My First Knitted Sweater and a Prayer Request

Well, technically it's my 3rd knitted sweater.  When I was in 7th grade in 1965, one of our teachers stayed after school to teach some of us how to knit.  We each knitted a sleeveless shell.  I still have mine somewhere.  I learned to knit and purl from her, but not how to read a pattern, etc....  Since then the only things I've ever knitted have been scarfs and, recently, a few hats.  Then, just before I knitted this sweater, I knitted one that I threw away.  It might have worked for a very large stuffed animal.  Darn, I could have put it on the big bear that one of our girls has left here.  Oh well, it's too late now.

I think this will go to our 5 year old granddaughter.  I will probably embellish it some way or other.  I will take pictures if I do this.  Now, I'm working on another sweater that I think will fit the 3 year old.  It will be a cardigan, I hope.  I'm making it in pastels: yellow, green, and lavender.  Cross your fingers for me that it works and actually looks like a sweater when I finish.  I would like to make one for each grand.  I just don't know how long this will take. It may be summer time and they won't need them by then.  Maybe I should make them large enough to fit next year.


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Now, I would like to ask you for prayers for my brother.  If you've been a long time reader of my blog, you may remember that he had a hip replacement done in May.  In June he had a staph infection in that hip.  The drs. went back in, took out parts of the hip, cleaned them, drained gunk off his hip, etc...., and then put the hip parts back in.  He was then on an antibiotic IV drip for about 6 weeks.  He has been on an oral antibiotic since then.  In November, his blood work looked suspicious.  It looked better in December, though.  Last week his hip was hurting very badly.  He told the dr. who then scheduled a cat scan.  There were pockets of fluid which they drained, and cultured.  The staph infection is back in full force.  Now my brother has to go through another surgery, this time to remove the entire hip and replace it with a "dummy" hip which will excrete antibiotics.  He will have this "dummy" hip for at least 3 months, during which time he will be on a walker or in a wheelchair.  He will not be able to work or drive, etc.... Then, at the end of 3 months, if the infection is gone, they will go back in and put in a new hip.  He is very disheartened, as you can imagine.  He is concerned about the loss of income, the hardship this will put on his wife and son, the aggravation of not being able to do the things he normally does.  He will be stir crazy after a few days.  It scares me that the infection won't be cleared up this time, then what??????????  So, prayers please.