Remember When?

Remember this?

Here it is being modelled.

It is almost too small.

I have SO got to get this,

my mystery WIP, finished so that the wee bairn is suitably clothed for winter…

Never Lock Your Doors, And Other Tips For Living In Rural Nova Scotia

DH and I are feeling the time crunch. He goes back to work on the 24th of this month after 6 weeks of parental leave and the intention was to have the house reasonably organised (at least the top two floors) and freshly painted before his return to work. We’re not so sure we’re going to make it.

Our house is a cute 1.5 story (I know, I have still to post pictures! I will get to it. Promise) and the .5 part of the house is almost complete. By the grace of God, we might get to the rest (well, God coupled with the assistance of one of my brother’s and SILs who will be visiting us this week)! The .5 floor is what I call the ‘family floor’. It consists of a very small half bath, the master bedroom, a 12’0 by 10’0 landing, Iain’s nursery and the secret room off his room. The secret room isn’t finished yet so we won’t include that space in the following. Master bedroom painted and assorted wall hangings hung – check. Landing painted and assorted wall hangings hung – check. Iain’s room painted – check. Polka dots for Iain’s room painted – nope. Linen and Iain’s closet painted – nope. Stair well painted – check. Assorted wall hangings for stair well and Iain’s room – pending. Curtains can wait.

DH and I were up fairly late (that means 9:30 PM in our house these days) working on hanging pictures. We stopped before he replaced the handrails in the stair well (we got new swanky scroll style handrail brackets from Lee Valley for the wooden rails). DH needed to go unpack some more boxes to find the size of screws that he needed and we thought we’d stop before we both got too cranky to live with. DH then spent until 11:30 PM walking the floors with the freshly diapered, fully nursed wee one until he drifted off to sleep.

As you can probably guess, we spent the better part of yesterday on the .5 floor section of the house. Yesterday morning at about 10:00 AM, I thought I heard a screen door downstairs close. All of the human’s of the house were upstairs with me and the pets, not that they haven’t tried, haven’t learned how to open the screen door by themselves. With a slight tightness to my voice, I told DH about the sound and he went downstairs to investigate. The slight tightness in my voice can be attributed to two reasons:

1. I admit it. I am rarely showered and dressed by that point in the morning. Let’s be more honest. Even if I am showered, I usually have to get dressed on my way to answer either the front or back door. I run around in just my bra on the top half most of the day, ready to nurse or pump at a single cry. I keep a polar fleece with a quick zipped front handy to throw on in case I have to run to the door. A little odd for those 30 plus degree days (like it was yesterday) but, it keeps the neighbours friendly.
2. And, secondly, we just moved from Kanata/Ottawa, the Nation’s Capital where I lived in fear of hearing drunken revellers or the sound of teenagers at the wee hours of the morning. Last July 1st we had two young men decide to jump on the hood of our car as they were throwing something at the windshield resulting in a broken windshield and dented hood. We always locked our doors and Para, the border collie, barked any time after 12:00 PM if she heard anyone outside when she thought they should be home in bed like us. Very sensible is our border collie. If I had ever heard the screen door open downstairs while we were upstairs in Kanata, I would have very seriously considered called the police.

Back to yesterday morning. I heard the sound of a screen door close and no barking border collie. Odd. If anyone comes to our house, Para usually barks. She’s kind of like a doorbell that way. As a matter of fact, DH or I occasionally ring the door bell just to get her to bark. Apparently we get hard up for games to play with her sometimes. We knock on walls and doors too, to get her to come and investigate…

DH went downstairs to the sweet smell of cooling, fresh bread on our counter top with nary a soul to be seen. Not only was there no barking border collie but the border collie must have watched someone fly in to her kitchen, deposit bread on the counter, and leave without so much as a grunt to notify us upstairs. We were left to assume that our visitor must have been the Bread Angel. DH called out the back door a couple of times but no one was there. And the border collie was lying in the hallway, in full view of the kitchen (where the mysterious bread was placed) and not too far from the front door which is, naturally, locked. If you’re from the East coast, you know that only strangers or business people come to the front door anyway. Like a good Newfoundland and Labradorian, my front porch is very sensibly being used for storage.

I did find out who the Bread Angel was later in the day when I took baby and border collie out for a walk. One of the neighbours husband’s, who I hadn’t met before, was out on his ride’em tractor (yes, our properties are that large) and stopped to introduce himself and to tell me that his wife, A, couldn’t raise anyone at our place. I suspect she decided not to ring the doorbell because the baby could have been sleeping. Good woman. A’s husband told me that his wife just brought the bread in and told the dog, who was looking at her curiously, to please not eat her present.

Para is quickly learning that we don’t seem to need a watch dog in Nova Scotia however, friendly greetings are appreciated. She’s a darn good dog. When you come to our house bearing bread, not only will Para likely let you right in but, you might also be offered a cup of tea.

Note: I am considering changing my template with blogger. Therefore, there may be some issues with this blog over the next couple of weeks. Wish me luck!

Big Draw!

Big basket (Lantern Moon):

Big names:

Big arm:

Big winner!

It's Sarah from Life With…! Congratulations, Sarah!

Only One More Day!

Seeking more blogiversary contest entries! The contest ends at 12:00 AM, midnight, tomorrow night (August 31, 2007).

Are you up for the challenge...?

LYS Search

For some of you more seasoned parents, a trip outside the four walls of your house may not be a big deal. You’ve done it a million times before and have developed a routine. That’s not the case around this house. We’re only seven + weeks old – baby and new mommy! Therefore, for me, a trip outside the house by myself with my newborn brings on more fear than I’ve experienced in quite a long time. Well, at least since my contractions started…

Iain and I have been practising leaving the house for a walk, solo, at least once a day, usually up to the post office as it’s an in and out journey and he sometimes gets fussy if the stroller stops for too long. DH is on parental leave until September 24th and I’ve been relying on the two of us to cope with Iain for outings. However, September is just around the corner and I do not want to be too scared to leave the house once DH goes back to work or I’ll go stir crazy which isn’t going to create a happy place for either Iain or me. Iain and I are getting pretty good with the short post office runs and, usually, he is happily napping by the time we get home so I race in the house and grab the leash and Para and we go for another, more Border Collie related, walk. Iain is not a big napper so the stroller nap is a miracle each time!

Last Wednesday, Iain and I went for our first driving outing alone. I had been searching (via the printed yellow pages and the Net) for a yarn store and found a lovely website at Gaspereau Valley Fibres. A couple of weeks ago, DH and I were in the same yarn store’s vicinity when my sister and her fiance were visiting. However, for some reason we ended up at the Gaspereau Vineyard winery and not the yarn store. Go figure? I should clarify – they ended up at the winery. I ended up at the winery parking lot, nursing Iain in the back of the camper. Don’t feel sorry for me though. I had a good book and I don’t like wine so I was pretty content. Besides, DH managed to hunter gather some peanut maple brittle for me as well as the wine he bought for himself – yum!

With the previous weeks recce, and the desire to have really cool blogiversary prizes, I felt Iain and I should be able to go this trip alone. DH has been painting almost ever since we arrived (you will be hearing about DH and painting for awhile, by the way. I can’t wait to show you Iain’s room!) and I didn’t really want to interrupt the painting for a, let's face it, really Patty oriented trip.

Off Iain and I went. We did well. It’s about a 45 minute drive from our house and, on the way, we found a gas station and managed to get extra water put into the van when the water alarm light was going off (the usual 1988 VW camper van adventures). Most importantly, I found the yarn store without a hitch.

I must tell you that, if you are ever in this area or planning a Nova Scotia tour and you are a knitter or fibre enthusiast at all, you cannot miss this store. I was the only customer during my visit, which worked out well as Iain needed to be nursed during most of my visit (I don’t mind nursing in public but some of the public isn’t comfortable with it and that can make me uncomfortable). The owner is a lovely and kind lady and I felt very comfortable there with my baby – now an important consideration for any LYS visit.

I could rave about the huge Fleece Artist selection (and the fact that she will be at the store in September for a workshop and to showcase some of her work), the sock yarn, the rovings (even though I don’t use it, I really appreciate it). I won’t though, that would just be mean to those of you not living in Nova Scotia. There were hugemungous (new Patty word for the week) baskets full of fibre! I had to sit down and catch my breath a couple of times and, luckily, the owner didn’t notice the drooling and slightly hysterical laughter…

Also in stock are a variety of organic yarns such as Green Mountain Spinnery and the cotton for the nursing sweater I was looking at awhile ago is even softer than I’d imagined.

It’s the kind of store where I can spend a period of time enjoying myself but will need to go back a couple of times to get a full and complete sense of the wonder.

It was a great day and I made it back home to find a happily sleeping baby in the back seat (Iain barely tolerates his car seat so we were practising that too). Our first day out was a success! And, don’t you find it appropriate that mommy and baby’s first foray out together was to a yarn shop?

Seeing as this was a pretty text heavy post, here is Iain Daniel, attempting to steal the hearts of knitters world-wide!

Blogiversary Knit Candy

To ensure lots of participation, here are a few shots of my blogiversary prizes - hand dyed gorgeousness from the Fleece Artist:

It’s the Fleece Artist’s Somoko, made of 65% Merino, 20% Kid, 10% Nylon and 5% silk. It is also – gasp! – machine washable!. The pattern on the label is for Cherry Swirl socks but I’m sure you could do a lot of other things with this sweet little skein, if you choose to accept this blog’s contest mission. Here's another picture of the colourway that is a little fuzzy but gives you a great idea of the colours offered in this little bundle of joy.


This next prize is quite unique. Who said knitting needles were just for knitting? I offer you a wearable needle!


It’s a vintage knitting needle curved into a bracelet. I believe it’s exclusively available from Gaspereau Valley Fibres, a lovely knitting store (perhaps my new LYS even though it’s 45 minutes away?) that I will blog about later this week. The bracelet itself is from Flying Dragon Designs in Canning, Nova Scotia. I was not able to find a website for Flying Dragon but will post one as soon as/if I become aware of one.

Hopefully these glimpses of knitting candy rock your world enough for you to enter my contest! See my August 24, 2007 post for details.

Make sure you head on over to Elizabeth's at The Transplanted Knitter for news on her charity of choice!

Fibreholic's First BB (Belated Blogiversary) Contest!

I think bloggers usually hosting a blogiversary contest sometime before the official date and hold the draw the day of the blogiversary. Not me, however. I have a newborn. This means that getting set up for a contest is just a wee bit more challenging (aka late). Therefore, I will be hosting my first blogiversary contest (and first contest for that matter – squee!) from now (August 24, 2007) until one week from now (August 31, 2007).

Just a few rules:

1. You do not have to answer every trivia question! Give it a whirl – peruse my blog further if you like – and send in what you have as your entry. This is supposed to be fun, not hard work!
2. I am aware that some people who peruse my blog are non-knitters. You can still join the fun! Just remember that the prizes are very knitting oriented so it would be nice if the winner was a knitter (or at least good friends with one…).
3. Please send trivia responses to the following email: fibreholic@ns.sympatico.ca. If you add your answers to my comments instead of submitting by email, I will not be able to post your comment until after the contest is over so your hard earned answers are not given away.
4. You have to be willing to share your snail mail name and address with me so that I can send you your prize. After you’ve found out you’ve won, please forward your contact information to the email address above (ensure your privacy by not posting it into my comment section!).

This is a two-part contest.

Fibreholic Trivia - Part A:

1. What types of pets do we have and what are their names?
2. From what city and province did my family just move?
3. When is my baby’s birthday?
4. What is the date of our wedding anniversary? What year?
5. What school program was I enrolled in prior to becoming pregnant and then moving?
6. What part of Canada am I from originally?
7. What type of knitting needles have been known to give me a lot of grief?

Charity - Part B:

Please write a brief description about a charity that holds a special place in your heart. I would like for you to either write about your charity of choice on your own blog (and please let me know that you’ve done so, so that I can read it too) or write about your charity in my comments. This way, your charity gets some additional ‘face time’. I am always interested in why people choose to support the charities they support and think it would be nice to share.

Please remember not to include your Part A answers in with your charity information! If you are comfortable with the idea, I’d love a story about why a particular charity is important to you. If you’re not comfortable sharing a story, the name of the charity and contact information in my comments will suffice. After the contest is over, I will make a small donation to the winner(s) charity of choice.

Have fun, Everybody and, please, let me know if any of the above is confusing and I will clarify. As incentive, I’ve picked up a couple of prizes and something by the Fleece Artist is included.

Good Luck!

Moo!

I have been hesitant to blog as I have little knitting progress to report. You can probably tell what I’ve been up to (even as I type single-handed!) by the title. I haven’t learned how to knit and wield two (or four…) pointy sticks while nursing without harming my first-born (if anyone knows the secret then, please, let me in on it) therefore knitting has become a bit of a memory. I am very much enjoying this special time and fibre only improves with age, right?

We are also very much enjoying our short time here on the East Coast. Have I yet mentioned how wonderful it is here? I love the house more every day (yes, I really should post a picture of it. Great idea. That gives me something to post about when I’m not knitting. Have I mentioned that the house has a ‘secret room’ a là Harry Potter?). It is currently raining and I love hearing the soft patter of rain drops on the patio, in the grass and on the leaves of the huge trees surrounding our property and the street in general. There’s something magical about rainfall when you’re this close to the ocean (only a 7 minute drive up over the mountain). It sounds cleansing somehow. I will have Sarah, over at Life With…, calling a moving company before the year is out!

Despite the fact that I haven’t been busy knitting or being creative in general since giving birth (and I am well aware of how creative that process was – wow!), one of our good friends was busy. Remember my sewing day friend, H? Well, here is her baby gift for Iain Daniel (incidentally, I made the cute kid seated on the quilt...any knitting blogging points for that?):


Isn’t it just gorgeous? The colours are bright and happy, just the way I like them. The fabric is awesome with a combination of fleece and a curly, furry fabric that I can’t name but which is heavenly soft.

It should wash like a dream and Iain loves it! Thanks so much from all of us, H!

I have been getting a few embroidery stitches sewn into my mystery knitting WIP. DH tells me that I shouldn’t buy anymore yarn until that project is done. It’s not really a dictatorship around here. I feel he is being perfectly reasonable when he says,

"And exactly how disappointed are you going to be if she [the recipient] has grown out of it before you’ve given it to her?"

Sigh. Logical, sequential and reasonable arguments get me every time.

I am motivated, though. I found this pattern and I want to knit a couple for Iain before winter. Therefore, the mystery WIP has to get finished. Any suggestions on a 100% worsted weight, super wash wool for a baby sleep sack?

The End Of A Relationship

I will likely have few FO’s to blog about in the near future so I’m darn well going to blog about this one. I apologise for the quality of these photos. They were taken en route to Nova Scotia from my vantage point in the back of our van. I’d take other, more artistic and stimulating pictures of these socks but I’ve…um…kind of lost them in the moving mess. I’m sure I’ll find them again. I type that with the greatest confidence. Until then, here’s FO proof:

Yes, this marks the end of my first pair of socks relationship.

It was a fun ride. I’ve learned a lot from these. For example, I learned:

• That I can use DPNs after all and
• That I’m willing to try knitting two socks at the same time but probably need more DPN and sock practice first (I want to bully those DPNs into submission before I learn another way. Don’t ask me why).

If anyone has any great sock pattern books to recommend, I’d appreciate it.

These first socks also taught me that I need to go down several needle sizes. The fabric in these socks is certainly looser than I’d prefer but, hey, they’re my first and I’m not so much of a perfectionist that I’d rip them out for a tighter weave. I did knit a gauge swatch before starting on these but my knitting loosened up as I went onto sock number two. Therefore, my second sock is a wee bit larger than sock number one (betcha couldn’t tell that from the pictures, huh? There’s something to be said for poor picture quality after all – it hides a myriad of mistakes!). I’m going to try and knit my next pair in a pair of needles more suited to socks (usually 2.25 mm’s, right?) as these were knit using 3.25 mm needles. I must have been a wee bit tense when I knit those swatches…

We have arrived to our beautiful house in Middleton, Nova Scotia and are back online! Thank goodness. It turns out that DH and I rely on the Internet quite a bit. For example, here is a sample of a typical conversation around here our first week:

DH: "Do you think the grocery store is closed yet?"
Me: "I dunno. Why don’t you call them and find out?"
DH: "I don’t have their number."
Me: "Duh. Just use ‘Canada 411’ to find it. Oh. Right. Sorry. (This said meekly) Want to walk up and see if it’s still open?"

Travelling with a newborn was fun. Well, depending on your idea of fun. We stopped every 2 hours or so so that I could nurse. Otherwise, Iain slept most of the way. I’ve decided that the only way I might get any knitting accomplished again in 2007 is to have DH drive around the block continuously with Iain and I in the back – me knitting vigorously and Iain asleep beside me.

Our trip East involved a ferry ride across the Bay of Fundy from St. John, New Brunswick to Digby, Nova Scotia. Here I am, looking exceptionally tired (because I was/am!), on Iain’s first ferry ride:

Iain had no sign of sea-sickness. Let's hope he hasn't inherited that trait from his mother. Here’s a much better picture summarising what Iain thought of the whole adventure:

A couple of people commented on our use of cloth diapers and if we were using cloth or disposable diapers for the trip East. We used disposable. Our 12 hour driving day on the Saturday was going to be bad enough without having to try and wash diapers when we got into our hotel very late that night. We are now back to the cloth diapers, however, especially after stocking up with more from our nice trip to the Valley Cloth Diaper Company for extra Fuzzibuns and Bummis covers for our pre-fold diapers yesterday. I’m sure we will still use disposable for trips but I really prefer the cloth option at home.

My blogiversary is coming up on the 21st of this month. I can’t believe what a fun journey this blogging adventure has been. I’ve met so many wonderful people through blogging and I want to let you know how much you mean to me. Get primed for a contest! I’ve never hosted one on my blog before so I’m very excited. Even if I can’t knit with a newborn, I’m hoping that, with DH’s help, I can shop for knitting with a newborn!

The Magic Of A Heel

It’s amazing how small things can give you a sense of accomplishment when you have a newborn. Let’s face it, I’m not getting a lot of knitting done. This is the result of a commitment to cloth diapers (= lots of laundry and clothes line time) and being up almost every hour for two hours at a time due to a commitment to breast feeding. My sense of accomplishment with respect to knitting this week is because I turned a heel on my second-ever-knitted-in-my-lifetime sock.

Jeez, the colours are terribly displayed in these photographs.


My parents managed to hold off on the home bug until Thursday when, much to our dismay, they decided it was time to head back East. We are greedy and are hoping to see them again at the end of the month in our new home in Nova Scotia. Over the weekend, we hosted our good friends M & S and also managed to have C over as well on Saturday night. We were ‘bad’ parents and stayed up really late chatting. Bad for us as Iain had a great sleep while we chatted and laughed and he decided it was time to eat when we were getting ready for bed at 1:15 AM. It will take us several days to recover from that! We also managed to spend this afternoon with other good friends, J & M. It's been hard saying 'adieu' to so many close and wonderful friends.

The time is quickly passing. We leave Kanata/Ottawa this week – the movers come on Tuesday to start packing and should be finished by Wednesday. After house cleaning and meeting with the lawyer on Thursday, we leave on Friday morning in our 1988 VW camper van with two adults, one infant, one Border Collie and two cats for locations East. Therefore, you will notice a gap in my blogging over the next couple of weeks as we are moving to another province and I will not have computer access for a little while. However, have no fear! Once we are connected to a computer again, I'll be back!

Happy knitting and blogging! I can’t wait to catch up with you all again soon!

PS My blogaversary is coming up in August. Guess who is moving to the land of the Fleece Artist?!?

PPS Now I’m busy trying to decide how many knitting projects one girl needs for a 2.5 day road trip…with a newborn...who is breast feeding. Perhaps I'm a little naive about the amount of knitting time I may have...Hey, a girl's gotta have dreams!

Eleven Years Ago Today...

…My father, then the rector of St. Peter’s Parish in Upper Gullies, Newfoundland, married DH and me. It’s been a wonderful eleven years. We were married on another beautiful July day, much like the temperature today in Ottawa (the thunder storm yesterday broke the humidity – hallelujah!). We celebrated our wedding in my father’s church and our reception was held in The Bungalow, Bowring Park, St. John’s – a place I remember fondly as my friend and I would go swimming at the pools there together when I visited her and her family in St. John’s. In those days, L and I used to buy ice cream from the concession at The Bungalow.

I’d get married to DH again in a heartbeat. Happy 11th Anniversary, DH!

I had hoped to post to my blog at least once a week after our baby was born. Here is post number one, post-natal. I’m going to apologise in advance for all of the news I’m missing from my other blogging friends. I think Iain has some type of device put on this computer as, if I go anywhere near it, he gets upset. To be fair to Iain, he is having one fussy period a day for about 4 – 5 hours. Other than that, his nights have been pretty good with three to four hours solid sleep in between feedings. I can deal with that! However, for the moment, it does mean I may be a bit out of the blogging loop. I miss you all dearly and will read up again each chance I get.

Iain Daniel turned one week old yesterday and, I can tell you, that the week has been filled. And not just the week, most of the 24 hours of each day! Here we are enjoying a 4:00 AM feeding.


I mentioned that my parents and my in-laws were visiting. They have been fantastic with helping out in every area around the house, allowing DH and I to concentrate on our new baby. MIL turned into the grand conductor and, together with assistance from FIL and my parents, hosted a baby shower for me two nights ago. As well as a celebration of Iain's birth, the event provided the opportunity to see some friends that we won’t likely see again before we move to Nova Scotia at the end of the month and all Iain and I had to do was show up. Iain did very well and was only a bit fussy. It was incredibly hot and humid with over 30 people in our little house. I thought everyone did very well not melting into helpless pools on the floor. And the air conditioner was on bust! We were overwhelmed with our family and friend’s generosity and it was a lovely evening.

As you ‘new first baby’ veterans can probably guess, stringing two words together right now is a challenge, let alone two pointy sticks. However, if Iain continues to snooze on DH’s arm as he is doing right now,


I might get a couple of more rows of my sock knit. That’s about as much as my addled brain can handle at the moment!

Thanks to all of you folks, as well, who offered warm wishes and welcome to our little boy. We are quite smitten with him. I just know he’s a little knitter in training!

We Have A Boy!

DH and I are proud to announce the arrival of Iain Daniel!

Iain was born on July 4, 2007 at 12:19 AM at the Ottawa General Hospital. He weighed in at a hefty 8lbs 6.2 ozs and, about, 19 inches in length. We really enjoyed sharing the experience with both sets of grandparents in attendance (well, in the waiting anxiously room type of attendance).

DH, baby and I just arrived home yesterday to a front door graced with blue balloons and flowers throughout the house! It’s so nice to have two sets of grandparents here – we’ve been spoiled with house cleaning, laundry fairies and great food.

More news to follow as we get used to this very great (and wonderful) addition to our family.

While I've Been Waiting...

...This is what I’ve been working on. It’s a pressie so I don’t want to give too much away. However, here are a couple of glimpses.


It’s amazing how much more confident I’ve become with knitting techniques since beginning this project. I started it in May 2006 (and chose a pattern a few sizes too large just in case – smart Patty!) and am clueing up the final stages now. The pattern incorporates embroidery with yarn. Luckily, I’m a bit of a veteran in that arena so the embroidery, while slow, is going well. I re-taught myself how to do a three needle cast off (I even had to go back and ‘re-enliven’ the stitches I had originally bound off) and now have more practice on the mattress stitch for sewing up seams. The embroidery has to be finished before I can sew up the sleeves and I still need to knit on a collar. Once it’s gifted and received, you will see it in all its glory!


Baby considerately waited until after Canada Day so that DH, MIL, my parents and myself could go to Parliament Hill and see some of the festivities. A family friend from Edmonton was demonstrating her silver smithing (gorgeous!) so we were able to see her and her work at the Edmonton, Alberta cultural display. After returning home for supper around 6:00 PM, we left again around 9:00 PM to find a good vantage point from which to watch the Parliament Hill fireworks. Our last Canada Day in the Nation’s Capital was quite nice.

Even nicer was the fact that, when we came home for supper, DH’s father was waiting for us as a surprise! Now all prospective grandparents are in attendance. However, I think Baby might have performance anxiety as we are STILL waiting!

No Baby Yet!

Today is my due date with nar' a baby in sight! I'm off for a biophysical ultrasound today to ensure that everything is still going well with the little (big) tyke. My parents and MIL are here visiting - all arrived on Saturday - so blogging time is at a minimum. Well, that and it's been very hot and I'm tired of lugging around an extra 40 lbs so I'm a wee bit grumpy.

Last night, me Mudder (the official resident knitting expert) and I were helping my MIL with a new shawl project she's starting on. It is going to be very pretty when it's finished. I'm busy sewing up a project that you have only had glimpses of on this blog. It is also very pretty and, once gifted, will be posted to show you the full meal deal. Mom is working on socks or Teddies for Tragedies, depending on the time of day.

We will keep you posted! Happy knitting!

Knitting Slow Down

Today has been a day of worries. The doctor told me yesterday that the little one is now ‘sunny side up’ – face up instead of nicely positioned the way s/he was last week. Now, I’m terrified of back labour. Today I had, likely, my last therapeutic massage session before the baby is born. Hopefully that will help the whole labour process a bit. My doctor referred me for therapeutic massage sessions a number of months ago (thank goodness for insurance coverage). Overall, I like the long term effects but, wow, am I ever sore and tender for a few days after a session. Today was the worst yet. The therapist said I’m more sensitive because the baby is coming soon. She was also isolating a lot of acupressure points to assist me in labour and I was a real wimp. I hope I have some kind of adrenaline rush during labour or I’m going to be the biggest mommy wimp the hospital has ever seen!

Some of my worries involve WIPs. For some reason, I have the feeling that I will not knit or sew or paint or write, etc, until this baby leaves home as an adult. While I realise that this is a ridiculous fear (after all, look at how productive so many of my blogging friends who have small children are!), it is still a worry to add to my ever increasing list.

Some of my girlfriends and I went out for a lovely supper last night and then came back to our place for dessert. DH and I only managed to provide three different types of dessert! It was a lovely evening but I’m feeling rather tired as a result today. Naturally, having company over meant that I spent a lot of the weekend in purgatory – that’s another word for doing housework. However, the house is now all clean and sparkly. It will only need a few tweaks before MIL arrives on Saturday and my parents arrive on Sunday/Monday.

I am trying to get some baby WIPs completed. Here is some progress on the change pads (I’m just pinning on the binding to machine sew one side in preparation for hand sewing the other side of the binding to the back).


As you can tell, my efforts are regularly thwarted by a black and white feline who is – almost – too cute to get mad at (she’s just been relegated to the main floor as her typing assistance resulted in the deletion of all of the text I’d just typed – argh!).


Here is my second sock progress.


Yes, I know, it’s not much. Barely enough to cover Renée’s suggestion of having knit at least 3" into the sock cuff to ensure I’m committed to the project. As I mentioned, purgatory meant not much knitting over the weekend. That being said, I knit about 2" while waiting to get into seeing my doctor yesterday so that was some productivity there. I think my energy is slowing down in preparation for the big push whenever Baby decides s/he is coming.

Firsts

It’s been and is going to be a month of firsts. This month of June 2007 is supposed to be the month of the birth of our first child. If s/he is interested in arriving on time that is.

This is proof of my first turned heel.


This is proof of the completion of my very first sock (I learned how to graft and wove in the ends just an hour ago).



Let me digress for a moment. I think stockings should be hung to the left, as above, and not to the right (see below).



Why is it so many Christmas stockings are oriented to the right and not the left. Am I crazy? Wait a minute, I don't know if I want you to answer that...

To avoid that terrible SSS problem (Second Sock Syndrome), here’s proof of starting sock number two (look carefully into the background of this picture).

I have some questions for you:

1. How much do you have to knit on your second sock to avoid SSS?
2. Have I met the goal (see photo above)?
3. Is it okay to continue using the same ball of yarn and not starting a fresh ball (thereby needing to join yarn at some point in the second sock)? This may be a stupid question but, hey, I'm just learning over here!
4. I’ve heard from a variety of sources that sock yarn does not constitute stash yarn. I’m keen to know why (I remember reading why but, I was too scared of socks at the time so I glossed over that section). I am all ears and interested in a compelling argument...one that's useful on DH's would also be of interest.

Reduce, Reuse And Recycle (RRR)

Kristin, over at A Few Things to Say, has put out a RRR challenge and I volunteered to get myself tagged for this meme. Awesome idea, Kristin! Everyone, come on out and expose yourselves!

Here is my current list of reduction, reusing and recycling efforts:

• We use the Ottawa recycling program to its fullest – which is not very full considering the recycling program we had in Germany. I cannot believe the plastic containers that still end up in the regular garbage. However, it is a start.
• We use compact fluorescent light bulbs.
• We have never used pesticides on our lawn (unlike everyone around us – and they all have small children and/or pets!). I have a ‘This is a beautiful lawn – pesticide free’ sign posted at our front door so the neighbours don’t come a knocking about our dandelions (I love dandelions. Did you know that they were introduced to North America as a food crop?). Not that I mind having a discussion about dandelions but, they may as well know where I stand before they knock on the door.
• We use an electric lawn mower. We had purchased a push mower and got rid of our old gas mower a few years ago but our lot was really too large for us to keep up with, with just the push mower. Bad on electricity but better for the air.
• Although we technically have two vehicles (a 2000 Mazda Protegé and a 1988 Westfalia Volkswagon camper van), we try to act as a one car family. This is not difficult in the winter as the van is stored during all ‘salt on the road’ months. DH and I negotiate who needs the vehicle on any given day and, some days, it doesn’t move at all. The van is rarely used except for camping and the odd ‘large haul’ trip (e.g. like picking up our new patio set from The Bay).
• We have installed a high efficiency furnace, hot water tank and air conditioner in our current home.
• Although I find it very difficult to live through the humidity of an Ottawa summer, the A/C is not too cool and usually only cuts in in the late afternoon as we use night air and curtains to keep the house quite cool during the day.
• Since buying this house in 2002, we have also upgraded the insulation in the basement and replaced all of the old, drafty and, in some cases, rotten windows.
• DH rides his bicycle to work most days of the week.
• We compost all through the year.
• During the summer months, we use a rain barrel for garden watering.
• We have installed and use a clothes line. I love it!
• I use the hot water cycle in the washing machine only once a week and never use bleach (wet white clothes on the clothesline combined with the sun is the best bleach of all).
• We use natural cleaners in our home, as well as handmade soap. Some of this is due to the fact that I am highly allergic to most cleaning products. I figure that, if I react to it, it isn’t good for the environment either.

Here are some things I would like to add to my list:

• I would like either four rain barrels at the four corners of the house or an underground cistern to capture rain water for gardening. DH is already talking about the cistern for our new house.
• I would like to find an organic farm or regularly attend a farmer’s market to source our vegetables and meat. This should not be an issue in the Annapolis Valley when we move.
• I need to get better with using my reusable shopping bags. I’m terrible. I have them but they just don’t seem to get used that often. That being said, I do recycle the plastic bags at the local bag drop off or for Para’s ‘apples’.
• A hybrid vehicle would be a joy. With the new baby, we are currently looking at new vehicles. We don’t want an SUV or a mini-van and are looking for a wagon of some form. However, finding a hybrid wagon that will fit all of us and still be in our price range, is not looking promising.
• Our dream is to build an off-grid, eco-friendly house someday. Thus one of the reasons why I was in an interior design program.

Off to watch a movie and do some knitting on a very exciting development. However, I’m not telling you about it until I’m 55% complete the project. I don’t want to jinx it by blogging about it too early and developing another WIP that never gets finished. And the particular type of knitting I'm working on is reputed to be tricksy that way. However, I am knitting. Ferociously.

The picture at the beginning of the post is of my 'knitting helper's' over the past weekend. Yes, that chair is orange. Orange is my favourite colour!

Here's another hint of knitting 'candy'.

Knit Hard Or Die Young

You know, I’ve always considered myself to be a reasonably intelligent person. Granted, I could not pick heads or tails out of DH’s Masters of Electrical Engineering thesis when, as a matter of heart, I sat down to read it. However, apart from advanced engineering and math, I usually catch onto things pretty quickly. I get (most) jokes, know a reasonable list of big words (and love learning more!), and wrote a Masters thesis once. Therefore, I don’t feel I’m too stunned (Newfoundland word for ‘stupid or dense’). However, yesterday morning, four pointy sticks and some string darn near did my head in.

I’ve mentioned before that I want to learn to knit socks in 2007. I have a few gorgeous sock yarns to choose from my in stash (some people would laugh at what little sock yarn it takes for me to call it a ‘stash’ but, I digress) and have found several patterns that I’d love to wear. I have also had enough success with DPNs over the past two weeks to encourage me to attempt to cast on the first of a pair of socks.

That’s when things started to go horribly wrong. See Exhibit A (I’ve re-knit my knitting problem on larger needles in an attempt for you to see it clearly. My camera does not seem to like close up pictures so two of these are fuzzy. Sorry about that.):


That’s one REALLY wide gap.

Exhibit B– Row Two gap:


Exhibit C – Row Three gap:


Understand my frustration? At the risk of breaking yarn, I am tugging really tightly on the yarn when I get to the beginning of the round but, for some reason, this gap is the largest. I have ladders between the other needles too but they aren’t as bad and they don’t worry me as much.

Is a gap this large normal?

Once the tears (I cry when I’m very, very frustrated) dried up and the swearing died down, I did get something done after five – yes that’s FIVE – cast on and joining attempts. Those five attempts included two attempts at knitting up three rows in the round, seeing the gap you see in Exhibit C not disappearing and ripping my progress off the needles a couple of times. However, by hook or by crook I did manage to get this far on my socks.

I won’t tell you how I got the beginning of the row yarn gap to go away. It involves bad knitterly things and I don’t think I’ll ever show my first sock and its cast on edge to any expert knitters.

Unfortunately, I’m now terrified to cast on the second sock (notice she isn’t in the least bit intimidated by turning a heel? Ignorance is bliss! I KNOW I have a problem with joining on DPNs so I’m more worried about that at the moment).

Thank you for allowing me to vent. Stay tuned, knit hard.

PS Great guesses on the sewing project. They are baby bottom change pads awaiting binding. Current status? Still awaiting binding…

Production High - Baby Soon?

This level of production is SO going to end in a few weeks (three weeks from today!). I have not (gasp!) been knitting today. Nope, H and I had likely our last sewing day before a new knitter is born. The hockey game starts soon so, I am off to knit after all. However, in the meantime, can you guess what I was working on today?


I’ll give you a hint…


…I will need them desperately once the baby is born.

Kitty Pi Introduction

Ungrateful, ingrate that she is, here is where I found Checkers after putting a new Kitty Pi bed on the carpet for her (she's lying on my labour suitcase in our bedroom):


And, where was the interest I’d anticipated from our other cat, Tobi? Here, on the guest room bed (I actually have really nice bed covers on all of our beds - covered with old sheets and bed spreads to catch cat hairs. They come off before company visits - I swear!):


I met with more success when I actually put Checkers in her new bed (she's looking a little intense because she's considering pouncing on Tobi who had come out to check out what we were doing during the photo op):

All of our pets love to lie on wool (e.g. on sweaters, on our wool area rug, on woven table runners where they shouldn’t be…the pets shouldn’t be, not the runners). Therefore, I have some hope that either Checkers or Tobi will adopt this cat bed as their own. I am quite pleased with it myself. It’s too bad it’s not big enough for the Border Collie!

What’s next you ask? Well, I’ve cast on another Bunny Tail hat.


Not much progress so far but, it was a really bad hockey game (I don’t like hockey but enjoy watching DH get frustrated and also enjoy keeping him company while I get some quality knitting time in).

Additionally, here is the leftover yarn from the Kitty Pi. I am thinking of making a small, fulled bowl out of it. Does anyone have any fulled/felted bowl pattern suggestions for me?