Knitting Progress

Since it is taking me so long to finish my projects, I decided to show my progress.

First the sock:

I realized that what I like about knitting is novelty and challenge. I started the ribbing which was supposed to be 8 inches long and quickly stopped once I got a good handle of knitting with 4 needles. I figured that the top of the sock could be short and I was excited to start knitting the heel. Now that I am done with the heel and that I have to knit 7 inches in the round non stop...it is taking me a long time to finish. I found the pattern at Kristin's blog.

Now the sweater:

I started with the back

The front was supposed to be like the back, 6 rows of Seed Stitch at the bottom and a V-neck in seed stitch, but the rest was supposed to be plain. As I mentioned previously, I like novelty so I decided to make random columns of seed stitch throughout. It made it more fun to knit.

Close-up of the seed stitch rows.

And finally the sleeves. As soon as I finished my first sleeve my Mother-in-law mentioned that I should have knitted them both at the same time. I'll definitely keep this in mind next time. I just need to finish the last sleeve, and put it together.

I found this pattern in The Yarn Girl's Guide to Simple Knits. An awesome project for a first project. I'll post a picture of me wearing it as soon as I am done.

First Package!

I just want to write an entry to thank my SP with all my heart. She sent me an awesome package. There was a pattern for a felted hat and all the yarn necessary to knit it. A knitting book, and a Childbirth book! I am so excited about all of it.

I think that my posting will slow down for a while as a family member is sick (read really sick.) I even thought about dropping out of Secret Pal 9, but I need something happy to look forward to and participate in.

Update on Volunteerism

So Nice Nurse called back on Friday and I set up my training for last night (I have a gmail account with Gmail notifier installed on my computer, so that everytime someone writes to me I know about it RIGHT AWAY coz I'm psycho like that. So when Nice Nurse replied to my e-mail telling me to call her back to schedule the training and I called her back 2 minutes later I think that she kind of freaked!) I went in last night, and of course, there were only 3 babies who needed to be screened.

Young Nice and Pregnant Nurse was training me and it was a lot of fun. It was a little nerve racking to have the parents of a 2 hour old baby stared at you while you hook the baby up and are sweating your butt off partly because you are right by a warmer, and partly because well you have no idea what you are doing.

I signed up to go back on Thursday and Husby is not too happy about that....I had said that I would go only once a week because it is kind of far, and now that I don't have to run to school every night it's nice to spend time with Husby, but I don't feel like I had a chance to really do anything yesterday....still bargaining on this one without trying to look like I am this obsessive freak!

As far as Big Brothers Big Sisters goes, I had my interview today, and the case worker told me that he's hoping that I'll be matched before Thanksgiving! I am excited and nervous about that. I am looking forward to making a difference in a child's life, I just hope that I get along with that child...I'll keep you updated!

Plenty of Volunteering

Before I graduated I thought that it would be a good thing to volunteer once I have the time. So when during the summer one of my co-workers invited me to a meeting about a non-profit organization, I happily went and have been volunteering for them ever since. The organization's name is the Baby Pantry. They work in collaboration with another organization, Healthy Start/Healthy Families (HS/HF), that is based in a local hospital:

Healthy Start/Healthy Families Oakland is an award winning fully-credentialed collaborative program that provides home visitation services for vulnerable families with infants and young children throughout Oakland County.

The Baby Pantry's role is to provide diapers to the families that are enrolled in the HS/HF program, because they can't be bought with food stamps, or through the WIC Program. I am happy to be involved in this, because it is a brand new endeavor, and we are getting a lot of donations, and we are making a difference.

I was also interested in participating in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program, and I have an interview on Monday!

But if you know anything about me, you know that my passion are pregancies, birth and babies. Well, I contacted a local midwife and offered my help to her. She explained that because of privacy issues she couldn't make me do any kind of clerical work in her practice, and she directed me to a local hospital. I called, and the very kind nurse in charge of volunteers thought that I could be a great candidate to volunteer in the Mother/Baby unit, administering hearing screening to newborns. I had my interview last Thursday, went to the doctors on Monday to get the tests on TB and Rubella which I got back yesterday, and now I am waiting for the nurse to call me back to schedule my training.

I am really excited about this because it will be a very hands on experience, and the babies are between 1 and 2 days old...how adorable is that. I'm hoping that the nurses are nice (the one I saw seemed nice when I went in for my interview) and maybe tell me more about what they think about their jobs and such...Hopefully the nurse will call back shortly!!