Identity Crisis

I doubt there will be any knitting content in this post...I did post the preemie bootie pattern separately for ease of printing and such. See that below for a fiber content fix.

Ok, I graduated from college in May '99. I thought I was pretty cool at that time. Music was my life. I had several thousand dollars (estimated 6 - 8) tied up in my CD collection. Just as much in my concert ticket stubs, plus the memories that came along with them. I never missed BNL when they came through town. I paid $100 to see Madonna from nose bleed seats and didn't bat an eye at the price...and recently, I've been thinking "where the heck did that Janette go?" Would I trade in Mister and Peanut for that life back...um, no..but I hate feeling like my life only began when the gold band hit my left hand. Maybe it's just part of getting older and moving into another chapter of my life, but it's kind of sad. I used to have a reputation for being the fastest drinker of all of my friends...and in an odd way, I was proud of that. In the last year, I've had maybe 3 drinks. Mister has never seen me inebriated. That just blows my mind. I spent so many of my nights in college laughing and being stupid drunk...and it's like a distant faded memory. Now...I'm a wife. I'm a mom. I'm a computer support associate. And I just keep thinking, what happened to me?? My awesome SIL was talking to me about how so many women lose themselves once they become mothers. I totally identify with that. Now, this doesn't mean I want to be silly drunk at a rock concert every weekend...but once a year might be nice. I'm not one to feel sorry for myself and that's not what this is...it just feels like the old me is like a good friend that's moved across the country and is now a distant acquaintance. There's gotta be a way to combine the new life with the old. I think I may start by replacing the Kids Sing Along tape in the car with my favorite Beatles mix tape. Peanut's musical education needs to expand beyond the Kidstown Singers and the Teddybear's Picnic. Every journey begins with a first step....

Preemie Bootie Pattern

My heartfelt thanks to Sandy Miner for allowing me to post my version of her Warm the Baby bootie pattern. I'm working on other size variations before officially rolling it out to the Preemie Project.

Light worsted weight yarn
US 6 needles
Makes a med preemie bootie - 2 3/4" sole
Cast on 30 stitches
Work 8 rows of garter stitch (4 ridges)
K13 K2 tog, K2 tog K13
K12 K2 tog, K2 tog K12
K11 K2 tog, K2 tog K11
K10 K2 tog, K2 tog K10
K9 K2 tog, K2 tog K9
You'll be left with 20 stitches.

Insert needle in first stitch as to knit. Wrap the yarn around needle twice, and then complete the stitch. Continue in same way in each stitch across the row.

Knit across pulling off but not working the extra loop of each stitch.
This makes long stitches to weave the tie through. You could also also do an eyelet (YO K2tog) row.

Work in K1, P1 ribbing for 6 rows.
Bind off.
Sew back and bottom seam.
Crochet a chain about 18 inches long to weave thru eyelet row or use about 18 inches of ribbon.
Tie in bow at center front

Let's talk about delicious...

Before anything else, I have to rave about something I found at our local Meijer. Philly Swirl Sugar Free Swirl Stix just may be one of the greatest ice cream treats I've ever come across. For those of us low carbing, it has zero net carbs. Yep, zero! I can't tell you how delicious these are. Philly Swirl is a small company that deserves a second look at their product. If you want a yummy summer treat, try and find a box of these!

Speaking of Meijer...they've finally gotten on the yarn band wagon! Peanut and I made a trip there last week and we went to visit the yarn. With our newly imposed budgeting, that's all I'm allowed to do now. Prior to last week, the yarn and notions selection at Meijer was sad to say the least. Wow, have they ever gotten their act together. They've gone the few colors of many route, but it's nice to have a variety. They now carry a Patons 100% wool yarn. This is especially exciting because the only place I could get 100% wool yarn in colors was my overpriced LYS. They also have a good selection of baby yarns. They have Caron's Bliss. Man oh man...if you want something soft, grab a skein of this. It's not cheap, but it's worth the softness.

In other news, The Preemie Project is really picking up. Laura's doing a great job with this. She's on vacation this week, so I'm stepping in as moderator of the group. Let's hope I can live up to the expectation set! Laura left big shoes to fill. For any of the group that frequent my blog, have some patience with me guys.

We didn't plan this, but I'll be on vacation next week too. Difference being my vacations mean just not going to work! I'll take that for now. When our family isn't so new and more established, we'll actually go somewhere. Peanut's day care is shut down for the week, so she's home with momma. Monday, I have to go in to work so she'll be spending the day with her great Aunt Jack and Great Grandma. I'm more concerned about them than her. On Wednesday, she'll be back with them again so that I can attend the Ann Arbor Art Fair. I've gone every year except for the year I was pregnant...since 1988. Just couldn't do it while battling pre-eclampsia and 50 lbs of water weight. I'm hoping my recent 21 lb (YES! 21 pounds!) will make the trip a bit more enjoyable. It's like mixing power shopping, an art exhibit, crowd surfing and 90 degree heat. Not for the faint of heart.

In crafty news, I created *yet another* baby blanket. This time I'm just playing with a simple double crochet and a skein of Homespun Baby. I figure I'll just go until I run out of yarn, then pick it up again when I acquire another skein of the homespun in a coordinating color. I think I needed an unstructured project to just chill out with. The Mister keeps telling me my hobby is stressing me out and it's not going to be fun. He even offered to buy me the new Harry Potter book to take a break with. There are days when I do just adore that man!!

You can't handle the cute...

That's what I keep thinking as I look at these. My biggest issue with booties is picking up stitches along the gusset. (Is it still a "gusset" if it's a bootie and not a sock?) I found this great pattern by Sandy Miner. I can't for the life of me find where I got it. I thought I got it from the Warm the Baby website, but can't find that either. Anywho... I took her awesome pattern and reworked it for a preemie size. I have an email into her for permission to post it here and donate it to the Preemie Project. Super quick knit. I can't believe how fast they worked up. These were worked in the Wendy Peter Pan yarn that I made the Baby Grant hat in. The lady at Knit A Round thought it was a light worsted weight yarn. I used US 6 needles. I simply went with a single strand of yarn for the ties. This yarn is so unbelievable that I thought that'd be good enough. I can only hope for a photo of the adorable model wearing them.

For some size perspective, I placed a quarter and one of Peanut's Preemie socks next to the bootie. The sock is a bit stretched out as I keep putting it on my finger and saying, "Look how tiny her foot was!" I only wish I'd thought enough to have taken a photo of those teeny feet. I couldn't help but stare at them each time I visited her. So very tiny. Who knew they could be that small? She was 4 lbs 6 ozs. Baby Grant was 3 lbs 2 ozs, I can only imagine how the sight of his teeny feet would make me swoon.

This weekend was pretty quiet for the family. We spent some time on lockdown. We haven't done that in about a month. So what does that mean? We watched a lot of TV, played with Peanut and ate from the fridge. Also means I didn't make the goals I'd set to work on The Preemie Project stuff. Sorry, Laura. I feel terrible about that. Mister has a date with the WWE tomorrow night and I plan on spending some quality time with the marketing materials. The only thing that doesn't make me feel totally horrible is the chance I'll have the bootie pattern cleared for donation. Did I mention how fast they knit up? I'm all about instant gratification.

In other news...work will seriously suck this week. That's all I'm gonna say about that. I took the brave step onto the scale this morning and found that I'm down 17 lbs in 6 1/2 weeks. I'm still in total shock and awe over that. Don't question, just keep doing what I'm doing...seems to be working somehow. Few last photos...one is of Pepperino and her lounging glory.

The others are from out trip to the zoo. I just got a good look at these and am amazed at how cool they look. The zoo has the world's largest polar bear exhibit. It is amazing! While there, we saw the brand new baby cub and it's momma hanging out on their meadow. As we wound our way down to the tunnel, we were told by a guide that one of the bears was swimming in the tunnel and to hurry to catch it. This is the awesome sight we saw:


How often can you say a polar bear walked over you? If you're ever in the Metro Detroit area, please take the time to visit the Detroit Zoo. It's not actually in Detroit, but in Royal Oak. They also have an amazing butterfly garden that must be seen to be believed. No photos will ever do the experience justice.

Back to the real world...

Thanks for the well wishes for Peanut's speedy recovery. Just another mystery fever in the long list of childhood ailments I'm sure we'll weather. She was fine come Sunday morning. Thank the Lord for Tylenol.

Fourth of July we went to the zoo. It was hot. Damn hot. Wasn't too bad when we got there, but I was dizzy by the time we left. Naps and drinks were required as soon as we got home. Peanut took a nap when we got home at 2:30. She went back to sleep at 5. We were planning on attending the local fireworks display at 10:05. She didn't wake up until 11:30 and neither one of us had the heart to wake her from her slumber. She went back to bed at midnight and had to be woken up at 8:30 the next morning. Evidently, the zoo really wore her out.

The Mr. Grant hat is finished. I took a combination of a few different patterns to put it together. I'm not so sure about the finished project, but it'll have to do. I'm working on matching booties. I'm hoping the skein will hold out. Once that's finished, I need to revisit some of my previously commissioned baby sweaters.

Laura has been a busy bee with The Preemie Project. Hop on over and check out all of her hard work.

Best laid plans....

Always seem to go one of two ways...A) we have nothing to do on a weekend or B) So much to do that we wind up double booked. Well, we had a B weekend that wound up an A. Months ago we planned on having lunch today with my SIL and nieces on their way up from Indy to Mackinac for the week. Two weeks ago, we found out that my baby brother and his girlfriend had gotten married and planned a wedding open house/reception for today. My SIL emailed me on Thurs to let me know their travel plans had changed and we rescheduled lunch as a dinner on their way back home. No problem, that paved the way for us to attend the Open House without having to cut it short. Well, Peanut had other plans. She woke up with a 101.8 fever this morning. It's continued all day and is now up to 102.2. We spent the day in our jammies and offering her all the french fries she could eat. Now, I'm not normally a nervous mom...with all the stuff that happened at the start of her life, everything else just seems small. Well, I am a mom with a vivid imagination...and I'm thinking about all the bruises she's acquired recently and now a mystery fever. I won't say what I'm thinking because I'm sure it's nothing...but there's always that fear. I'm hoping it's just her final molars making their way in or the byproduct of a summer cold.

So, we're home. The Mister (and now with a newly awake Peanut on his lap) is patiently waiting for the delayed start of the NASCAR race. Yes, he's a huge fan. And even that's an understatement. It's something I've learned to live with and attempt to be interested in. He pretends to like my knitting, so I have to return the favor. Speaking of that...he had a doctor's appointment on Thursday in Ann Arbor. He actually approved a trip to Knit A Round. I don't have photos of the haul, but all but one of the skeins bought was on the clearance rack. I picked up another skein of the Rowan Plaid to make another g-pa hat. This time going to the Aunt that requested it. I also picked up two skeins of cool worsted 100% wool yarn to make CIC socks. The other, Velvet Touch by Wendy (PeterPan) in a wonderful denim blues. This yarn is already on the needles and growing up to be a preemie hat for one Mr. Grant. He made his world debut last week, being born to the good friend of my good friend. Mr. Grant is only 3 lbs 2 oz, but is doing well. His momma definitely deserves a little hand knit goodness for her new little man. Mr. Grant and family reside in Texas, so a trip to LYS was warranted. I have no yarn that would be proper for TX wear. This yarn is much softer than any velvet I've owned. It's like a dream...and light. I really don't think it'll be too warm for wear in the hospital or an air conditioned house. I just couldn't find a cotton that caught my eye. This yarn caught my eye and sense of touch. It was $8 for the skein, but if we hit the lottery I'd buy enough to make myself a new bathrobe out of it...and I'd never take it off.

Looks like I'm a little closer to Loserville than Sassy Gina-D. I'm ok with that. Variety is the spice of life and I think that applies to people as well. Boy, if I didn't believe that...I wouldn't have married my very-different-from-me Mister! We celebrate our wedding anniversary on Tuesday. Some days it feels like we've been married two days and some days two centuries!! I think that's pretty normal, though. Right? ...I hope.

What do you do the Friday before a long holiday weekend??

We all do it..don't act like you don't. Rumor has it the office will shut down at 3..and not a minute too soon, I tell ya.

You are interchangeable. Fun, free, and into everything, you've got every eventuality covered and every opportunity just has to be taken. Every fiber is wonderful, and every day is a new beginning. You are good at so many things, it's amazing, but you can easily lose your place and forget to show up. They have row counters for people like you!

What kind of knitting needles are you?
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