Evil Eye

RIP Studs Terkel, Chicago is a richer place because you were a part of it.

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I came across this the other day and thought it was funny.  I’ve actually already enjoyed a lovely dinner and yummy birthday cake courtesy of my MIL, and tonight I am looking forward to birthday sushi, and tomorrow dinner with my brother and his girly.  I normally spend more time anticipating my birthday and halloween celebrations, but this year it snuck up on me.  I guess I have been distracted by the little guy who just spit up on me.  I thought I would be a little blue missing out on halloween activites this year, but that has not been the case at all, in fact, I feel very content, although I feel a little bad I have not put decorations up outside.

Now, if you will excuse me, the kid and I need a change of clothes.

Sometimes I decide to post to the blog, and my mind plays tug of war with where to start.

I’ll start with YarnCon.  Hooray for a successful event!  I love creative people, they are so invigorating to be around, and we had no shortage at YarnCon.  The vendors and visitors were wonderful!  I wish I could have been at the admission table and wandering around both rooms at the same time!  There wasn’t a single vendor I did not want to buy something from, and enjoyed meeting them all, however briefly.  Our volunteers were fantastic, and really helped make the day run smoothly.

hmm… I feel all warm and fuzzy thinking about how great Saturday was, which makes me not want to go onto the other topic that was on my mind, but I will anyway.  We need to have some repairs made to the house, gutters and tuckpointing.  We already had the parapet rebuilt earlier this summer, and we’re really happy with the masons we are working with.  I had good luck with people coming out to give us estimates for the brick work, and the people who came out spoke to me like an adult who can understand what is going on (I had a great conversation about using age appropriate brick and mortar on a hundred year old house with the guy who gave us the winning estimate.)  So what is up with getting someone to come out for gutter work?  And, I finally get one company to send someone out for an estimate, and he has the audacity to tell me that he could tell me more about the work they do, but I wouldn’t understand it.  Argh!  Few things get under my skin than that kind of talk.  Would have told Scott about it?  Would he have spared him the chit-chat about having lots of kids?  I was just checking out the welding seam (it was a little sloppy) on a custom gutter in his truck when he tells me I wouldn’t understand his work.  What makes me angrier?  That I didn’t tell him off.  I just became curt and was done with him.  I dislike confrontation, but I also dislike feeling like I should have said something.  Would it have made a difference?

We’re back from a wonderful weekend spent in the woods with our dear friends.  It was much easier to camp with an infant than I had expected, but I am sure that is in part because I had so much support from Scott and any number of people who couldn’t wait to hold Victor.  We were very cozy in our new tent, which felt huge to me, but gave us plenty of room for sleeping and changing the baby.

Victor, freshly changed, rocking his Ramones onsie.

As usual, the time went far too quickly, and I am already thinking about going back in the Spring, and how different Victor will be by then.

Hey all, I have a few minutes until Victor decided he wants to eat again. Before I go any further, I know you want to see the little guy, so here he is, Victor Elvis:

Pretty cute, eh? He was born on July 30th, at 1:40am. He is a healthy, content little baby.

It was a long labor, my water broke on Monday night at 10:25pm, right after my first contraction. He had already passed meconium into the amniotic fluid, so I knew I would not get to stay at home until the contractions got closer together. We went to the hospital, and I was in triage for a while and I was admitted into the delivery room at about 1:30am on Tuesday morning. My contractions would get closer together, and then there would be a gap before the next round. This went on for hours, and in the meantime my cervix was just not cooperating. I had already been dilated 1cm for about 3 weeks, and after around 12 hours (I think, I have to admit I was not looking at the clock) I was still only just past 2cm. It had been suggested earlier that I consider augmenting the labor with Pitocin, and I asked that we wait a while and see if my contractions became regular. We did wait, and to no avail, so I agreed to the Pitocin, but not to the epidural. I now understand why Pitocin and epidurals go hand in hand, the contractions become brutal. But, I did my breathing exercises as best I could with guidance from a wonderful nurse, and Scott. Whenever I started to become overwhelmed, he would quietly remind me to relax my muscles and breath slowly, which is just what I needed. I wasn’t always able to relax, but more often than not his reminders did the trick. This went on and on until about 11:30pm Tuesday night. Again, I am not sure about the time. At this point I was dilated and needed to start pushing. I could feel his head pushing against my pelvis, and could hardly stand it. The delivery part of this affair took around 2 hours. It is amazing how many doctors and nurses fill the room at this stage. They all are ready to go into action as soon as the baby is born, but in the meantime, many of them are just waiting and cheering you on. I had a whole team around me guiding me through the pushing, including Scott who was standing to my right, quietly encouraging me on, and thank goodness, I felt like I didn’t know what I was doing, which, well, I didn’t. I really hit a point where I was very worried I could not pull it off, but they kept right on talking me through it until he was born. I can’t even begin to the describe the feeling when they guided his head out and then his shoulders. I went from having firmly decided that this was an only child to feeling like I could do it again, which still seems crazy to me.

Because he had passed the meconium, they did have to whisk him away to the little table in the room with the warming light to clean and examine him, since there was concern he had aspirated some of the meconium and there is danger of infection, plus he was breathing pretty fast I seem to remember. But before long, they decided he was ok, and Scott finally was willing to leave my side to go see him. All the while I had delivered the placenta, and was being cleaned out, and stitched up, while watching them tend to Victor across the room.  Then, finally, they handed him to me, and he latched right on.

He was born at 1:40am on Wednesday. Whew! He was cute from the start. He wasn’t wrinkly or red, just plain cute. I guess that 41st week in the womb did the trick.

We came home on Thursday evening. They had already discharged Victor, but they waited a little longer with me, since my blood pressure had dropped over night, but was already normal by morning. It was a really long labor, so I guess they had their concerns. I am still feeling pretty sore, but I am healing up well. Our family has been taking very good care of me.

So, we’re a little family of 3 people and 2 cats now. The cats have been very good around the kid, they sniff him from time to time, but leave him alone, and they hang out with us as usual. We’ve been sure to give them lots of attention, so they haven’t been jealous. Other than needing to get more sleep, we’re doing well, and getting the hang of things. I am enjoying being able to sleep on my back, wear pants, even if they are still maternity pants, and my shoes fit again. We have supportive families and friends who we love. I have a healthy little baby, and a husband who is a natural father, and just amazing. I don’t have words for what he means to me.

Welcome to the world Victor. I can’t wait to see who you become.

I hardly know what to say in response to the generosity and kindness I have been shown, other than, of course, thank you. In the last few days I have been given 2 baby showers. The first, on Saturday, was hosted by Sara and Brandy, with the help of Lane and Dan. We had a wonderful time surrounded by family and friends, ate tasty food, and enjoyed a sunny (and windy) day outside. They were kind enough to not subject me to the traditional baby shower games, for which I am eternally grateful! Later on we went inside and lounged in Sara and Lane’s apartment and opened up the beautiful gifts. This kid is going to start out life surrounded by some seriously cute and thoughtful stuff.

Then, to my complete surprise, another party was thrown for me at the South Side Stitch n’ Bitch! I knew Karen was coming with a lovely blanket she crocheted for me:

But I had no idea that everyone was planning such a lovely surprise for me. And, can I tell you how impressed I am at how well they know me? For example:

Wow!  I should have kept taking pictures, more people and food kept coming, but once I sat down with a piece of that cake, and some chocolate covered strawberries, I settled down into a happy place.  Dude, the cake had layers of cajeta!  But most of all, I am really touched that my friends wanted to do this for me and the baby that we haven’t even met yet, it really means the world to me.

Whew, World Wide Knit in Public Day was already a week ago, I can hardly believe it! We had at least 93 people gathered in Millennium Park to knit, crochet, spin, swap yarn, and donate yarn, needles and books to Interim House. The weather was outstanding, and although we overwhelmed security, I think I can safely say that a great time was had by all, well, except maybe security.

You can read more about it at the YarnCon Blog, which Sara and I maintain. In fact, please head over there and read about how you can contribute to the shipping costs for all of the wonderful yarn, needles and books collected that day. It is way too much for any one of us to ship out, and we can really use your help.

Just look at all that stuff!

Or, you can donate from the comfort of this very blog! Just click on the donate button (or PayPal text since I can’t seem to get the button to show up here):

I don’t even know where to start. Yarn School was an amazing experience. I left with new knowledge, inspiration, fiber, and friends. I have been more excited than ever to sit at my spinning wheel and try out new techniques (I am really enjoying spinning silk from the fold, and just used up my sample. Need…more…silk…), and can hardly decide which fiber to try next. There is the stuff I dyed in the dying workshop, there are the copious samples we were given from different dyers and spinners when we arrived, plus the batts I made when trying out the drum carders. Plus, once I decide what to spin, I get to think about how I want to spin it! I’m the one who is spinning!

Nikol Lohr, the teachers, and helpers were amazing. I was feeling a little star-struck about getting to take classes from Adrian from Hello Yarn, and Sarah from Maisy Day Handspun. I’ve been admiring their yarn, and reading their blogs for some time now. Not only do they make fabulous yarn and dyed roving, they are really good teachers, which in my opinion is much harder than just being good at something. Yarn School takes place in an old rural high school, with the grade school serving as the dormitory. It’s a great setting, and we had so much space to work and play in. We had access to fiber, and tools all the time, room to just hang out and practice our new skills or just relax and knit. They also did not mess around when it came to meals, the food was great! Every morning started out with good coffee, and a pitcher full of fresh waffle batter next to a waffle iron! How fresh is that? I wish I had taken more pictures in the cafeteria, but I was sleepy and/or hungry upon arrival, and ready to go do the next thing after meals, so I didn’t think of it then.

Here is a small sample of the pictures I did take, plus a picture of me spinning, and the class picture, both taken by John Wise, and I will leave it at that for now. I wish was more articulate about how great a time I had, but too many thoughts are coming to me at once.

Hey kids, I am off for a few days to learn all about yarn at Yarn School!  I’ve been busy taking pictures of inventory for Evil Eye for a new and improved website, and spinning the last of the mystery roving I won at the Michigan Fiber Festival last year (woo-hoo!).  Not to mention the fun a couple of weeks ago at the Bobmas Eve parties.

I’ll be back with yarny knowledge and pictures, of course.

Sara has posted the Bobmas Eve celebrations taking place in Chicago over on our YarnCon Blog, so please stop by and check it out. It looks like it will be a lot of fun, and I hope I can make it to a few of the events that evening.

This week Yarn Market News held its first conference, and Sara and I were given the opportunity to attend, and moderate a panel on e-commerce. Shannon Okey was scheduled to be the moderator, but was unable to make it, and we were able to step in for her. On the panel were Rob from ThreadBear Fiber Arts Studio, and Betsy Perry from Classic Elite Yarns. It was interesting to hear their thoughts on how they use the internet to promote their respective businesses, and the relationships they build through the use of e-newsletters. In neither case do they have online stores, yet both make good use of their web-pages and newsletters to promote their businesses and keep people informed of what they have to offer. I have never even been to ThreadBear, but I have been well aware of their store for years. There is no store in the case of Classic Elite Yarns, but again, I am familiar with their collections. We had to opportunity to speak about YarnCon, and how most of the connections we have made with vendors and the people who attended happened via the internet.

The show itself was very well run, and I would not have guessed it was their first conference. The panel discussions were great, as was the interaction with the audience. Sara and I came away with all kinds of ideas and plans for YarnCon, and many new contacts. I can’t thank Shannon Okey enough for thinking to ask us when she was looking for someone to cover for her, and Karin Strom of Yarn Market News for asking us to stay for the rest of the panels.

We also ran into the always charming Franklin again during the conference. We also saw him the previous week at the Windy City Knitting Guild meeting, where he was taking pictures for his 1000 Knitters Project. He took his 500th picture that night! How exciting! He was at it again during the conference. I always love the chance to talk to Franklin, and I can’t wait to see the results of this project. I love the pictures I have seen on his blog so far.

On another topic, still relating to yarn, I thought I would give props to Lantern Moon for great customer service. I have a set of size 2 double pointed needles in rosewood that I really like. And I sat and one and broke it. I was sad, but since it was my fault, I didn’t think to do anything about it for a while. I read on Ravelry that someone contacted Lantern Moon about replacing a broken needle, and they did right away at no additional cost. I emailed them, and right away they got back to me and said to either exchange it at the store, or if I could not get to the store easily, to give them my address and they would send me a new set. Wow! I now have a full set of the DPNs again, thanks Lantern Moon! (I actually sat next to the president of Lantern Moon on Tuesday, and had to smile when I pulled out the little Lantern Moon bag I carry my knitting in, honestly, it was like being around yarny rock stars sometimes.)