Friday the 13th

I was excited to receive an email from Angelique from the weaving class I took last month. Angelique has finished her first project since taking the class. It is an area rug woven from Pendelton selvages. The colors in the rug remind me of the American southwest ---- lots of bright, warm colors.

I have been working on the Sublime vest this week, mostly because I have been out of the office. On Tuesday, I received a telephone call from my son's high school. Justin was in the nurse's office complaining of severe chest pain. The nurse recommended Justin be sent to the emergency room so off we went. For the next 4 hours, Justin was x-rayed, poked, prodded, monitored and tested. I was consigned to the waiting room. Thank goodness for knitting!

By the end of the first hour, I had completed the cast on for the front (I completed the back last week) and started the 2x2 ribbing. By the second hour, I was half done with the ribbing. At the end of the third hour, the ribbing was nearly complete.

Ultimately, the doctor informed us that Justin had air surrounding the membrane of his heart, causing the pain. It is fairly serious. Apparently, Justin had been in class and had tried to stifle a sneeze. This caused the air he should have expelled to be redirected into the heat sac. The air will most likely dissipate on its own, but to be on the safe side, Justin has to take it easy over the next two weeks, have follow-up care, and more x-rays.

This afternoon, Justin and I went to Justin's primary care doctor for a follow-up. More waiting! I knitted. I managed to complete one entire pattern repeat and took a picture for the blog. While I was looking at the picture, I saw this!

See the cable on the left? The cable is crossed the wrong way half way up. I'm still trying to figure out how that happened since I look at all my cables at the end of each row. I guess I didn't look closely enough.

Rather than frog back all that work, I grabbed two cable hooks, pulled the offending four stitches off the needles and spent the next 30 minutes repairing the mistake.

Just as I was ready to cheerfully fling the entire project across the room, the telephone rang. It was Michael from our local GMC dealer. My new car had just been delivered and I could pick it up at 6:00 p.m.

It is a GMC Acadia, charcoal grey with a black interior. It is rated for 17 miles on the city and 24 miles on the highway. If it gets gas mileage anywhere close to these numbers, I'll be thrilled. My van (which I traded in) was averaging 13 miles in the city and 18 miles on the highway. During the past two weeks, gasoline has jumped to an average $3.35 per gallon here in California! I used to be able to fill the tank for about $30....now I average $60. This seriously cuts into my yarn acquisition fund. I'm anxious to see if the mileage claims will average anywhere near the reality of the car. We shall see.