The Family Trunk Project Blog

Bad news, good news, very good news

I had a scary day yesterday. I went to meet my parents and godparents at the hospital because my dad, who is strong as an armored bear and who I always think of as able to plow through anything, had a fit of dizziness and chest pain that ended with two nights in the hospital, an angiogram and a huge stent put in a major artery. I don't know whether these things are harder or easier if you know about them in advance, but this definitely took me by surprise like a bucket of anvils being dropped off a bridge. The (very) good news is that the blockage is gone, his heart is in fantastic general health, and there was no damage to the muscle. He was discharged this morning and sounded like his usual, hearty self when I talked to him earlier. The whole experience reminded me forcibly how much I love and value my family, and how much I count on them.

On that note, I do have a felted jacket front to show you:

It's laid on the back, and you can see that for the most part the plaid is staying pretty well matched through the felting process, which is something that concerned me when I decided to hand-felt each piece. I haven't finished the buttonhole edge yet; it occurred to me mid-way through the felting that I ought to have done the crochet edging BEFORE felting the whole shebang, but at that point I was already committed. In fact, I was almost over-committed; I forgot to protect the buttonhole openings, and nearly felted them together. Luckily, some last-minute reinforcing with a closed pair of scissors brought them back to usability. After all that work on the transition between waistband and body, I'm pleased with this line:

And of course, since the finished jacket will be a gift for my dad, and my parents own a large black-and-tan dog, I had to use my smaller model as a "dog swatch," to see if the plaid coordinates well with the canine color scheme.

Pretty dashing, no? I look forward to seeing my dad in this jacket for many seasons to come.