Grrr…

When… oh… when will I learn?!  Gauge, gauge, gauge.  I’ve knit with Elann’s Highland Wool quite a bit, and I love the stuff, but for some reason I’m not getting gauge with this color (Forest Glade Heather).  Actually, I’m liking the gauge I’m getting which is 21 sts to the inch.  I’ve always gotten 19 or 20 before with other colors.  At any rate, I’m going to have to rip and pull it out because 40″ is just not going to cut it for my man.  But take a look at that ribbing, eh???  I made the right choice in knitting with the same needle size and same number of sts for the ribbing as I am in the body.  I can’t imagine adding 43 sts to that!  So… onward.

I will be anxiously waiting for my order to arrive from Elann next week (hopefully).  Yesterday’s deal was too tempting for me to resist.  They offered up 1/2 pound bags of color coordinated samples for $24.  I bought a bag of the naturals/whites and a bag of the browns/beige’s or was it tans… dunno, but the plan is to use it to make a knock-off Ab Fab throw.  My living room colors are sagey browns and tans so it’ll be perfect.   I can not wait to see my goodies!!

I heard from Jeremy yesterday.  He got back to his post outside of Mosul only to be put back on a helicopter.  He’s moving to the center of the city now.  The vet and Army wife parts of me are telling me it’ll be okay.  He’ll be fine.   The mother in me is telling me I should have locked him up in a room and kept him while I had him.  I’m really struggling with this. 

On top of that we had a parent/teacher conference at the school yesterday for Daniel.  We’ve noticed him having a harder time of it the past couple of months and he has an appointment up in Würzburg next Wednesday.   Unfortunately, we don’t know if the new doctor has any experience with Asperger’s Syndrome.  He can’t continue on the Concerta because he’s stopped growing. He’s already anorexic skinny, but now he’s not growing in height either.  There’s also been a lot of problems with bullying at the school.  Daniel is a magnet for this already and he’s starting to realize he’s different and he’s being left out of things.  He’s rebelling and I’m really starting to worry.  We have some excellent social stories workbooks for him.  I had him do a chapter on friends yesterday just to see where he is.  It’s not like you can just sit him down and talk to him about it because he won’t share his feelings.  These workbooks are perfect because he writes much more easily than he can speak.  At any rate, the results broke my heart.  Before where he was completely unaware of being singled out, now he’s totally aware of it and it’s hard for him.  He turns 11 in July, so I know part of it is just normal pre-teen stuff, but the Asperger’s puts a whole other twist on it.  I’m really anxious to get to NY.  We’ve been told that the support there is outstanding and there’s a lot of knowledge in the area we’ll be.  Thank God because we’ve always been pretty much alone and I’m so tired of trying to make people understand.  With something like Down’s Syndrome, people know by sight something is wrong. With Autism kids look “normal” and people just don’t get it.  Hell, sometimes Dan and I don’t get it and it takes us a while to catch on to something going on in Daniel’s mind.   

Anyway, sorry about the venting.  I think I need to go knit….  See you on Monday.