Update III My Sister

Just got off the phone with my sister.

She met the Radiologist today, she starts chemo next week for sure. He also ordered x-rays done of her shoulders and hips since she has a lot of pain in both to the point where walking is becoming difficult.

She is getting the bone scan tomorrow and the MRI has been moved to sometimes in the next few weeks. Once she's had the bone scan and x-rays tomorrow, she is meeting her Oncologist on Tuesday the 17th. Feels like it's forever, but hopefully time will fly between today and Tuesday for her and myself.

My current job placement ends the 17th and I hope I have more work right away. Doing reception, you wouldn't think it would be murder on your hands, but it is. I've been given the job of sorting, collating and creating files for the A/R dept. The pile of stickers is long ream of pages and about 5 inches thick. I've already gone through 200 folders and I'm not even halfway through! I'd never gotten a paper cut from a file folder before, but I got several today. One was so deep it wouldn't stop bleeding. I didn't want to bleed all over the invoices, so I stuck a rubber finger tip over it and kept working. At lunch I took it off and it was completely full of blood. I couldn't believe it had kept on bleeding for so long. I got a couple of bandaids over the cut located on the tip of my left index finger just below the nail. Not a good spot to get a cut, that's for sure. Typing hurts! After lunch, I got a paper cut on my thumb and 2 more on my middle finger of the left hand. I look like a freak with all these band aids on! LOL I'm hoping to have most of the filing done tomorrow.

I find this image of what I guess this is supposed to be the image of the zen woman, but honestly, most days I feel like the one above. Frazzled by the time 4:30 rolls around and it's time to go home, cook supper and take care of my darling husband. Whoever came up with the idea that we are supposed to have enough energy to take care of everything seriously did not give it much thought. We're not super women, we're just plain women. Why does society expect us to be able to deal with everything and anything that gets tossed our way?

Now if only the weather could make up it's mind what it wants to do. This morning, I walked to work in 10C with wind doing it's best to blow me across the street. I heard several robins twittering in the trees, but couldn't see them. If they are supposed to be the harbingers of spring, they'd darn well better bring that warmer weather with them. Cause tonight it's going down to -15C with windchill! I hope they also brought their winter woolies, or they're going to be very cold birdies.

What are we doing to the current generation?

Ok folks, what are we doing to this generation of kids?

I can't believe that parents drive their kids to and from school every day when there is a perfectly good bus system out there and if they live near enough to walk, a pair of serviceable legs with feet attached that they could use. I see schools where the streets around them are literally clogged morning and afternoon with 100's of vehicles of parents picking up their children, while 1/2 empty school buses attempt to wend their way through this mess. I see neighbors driven to the point of desperation while they watch vehicles parking in their driveways, and lawns. If a neighbor complains, I've seen parents tell them to f** off and worse.

A friend even told me that one of his daughter's friends gets driven and picked up from school and he's in grade 12! For crying out loud, whatever happened to your children developing independence and responsibility for themselves. I can understand that with younger children you don't want them to go alone, so walk with them!

Medical reports tell us that our children are suffering from obesity, that they are not getting enough exercise. Let's park the car, use the legs and feet that we were given and walk our kids to school. Otherwise, if school is too far, let them use the bus!

Lower the carbon footprint, save on dwindling fuel supplies, you know, all that stuff that we hear about on the news about our earth being in trouble. If we all do our small part, we may just help save what's left or at least keep what's left a little longer?

Local Church Craft Sale

During the past week I had seen signs around the neighborhood advertising a church craft sale. I hadn't been to a craft sale in years and thought since it's nearby why not go. So Saturday morning I walked over to see and came away rather disappointed to be honest.

To me craft sale means things that are handmade. Of the 30 or so tables displaying their wears, perhaps a dozen of them had handmade items ie: knitting, crochet, jewelry, clothing. The rest of the tables were dollar store type items or catalogue items.

The knitted / crocheted items were basic. A couple of tables offered 5"X5" washcloths knitted out of polyester yarn which felt rough to the touch for 1$ each or 3 for 2$. Other tables had short & skinny scarves knitted from dollar store eyelash yarn for 10$ each. A couple of one foot wide stoles done in some really ugly looking yarn for 15$ each.

Some tables had knitted or crocheted baby items, newborn hat and buttoned cardigan style jackets were going for 15$ each. At least they were nicely knitted using soft baby yarns in pink, green, blue and yellow. Considering the amount of time dedicated to knitting these items and the yarn used, I was surprised they were only 15$ a set.

Another table offered knitted baby blankets done in a basketweave stitch for 10$ or 2 for 15$ The blankets were 2 feet by 3 feet each and were done in a fingering yarn. Again, the price boggled me since there was obviously a lot of time dedicated to making each of those blankets.

Now my rant is: Has knitting fallen out of favor? Why would someone who has spent hours...days... weeks making something sell it for so little money? I know that some people who do not knit, do not know anyone who knits have the idea that knitted / crocheted items are cheap last minute gifts. They lack the appreciation that should be given to items that have so much sweat equity poured into them, nevermind the cost of the yarn used.

This bothers me a great deal. Do we let non-knitters / crocheters dictate what price we should put on our work? Knitting, crocheting, any work done with fibers should not be devalued to the point where people consider knitted / crocheted items cheap. I find this insulting and demeaning. We are proud knitters, crocheters, fiber artists, so why continue to encourage the wrong type of customer by under pricing our items?

When I look at fiber artists and designers' websites showing the new trends for the next season, I don't see cheap garments or accessories. I wonder how they would feel if someone cheaply reproduced one of their items and sold it for 5$ at a local craft sale.