Michael’s condition is so good that the surgeon decided he no longer needs 24/7 supervision at home. What this means most for him is some alone time. He’s been fussed over since August 5, when he got transplanted. He really just wants some time alone. He’s been happy as a clam today working at his computer at home. Alone.

What this means for me is that I can go back to work without having to line up someone to watch over him. I can run into town on a whim or at least run errands, without worrying that he’s being looked after. We keep in touch via email and phone calls throughout the day.

Life is beginning to slowly feel more normal. Whew! I would never have believed that a transplant patient could recover so fast if I weren’t watching it myself here at home.

On Twist, my second repeat of the cable is done on the back. I have discovered that I can get quite a few rows knit during lunch.

Neil Gaiman has now produced the Fritz Leiber Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser series for Audible.com. You BET I downloaded the first book! I have loved this sword and sorcery series forever! Love them so much I knit this much:

On the back of Twist. Since yesterday. Wow, sweaters knit up fast when you work on them eh?

I started my next sweater today. I’m in a wool knitting, sweater knitting kinda mood these days. I am also putting off knitting lace in cotton linen for as long as I possibly can, so I still have Cece Cardigan set aside.

My next sweater is Twist by Bonnie Marie Burns over at ChicKnits. I’ve had this pattern for over a year waiting for the perfect yarn. I recently bought six hanks of Berroco Ultra Alpaca in Lobster Mix, which is a very dark red/black/brown/plum sort of color depending on how you look at it. At any rate it is DARK..

See how dark:

I was not going to make Twist in such a dark color because then the cabling does not show up very well. But then, I thought that I really loved this color, and I love the yarn, and I’m making the sweater to wear, not to photograph, so enough already, and I cast on. It also just so happened that when I was swatching the yarn, I got gauge for the Twist Cardigan (19 sts in 4″).

Dark or not, it was meant to be.

I love this sweater!

We have no appointments today! I have an entire day where we can stay home and do as we please, and I can’t tell you how good that feels.

Michael continues to do well. His steroid medication is making his blood sugar go haywire, and he’s a bit uncomfortable, but all in all it’s amazing how fast he’s recovering.

My plans for today are to finish my Opulent Raglan green sweater.

This one:

I’m almost done with the second sleeve.

And then I will start a pieced cardigan with my Berroco Ultra Alpaca in Lobster Mix color. This color is a heathered blend of black, red, and plum and is a very subtile color. I just love it and a stockinette cardigan with one simple cable thrown in is perfect to show off the complex yarn.

I have tons of podcasts to catch up on, and some sweaters to knit. I think that will keep me busy!

I spun this after my knitting group while watching my soap. Tonight I’ll spin another bobbin’s worth and ply them together. It’ll vary from worsted to chunky but will make a nice cozy hat, I think.

Jeanell fixed my wheel tension and it was much easier to spin after that. I am slowly getting the rythym of the wheel. It is a very Zen thing, just like pottery.

Ok let’s have some fiber content, shall we? Here are some projects I’ve worked on while in the hospital. I really didn’t knit as much as I thought I would and I was totally incapable of concentrating on a book, not even an audio book. It was pretty miserable.

First off there is the Day of Transplant sock knitting. I started this one because in my rush to get up there, I couldn’t find my sock-in-progress. It is Collinette Jitterbug Sea Breeze colorway. It’s the colorway Matt always admired. I think, personally, that it looks better on the hank than on the sock but it IS nice.

When Michael was in ICU I had to go home, no staying overnight in ICU and I was not going to sleep in a recliner in a croweded waiting room, if I even GOT a recliner. So anyway I found my Bluegrass sock and took it up there and knit on it, too. I am going to give these socks to Rickie, an ICU transplant nurse who is just awesome and admired the sock. They were all awesome, really. ICU folks are amazing.

On Tuesday, August 12th, Michael was supposed to be able to go home but threw a fever at 3 am so they kept him an extra day. I was so worried about the fever and stressed out that even the Transplant Surgeon (Dr. Sebastian), told me to go get some rest and leave the hospital a while. So I did a bit of shopping at Target and ended up at Carol’s Knitting Studio. Carol is a friend and we chatted for about and hour. Her husband recently went through open heart surgery, so she knew all about my situation. Her lavendar scented shop banished the hospital smells for a while. When there I found some Misti Alpaca Chunky on sale, 3 skiens for price of 2. I bought three hanks of purple and headed back to the hospital (after some lunch at a nearby Vietnamese restaurant).

When back at the hospital I dug out my graph paper (of COURSE I had my knitting notebook with me!) and sketched out a reversible cabled scarf pattern. Once it’s done I’ll have it up as a downloadable PDF pattern. Here it is, both sides. One side has two larger 3×3 cables and the other has three smaller 2×2 cables on it.

3×3

2×2

While I was gone, my Louet S10 spinning wheel arrived!

Last night at 10 pm I assembled it:

From this

To this:

To this, done:

I have not spun on it yet but have been playing with the foot pedal. So far Buster is not interested in it yet. YET. Give him time. Maybe later I’ll have a first handspun picture for you.

Michael is HOME! He’s figuring out his Meds spreadsheet while I thaw some dinner and quietly freak out over how dirty this house is for an imunnosuppressed person!

I hope I can keep him alive long enough to clean this place up. YIKES!

Cheezy grin and all, happy among his computers.

We’ll be here again tonight. Michael had a fever last night of 102 accompanied by some pretty sharp pains in his side. Michaels temperature is back to normal now and his side pain is less. The surgeon drained him a bit this morning and that relieved some of the pain. We’ll hear tomorrow what the prognosis is on going home.

Michael seems to be doing ok and is in a fairly good mood. He’s taking the extra night in stride and is working on his breathing toy (to stave off pneumonia) and talking many, many walks around the floor. He even comes down to the library computer sometimes to browse his political blogs for a bit.

I got a bit of a break and went to Carol’s Knitting Studio. Carol’s husband recently had open heart surgery so we’re kinda in the same boat right now. I found some Misti Alpaca Chunky on sale and started a reversible cable scarf. Got a little tired of sock knitting and I don’t trust myself to work on my sweater right now. I’ll finish it up when I get home.

Thank you to everyone who is calling and visiting and sending encouraging messages. And special thinks to Shelly from talking me down from a meltdown in the parking lot of Walgreens and for Kim for waiting on the A/C repair guy. And to Donna for keeping the kitties fed!