And So It Begins

This is the beginning of a sock yarn blanket.

Many, many squares will be knit together to form a blanket. There are many examples of this blanket on Ravelry, and the original inspiration can be found here.I've only been knitting for a few years, and I knew that I would want to knit one of these eventually, preferably after I'd mastered knitting socks and as a result would have plenty of leftover yarn balls with which to make squares. But that's not the case. I have knitted a total of 3 pairs of socks. But I have sock yarn. Actually, the yarn that makes up Square #1 wasn't even leftover from socks, but from a scarf I made for my sister. The yarn is Fleece Artist Nyoni, I don't remember the name of the colorway.

It is my hope that I will be able to share the story of each square here on my blog. Most of the time there won't be much to the story; in fact I can tell you that Square #2 lived a very quiet life. But I do have yarn coming to me that I will incorporate into the blanket and I'm sure their stories are much more interesting.

And now here is the shameless plug for yarn, fingering/sock weight, all I need is 5g to make a square and it doesn't have to be machine washable.

One other thing, I'm not using the aforementioned pattern for this blanket. I'll be using the method I used for the mitered square baby blanket, knitting the squares in rounds. I don't know how many rounds it will take for me to consider this project finished. What I do know is that I'm really excited to see how it develops.

First FOs of 2011!

As January winds down I proudly present my first finished objects of 2011!




The top 2 baby hats are for a super-preemie by the name of Asher. He just came home but was unable to attend his own baby shower. I whipped up the hats for my good friend Kim, who is auntie to the little boy. She'd asked if I could do a baby blanket, which I will do soon, but didn't want her to go to the shower empty-handed.

In the middle is a blanket for Baby Jacob, due in February. His mama Rosie is a very good friend of mine who was an absolute rock to me while Dan was in the hospital last year. Pattern is Cotton-Ease Baby Blanket from Stick-Legged Girl. I used Simply Soft.

I absolutely loved knitting this, so much that I plan to make a few more baby blankets using this pattern. Oh, and I've decided that I'll use the pattern for a sock yarn blanket as well. More on that to come...

The third pic is yet another hat. This was supposed to go to my friend Franco, who wore out the hat I gave him for his birthday a few years ago. But after finishing it I know it won't fit him. I'll have to go back and see what pattern I used for the first one.

Book Review: The Latte Rebellion by Sarah Jamila Stevenson

This was my first choice for the 2011 Debut Author Challenge hosted by The Story Siren. I picked it because I needed something quick and I knew Amazon would have it on my doorstep just in time for me to have something to read at work.
The Latte Rebellion centers around Asha, a high school senior of mixed race who, with her friends Carey and Miranda (also mixed-race), launch a website to sell "Latte Rebellion" t-shirts in hopes of raising enough money to go on vacation after graduation. What starts as messing around with a thrown-out idea soon turns into situations none of them envisioned.
I was pleasantly surprised by this book. Although I didn't care for the jumping-around with the timeline (which always irritates me to no end) I thought that the book as a whole had some substance to it. The issue of mixed-race ethnicity certainly needs to be addressed and is sure to become a talking point of the book. However, I did enjoy many of the sub-plots even though they could have been developed a bit more.
I would recommend this to teens who are into realistic fiction, but don't like Gossip Girl-type drama.

Hello 2011! New year, new hopes, new goals

Let us hope that 2011 is the year that I maintain this blog. There is alot on my plate and hopefully posting here regularly will help me keep sense and order of everything.

Resolutions? Several...

Knitting: To finally knit a pair of socks in a reasonable amount of time.

Reading: This is also a professional resolution, I am joining The Story Siren's 2011 Debut Author Challenge. I intend to read at least 12 YA/Middle Grade books by new authors in the coming year. In addition to posting my reviews here, I will most likely put them on my Goodreads page as well. I think my first selection will be The Latte Rebellion by Sarah Jamila Stevenson; at least, that is what I ordered from Amazon. However, I'm attending ALA Midwinter next week and so I hope to get some good titles there.

Eating: To plan out meals better and eat healthier. We are going to see how long we go without succumbing to fast food, and that includes Chinese.

In addition, we need to kick Dan's rehab into high gear. Cardiac Rehab appointments are done, but there's an opportunity for him to continue there under their "Fit for Life" program. They would incorporate some weight training in addition to the treadmill and bike, and the price is about the same as a gym, even a bit more reasonable when you consider the fact that they will let us work out alongside without charging any extra. Also need to remind myself to make Dan do more things for himself and stop being an enabler...

Trying to get back to "normal"

I honestly thought I'd have more time to blog. Dan has been home for about a week and a half now, and I've gone back to work, so we are trying to settle into what is going to be our usual schedule for at least a month. Dan is in Sharp's Community Re-Entry Program (CREP), Monday-Friday from 9-3. He gets 6 hours of various therapy. It's a whole new set of therapists, but I've met them all and like them all. Also, there are only about 6 or 7 other people in the group so it's a nice small group and he is never neglected. In fact, they even keep an eye on him in the afternoons until I get off work to pick him up.
Physically, Dan is doing great. I've only had to give him extra insulin one time, and that was because I couldn't refuse him a taco that Joanna had brought. Other than that, his BG is usually somewhere between 95-120 when we check before meals. I'd like to think it's because of what we've been eating; I could continue to be anal about the carbs.
Obviously the main concern is still the memory. Dan's short-term memory is horrible, although at times it seems that there is progress. While he still can't remember what happened yesterday, with some prompting it seems as if he remembers conversations from earlier in the day. He has a book where we write his activities during the day. I do hope we find that right memory aid soon.

Trying to prepare for what's in store

I know these next few days are going to fly by...there's still so much to be done at home to prepare for Dan's homecoming. While I was by no means the best at housekeeping, for the most part I've been able to maintain a decent level of cleanliness at home. The real culprit is all the clutter.
Unfortunately, Dan has always been something of a packrat. Nowhere near hoarder stage, but in going through some of the stuff I have no idea why he kept it. Oh of course, there were the piles of papers he would get to someday, but now it's just time to get rid of it. Our shredder has been working overtime and one recycle bin just isn't enough. We even got a little tag the last time it was picked up, saying it was too heavy, but they did take it. I'll just have to parcel it out a little more evenly, and make use of my parent's bin as well.

The problem areas are the hallway and our bedroom. At this point I have a feeling my desperation plan will be to shove everything into a spare bedroom in order to have clear pathways. I also have to order some mobility-aid equipment; let me tell you, we certainly take it for granted what healthy bodies are able to do on a regular basis.

Home in 2 weeks?

Today I got a call from Dan's case manager, who told me that a discharge date has been set for 2 weeks from today. I must say it was a bit overwhelming, since I'd expected him to be in rehab for at least 6 weeks. Obviously he can't stay in rehab forever, but I guess I was thinking I'd have more time to get things ready at home. We have so much junk that needs to be cleared out, and I have to be careful about loading our recycling bin because we got a warning last time that it was too heavy.
As of now, he will need 24-hr supervision. Whether or not that changes in 2 weeks remains to be seen, although I think it's doubtful. Believe me, I'd love for him to prove me wrong. He still has memory problems, and at one point this evening when he asked me who I was, I was so shocked I didn't know what to say, at which point he reminded me that his head was damaged. Shame on me.
There's a chance that after discharge, Dan will be accepted into the rehab center's day program, where he'd continue getting 3 hours of therapy a day. But there's a couple of physiological hurdles he has to clear, so I'm hoping in these next 2 weeks the nurses will be focusing on that.
Dan had some company for OT today, they sat in while he worked with Play-Doh. For PT, he did some walking without the walker, and went outside to play basketball. He dribbled some and shot a few shots, only to go back inside because it was too hot. I'll give him a pass on that one, thank goodness we're not on the other side of the country where it's scorching.