Silver Grey Shawl and More...

It has been a while since my last post. A couple of weeks ago I had a little accident and have been since recuperating. I was pushing a heavy package from my porch into the house, when Chance tried to dart out the front door. I grabbed his collar to try to stop him, but instead, he ended up taking me with him down the stairs and the walkway. Fortunately, none of my bones appear to be broken. However, I still got a concussion and a severe ankle sprain, and my left leg is going to be in an air boot for a few more weeks. You would think that, after breaking my right shoulder not that long ago, I would have learned that he is a lot stronger than I am.

Anyway, I have not stopped knitting. I finished a silver-grey shawl in DROPS Kid Silk, which is a luxurious blend of mohair and mulberry silk, with the addition of DROPS Glitter, a metallic thread. I added the silver thread to make the shawl a little more festive for the winter holidays. I followed Linda Choo's Sweet Pea Stole pattern, which is a well-written and easy pattern. Due to my injury, I have not been feeling up to hand-washing and blocking it yet, so the beautiful lace doesn't show quite well. I will post another photo once it is blocked.

As socks are my comfort projects, I also knitted a pair of striped socks. I discovered that my hand-knitted wool socks feel cooler inside the air boot than my other socks. So I have been wearing them, even though it is still summer. I used DROPS Fabel in Light Grey and Deep Ocean.

I tried a new to me method to make the stripes jogless. I usually just slip the first stitch on the second round of a new color, but this time, instead of slipping it, I knitted it together with the stitch under it. I am not sure I like this method more. How do you knit jogless joins? I wonder if there is a better way.

Before I got injured, I made a few more fabric face masks with an added third layer of flannel. Here are the 3 new fabrics I used. I love how soft the flannel feels against my face. I bet these masks will feel great during the colder months. (I assume that we will be still wearing face masks at least through the winter.)

If you are wondering about Chance, he is doing OK. He had another flareup, the worst so far, so his doctor put him on a very high dose of oral prednisone, a corticosteroid that suppresses the immune system. Once on prednisone, Chance's eye started to improve very quickly. Unfortunately, at this dosage Chance also became very restless and has been nonstop drinking and urinating all over the house. We decided to reduce the dosage a little and add another immunosuppressant (and an anti-nausea medicine to manage the side effect of this drug) to his treatment. Now he is on 2 oral and 1 ophthalmic immunosuppressants. Although his disease is still an enigma to his doctors, we are happy that he is finally improving. We are hoping that eventually the dosages of these medications could be lowered without triggering another flareup.