We've got knitting AND goodies!

More thanks for all the kind words, you guys are great! I've been coping better the last few days and trying not to dwell on it. I am excited about the blanket. Just the planning of it alone has been helpful. It makes me feel like I can do something for him when everything else is really outside of my control. Plus it will be something special for him when he's older. In the meantime I'll keep you posted on how he's doing. (Brendaskt, would you mind e-mailing with me about the U of M hospital? I'd love to hear more. knittymama at yahoo dot com)

Now, onto the goodies! SP8 sent me a wonderful package today!!

Little Man helped me open it. Inside we found some Mango Moon recycled silk yarn, which I've always wanted to try! The colors are so beautiful in it and I can't wait to see how it knits up. We also found some adorable socks for Knittybaby (trying on picture to come later as he was asleep when we opened it), a dark chocolate bar, chocolate wafers (love these!) and some candies. Then we found something very cool, a baby bonsai tree to grow! Little Man and I got started on that right away and the seeds are germinating as we speak.
Thank you so much SP8!!! You totally made my day! :-)

Moving on, we have a baby bib from Mason-Dixon knitting in a blue varigated and red Sugar and Cream yarn (already well used)


An in-progress bib in Knitpicks cotton (trust me, this kid needs a lot of bibs!!)


And, it's starting to look like a sweater!!!!


Edited to add: Does anyone see the painful error on that front half?? In my coffee-clear head this morning I just realized (after knitting two more inches) I forgot a set of decreases under the arm. This is the second time I"ve had to do some MAJOR ripping on this sweater, grrrrr!

Hubby's comment: "Don't you check that stuff? "

Ummmm, yeah, all the time.

Thank you!!

Wow! Thank you so much for all the kind notes. Reading them over the week has made me feel so much better...it is so nice to know that you guys are thinking of us as we go through all of this.

I've been reading a lot about congenital heart defects this past week and have been learning a lot. Some of it good, in that Knittybaby's defect could have been a lot worse compared to some of them out there, and I am thankful for that. But some of it is scary, as I've read stories of children where it was thought it would be one simple surgery, but they found other defects as well. I'm trying not tot think of those stories too much! A lot of it is just overwhelming, as I realize this will follow him his entire life, even with a successful surgery. Plus there is the waiting. Will he have surgery in three months? Six months? Who knows...

I'm planning a blanket for him. Blue squares, in different shades, about three by three. Some of the squares will have hearts on them. I'm going out this week to try and decide on the yarn. Now I think I'm down to Thaki Cotton Classic, Mission Falls 1824 cotton, and the big splurge, Manos cotton.

My coffee is calling me. Thank you again, your words mean A LOT! :-)

Difficult week...

Sorry for going without a post for so long. This has been a very upsetting week for us. When our Knittybaby was born, he had a heart murmur, which is quite common in newborns. By his two month check up, it was still there so our GP ordered an echocardiogram to check it out. I honestly thought it was just double checking, and it would be fine. However, it is not. Turns out our litle guy has a congenital heart defect called Coarctation of the Aorta. What this means is that his aorta is pinched, which results in a difference in blood pressure in the upper and lower body. Luckily, his is not as severe as many babies as he has no physical symptoms other than the murmur and blood pressure (many babies with very severe versions of this have emergency surgery just days old). However, he will be needing heart surgery sometime before his first birthday. If the aorta is repaired, his prognosis is good although he will need to be under the care of a cardiologist for the rest of his life. If not repaired it will most likely result in heart failure in his 40's or 50's and carries a lot of risk throughout his life, so the surgery is very important.

To make things even worse, this may mess up my plans to stay home with the boys. I had planned on not returning to the classroom this fall. We were going to buy private insurance as Hubby works for a very small business and has no benefits, but with this condition it may not be possible. It's so hard to realize that even with the surgery this will be something he will carry with him his whole life, that as perfect as he seems he has something very wrong.....

Sorry to have such a bummer of a post, but it really helps to talk and write about it. Funny how people cope with things. What have I been doing? Planning what kind of special blanket I will knit for him for the surgery and hospital stay. Something with hearts...it makes me cry just thinking about it but it's so important to me that he has it when the time for surgery comes.

Evenings are my favorite time...

Hubby takes Little Man up for bedtime, and it's just me, Knittybaby, a CD and my messy living room. Funny thing is, it's amazing how just listening to some good music (Garden State tonight) while you rock and nurse a little baby makes the messy, toy covered living room not so bad...Before Knittybaby was born this would have been my knitting time. Little knitting this week, not even enough to photograph, but that's okay. As little as they seem, my boys will be grown before I know it and I wil miss these hectic, crazy but amazing times.

What a crazy day it was too! Little Man managed to cover his body and the couch in glue stick, plug up the sink with toilet paper, and decorate the kitchen with an entire box of baking soda. Phew! It still amazes me how fast a kid can make a mess while you change a diaper or a load of laundry.

I broke my rule of "no new knitting books because I'm saving money" last night and picked up Wendy Knits. It's a cute read. I'm halfway through and am thinking that the felted kitty bed is a must, but not for awhile as I still have to tackle THE LIST:

1. Finish the Heirloom shawl for Knittybaby (yeah, I know it was my Olympic project. Now I'm shooting for the baptism)
2. Mason-Dixon bibs for Knittybaby (aka Spit-up Boy). These are a necessity!
3. Soaker shorts for gee, guess who? Am I knitting for anyone else?
4. Yes: Little Man...I have yarn to start a sweater for him so it may actually be done by fall.
5. I really want to start my Mag Knits tee, which I bought yarn for a year ago!
6. Not to mention the other million items sitting around the house to finish up.

All this on an average of ten rows a day. Like the Harlot says, one row at a time, right? :-)

My Bloglines won't stop....

Some of you might remember that my BIL gave us a slick recycled IBM Thinkpad last Thanksgiving. This means our computer is now easily accessible downstairs, and much faster than my crabby, early edition iMac. I've been keeping it next to the rocker, so I can either listen to Podcasts or catch up on Blogs/e-mails while Knittybaby nurses (and nurses, and nurses, boy he's been a hungry guy lately!:-) The problem? I can't stop adding new blogs to read and I'm wondering if I'm getting to the point of TOO MANY BLOGS. Yet I keep running across blogs of so many great knitters: creative, amazing knitters, funny knitters, mom knitters, dyeing knitters, designing knitters, teaching knitters, local knitters....I could go on. Plus there are the podcasts. I'm on information overload, and I actually have the time to read listen to them all.

I love Bloglines for the fact that I don't waste time popping into blogs that are fun but not always updated that frequently. However, it's also so easy to subscribe to them. I had 102 new posts today!!! (Granted, I didn't read any yesterday and that counts the podcasts. Have you noticed all the knitting podcasts? That alone is overwhelming!)

How many blogs do you read on a regular basis?Am I over the edge, or barely started?

I've been trying to post my actual bloglines for you all, but I keep getting this weird message. I'll keep trying...

I'm still groggy this morning. Knittybaby was up at 5:30, which I actually don't mind, except for mornings like these when I stumble downstairs to discover, NO COFFEE! The horror...I had to drink tea and wait for Hubby to bike over to Anodyne to get some beans for us.

No new knitting pictures here. I'm a little headband obsessed right now, so I'll post a few more of those when they are done.

I have decided to get going on a few bibs for Knittybaby (aka Spit-Up-Boy). I'd been planning on it, but seeing poor Chaos this morning was extra inspiring. Should I make one for Arthur too?
Yes, that is a hat he is sleeping in. And not a knitted one at that. I really should make the poor guy a real bed one of these days...

Manly Dishcloths done!

My younger brother recently bought his first house, which of course warrants a housewarming gift of what else? Dishcloths! And guy dishcloths at that, no peach or pink in site my friends. Like most of the guys in Minneapolis, my brother is definitely in the blue/black/grey/brown category so I made the dishcloth to match the lifestyle (now if I only had knitted intarsia tatoos....) The colors actually look a lot brighter here than in real life, where they fit more into the grey or olive spectrum. He'll get them on Tuesday along with the spider plants in pots that Little Man painted.

The specs on the dishcloths? 100% cotton, the green is Rowan, the blue and brown Debbie Bliss. Approximately one skein each. Size 7 needles. Yes, one is a Mason-Dixon dishcloth.

Why am I making $5 dishcloths?

For starters, Sugar and Cream did not have my necessary guy colors. Plus, in my experience, it falls apart. My grandmother has been making these for me since my first apartment and as talented a knitter as she is, the cotton breaks and they quickly fall apart. Same with the ones I made for myself. And as much as I enjoyed making the Mason-Dixon dishcloth, I normally find them pretty boring so the fewer I make the better. So I decided to try an experiment: I made one in Rowan last fall and the yarn is tough as ever, no breakage. However, it is also a tighter guage, so maybe more official experimentation is in order! I'll get on that. In the meantime, any ideas on the whole "perfect dishcloth cotton" issue?

Finally, what to do with the leftovers:
Excuse the crooked self portrait!