An Update on Baby Lily...

As you can see, she is a peaceful little thing.

Since I last posted on her, she has been taken off the ventilator, but apparently still "forgets" to breathe sometimes and will go quite pale--which scares her mama quite a bit. But, she was up to 2 lbs. 4 oz. at her last weigh in and is eating quite well.

She has brain scans regularly to look for infections and other problems common to preemies. So far, they have all come back clean. However, her last test showed a potential problem. Here is the post from her mama.

Please pray especially for healing for Lily. Her brain ultrasound came back with evidence of small cysts in her frontal white matter which is known to cause cerebral palsy. The doctors said we have to wait to have an MRI done for a more conclusive diagnosis, but it will not be done until she is closer to going home. These cysts can go away which is what we are praying for.

Please join us in praying that these cysts disappear on her own and that Lily continues to grow and develop normally as she would have in the womb.

She is getting so big, I think you'll be seeing some pictures of "big girl" knitting projects popping up here soon! :)

Therapy...

Recently, a conversation was had at my parents' house. It began with a discussion of the newly released movie, The King's Speech. I had heard there was a lot of profanity in the movie, and my father was explaining that it was a necessary part of the story as apparently, just as stutterers can sing without stuttering, they can also curse without stuttering. So in this particular case, the cursing was...therapy. (Upon hearing this, my husband cheered.)

The conversation then took a turn and we began discussing the socks I was knitting, and the fact that I had recently walked into a yarn store to find no fewer than 5 men knitting along with the ladies in a knitting group. Now I had heard that there are men out there who knit, but I'd never actually seen them in real life. It was fabulous!

Anyway, this led the conversation around to the rumor that Russell Crowe is a knitter. And it was suggested that perhaps he used the knitting to control his temper--as opposed to the therapy described above. :)

At any rate, I did manage to finish my January socks with one day to spare, and just in time it seems. Yesterday we had a high of 81 degrees--today the expected low is 18!!! There are two things that make this forecast bearable: 1) This is Texas, and it can be 18 degrees today, but chances are that before the week is out, it will be closer to 80 again, and 2) I have a lovely pair of Merino Wool socks to wear with my boots to keep my tootsies toasty!

I also finished the stocking cap for the neighbor boy and yesterday I found the yarn to finish his matching scarf. I'm betting he's wishing I had found that yarn a bit sooner right about now...brr! (I'll get a picture once both are finished.)

I also finished the beret for the birthday party TWO DAYS EARLY! It is modeled here by my lovely daughter--I've not yet seen the birthday girl with it on...but perhaps now that it's frigid outside, I will!

And I was able to finally get a picture of my mother-in-law in the sweater that I knit for her this Christmas.

Yesterday, I started on my February socks. I am making them for the girl for Valentine's Day. They are made from a beautiful fingering weight wool/bamboo blend in a muted red that does NOT bring the Nebraska Cornhuskers to mind, and therefore does not make me twitch. The pattern, however, has caused much twitching, gnawing of fingernails, and gnashing of teeth.

This pattern is apparently not for the beginning knitter, or even the somewhat-experienced knitter, this pattern is definitely for the advanced knitter--which I am not. I managed to work 13 rows of a 16 row pattern before I dropped 3 unrecoverable stitches and had to frog the entire thing...sigh.

I cast on again and managed 3 rows of ribbing before I noticed that I had cast on too few stitches and had to start over....again.

At this point, I am seriously considering switching to that other form of therapy....

Seen and Heard...

I was having a conversation with Dave the other day. It went something like this:

Dave: "Just one more baby Mom, please!"

Mom: "No Dave, you are the last baby. No more. But when you grow up and get married, you can have your own babies."

Dave: "I can have my own babies?"

Mom: "Yes. When you are married."

Dave: "How many can I have?"

Mom: "As many as you and your wife decide to have."

Dave: "I'm gonna have a thousand babies!"

Mom: "Wow, that's a lot of babies."

Dave: "Yeah, God doesn't have enough pieces to make that many babies!"

A Little Holiday Cheer for You

I know, the holiday season is over, but as we have already established...I've been missing on the blog for a little while.

Yesterday, I managed to finish sock number one. And may I say that it is amazingly comfortable and the perfect sock to wear with my winter boots. I am pleased.

I have also made some good progress on the birthday beret--I told you they were easy and quick. (Don't judge me, it is from a 9 year old girl to a 9 year old girl...black and sparkly hot pink are all the rage.)
So, while I'm off to continue working on the hat--in between the school and the dishes and laundry, of course--I thought you might enjoy a little Nutcracker video. Since the girl made the competitive dance troupe this year, she was moved up from a Snowflake to a Chinese Dancer--representing the spice of tea. This is the video from just one of their performances at a local elementary school. My girl is in the front on the far left at the beginning of the dance. Enjoy!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

I am still furiously working on that sock. And then, of course I still have to knit the other one--which is the problem with socks...you have to make TWO! And I'm not yet finished with the scarf, and I haven't started the hat, AND I've decided that a beret would be an excellent gift for a birthday party that the girl is going to on Sunday (they are quick and easy...really, they are). Oh yeah, and I'll need to be educating the children too. In other words, I'm a tad swamped over here--or buried beneath a pile of yarn--whatever.

So I thought I'd just post some pictures of things you all missed while I was, um, NOT blogging.

I knit my very first cardigan! Believe it or not, I made it for MYSELF! If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you may be able to see that on the yoke are two little longhorns knit right into the fabric. I found out how to put designs into the fabric like this while browsing through a book, so I plotted some longhorns on graph paper and added them to my sweater...they just seemed to belong on a burnt orange cardigan. :)




I also designed my first ballet shrug. It is seamless with thumb holes so even the hands can stay warm in when it's cold in the studio. I also knit a matching hat with a ponytail hole in it. This design was something I saw on one of my knitting programs on DIY network, but I added the ponytail hole.

And because I know you miss the cake pictures....I made a few cakes! I'm not going to post all that I did over the past 6 months, but I did do another wedding, and the cakes were rather unique.

The bride's cake was 4 tiers of alternating flavors--vanilla and chocolate. Yum!For the groom's cake, all I was told was to put a motorcycle on it. So I came up with this. I found a bride and groom cake topper with no heads, and I made helmets out of fondant and gumpaste. Then I made a "Just Married" sign for the back of the motorcycle (which you can't see in this picture) and tied little tiny Coca-Cola cans to the back.

The cake was Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Buttercream icing....DOUBLE YUM!!!!!

Now, I'm off to finish a sock...oh, and teach the kids some stuff!

The Knitter's Dilemma

You've heard of "The Prisoner's Dilemma"? Well, every knitter has at one time or another been faced with "The Knitter's Dilemma". It is the point in a project when you must decide whether to frog the whole project and start again, keep going and hope it turns out right, or just toss the whole thing aside and start with a fresh ball of yarn!

Remember that lovely Merino Wool sock I was knitting?


Well, I decided to go ahead and finish it and hope it all turned out right....it didn't. I've knit socks before--lovely socks for my girl, and they turned out just beautifully. Apparently, the girl has normal feet that just fit a normal pattern. And apparently, I. do. not....sigh.

So, I got myself a brand new ball of yarn, and started again.


I also decided that I wanted a different pattern for my lovely Merino Wool socks, so I went with these lovely Sugar Maple Socks. It is sort of a mock cable pattern that keeps it interesting without being tedious.

I've been furiously knitting away on them as I've joined the self-imposed "Sock of the Month" club and need to have them finished before the end of the month. I am also still working on the red scarf and hat which really also need to be finished this month, so I will be knitting every spare moment of my time for the next couple of weeks....like I don't do that anyway! :)

Right now the kids and I are listening to "The Lord of the Rings" audio book everyday after lunch...which is now, so I'm going to sign off and try to finish the gussets on this sock before we finish chapter 5!

So what are you filling your spare time with these days?

Sorry, I Got a Bit Sidetracked...

I've been a bit busy for the past couple of days. I have been working on a couple of different knitting projects this week. There is this scarf for the neighbor kid that asked for a solid red hat and scarf. It's really a simple 2x2 rib, but it gets a bit boring AND I can only stand to look at Nebraska Corn husker red for so long before I start to twitch....
So, when I need a break, I work on this lovely pair of charcoal grey boot socks...FOR MYSELF! I rarely knit for myself, so I'm anxious to get these finished and on my feet! They are a merino wool/bamboo blend and so very, very soft and just lovely to work on. However....
...I still managed to get sidetracked into knitting this little, itty-bitty, baby had and socks.
And just in case they don't look all that itty-bitty in the picture, take a look at this...
That's a 16.9 oz. bottle of water, and the hat fits it just perfectly.

And right about now, you are probably wondering why I made them so tiny. Well, I would love to introduce you to Lily Claire! Below is Lily's very first picture! Isn't she beautiful? She was born at only 25 weeks gestation and weighed 1 lb. 11 oz. She is a miracle, but look at how big that hat is on her head! She most definitely needs a new one, don't you think?

Her mom has been keeping us up-to-date on her progress via Facebook. The following pictures and quotes are from her page.

Well we started 2010 wanting a baby more than anything in the world and today we are ending 2010 next to our beautiful and strong little girl. She is a miracle!!!

Look at how tiny her hand is as she grabs on to her daddy's finger!

Lily had another good day today. I could not see her tonight because I had an elevated temperature, but Luke comes back with a huge smile on his face every time he sees her. She truly is an amazing and perfect masterpiece. We are hopeful for her recovery and are counting down the days to when she can come home.

I just LOVE this picture of her daddy hugging her incubator before they were allowed to hold her...I think he likes her! :)

Lily is doing well. The doctors and nurses are amazed at her strong lungs. She has been able to breathe on her own since she was born. They keep telling us how feisty she is. We can not wait til we can hold her and bring her home. Thanks for all the prayers, we feel God's presence among us.

See how tiny her feet are? I had to come up with my own pattern to make socks that little that wouldn't fall off...at least I hope they won't!

Today was a long day for us. It gets harder and harder to leave Lily and come home empty handed. They had to up her oxygen because her lungs were a little deflated and she is back on her beliruben light. I wish that it was time to bring her home already or at least just get to hold her.

This is her daddy's wedding ring around her WRIST!

I just saw my daughter without machines all hooked up to her face. Her eyes were opened and she wrapped her tiny finger around mine. It was a breathtaking moment...she is absolutely beautiful!!!

Well, Lily for sure does not have any infections. She went down in weight and is having blood sugar problems, but they say it's normal We did get to see her whole face and eyes opened but just long enough to get a picture, then the breathing apparatus went back on. I am beginning to understand these next few months will be a roller coaster ride!

This is the first time her mama got to hold her, and the first picture that really shows how tiny she is. I think the water bottle may be bigger than she is!

This is the most recent post from her mom.

Please pray for Lily today. Last night she had to be put on a ventilator and they think she might be septic. She has worked so hard these last two weeks to breathe on her own and while the ventilator is giving her lungs and brain a rest, it can still be damaging to the lungs and of course we hate to see her in pain. She has fought so hard so I just ask that you pray for God to give her strength and give us peace.

They are working on getting Lily her very own blog, but they gave me permission to share her with you here. When they get her blog up and running, I'll be sure to link to it for anyone who wants to keep track and to pray for her. In the meantime, I decided that a plain, pink cotton hat and socks just weren't fancy enough for such an amazing little girl, so I started on this little set that is just a touch fancier, and as you can see, I still have one more sock to make...so I'm going to get off this thing, and get to knitting!