Wednesday, July 30, 2014

I Obviously Need More Sleep

Don't you hate when its ten o'clock at night, and you can't sleep because your brain is full, and you can't knit on your red sweater because you're still debating its fate, and you don't want to knit your second sock because you have second sock syndrome so you reach into your stash and pull out the loveliest deep grey yarn to cast on for a new shawl (no specialized sizing required)

And then you get up the next morning and discover that your lovely deep grey shawl is in fact



Olive Green.

Yeah.

I was tired last night.

And it was dark.

But my new olive green shawl is going to be love-er-ly.

In other new, the world's cutest baby is still insanely cute.


Monday, July 28, 2014

A Crisis of Confidence

There comes a point in every knitting project where I'm just not sure I've made the right choices.  Is it a bad pattern/yarn match.  Is this a bad color?  Am I making the wrong size?  Sometimes I push through the fear and I end up with a perfect finished knit.  But more often than not I am overcome with indecision and the offending object is banished to The Abyss to be frogged at a later date.

I have reached such a crisis point with my latest knit.


Am I knitting the right size?  This sweater is supposed to have negative ease, but is this too much negative ease to actually wear.

This is a shorter sweater.  Maybe I shouldn't be putting cropped silhouettes on my body.  Should I have modified the sweater to add a bit of length...and ease...


This yarn is super super soft, so I don't understand why the sweater is a touch itchy.  Will I wear a sweater that is a touch itchy?  Should I try this in a different yarn?  With a different size?  With modifications for a different length?  Should I give up and knit a completely different project?


I'm going to go play with the baby while the project takes a time out.  Maybe I will knit sleeves and block this sweater.  Or maybe I will turn it back into yarn.  I should probably cast on something new to keep my company while I'm waiting to make a decision.  Perhaps a nice scarf or hat.  Something that doesn't require a size.

Friday, July 25, 2014

Friday, July 18, 2014

Friday, July 11, 2014

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Knit On!

I've been feeling the need to get my sock on!


Who can resist knitting with such pink and lovely sock yarn?

The hardest part was picking which of my new sock needles I wanted to use first.


Spoiler alert:  I went with the bamboo double pointed needles.


The yarn, the needles, the pattern, they are all currently playing nice with one another.  The only problem I've run into is this yarn makes me crave ice cream.

Wednesday, July 09, 2014

A Trip Down Memory Lane

It was this day last year that my life changed forever.

It began with a positive pregnancy test.

Two parallel lines.

Before my miscarriage those lines meant Joy.  Hope.  Life.

After my miscarriage those lines symbolized potential that was never meant to be.

I wanted to look at those two faint lines with unabashed, over the top, blissful happiness.  Instead I looked at these new lines with trepidation.

Was this real?  Would this baby be healthy?  Would this pregnancy stay?  Or would this be another loss.

We held our breath for weeks waiting for our first Doctors appointment.  We scheduled the appointment a little later in the pregnancy to be sure the baby would be big enough to have a heartbeat.

If it was going to have a heartbeat.

We could no longer take that as a given.

At our appointment on June 4th, 2013 a heartbeat was found.  And fingers.  And toes.  It was amazing.

But it did not end my anxiety.  We did not announce our pregnancy.  We waited.  Things still did not feel right.

I don't know if this is now the standard of care, or if this was a test they gave me because I am a Mother of a certain maternal age.  But on June 13th, 2013 they drew blood for some tests and they gave me another ultrasound where we saw a beautiful beating heart, but where they also took some body  measurements.  All the measurements were as expected, except one.  And I guess that one turned out to be very important.  They measured the fold on the back of her neck.  A nuchal translucency test.  And that teeny tiny fold was a teeny tiny bit too thick.  It was 4.0 mm.  This could mean something.  Or it could be nothing.

They told me they wanted me to get a level two ultrasound and meet with a geneticist.  They also told me they didn't want to do that until I was 18 weeks along.  They made an appointment for July 15th, 2013.

It was going to be a long month of waiting.

My first trimester ended.  And still, we did not announce our pregnancy.  I asked The Greatest why we weren't announcing to our friends and family.  He didn't have an answer.  I wanted to celebrate this life I held. Yet still, we held our secret.

Waiting.

They called me on June 27th, 2013 with the results of my blood test.  My hormone levels were not as expected.  My hcg was too high, and my papp-a levels were too low.  Truth be told, I don't even know what papp-a is. My hcg and papp-a levels were both expected to be a 1.  Instead my hcg was 5.25.  My papp-a was 1.34, but since they were expecting it to be an equivalent value to my hcg it was considered low.  Or at least that is my understanding of what was going on. These hormone levels were indicative of an abnormality with the fetus.  The specialist had gone from saying "We absolutely will not see her until she is 18 weeks along" to "We'll see her Monday."

Scary.

I was scared.

It was a very long weekend waiting.

On July 1st, 2013 I had a level 2 ultrasound.  On this scan the nuchal fold was measuring within the normal range, but the scan found two "soft markers" that could indicate an chromosomal abnormality.  I was told that most trisomy disorders had been ruled out, but there was a greater than 1 in 10 chance that my baby had trisomy 21, better known as Down syndrome.  We were told we could  schedule an anmio for the following week (when I would be 16 weeks along), or I could have a blood test taken that day.  Either test offered us results in the same time frame.  I opted for the blood test, as it was less invasive.

Sidebar: the blood test is super cool.  There are several companies that offer this test under different "brand" names.  I had the MaterniT21.  They take the maternal blood and separate the fetal blood cells from the maternal blood.  From there they are able to count each and every chromosome to give a definitive diagnosis.  So very cool.  With absolutely no risk to the fetus.  Science is AWESOME.

So we went home and began our very long wait for the results.

During this time I developed an intense love/hate relationship with google.  I read every story I could find where things turned out fine.  And I read every story I could find where things ended badly.  Google was not my friend.  I tried to tell myself that if I was going to hang my heart on the odds I had to look at both sides of the statistics.  A one in ten chance that our baby had Down syndrome meant there was a 9 in 10 chance our baby did not.  Of course our chance was greater than one in ten.  But I didn't know what that meant.  Was it 9 in 10?  1 in 5?  1 in 3?  I figured it was 50/50 at this point.  Either our baby had Down syndrome or he/she didn't.  Because seriously, either he/she had it or she didn't.  Those really were our only two options.

It was a tough place to be.

We were expecting the results to take two weeks.

But they called us on July 9th 2013.

It was a Tuesday.

The Greatest had run to Lowes for a part he needed to fix our drip system and I was home with the children.

The name on caller i.d. was the office of the geneticist.

I thought I might throw up, but this was not a new sensation as I was still being held in the tight grip of morning sickness.

I went into the bathroom for privacy.  I did not want the children to over hear the conversation.  I desperately wished for The Greatest to be there with me.  I needed his support.  I needed his calming physical presence.  I needed to face this as part of a team.

Instead I heard the words alone.  Sitting on the sink.  Hiding from my children.

I was having a little girl.

And my little girl had Down Syndrome.

Just like that my world was forever changed.

It was if all the air had left that little room.

I did everything I could to stay composed on the phone.  But there really wasn't anything else to say.   It was a surprisingly short conversation.  The news had been delivered.  She told me to call anytime if I had any questions.  She might have told me to have a nice day.  Honestly what ever words she offered me were lost under that magnitude of the proclamation she had just delivered.

I was having a little girl.

And my little girl had Down Syndrome.

As I hung up the phone I collapsed on the floor of that tiny bathroom.  I sobbed.  And I sobbed.  The Greatest came home.  I could barely breath to speak the words.

I was having a little girl.

And she had Down syndrome.

I wish I had known then all the things I know now.  But this is already a very long dissertation.  So more on that later.  Soon.  -ish.

Tuesday, July 08, 2014

A July Miracle

Bird has been crocheting circles around me.

CIRCLES.

The kid is non stop with that hook.

When she goes back to school and has to write an essay on "How I spent my summer vacation" she will just turn in a book full of pictures of all the things she has created.

I figure it is a summer well spent.

But not wanting to be out done today I buckled down and finished something.

For Bird.


Pattern:  Rikke Hat

Yarn:  $1 yarn from Big Lots, 2 skeins

Needles:  16 inch size 6 bamboo circular needles

Modifications:  When I cast on 124 stitches I got a hat large enough to be a sweater for her.  So I only cast on 80 stitches.  When I did the crown decreases I decreased every 10 stitches, and followed the decrease pattern every other row (which makes sense to me if I ever go back to knit this again, but that last part probably looks like nonsense to every one else in the world.  I'm okay with that.)

Review:


This hat is a hit.

And my baby looks ridiculously cute in hats


I love the smooshy garter stitch.  Love it, love it, love it.  Garter stitch is so under rated. When I was knitting the hat I told Bird it was for her.  I kinda wish I hadn't done that.  I kinda wish this hat in all its smooshy garter stitch glory was mine.

But it isn't.

*Le sigh*

I had just enough yarn left over.

I tried to resist.

But I couldn't help myself.

Two breast pumping sessions and I had...


Knit a matching hat for the baby.


I only cast on 55 stitches for this version.  Decreased for crown every 9 stitches.

Look how cute they are together


Seriously


Can you stand the cuteness?

The other girls were jealous.

At first they insisted they be allowed to take a picture wearing the hat with the baby.



Then they insisted I knit each of them their very own big sister/baby hat set.

Looks like I'd better get to work.

And in one final note of cuteness


Sweet Pea making sure Squishy is ready for her close up

Because that's what big sisters are for.

Friday, July 04, 2014

Tuesday, July 01, 2014

Busy Bee, No Not Me

I may have created a monster.

A CROCHET MONSTER!

So far the tally is


Three kid size scarves, four lovie size scarves,


Two lovie size hats,


Two lovie size blankets,


And one small wash cloth.

All without a single pattern.

I really need to finish something soon.

She's making me look bad over here.