Ryan's First

Here is a pic from Ryan's first birthday. You can see he is doing well and is growing up nicely! Still has some torticolis that gets worse and better, but not yet completely away yet.

Thanks to Jen for the nice comment on my last post. It is great to hear good stories. Our neurologist is such a piece of work. You would think Ryan has two years to live due to the hypotonia. Jen, is your friend's hypotonia a symptom of any larger disorder, or is that the only problem her son has? I keep praying this is a stand alone condition for him. Ryan is very kinesthetic, so I don't imagine he won't be able to keep up with the other boys, either.

Yesterday, I died some sock yarn at Northwoods. It turned out beautifully, and I received many compliments on it. When I can bring it in from drying, I will take pics and post. Who knows, maybe someday I will let out my color sense and become an indie dyer, too.

The latest...

(As you can see, I originally started writing this post in May! I am only getting back to posting it now. Thanks to Ryan's busy medical and birthday schedule, and lack of internet.)

Stitches South was great. I took classes with JC Briar of STR fame, and Beth Brown-Reinsel.



Traditional Knitted Gansey - Beth Brown-Reinsel

Great class and instructor. Friendly, works the room well, shows you all of the techniques needed to do your own gansey and makes sure you can do them before you leave (as long as you are willing to try). Would take a class from her again. Good handouts.
Sock Design - JC Briar

JC has a dry sense of humor, but I think we all joked around enough to where we felt more comfortable. She is a great instructor also, showing you new techniques and making sure you can do them as well. She is really good at building up your confidence so that you feel that you can be a designer, too. She is a self-proclaimed tech junkie, and loves sharing her knowledge with others, so she is a great instructor for those who aren’t afraid to take on the technical side of knitting. Good handouts.



I have waited to post until I had the latest good news about the last round of testing on Ryan. All of his bloodwork, urine tests, MRI and CT Scans show that he has no known disorders. The neurologist says we just hope now that he grows and develops well despite his hypotonia. So far, he has done just that, meeting milestones on time or ahead of time. He is quite a determined little guy, so happy and smart. I just pray that he continues to have a great life. It is just a shame that we have had to wait 8 months to find out that he is probably fine. It has been a huge emotional rollercoaster this entire year, and I would not wish it on anyone. However, the next step is to visit the geneticist for more testing. When will this end? I just ask that my friends who pray to please include Ryan in their prayers. We keep praying that he is healthy and will live a productive life. That his challenges won't be too great that he can't overcome them.

Hello? Is anyone there?

I can't believe how long it has been since I have posted. I have been pretty busy. I spent a couple of weekends teaching mommies in my mommies group how to knit. That was interesting, but good. I have such a demand for the class that I will probably be teaching knitting for the rest of the year! It is a little tough of a schedule though, as I host it in my home. So it keeps me busy with the weekly freak out of, "OMG! People are coming!" cleaning.

We are on an emotional rollercoaster with Ryan's medical status for months now. Whether there is something serious going on with him or not. Some doctors and therapists think he is fine; others do not. Every time we think he is okay, we get news that we might have to worry. He seems fine and normal, but the doctors want to do more testing. Granted, it took us six freakin' months to even get in to see a Neurologist. Now we have to wait another 6 weeks for an MRI? My husband flipped. Please don't ask what it is about, because even we don't really know until testing is done.

Leaving for Stitches South today. I hope I see you all there.

I know, I know...

...it has been forever since I have posted. I have been sick since Thanksgiving. I have had colds and viruses that have really kicked my butt. So, I apologize. Life gets in the way sometimes.

My prince is now 6 months old. I love him so much.

I have been trying to clean and organize my office and other parts of the house again. I seem to go through cycles where certain rooms get neglected. Other rooms get more daily pickings up and all. I hope to try to stop doing this (the neglecting of rooms for 2-3 months, piles of filing, ugh). I now have all of my knitting stash in the office. Except for two baskets that have yarn in the living room, so they are serving a decorative function as well. I need someplace to hide some of this sock yarn so my DH does not get overwhelmed by the sheer quantity. Actually, I think he already was yesterday. I showed him my new queue in Ravelry which is now something like 40 projects, not including all of my sock yarn, today. He was like, "Jesus.". I probably have at least 50-60 pairs worth of sock yarn right now. At least he knows we will have plenty of socks when the economic apocalypse comes. I am seriously squashing my purchasing, even at Stitches South. Spending money on baby formula has made that easy. Some people are fairweather friends and don't understand being economically constrained. They can get over it. I am not such a person. My friendship is not conditional. (Well, unless your condition is that you are a beeyotch.)



Now is the time of year to review our knitting resolutions, and make new ones.



2008 Resolutions:

1. Design and publish two of my own patterns. --> Ah, no. I have been a little busy.
2. Complete another Morehouse Farm Sweater kit (from Stash). --> See #1.
3. Restart fair isle projects and finish them, with good gage. --> See #1.
4. Start and complete a project in continental. This should be combined with resolution #3. --> Do dishcloths count?
5. Dye on my own. --> See #1. (I see a sickening trend here.)
6. Use of some of my insane sock yarn stash by knitting baby items. --> You know, I really did try. But when I had to frog a single EZ Baby Surprise Sweater for the 20th time, I decided to stop banging my head against the wall. Seriously, pregnancy hormones made me a mental fruitloop in the knitting department.
7. Put more of my stash and projects on Ravelry. --> OMG. I just did some of this today. I did the project queue. Don't hold your breath for the yarn stash.
8. Knit and/or quilt two baby blankets. One for stroller and carseat, one full sized. --> See #1 and #6.
9. Avoid Christmas knitting requests. This year, I will just say no. The only knitted Christmas presents will be surprises. --> Yay! SUCCESS!



Okay, so I did not get far. The pregnancy hormones squashed my knitting desire (I was too tired) and also made me so horrible at keeping track of where I was in a pattern, so that I made too many mistakes. So I think we will keep the resolutions simple this year.



2009 Resolutions:

1. Reduce Ravelry Queue by 5 projects (this is quite ambitious, considering I don't remember completing anything but a pair of socks this last year).

2. Knit something(!) finally for my son. Please don't give me the bad mother award.

3. Maybe glance at and fondle my fair isle, in hopes of learning better two-stranded tension by osmosis.

4. Avoid Christmas Knitting requests again. I really hate deadline knitting. It brings out the knitting procrastinator in me.

5. Teach others to knit. I am already setting this up for one of my mommies groups, based on another's request. I never even thought of it before. How brilliant! I can make my contribution to the mommies group Mom's Night Ins (MNIs) in an inexpensive way. And I hope to make it fun with nibblies and wine. Because, like Patsy and Edina, everything is better with a drink and nibbly bits.