Tempus Fugit! (did I spell that right?)

Has it really been two weeks since I posted anything here?

Those daffodils in the last pictures are kaput, but now the redbud, flowering crabapple and dogwood trees are blooming. I've done little bits of yardwork, but not too much. Mostly I've been knitting. Here are two shawls I've finished recently.

When Rose spent the night here a few weeks ago, she said she wanted me to make a shawl for her to give to her teacher at the end of the school year. "A big one like yours, but red . . . you can use some white . . . stripes." She showed me on mine how wide she wanted the stripes to be. It is 27 inched long at center back - that should be big enough. The second picture is a close-up of the lace edging I put on it.

This one is smaller - only 20 inches at center back. I alternated two rows of solid red with two rows of a variegated red/pink/orange. The border is all red and is the tulip pattern I've used several times recently.

Both shawls are basically Elizabeth Zimmerman Pie-Are-Square shawls, with some variation.

I had my every-four-months oncology visit on March 26; I'm still in remission.

My Favorite Model

Lexi is spending a couple of days of her Spring vacation with me, so I got her to model my latest shawls.

These two were in my last post, but I think they look much better here - must be the pretty model.

And here is another one that I just finished today; I call it Yellow Tulips Shawl.

She went with me this morning to my monthly Lake Area Fiber Artists group. She had her cellphone with her and also a book (the 7th of the Harry Potter series), but she also participated in the conversations. I am very proud of her.

Spring is here?

Maybe, finally.

The daffodils were two weeks late, but are blooming profusely now. I walked around my property today and saw more than I thought I had. There are also more crocuses than I knew about - only half a dozen, but that's more than I had noted in prior years. The iris leaves are up in six or eight places, and my one clump of bleeding heart has a lot of leaves (red at this stage) pushing up. The dogwood (1) and redbuds (2) look like they'll bloom in about two weeks, and the white-flowered crab apple has quite a few baby leaves. The lilac also has flower buds on it.

I used my pruning saw today to cut off part of the limb on one pine tree that a couple of small ice storms damaged during the winter. The main part of the limb is too thick for a pruning saw; it needs a chainsaw.

Knitting:

I completed a few projects this month.

The first picture shows the colors well, and the second shows the stitch patterns.

Rectangular, slip-stitch shawl. Sorry it's so blurry.

 Front or right side.

Back or wrong side.

Baptismal blanket for church. I started this back in August, but ran out of yarn about 3/4 of the way through. I kept checking the store where I bought the yarn, but they never had the right color. I finally asked for it and was told that a brighter shade of yellow was the only yellow they carry now. Other stores in the area didn't have it either. My sister found the right color in a different store in Louisville, so I was able to finish the blanket, an have enough to make another one.

February Knitting

What do you do when you can't get out (at least not without difficulty)?
I knit. Here are the things I've finished so far this month.

Slip stitch shawl, started January 28, finished February 5.

Purple tulips shawl, started January 29, finished February 10.
I started this at the weekly knitting get-together, with yarn I had just picked up from the donated stash at church. When Jan asked what it was going to be, I said, "I think it will be a shawl." Since she is the type of knitter who never starts anything without a pattern in front of her, she couldn't understand that.
The 'tulips' are a modification of a Snowdrop Lace stitch pattern from a Mon Tricot stitch dictionary.

Baptismal blanket for a baby who will be baptised at my church. I've been making these for a few years. Most of the symbols I use are from my own charts. I have two more on the needles now. I started this one on January 31 and finished it February 13.

Slip Stitch scarf, started February 13, finished February 14. The colors are actually somewhere between those in the two pictures.
I don't know why Lexi has her eyes crossed - silly kid - oh, well, she's beautiful anyway.
I think I'll make a scarf like this in black and white and a bit longer, for someone taller (Lexi's not quite 13 and still rather short).

Yellow Tulips scarf, started February 14, finished February 15. The same tulip pattern as in the shawl.
I'm considering a shawl using three shades of yellow, with seven or eight rows of tulips.

Of course, I currently have several other projects on the needles.

Medical stuff and weather

I don't know what's wrong, but I can't see the bottom of that other post I just did when I try to 'edit' it, therefore, a separate post.

Last Wednesday, the urologist said that the IVP and ultrasound didn't show anything significant. He did a cystocopy that day, which also showed nothing significant. He wants to have another urine specimen in six months.

Yesterday I went back to the surgeon  for a routine post-op visit. Since she wasn't able to free the catheter from the vein, she left the tip of it in. Since it had been in so long, it had grown onto the wall of the vein. She was afraid to pull too hard, because that might result in damage that she would not be able to correct. She said it should not cause any problems in the future, but just in case it somehow got infected, she gave me a copy of her case notes explaining what she did.

We got some snow Monday and Monday night - only about two inches, but around here that can cause problems. The roads I needed to use were clear, but not my driveway. I had no problem going down in the morning, but was afraid I'd get stuck coming back up like I did when we got snow earlier this winter. While I was in town, I stopped in to see a friend I hadn't seen for a while. She recommended that I buy a bag of cat litter on the way home. That sounded like a good idea, so I stopped at Dollar General in Fancy Farm and bought a small bag. When I got home, I couldn't get up the drive, but didn't feel like getting out and spreading cat litter, so I backed out onto the road and used the water tower's driveway. From there I was able to drive across my back yard and into my usual parking space.

We Have Ice!

The tops of the pine trees are drooping.

So are the bottoms. You should be able to see between the two trees, but all the branches are drooping to the ground. The bird bath got knocked over (neighborhood dogs?) a few weeks ago, and I plan to wait for spring to pick it up.

I can usually walk under that branch of the dogwood tree, but now it's touching the ground. I hope it doesn't break. At least I'm not hearing the gunshot-like sounds of trees splitting and large limbs breaking like I did five years ago (Has it really been that long?)

Stitches?

Do they use needle and thread at all now? I took the little bandage off after two days as the instructions said. This is what the surgery site looks like this morning. I go back to the surgeon on February 4th.

The IVP and ultrasound ordered by the urologist were on Wednesday; I go to see him next Wednesday to see if there's anything amiss. I really think not. My sister said she has had blood in her urine for over 20 years, and nothing has ever been found. Maybe it's just a family thing.