Waiting

A lot of my knitting is done while I’m waiting for something…a doctor’s appointment, a flight to take off, the cat on my lap to wake up. This time I’m waiting for test results, and the rhythm of knitting is pulling me through.

I had a PET/CT scan last Thursday, my second in two months. I have one of these combined scans every year since I was diagnosed with colon cancer in October 2005. But in May the radiologist found spots on my lungs “consistent with metastases.” So they did a lung biopsy, which was negative. Now they have followed up with another scan last week and bloodwork today. I’ll find out the results on Thursday at my oncology appointment.

In the meantime, I knit and garden and read about places far away from here…although I am happy to be where I am. I am grateful to be alive and to live in the beautiful Rockies. And I will deal with one thing at a time and be present through it.

This is one of the most healing and relaxing places I know. Cliff built this patio:

And in the opposite direction (with cloud cover and a maverick, yellow, springtime leaf):

I carried all those concrete bricks over while Cliff painstakingly set each one in compacted sand at just the right angle. This was all great fun — almost as much fun as wallpapering but a lot heavier. 110 tons heavier, in fact.

But the result is that we opened up a little bit of heaven on earth. Turn on the fountain and . . .  >sigh<

Back to knitting. I just finished my Clapotis shawl and am enjoying wearing it around the house.  It’s quite lovely and graceful. But the pattern seemed neverending to me, and I’m relieved that it’s done.

 
Clapotis blocking

 
A closer look at lovely Koigu

. . . and real close

To celebrate the end of that long and repetitive knit, I knit up my first dishcloth, although I don’t normally use dishcloths; I use a kitchen sponge. Hmm. I also had never knit with 100% cotton before. The dishcloth was a fast and easy knit, which I needed after the shawl. But I was 2/3 through the dishcloth before I remembered that this was the project I was going to learn Continental knitting on.

As it was, my forearms were so sore from knitting with the cotton that I was glad I didn’t try Continental on the dishcloth. No knitting today; my forearms need a break. I will use some lovely leftover (forgiving) wool to learn Continental.