A Brand New Shawl, And Other Things...

Hello, my favorite people! 

I've been meaning to write but I thought I would wait until I finished a shawl so this post actually had some knitting in it...LOL.  

I have been working on, planning, and getting ready for the New Mexico Fiber Crawl 2018. Amor Valdez of Crave Yarn and Amores Yarn Studio & Shop Santa Fe and I teamed up and collaborated on a shawl together. She wanted me to create something with her Linea line. Linea is a single ply fingering weight yarn of 90/10 merino and cashmere. It was absolutely lovely to work with. It came positively ALIVE when I blocked it. It blocked into this crazy drapey and soft shawl that I am really proud of. Tomorrow is Sunday and I will be spending the day with Amor at her Santa Fe Yarn Studio talking shawls, my creative process, Crave Yarn, and Amores Yarn. I'll be there from 10am-6pm if you would like to come out and see me. I've taken to snapping pictures of my knits outside in natural light. Why did it take me this long to do that? I dunno. But the pictures are coming out much better than the ones taken inside. 

This is my brand new shawl, Mellifera. Mellifera is Latin for "honey-bearing." As soon as I started working with the colorway 'Golden Hour' in this shawl, it reminded me of honey. It was from here the shawl developed into what you see below. This is the first bi-colored shawl I've ever done before so I was very excited about that. Some may equate the colored lines in the body of the shawl to a hive but I was directly thinking that. I just wanted to draw the color up into the body and purl ridges were how I did it. In the border, the lace closest to the body of the shawl was created to look like honeycomb. The flowers in the points of the edging represent where honeybees like to gather their nectar from. The whole piece came together well and I am very happy with it! 

If you're in the Santa Fe, NM area tomorrow on Sunday, I'd love to see you! Come on out to Amore's and let's talk knitting! 

Since it is May 19th, I have to ask you, did you watch the Royal Wedding? Did you get up in the middle of the early hours to take it all in? Mom and I sure did! We had plans and executed them at about 3:45 am. We got up pat 2:15am to start watching the hoopla. We were using my great-great grandmother's china that she and her two sisters brought over when they immigrated from Scotland. It is beautiful. It has flowers and butterflies painted on it. There is nothing printed on the bottom of the china to know what pattern this was to see if we can get replacement parts. It is unknown but beautiful. A couple of weeks ago while knitting at Barnes and Noble, Mom bought me some of the Royal Wedding Tea made by Harney & Sons. OMG was it good! We made a huge pitcher of tea to last through the night. Then there were fresh cream scones which we bought frozen from St. James Tearoom, along with some of their lemon curd and clotted cream. It was so good!

It was so wonderful! William and Kate's wedding was huge, stately affair. This wedding was anything but that. I loved it that much more. All the personal touches and details that they thought of. It was wonderful. Here is my favorite picture of the new Duchess of Sussex as she is walking down the aisle. I do not take credit for this photo.

She looks like an angel. And the flora from all 53 commonwealth nations were embroidered into the edging of her veil. How lovely it was. She wore the Filagree Bandeau Tiara which used to belong to Queen Mary and it was PERFECT for this understated look. The tiara is a real sparkler!

Taken from People Online..."The tiara is "formed as a flexible band of eleven sections, pierced with interlaced ovals and pavé set with large and small brilliant diamonds." The Palace confirms that the diamond bandeau was a present to the then Princess Mary in 1893 by the County of Lincoln on her marriage to Prince George, Duke of York, who would become King George V. The bandeau and the brooch were passed down by Queen Mary to the Queen in 1953. The Queen's sister Princess Margaret famously wore the piece to events."

It was a gorgeous wedding and I am certainly glad I didn't miss it. I was up for Kate and Williams wedding, I wasn't about to miss this one!

If you follow me on social media, then none of this is really going to be brand new news to you. I have written in the past about my health whenever I was going through trouble. Back in the middle of March, I had some more lymph nodes that became enlarged and painful. Except for this time, there were three locations, not just one, at the same time. We talked to a head and neck surgeon about the ones in my neck and he said that he just wouldn't operate on me. It just isn't feasible anymore. it happens too often that the only answer is to dive in and take them out. He talked with my oncologist and explained this to her. When I saw her again she decided that a mild chemotherapy drug would be where we go next. On April 6th, I had a portacath placed in my chest because my veins are shot to hell. And on May 3rd I started a 4-week course of Rituxan. While Rituxan itself isn't "chemo," it is a drug that is given to many people on chemo. It makes me very jittery for about 4 days while being tired at the same time. It's an odd sensation. I cant tell that it's helping just yet and I'm not sure how long it takes to find out. I suspect that we'll do a CT scan at the end of the course to see if the lymph nodes have shrunk at all. Its been an interesting month, that's for sure. I just wanted to let you all know what was happening. Heres me plugged in last week...

Makeup goes a long way. This particular day was also my best friends/sister's graduation from her Masters Program. While I didn't go to the graduation, I did get the house ready for company and was so tired when they all arrived! At least I looked fairly normal. LOL. For the most part, Mom and I go together. I take the computer so we can watch Netflix and we both have our knitting. Mom is a freaking trooper I tell ya. I love that woman with every ounce of who I am.

I'm going to close for now. If you can come to Santa Fe tomorrow, I'd love to see you! For those of you who know about my current health struggles, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for all the well wishes. They are much appreciated!

Take care for now and until next time...KNIT ON!!!