Update

Sorry I have not blogged in a while, but I have a really good reason. Sunday, September 6, 2009 while I was riding to Irish Fest I was not feeling terribly well. It finally passed and I thought it was more of the basic GI distress and associated back pain. I was fine through most of Irish Fest that day, but towards the end of our time there, I started feeling uncomfortable again. Chalking it up to lactose intolerance, I dealt with it while we went to Yarn Shop and More so Stepheny could spend the gift certificate she won (she won 3rd place in the non-wearable category). Well, after leaving there I stopped at a pharmacy to get some generic phazyme, and it didn't help much so I was pretty uncomfortable on the drive back to town. After we dropped off Brigette, I started feeling like I was going to be sick to my stomach, so I figured I had eaten something that had disagreed with me. About five minutes after I got home, I got sick. After being sick three times, I called my dad and asked at what point should I go to the Emergency Room. He said if I was asking, now. He came and picked me up, and I continued to get sick, all the while thinking, I am going to feel really silly if I stop being sick once I get there and start feeling better. Unfortunately that did not happen.

After getting to the ER, we got checked in and went through the usual wait. I ended up laying on one of the semi-circular benches because most of the chairs were taken, and frankly I just felt lousy. I got sick at least once in the waiting room, maybe more, my memory is kind of fuzzy on that. At one point they took my vitals, and eventually I got called back into the see the triage nurse. Then it was more waiting in another area while we waited for a room to open up. Again I was laying on one of the padded benches from what I can remember, and eventually they got me back to a room. At one point I had a CT scan, and at some point they gave me something for the pain, but I am not sure in which order. At another point I remember being told I was had pancreatitis (I have since learned it is a moderate case of acute pancreatitis), and I was being admitted.

As I understand it, it apparently passed a gallstone into a duct that caused all these issues. I knew I had gallstones, but I had never had any of the symptoms my doctor told me to watch for. Plenty of people have gallstones and are never troubled by them. And I have been assured by three different doctors that my previous problems probably were unrelated. There probably were not any early warning signs that could have tipped me off that this was coming.

Yesterday, they tried to do an endoscopic procedure to see if a duct was still blocked, and apparently I was thrashing about in too much pain, even with a sedative, so they are going to try again next week, this time with anesthesia.

I do not want anyone to think I am looking for sympathy with this post. It is purely intended as an update in case some of you had not already heard through other sources. I have been incredibly reluctant to post anything on facebook about it, but I have been trying to get the word out to people I know.

Celtic Knot Stole Pics

Here are some pictures of the finished Celtic Knot Stole.




I think it turned out very well, especially considering it is only my second serious lace knitting project. And while I feel like I am still a novice lace knitter, one of the judges at KC Irish Fest told me I should not call myself a novice lace knitter, because I would be setting the bar too high. Speaking of Irish Fest, I did enter the stole. There were some very high caliber entries, including a circular shawl that they actually put through a wedding ring. Not being a serious lace knitter, I am not entirely sure of the significance of that, but I know it is important. Upon hearing that they did that, it was no surprise that it won first price in the wearable item category. In all likelihood, it will win the grand prize.

I will be entering the Once Upon a Time Blanket today. Mary was kind enough to bring it to town so I could enter it, and I will be heading out to Kansas City in the next hour or so.

This may be the last year I enter anything in the knitting contest at Irish Fest but not because I did not do well. The same judge who told me I should not say I was a novice lace knitter expressed an interest in having me be a judge next year because I clearly knew what I was doing. Additionally, now that I have paid off the student loans, I want to start attending Scifi/Gaming conventions again, and Dragon Con in Atlanta is usually held at the same time as Irish Fest.

FO--Celtic Knot Stole

I finished knitting the Celtic Knot Stole at the pub late Friday night/early Saturday morning and then wove in the ends Saturday morning.


When I had blocked the Seascape Stole, I discovered that by the time I had it on the blocking wires, it was pretty well dry, and that made it more difficult to block. So this time I put it on the wires first. I started that process yesterday, but I did not have much energy, so I did not end up putting it in the tub to soak until this morning. Per the designer's instructions, I let it soak for about an hour. Then I drained the tub and rinsed it a bit. Next I held it up to let the excess water drain off. Once the water stopped streaming off, I put it on a towel to blot up more of the water.

While it was soaking, parts of it had come off the blocking wires, so I threaded the edges back on. The wires help make a nice straight edge, and it beats using hundreds of pins to get a straight edge. Once that was done, I laid it out on the daybed I have in my spare room/craft room and started stretching and pinning it. It took probably at least half an hour to get it all pinned.


I took it off the wires this evening. I am pretty happy with it, but I may block it again before KC Irish Fest. I do not have a picture of it off the blocking wires yet, but I will post one once I get a good one.

Getting There

I know I have been bad about blogging. Most evenings I just do not think about it. That being said, I have made substantial process on the Celtic Knot Stole. I finished the main part of it last week, and I finished the first edge last night.


After finishing the main part, I started working on the edge. The designer has the edge charted so that the right side rows are read left to right instead of right to left like I am used to, so that kind of threw me for a loop. I ended up recharting it so it would be easier for me to deal with, and that helped me quite a bit.


Today I put the other end on the needles and removed the provisional cast on. So far all I have managed to do is knit the first row it called for and then do the crochet cast on to get the edge started. I am still new to this particular crochet cast on, and it is a bit tricky for me. Hopefully, I will be able to start this edge with fewer missteps than the other one.

Picking Up Speed

Since the designer of the Celtic Knot Stole has a full Excel chart available on her blog, I broke it into pattern repeat sections and told Excel to print each section on one page. So now instead of having to switch back and forth between charts on different pieces of paper, I have one sheet of paper and can go across the row without having to look at different charts. It has made a noticeable difference and I can now get anywhere from 4 to 6 rows done within 20 to 30 minutes.

I have not knitting that much these days--usually only on my lunch breaks at work or when I go to knitting group. Most evenings I spend online playing games and talking to friends (you know who you are). However, the Kansas City Irish Fest has announced that this year the knitting competition will be lace projects. This has actually motivated me to work on the stole more as I am determined to enter it in this year's competition on September 5.




I have actually made some progress since taking these photos. I even knit at the pub last night. One guy saw me get out my knitting and made a comment about how I was knitting too (my friend Brigette knits at the pub and had arrived before I did). I informed him that I am the original O'Dooley's Knitter.

Kim's Cakes

Okay, now that I have managed to get the computer and camera to transfer photos, here are the cakes I did for Kim's graduation party. Kim is finishing up her associates in Mortuary Science, so that gave me all sorts of possibilities for her graduation cake. However, the more I thought about it, I started having serious concerns about doing a theme cake. I am a bit superstitious and something just told me not to tempt fate. So I found a mortuary science symbol and used that instead.


The cake is chocolate with vanilla icing. I now see that one of the T's in congratulations did not get crossed, and I do not know if it is a situation where I just missed it or if I did it and the icing did not stick and went somewhere else.

Lately Kim and some of her classmates have taken to saying they want to go work in the basement. I guess it is a mortuary science thing, but I thought it was fitting for her cake.

Kim also is in the process of getting divorced and wanted a divorce cake. Well, I thought about getting really creative with that, but I decided not to do it. Instead I opted for tasteful.



I decided to do Corneil lace on the sides, but silly me, I did not thin out the icing enough, so my hand was kind of tired by the time I was done.



It is a four layer chocolate cake with chocolate icing. I baked two layers, then leveled and torted (split) them. It turned out really well--the cake was very moist. The decorative icing is vanilla.

Both cakes were a big hit and were pretty much demolished.

Lynn's Cake

My friend Lynn recently purchased a house with her fiancee, and they had their housewarming a few days after their respective birthdays. Lynn had asked me about doing the cake, and since she helped me move into my house, I was more than happy to do so. She indicated she wanted a My Little Pony cake. As she talked about it more, she said she wanted either Pinkie Pie or Rainbow Dash.

Well, I found a decent picture of Rainbow Dash, so I opted for that.


It is white cake with vanilla frosting.

Now to start thinking about Kim's graduation cake. She is getting her Associates in Mortuary Science.