C Diff Awareness Month

November is C Diff Awareness Month. My mother died from advanced dementia brought on by repeated relapses of clostridium difficile (c. diff).  C. diff is an antibiotic-resistant gastrointestinal infection that kills more people than HIV, AID, and drunk driving combined, yet people are not very aware of the danger they and their loved ones are in. 

Deaths from c. diff aren't reported in the media  I have a feeling if they were, we would be shocked. C. diff infections and related deaths in nursing homes, where our most vulnerable relatives are, are not reported to New York State government. At least in Massachusetts where Mom died, her death had to be reported to the state government, but it was not publicized (until now). If we are to protect our relatives and stop c. diff deaths, this has to change. C. diff infections and deaths must be reported and published. We need to know how well facilities are or are not controlling and eliminating c. diff infections and where not to let relatives go.

I miss my mother every day.  Last fall she was in the hospital every full moon from August to October, twice with a septic episode, once with a fever.   I've been reliving it emotionally, since I had to be strong last year.  It's been hard, especially since at work I have to help medical offices request procedures that allude to what my mother had or experienced.  I keep feeling like I have to get into the car and drive somewhere to visit Mom, but I can't anymore.  

I've never really enjoyed the winter holiday season and I'm not looking forward to it at all this year.  For years, my maternal relatives only paid attention to Mom and me when it suited them, maybe once every few years combined.  We only celebrated the holidays together by ourselves.  Now there is no one else.  Even my cats aren't getting along very well right now.  

Use antibiotics only when you really have to. Be careful of where your family members go for medical treatment or hospitalization.  Make sure all surfaces are cleaned.  Clean them yourself if you want and do it repeatedly.  Research the facility where s/he is.  I think how well they take care of the patient is also reflective of how well the facility is taken care of.  We need figures on patient infections and deaths from c. diff to be released to see how safe our relatives will be.  I tried very hard to get Mom out of the awful place she was in, but it was already too late.    For more information please visit the Peggy Lillis Foundation.

Southern Adirondack Fiber Festival 2018

I made myself go to the Southern Adirondack Fiber Festival 2018.  After losing my mother this past April, I haven't felt like doing anything until this came up.  Once I got there, I found two friends were there, too, and I was lucky enough to spend the afternoon with them.

I really didn't want to spend much money, but I found this yarn:

This is cormo fiber from Battenkill Fiber in Washington County, New York.  This is the softest cormo I have ever felt.  I fell in love with the colors somehow.  There is delicate shading that you can't quite see in the photo.  I think I was looking for something different from my usual colors of purple and turquoise.

I am one of those people who fall in love with colors the way they look in the skein.  I don't always like the appearance when it's knitted up.  It's the case with this colorway because of the dramatic contrast between the plum and the other colors.  I think if I knit using two skeins I may come up with something I like.  I'm determined to like it because I wasn't happy about the amount of money I spent on four skeins.  

I believe I can knit the Flying Feathers cardigan out of the yarn. I hope the pattern will look all right.

Flying Feathers

Escaping to Ravelry

It ended up a stressful week and I find visiting Ravelry this morning a restful escape.

First came the stress of finding the last parts of my Halloween outfit after working over-time Monday evening.  Finding my black skirt was the worst.  I did Tuesday morning, though, and cleaned it up Tuesday evening.  Many people dressed up for Halloween and it was great fun.  I think we all needed a chance to play and have some fun.  However, I was very tired the next day.  I worked more over-time.  At the end of the week with activities winding down, I started to miss my mother more.  Saturday I messed up a volunteer activity for work and injured my pride.  Then a gullible cousin with contrary political opinions to me began to argue with me after falling prey to fake news.  All that led to an emotional crash for a while.  I woke up with a migraine.

Ravelry is good for many things. Through messages I can catch up with friends.  I can find out about various knitting topics.  I can look up yarn products and shop for yarn and patterns.  I can learn about various non-knitting topics and get help that way.  Because of lack of time and energy to travel I enjoy finding patterns on Ravelry.

On the whole, after developing an allergy to artificial fragrance I don't do much shopping in stores anymore. I try to at least narrow down my choices on-line and then go to the store.  I found yarn and bead stores disturbed my allergies the least.  Unfortunately due to the economy we are losing both in my area.

A few of the projects I found today:

Flowers in the Rain Shawl

I love these next patterns.  I don't know if I'll ever get to knit them.

This is where genealogy and knitting meet up.  I have Scottish ancestry from both sides of the family, with fairly notable ancestors.  I've always been drawn to Scottish things, and so has my mother.  It turns out many images and designs that we liked were Scottish in origin.  Mom was lucky enough to visit Scotland.  I can barely afford to leave my state right now.

I find I'm looking at patterns now with my ancestry in mind.  Finding Scottish and Irish patterns is fairly easy.  I'm not sure if I can attempt the intricate Scandinavian patterns I've found.  I did find a couple, though:

Leafing Cowl / Løvspretthals

Løvsprettlue

The designer is Norwegian.  On a local radio station they started a silly discussion about nose warmers. I thought the idea of a nose warmer was pretty silly anyway since cowls would work better and look much less silly.  Then I remembered I wanted to knit one for the same reason myself.  When I was looking for yarn to knit a gift, I found myself looking for yarn for this.  I'm trying not to spend money needlessly.  It didn't take much pondering of my stash to realize I had a yarn to try, Plymouth Baby Alpaca Brush Paint.  The gauge worked up perfectly and the alpaca should be warmer than wool and help negate any wind.  I'm hoping to obtain the worsted bulky yarn in the same colorway to knit matching leg warmers and mitts.