She Hate Handknits...

I think it's one of my life's cruel ironies that none of the people I live with likes my hand knits.

I've been saying for a while now how much my daughter despises what I make for her. I think it's become kind of a joke, and frankly, I'm not sure anyone took me all that seriously. I would lament at knit night...well, not so much lament as just state the fact...that I can't get within two feet of her with a garment that I've toiled over long and hard. Example; I knit her a cute little cropped ballet bolero for her birthday which she refused to put on, even for a photo. Believe me, I begged, I pleaded, I bribed. No dice. I was relating this story to the other moms who came to little A's birthday party this past March with their little ones and once I was out of the room, they tried their hand at getting her into it. As I was fussing over the cake, I heard a wail come from the living room. I return to investigate, only to find three sheepish looking grown women who are giggling and admit to me they tried to put the sweater on her themselves.

One of the theories proposed for her strong opposition at my knitting group when discussion of this has come up is that I ruined her by bringing her home from the hospital in cashmere. I set the bar too high. I keep trying though.



I mistakenly thought that smooshy bubble gum pink knee socks would win her over. As you can plainly see, I was sorely mistaken. If looks could kill, etc. etc.

I have to admit, this breaks my heart a little bit. And it doesn't stop with things I've knit for her. She's actually yelled at me to take things off that I've knit for myself. I was proudly parading my most recent FO, the shawl from the previous post and she stood in the middle of the hallway, little pointer finger firmly extended and barked, 'No Mommy. You take that off.'

Did I mention she's a bit of a bossy pants? Last night at dinner she's eating her spaghetti and had eaten up all of her fresh grated parm cheese. She turns to me, brow furrowed, hands on hips and demands, in no uncertain terms, 'I want more cheese.' Oh yeah? Well, I want a million dollars. Lets see how likely either of us is to get what we want.

I shouldn't say that no one here likes my hand knits. My husband has worn the hat I've made him a few times, goes straight for the hand knit socks when he's feeling sick (he says they make him feel better) and did admire the felted slippers, but found they didn't fit very well and have since been abandoned. And I bet if Hank weren't a walking sweater himself, he would gladly and proudly wear anything I made for him. That's the story I'm telling myself at least.

Anyhow, back to the pink socks. So inspired to finish the second one at this point. I've asked her if she would help me out with modelling some recent FO's. We'll see how that photo shoot turns out.

Until later...

Gripped...

As a knitter or crafter, does this ever happen to you? A project seizes you, sinks it's teeth in and won't let go? Well, I give you such a project.



I give you...the Shaelyn Shawl (pattern name, not mine). A friend (Chicken Betty) sent me a big 'ol bag of fibre, it sat in my craft closet until I obtained a spinning wheel, I spun it all up into a scrummy two ply yarn then let it marinate for a while until I found the perfect project.



Once I found the right pattern, the yarn started to call for me. It started out as a whisper, grew to a dull hum and ended up being a loud annoying, nagging sound that would not leave me be. And once I did cast on, I quite literally could not put it down. The pattern called for five repeats of the lace pattern and I had intended to do ten, but at a certain point I realized that I needed my life back. That and I needed to lay off the muscle relaxers. Whether it was the yarn itself or my obsessive nature, this shawl caused me pain.

S'okay though, because people, I am smitten. It's one of those projects where I keep looking at it and going, 'Really? I made that? From like, scratch?' I spun the damn yarn for crissakes. Next stop; sheep shearing. I've caught the bug.

Now I'm watching MasterChef and it's making me hungry. Until later...

All Good Things...

I've been sick for about a month. Which made me very cranky. Very, very cranky. I try not to spread the cranky around. It's no one else's problem that I'm so damn cranky, that's my philosophy (doesn't always translate to husbands though). So just like the movie Groundhog Day where we learned the little pearl of wisdom, 'don't drive angry', I try not to blog cranky. Hmmm...maybe that's why I blog so little anymore. *pause to consider this thought*

Recently though, the sun has finally come out and I've been able to get outside and enjoy our epic deck (it really is depic...have I ever told you about the deck?) and I haven't been cold enough for sweaters or mittens or any sort of wooly, layering type clothing at all. As a matter of fact, yesterday I got half a sunburn. Yes, only the right half of me is burnt. I was sitting partially under the table umbrella, engrossed in the fact that it was the middle of the day and everyone was sleeping (the toddler because she's growing, the husband because he got called out twice the night before and didn't get home till 9am) and I had, what felt like, the whole world to myself. Just me, the sun, the birds and my sock.

As I sat there in my little reverie, it occurred to me, without overstating this too much, that despite how utterly craptacular I've been feeling lately and how focused on that I've been, I've got an awful lot to be grateful for and most of the time, without even realizing it, dreams really come true.

When we bought this ramshackle, run-down, sad, sorry, ugly stepsister of a house four years ago, all I saw beyond the cobwebs and the dust and OhEmGee the dirt was potential. I saw my dream house. Wasn't hard for it to live up to that standard. At that time, my dream house was just a place to call our own. Check. As we started to clear away the cobwebs and sweep up the dirt (and tear down plaster and rip out lath and sand floors and put up drywall and paint and paint and paint), my visions started to take shape and slowly over time, I've seen them materialize into concrete reality.

And it has been slowly. So slowly that it really drives me bonkers some days. But then we have a day, like the other day, where we finish up something, or get it to a point where you can allow yourself to get excited about the fact that maybe sooner than you thought, it really will be finished.

See, our kitchen has this big picture window. In front of that window sits my little kitchen table and chairs. Outside that window used to be the rotten and punky deck that was hideous and unsafe and really only good for going back and forth to the shed. I used to sit at my kitchen table and dream about the day when we'd have a nice deck, one that wasn't terrifying, and when I could look out that window across to the wall of the shed and instead of seeing bare plywood, I'd see siding and in front of that, container gardens full of kitcheny goodness; herbs, tomatoes, small veg. That sort of thing.




Well, there's the deck at the end of summer 2010...(kitchen window over by the 'chimney')


...and from the scraps of decking etc., the constable built me the first of three container gardens to sit across from my kitchen window. His own design, which all in all was rather ingenious. It's on casters so I can roll them around (since they are rather big and heavy) and there is storage underneath with doors on the opposite side so all of my gardening crap is right there where I need it.



T'would appear as though I have a helper as well. And an enthusiastic one at that. Here she is helping me get the plants in while her dad finishes up the container.

For yesterdays supper, I harvested my first bunch of herbs for my homemade pizza crust (pizza on the grill...divine) and a few sprigs of mixed greens for my salad. Really looking forward to those tomatoes so I can make the pizza sauce too ;)

As for knitting, I really did make May Mitts.



The yarn is an alpaca silk blend, so these are crazy soft, cozy and warm. I'm actually quite happy to report that shortly after they were finished, I had little occasion to wear them. Pattern is just improvised to fit my own hands/forearm.



I've recently gotten over a hump with this sweater as well. I started this in September of 2009 and have had stops and starts with it ever since. The end is in sight however. Once I managed to figure out how to count to three on a consistent basis, it practically flew off the needles. Oh fair isle, how I love thee. Let me count the ways (one...when you're going smoothly).



While I'm not exactly finishing a pair per month for my Self Imposed Sock Club, I am still cranking out pairs of socks, the latest being these Owlie Socks, which has been a very satisfying knit. Quick, easy, cute...love them. Love the yarn too. Got it in a swap, not 100% sure what it is, but have been told it is most likely Lucy Neatby. These are definitely for me, and I see myself knitting these again in the future. Not exactly making much head way on the gift sock knitting front. Ah well.

That should get me caught up for now. Now if you excuse me, in contrast to yesterday, I have a non-sleeping 2 yr. old who has done nothing but yell at me from her bedroom upstairs for the past hour and a half. Time to pull the plug on today's nap I think. Le sigh.

Until later...

Sneak Attack...

Sometimes I wonder if parenting isn't an extended exercise in abject failure. Okay, maybe that statement is a little too dramatic. Maybe it should be more a matter of learning, every day, every moment, with every breath you take, to lower your expectations. Of yourself. The child has no expectation of you, other than to be nice and feed them and play and sing 'Twinkle, Twinkle' 8000 times at their behest. They don't sit and stew over whether or not they are being properly socialized or watching too much television or getting a balanced diet or going outside to get a boost of vitamin D because it's winter and we all know that we're all vitamin deficient in winter and I've heard that it might be possible that vitamin deficiencies are responsible for learning problems or behavioural problems or was it just mood problems or was that iron?

I thought I understood, before I had children, about how everyone said you worry about them. I thought you worried about their safety and whether they were warm enough and practical things like this. I had no idea about all the lunacy of what is out there in the zeitgeist about today's modern parenting would seep into my psyche and threaten my mental health. There's no chapter in 'What to Expect...' about that. As a matter of fact, that book started it all. Don't eat lunch meat when you're pregnant, don't go near microwaves, stay away from dark haired strangers, they'll put a hex on your unborn fetus and the child will be doomed for all eternity.

So I sit and I stew. And I bounce back and forth between worrying that my not-quite-two year old isn't enrolled in eighteen activities and doesn't have a bevy of playmates for play dates and saying 'Ah *fudge* it, we're just going to sit here and watch Nemo of the 100th time because it makes her happy.' It fatigues me. It really does.

Sometimes I wish there was some sort of parenting quality control, some polite little bureau that checks in with you with a list of boxes to check off every six months or so and says, 'Lots of fruit and veggies? Check. Going to Storytime at the library? Check. Hanging out lots doing fun stuff like colour and Play-Doh? Check. Well, seems to me like you're a jolly good parent then. Keep up the good work. Oh wait, just one more question. Are you singing 'Twinkle, Twinkle' 8000 times a day? Right-o then, carry on.' (Why these people would be British caricatures, I don't really know).

It's really hard not to think you totally suck at this job sometimes, when really it's just you. Which it is, a very large portion of the time. Example; I tried to play with A in the snow this past weekend. I went and dropped $25 bucks on a sled and three minutes into the excursion, I get the familiar mantra 'Alldone alldone alldone!' Three minutes. I don't know why I took it so personally. I guess the effort to reward ratio was a bit one sided, and my feelings were a little bruised. One trip to get the sled, one trip back, get bundled up, three minutes in the fresh air and sunshine (which in itself seems like a monumental feat some days) and I am utterly defeated.

Then there is this whole food issue. All in all, she's a good eater. Really can't complain. Just not a fan of meat and most veggies in their whole state. So with my Christmas Chapters gift card, I bought Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld. I'd seen her schlepping it on Oprah a few years back and then just recently, the follow up cook book. The whole premise is to sneak extra veggies and other good stuff into your cooking in the form of purees. Then you make stuff that kids like already, like mozzarella sticks and burgers and pancakes etc. etc. I'd been kind of doing this stuff anyway, more along the lines of sneaking extra veg in pasta sauces, but I wanted some actual recipes to get an idea of measurements and portions and so forth.

So I got all the veggies and prepped all the purees on Saturday in anticipation of making a weeks worth of recipes to try. Saturday night I made the mozza sticks. Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you that I use recipes the same way I use sewing patterns. Really more of a guideline. The recipe in the book called for cauliflower puree and mozza cheese whereas I had a small chunk of cheddar I wanted to use up before breaking into some new cheese, so I used that and some squash puree (part of the idea is to match up colours, so that the kids don't catch on to the ruse). Also, I didn't plan on using any of the low fat substitutes that were called for in any of the recipes. They creep me out. So does cooking spray. Why use something that comes from an aerosol can when a little bit of olive oil will do? It's not like she needs to watch her calories. Me, that's another story. But we're focusing on her. And I feed her well all of the time. I just need a little peace of mind that she's getting a good balance.



Anyway, I mixed them, froze them briefly (like the recipe said) and lightly pan fried. Look just like mozza sticks, eh? I wasn't sure how they'd be received since A isn't really old enough to have any sort of preconceived notion of what constitutes 'fun' food, other than say, pizza which she really likes or noodles, which she could eat every day of her life and never tire of. So I really played up the whole aspect of them being 'cheese sticks'. Would you like to try some cheese sticks tonight for dinner? See, I made cheese sticks. Aren't these cheese sticks good??? FYI, she really digs cheese.



I was encouraged that she seemed to be taking to them right away. But, a few bites into it and she was spitting it out. Fail. I, on the other hand, thought they were great. Definitely tasted cheesy, with a touch of sweetness. I'll try them again. Maybe it was the breading she doesn't like. Maybe it was the hard sell. Like I was going to get a commission if she ate them up. That'd probably annoy me too.

The next morning I tried the scrambled eggs with the cauliflower puree. I was really skeptical about this one. I like cauliflower (and really, almost all veg), but I wasn't sold on how a puree in eggs would taste. Turns out, quite good. Both she and I ate them all up. Win. That night for dinner she had a choice between my husbands Superbowl chili or my cheese and sweet potato quesidilla (with homemade flat bread. Hubby brought home whole wheat flour for another recipe he tried and I've been endeavouring to use up the bag). The chili won, but only after she refused to eat it in her chair, was excused to the living room (which is my way of not throwing a huge fit myself because she won't eat dinner. It's done wonders for my blood pressure, not to mention likely doing much less damage on my poor daughters future relationship to food), came back to the kitchen and orbited me in my chair, occasionally entering my atmosphere for a spoonful of chili. Whatever. She ate it. Beans and meat and all. I'm still calling it a win. With an asterisk.

Today for breakfast we had french toast with sweet potato puree and we both enjoyed that as well. Overall, I'm calling the book a success. I'm going to try some of the baked goods with the purees, as I'm sure she'd gobble those up no problem. I'm much calmer knowing that she's getting as close to a full compliment of fruit and veg in a day. That part of my crazy internal dialogue has quieted somewhat. Which is nice
The only thing that bugs me about the book is that any time Ms. Seinfeld includes a tip or an anecdote (which are dotted throughout) she refers to 'healthful' food or 'healthful' eating. Is that even a word? If it is, it's awkward. What's wrong with health-Y? It's snobbish nit picking I know. But every time I come across it, it bugs the crap out of me. That's my only complaint.

Also, I made socks.



I wanted them done for my birthday at the end of January, which they were, so I actually got to wear them on my big day. They also qualify for my January Self Imposed Sock Club (a la the Yarn Harlot). Win again. The February pair are in a time out because I'm upset with the pattern. I think they are going to be waaaaay too big. Thinking of starting a different pair. My club, my rules. We'll see. Other than that, I'm either knitting up or have finished some gifts, which I can't talk about. That always seems to be the way.

Until later...

Some thoughts on housework...

Confession time. I'm a lax housekeeper. I see it as one of my primary duties as a SAHM (stay at home mom...took me a while when I first saw that too), but if truth be told, I certainly don't keep up with it with any sort of verve or urgency. This is in direct contrast to how I was raised. My mother, another SAHM, was a committed and devout, details oriented housekeeper. That is, until she finally got to an age where she hired a cleaning lady. Honest to goodness, half of the house I grew up in looked like a magazine spread. It was impeccably decorated and impeccably kept, mostly because no one was allowed in those rooms. You know those houses where they have a formal living room that no one sits in and you're just supposed to hurriedly run through on the way to your room? Yeah, that was my house.

This was my psychic landscape as well. Over the years, it's crept into more and more of my subconscious, taking over those parts of the brain that are well suited to adolescent rebellion and keeping all of your worldly belongings in a heap on the floor. Things really started to change in university, where I roomed with perhaps the most disorganized person I've ever met. In first year I ended up with two roommates in residence, one of whom was prone to walking on her bed with her shoes on (books on a shelf up above and she only 4' 10") and a wide variety of food stuffs to be found in amongst her bedding. Whenever she left for a weekend, my other roommate and I, tidy organized people that we were, would pounce on her third of the room and clean it up. I don't think this ever sat well. In any case, my little corner of the universe at that time was always swept, mopped, be-postered and pretty smelling. It was then that I started making my bed on a regular basis. It just calmed me down to come back from my classes (when I went) to see the quilt my grandma made and the afghan my mom made smoothed out and welcoming me to blow off my reading and instead sit down and watch some Star Trek.

Now I live in an unfinished and in perpetual renovation house devoid of baseboard in most rooms or real flooring in the entire upstairs, half finished moldings around the windows and more dog hair and claw scratches than I had ever anticipated living with...ever. Yet my expectation of my home is to live in something resembling House and Home. Thank you mother. I continually endeavour to lower my expectations. In doing so, I've come up with some basic rules of thumb for me to live by.

1) Whenever I get cranky about having to do housework, which we've already established is not often, I try to remember the kind of effort it would've taken to do 100 years ago and then I calm down about it. I put the clothes in the washer and walk away. An hour later, I come back and put them in the dryer, then walk away. I put the dishes in the dishwasher, set the 4 hour delay button and go to bed. When I wake up there are clean dishes (this NEVER ceases to amuse me). So all in all, it's really nothing to get so uptight about.

2) My benchmark for cleanliness is Hoarders. Have you ever watched that show? These people who are literally burying themselves alive with crap (sometimes, literally)? If I can stave off that particular outcome, I think I'm meeting my quota.

3) Really, no one in this house seems to really give a sh*t about this except me. I'm not counting the little one or the dog, so we really know who I'm talking about here. He never complains, so I guess I shouldn't get so bent out of shape over it.

4) When things get to the point where they start to make MY skin crawl, it's time to break out the Lysol.

5) Other than keeping the kitchen and the bathrooms at peak cleanliness at all times, everything else can wait until I have company coming.

This, of course, is all just a series of elaborate excuses to create more time for crafting. Hence;



I'm addicted to granny squares lately. I had some acrylic scraps and I broke into them to try out this rainbow-y blanket. This took me two evenings to do, which is why I heart crochet so much. I've used up as much of the scraps as I can for this, so now I can throw the rest away with a light heart.



I can't stop spinning!! Seriously. I think I've done nerve damage. Both my legs feel tingly all the time. But still, I can't stop. Chicken Betty sent me some fiber eons ago and it's so lovely that it practically spins itself. I've spun up about 400+ yrds already and have roughly 5 oz left to do. I think I'm really starting to get a hang of this too.



Little A is really into ballerinas right now, and on my latest trip to the fabric store I found this ballerina themed flannel. Gimme a bunch, please. I had hoped to make jammies and a fitted sheet for her crib, but instead bought enough for jammies and a top sheet. This is her throwing a mild tantrum over Idon'trememberwhat. But she was still for about ten seconds, so I managed to get a photo in.

This last one comes with a warning. Upon viewing, you may be overcome by an insatiable urge to make this. Just sayin'.



I got this through the Martha Stewart Craft a Day email. I pretty much get only newsletters in my inbox anymore. Anyhow, this looked irresistible so I had to try it. Felted sweater teacup pincushions. Really too easy. I raided Frenchy's for all the wool sweaters they had and came up with these two...so far. I still need some i-cord trim for the saucers, but really, in an evening (sans i-cord mind you...I did those another evening), they were done. And adorable. They're from designer Betz White.

Speaking of housework, I've gotta go figure out what to make for dinner. That's a whole other post.

Until later...

I'm Forever Cutting Circles...

I think I might have some kind of manic craft disorder. I can go for long spells where I have no desire for crafting. That would be the low end of the cycle. Then I cycle up to where I am now, in hyper craft drive, where I can't seem to stop myself and leave a pile of projects in my wake. Here's what I've been up to lately.

I volunteered to make a cake for my friends daughters birthday. She was having a Halloween themed party this year, and was looking for a witch cake. After a little contemplation (and research on the interwebs) I came up with this;



Yep, that's all cake. Well, except for the hat brim and ribbon. I had a heck of a time trying to make black icing, so I went with a purple hat and what I like to refer to as a copper kettle for the witches cauldron. Hey, it's cake. It's more important that it taste good (which by all reports, it did). I made the card too. I KNOW. Paper is usually not my medium, but a while back I finally bought the paper dolls cartridge for my Cricut Expression machine (it was a gift if you recall) and I gotta tell ya...it's fun. I never thought I would find myself making cards, but there you have it.

I also never thought I would find myself making wreaths, but in the past week I've done not one, but two. I saw a tutorial this time last year at WhipUp for this ruffly felt circle wreath and my initial instinct upon seeing it was MUST MAKE. However, the thought of cutting a billion felt circles with the tools already in my arsenal didn't appeal. Which lead me to buy a circle rotary cutter recently.



Now I'm addicted to cutting circles. I need project ideas that require circle cutting. Any ideas? I need to justify the purchase of the tool for something other than felt circle wreaths (although I could make a couple more of those too. Quite a quick project to put together, and the result is pretty and satisfying. I'm thinking either one in Christmas colours or another in blues and white to go with my living room Christmas decor). The wreath is almost finished, I just ran out of felt last night. You really do need to buy it by the meter for this project. It takes quite a bit more than you think.



I saw something similar to this at one of my local yarn shops and thought 'Ooo, that's charming.' Yes, I say stuff like that to myself. So I picked up a small wreath at the dollar store and hot glued some yarn balls from yarn stash to it and badda bing, badda boom, you gotcha self a wreath. I'm thinking some small knitting needles or double points might be in order somewhere on there as well.



Also for the aforementioned birthday girl, I knit this matching sweater and hat set for her Build-a-Bear friend Bunny (which I guess would make her a Build-a-Bunny, but I digress). I wish I had thought to snap a photo of Bunny modelling her ensemble. She was quite fetching in her new digs.



I've also been stash busting. I threw together this trick or treat bag for Miss A out of stash materials. I inherited this rather hefty orange canvas that I wasn't sure what to do with, but it came in handy. I've also made two of these and two of these but they are going to be gifts, so I'll just leave that as a teaser.



Finally, I finished this quite some time ago and have been meaning to throw it up here, but just haven't gotten around to it. It's a little cloth book that I put together for Miss A and was mostly assembled for her first birthday. It's genesis dates back to, hmmm, 2006? when I cut out all the pages and the letters.



I used the left over material from A's crib set to make the covers and remnants out of my fabric stash for the letters. I wish I had been able to do a little bit better job of outlining the letters, like say machine embroidery or something, but after four years, I just really wanted it completed so the quick and dirty route seemed to fit the bill.

And that pretty much sums it up for the time being. I'm currently caught up in a flurry of Christmas projects that I'll be gobsmacked if they're done on time. Every year I swear I won't do this to myself and then do it anyway. Guess I'll go pick one to work on for a while. Until later...

Shirking Responsibilities...

I was going to take care of some banking which really needs tending to, but I've decided to blog instead, despite the fact that I don't have a heck of a lot to talk about.

To be quite honest, the notion of calling it quits with regards to the blog has crossed my mind more than once in the last few months. I think it's just symptomatic of some grander malaise though, and until I figure that out, I think I'll just leave well enough alone for now. Besides, I'd miss the friendly folks out there who continue to stop by once in a while and who I pop in on from time to time. It's strange to consider anyone who I only know through the written word as a 'friend' of sorts, but I suppose that it's true.

Maybe it's time for a change, a little renovating. Cuz one simply cannot have enough renovation in one's life apparently. And by renovate I mean start projects and then promptly forget about them...for years. Let them fester, drive you crazy until you become a very cranky person who blames everyone else, yes even the baby for why nothing gets done around here while you yourself go have a nap. That's my style of renovation anyway.

But we're wandering here. Here's a couple of finished projects for you.



Little A's Duffle Coat is finished and HUGE on her. I knit the largest size, 12-18 month I think and it's gigantic. Which is a good thing. I was picturing this being a great springtime jacket anyway. I'm just hoping that by the time it fits in the mile-long sleeves and around the middle, it won't be too short. All of this girls growth is in length. There isn't an ounce of baby fat on her. She's mostly composed of leg, like her father. I know once she gets older I'm going to be green with envy of her legs...they're so pretty. Yes, pretty legs. She's going to look lovely in shorts, just like I never did. *sigh* It's true what they say about having baby girls...they steal all your pretty.



The only modifications I made to the coat were to omit the pockets and add this little scalloped crochet edging. I had a hard time deciding between the purple and the teal when I bought the yarn for this project, so this seemed like a decent compromise. I'm not 100% in love with it, but the coat just seemed to need a bit of a finishing touch, so I'm happy enough with it. And I love the buttons. Sparkly :)

In other FO news, I crocheted this little guy for a special little guy who will be celebrating his very first birthday in about a weeks time. I had a minor brain cramp before I sent him off though, and totally forgot to take a picture. But really, the two of them together makes a way better photo opp anyway. It's a little hard to make out, but it's a crocheted robot from this really cute book I ordered a few months ago called Amigurumi Two; Crocheted Toys for Me and You and Baby Too. If you follow the link, you can see the robot on the cover. Such cute stuff in that book. I'm going to make a few things for Little A for her birthday too. There is a turtle that can actually lay eggs. A little weird, but cute.

Umm...where was I? Oh, I've also signed myself up at this site called Meet Me at Mikes where she is doing a Granny A Day challenge/KAL/tutorial thingy. I joined in an effort to motivate me to finish up my daughter's Babette blanket which I started in September...of 2008.



I was so gung-ho the night I added my link to the list (I'm number 41...not that that means anything, just thought I'd point out where I am) that I crocheted four squares right there and then, which lead me to count up all the squares I had left to crochet and wouldn't you know it, I only have 11 left to do before I can start seaming all of my squares together. Now had I finished this sometime back in 2008 I think I would be quite thrilled with the size of the finished product, seeing as miss Bean was still in-utero. Considering the fact that she's now nearly a year old, I'm pretty sure that baby blankets are sort of moot now, and anything that is less than say, twin sized is perhaps a little useless. But, we shall see what we get once it's all put together. I think I still have four full balls of yarn left to work with, which goes a really long way, so I might just make a really wiiiiiiiide edging.

I'm also thinking of doing some sort of Olympic knitting challenge. I bought yarn to knit up a Starsky sweater last spring and never got around to it, after having some problems with setting up the cable initially. I'm attempting to finish up lingering projects since there are only a few of them hanging around. I don't think I'll be joining any Ravelympics groups or the like though...too many rules. I find it confusing. Maybe I'll just do my own thing, keep track of my own progress. We'll see. My goal this year was actually to knit less and move more...setting a marathon knitting challenge only appeals to my obsessive side and seems counter to the 'move more' goal. Although in my Yarn Harlot page-a-day calendar it does state that knitting burns 80 calories an hour. So ya know...there's that.

Lastly, I'd like your opinion on what I should do with this...



This is twelve-ish skeins of Bernat Blarney Spun, apparently Irish wool. I bought it at Value Village about...hmm, three or four years ago? It was partially a sweater then, a very scratchy, not terribly attractive, all the way 70's style man's cardigan, complete with middle-aged male model smoking a pipe in the pattern picture, looking every bit Leonard Nimoy/Spock hanging out on a Sunday afternoon. In my last yarn stash cull, I just couldn't seem to bring myself to part with it, even though I had done nothing with it other than move it with me a couple of provinces.

So I frogged what was already knit up and washed and skeined all the balls. They were 50 gram balls and I think pretty much all of it is there. I don't know the total yardage. I should've measure my skeining thingy...which I suppose I could still do and get a rough estimate of just how much there is. Oh wait, here we go...I just found a little bit about it online here ...had never been able to find any info before. So 65 yrds. per ball. Times 12 = 780 yrds. Not a whole lot, but enough for a sweater probably, though not one likely to fit myself. After the washing it softened up considerably, so it would probably make an alright cardi or jacket of some kind. I did use a bit of it for a felted bag way back when, for Carrie, and while it didn't felt into a really tight fabric, it did shrink some and got very fuzzy, which worked for the project I used it for. So there's that option too I suppose. Anyhow, what's your take on it? It's an aran colour, worsted weight, fairly heavy duty. Thoughts?

Alright, I've had my fun for now. There's plenty of shirking left in the day, so I'm going to get cracking. Until later...

These are a few...

of my favourite things...

I had a couple of great posts started in my head, but of course once I sit down to blog, there is a great whooshing sound as all my brilliant wordsmithery escapes the room. It's the nature of the beast that is parenting. The complete inability to concentrate one's full attention on any one thing for an extended period of time. I'm noticing it happening in conversations with others now. I'll ask a question and I won't even hear the answer as I'm distracted with putting food in a tiny mouth, wiping a tiny hand or just trying to contain a squirmy body. The upside is that I can't remember anything either, so I've already forgotten the question, or the fact that I asked it for that matter so I come away blissfully unaware of anything at all.

Anyhow, first up, a few FO's.
Classic Cable from Top Down for Toddlers, Lynda and Deb Gemmel

I finished little A's Christmas sweater a while back. One of my favourite kids sweater patterns. I can't wait to try it on her, but I'm behaving myself and waiting until Christmas.

Thermis by Kris Knits

This neck warmer is perhaps my most favourite thing at the moment. It all started when the pattern was gifted to me by a very generous fellow knitter and ended with silver buttons that just tickle me to no end. I love everything about this project. It was fast, simple, destined for the yarn I used and totally functional. Love. It.



This past week we had our little holiday Knit Nite celebration where we exchanged treats and yarn. One of our members decided to be a real keener about the swap and instead of just bringing a singular ball, banged out 15 knitted ornaments, little glass balls sheathed in sock yarn remnants. I threw some elbows and lo and behold, they came home with me. ADORABLE.



Yesterday I finally got around to putting them up on the upstairs tree. Yes, I have two trees. One real, for the living room (the anal retentive, completely colour co-ordinated tree that I used to balk at when my mother did it in my childhood) and the fake one which I've put in the upstairs landing. I plan on making this the homemade, anything goes, throw as much tinsel on it as you like kids, it's all yours tree. It's a six footer that I only use half of usually, thus making it a perfect table top tree. The constable referred to it as the 'ghetto tree' since I put the old school lights on it, for tradition's sake. It has rather nice ornaments, but I think it will forever be known as the ghetto tree now. Somewhere along the way, the knitty ornaments I made a handful of years ago, (little sweaters, stockings, knitting needles) disappeared, so I guess I'll just have to make new ones. Darn.

Speaking of making Christmas stuff, I've decided this year that starting hopefully very early in January, I'm going to make all the Christmas crap that I see out there in the ether starting in mid-November so that I'll have it ready for next Christmas. This goes for gifts as well. There are wreaths and ornaments and baubles out there that are too cute to resist and I'm not going to put it off and say 'Oh well, I'll do those next year'. Perhaps I'll do a post about that and list a bunch of stuff, see if I can hold myself to it throughout the year. We'll see.



And now we come to the baby knitwear portion of the post, installment numero 3 I believe. Here little A is modelling a lovely little dress hand knit by Heddy over at
Ewe Gotta Knit using Bernat Baby Jacquards. Made only more adorable by the tights with built in shoes, also gifted to her by a friend. I find any excuse to put those on her.



Just this week, little A got a package in the mail from Auntie Carrie over at Carrie's Work Basket which included this kick-ass sailboat sweater. Not hand knit, but she knows my penchant for all things nautical so it literally leapt from the box onto her back within a matter of minutes. I think she approves.

I was going to go on and list some of my favourite Christmas stuff, but I think I'll break it up and save that for another post. I'm feeling inspired to bake, must take advantage of nap time while it lasts.

Until later...

What's In a Tradition...

I was scolded twice this week for my lapse in blogging, so I thought I'd better get my rear in gear and freshen things up a bit, lest I lose all of my readers entirely. I've been watching my Sitemeter report dwindle bit by bit over the last few weeks. To be honest, I just haven't been in the mood. A bit of a pre-winter funk perhaps, I don't know. Everyone tells you that you won't have time for this or that when a baby comes into your life. That's not entirely true. There is still time for crafts or reading or whatever your form of recreation is, if you make it. Just maybe not as much as you would like. But what they neglect to tell you is that when you do get a chunk of free time for crafting or reading or whathaveyou, you may not give a tiny rats ass about doing any of that.

I'm still managing to knit, when I feel like it, and am still producing a respectable amount of finished product. I can't show all of it here, as some are gifts and the last time I posted some of those, it totally backfired on me :) But I can't seem to recall the last time I actually read anything of substance. I've tried. Maybe I just haven't found the right book yet. Here's hoping Christmas yields something worthwhile. I really need to make more of a habit of it though. I really am getting stupider by the day.

So anyway, it's Christmas time again. The mind boggles. I was round about 30 wks. pregnant this time last year, all anticipation and fluid retention. Now the Bean is here and babbling and rolling and cutting a tooth and wonder of wonders, I'm not as much of a humbug as I used to be. I loaded up on some new decorations yesterday at Canadian Tire and am already planning my next trip back to get more. By the way, is it just me or does it really grind anyone else's gears when you come across really adorable holiday ornaments that are produced to look homemade and are priced so cheaply that there is no conceivable way that you could amass the materials or the time to make them yourself? This was my 'to hell with it' moment and I've been loading up on this crap like there is no tomorrow. I should post a picture of some of them though...seriously cute.

Where was I? See? Totally stupid. Right...Christmas. Really, it's all about the kids, no? And now that I have one, I've been doing some serious thinking about what I want this holiday to be for her, how I want it to play out in her memory over the years. I was with some friends the other night and they got to talking about the big Catholic Christmases of their youth. Lots of food and family. Sounded nice. I didn't grow up with any sort of religious tradition, so Christmas was more an orgy of consumption and excess, which over the years became what you'd expect...devoid of meaning or any sort of staying power. And there were some just plain old rotten Christmases that left a rather bitter taste in my mouth about the whole damn thing.

Sometimes at the beginning of the season (which, frankly, starts earlier and earlier every year. Christmas music in October...*gag*) I still get the cringe twinge and a shudder up my back. But I've found the earlier I get everything ready and in place, the happier I am about it all. So far, I'm right on track this year. If all goes according to plan this week, everything will be complete. We just need the tree, a little decorating on my part left to do (lights outside are the constable's department), some packages put into the mail and it's Feliz Navidad before you know it. My goal is always to be over 50% done by Dec. 1. I'm quite proud of myself for having achieved that this year.

I'm still trying to come up with what sort of traditions we will implement over the years, but I'm sure they will evolve over time. I've decided on a couple of things though. First up, I'd like to make an advent calendar. I decided I wanted to make on one, oh, the 26th of November? Yeah. Shut up...there's still time. There are a bunch of lovely ones over here in a Flickr pool. I got some great ideas from these.



My other idea where Little A was concerned were three must have items; new Christmas jammies, a pair of hand knit socks and if possible, a new hand knit sweater, until she reaches the age where that sort of thing is no longer cool. And if you can believe it, I've made good on all three. Above are the Flakey Baby Socks that I've had my eye on for a couple of years. I omitted a repeat, but other than that, followed it pretty much to the letter. Since these are done in a worsted weight, they work up in no time. Adorable.



The sweater is almost done, another Classic Cable from Top Down for Toddlers. This has taken me for what feels like forever, simply because other things grab my attention. I need to learn not to hold myself to my old speed standards. Anyhow, there is a glaring error in the cable but at least I did it on both sides (cable is repeated on the front and the back) so we'll call it a design modification and just move on. I think this is *just* going to fit her and maybe not for very long. It's a 1 year size and looks like it might be a wee bit snug already. But we'll see after it's washed and blocked.

That's all the crafting I've done for her so far this year. And I'm pretty satisfied with that. Since the rest of the shopping and the crafting I had planned on is pretty much in the bag, whatever else I can manage will be a nice little bonus. We shall see. For now I'm off to hit up the craft sale down at the fire hall. Look at me go.

Until later...

She Can Tackle Anything up to Twice her Size...

I knew that daylight savings time was going to mess with me somehow, and I was right to assume that it would include the baby. We forgot to change the clocks back last night, so when I heard her cooing away and saw a six at the head of all of those numbers on my bedside clock I thought awesome, lets get up. But the DVR is smarter than the rest of us and when I saw a five, I knew I had a long day ahead of me. After about 45 mins, even little A was like, what the heck, why am I up? and asked to go back to bed. Who can blame her. So it's just me and the coffee and the blog.



For someone who swore up and down that she wasn't going to make anything for Christmas this year, I've been diligently working on a number of things that I intend to give away as presents. Go figure. I probably shouldn't post them, but I'm nearly certain that the intended recipients never read my blog. Anyhow, I Cricut-ed a memory game here for a little person which would've taken an afternoon if I had a full one to myself but took nearly three weeks instead. Ah well.



I also tried my hand at making some marble magnet thingies. This is the tutorial I used. You can't see it very well in this photo, kinda blurry, but I used all kitchen themed pictures. Some food, some appliances. Very cute. Important lesson learned; do not handle until the glue is totally dry. I have dried glue finger prints all over the front of these, which is very unattractive. I'm hoping a little Windex might clean things up. Anyhow, these with a little decorative tin box are a super cute gift.



I finished a cabled ear flap hat for another little person, plus my Yarn Harlot Pretty Thing cowl. I'm very yeeha about the cabled hat and meh about the cowl. I think meh because this really does need to be knit in a lighter colour to show off the lace. Nothing wrong with the pattern, just that I don't feel mine has any pizazz. Now there is a word I need to put into more frequent rotation. Pizazz. Pizazz.



I started and finished a We Call Them Pirates hat for a person in my life who enjoys skull wear (knit with Patons Kroy in a striped and a solid). No FO photo of the hat as of yet, probably will only post that to Ravelry. One thing became clear to me while I was knitting this. I really really like doing colour work. When there's only two colours involved. I don't think intarsia is for me, but I'm all over fair isle.



And saving the best for last, for those of you not on Facebook where she is plastered absolutely everywhere, my amazing little crustacean, little A the lobster. I had her costume made back in September, then had a mild panic attack this week when I couldn't remember where I had put it. I had patterns kicking around for a hoodie and a hat, which I made out of red fleece and used another book about baby costumes for the claws and the tail. All the add-ons, like the antennae, eyes, tail, claws are all hand sewn so that they can come off very easily and she'll still have a nice cozy hoodie and a hat. The rest of outfit was just one piece red jammies. Why? Cuz she's my lobster :) (yes, that is a Friends reference). I had hoped to make the rounds with her to all my knitty friends houses, but we hit two (one knitty and one non-knitty friend) and she was very much over the whole experience, probably because it was dinner time, followed closely by bedtime. Still pretty good for a seven month old I think. She also got to wear the costume to our weekly story time hour on Friday, which really was a hoot. Being in a room full of little people in costumes is my idea of a good way to spend an hour.

Anyhoo, I think I might take advantage of all this quiet to catch a quick nap myself. I need a little more time to come to terms with the fact that it's November already. Until later...

The Will To Blog...

...is hard to muster sometimes. A few reasons; first, I was on my own for two weeks while the constable was on course and for the first week I was sick, for the second the constable took the portable blogging machine back with him on said course. The stationary blogging machine (re: desk top) and I don't get along very well.

Anyhoo...

I'm worried that there is something very, very wrong with me. To illustrate, I present to you exhibit A.



A cake. I made a cake. For no apparent reason. I just was gripped by the notion that I wanted to make and decorate a cake one day and it wouldn't let go of me until I up and did it.



I think what started it all was that one day, I was thinking about little A's first birthday, which will be here freakishly soon (still five months away, but at the rate time is passing, it might as well be tomorrow) and what should I do for it and hey, we'll need cake and oh yeah, my mom used to make some pretty awesome cakes remember the time she made a little one and brought it to my third grade class that was both awesome and embarassing because there wasn't enough for everyone so I could only give some to a couple of other people so really what was she thinking? but anyway I could make a cake and hey, those fondant cakes are kind of cool I betcha I could do that let me Google that and see what I can find out.

Welcome to my diseased brain.

So I Googled and asked a friend of mine who makes cakes, bought some food colouring gel and well, here we are with a heap load of cake without a cake-eating occasion. This compulsion would've been helpful a week and a bit ago when it was the hubby and Hank's birthday. Oh yeah...



Birthday goofiness. Hank is two. Constable is older than that. Little A doesn't have a clue what's going on, but thinks it great fun anyway.



Speaking of her, this is how I found her when I returned from a minute in the kitchen. No idea how it happened. But, I suppose there are worse things in life than to be attacked by a soft, squishy sheep. She's my constant source of awesome in a day. She's...however many weeks older than the last time I posted. Yeah. Almost seven months. Let's go with that.



Now for knitting...oh, the knitting. Sometimes I feel a slave to it, I really do. I'm in the midst of a creative explosion at the moment, so there's a tragic little trail of works in progress strewn about the house. The above photo is the result of a solo trip to Have a Yarn prior to being abandoned, I mean, before the constable went on course. I think a few hours of autonomy combined with wool fumes left me defenceless to the lure of colourwork. It's a Lanett pattern and yarn and it's pretty and delicate and intricate looking without being overly so. Sized for 3 yrs. so I've got a while to work on it, which is a plus since I pick up and drop things at an alarming rate anymore.



There are some others, but in the interest of brevity, I'll just showcase the most recent and what I'm currently working on. From left to right, a wool soaker for my nephew for Christmas and a cabled earflap hat in the works to match (gotta keep all essential body parts warm and toasty); the Pretty Thing cowl a la the Harlot in the works in scrummy alpaca; an adorable little bonnet type hat for the baby (need a photo of her in it to really do it justice); and two felted pumpkins that I converted into little felted pumpkin baskets. I'm also crocheting food, but I don't have a picture of that at the moment. And I've got a few paper projects on the go as well. Damn Cricut machine. I KNEW this would happen.

Hmmm, anything else I need to get caught up on? I did make a couple of soups in my absense. One was what I call a Frankenchickenball Soup. It was chicken soup with chicken meatballs in it. My own recipe. Tasty enough but the chicken balls were too big. After that was a rushed french onion. French onion in celebration of being able to actually eat all the onions I wanted without having to get any grief about it while my beloved was gone and rushed because, well, I started too late in the day for eight hour soup in the crock pot. And you could really taste the difference. FYI, don't rush french onion. I did take photos, but, well, who cares really. Then it was Thanksgiving and I made a turkey but we ate it all before it got to the soup stage.

That should just about do it. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go and listen to the repeat of Q on CBC radio. I heard the morning broadcast and some female sportscaster totally dissed knitting during their sports culture panel discussion, and since I was playing with the baby at the time and only heard snippits of what was said, I want to make sure I have all my facts right before I send off my snarky little email. As an aside for anyone who listens to copious amounts of CBC radio like I do; a fun game to play while you're listening to Q is to count how many times Jian Ghomeshi says 'zeitgeist'. Can also be played as a drinking game.

Until later...

Soup on Sunday & Twenty-five...

I'm having an utterly craptacular day. Woke up with a nasty-ass headache to a baby who's a big crank-a-pants and thinks that screaming is the only effective means of communication. Her once set-your-clock-by-it predictable schedule appears to be changing as well, and it's completely messing with my head. Waaaa. Anyway...



This is the redeeming quality of the day though. Both my baby boy and my baby girl sharing space and getting along. Yes, she's blurry...that can't be helped. She's a girl on the move. She seems to really like Hank, notices him more all the time, but when she's in the Jolly Jumper, it's hit or miss as to how she feels about him. Sometimes she's utterly entralled and others, like for a brief moment this morning, seemingly terrified. He could be on the other side of the room completely unconcious and all of a sudden, she just starts wailing while looking at him. Little weirdo. So we had to have a little chat about Hank having livingroom rights too, and that seemed to straighten her out a bit. Hank, for his part, is a perfect gentleman where little A is concerned. I've very impressed. I was hoping that he would innately know that little miss requires special consideration and caution, and so far, he does. He listens a little more carefully to my commands when she's around, and that's just pure awesome.



In other banal details of my life, I've decided that I'm going to make soup on Sundays. I love Sunday, a day for being quiet and lazy, in my opinion. Which doesn't really jive with having to make dinner...also in my opinion. Enter soup. Delicious, warm, satisfying...served in a bowl. What's not to love? I have this great soup cook book, so for the autumn and winter, the soup months, I'm going to cook my way through it on Sunday evenings. First installment in the series was a very successful and yummy Cream of Cauliflower and Walnut soup. Taaaay-steeee. The recipe called for a little paprika to be sprinkled on at the end, which I didn't have, so I went with nutmeg (same colour) and for me, that just was the icing on the cake. Or the nutmeg on the soup I guess. Awesome. I've since discovered though that you really need to eat this up in one go, as the little bit that was left over went brown in the fridge overnight. Boo. But it's wasn't that much, so it wasn't a huge waste.



In knitting, I've started a sweater for my sister's dog, Franklin. He's a new addition to her fam, a Yorki-poo, and since he tips the scales at a whopping 5.5 lbs, I figured that a harsh Canadian winter might be a bit of a challenge for him. Heck, a good stiff breeze could send this little guy into a spasm of shivers. Anyhow, I'm already half way through this project and I don't anticipate it taking me much longer, if I can stay away from the Broadripple socks that keep calling my name. I'm suffering from a bit of startitis at the moment. Especially since this little dog sweater seems to have cured me of my cabling blockage and I'm dying to get at my Starsky sweater that I had totally anticipated having done by now, even though I both started and then promptly abandoned it back in the late spring.

Anyhow, I'm going to go flake out for as long as possible. Until later...