Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Happy 7th of July!

Not the same as Happy 4th but the sentiment is there. As chaotic as things were back then, we could just as easily be celebrating our independence on the 7th. Pk and I just watched most of John Adams (a biopic in many parts). I say 'most of' because we got tired of John after a while. He was a brilliant man (weren't they all?) but also very arrogant and tiresome. And there was a lot of yelling. We watched the first half of the episodes and enjoyed them. I admire Abigail Adams. What a strong woman.

The lovely blueberries of the 4th became my first ever homemade blueberry pie. I've made apple and peach and lemon meringue and others but never blueberry. I even made the crust and didn't cop out by buying ready made. I added some lemon peel and juice to the berries and it was delicious with some vanilla ice cream. Some of the berries were very tart so it was not a boring pie.

Tomorrow we are taking Em for her follow up visit to the neurosurgeon. She's already seen the thoracic guy and he said all is well. The neurosurgeon is looking for different things. She can't drive yet (and I would worry since she's still taking some heavy duty pain killers) so Pk and I are driving her. She's doing well and is planning to go back to work on August 8th. Boy, that time flew by. It's hard to believe she's already talking about returning to work.

I'm taking her sweater along for the ride. I have finally passed through the black hole that was the back and sides of the top down sweater. I swear I was stuck at 17 inches for weeks. I would doggedly do row after row of stockinette stitch and then measure and it didn't change. I despaired it would ever get finished. Finally, on Sunday, a miracle occured and the tape measured the 22 inches I needed. Woot! Two inches of ribbing was added and last night it was bound off and a sleeve was picked up and is now in progress. After the sleeves, I have to pick up about a billion and a half stitches around the front of the sweater and do three inches of ribbing. I'm optimistic that I'll finish by Christmas. Actually, I am trying to only work on it until I finish it. Except on the train. It's a little too big to cart onto the train. Or if our weather suddenly remembers it's summer here and gets hot. We've been extraordinarily lucky. Once the rains stopped (we're due for showers this week), the sun came out and the temps have been warm but not oppressive. If I could custom order summer weather, this is what I would order.

So, happy July 7th!

9 comments:

roxie said...

Hoping for good news, sending good vibes, prayers, wishes, hugs.

teabird said...

Great, great news!
I know what you mean about stockinette - you can knit forever and get nowhere, and all of a sudden - whoof! - there it is. I think stockinette is impish and messes with your head.

Galad said...

Hope the neuro gives her a clean bill of health!

Hurray for sweater progress!

Bezzie said...

Ha ha! Here I was thinking that rainy dreary-barely breaking 75 weather was ideal!

8/8...that's a good number to start back to work on. :-)

Rose Red said...

Hope the appointment goes well.

That's the problem for me with top down garments - they just take SO LONG to make progress. But then when you have the woo-hoo moment, you've only got the sleeves, and no seaming. That's what makes them worth it, hey!

Louiz said...

Fingers crossed for the checkup. I know exactly what you mean about the stockinette going on forever, but there's less sewing up so it's worth it (I think).

Yippee for good (nice) weather!

Bells said...

oh a blueberry pie just sounds so very good. Amazing even. Wonder if I can get away with frozen ones....

Hoping for good stuff for Em.

Jeanne said...

Yum - blueberry pie!

I hope that the doctor visit goes well and that she is done with this whole thing!

Amy Lane said...

And it was a good day--I'm glad her visit went well!

Happy Sunday!  I am sitting here working on my sweater made with the cashmere yarn my husband gave me for my birthday last year. I’m further...