My mother-in-law has ovarian cancer. We found out last night. She starts chemo today.

Being true to my tendency to do things on a large scale, I have a list of knitting I’d like to do for her.

An Esther Williams hat in something soft and delightful. What I like about this hat as a chemo hat is that the scalloped edge is feminine and I think it’s a softer way to frame a face with no hair than a straight line or smooth edge.

A small neck scarf that buttons around the neck and lays on the upper chest for warmth. (I have design ideas playing around in my head already). My mother-in-law is always cold, even when she isn’t sick and a small scarf like that really helps. However, I don’t know in what way chemotherapy makes you feel icky. Maybe having something around her neck will be irritating? I’ll let her decide.

Fingerless mitts. I know that the man I knit a hat and mitt combo for when he was in the hospital with cancer really appreciated them.

Warm socks, however I’m not going to tackle that on my own. I’ll ask her if she wants them, and what she’d want. Slipper socks, sock weight/normal socks, thick and cushy lounging socks….

Finally, a Log Cabin Lap Blanket. I’ve always loved the pictures I’ve seen of these, but haven’t yet had reason enough to knit that much garter stitch. The neat thing about this blanket is that I think the girls would want to help, and this seems like a great blanket to have them help with. Plus, it can be cheery and colorful in a way that wearable items can’t be. At least, I can’t see my mother-in-law wearing something overly colorful. She likes blue. And blue is mellow.

So, that’s what I’ve got swirling around in my brain. I don’t know how many colors to get for the blanket, how much of each color, how to arrange them, whether or not I actually NEED the pattern or if I can figure it out on my own. It doesn’t look hard… What do you think?

Her prognosis is good. She said that they said that it is very treatable.

I’m loving the semi-solid sock yarn.

They’re really, really pretty. I hope you can see the pattern. We are, of course, looking at it upside down again, so maybe you can’t tell they’re flowers.

I’ve discovered that this stitch pattern isn’t really an “in the round” pattern. All of the stitches eventually get sucked into a decrease, so there’s no place for one round to end and another to begin that doesn’t evaporate eventually. I’m having to be creative now that we’re to the leg and have to knit the lace all the way around. But I have an idea.

Something weird… while my Arctic Wolf socks are warm, I can still feel a little air moving through the lace as I walk around. It’s going to take some getting used to because it feels wrong, knowing you’re wearing a sock, to feel air woosh by. This flower sock has even more lacy holes.

I was up with Max from 12:45 am to 3 am and then again at 6:15. I’m sooooo tired. If this continues, we’re probably going to start making red-eye trips to the grocery store, because the car will definitely put him to sleep.

The time of year when Nate calls a bunch of people together to go to the church and carve pumpkins.

It was fun. I did nothing but show up and talk to people.

I didn’t even take the pumpkin pictures this year, because it’s pretty much impossible to keep still enough to get a no-light picture that isn’t blurry when you’ve got a baby in a sling attached to the front of you and you’re squatting in a dark parking lot. So Nate did it. He did a great job. I am impressed.

Here’s our annual blog-post-of-pumpkin-pictures. How many years has it been now?

And here’s Nate’s…

If you’re reading this, Cassie, I’m not feeling as grinchy about Halloween this year as I normally do. You can be proud of me. And I love your spider skirt, btw.

If you’ve been around my blog since Clark was born, this next picture should look somewhat familiar, as I took a bunch similar back then. But this is Max, my little sling baby.

I am to the gusset on both of the socks in my next pair. I haven’t taken a picture of them yet, so I’ll try to knit some more on them today and get a picture for you tomorrow.

They’re really nice.

And we’re waiting to hear today as to whether or not I have another chemo cap to knit in my immediate future. Please keep our family in your prayers if you’re one that prays.

Thanks.

On to the next! But first, here are some pictures.

They are fabulously comfortable. Nothing fits like a custom knit sock! In the pictures, they look like they’re stretched a bit tight, and they’re not at all. My Goldfish socks are tighter, a bit snug in fact, but only when putting them on. I’m going to have to get creative with the next pair, since it’s a similar stitch as the Goldfish socks with the same stitch count, to make it fit more like the wolf socks.

I’m about done with the Arctic Wolf socks. I ripped out the bind off and changed the cuff around a few times to get it right. I then had to try to take a decent picture of my own foot, showing the sock right side up without the angle being all weird and vertigo inducing.

I did my best.

So, tell me… Do you like the ears/picot bind off?

Or should I just bind off smooth/normal? I think I like them, but I might just be so proud of myself for succeeding in getting them lined up and not rolling that I’m biased. I had to modify the picots a few times to get them the right size, and I added a purl stitch in the middle of the top of the wolf’s head to keep the cuff laying flat. I like the effect though.

Veronica has been sick, so she hasn’t been able to hold Max much. This has been a source of great distress to her. Yesterday morning I thought she was healthy enough, and we had some extra time before school, so I handed him to her. She was very happy.

And we may have made a happy discovery for Nate. Babies seem to like soft, squishy chests to sleep on. Max is no exception. If he’s happily asleep on my chest, and I hand him off to Nate, he tends to squirm and fuss ’til he wakes up. So last night, I suggested Nate use one of the couch’s throw pillows as a cushion. It worked like a charm.

He stayed content and asleep like that ’til we went to bed. So cute.

Abigail’s home sick again. Not a head cold this week. She has a fever (though doesn’t feel hot to me) and allover body aches. And a sore throat. So the doctor’s office wants me to bring her in so they can swab for Strep Throat. I’m not anxious to haul a newborn and toddler into a doctor’s office with all the germs flying around now. And seriously, if I ran to the doctor every time someone had a sore throat, (like I was told I’m supposed to by the nurse today), we’d go in 30 times a year! So I’m not sure what we’re going to do.

Procrastinate for now.

So, I’m trying on my socks to take a picture for the blog

when, out of nowhere…

WHAT??????

How in the WORLD did that happen??? And why did I not see it before now???

14 repeats back. Times four rows per repeat makes it… 56 rounds I’d need to rip out to fix this enormous hole. OR, I could attempt surgery.

I thought I was so brilliant with the paperclips. They turned out to be completely unnecessary. Here we are, almost done.

The hole is fixed, but I didn’t get an “after” picture. It wasn’t nearly as difficult to fix as I thought it would be. I’m just happy I don’t have to rip and reknit 56 rounds of sock. I’m quite ready to start the next pair, and am anxious to get these off the needles and onto my feet.

I’m sick. Again. Sinus infection. Again. I wasn’t done coughing from my last cold.

Please, oh please let the baby stay healthy, and let me get over it quick.

Abby went back to school today, and Veronica is home sick. She has a low fever. If she has something different, and I catch that too, well, I’m going to throw a tantrum. ‘Cause, you know, those are so productive.

Last night was NOT a good sleeping night. Four, 1 1/2 hour bits of sleep are not equal to two, 3 hour bits of sleep. And I only got three. We sort of skipped the sleeping part between the last two feedings.

Fortunately, I don’t have to go anywhere today.

Yesterday went really well, btw. It wasn’t ’til dinnertime that I got overly tired, and that’s probably only because Nate was at a meeting and couldn’t be home to help.

At preschool/playgroup (it’s very informal), Clark made a pumpkin. He’s unbelievably proud of it.

He carries it all over the house, slept with it last night, and hasn’t shown the slightest interest in eating the candy. His sisters are a different story.

I didn’t get to knit yesterday. The one opportunity I had was put to better use in a quick nap, tho’ it was a tough decision. But I’m trying to be responsible. Hopefully today…

So, what do you think? Do these look like wolf heads to you?

Yesterday, Max was one week old. I took a picture. Well, lots of pictures, actually because he was awake and really cute.

We slept decent. He woke up right as I was trying to go to bed, and was very awake (which is when I got the pictures), so I didn’t get to sleep ’til about midnight. Then, he woke up at 12:30 and I wanted to die. However I got back to sleep a bit after 1 am, and we got 3 hours, 45 minutes of feeding, then another 3 hours.

Not too bad.

Abby is home sick today. I have to take Clark to preschool this morning and Max to the pediatrician. Our carpool is busy this afternoon, so I also get to pick up the girls from school. And there’s a school meeting tonight that either Nate or I have to be at. I’m going to do my absolute best to rest in between.

I have one sock done to the heel turn, and the other 1/3 of the way there. I’m referring to these as the “arctic wolf” socks. I know they don’t need a name, but the stitch pattern ended up looking like wolf heads to me, and the color could be glacial runoff. I think. Anyway, it sounds better than Caribbean Wolf socks. Or Bahama Wolf socks. But I’m open.

Max was due yesterday. I took a picture.

And started a sock.

I also forgot to send Nate to the store for diapers this morning. Clark is blissfully unaware that he’s wearing THE LAST ONE!!!

I do not feel equal to loading up the boys and heading to the store today, if for no other reason than the mere thought of stuffing my newly lactating self into a bra is more than I can bear.

And I have a headache, am really tired, and am still not coping well with noise and crowds.

Which brings me to something kind of funny.

I had the most surreal experience at the dinner table last night. I felt like I was in a movie. I was really tired, and every single noise seemed magnified to the extreme. I was distinctly cognizant of every. single. sound. Each time Nate’s spoon hit the bottom of his bowl. The little wooden chair Clark was casually kicking under the table as it scraped slowly across the wood floor. Every single mouth as it chewed sounded like there was a microphone in front of it. The slurping. The breathing. The bread crumbs as they hit the table around the bowls.

It drove me insane.

I hope my energy comes back soon.