Projects From My Trip....

I bet you didn't even know I was gone... :) I went to stay with my Dad while he had surgery in August. I was there almost three weeks. He made it through the surgery fine, but then had other complications. He is an alcoholic, so went through DT's and they put him on a detox program. They kept him sedated, because he was so anxious and his heart rate kept going up, his blood pressure kept going up... Then, he developed pneumonia. So he was (and still is, I think) on antibiotics for that. Long story short, he will be in the hospital probably another week from when I left (Friday); then in a physical rehab facility for two weeks after that. So.... I decided I couldn't stay there another month. I was able to help out *some*, though.... I drove my stepmom to the hospital a few times (she doesn't drive highways), tried to help with cleaning the house, some... Made dinner a couple times... And if he is in the rehab place, he will probably be well enough to get around by himself when he gets home. (The whole reason-- mostly, besides wanting to be there for the surgery in case anything happened-- that I went, was to help him out after he got home from the hospital..) I think besides getting him to walk by himself, the big thing now is getting him back to himself. When he started coming out of sedation, he was really out there!! The first day I walked in his room after he was *awake*, I said, 'Hey! They have you sitting up now! Have you been able to walk around at all?' (Not knowing anything about how he really was doing at this point...) He said, 'It's against the law' I laughed and said 'No it's not, I'm walking around, aren't I?'.... Things like that. It was distressing.... The nurses said it is because he is in what they call a 'Med Fog'; because he was on so many different medications, he is 'foggy', and should come out of it soon. But because his liver isn't like as a normal, healthy persons' liver (from being an alcoholic since he was 16 years old), it may take even longer than usual for his body to get rid of all that stuff...
Anyway~~~ I only brought a few projects with me to work on. My Simply Striped Shrug. This is my progress so far. :)

My socks, which I started for our twelve year old son (I wanted to knit socks for all of them). He said he doesn't want them. :( So, I asked my husband if he wanted them. He said yes. (I don't know why he wants them, when he doesn't even wear the ones I already knitted him!...) I was going to make them for the 17 year old, but I have another pair in mind for him. I already have the pattern & yarn to make him the Earl Grey Socks. So, here is sock #1 of pair #2 for my husband....

I also worked on some more magic ball hotpads. I finished one other one besides this (which I gave to my stepmom). I took a picture of it, but my camera ATE all my pictures!!! I am so mad about that. I had 65 really cool pictures of the whole trip. It has done that to me once before. I want to smash it. Anyway, the other one was more black and white and blue... It was pretty cool. This is the second one I did...

This is the back. Here is the front:

Kinda crooked. I also did a couple more ballband dishcloths:

The brown-ish one is for my sister. Don't know about the blue one yet. I have a pile of dishcloths going. I was going to donate them somewhere but haven't decided yet...

Another idiot dishcloth.

When I was in Michigan, I got to visit lots of family. Two of my Aunts (well, three-- I saw one of my other Aunts at Target while I was there-- she works there :P). My one Aunt; I used to live with for a while, til I graduated from high school.... She had a lot of these dishcloths, she buys at craft shows. She was showing them to me. I said 'Oh yeah, I make those a lot'. She also had these really cool crocheted scrubbies. She gave me one (I should take a picture of it). I wanted to try and copy it; but don't know if I will ever get around to doing that... It's made out of some kind of mesh stuff. Mine is purple. I think she had a yellow or green one, too. I got to see my nephew. :) He's going to be walking any day now. He's only about ten months old, too. Our oldest walked at ten and a half months old. (My sister--my nephew's mama-walked at nine months!) So he might be an early walker, too. Well that is enough for today, I think. As much as I don't like living here, it does feel good to be *home*!