Drum Roll, Please….

There was a contest draw at our house today.

The basket was primed:

The baby was ready:

And, in the name of wool, I present to you the winners!

The names are laying on a wool carpet. There is something just right about that, don't you think? Abigail can be reached over at 1870 Pearl My Life in Stitches and Jersey is blog free.

Congratulations to both of you and thanks SO much for participating in this contest! I now need some more personal information (aka your full names and mailing addresses) so that I can send you your pressies. Please use the email address on my sidebar and send me your details privately.

Hosting this contest was a lot of fun. It was great to receive so many great big ‘hello’s’ from so many people in the blogosphere and from so many different parts of the world! It was very exciting for me to have so many people participate. This was a great way to meet new friends and I look forward to reading your blogs as well. It’s too bad I can only get organised to host one of these types of events a year but hopefully you will be back again next year for a similar feature. I’d love for you to continue to drop by and have a read.

Hopefully the big winners do not mind their parcels not being brought to the mail until early next week. I want to take pictures of the booty for other enquiring minds before I send them off. So you do not feel too disappointed, I will tease you by saying that the quantity of loot in your prize parcel has been growing…

It’s My Second Blogiversary!

Happy blogiversary to me!
Happy blogiversary to me!
Happy blogiversary, dear Fibreholic,
Happy blogiversary to me!

Yep, today is the day. And you all still have until midnight to enter my contest. Iain and I will draw names for the prizes (there are still two but there have been booty increases…) sometime tomorrow. There may be a slight delay in me posting the winner’s names as Iain has a pretty busy social schedule for a 13.5 month old. All of his friends turn one within eight weeks of each other. Therefore, we will be preparing to attend and then attending a party until sometime tomorrow afternoon.

I cannot wait to post the winning names. Stay tuned and, thanks very much for participating in the contest. It’s been great fun so far!

Butt Groove

Oooh! I love hosting a contest! I'm meeting so many neat, new knitting people. Don't forget to check out my contest post here - only two days to go to enter!

Ever since Suzanne posted about her butt groove location (and I believe she held a contest about it too, no? And I am blatantly stealing Suzanne's DH's name for her knitting spot. Let me know if I'm in trouble, Suzanne!), I've been wanting a butt groove location of my own. At the time, I was very pregnant and we were about to move. Those two realities did not lead me to developing a true dedicated butt groove location. Truthfully, there were not many places that I could sit comfortably, let alone develop a butt groove. Then we moved and people, let's face it, it takes a year or so to really move into a place as far as I'm concerned. Then there was this little issue of a newborn...I'm sure you're catching where I’m going with this. Creating a butt groove location has been a bit of a challenge.

We are just entering the stage where Iain is going to bed at more regular hours so that I can, dare I type, actually sit and knit for 10 minutes at a time. Be still my beating heart. That fact, coupled with another small house addition, are quickly making my butt groove location development a reality.

Lookie what entered our house two weeks ago…woo hoo!

More Knitting Books (And Another Contest!)

Egads, two blog posts in a row! Here are my thoughts on the other knitting books that I purchased from Knitpicks recently.

A Second Treasury of Magical Knitting by Cat Bordhi is a bit of a liberating book. I’ve spent all this time trying not to get a twist in my yarn when joining and working in the round. This book is all about Moebius magic – that twist that you usually try and avoid. It is also all about fulling which I am becoming more and more interested in. There are some pretty cool projects in this book. If you like cats (are there any knitting bloggers that don’t like cats? I guess some people may be allergic…), there are cat beds and some fine cat beds they are. Some of the projects I’m most interested in are her felted bowls – there’s a Tri-fold Knitters Bowl that I’m dying to make. She has also added a chapter or two on some really pretty sling bags. I’m really pleased with this purchase too.

Now, before the rumours start flying, let’s talk about Expectant Little Knits: Chic Designs for Moms to Be by Suzanne J.E. Tourtillott. I am not pregnant therefore it is a bit of a mystery as to how this particular book made it to my book shelf. However, like I remember maternity clothes from the 1970s (aka the tents my mother wore), I was keen to see the types of maternity knitting that is available. This is a great book if you knit faster than, say, a nine month (yes, I know, it’s actually ten months) gestation period. The styles range from clingy and sexy to lovely, draped fabric. I particularly like the Goddess Tank (it's the first one on the right pages 1 - 4 if you click the 'view more images' tab from the book link above), the Cowl-Neck Nursing Sweater (aha! That could be one of the reasons I bought this book!), and Anne’s Tunic (top right pages 9 - 12 if you click the 'view more images' tab from the book link above). Any of these could be knit for the not-s0-pregnant knitter.

Check out Darcy's blog over at Darcy's Knotty Knitter. She has a gorgeous cable knitting necklace up for a contest prize (and they are also for sale if you don't win) and the deadline isn't until August 28th so you still have plenty of time to enter! And, please, send her some 'get well' thoughts. Darcy is feeling a little under the weather.

Today was another giant leap in my motherhood journey. Today was the first day that I had to fish a ‘what the hell is making that noise?’ out of the washing machine. My darling boy had added a plastic bowl to the mix…

Just Another Manic Monday

Don’t forget to add a comment to enter my 2nd blogiversary contest! See this post for details…

I mentioned that I’m really enjoying knitting the Celtic scarf, right? There’s something about cables that just makes me feel like ‘I can cable, therefore, I am’. It is very empowering.

I may not have been doing a lot of knitting over the past several months, I have been doing some knitting shopping. For example, I did take advantage of Knitpicks’ book sale recently. Into my hot little mail box came the following:

Inspired to Knit by Michele Rose Orne

A Second Treasury of Magical Knitting by Cat Bordhi and

Expectant Little Knits: Chic Designs for Moms to Be by Suzanne J. E. Tourtillott

I love them all. I am particularly enthralled with the Inspired to Knit book right now. All of the designs are gorgeous and many, many of them I would like to knit someday. And you, my fellow knitting bloggers, will be asked to help remind me of that every now and then.

Two sweaters in particular really speak to me. The Winter Wonderland sweater is, simply, divine. It is way more complicated than anything I’ve tried before. The yarn called for is Blue Sky Alapca’s 50% alpaca 50% merino hand dye. I haven’t felt it yet but it sounds as though you’d be wearing a cloud. This sweater will become a goal for me over the next couple of years. The other sweater that I adore is the Snowdrift cardigan. Although I would knit it longer (the pattern sits at about waist length), I adore the heavy, heavy cables in the sleeves and on the collar coupled with the smooth texture of stockinette stitch. Wow. This book has really blown me away. And those two patterns are just the start.

Yes, I really like the other two books as well. I’ll rave about them later this week, ‘K?

I’ve been knitting at the kitchen table as Iain naps. The window was open behind me (it’s got up to 27 degrees Celsius here today!) and I could hear the dry maple leaves blowing around behind me on the back deck. This sound always reminds me of Rivendell from The Lord of the Rings movies. In the scenes in The Two Towers when Arwen and Aragon are separated, there are lovely dry leaves blow around the Rivendell scenes, to intensify the metaphor of the ‘Fall (as in the season) of the Elves’ in Middle Earth. I would love to have a house where one wall opened up so that the leaves could blow through. I love that sound. I also love the fact that I’m able to knit a Celtic cable that reminds me of those movies. Yeah me!

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Good

I have been getting frustrated with my lack of knitting/completing anything fibre related. This frustration has been intensified by the fact that I have chosen to be at home right now so that I can really enjoy these precious and fleeting moments as my little boy grows each minute. Then I experience the guilt of realising that I am occasionally wishing his time away so that I can knit (e.g. plllleeease have a nap! You’re tired! Really, you are!). It's terrible! Therefore, I am taking a long hard look at all of my projects and have come to two conclusions.

The first is that I really need to commit to finishing some projects. The number of them and the look of them, laying unfinished around our house, is stressing me out. The second is to cast on (yes, I know, this flies in the face of decision number one. I never claimed to be logical!) for some quick and easy knitting projects that will give me faster FOs than, say, a sweater for a twelve month old that took me almost ten months to complete. I am feeling the requirement for a significant increase in knitting mojo, pronto. If you have any suggestions for lovely and gift-worthy quick and easy projects, I’m the gal to be speaking to.

I have managed to knit a few rows recently – yeah!


Thanks to the wonder that is Ravelry, I found this lovely (and free!) scarf pattern to work on. Although it is going to be a pressie, I am fairly certain the recipient rarely, if ever, reads this blog so I think I’m safe posting about it. It’s rather a complicated cable for me, considering I’ve only ever attempted one cable pattern in the past. However, I think this pattern is gorgeous so I’m giving it a whirl. I’m using Alpaca Peru’s 100% alpaca in colour 403, which I would call a charcoal. Gorgeous. A little hard on the eyes with the darker colour but I’m managing. It’s hard enough that this isn’t an ‘settle into your butt groove and knit (see Suzanne’s blog for information on that!) in front of the television kind of project'. No, for me at least, it’s more of a ‘sit at the dining room table with several sheets of scrap paper and meticulously write down every completed row (there are 16 rows for a pattern repeat)’ kind of project. Luckily, it’s only a scarf and I’m really enjoying it.

The Bad

Elizabeth and Jen have been wondering how my running has been going. It’s time to fess up. Before my family and I left to go on holidays, I packed up all of my running stuff to take with us. The first part of the trip was all about driving and surviving the ferry ride. Once we arrived in Gander Bay, the lead up to the reunion was very busy. The days following were busy. Then, there was a wedding and I took another rug hooking course from my cousin’s fiancée. I really wanted to get out for a run several times but with visiting and driving and Iain, running just didn’t happen. It wasn’t until I got home and went into the front porch that I realised I’d forgotten one very important running item and would not have been able to run even if I’d found the time. I left my running shoes at home. Again.

In 1998, I trained for a half marathon. I say ‘trained’ because I was not able to even start the race as a couple of days before it I strained my left hip so badly that I was told to stay off it for 6 weeks and then spent the next two years strengthening it by trying other sports such as step aerobics and cycling. It wasn’t until our return to Canada in 2002 that I took up running again. One thing I’ve learned from unsuccessfully completing a half marathon and from successfully completing one is that the most important thing you can do to train is to put in the miles. I missed a month of putting in the miles and I do not have enough time between now and October 12th to catch up. Therefore my friends, I’m not going to make that big goal I decided to announce to the world of completing a half-marathon on October 12. Boo me.

Instead, I’m going to look for and train for a 10 km race. I’m going to do what DH has been hounding me to do all along (don’t tell him I’m listening to him for a change, will you?!?) and try to run a faster 10 km than I usually do. I have already trained enough to run a 10 K today so it’s time to do some speed work. I still hope to run a half marathon but it will be postponed.

To allow a small silver lining in the cloud of not completing this goal, this decrease in training at this point in my life allows me to cycle on an upcoming cycling holiday in PEI (previously I figured I would only be driving Iain in the support vehicle and running when the others weren’t cycling) not to mention try out some Pilates and yoga which I have not had the chance to do in a couple of years. So, there is some good in my change of plans.

So sorry to let you down, Elizabeth and Jen.

And, The Ugly

My feet seem to have grown a wee bit since I was running a lot, likely due to pregnancy. I hadn’t noticed until I started to do some longer runs. Now, I have one black toe nail. Ew!

DH is away this week – he left us this morning. He is back again on Friday so we think we will survive. Here is Iain looking particularly charming and pleased with himself as he is slowly mastering feeding himself.

It’s My Second Blogiversary Contest!

Things can get way too complicated when you have a thirteen month old. Things like getting up in the morning, going to the bathroom and thinking you can eat a hot meal become, as one of my brothers put it, ‘strangely exciting’.

In light of the fact that things are strangely exciting around Chez Fibreholic on a daily basis, I wanted to offer you a contest that is nice and easy for all of us. You need only do three things to enter this blogiversary contest (and one of those things will result in you getting a double (or more) entry in the draw basket):

• First, send me a comment saying ‘hello’ (or an email in case you’re not interested in setting up on blogger to post a comment. See the right sidebar for my email address). This will earn you one entry;
• Secondly, post about this contest on your blog (or tell your friends if you do not have your own blog) and encourage others to enter;
• Finally, make sure people use your name/blog name when they drop me a note so that I can enter you again! For each mention, you win another entry.

The contest will run from today and right up until midnight on my blogiversary date (August 21, 2008). I/we will draw two names from the prize basket when we are up and at’em the next day (baring strangely exciting disasters, etc.).

There will be two prizes for this contest so Iain gets to make two draws. Yeah! Hints about the booty? Sock yarn and handmade in Nova Scotia mohair…how does that strike you? Naturally, if you win, you will need to share your name and snail mail address via email with me so that I can send you a prize.

Let the games begin…

We Went on a Summer Holiday (Post 150)

One of the ‘problems’ about going home to Newfoundland and Labrador is the inevitable consequence of having to come back again. I left Newfoundland and Labrador in the summer of 1996 so have had that process repeated many, many times. This doesn’t mean that I don’t like our newly adopted community here in Nova Scotia – I really do like it. However, like many other Newfoundland and Labradorians, we would really prefer to be home (‘home’ meaning living back in our home province).

I realise that not all Newfoundland and Labradorians want to return to the province. In fact, I’m related to a few and am friends with a few more who would never, ever move back. That being said, I can also think of many more who would move home with me tomorrow if I just said the word (and was able to provide a steady paycheque).

With all that in mind, my first week back (this past week) in Middleton was spent with me feeling slightly melancholy. I really do enjoy it here and love the fact that I can walk to all of our conveniences via Iain’s stroller, my legs and the wonderful sidewalks our town taxes pay for (the side walks are even cleared of snow in the winter – not something that occurs in St. John’s, NL in the winter I can assure you!). Yet, there is a pull to my home province that becomes harder and harder to resist every year. As you can probably infer from this introduction, we had a great trip home.

It was certainly a busy visit. The reunion went well, as far as was reported back to me in any case. That was great considering that I did most of the organising (aka bossing people around). It was wonderful to see everyone – seven of nine of my mother’s brothers and sisters were able to make it and all but five of our twenty-odd cousins and their families were also present. It was our first reunion in 12 years (it was held the same weekend as mine and DH’s 12 wedding anniversary, actually!) and the first without our grand-parents, which could have cast a sombre cloud over the whole event but did not. In fact, it remained as much a celebration of my grand-parents and their children as, I believe, our reunions ever have. This reunion is our fourth and I’m lobbying for another in 2014.

Immediately followed by the events of the reunion weekend, we celebrated one of my aunt and uncle’s 50th wedding anniversary. This was quickly followed by a rehearsal party and wedding the following weekend. With all of these festivities and so many of the extended family to visit with, I did not feel I had gotten the opportunity to visit with my own parents and siblings enough so Iain and I stayed an extra five days on the island while DH and Para drove back to Nova Scotia in our trusty camper van.

Highlights of the trip?

Prepping for our Gander River trip (thanks, Uncle R!) before we left Nova Scotia (yes, Para was wearing a lifejacket on the trip too):

The van packed and ready to go:

Waiting for a very late (late to leave; not late in the day) ferry in North Sydney. It was SO HOT!:

Vampire boy – Iain enjoying cherries en route:

A funny sign from the, ahem, McDonalds parking lot in Gander:

Iain playing in the North Atlantic (unfortunately, I do not have pictures from his first, fearless foray into waves but I will post a picture as soon as I get one) where there was such a heat wave that playing in Gander Bay was pure pleasure:

Wearing merino and cashmere and enjoying a wedding reception. This may be the only modelled by Iain shot you see of this sweater. He has SO grown out of it already! And, here’s the story I’d alluded to in this post: Despite the long drive from here to Newfoundland, I did not get much accomplished in the fibre realm. Actually, pretty much zilch. I have two reasons for this. Reason # 1: It was too darn HOT! Reason # 2: He’s about four apples tall, was sitting right next to me, could reach my knitting needles from his car seat and liked to be entertained pretty much all the time. Sigh. I had hoped to get more done by the time we arrived at our destination but, it turns out that I had no extra time to finish sewing the ends in this sweater. A couple of hours before the reunion (I really wanted to have the sweater finished for the first reunion event, the sit down supper) I bribed my cousin, an expert knitter, to sew in the last few ends for me. I bribed her with a three chocolate bars. Yes, she’s cheap ;) (I’m going to be in trouble…..). She had it finished in about five minutes. I kid you not, it would have taken me another two hours. That’s the story – Patty ‘paid’ outside help to get an FO. Guess what? I incubated Iain faster than I knit up and finished this project. Sigh :

Enjoying the view from Uncle Baldy and Aunt L’s downtown St. John’s house:

Swimming with the ducks on our way back to Middleton from the Halifax International Airport. It was so hot that we stopped by a park and had a swim in the lake (a pond by Newfoundland and Labradorian standards) for a swim:

I was too busy during the reunion weekend to get many photographs so, if there are any other gems, I’ll share them with you in the future.

Am I knitting? No, it’s been too darn hot this past week. What have I been doing? I'll leave you hanging with that (hint: it IS fibre related!).

And, this is my 150th post! I am so proud of myself! Thank you so much to all of you readers out there who have written to say that you enjoy this blog. Thank you as well to those of you who simply read. I have made some great friends through this process and it has been a wonderful journey. Thanks for tagging along with me on it!

The Fourth of July - A Green Birthday

I can see my future stretched out ahead of me. For the rest of our days, while Iain lives at home at any rate, Canada Day will be spent not in celebration of this great country of ours. Oh no. It will be spent in preparation for Iain’s birthday parties on the fourth of July.

I wanted to have a somewhat ‘green’ birthday party for Iain. ‘Somewhat green’ means that I was willing to do a lot to make it a green birthday but couldn’t resist some not so environmentally friendly options (e.g. helim balloons). Overall, though, I figure I made it at least 50% of the way.

Handmade loot bags (all made using hand-me-down fabric and ribbon so the little lovelies didn’t cost me or the earth!):


Chaulk taken out of a highly packaged container (to be ‘re-purposed' (thanks for the term, Elizabeth!) for my quilting pens) and split into sets of three, tied with jute.


Other loot bag contents? Baby Mum Mums, a package of sunflower seeds (for growing them; not for the little ones to choke on), and a wrapped, home-made Rice Krispie square for the attending Mommy or Daddy.

Heavily decorated and synthetic (that’s what I call cakes not made from scratch like I usually make) first birthday cake (like my design?) using those decorating techniques from the winter of 2007:

Barbeque essentials such as homemade hamburgers (containing nummy ingredients such as bulger and cinnamon…), blue cheese potatoe salad and apple slaw:

Note the paper plates and napkins (both of which can be composted in this fair province) and regular stainless steel cutlery (can’t stand the plastic ones and the environment doesn’t like them either). Here's one area where things fell apart though - I could not find my extra set of cutlery that we usually use for parties so I ended up using plastic ones left over from Iain's shower last summer. All of the cookies on this table were made by my mother when she was here so that she, too, could help out with Iain's party.

Gotta love that woman!

One of the non eco-friendly items I couldn't resist were helium balloons:

I was not impressed with them (two were 'dead' before I even made it home and their staying power was less than impressive, not to mention the choking hazard they could have caused...) and will not be doing balloons again. It seemed like such a good idea at the time...

The birthday boy looking so painfully serious that my heart could just break!

And, yes, DH took the day off. It's not every day your little boy turns one!

If you have any other green party ideas for me, I'd love to hear about them!

Still On The Road

Greetings from Newfoundland! Samantha (thanks for thinking of us, Samantha!) was checking up on us yesterday to make sure we were okay. We are. Iain and I are still in Newfoundland. It had been such a great extended family visit that DH booked Iain and I on a flight from St. John’s to Halifax for the 27th – thus extending our trip by a week to give us more time to visit with Mudder and Fadder and my siblings. DH should be back in Nova Scotia with Para as I type. I’ve heard through the weather channels that there is a LOT of rain happening in Nova Scotia. I really hope our roof isn’t leaking….

I was afraid that I would not have the opportunity to write many (any?) blog posts while I was home and that turned out to be the case. I really have not had time to give a computer more than a passing glance with all of the events of the past few weeks (reunion, anniversary party and wedding to name a few). I’m attaching a couple of beautiful photographs taken over the past three weeks to whet your appetite for when I get back, however!

I will have so much to tell you about when I get back. Pictures and information on my at-least 50% eco-friendly first birthday party for Iain; our trip home including a brief, but successful, trip to Wool-Trends here in Newfoundland; as well as a blogiversary contest coming up in early August!

I am having a wonderful time but am suffering from knitting blog reading withdrawal. It will be nice to get back home and get caught up. Until then, I am really hoping you are getting much more knitting done than I am. Iain’s chevron sweater is complete (there’s a story there…) but I am spending way too much time chasing him around to actually wind fibre around my fingers.

A Blomidon Kind of Canada Day

It was one of those days that start off mediocre and ends up quite nicely. It was hot and humid in Middleton again on Canada Day. You know, the kind of day when you need to change your towel because it hasn’t seemed to have dried out properly from the day/week before? I have to admit to spending the day inside, trying not to move too much. We do not have A/C in this house as heat and humidity tend to only last a couple of weeks (versus four to five months in Ottawa). However, that does not mean that I am going to find those two weeks enjoyable. I did not even get out for a run as I deemed it too warm. For sun-lovers, though, it was a spectacular day.

Unfortunately, despite the heat and humidity, I needed to go to the beach at Blomidon Provincial Park to pick up a few things required for the centrepieces for the family reunion (I won’t go into details as family members might actually be reading and I want them to be surprised. It’s not a fancy option, just an unexpectedly natural way to decorate). Blomidon is about an hour drive from our place and, as we were bringing Para, there was some discussion about whether or not to take the van due to its roomy nature. However, the van does not have A/C. No A/C = no Patty so off we all went in the car.

I hemmed and hawed all day about needing to leave for Blomidon as it was just too darn hot to get ready or to drive. Luckily, DH was quite content to enjoy being around the house – a real treat when you work as long hours as he does. However, we really should have left the house earlier. When we got to the Cape, picnic ready and primed for a short walk on the beach, it was gorgeous. The air was fresh and lots of swimmers were coming up from a day at the beach. The next time it’s hot in the valley, you can be sure where to find me!

On our way, we stopped into KFC for our picnic supper (no, not healthy but hot, sultry days just scream fried chicken to me. Come on, I know I’m not the only one!) and strawberries at a roadside stand. Iain had never had strawberries in their true form before (strawberry flavoured yogourt – spelled the Canadian way - does not count).

I think I caught some gorgeous shots of DH and Iain during our picnic supper.



And here we are down on the beach in New Minas basin (the end of the Bay of Fundy) with part of Cape Blomidon in the distance.

We surely do live in a beautiful part of the country.

The sweater? I am still sewing in bloody ends. I was working on it in the car ride to Blomidon but gave it up when I started to get car sick as we pulled off the highway and onto secondary roads. I do not get car sick often but can when I’m hungry. A drumstick of chicken may have been harmed in an attempt to find a solution to my problem…

An Almost FO - Chevron Sweater

I doubt I can call this project a full FO before we depart from this fine province. However, if I wait that long to write a blog post about it A) my 30 seconds of Iain actually fitting in it will be over and B) there might be up to a month break in between posts while we’re away and you’ll have forgotten all about it! The above picture is of me suffering through the humidity on our deck in a desperate attempt to get this project finished. I do not like this picture of myself but, hey, it does show me working away!

Here is an almost finished FO.


Iain hasn’t tried it on yet because, despite my love for this fabric, it’s about 34 degrees here with the humidity and the thought of making him model it in this weather seems downright cruel. Well that and the fact that I’m scared he’ll choke on all the ends by getting one wrapped around his wee neck when I’m pulling it on or off. There are about 5 billion ends to sew in. No, I'm not exaggerating.


Details:

Although I keep calling it Iain’s chevron sweater, the real name of this sweater is the Fred Textured Sweater from Louisa Hardings’ Natural Kints for Babies and Moms.

Yarn: One skein of Handmaiden Casbah sock yarn (80% Superwash merino, 10 % cashmere and 10% nylon) combined with a couple of ‘one off’ skeins of the Fleece Artist’s that I found at Gaspereau Valley Fibres in 90% superwash merino and 10% cashmere. It took about a little over two skeins to knit. Enough to ensure I needed to buy more yarn (isn’t that always the way?) but also enough to ensure another small project from the leftover skein – yeah!

Fun Factor: I really enjoyed knitting this project and would definitely knit it again. I think the yarn I used might be a wee bit smaller/tighter/finer than the DK called for in the pattern. Thus, it may have taken me a little longer to knit than it could have. My main reason for taking so long is over 30” high... Heck, it has taken me since last fall to ‘finish’ it (yes, I know, it isn’t quite there yet) but I’m sure most of you could knit it much faster.

Size: Up to 12 months

These are Elan buttons by Güterman which I found at a local store that was having a closing sale. The fact that this store was closing was especially sad in a small town like ours as it was the only one carrying any yarn whatsoever. I really like the buttons with this fabric.


And Happy Canada Day, Everyone! It’s sadly quiet on the blogosphere these days. Many of my favourite blogs are rarely posting and, in some cases, seem to have stopped. I could blame it on Ravelry or on summer holidays and the weather, I suppose. Whatever your reason, I’m hoping you’re coming back soon. I/we miss you!

Summer Days, Drifting Away …

We’ve been having some marvellous weather here. It has been a little too much on the hot and dry side of the equation for the plants but beautiful for any humans wanting to go outside. There has been a nice balance of humidity and lack of humidity days as well for, as you know, I do not like humidity. At. All.

On the humid days when I’m melting in my house, I really feel bad for Iain. By and large, he’s wearing a big diaper around and, even if that’s all he’s wearing, the child has got to be warm. Therefore, some days there is only one thing to do.

Go outside on the deck.

Have dishpan and water toys primed.

Grease said child down with sunscreen (or, better yet, put him in a sunsuit).

Let him at it.

Pray he is occupied long enough for me to sew up his sweater…

Sleepless in Nova Scotia

The past two weeks have been a bit more challenging since Mudder and Fadder left, and not just because I’m down to two helping hands during the day versus six! While my parents were here, I must have been letting Iain stay up later and later because, by the time they left and over the course of subsequent nights, his hours had been getting later and later. So late, in fact, that last weekend and Monday night, he was up until 10:00 PM.

What happens when my baby is up until 10:00 PM? Well, besides the fact that he is overtired, cranky and impossible to put down to sleep at night, he was also having very difficult and cranky days. Additionally, call me selfish, but late nights for Iain means he is going to bed when I do and I do not get to A) have a break, B) read my favourite blogs or write a blog post or C) knit or do anything else I am unable to do during the day. In essence, Mommy’s sanity time was going by the wayside. By Monday evening, I had had enough.

Anyone who knows us personally knows that it is not the feminine side of the equation who has the infinite patience in this household (stop laughing at the suggestion!). DH has always been much better than I am about holding Iain while he fights going to sleep. And fight he does. I’m not entirely sure how heavy he is now but my guess is about 27 pounds (we’re postponing his twelve month immunizations until after we get back from Newfoundland and I haven’t had him weighed since his nine month check up). That’s about 27 pounds of fighting sleep power that includes pinching, biting, pushing, squirming…you get the picture. Frankly, my arms get tired holding and fighting with him. But, I am not comfortable with the ‘let him cry himself to sleep’ concept. Frankly, I feel that that method is cruel. Besides, I have the luxury of a wonderful DH who is willing to hold Iain, as best he can, until Iain has fussed himself to sleep.

Tuesday night was different. I determined that Iain was going to bed between 7 and 7:30 PM (his usual, pre-grandparent time). That meant getting up earlier, as he’d been sleeping in later and later to make up for lost sleep time (nice though that was, I am a morning person and would rather be up at o’dark early than miss out on a couple of hours of me-time in the evenings), and seeing if he could do with one nap during the day versus two. He’s never been consistent at having an afternoon nap as it was and usually only had one three out of seven days anyway.

Well, after about 20 minutes of fussing, DH got him to sleep (it’s now down to ten minutes, with minimal fussing and an unfinished bottle at the end). I was confident my plan would work. So confident, in fact, that I decided to skip running that night and organise for us to eat like adults out on the deck where, for once, the humidity and bug visitations were low.

Here’s the prepped table.

Iain was asleep before 7:30. We had an enjoyable and relaxing meal without interruptions.

Quality sleep and more consistently happy days for Iain? Wonderful. A quiet meal without a cute almost one year old hanging off my leg (because he seems to prefer my leg for some reason) whining? Priceless.