Friday, August 8, 2008

The Article

If anyone's reading this that hasn't gotten an email from me today, the article about the heart hit the Stanford Medical Community today. Here's a link to the newsletter:
Discover SHC.

Friday, August 1, 2008

Travel Knitting

Way back in May when we learned we'd be traveling to California for dh's surgery, but didn't know exactly when yet, I decided to start preparing the one thing I knew for sure: I was going to need a bunch of knitting to help keep me sane and manage my stress levels. Since my husband's surgery and then recovery would be my primary concern, I didn't know if I'd have time to get to any LYSes, so I wanted to make sure I had everything I might need with me. Oh, and with all of the luggage restrictions, I knew I had to pack light so everything would fit in one suitcase. Later, when I learned that we'd be gone for 28 whole days, I felt very sad at the thought of leaving my wonderful yarn closet & stash for so long (I was worried about dh, too, but his stuff was a given--there were no options involved so there was also no need for thinking--just go and do it). I think I put more thought into what I needed for my knitting supplies than I did for anything else on the trip.

Here's what I ended up doing....

 

 


KnitPicks Options Binder vs. the "guts only" version. I used giant stitch markers to hold the pages together, & in a pinch, a few of them could be spared and used on a project, too. Removing the binder really cut down on bulk for traveling. I posted 2 shots so you can see the difference in size and thickness. Now that I'm back home, the pages went right back into the binder for safe-keeping (plus it's easier to find the bulky binder than the little, compact packet in my cluttered house).

After I took this photo, I actually grabbed another empty 2-part sleeve and inserted sizes 0 through 2 sets of 4" sock needles in one compartment, and some of the KnitPicks shorter size 1's. Also used a 1-part sleeve to fit in long KP size 0 in case I wanted to do magic loop, and a couple of other things. I'm not sure why I brought so many sock needles when I didn't bring a single ball of sock yarn, but I basically decided I wanted at least 1 size of needle up to about 11 (the biggest KP Options that I own).

 


The essentials: Patterns, tools, reference book, needles

I chose patterns that I thought I might knit, and made sure duplicates were available online, just in case they got lost. The tools included the usual Chibi needles, measuring tape, KP Options tool & extras, Knit Kards, stitch markers, plane-friendly thread snippers. One thing in there that I love for flying is called the "Grip Clip". It's a reusable & washable adhesive paper holder. The sticky back holds onto things like your airplane tray table (when it's closed), and you slip your pattern in the little slot so you can read it hands-free. You can buy them in singles at stationery stores, or I bought a pack of 4 at The Container Store. btw, if you use a plier and pinch the circle end of the KP Options "key" closed, you can then put it on a key chain or something so you don't constantly lose the little thing. I don't know why they made them open-ended to begin with!

My tool bag is a little pencil case bought from Walmart for about $1. I had another one with me for my "anywhere knitting". In that was a Mason-Dixon Baby Genius burp cloth that I could whip out and knit in waiting rooms, when riding in the car, etc. But after dh got home from the hospital, the only thing I did when riding in the car was try to nap since I was up with him quite a bit at night.

I chose the XRX Knitter's Handbook over my Knitter's Companion for my reference book mainly because of weight. I read somewhere that the Knitter's Companion pages are plastic coated for durability, but that also makes it weigh at ton. I also like the wider variety of material covered in the XRX book and the fact that the wire binding is covered and not prone to bending or snagging things.

 
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Yarn for planned projects. Naturally this was the bulkiest part of my stuff. Had I used my space bags, it would have compacted things down quite a bit, but actually, due to my limiting other items, I didn't need to compact any of the yarn. The bottom bag (with pink yarn) is actually yarn for a quite bulky sweater I was making for my little niece. She turned 2 while we were in CA, so I needed to finish it for her birthday gift. The yarn and the sweater were all stashed in a plastic zipper bag that originally held a set of sheets. Those make some great project bags! The top bag had some yarn for other small projects that need to be made for gifts. At the last minute I also threw in my lace knitting project and my socks, which only needed a toe to be completed.

The End Result


I think this happens on many people's travels--I didn't end up using much of what I brought. I didn't touch the lace or the socks. I also didn't use many of the needles I brought (but I felt so secure having them with me!). I actually could have used one larger size set of needles than I had with me, but I also could have held off on casting on the oh-so-soft Malabrigo till I got home, but I wanted it for plane knitting.

Part of the reason I didn't get to much of the knitting is that I had ordered the yarn and pattern for the heart (see post below), and that took up a lot of my knitting time. I kind of forgot about that when taking into account how many projects I thought I'd need to keep me occupied.

The lace project was more about security. I had been working on it a lot before we left, and I thought I'd be sad if I had the time/urge to knit on it and it wasn't with me. Lace is so light, it was ok to throw in there. I'm a new lace knitter, so between the stress off events, the busy schedule, and having a 2-year old around all the time, I didn't have once second to do that kind of knitting.

Another reason I didn't get to all of the knitting is that I was lucky enough to get a little respite from husband care, and managed to get to 4 local yarn shops (Amazing Yarns in Emerald Hills, Full Thread Ahead in Los Altos, Green Planet Yarns in Campbell, Bobbin's Nest Studio in Santa Clara). I did a little stash enhancement at each of the stores. I also tried to go to Purlescence, but they were on vacation on the day I went, and I never made it back there, much to my regret. [off topic: I'm listening to Knitmore Girls' podcast, and Purlescence is their lys...I so regret not having gone back now!!]. I used the space bags to fit the yarn purchases into the baggage on the way home, and we ended up checking in 1 more bag on the way home (dh gets to check 2 bags automatically, so we didn't get charged).

Finally, the best reason that I didn't get to do as much knitting is that my earlier blog about hospital knitting let to a flurry of activity, and I put a chunk of my available time into trying to get that set up.

A chronological update for anyone interested:

7/14/08 The outline (my informal version of a proposal) went to Angela at the Stanford Guest Services.

7/16/08 We voted on a name: Healing Stitches

Approx. 7/18 or so: I set up a Google group (but only Beth Elliot joined it).

7/18: I got an update from Angela that she was working on seeing if the hospital wanted to start another program. She said she'd keep me posted.

7/22: Maggie from KnitWits@Stanford sent me an email telling me that she'd spoken to someone at the Cancer Center who's interested in Healing Stitches. Sorry Maggie, I can't believe that 10 days have passed and I haven't had a chance to email Holly. I promise to do it this weekend.