Double bumps and tweedish and TMI

Earlier this week I knit two dishcloths. One's a Double Bump,

(Really it's a nice red, and not washed-out looking.)

and one's Tweedish.

(Who has a kitchen where this would fit in??)

Indeed, I planned on churning out dishcloths, but couldn't get excited about it. You see, I was lying in hospital, recovering from having a chunk of my guts cut out. I was also planning on writing a stunning piece about the whole thing, and now I am feeling too burned out to do that.

But I shall try.

Icky bit coming....

I did the test my doctor handed me when I saw him just after I turned 50. He poetically called it "sh*t on a stick," which describes it exactly. (I also had a mammogram and a bone mineral density test which I passed with flying colours.) But, my stick-work was suspect, so I then had a little colonoscopy (you know, it was not so bad: fear not the colonoscopy) and they found a little polyp, and they took it out with this cool little lasso-like tool -- too bad I was stoned on sedatives and couldn't really decipher what was on the monitor! But, they found another polyp, which was not standard in shape, and couldn't be removed with the little lasso thing, so they sent me to the surgeon. And he cut me open and gave me a scar that will look like this: Here's my head :) and here's my belly button o and now I have a 3 or 4-inch line that goes around the belly button like this -^- . One of the doctors called it "cute" and I have decided to take that to heart. (Also, I have nice insides, I've been told.)

The upshot of all of this is that maybe just maybe that polyp could have turned into something really nasty, and it is far better to get it out of me before that happens. A bit less intestine makes no difference to me now, and I was out of the hospital on the 5th day. I could have said, "nah, leave it for now; it's nothing," but was told the risk involved in doing that was much greater than the risks of surgery now.

My family doctor told me that he gives out those screening tests to everyone, and he knows that not everyone does them. It's not like making an appointment for a mammogram, where you go and just follow instructions: "Stand here, lean in a bit, arm here, hold this, now a biiiiiit of pressure..." The mammogram people have been very successful with their PR over the past few years. This other test is not advertised on billboards (although there was a poster in the hospital where I had the colonoscopy which read, "Get your butt over here") and since you do it on your own at home it is easy to ignore, and it is kind of icky, let's face it. But, lemme tell you: do it!

In the hospital I couldn't really knit with an IV in my hand and sitting/lying in that bed and taking painkillers, but when I got home I made the two cloths, and then got ambitious.

End of icky bit...

Oh, my, this could become long...

Remember this? I have had so many ideas over the past year, and even started a couple of things, but any sweater knit with this requires so many stitches and is so fiddly, and the yarn is beautiful but sort of rough and not super easy to work with, and there's always something that stops me.

Well, this week I have made most of a sleeve, and I figure there is no turning back now!


It is from a Fiona Ellis cardigan (Ravelry link) from the early Fall Vogue Knitting magazine this year.

I started it some months ago, actually, when the magazine first came out, and then it got set aside for some reason. Picked it up again and had to remember certain things: I had started on a sleeve, for one thing. I need to make the body bigger. I won't do the short rows, because how could those possibly be flattering on any body with breasts? (In fact, one could experiment with shadow and light and short rows and maybe the Noro would help with all that, but I just want to knit a sweater, not conduct lengthy experiments!)

Bets on whether I actually move beyond sleeves??