Family Reunion, Channing's Scarf

I have slept most of the day, recovering from a deep exhaustion resulting from three days of excitement, joy, sadness and nearly non-stop talking with my sister whom I haven't seen for years, the number of which is so embarrassing I refuse to type it.

The excitement and joy was in seeing my brother Michael, my sister George-Anna and her four kids, Eli, Justin, Michael and Channing. The sadness is, of course, the terrible illness of our elderly mother, an illness which is now considered to be probable Lewy Body dementia -- a dementia with symptoms that are extremely difficult to treat, as it involves intense hallucinations and delusions, and strange, severe reactions to numerous drugs, including most that might possibly help with the hallucinations and the immense anxiety and fear they engender. It's vicious, and awful to see our mother suffering so....

But there were many nice moments in the last few days and I shall focus on those.
On Tuesday afternoon, my sister and brother took Mom to St. Mary-of-the-Woods, where the Sisters of Providence share a beautiful, serene wooded campus with St. Mary-of-the-Woods College. They had a lovely time and a serendipitous lunch. Oddly enough this is fiber-related as the Sisters raise alpacas! Mom loves to see the alpacas and we have spent some very peaceful time out there, including walking the labyrinth together. I have worked with many of the Sisters on various social justice issues over the years, but primarily on opposition to the death penalty, and it's a privilege to be in the same community with these dedicated women.

Later that afternoon, George-Anna, her daughter Channing and I went downtown and picked up my granddaughter Raven, who is the same age as Channing. I thought the girls would hit it off, and I was never more happy to be right! After Channing got a splendid haircut from my daughter-in-law DeAnn at her salon, we went down the street to visit with Martha at Riverwools.

Channing has just learned to knit and she brought her first completed project to give to her grandma (isn't that sweet??), but first I wanted her to get the chance to show it off to Martha and let me get a picture:


Channing's scarf looked like it was just made to go with the light violet winter coat my mother has, similar to the color of the chair at Riverwools.

Then I took a picture of Raven and Channing in front of Martha's Great Wall of Cascade 220:

Raven doesn't knit yet, but she's learned to crochet and has done several projects, including a baby blanket.

Tuesday night we had a great time at a big family dinner at Outback, though it was too much for Mom to attend.

After another day of conversation, laughter, tears, the gang left this morning and are safely back home in the beautiful Smoky Mountains of western North Carolina.
Remember those giant skeins of yarn in my last entry? Well, after I took off the ball bands so I could knit up a swatch or two, they did the most amazing expansion and shapeshifting into even more giant balls of yarn, the likes of which neither Channing nor I have ever seen. She was good enough to pose with them to give a better idea of the gigantorness:


Yeah, it's acrylic, but the colors are very pleasing to me, and look excellent combined. There is enough there to be using this stuff for years as little accents on my hats and in freeform work! As I've said before, I suscribe to the philosophy that even plastic can be redeemed by love, and I confess I kind of love these crazygiant balls of yarn.
'zann