I am completely verklempt at the outpouring of support from all of you. I knew there would be comments and concern and caring. I knew you would all respond to my news with kindness. But I had no idea how much better it would make me feel. I have this image of the world in my head with glowing beams of light coming from the places where you all live to the place where I am. And that place where I am? It’s glowing with the brightest light I’ve ever seen due to all of you. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart for every comment, every word of encouragement and understanding, every expression of concern and love. It truly means more to me than you could ever realize.

The wake is tonight from 5 until 8. The funeral is tomorrow morning at 10. My dad had everything planned, all I really had to do was okay it all, which made things quite simple and easy for the entire family. Maybe I’m being naive and underestimating my emotions at this point but I feel okay.

Nevertheless, keep sending those beams of light, would ya? I have a strong suspicion they are what’s carrying me along.

I had a whole day of knitting planned for yesterday. Dale was going to be leaving first thing in the morning to go to a living history in Connecticut. Hannah was still on Martha’s Vineyard and I was looking forward to a day to myself so I could knit, with occasional breaks for spinning and perhaps even blocking the Adamas Shawl.

And then my phone rang at 7:30 am. And it was my stepbrother’s wife, calling to tell me that they were at the hospital with my dad and it looked like he was nearing the end of his life. One simple phone call and everything changed. Not just my plans for the day or my plans for the next few days but really for the rest of my life.

I was able to reach Dale on the road (what did we do before cell phones?) and we were at the hospital at 8:45. We had a visit with my dad, he was awake and talking, but he continued to grow weaker and less responsive as the day went on. The family gathered: both my stepbrothers and their wives as well as their children, my stepsister and her family and stepcousins and basically anyone who wanted to be able to say goodbye was able to do so. There were stories told and there was teasing and sharing and not just a few tears. Just about the time we were wondering if perhaps we should make plans for leaving and taking turns being in his room my dad’s breathing changed significantly. And at 7:30 pm, right after the Red Sox game ended, my dad quietly passed away.

Ours had been a complex and sometimes difficult relationship. Technically, he was my stepfather, but he had been in my life since I was 4 and married to my mother since I was 6, so that term seems inadequate and disrespectful for someone who always acted just like a “real” father. I adored him when I was a child, couldn’t stand him when I was a teenager and young adult, and quite frankly resented him when my mother died 8 years ago. Somewhere over the last few years I accepted him for who he was, faults and all, just as he accepted me and all my faults many years ago. Isn’t it funny how life comes full circle?

And now the business of death takes over – the arrangements and plans and ceremonies that serve to distract us for a few days – while we learn to cope with the loss. This wasn’t really unexpected as he had been in the hospital for the past several months and he lived a full life of 83 years up until that time. But even so, it’s life altering.

This just in . . . the winner of the “Guess When Carole Will Finish Adamas Contest” is:

Anne!

She was the 11th commenter and that’s the number the Random Number Generator selected as my prize winner. I don’t have any fancy way to prove this, you’re just going to have to trust me on this one.

Anne, come on down and collect your prize! A beautiful skein of purple laceweight merino. Hope you like it!

I finished Adamas on Thursday at 2:11 pm, right at the end of my lunch break. Woo! The Hoo will wait until she’s blocked, I’m afraid.

I started Wing of the Moth on Friday morning at 6:30 am. Yes, this was technically after the race was over since Vanessa finished at 4:10 am. Sad, isn’t it? I think Liz and I will be racing for last place in this contest. Right now she and I are at about the same point – 7 repeats into the Fir Cone section. Yawn.

And that’s all I’ve got this evening.

Remember last week’s tomato? I turned it into this. It was wonderful.

P.S. I’m in!

I really don’t have time for this whole blogging thing. I’m supposed to be finishing Adamas, you know. And the competition for the Wing of the Moth Shawl is getting greater by the minute. Beth has huge amounts of knitting done and Cheryl is offering prizes and now Julia is donating to her favorite charity on behalf of everyone in the race. And Anne has the true edge in all of this because it’s her freaking pattern.

You can’t really expect me to come up with a clever and witty blog post in the midst of all this pressure, can you?

Can’t blog. Must knit.

Thanks to everyone who has entered the Adamas Finishing contest! I love hearing from all of you, both faithful commenters and delurkers alike. I think you’ve broken my current comment record with this post. I’ve always known the best way to get people to speak up is to offer them free yarn!

Speaking of free yarn, Cheryl has started a contest of her own to go with the Wing of the Moth race. You should head on over to her blog and place your bet on who will finish first. A word of advice, though. Don’t bet on me. I haven’t even started yet and these other knitters are way out in front!

Prior to this mad dash to finish Adamas I was knitting socks. I finished Hannah’s birthday socks in record time – just one week from start to finish.

This is me, modeling Hannah’s socks – yes, we wear the same sock size. I love them! The colors remind me of birthday cake and the stripes match perfectly. Perfectly. The yarn is Meilenweit Magico and was purchased on my trip to Utah to visit Margene. They are a gift for Hannah’s 14th birthday which is only 2 weeks away.

In a moment of nostalgia I put my foot up on the windowsill in my office next to one of my favorite pictures of Hannah. It’s from a long ago camping trip and she’s only 6 in this photo. It was the summer after she had finished 1st grade. Now she’s going to high school. Man alive, that was quick!

Once I finished the birthday socks (my 14th pair of finished socks in ‘06 if anyone is keeping track) my needles were free to start the socks for the Toasty Toes swap.

I had this yarn custom dyed by Emily and it’s fabulous. It’s all the colors of Autumn – the leaves, the mums, the sky – and I hope my pal will love the colors as much as I do. The pattern is Best Foot Forward from Knit Socks and they’re moving along nicely.

Well, they were moving along nicely, until this week. Right now it’s all about Adamas, damn it.

I made my first quilt in 1998. Since then I’ve made lots and lots of quilts, all by machine. Since I started knitting so much, though, I hardly ever quilt. In fact, I have 3 quilts in progress right now and I don’t think I’ve touched any of them in months. But you know what? It’s sort of okay because my house is full of quilts. Want to see?

There are quilts on beds, of course.

And quilts on the backs of couches for snuggling on chilly nights.

And quilts on quilt racks.

There are quilts on tables. Some are tablecloths.

And some are placemats.

There are sometimes quilts drying on the deck railing.

And there are even quilts on the walls.

So, while I am determined to finish those 3 quilts that I’ve started, it’s not like we’re having a shortage of quilts over here at Carole Knits. Because, you see, I used to quilt obsessively. Kind of like how now I knit obsessively.

Picture me, on Friday, innocently reading blogs and leaving comments. You know, like I do every day. So, I’m reading and reading and I come to the latest post at Seed Stitch. And Cheryl, like Julia and Beth, is all excited about the release of Anne’s Wing of the Moth pattern. Cheryl says she wants to knit this pattern as a race to see who can finish it first. I, again innocently, leave a comment about how I’m planning on knitting this shawl but I need to finish Miriam’s Adamas shawl first. Count me in for the knitting but not for the race, says I. And do you know what she did? Here’s a hint.

Yup. She threw down the gauntlet. She called me out. Here’s what she said, exactly:

Oh no, you’re not getting out of this that easily! You’re in, consider yourself raced.

Ahem. I am not one to back down from a challenge. Then again, I have my rules. And one of my rules is only one lace project on the needles at a time. The race is on but the race is to finish Adamas before I start Wing of the Moth. Here’s Adamas in her current state.

I have 5 more repeats of the main pattern before I switch to the edging. How long do you think this is going to take me to finish knitting? Leave your guess in the comments by Friday, August 25, 2006 at 11:00 pm EST and you’lll be entered into a drawing for this skein of lace weight yarn – so you can make your very own Wing of the Moth Shawl.

Merino Lace, made in Italy for Skacel Collection. 1375 yds.

You don’t have to be right about when I’ll finish to win. Anyone who guesses in the comments will be entered and I’ll randomly select a name. This is an excellent chance to de-lurk, all you lurkers. Just sayin.

The race (and the contest!) is on!

I really wasn’t going to enter this Amazing Lace Challenge. I had an idea, right from the beginning, but I didn’t think I’d have time to get the photos I wanted. And I figured since I had already won Challenge #3 (thank you, again!) that I didn’t want to push my luck by entering again. But this challenge kept nagging at me. Here’s what we were asked to do:

Your challenge — your final challenge — is to post a photo of your lace being proudly worn or displayed by the strangest, funniest, or most unlikely model you can find.

And here’s what I came up with. This is the Massasoit statue in downtown Plymouth, MA.

This is Massasoit modeling my Amazing Lace shawl.

How’s that?

Our first ripe tomato, 2006. Candy for the eyes and mouth!