Category: Road Trips

Time for a break

Published on by Jane13 Comments
Waiting Socks, Working

They did their job well during chemo last time — every time I looked down at my feet I felt better, and they kept me warm, too. Two treatments down, five to go.

That photo will have to represent all the knitting I’ve been doing. I haven’t had time to photograph the three hats in Malabrigo and two in Morehouse Merino that I’ve completed for this year’s Knitters Review Retreat charity project. I don’t have a picture of the Honeycomb Hat in The Knitter’s Book of Yarn that I made for my own hairless head in a lovely plummy shade of Sundara’s Aran Silky Merino. (Hmm, my hat looks almost like Clara’s!) I’m trying to finish the second blue Hedgerow sock for one of the Remarkable R’s before we leave for Rhinebeck on Friday. She wore the first one last year, so I think it’s about time she had the pair, don’t you?

Rhinebeck is my goal for the week. I’m working my way towards it in a methodical way. Do this much at work. Get that many hours of sleep. Pace myself with the laundry and the errands. On Friday afternoon I’ll be fetched by Judy and the R’s, and off we’ll go on our yearly adventure. Road trip + yarn and fiber sniffing + good food x four friends = a blissful blast! I hope to get to spend a little time with Jen, Martha, Lanea, Beth, and Purlewe, and I hope I’ll run into lots of fellow knitting friends.

It finally occurred to me that I am in dire need of a break from my life. Just a wee one will do for now. My world has been constrained since June, confined to a little corner. I spend all my time tending to the necessary concerns of my health and my spirit, which is as it needs to be. This is my chance to break free for a little while, and it comes at at time when I have some energy and I’m experiencing relatively few side effects.

The chemo cycle starts again next Thursday. At the beginning of all this, when I counted the days on the calendar, I was relieved to find that Rhinebeck and the KR Retreat fall in between treatments. That one-week delay made all the difference! I don’t want to mess up the schedule, so I just have to make sure I take really good care of myself, and that my blood counts stay high enough each week (there’s only so much I can do about that, but I like to think I am in charge of my bone marrow, you know).

Time to get on with the day, I suppose. There’s work to do at the store, and since I’m grateful for every spare bit of energy I have for it, I’m happy to do it!