Home again

I mentioned on Friday that I was taking my lace traveling. Four days and four planes later, we are home again. Why the sudden trip? I mentioned a couple of months ago that my grandmother was in the hospital for unknown reasons. Two weeks ago they arrived at a diagnosis, and she won't be coming home from the hospital. She has a fatal disease which usually takes about 4 months to run its course. This meant that it was time to go back to Massachusetts, and sooner rather than later. We left Friday afternoon, and arrived back last night after a rather whirlwind trip. It is a strange thing to visit someone for the last time, knowing that it is the last time. When you live close to someone that is ill, you always hope for one more visit, and you can put off the finality of goodbye with the belief that there will be a next time. Things get harder when you live 3500 miles away, and when time left is counted in weeks rather than months. And yet, how many people say that they would give anything for just one more day? We are lucky to have had the chance to visit, with the mixed blessing of knowing just how momentous a visit it was.

All of the travel and all of the time spent thinking (and decidedly not sleeping) means that there has been much knitting. I was surprised to finish the center panel of the stole before we even got to our plane transfer last night.



I now have three pieces ready for grafting, which I'll probably manage to finish tonight.



Tomorrow is group meeting, but I will try to have blocking photos Thursday or Friday. I can't wait to see how it looks blocked!