I especially enjoyed the comment from Linda, wherein she suggested that my next knitting project could be this.  I think I'll make my gallbladder removable. And maybe beaded.

First, I was in Mozambique for 2 weeks. For the most part, it was a great trip. We did a team retreat, so I was travelling with colleagues the whole time, which is more fun than travelling alone (although it does reduce the knitting time somewhat!). The two weeks were full of beaches, good food and good company (oh yeah, and some work!). It was a bit emotional, however, since it was my last trip. I'm starting in a new position soon at work, so I will no longer be travelling regularly to Mozambique. I will still travel, but to different places. It really has been wonderful getting to know a place really well (that was my 13th trip), but it will be nice to add some new countries to my list of places visited (which now stands at 23)

The only problem during my trip was that I came down with a nasty cold and cough. I was sick the last few days of the trip so I missed out on some of the fun (like dolphin watching) and the trip home was pretty miserable. I pity the poor people who sat next to me on the fights. I could barely go 20 minutes without coughing. Once I returned home, I was still sick for a few more days, until I finally started to recuperate.

Two weeks ago, on the Victoria Day long weekend, I spent the Saturday at the Sheep Shearing Festival, knitting with some other members of the Ottawa Knitting Guild. Afterwards, I went out for dinner with Nancy and Lisa. All in all, it was a lovely day. And the last lovely day I would have for a while.

On Sunday afternoon, the pain started. I knew immediately what it was. Gallstones. If you've ever had a gallstone attack, you'll know what I mean. Once you've felt that pain once, you'll know what it is when you feel it again. That is some intense pain.

A quick aside for a little back story – a couple of years ago I had this pain three times. Once in Ottawa (though it didn't last very long) and twice while travelling (once on the plane, and the pain was so intense I told the flight attendant, who paged for a doctor, and once in Nairobi where I was attending a conference at the UN offices, so I saw the doctor at the UN clinic). Both of those doctors (and the friend I was with when I had the very first attack) said it sounded like gallstones. When I returned from that last trip, I saw my doctor and he agreed from the way I described the pain that it sounded like gallstones. He ordered an abdominal ultrasound. When it came back, it showed nothing in the gallbladder. Then, about two months ago, I had an ultrasound for another reason. When my doctor saw the report, he said "you know you have gallstones, right?"

So, back to two weekends ago. I get this very intense pain in the upper abdomen that I know is my gallbladder. Except unlike the previous attacks that passed after a couple of hours, this didn't. It started just after lunch, and by 7pm or so, it was so intense that I could barely stand it. I headed off to the emergency room. (Note to self – next time you get an illness or injury that requires a visit to the emergency room, don't do it on the Sunday of a long weekend). I finally saw a doctor at 1am, by which time the intense pain had passed. But when she examined my abdomen, it was still really tender and sore, right where the gallbladder is, so she suggested I return the next morning for an ultrasound, which I did. As it was a holiday, I waited around all day, finally to be told that not only did I have a gallbladder full of stones, but there was one about 1cm in diameter lodged in opening. Nice. That explained the pain. I then spoke to a surgeon who said that my gallbladder would have to come out in a few weeks. Meanwhile, this stone should pass soon. He gave me some painkillers in case I needed them (I was not in pain at that moment) and told me to come back if I had a fever, started vomiting, or if my eyes turned yellow). So I went home, after spending a total of 13 hours in the hospital between Sunday evening and Monday. So much for a restful long weekend.

On Tuesday I went to work, but by late morning a started to feel funny. No pain at that point, but I just felt off. I headed home. Sometime that afternoon, the pain started up again, and by evening it was even more intense than on Sunday. I took the painkillers – the helped a wee bit, but not much. I waited for the pain to pass, but it didn't. Days passed and I was in constant pain. When I took the painkillers every four hours and didn't move, it was tolerable. But if I went 4 hours and 20 minutes, or if I moved at all, it was unbearable. Finally, last weekend, I decided that if the pain hadn't stopped by Monday I was going back to the emergency room, which I did. I had another ultrasound, which showed that the stone was still in the same spot. My gallbladder was too enlarged to remove it laproscopically, and they don't like to do open surgery unless absolutely necessary. So they admitted me to the hospital to try to get the swelling down in my gallbladder so that the stone would pass. They gave me IV fluids and antibiotics, and some nice painkillers, and I had nothing to eat or drink at all for the first day, then clear liquids only for a couple of days. The highlight of my day was guessing what colour jello I would get at each meal (though even that got boring, as it became quite predictable – red at breakfast, yellow at lunch, red at dinner).

Finally, Thursday afternoon I had another episode of really intense pain that was no match for the painkillers I was on, and then nothing. The pain was gone. I didn't need any painkillers that night, for the first time in 11 days. When I saw the doctor in the morning, my abdomen wasn't even tender to the touch. Finally, the stone has dislodged. I came home Friday morning, with instructions to stay on a soft diet for another day or two, and then gradually introduce real food. I'm still on antibiotics for another few days, and I have painkillers in case I need them (which I haven't so far, touch wood). It's amazing how much something like this takes out of you. I'm still really weak, as I've had very little food in the past two weeks, but I'm finally on the mend. Hopefully I won't have another attack (at least not a long one like that) until they get my gallbladder out, which will be in a couple of months. But it sure is nice to no longer be in constant pain.

Sorry I don't have pretty knitting pictures to show you, but that would take energy I just don't have. I finished a pretty triangular shawl a couple of weeks ago, but it still needs to be blocked. And I started another Seasilk shawl, but I haven't taken any pictures yet. I was not able to do much knitting in the hospital, mainly because I had an IV needle in the crook of my left arm, and I had to keep my arm pretty straight or the machine would start beeping. Very annoying. And even knitting took more energy than I had. I will try to get pictures soon, I promise!

But I'm leaving in half an hour, and I still have to eat lunch and check my work email one last time. So I'll have to make this quick. I wanted to write a nice long post about the shawl I recently finished out of the Handmaiden Seasilk I bought last August, and about the fun road trip on Saturday with Nancy, Lisa and Linda, but I don't have time. So you get the reader's digest version.

Shawl:  I originally planned to do Eunny Jang's Print o the Wave, so that's what the centre panel is. But then I decided I wanted a simpler border, so I changed it. I modified a border from Victorian Lace Today, and followed the method in that book for attaching the border.

 I absolutely adore this shawl. Normally I knit shawls, and never wear them. Not this one – I've been wearing it constantly (okay, I do take it off to go to bed). 

Road Trip: The four of us headed off to Perth for the day. We stopped at the Ashton General Store along the way, where Kelly has a small, but nice, selection of yarn. Then we had lunch at the Hungry Planet, did some serious yarn shopping at Janie H Knits (which was the whole purpose of the trip), went to the Brown's Shoes Factory Outlet where I bought two pairs of cute shoes, stopped at the park for a photo shoot of my shawl, had some ice cream, and came back. Fun day!

(See no evil, smell no evil?, hear no evil) 

I have lots more pictures of the shawl, since I travelled with my own paparazzi, but they will have to wait until I get back. 

Be good while I'm gone! 

Spring is sprung
the grass is riz
I wonder where
my mitten is? 

As you may recall, back in November my beautiful Anemoi mitten tragically left my pocket on the day of the first snowfall. I was in a field near my house, and by the time I went back later to find it, quite a bit of snow had fallen, burying my poor mitten. As it turned out, this winter was the 2nd snowiest winter on record here in Ottawa. So far, we've received 436.7 cm of snow, which meant I was unable to look for my mitten until it all melted away.

Well finally, spring has arrived (actually, we've kind of just gone straight from winter to summer, but no complaints here)

One day last week, as the snow was melting, I took a little walk over to the field to find my mitten. But this is what I saw

I found a few tennis balls, and a bunch of garbage, but only one mitten.

and it certainly wasn't mine. 

Oh well, hope was not lost, there was still lots of snow under which my mitten could be hiding.

I went back again a few days later. There was much less snow, but still a few patches here and there. I didn't have my camera, but I was able to take this photo with my cell phone

I have since been back one last time. The snow is gone. And so is my mitten.

My mitten's lost
I fear to say.
I'll make another
one some day 

My mother gets credit for the last two lines. Our combined poetic genius astounds me still.

I'm leaving today for another work trip to Mozambique. It's a short one this time – only 11 days. So I've been organizing my knitting projects to take, because I certainly wouldn't want to run out of things to knit. As well, I've been updating my iPod – some new audiobooks and podcasts and music. How did I ever survive travel without my knitting and my iPod?

As well, I still need to write another blog post, as I now have photos of my Seasilk shawl. And I need to finish packing. And I have some work to do. I have 5 hours before I leave. Plenty of time.

So where were we? Oh yes, Sheldon. Well he is now in his new home, anxiously waiting for baby to arrive. Meanwhile, I think baby's mommy is glad that she doesn't have to share Sheldon yet. He was received in just the manner we hope our knitted gifts are received.

Remember Henry? Well, I finished Henry (made with Knit Picks Gloss) in early March, with still plenty of winter to go, as it turned out (not that I was worried – winter will come again next year, so the scarf will get used). 

This is a gorgeous scarf. Before blocking, I was concerned that I wasn’t going to be happy with it. The fabric was quite stiff, with little drape, and it was shorter than I had wanted (51”). But the magic of blocking fixed that. It now has much better drape and is 62” long and 7 1/2” wide (I did 6 repeats instead of 7).

The only drawback is that it was incredibly tedious to knit. The only thing that kept me going was the end product, which I really liked the look of. But it was not a fun knit, by any stretch of the imagination. The scarf is knit length wise, so you have 452 stitches on the needle. The pattern is made up of slip 2, k2 the whole length, offset by one each row, to make the herringbone pattern. It was repetitive enough to not be engaging, but easy to screw up, so you had to pay attention. I was glad to see this one come to an end! But the end result was worth it!

I’m not thrilled with the ends of the scarf as given in the pattern. The ends flare, and I think if I were to make it again, I would play around with options for the beginning and end of each row. However, I really don’t see myself making this again – once is enough!

I put details on the cast on and cast off on Ravelry, so if you're interested in those geeky details, check there.

Another thing I've finished recently is a Baby Surprise Jacket from Elizabeth Zimmermann's Opinionated Knitter. I made this from Nova Yarns Real Jeans, that I bought at Wool n Things a few months back.

This is for yet another colleague who recently had a baby boy. I had hoped to have this finished before he was born, but I didn't quite make the deadline. So I'll go visit next week and take it over.

I used the buttons I bought at the Fabric Flea Market in October.

As with anything designed by Elizabeth Zimmermann, this is a really ingenious pattern, and lots of fun to knit.  

I have one other thing finished, but it's currently blocking, so it will have to wait until next post. But here's a sneak preview:

In non-knitting, but fiber-related news, on Easter weekend I went on a road trip with Paula and her daughter. We headed out to the country to visit Aline and her 5 little new lambs. You can read more about them on Aline's blog, but here are a couple of cute pictures

One of the lambs got rejected by her mother, so Aline (and her kids) have been bottle feeding her. And since she was a bit underweight, and it still pretty cold, she was dressed in a sweater

How cute is that! The only thing cuter was watching her little tail wag as she sucked back the milk. After visiting with the lambs (and their moms and dad), we spent a couple of hours knitting and chatting, and then stopped to do a little yarn shopping on the way home. Thanks Aline and Paula for a lovely day!

As always when I travel, I had lots of knitting time. Not as much as usual, because I was travelling with some colleagues on this trip, so I was generally socializing in the evenings instead of sitting alone in my hotel room. But that still left long plane trips, waiting in airports and long drives.

My first FO for the year is something that I started just a few days before leaving on my trip, and didn't even blog about. This is Sheldon the Turtle, who will become a gift for a colleague's baby:

Isn't he just the cutest thing ever! This is a free pattern from Knitty.com. And contrary to my usual M.O., I didn’t change a thing in the knitting of this pattern – I even used the yarn (and colours) specified! I don’t know that I’ve ever done that. The yarn is Shine, which I had included in a recent Knit Picks order.

Last night, a small group of us got together at the Bridgehead on Wellington (where the Knit Night meets the 1st and 3rd Fridays of each month) to seam the blanket. We had a serious winter storm yesterday (a sight which has been all too familiar in Ottawa this winter) so a lot of people who were planning to come were unable to make it. 

From L to R: Sarah, J., Kim, Linda and Shawna (who proved to be a champion seamer, despite claiming to not be a knitter).

So far, J. has received over 50  5" x 5" squares, and there are still more on the way. Yesterday, we sewed them into groups of four, which will then get put together.

 J. even brought bribes thank-you gifts.

I forgot to take pictures of the two squares I contributed, but when I looked through the pictures I took last night, I discovered that I had one that included both of my squares.

I believe that J. will be going back to the Bridgehead next Friday (check her blog, or the Ottawa Knitting Yahoo group for confirmation) to continue seaming. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and more people will be able to assist – it's a huge job!

Despite the treacherous road conditions, I'm glad I ventured out. It was a fun evening! And, I was able to add to my collection of goofy pictures of Sarah (because one can never have too many)

I'm going to be away for the next three weeks – a work trip to Mozambique and South Africa. It is unlikely that I will be able to blog while I'm away, but I should get lots of knitting time in, so I will have some new FOs to show when I get back.  See you then!

I have been knitting, although admittedly not as crazily as this time last year. I have a sock almost finished. And I've been working on Henry.

I'm actually further along than in this photo (it's done lengthwise, so there are 450 stitches on the needles, and it will be finished when I deem it wide enough). It's a beautiful pattern, and I'm making it Knitpicks Gloss in Black. The only drawback is that the pattern is incredibly tedious. The resulting fabric is worth it, but it is very slow going (and I'm a fast knitter). The problem is that you're knitting 2, slipping 2 every row (or purling 2, slipping 2) so it's very easy, but also very easy to get off track and be off by 1. So you have to pay attention. I find it much easier to pay attention with a lace pattern than with something simple. And it's black. So I need the right light in order to be able to see if I'm on track.

I'm still plugging away at it though, because it's going to make a lovely scarf. And then I'll move on to something engaging. And colourful. And fun.

I will need to take a wee pause from the scarf to make a heart square or two for J. For more details, read this post. 

I need to finish something soon! 

The world just seems a little bit dimmer today. 

• 6 scarves (3 of them lace)
• 2 pairs of mittens
• 25 korknisses
• 4 pairs of socks
• 2 hats
• 1 crocheted bag
• 1 top
• 2 shawls
• 2 afghans (one was a group project)
• 1 pair of baby jeans
• 1 pair of hand towels
• 4 dishcloths
• 2 pairs of slippers
• 1 hedgehog
• 2 iPod cozies
• 1 child's sweater

For a grand total of 33 projects (counting 25 Korknisses as 1 project, and including a dishcloth that doesn't have it's own picture (but you can see a glimpse of it in one of the other dishcloth pictures)

I guess you could say I like variety in my knitting!

Of these 33 projects:

• 19 were for me
• 12 were gifts
• 2 were for charity

And to break down the weight of yarn used:

• laceweight – 5
• fingering – 10
• sport/dk – 2
• worsted/aran – 12
• chunky/bulky – 4

And to break down the pattern source:

• online, free – 8
• online, purchased – 2
• books – 4
• magazine – 3
• leaflet – 3
• heavily altered from an existing pattern – 4
• my own pattern (improvised) – 9 

Last year I made a resolution that 2007 would be the year that I made a sweater that fit and looked great. Well, I didn't quite accomplish that, though I do have one still in progress that, if I ever get the sleeves done, should fit the bill nicely.

2007 was a roller-coaster year for me – lots of high points and plenty of low points. One of the high points (that, quite frankly, got me through many of the low points), was the number of knitters I got to know this year. It was in the last few months of 2006 that I start to meet other Ottawa knitters, and those friendships grew over 2007. Whether I've met you in person, or virtually, I've really enjoyed meeting everyone I have over the past year. You've all enriched my life!

And speaking of enrichment (of both the friendship kind and the yarn kind), I recently participated in a couple of group yarn orders (Peace Fleece and Knit Picks), and when those orders came in, I met up with Sarah, Dave and Paula in order to collect my yarn.

It was great to finally meet Dave, who was one of the first people I didn't know to leave a comment on my blog. He's as lovely in person has he is on his blog.

Here's a shot of the 4 of us (and no, I don't always look like a deer caught in the headlights!)

and of course, what would a knitter gathering be without a funny picture of Sarah to add to my collection

Happy New Year! Personally, I'm hoping 2008 is just a wee bit less eventful than 2007!