Today is the first day of October, the beginning of Down Syndrome Awareness Month.  It's the start of the 4th Annual 31 for 21 Blog Challenge.  I'm going to attempt, for the fourth year now, to blog everyday in the month of October.  I can't promise that every post will be about Down syndrome.  In fact, I'm sure most posts will be about knitting or regular life stuff.  Down syndrome just isn't everyday blog material here, which is how it should be. 

To start this month off, I thought I would introduce myself to new readers dropping by for the first time.  My blog traffic has jumped up over the past few days.  I'm sure that's a direct result of the release of my first pattern, the Holden Shawlette, on Ravelry.  If you're here from Ravelry, hi!  So happy you're here!  If you're here for the first time from the 31 for 21 blog list, hi!  So happy you're here! 

I'm Mindy.  I'm a 30-something stay at home mom living in the suburbs of Cincinnati.  I grew up in a super small town near Huntington, West Virginia.  I'm married to my college sweetheart.  We have two of the most awesome kids ever.  Liam will be 4 at the beginning of December.  Juliana will be 2 at the end of December.  Liam is the kid with an extra copy of the 21st chromosome.  He attends preschool in our local school district.  He's in a regular preschool classroom with no one on one aide.  All preschool classes in our district are mixed needs; half of the kids are on an IEP, half are "typical". 

I've been at home with kids since Liam was born.  I started dyeing yarn for my small Etsy shop in 2007.  Just recently, I started designing knitted items.  I also just started working for my local yarn shop.  I'll be working a couple days on the weekends here and there.  

I started blogging shortly after learning how to knit.  I'm a self-taught knitter, and this blog was a way for me to keep track of my projects and blather about knitting.  Over the years, I blogged a bit about life stuff.  Then Liam was born.  I blogged about Down syndrome in those early days with Liam.  Now, the blog is a combo of knitting and kids and sometimes a little randomness thrown in. 

I'm not too active in the online Down syndrome community.  I had a couple of really bad experiences and decided that I just wasn't going to interact with the online DS community.  I made a couple of good online friends, but I don't keep up with DS blogs or message boards.  Maybe this will be the year I talk about why I'm not always fond of the online DS community.  About how I'm a misfit.  Maybe.  We'll see.  I am very active here in Cincinnati.  I am the leader for the Butler/Warren satellite group of the DSAGC, and I'm a new parent mentor.

Anyway, if you're here for the knitting, you'll see some this month.  My current projects and my current designs will be making appearances.  If you're here for Down syndrome, you'll see the kids and some things about DS.  I try to keep the language clean, but I have a mouth like a sailor so I can't promise a G or PG-rated blog all the time.

Welcome to my little corner of the blog world.  Stay for a while.  Bring your knitting.