Yaks and Yarns and Yucks (their title, not mine)

image courtesy of Denver Post

BijouSpun yarn is one of the lines I carry. Eileen over at Bijou Basin Ranch, home of the yak yarn, just sent me this link. The Denver Post did a piece on the Ranch that I really enjoyed. If you have a moment, I highly recommend that you watch this video. The yaks are so sweet and the fiber; so luscious!

Surgery Update (No Photos, I promise)

Warning

If you do not want to hear about my insides, kindly disregard this post.

The surgery was a success! That being said, I feel like I survived the most punishing ab-bootcamp ever invented by the U.S. armed forces and have nothing to show for it but 4 small stab wounds. They removed my gallbladder laprascopically, through a 2 inch incision in my belly button and made 3 more small incisions around my abs for sport. You can watch a video filmed by my doctor if you dare. Turns out, not only was the duct blocked by a very large gallstone, but I had several more small stones in there too. It was all so infected that it had adhered in a whole bunch of places not only to my liver, but also to my stomach. This stinking gallbladder had actually pulled my stomach out of place! I will not even describe to you what they found inside the thing, but my doctor was pretty shocked. Apparently I really should have been so jaundiced that I glowed in the dark for the last year or two. I guess I am so pale that nobody would have noticed!

I spent one very, very long sleepless night in the hospital. I gave the hospital staff quite a scare when I had a bad reaction to the anesthesia several hours after I woke up. Turns out that because I am such a good girl (I don't smoke, drink, eat a lot of processed food, take medications etc) my body could not process all the chemicals from the surgery. I suddenly couldn't breath, started convulsing, and lost feeling in my arms and legs. They took an emergency EKG that showed a heart arrhythmia. That was petrifying, but it passed. My nurse, who has been in the field for nearly 15 years, said that I was the only time she ever saw anyone have that reaction.

After a day, my mom took me back to her house I spent two days being a lump on her couch. Each day I have been getting a little stronger. Last night I was well enough to come back to Grandma's house and sleep in my own bed and see my bunny-babies. Now I am sitting around, hoping people will visit me. I not supposed to leave the house or get out of bed much until my follow up appointment on Wed.

When all is said and done, I do have the gallstone in a little jar. I think I should make a necklace...

Wish Me Luck

MYSTERY SOLVED!

After several years of mysterious and debilitating nocturnal pain attacks I have finally gotten a diagnosis. Turns out I have at least 1 inch-wide gallstone lodged in some sort of duct near my liver. Tomorrow I am going to have my Gallbladder removed. I will be in the hospital for only one night (hopefully) and then will be stuck in bed for about a week. Wish me luck.

In the mean time, here is a photo of my bunny-girls discussing important bunny issues.

Gifted Purl Spectacular!

Thank you to everyone who came out to the Gifted Purl for the Fashion Event on Friday night! It was so much fun and I felt so welcome there. I would like to extend a very special thank you to Mollie, the shop owner, and my 4 volunteer models; Jeanette, Allie, Casey, and Lindsey. They were total pros and such good sports. Here are some photos of our fun from Friday.



This is called a "Knitter's Handshake".

Here are Mollie, the shopowner and gracious hostess, and Kat, my special guest, the General Manager of Southwest Trading Company.

I have two fashion events planned for October. 1 at Montoya Fiber Studio in Evanston for Thursday, 10/8 and another at Sister Arts in Chicago for Thursday, 10/15.

If you would like to have a fashion show in your area, Please leave a comment or send me an e-mail! I love these shows and they are a great time for everybody!

No Call, No Show

Currently I am sitting on a bench, outside of a yarn shop in a quaint Chicago Suburb. I will not tell you which suburb or which shop. I am at my first of hopefully very, very few, No call-No Show appointments. I have no cell phone number to contact the shop owner at, no voicemail at the shop itself, no nothing. Luckily it is a lovely day to be out on a bench. And luckily, I did not have to drive terribly far or rent a motel room or any other some-such. This is purely an accident, an oversight I'm sure. However, consider me a little miffed.

That being said, I have further not-so-good news. I picked a very, very bad time to get sick. I have been dealing with an increasingly nasty heart burn problem for the past several years. I haven't seen the need to see a doctor up until recently because things are getting out of control. Well, long story short, I am now seeing a specialist and having a lot of tests done (both invasive and not so invasive). So, to say I'm a little bit stressed is, well, I'll leave it at "I'm stressed".

Sorry for the Negative Nelly post. I'll post something upbeat when something upbeat happens!

A Knit-Night Spectacular

To begin with, I should have taken photos. I really should have.

That being said, after a brief sales call out in Joliet at The Perfect Touch, I headed into Chicago for a very special Knit Night at Sister Arts Studio. We were celebrating (...and celebrating and celebrating...) Donna's 50th birthday! There was pizza and knitting and wine and great company and a fantastic time was had by all! If anyone has photos please e-mail them to me to post at a later date.

On the repping front, I have good news brewing and will share it when everything is official.

I also have 2 particularly friendly and fabulous yarn shops to recommend.

In Dunlap, IL I went to Knit 4 Together (no site) where I got to hang out with Nancy and Marilyn. Be warned, Nancy has a wicked sense of humor! I had such a good time and am hoping to have a fashion event with them. They are even looking into renting out a church hall for it!

From Dunlap I continued on to Knoxville, IL where I visited Sit'n'Knit (no site), a yarnshop-slash-HAIR SALON (Oh how cool!) I have been to a few cafe-yarn shops, but this was totally new and fabulous. Maureen, the shop owner, was just as sweet as pie and we had such a fun time looking at yarn. However, I did not take any photos, so bad blogger: no cookies.

I don't have much planned as far as appts for next week, so I'm hoping to get a lot of cold calling done, and perhaps even some knitting. (GASP!). Wish me luck!

The Yarny Yarn Empire Announcements

To start off with, I have a big announcement. I am now the President and CEO (and secretary and janitor and sole employee) of my VERY OWN CORPORATION! Knest Inc. has been officially registered as a corporation with the Illinois Secretary of State. Very exciting, if only this was a corporation that made $$...

Anyways, I have yet more exciting announcements. Ladies and Gentleman, get out your calenders! I have booked SWTC fashion events that you all truly must attend!

Friday, 9/11 @ 6 PM-Gifted Purl (120 W Main st, West Dundee, IL). A Stitches Celebration with Surprise SWTC Guest!

Thursday, 10/8 @ 5 PM- Montoya Fiber Studio (2566 Prairie ave, Evanston, IL). The Central Street Shopping District, a fabulous destination any day, is having an event called "Retail Therapy". There will be fun stuff happening all over, most notably the SWTC roadshow!

Thursday, 10/15 @ 6:30 PM- Sister Arts Fiber Studio (721 W Wrightwood, Chicago). This store is most near and dear to my heart. Please join the funniest, knittiest, wine-iest group of ladies in Chicago for an evening of, what else, wine, knitting, and SWTC fashion!

I hope to see lots of you there! And remember the SWTC motto: "Expect the Unexpected!"