Everyone keep an eye out this fall for the new Storm Moon Knits colorway 'Peace and Love'. Rumor has it that all proceeds will be going to the 'Days End Horse Farm' in Woodbine, MD where Gabrielle had volunteered in the past. I cannot thank Storm Moon enough for all her love and support.

There will be a celebration of Gabrielle's life on Wed. June 11th at Grace Community Church in Fulton, MD at 2:30 pm. All are welcome!!!!!!!!!!

Gabrielle lost her fight with Severe Aplastic Anemia on Thursday June 5th at 11:30 am.

She was my best friend.

She will be forever loved and missed.

We have been in the PICU unit since Friday and things have not been good. As a matter of fact, they have been the opposite of good.

Please pray for my daughter.

There will be special prayers said at both services this Sunday at Grace Community Church in Fulton, MD at 9:15 and 11:15, where the entire church will be praying for my daughter. If you are in the area, please attend no matter what your denomination or religous background. This is the church my children and I call home, and they have been our lifeline. I couldn't possibly tell you all of the wonderful ways God has touched us through these wonderful people. Just know that you will feel amazingly welcomed and loved just for attending on this day.

Thank you all for lifting up my daughter and my family in prayer. I honestly believe it is the only reason that she is still with us.

Tonight starts the 7-10 day cycle of white blood cell transfusions.

We managed to avoid this step in mid April, yet here we are at the end of May doing exactly what we thought we wouldn't have to do. We are promised that this will be rough. These little buggers are the mean cells. We have been told to expect to go to PICU.

Ten weeks ago today I learned my daughter was in a hospital, and today she is no better than she was that first day. As a matter of fact, she would probably argue that she feels a lot worse. And she will feel a lot worse before the next 7-10 days are over.

Today was a whirlwind full of tests, many doctors, and a lot of tough choices. In the midst of it all came Miss Bonnie and her hubby with a lovely gift. I had no more than two blips of a second to say, "Thank You" and be wisked away to talk to two more people waiting to talk everything over with me as my daughter waited for me with three different machines beeping. Chaos.

Let me say thank you to not only Miss Bonnie for her wonderfully thoughtful presents, but to everyone that I never have more than that amount of time to thank. Please know that there is not one spare moment in my life at this hospital, and while I feel horrible that I cannot properly tell you all how wonderful your support is, I just do not have time away from the madness that is surrounding us. There is no down time. I am always hit at some time during a day how little time I have to thank everyone of you who have baked, prayed, driven, supported (emotionally and financially) my family and myself. I feel horrible that I can't thank you properly for the love you show us constantly. I also know that I cannot spend one less second than I am with my children, and thank yous are going to have to wait to be done properly. We are exhausted from how much time it takes to be sick at Hopkins. I am so done in I could not wake up to take my son to school yesterday. I have nothing left, and we are just starting on the tough part.

Thank you everyone. We cannot do this without your prayers and support!

Please forgive me for not answering phones and getting back to your kind messages, and in general being a walking posterchild of how not to be Emily Post. I really really wish I could let you know how beautiful you all are. I just can't right now.

Please please please pray for her the next 7-10 days!!! We can only pray that her medical team is doing what is best and this will eventually help to bring her home.

Happy knitting.

Due to my daughter now being told she has not one.. not two.. but three bugs in her blood now. Are we having fun yet? Since Monday we have maintained 104 degree temps and no medicine is bringing it down. All this adds up to more discussion of the possibility of white cell transfusion, a direction no one wants to go.

Since I am surrounded by chaos, my creative outlet is starting to reflect the insanity. I started knitting the 'Sock Yarn Blanket' yesterday. For those of you not in the knitting world, this means I have lost my ever lovin mind. I am knitting a full size blanket out of tiny yarn on tiny needles...because I can. It may take me the rest of my life, but hey.. why not.

I am a woman on the edge, I have knitting needles, and I am NOT afraid to use them.

Happy sane and normal knitting to the rest of you :-)

Originally uploaded by NittanyKnits

Lots of funny pictures of Detonator Socks are flying all over Ravelry. My son's photo of the socks I received are quite a hit, if not a little gross. The photo shoot of the sock I was knitting at the time of my elimination from Sock Wars, however, was up to me.

Having a lot less imagination than the twelve year old boy, I grabbed the first thing I could find that would signify that I was no longer in the battle. The fact that this Halloween decoration is the first thing that I saw that would work should tell you a little about the state of my living quarters right now. Why are my Halloween decorations still out and not packed away, you might ask yourself. In my defense, they were packed, the box just hasn't made it's way into my storage area yet.

The yarn is Tofutsie colorway 736, and I was somewhat sad to part with it. It would have been a great everyday sock. I tend to go with knitting the wilder colorways for my socks, so perhaps I need a couple Plain Jane socks.

On to hospital news. Yesterday, we found out what penicilin my daughter has a major reaction to. That was fun. Then today we found out that the pick line (that was put in place due to her central line getting a bacteria) has a bacteria. Fun. The doctors are pleased that she is not having as bad a reaction as last time, so they feel that she is making progress. We feel like we are in a hamster wheel that keeps bringing us back around to the same old issues. This brings us to another surgery, another fasting without food or water. Ick! She is still holding hope that she wil be out of here before the last dayof school on the 13th. Pray pray pray that this is also God's timeline.

Everyone heading out for the holiday, be safe. Happy Knitting!

I came home from meeting Miss Berger Beth on Monday night to see my 'Detonator Socks' from my Sock War 3 assassin sitting in my mail box. My son instantly had me do an artsy death picture with the socks that included ketchup, but I'll spare you all the image.

The socks are from a knitter in California. I can't find a blog for her or I would link you to her. Last year my 'Scar Socks' came from a knitter in Florida, and the first Sock Wars 'Sock of Doom' came from England.

Tomorrow I'll show you what my socks in progress looked like before they got sent off to California to be finished. I started another pair for myself since this is the first Sock Wars that I did not get to finish at least one pair before getting eliminated from the competition. I am making this next 'Detonator Sock' out of the Step yarn that contains aloe. It looks so different than the Tofutsie yarns since it has chunky stripes instead of the Monet like marbeling effect. I think it looks like a completely different pattern, so I'm glad I decided to make them.

Today is the anniversary of Sir Arthur Conan Doyal's birthday, so go knit yourself a mystery pattern. Happy Knitting!