marker and then dropped the 12 stitches.

5.  This is my favorite idea that I came up with - I used a hair clip to get all of those squigly bits of yarn out of the way.  I just left the one strand of yarn I was using free for each row.

6.  I carefully knit across using the size 4 dpn's, making absolutely sure I got my increases right this time.  At the end of each "row", I had enough yarn left over that it was still easy to work, and then I carefully redistributed the yarn back across the row so the stitches were even.  Since I was using dpn's, I could knit every row instead of turning and purling.  (increase row, knit plain row, repeat).  There's still a but of unevenness at the edges of the drop section, but I'm pretty sure it will block out.

7.  We celebrated with chocolate (for me only) and by watching the San Francisco 49'ers game (which was going really well until the second half).

sweater the second

Something went click in my brain when I actually completed my first sweater and realized it actually fits.  I wanted to try knitting another one :)  I did a bunch of brainstorming while I was on-call on Saturday and came up with what I wanted to do.  A quick trip to Purlescence later, and I had my yarn and was casting on.  This one will be a cardigan, because that is something I wear all the time.  I did just enough rows to set myself up for airplane/travel knitting.  My project page on Ravelry.

Oh, and my knitting model is back.  I missed her.

sweater progress

I really wanted to finish my sweater this weekend, but it's just not going to happen.  This weekend has been filled with work and a very needy lap-cat.  I should be able to finish it this week.  The body is done, and I started on the first sleeve.

My recovery from surgery is progressing well.  I'm back up to being able to walk a full 2 miles.

socks and surgery

In good news, I finished a pair of socks that I've been working on for over a year.

I got to spend a fair amount of time knitting while I waited in urgent care on Sunday, July 6th.  I had no clue what was wrong at the time, but it turns out my gallbladder had had enough of me and was revolting.  I just knew I was in a lot of pain, had no appetite, and was losing weight.  I went in for surgery on the afternoon of Thursday, July 10th.  I went back in for surgery the next day to stop the internal bleeding, but not before I'd lost about half my blood.  What was supposed to be an uninteresting out-patient surgery turned into 4 days in the hospital.

My mom is a retired RN, and my parents live 2 miles away, so it made sense to relocate Callie the cat and myself to their house before I went in for surgery.  What I'd been told would be a few days of recovery turned into 2 weeks of a rather rough recovery.  Having less than the desired amount of red blood cells means I tire easily, and it will take a month or more for my body to replace them.

On Sunday, July 27th, Callie and I returned to our own house, and I went back to work on Monday.  We've both been a little mopey and are readjusting after spending the 2 weeks with my parents.  It's nice to be home, but it was so nice to stay with my parents, too.

My latest pair of socks is coming along quickly.  The first one is ready for the heel flap.

Tangelo stitching finished

I always love when I finish something, and I finished my Tangelo on Friday night:

(please ignore the shadow of my hand)
I think I want to get this framed so I can hang it on the wall.  I have no idea how I go about getting it framed, but I will deal with that later.

The supplies for the online class (Sudoku Delight) I'm taking arrived on Wednesday.  Callie was rather helpful as I set everything out and attempted to go through the instruction booklet.

I picked up stretcher bars from Exclamation Point on Saturday, and I think I'm all set for the class to start on the 8th of July.

Tangelo needlepoint

With my shawl done, I've been focusing on my needlepoint.  Back in October, I took a class at Needle In A Haystack from Kathy Rees.  Tangelo (her sample):

Part of the class was to pick colors that we liked, so I went for blues and purples.  This is how far I got in the class:

I've been working on it on and off over the last few months, but now I have a new needlework project coming up, so I want to finish this one sooner rather than later.
My progress a few weeks ago:

My progress as of Friday night:

I worked on it Saturday night after work and Sunday on and off all day, and I'm almost done.  I've really been enjoying this.  The stitching process is very relaxing and nothing like the focus I needed for my lace shawl.  I'm looking forward to working on it again tonight, and hopefully finishing it.

off the needles and blocking

I'm feeling rather proud of myself.  I finished my shawl on Sunday.  Out of curiosity, I measured it before blocking.  It was about 12" wide and 64" long.

I left it soaking in the sink and prepared to block it.

It took me somewhere around an hour to pin it out completely.  It ended up being about 17" wide, which is what I had planned.  It is longer than 60".

It is currently in the guest room.  I'm pretty sure it's already dry, but I'm going to wait until tomorrow after work to unpin it.  Callie was surprisingly helpful.

Shawl Planning

The shawl I am currently working on has a fun little bit of a story.  I have 2 weddings to attend coming up this summer.  Due to my significant weight change in the last 18 months, nothing in my closet that resembles appropriate wedding wear fits anymore.  Out of desperation, I ordered a dress from Lands' End that actually ended up fitting me.  Unfortunately, it has big pink flowers.  I don't do pink, and I don't do big prints.

The blue is also exactly the wrong shade to work with my current favorite shawl, so I set out to find something in my yarn stash that would go with the dress and failed.  The answer was quick to find me in the form of the weekly update from my favorite local yarn shop, Purlescence Yarns, where I spotted the perfect green yarn.

After some searching, I settled on a decently simple lace leaf pattern that was free on Ravelry.  (I think Callie shows the pattern off very well.)  I swatched, blocked, measured, and calculated.  I did some quick research on general rectangular shawl sizes and settled on 18" x 72" as my goal.  After further inquiries and measurements, I realized 72" is probably too long for me, so that has been revised to 17" x 60".  5 repeats across gave me about 17", and 42 repeats of the 12-row pattern should give me 60".

I set mid-July as my deadline and calculated that I needed to do 5 pattern repeats a week (that was for 72", though).  As of last night, I am at 38 out of 42 pattern repeats.  I'm so close.

Everything is a work in progress

Welcome to my new crafting blog, where sometimes there are tummy rubs instead of crafting.