Another Knitfest!

Lots of fun at today's semi-monthly knitfest gathering at the ranch! It was "Monkey day," the day when most of us cast on for a Monkey knitalong. We have 3 of us doing two-at-a-time toe-up on Magic Loop, 5 doing cuff-down on Magic Loop, and 1 doing cuff-down on 2 circs. There were monkey tablecloths, monkey sproingy-hangy things from the light fixture, monkey water bottles, and monkey lollipops... and lots of yummy food (as always - we're a talented bunch in the kitchen, too!).

I got all my toe increases done with the gang today, and am now about a half-inch into a one-inch buffer between toe and starting the pattern. I'm using Pagewood Farm Denali yarn in a gorgeous turqoise color. Mmmm... It's not only beautiful, it's a lovely yarn to knit with, very squooshy. I'm a wee bit afraid it's too squooshy to be sturdy on the sole, so I decided to make the instep on US#1.5 needles (2.5 mm) and the sole on US#1 needles (2.25 mm) - tighten the sole stitches up a little bit. If I really want to make it tough, I should use US#0 neeldes, but... ugh... I've done that with a couple of pair before and they're just toooo small for me. Seem to take forever to knit.

In Aunt I status, she's still in recovery/ICU, but dad and Joan got to see her today. She's still being somewhat sedated, and will probably hurt a lot more before she starts to hurt a lot less. Her back problem won't help matters, either. She told dad that she thought she had pneumonia. Let's see - they cracked her ribs and took out two chunks of her lungs, and she's self-diagnosing pneumonia. Um, as dad told her, let's see what the doctor says. They're waiting for the final pathology, but the surgeon was fairly sure they got all the bad bits, and the oncologist doesn't think she'll need chemo or radiation after all. Hooray for little victories. If that's the case, she'll want to get better quickly so she can start her MMM chemo again (it was on hold while she did the surgery thang).

Finally, Sock Summit registration opens at 10:00 on Tuesday, 5/26. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!