Quilts by Mimi

Mimi is what my mother's grandkids call her. Sometimes Adrian gets mixed up and says "Mimimommy" or "Momimimi."

My mom quilts. A lot. My favorites are the ones that tend to not follow rigid patterns, like this one with butterflies on it:



The butterflies came from a print fabric that she cut into pieces. You can't see the quilt stitchery in this photograph, unfortunately, but it's really amazing. This one is about 7" by 5" in size.

But she also made this hilarious quilt using photo-print-fabric (!). These are all pictures from Adrian's first year:



The one in the middle with him in yellow was taken in the NICU while we were packing him up to come home. This one is hanging on the wall in Adrian's room now (soon to be the "boys' room" since they're going to share a bedroom).

4.5 weeks to go!

--Katie Rose

A Small Milestone

Long-time readers may remember that I had some trouble getting pregnant with my son, Adrian.

That was no fun.

Slightly less long-time readers may remember that Adrian then decided to come 6 weeks early and had to spend a week in the NICU.

That was hell, by the way.

Here's me, still IV'd up from delivery, visiting my baby despite the wires and tubes and my achey body.



I don't want to go through that again.

Today, Thursday, I'm 34 weeks and 5 days pregnant, and I'm officially past the day when Adrian was born (on 34 weeks, 4 days). I feel like I've passed a major milestone.

Of course, Adrian turned out fine, but having my water break so early when I just stood up from my desk and everything that followed after was so traumatic that I'm grateful to have even one more day being pregnant with Edward.

(I'm due in just over 5 weeks. My mother says that it'll serve me right to have Edward come a week late.)

-Katie Rose

Here's Another One

Some context: I live in the south.

I was walking through Duke Hospital on my way to my OB appointment today, and a man stepped in front of me and stopped me with this amazed expression on his face, and said:

"Wow. You're all baby!"

[Sounds like: Wow! Yur awl bay-bee.]

Then he said, "Keep it up, girl!" And walked on down the hall.

His joy was hard to argue with. Plus that's a great compliment--because I think he was meaning that I'm not a fat tub (like I was with my first baby).

However, his flagrant study of my body kind of creeped me out. I mean, can you imagine if this sort of thing happened if I weren't pregnant? Like, "Wow, you're all legs!"??

(Oh wait, that would mean his was talking to my sister.)

Quick Observation

When you ask a pregnant woman, "When are you due?" and she answers, "Seven weeks from now," do NOT reply with this:

"Are you sure?"

Yes. I'm sure. I'm also aware that I'm completely enormous, so you don't need to point that out, even if only by implication.

More Professor than Knitty - Funny Exam Answer

Some of these circulated on my departmental email list back in grad school. These are hilarious, creative answers to exams. As a professor, I can really appreciate some of these answers, and I hope the teachers that received them appreciated them, too.

Since most teachers are awesome, I'm sure that they did.

Here's one:

From Funny Exam Answers

Click on the album link below to see the rest:

Funny Exam Answers

Last Winter's Sweaters

I was on a roll.

I knit a sweater for and for Michael each winter. And then this winter came 'round and guess what?

No sweaters. Whatever.

So, instead of sharing with you the great sweaters I knit for us this year, here's a picture of the sweaters I knit for us last year.



Mike is wearing his Gamekeeper (my Pattern). I'm wearing my Tenley (Jordynn's Pattern).

Adrian is wearing a big white pompom on his head. Because all babies should.

It was a big snow day here in the south, and we walked over to Whole Foods for breakfast. Adrian threw three pounds of Cheerios onto the floor, and the guy there was like, "That's okay! I don't mind sweeping up after kids!" Seriously?

Where Did January Go?

Does anyone else out there feel like January was the Incredible Disappearing Month? I just sat down to write in my journal--I try to write nearly every day--and my last entry was LAST WEEK. I was like, what? A whole week, poof? Yes. Poof.

Part of it has to do with how busy my husband is right now. He's a live event producer, specializing in lighting and rigging (that silver truss stuff that hangs from ceilings that all the lights and speakers clamp on to). So, when he has a huge show, like he does this weekend, I'm basically a single mom for a week. Then Adrian got the barfies, and there went Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

Awesome.

One more question: Any other pregnant knitters out there? Anyone else feel like every sweater they knit (while pregnant) makes you look like a cow? I do. Because, well, I kind of AM a cow. It's cool, it's worth it, but I don't recommend an Aran weight pullover right now. It's not going to look cute and snuggly.

I'm thinking it's time for a new shrug or shawl. Shrugs are cute on pregnant bellies. Hmm...

I did knit a shawl back in October:



Moire-effect color-changes, crocheted picot edging, top-down triangle...it's pretty great actually. And I gave it to my sister-in-law, so the only pictures I have are ones I took when she was here. She wore this for weeks while her mother was dying, because it was perfect shawl weather around here.



When Mary died, I just gave it to her. This one should be a free pattern, too. I think I'll call it Morning.

That's two patterns I owe you now--the sweater pillow and the morning shawl. Perhaps in February. (Isn't that a short month?)

--Katie Rose