Bittersweet

This week is bittersweet.

On the one hand I'm about half way through chemotherapy and I have survived the last 3 months continuing to weave, at least a little bit, almost every day.  (I did 'lose' Saturday as I spent most of the day in bed after cycle #4.)  And I still have (most of) my hair - I'm just vain enough to be happy about that.  I don't look like a typical cancer patient and since my hair is only thinner and not gone by this point, I probably won't lose it all.  :}

The chemo ick from #4 is abating and my energy and brain power is returning from where ever it goes to hide out while the cocktail does what it needs to do.  So much so, in fact, that I was able to deal with both of the last silk gimp warps today and they are now....ta-DAH! - done.  Weaving, that is. 

Part of the incentive to get them done came from the fact that my new yarn arrived yesterday and I'm eager to get samples woven and begin my new textile/product. 

On the other hand I was supposed to be getting ready to leave for NEWS this week.  On the advice of my doctor I cancelled all the rest of my teaching contracts after Quebec, which means I also cancelled my budgeted income for the summer and early fall.  Not to mention that NEWS is a really nice regional conference and I'd been looking forward to seeing some people I haven't seen in a rather long time.

With any luck I'll have just enough money to last until the cheques start to arrive from the fall sales in October, but of course there is never any guarantee how many sales will happen at any given event.  Part of the insecurity I talked about recently is never knowing what your income will be month to month.

On the other side of the equation is that I've developed a new adverse effect - my feet are going tingly numb.  Another good reason for cancelling travel and teaching - probably not a good idea to be trucking through large airports and standing on my feet all day.  The good news is that this adverse effect will wear off once chemo is finished and I should be fine.  So far my hands are okay and I'm hoping that, since I use my hands so much, they won't be affected. 

The weather here has not been nice.  We had a huge t-storm roll through this afternoon and the day was mostly dreary and grey.  Thankfully the clouds have parted and the sun is shining now, but the next few days have more dreary grey days in the forecast.  The up side of that is that there is lots of incentive to stay in the studio and weave!  And we don't live anywhere near the river so we've not been affected by the high water levels.

I have managed to tie knots on enough shawls that I can probably schedule a pressing day, maybe on Sunday if the weather stays cool.  The summer is proceeding and I need to get product into the mail for the upcoming fall sales events.

Still have to get to the fringe twisting, though - that pile remains far too high - and intimidating.

While I've done a good job on stash reduction I still have way too much yarn.  I would have liked to order in a better colour selection for the new textile but I'm trying to be conservative in my spending.  I have, however, come up with some plans for the old stash - just need some time to put those plans in action.  But first I will explore the new textile in hopes of developing a new product for a new market.

I also have to get working on the new workshop topic as two groups have expressed an interest for next March.  There is a possibility that I may have a small tour in February - if the guild in Tennesee finds a couple more groups to share travel costs.  Right now I'm just letting things happen as they may until I get a pronoucement of NED (No Evidence of Disease).