Alllllllmost there

I am so close, I can taste it. The Girl's sweater is almost done. I'm to the sleeve cap on the second sleeve. Then it's just a matter of sewing it together....again, and adding on the pockets. Just in time for the rain. I didn't work on it quite as much as I had planned during The Little Man's hospital stay. He decided to give me a little scare the first day. He's fine, but his heart rate dropped to about 60 and his respirations were around 5-7 a minute. Just a little too relaxed for my taste. Also, the first day, I was no good to anyone, due to the lack of sleep. The night before surgery, it was a case of.....go to sleep for a bit, *wake up in a panic thinking I've over slept, hitting Hubby to ask the time (the clock was on his side), go back to sleep*, repeat from * until clock reads 4:30 a.m. I spent the rest of the day in a haze. I did work on it down there though. Last night, thanks to my lovely friend, Insomnia, I got to the bottom of the sleeve cap. Now to finish the rest off, which will take longer than I expect, of course.

As for what's coming up next, I have NO idea. Actually, come to think of it, I do. I've got some quilt squares to work on. I won't say m

ore on that due to the surprise factor. (I highly doubt the intended recipient of this quilt even knows about this blog, let alone reads it, but I don't want to tempt the Craft Gods). Only a couple of months and I'll post some pictures.

In the meantime, here is a pic of my last sleeve.

Not a very good one, but progress none-the-less. Don't mind the hair, I still haven't quite got my act together this morning. I'm trying to get excited about helping in The Girl's class this afternoon for the Halloween celebration. I'll get there. I'm also needing to get some more quilt squares cut for tomorrow. I have an all-day Rainbow Girl event that some of my helpers will be at. I'm hoping to off-load some of my quilt-square burden onto them. That it, IF I have quilt squares to give out. :)

Okay, enough delaying. Time to get this day started, even though all I really want to do is build a fire, put in a movie and knit. Did I mention it's raining? Perfect day for crafting. Alas, it was not meant to be. Maybe next week. :)

My weekend

Crafting is still hit and miss with me. I'm trying to get back in the swing of things, getting something done every day. It's been hard. My back is still (figuratively) broken. I go for an x-ray tomorrow, with an MRI in my near future. Hopefully some successful treatment will come of all this.

I'm still working on The Girl's sweater sleeves. The first is almost done, and I think it will fit. My goal is to finish it in the next couple of days so I can try it on Her before the weekend. I will have plenty of time to finish the other this weekend as my Little Man is going in for surgery on Friday and will be in the hospital at least until Sunday. This means, plenty of crafting time for me by his bedside. This surgery, his 8th by my count, is a planned one. He has a pump implanted in his belly, with a catheter running under his skin into his spinal column. It delivers a constant flow of Baclofen, (a muscle relaxer) to help ease his Cerebral Palsy symptoms. My Boy tends to be stiff as a board. The pump has made a HUGE difference in his life. It's hard to believe we've had it now for six years. The window for replacement of the battery on these pumps is anywhere from five to seven years. At his flow rate, we felt six years was a great time to replace it. Barring any unforeseen complications, we should be home Sunday or Monday.

It has been four years since The Little Man has been admitted to the hospital. Quite an accomplishment. In the early years, we were there every few months. It was hard to imagine any other life. Now, it's amazing the life we have without hospitalizations. We actually HAVE a life. We have outside activities that all the members of the house are involved in. This surgery also marks the first time The Girl will experience him being hospitalized in her recollection. She was 3 the last time he was in and doesn't remember it. She's understandably worried, being such a caring soul. We are, by nature and experience, rather non-challant about it and trying to be as casual and non-worried as we can, to help ease her mind. There is always that little "what-if" monster that lives in a shack in the back corner of my mind. He peeks his head out every now and again, throws a few barbs, then retreats. I tend not to listen, except every so often, and usually only very late at night.

Anyway, back to crafting.....I'm sure I'll pack something else in my craft bag, besides The Sweater! Maybe my own! I should block it before I take it though, to make sewing the seams easier. I might leave that for a home project though. Maybe some more hanger covers or dish clothes for the craft faire. We'll see. I'll think about it tomorrow.

Back issues

The reason for the recent blog silence is physical injury. A couple weeks ago, I headed out to Eureka with the fam to attend a workshop by Franklin Habit. On the way home from said vacation, I threw my back out. Since then, I have spent 90% of my time in bed, since sitting and standing really make me hurt. Today, I'm sitting long enough to check my email and Facebook before heading back to bed. The doc told me to double up my meds and see if that helps. If not, it's looking like x-ray/MRI time again. (I had a similar problem back in '07). Nothing much besides exercise (gasp) will help, unfortunately.

As far as crafting goes, last week, I didn't do anything! Ugh. So much for crafting everyday. I think the extenuating circumstances allow for that slip. I have felt up to crafting this week. I am working on a second sock for my Little Man, who is healing quite well from his buckle fracture of two weeks ago. I've got to rip out the sleeves of The Girl's sweater and re-knit them bigger. Ugh. Hopefully, they should work back up pretty quickly, since they are girl sized and not my sized. The unfortunate thing is that I got the sweater all sewn together before I realized the sleeves were too small. :( I won't make that mistake on MY sweater. I plan on pinning the sleeves up and trying them on before I get that far.

Anyways, that's that. My weekend in Eureka was really great! I loved the shop and Franklin. He was very nice and I learned a lot. Enough to want to tackle a lace project, as soon as I get some better needles for that.

Okay, enough sitting for now. Time to take it easy and rip out the second sleeve. The weather's turning and The Girl needs her new duds. Until I can sit again..........