Uli's Creative Corner

I've been very good at not buying knitting magazines, especially if they only contain one (or nothing) that I could see myself making but last week I gave in and bought the spring Interweave Knits just based on flipping through it on the fly.  It's not a bad issue as there are a few things I'd love to get my needles flying for.  The designs I could see myself make are:

• Breezy Cables - the reason I like that design is the open cardigan.  It falls loosely and covers the hips.  I like the cables and I can live with the bobbles.  They aren't overdoing it.  I could see myself making and wearing this design.  But I have nothing in the stash for this so when I can buy yarn again, I will have to tuck that away for a maybe project.
• Trellis Scarf - This is a lovely looking design.  Some time ago, I gave up on a lace design (the Victorian Ruby scarf) using some blue Fleece Artist lace weight mohair.  I think this scarf might be the answer for that yarn.  Except in the pattern I read something about knitting together 7 stitches all at once.  yeah right.... we'll see.  I'll have to take a closer look but I most definitely have something in the stash to knit this with at some point.
• Simply Lovely Lace Socks - They are already on the needles.  It so happens that I had a skein of the Gems Opal in my stash that was given to me some time ago.  Perfect yarn, perfect amount.  I started.  I'll get some pictures later.  They are very cute.  Cute enough that I might make them in the fingering weight version as well, once I'm done.
• Drop Stitch Hoodie - Love that design.  The stitch pattern really drew my attention.  But then I noticed the zipper in the hood.  What's up with that?  I don't find that a very attractive detail.  I think I would alter the pattern.  Either just make it a Drop Stitch cardigan with just a basic round neck line or if I added the hood, I would just sew it together.  I must be getting too old for these funky stylish details???  Nothing in the stash for this either but that's okay.  I'll tuck it away for later.
• Wobbly Circles Tote - Cute tote.  Possiblity once I finish some of my other felting projects in the pile.
• Pullover Flair - I keep coming back to this one.  It's simple.  It's casual.  It looks comfortable.  The design allows for my measurements - smaller bust (even though I'm nursing) and wider hips.  The design is just a simple little flair that I think could work very well for me.  Love the colours as well.  Definitely one to think about because I do have some birthday money stashed away - I should probably buy "real" clothes instead of knitting yarn... but darn it, it's my birthday money.

The other designs....... well, they other don't work for my size/body type.  I might still like some of them but would probably not make them or whatever.  But the above is my list of things I would consider.

Yes, I do have some money and I have some thoughts about how to spend it.  I'll let you know when I figure it out or narrow it down.

I hope to do a bit of knitting today but I also have to pull together a bunch of stuff that we're donating and having picked up tomorrow - ie. Erika's girly clothes she has grown out of as well as a whole bunch of my clothes.  I put them in rubbermaid containers and into the basement thinking I might want them again some day.  Haven't looked at them in over 3 years (and probably not worn them for a few years before then).  They are going bye-bye.  I don't want to hold onto stuff like that any longer.  If I succeed at losing the weight I want to lose over the next year, I will darn well deserve a new wardrobe.

Junior update..... he's doing beautifully.  What a good little boy.  Now that we've come to an "understanding" he doesn't mind being put down any longer.  I've got him in the hated bassinette right now - the trick is to put Jack FM (a local radio station) on the radio right behind him and he's happy.  Hey, the radio is better to listen to then the weird electronic sounding little lullabies they incorporate into all these baby things such as the bassinette.  I've figured out how to get him to sleep fairly consistently from about 11 pm to 4 am.  I can live with that at night.  Things are moving along.  I'll get him weighed this week to see how is progressing there.  I think he's gaining weight in a big way.  He seems to be growing and getting heavier.  He's now waking up more and getting aware of his environment.  He shows great curiosity of everything around him.  His head is getting to be pretty stable, too.  And of course, we are settling into some sort of a routine.  I can't complain.

Hope your week is off to a good start.  Execept that I'm stuck at home today because the car dealer screwed up the oil change on my Honda on Saturday, I'm having a good start to the week.

Well, my birthday came and went.  My actual birthday was a good day.  Jonathan was a good boy all day long and I got lots of phone calls and even some visitors from work.  Last night, my inlaws came over with dinner and a birthday cake and bearing gifts.  It was a nice evening.  The whole family, including Evan, got in together and gave me a gift card to Spa Utopia.  They pooled money to give me an amount that would equal maybe getting a manicure, pedicure and a make-up session with a make-up lesson.  I can't believe how expensive that place is.  Way beyond what I would ever spend on myself.  I haven't ever even had a pedicure (but wanted one for a long time) and I've only ever had one manicure.  Although in my mind, I expected something completely different, I'm sure I'll really enjoy using their services when I get the chance to get out and about on my own a bit more.

Although I haven't had much time to knit, I did start one of the 21 hats and I also have been faithfully working on my mitered squares capelet.  With some luck I might get one side finished today except for the border of mitered squares.  I'm almost exclusively working on this project whenever I get a chance because I think it will be a perfect little thing to throw on as the weather starts warming up a bit.  I'd like to have it done.

I have a couple of new projects I'd like to start soon.  They are cardigans or sweaters for myself but I'm struggling with size selection.  I want to lose weight this year and I am already a different size (smaller - yahoo) than before I got pregnant with Jonathan.  So I'm finding it difficult picking a size.  I think I'll have to go with a sweater that's intended to be loose and won't suffer too much from being lose fitting.  I think something like that shall be my next new project.  I still have lots of UFOs kicking around though.

Time to give the little Mr. a bath.

I've always had an odd affinity for the number 21.  It seems that it is a significant number in my life.  Not only because my birthday is on the 21st (Happy Birthday to me......).  Some happy things and some sad things have happened on the 21st day and with the number 21.  For example, when I was a teenager and big time into ballroom dancing, I won an awesomely stylish pair of dancing shoes with a ticket with the number 21.  Shoes I could have never afforded and they were purple, too.... in those days purple shoes seemed really cool.

There are other happy things and then there are sad things.  My grandmother passed away on my birthday and my grandfather passed away on December 21st (only 10 months later).  My Dad's brother (my uncle) passed away on my birthday as well.  These events haven't made me like the number 21 any less.

So what's this about?  Well, if you remember, I made a promise to myself that I would knit one preemie hat for each day Jonathan was in the special care nursery.  He got a little handmade hat and I want to give something back to them.  Guess how many hats I need? Yes, you got it..... twenty-one little hats.  More than I probably bargained for.

Here is the last one I made for Jonathan - the one I couldn't find the other day:

These little guys are actually starting to be a bit small on Jonathan.  I'm using leftover sock yarn.  I better start knitting more socks so that I can have enough colourful leftovers to make enough colourful hats for these little ones.  Twenty-one.... that's a lot of hats.  I used up a lot of my leftover sock yarn for a project last year so I'm a bit low.  But I do have lots of full balls of yarn so it won't really matter if I just decide to dip into some of that stash.  I do wish I had more leftovers of Lorna's Laces and the cotton sock yarn though because that stuff is so soft and lovely and would make beautiful hats.  I only need about 15 grams (thereabouts) for each little hat.  Well, off I go to knit hats.......

I also finished some socks!!!! Yahoo!!!! I started these socks ages ago and never finished.  Always started new ones instead of finishing this pair.  I finally picked them up last week or so and now they are done.  The yarn is Fortissimal Colori in a lovely green/rust fall colourway.

 

Evan gave me birthday present #1 (apparently there is one more for tonight) this morning.  It's this fancy looking Taylor Scale (#5582) with a readout unit that can be mounted on the wall or hand held.  I haven't even looked at all the details yet but I'm a scale addict and haven't been happy since Erika broke my other fancy Taylor scale I had.  I've been using my old scale and I'm not confident about it's accuracy.  And it doesn't even upset me to get something like that for my birthday.  I think it's an awesome gift especially because now that we're talking about getting back into the routine of things, the weight loss efforts will also resume.  It's kind of nice that I get to start out at a lower weight than I was pre-pregnancy.  I lost some inches in my hips and my bust throughout my pregnancy.  It's a good feeling.  Now I just have to keep it up.  I'm terrified about gaining because I did well after my pregnancy with Erika and then during my year off, I gained it all back plus some.  Not going there this time.

And....... it's the first day of our new routine....

Not that we have one yet but see what I did to Junior this morning:

I put my calm little boy in his bouncy chair.  Took some pictures.  Put on the "good vibrations".  Set the bouncy chair at the entrance to the bathroom where I could see him from the shower and hopped in.  I can't stand running around in my PJs and I need my shower in the morning to feel like a real person.  It won't work this beautifully every day but today was great.  No fussing, no complaining and Mommy feels refreshed and more energetic.  I am getting company from some colleagues at work for lunch so I wanted to look presentable.

We had J.R.s follow-up pediatrician appointment yesterday.  All the tests from the hospital came back fine.  He took one look at him and said that Jonathan was doing well.  I was surprised that he wasn't even going to weigh him to see that he was gaining weight properly.  But I guess he could see that he was coming along fine.  Well, we did end up weighing him at my request and my little hungry boy is just under 8 lbs now.  A week ago, he was at 7 lbs 2 ounces.  He's growing and he's growing quickly.  No more visits to the pediatrician.  We're handed over to my family doctor now because the pediatrician has no further health concerns with him or his development or prematurity.  Seems all is going good and it seems I'm doing something right with feeding him etc.

And now..... the bouncy chair is getting boring for the little guy and it's food time again, too.  Have a good one!!!

Routines?  Are routines important to you?  They are to me and we don't have a routine yet since baby was born.......... my work like routine was very well established and I worked well within the realms of it.  I miss my routine.  Part of the routine was reading blogs and writing my own blog.  Both have sadly fallen by the way side for the time being.  But, we've also been in the honeymoon stage of being a new parent.  Well, maybe it's not been a honeymoon with the sleepless nights etc. but it's been not routine since Evan has been home from work on vacation for the last couple of weeks and we've allowed Erika to stay home with us from daycare for part of last week.  It's been good having Evan around to help.  It's been fun giving Erika a bit more chance to spend time with us and to get to know her baby brother but....... routine.... nope, no routine for me.  That's been tough on me.  But then, how much routine can you have with a newborn?  Hmmm, I don't know but when I was home with Erika, once life returned to normal ie. Evan went back to work, we quickly settled into a pretty darn nice routine that worked for all of us.  I'm planning on starting on some sort of routine on Tuesday........ which is also the day the clock ticks over and I'm another year closer to 40.  Now I know that I won't be a perfect routine but it will be better than doing everything just off the cuff.

Tomorrow we have a pedicatrician's appointment to find out about whether he's happy with Jonathan's progress.  I think the little guy has been growing so I hope the numbers show it tomorrow.  Speaking of growing.... right about now is the time of the evening that I jump into action.  He eats pretty much on a 3-hour schedule during the day but then from about 8 pm to 11 pm, he just basically wants to be attached to me constantly.  The incessant crying has started. 

My routine will include more regular blogging.......... I've got lots to share.

 

Contests are fun but I don't often win........ but I had the fortunate luck to win an Opal sock yarn contest through the Canadian Distributor for Opal yarn.  My name was drawn for the winner of 2 balls of Rodeo Cotton sock yarn.  The news of the win came to me on a day when I was particularly low about Jonathan's day in the hospital.  I think it was the day when the pediatrician ordered a bunch of tests out of the blue that made me wonder what could be wrong with my precious little child - head and renal ultrasounds, a variety of blood tests and a big time urine collection.  I had spent my whole day crying - big time hormonal break down I figure (I got through the 3 weeks of his hospital stay with 2 of those break downs).  When I came home I had the e-mail in my in box letting me know of my win.  That was wonderful.  Only a few short days ago, my prize arrived.  It's so cool to win stuff and when it's yarn, it's even better - since I am not buying yarn this year.  A great big thank you to Trish at Ladybug Yarns for holding this contest.  This win couldn't have come at a better time.

I finally uploaded a "Coming Home" picture of the little guy.  He's starting to allow us to put him down in his bouncy seat between feedings.  Yahoo.... here's to a bit of knitting and just doing stuff around the house freedom.  He's been gaining weight well so things are going well all around.  Now we need to work on the night time thing.  I'm still sleeping on the couch with him for most of the night.

 

I lost a post yesterday - my own silly fault - and now I'm just too tired to completely recreate it........... I guess that's what life of a newborn is all about.  Things are going well though.  I'm a bit tired but manage to get some sleep, mostly on the couch, during the night.  They always say to nap when baby sleeps during the day but so far, that hasn't really happened.

I've got some knitting pictures but I seem to have lost one little baby hat I made while I was in the hospital.  I tried it on Jonathan the other day and then meant to take a picture but no luck finding it again.  I have no idea what I did with it.

Here are some socks made with Opal Crocodile.  I got this yarn as an RAOK and totally loved knitting with it as well as the resulting pair of socks.  I call them my hospital socks because they were exclusively knit while at the hospital.  Some during my 2 day stay earlier in January and then some while I was in the hospital myself when I had Jonathan and then the rest while going to visit and feed Jonathan at the special care nursery.  Those socks will always have a special place in my heart.

 

And then there's the little baby hat made with leftover sock yarn with a solid ribbing.  It's the hat Jonathan has been wearing every outing we've done so far:

Yawn......... gotta check on Evan and the little guy now that I put Erika to bed.  She's too excited about Valentine's Day tomorrow.  She wrote more than 30 Valentine's cards for all her daycare friends and teachers and she did the writing all by herself (with us helping her out on how to spell the names).  It took her days and she was so committed to finishing.  I hope she has that same attitude when it comes to homework once she starts school.  We went out and bought her some chocolate and a Valentine's Day t-shirt and some jeans today.  She'll be a stylish girl tomorrow.  As for me.......... well, we were at the mall and Evan wanted to let me pick a piece of jewellry as a gift to give to me for having little Mr. Jonathan.  I felt funny about picking it myself.  I expected him to bring me something to the hospital like he did when Erika was born.  But then I looked even though I hadn't planned on looking and I ended up with a gorgeous Tanzanite and Diamond ring which was way more than I would ever have spent.  I get to pick it up on my birthday next week.  So this has become a combination baby and Valentine's Day gift.  I wish I could show you a picture but I couldn't find it on line even though the store we bought it at has a web site.

Good night.

We got to go home today!!!!  Pictures when I get a chance to download them.  So far so good.... except my laid back boy in the hospital has turned into high needs this afternoon.  Haven't been able to put him down for more than a few minutes at a time.  Balancing his needs and also giving Erika some attention has been a bit challenging but at least we're all home.  Evan is on vacation now for 2 weeks and Erika will go back to daycare in another day or so.  We'll have to see how it goes but I sure hope that he'll settle into the routine at home and continue being easy going.  This afternoon has been interesting but it's so good to have him home.

and counting.......

I assume he ate as well at 6:30 tonight as he did the rest of the day.  I'm going back at 10 pm and when we do his naked weigh and he shows a weight gain and has a good night, he's all mine tomorrow morning.  When the doc goes off shift in the am (he's been on 24-hour call today) he'll check in on him and decide whether he'll sign his discharge papers.  We'll find out in the morning!!!  The cheers must have helped!!!

It's been more than 36 hours and counting......... no tube feeds last night and he woke for each feeding.  The nurse that spent the night with him is recommending that his tube be removed this morning as it's time to have it changed.  So based on the past day or two she says to have it removed and no new one put in unless he slides backwards again.  Oh the pressure is on for our 10:30 am feed together but I'm ready to go!!!!  He didn't quite take his whole feeding last night at 10:30 but this particular nurse didn't think I needed to add some in a bottle but then when I put him back down, while they were off on a junk food run, he was still sucking real hard which makes me think he would have taken the last little bit by bottle.  We'll see how today goes. 

I'm going to go now so I can get there still in hopes that Dr. V. hasn't made his rounds yet.  I'll probably miss him because he tends to come early but he's on call all day so I hope to track him down at one point today anyways.

More updates later.  6 pm tonight will be 48 hours since the last tube feeding.

Come on......... cheer on my little guy!!!  We've been 24 hours without a tube feed!!!  48 hours may be....... depending on a few other minor details......... the magic number to go without a tube feed for the doctor to release him into the real world.  I'm not getting my hopes up but I'm looking for some cheers to keep him going.  They said he'd make a fast turnaround and yesterday and today were great days except for the nose who gave him a tube feed at the dinner hour yesterday when I was at home even though I was told later that he woke up on his own.  I can't judge the decision of the nurse because I didn't get a chance to talk to her personally.  She must have had a valid reason for choosing to go ahead with the tube feed instead of trying to give him a bottle first.......... but the orders from the doctor were: "no more tubes unless absolutely necessary and unless breastfeeding or bottle feeding has been attempted first".  Bottle feeding, in this case, was not attempted and rumour has it that he did wake up for the feeding.  (after 3 weeks I have made some friends in that nursery).  I will never know but had he not had to have had a tube feeding at that one feeding he would almost be clocking 48 hours by now. 

So, let's cheer the little guy on.......... the little guy who is not so little any longer.  He is clocking in at just around 3000 grams now or around 6 1/2 lbs.

With all the positive support, I'm hoping that my next post will contain those knitting pictures I've promised (2 hats and 1 pair of socks) and the title of the next post will be "He's home".  I can tell for sure that, even though the reality of sleepless nights will set in quickly, I'd rather be up to feed the little guy than to sit and pump to express breast milk so I can have food for him when I can't be with him in the hospital.

Hope to be back soon.