It's been quite the busy few months. What I thought I'd be doing this summer changed abruptly in late April when my father became ill. His 6-wk visit to sister in Texas ended with a trip to the ER, not the train trip planned home to Arizona. Four hours of surgery later, we've watched his recovery over 5 weeks of hospitalization in Houston followed by another 6 weeks in nursing/rehab. He's improving & doing quite well considering he's 88. We're all optimistic he'll soon be living in his own apartment in an assisted living complex close to sister. He is SO cold, all the time, even in humid south Texas in the summer! A Diamondback fleece throw was the easiest & faster item I could conjure up.
You can see we have a Baxter mascot to go with his D-Back blanket. And most necessary to recovery, a Keep Calm & Carry On message--for everyone concerned!
I'm pretty sure I started this shawl.....sometime.... in the past couple months. Knitting with a finer yarn than I'm used to using, I find it slow going. But I've wanted to try making a triangular shawl. So many patterns to choose from. As you can see, very simple, not a fancy lace - just yet anyway.
This was the Prayer Shawl I started about 2 years ago. Just so boring & tedious, I knitted anything else to avoid finishing it & finally hid the mess in a bag in the closet. Totally frogged. But, seemed perfect to finish as a lap-throw instead, for my cold Dad. No worries about laundering, it's acrylic, from Homespun. I will never knit with this yarn again. Ugly yarn. :(
And, just in case I don't have enough things to keep me occupied (work, home, elder-care, knitting, genealogy, gardening.....) I've put my stamp collecting addiction into high gear as well. I've saved stamps over the years, so with the addition/donation of LOTS from sister, I felt the need (need?) to make a real BOOK to store them all. Good grief. Hundreds from Sweden, thanks to 10 years of correspondence with cousin Bjorn. Really cool stamps, I might say. Gosh, I even ordered a few online. ok. More than a few. About 50. But I shared with sister & a friend at work. Below is the front of my black linen book.
First page....
Look at some of the Swedish stamps...
I like famous people too....
More favorite stamps from the world of art...
