Teach me to be more adaptive

I'm taking Hannah to the movies today (and it's an R movie, and I don't care.)

I'm taking her to see Sweeny Todd. Those of you who know me, know that this is my favorite show, my favorite musical, and my not-so-secret dream is to someday play Mrs. Lovett in some community theater production of ST. It may never happen - I'm certainly not doing anything to further this along, having been disengaged from the theater for so many years - but a girl can dream!

I'm very psyched to see this, though. I adore Depp, love HBC's work (especially in the past 10 years) and I'm so excited to see Tim Burton tackle this rich tale. Baby!

So I have to get some good movie knitting lined up - I have some family projects that I'm VERY much in danger of not finishing for Tuesday morning - but that's why we love our family. They forgive us our latenesses.

More Notes From A Designer
What I have been working on is the cable-yoked cardigan, and after ripping out the bodice as promised yesterday, I reknit it with some shaping figured into it (graduated cables to create waist shaping) and horizontal i-cord to create the just-slightly-high waistline.

The peplum will be worked in lighter yarn - they say "dk" - but it feels heaver than that to me. All these terms are so fluid from yarn company to yarn company.

The sleeves will match the peplum, but right now I'm sort of stuck on the peplum. Not stuck, it's just slow going and I need to settle into my chair for a good, long knitting stint to get progress made.

And, having just written that, I ripped back the peplum to the third row to reduce the total number of stitches I'd increased - it was getting a little crinoline-skirty - and will hopefully find a calmer and more flattering silhouette. And THAT'S the kind of thing you just can't see until you take the needle OUT of the work and throw it up on the mannequin. My mannequin definitely needs to be credited in the next book.

Home = Work
This morning at 5:30 Gerry was awake - he now has this awful cold/flu thing that I had, and of course for him it's much more serious. He hadn't slept well all night, and since today's Saturday I gave him Nyquil and he's been sleeping all day. He needed it.

So he's sick, Hannah's had the same cough for 2 weeks now, but Max is healthy as a horse. Go Max! I'm pretty much over what I had, which is excellent news for everyone else in the house.

Since I was up at 5:30 and couldn't get back to sleep, I got out my femme-sized hand drill and finally put up the towel holder, TP holder and some hooks in the downstairs bathroom, plus an ironing board holder behind the door. Bit by bit!

And oddly, I was so quiet that no one woke up. THAT'S my family!

The Gifts
In a week when our solitary family existence is highlighted by the fact that we have no local family to descend upon for dinner & a good argument, I'm brought to tears by a local friend who just dropped by with cookies and her firefighter boyfriend to shovel our front walk. That's almost moving into fantasy territory, but it's definitely one of the nicest gifts I've received this year.

But the best gift by far? This line from an email from my cousin in WV whose breast cancer had recurred. I shoved it so far out of my mind, I didn't write about it (although I couldn't help but dwell on it...) Here's what she wrote in an email this week:

The best news is that my surgeon said the lymph node and where it had metastacised was encapsulated so he got it ALL in one swoop!!!! And I only have to have a few radiation treatments to clean up what might be left.

She called to tell me she'd be here to boss me around for as long as I can stand her. She's more like a big sister than a cousin, so I can definitely stand it.