Angels amongst us

Somehow, when I posted the day before yesterday, I think I may have forgotten to express my deepest gratitude to those around me whom have been very supportive over the past couple of weeks during my mother's illness. My post today is dedicated to them (you know who you are) and there is one person that I would especially like to thank here publicly for her kindness, support, and friendship. Toni, coolpinkone on Ravelry, surprised me with these lovely dishcloths last week. They are absolutely wonderful...I LOVE them!!! She used one of my favorite patterns, the waffle stitch, and they will be put to good use. Thank you so so much Toni...you are definitely an angel!!!

Mom continues to improve it seems with each passing hour, so I'm having to run back and forth between her house and mine a little less frequently. Scooter took the day off from work yesterday, so he went with me when I went over to make her lunch and dinner, and help her get a shower. She wanted beef stew for dinner, so ask and ye shall receive mother 'o mine. Within 10 minutes, I had it in the crock pot and I will check with her today to see how it was. It's pretty hard to mess that one up, so I'm sure she probably thoroughly enjoyed it. It's good to see her appetite back, and the color come back in her face. Her neighbors have all been very helpful as well. The one right next door to her checks on her a couple of times a day, the one behind her calls her and/or comes for a visit and another one across the street from her comes and tends to her plants. Lovely people, every single one of them!!

Yesterday, mom was craving a burger from McD's, but she failed to tell me when we were on our way over to her house. Today, if she still wants one (GAG!), I will take her one. I'm hoping the beef stew was awesome enough to where she will want leftovers of that for dinner tonight.

The Oregon vest I've been working on has grown as I had a chance to work on it during the times I visited mom in the hospital and she was under sedation. It is just so very cool watching the design take shape as you change colors. I'm about half done with the body (it's knit in the round) and am actually looking forward to cutting my steek...just too exciting!!!

I've also made progress on my Sausalito cardigan...I have done the armhole shaping for the back piece and just have a few more inches to go before it's completed. Then I will start on the front and hopefully be wearing it this fall....

Another project I started yesterday is for the Winter Special Olympics being held in Washington state. You can read more about it here. I'm not a fan at all of the yarn that has to be used (Red Heart Super Saver is too hard on the hands), but this charity is near and dear to my heart as I have an uncle that once participated many years ago, so I plan to make as many as I can to send off to Washington. I love the pattern I have chosen and will probably just do variations of it for each scarf, unless I run out of time, in which case, I will pick up my crochet hook since I can whip them out at a very fast rate. Time will tell though. The pattern for this one shown is called Reversible Lace/Garter Stitch Scarf and it can be found on Ravelry. It's a very easy, mindless knit as the pattern is easily memorized very quickly.

Here in the U.S., we have a three day weekend coming up and if mom is going to be okay, Scooter and I are thinking about maybe getting away for a bit. We haven't had much chance to talk about it yet, but I'm thinking I need some sea salt spray from the ocean on my face! Either way, ocean or mountains, suits me just fine.....