Category Archives: WIP


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one sidewinder down…

I realized tonight that I have been doing a bit of knitting lately, but have forgotten to take any photos of it.

About a week ago, only a few days after we got home from our trip, I finished the first Sidewinder sock. I couldn’t wait to do the long grafting and the toe graft and see if the sock actually fit (no sense making a second one if the first didn’t fit!)

These socks are so cool!!!! You knit them lengthwise, so instead of horizontal stripes running around your foot and leg, you have long vertical stripes. It really changes up the look of the self-striping yarn, and maybe it’s just the new sock love talking, but I swear these socks fit better than my other ones.

Ignore those pesky ends, I’ll sew them in once the other sock is done.

Isn’t it cute?

The pattern is free, and it’s from here. I’m knitting it exactly as written for my size, but once I have the other one done and I try them on with shoes, I’m thinking I might want to add a few stitches in the foot length on my next pair. And there WILL be a next pair.


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7 months

By seven months, your baby
…should be able to:
-feed self a cracker WE HAVEN’T TRIED (all the commercially available ones have sugar as one of the first few ingredients, and I’m not making all his food myself just to load him on sugar with some crackers)
-razz (make a wet razzing sound) CHECK
-coo or babble when happy CHECK
-smile often when interacting with you

…will probably be able to:
-sit without support CHECK
-bear some weight on legs when held upright CHECK
-object if you try to take a toy away NO- he’ll tighten his grip but he’s not possessive yet
-work to get a toy that’s out of reach CHECK
-look for dropped objects CHECK
-rake with fingers a tiny object and pick it up in fist I’M NOT SURE I don’t give him tiny objects
-turn in the direction of a voice CHECK
-babble, combining vowels and consonants such as ga-ga-ga, ba-ba-ba, ma-ma-ma, da-da-da CHECK
-play peekaboo 50/50- he’ll laugh when we play, but he doesn’t cover his own face yet
…may possibly be able to:
-creep or crawl I’M NOT SURE does it count when he can get anywhere he wants to go by rolling and “scootching” his body?
-pass a cube or other object from one hand to another CHECK
-stand holding on to someone or something CHECK
…may even be able to:
-pull up to standing position from sitting WITH HELP
-get into a sitting position from stomach NO
-play patty-cake (clap hands) or wave bye bye NO but he’s started raising his arms to be picked up
-pick up tiny objects with any part of thumb and finger I’M NOT SURE (see above)
-walk holding on to furniture (cruise) NO
-say “mama” or “dada” indiscriminately ALL THE TIME!
Jakob turned 7 months yesterday, on the 17th of December. You know the drill…time flies, yada yada, he’s gotten so big, yada yada…but really…time does fly. And he has gotten so big! He sits by himself, he rolls anywhere he wants to go…and the best part is…he gives me kisses. He takes my face in his hands and presses his face up against mine for a second then pulls back and grins at me. Can I get any more in love with this boy?

And what would this be? Something not on the What to Expect list? Why yes…that would be

TWO TEETH!

My baby has two teeth! (I think you can click on the photo to see it larger). The first one cut through about 2 weeks ago, but we were waiting to tell anyone that he got “his first tooth” until you could see it when he smiled. We didn’t want people pulling down his lip to try to see it. Well, wouldn’t you know it, but the day it was out enough to be visible the one right next to it cut through!

In other news…I’ve been a lousy blogger lately. I don’t know what’s with me…all I want to do in the mornings is sleep in while Jakob naps, and all I seem to want to do at night is sleep. I’m the one who usually goes to bed at 1:00am, and lately I’ve been getting into bed by 10:00pm! Plus I’m stressed about 8 million things* and can’t seem to give my brain a rest, so whenever I get a chance to sit at the computer I think to myself “eh, I’ll do it later”, which somehow ends up the next day, or the next, or the next, and that’s why I end up not posting for a week until I feel really guilty. :/

I’m only here for one more week before the holidays so I’ll do my best to post often until I go on vacation, and keep it up once I’m back.

In knitting news: I have to knit 2 penguins by Sunday. I know, the self-imposed deadlines again. I’m a sucker for them, aren’t I?

Any ideas how this is supposed to look like a penguin?


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step 1- choose the proper yarn

I finished the first Pocket Book Slipper last night. The pattern is free, and from here and I used the strap mods from here.

Isn’t it cute? (Ignore the non-woven-in ends). I know, you can’t even tell its a slipper. They are so small and compact…I’m not sure if they’re called “Pocket Book” slippers because they look like little purses, or because they are small enough to always have a pair stashed in your purse.
Here’s how it looks on the foot. Cute, no?
Actually…cute…no. They don’t fit me. That, above, is Yannick’s ginormeous foot. This photo, below, shows how they look on me.
MUCH too big. I like a slipper that fits at least as tight as a sock. If I have to keep worrying about it slipping off then it is most likely to make ME slip and isn’t something I’ll want to wear.
If I stretch it out to a comfortable fit, this is how much extra I would have to remove.

I thought about this a lot last night. It didn’t make sense…I was using the needle size called for. I knit the pattern as written. After the triangle/button band part, you immediately jump from 22 sts to 44 sts before working the ribbing. If I subtracted the extra ribbing I had to get a tighter fit…I would have had to work the ribbing at the 22 sts and never increase. That just didn’t seem right. Why would I be SO far off when a ton of others (76 alone on Ravelry) have knit these and they fit just fine?

Ahem.

It’s simple. THEY used the proper weight of yarn. I’d ignored that little point. When I found my grandmother’s purple yarn it looked like a worsted weight. My brain didn’t process that worsted usually uses 4mm-5mm needles, and this yarn was calling for 6mm. I also managed to ignore the discrepancy that occurred when I first pulled out some worsted Patons Decor to pair with it. I found immediately that the Decor was too thin (but it WAS a worsted!) and stash-dove for the gray yarn I used…the Patons Shetland Chunky. Yeah, it’s right there in the name. Chunky. Also calling for 6mm. I was so happy I’d found 2 oddballs from my stash to work together that I never picked up on the fact that they were both too big.

Le sigh.

While cute, the gray/mauve combo is a wee bit too girly for Yannick, so while they did fit him quite nicely, they were promptly ripped back into little balls. (I’m glad I had the foresight to try them on BEFORE weaving in all the ends). I will knit them again but with the proper yarn this time. Luckily I have a ton of Decor in my stash in lovely neutrals so I can make a little basket of these socklets to keep by the door for guests.

I have since cast on for these which DO call for a thicker yarn.

Mother Nature decided to dump almost 8″ (20cm) of snow on us last night and they’re calling for another 4″ (10cm) today (full story here) so Jakob and I are staying inside, in our pjs, for the day. I’m hoping to have a pair of slippers (that fit) by tonight.


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random stuff

Here’s Mommy with Jakob at 27 weeks. (2 weeks ago).
I know I still haven’t posted the one from this past Thursday (28 wks) and…well…you’re not getting one. I managed to get Yannick to take 3 photos for me and all 3 suck. 🙂
On Friday Jakob and I had music class, then we went into town to go visit my grandmother. On the way in I saw this Plymouth Voyager in front of me. Nothing against the car…but dude…”pimp”? You’re driving a Voyager!
I forgot to post this photo from Wednesday. Robyn, Sean, Jakob and I went to the movies and saw Enchanted, which was very cute. I love how Jakob looks irritated (“leave me alone Ma, I’m here with a friend!”) and Sean looks guilty (“I told my mom I was at the library!”.
Yesterday was Dec 1st so we introduced Jakob to his first Advent Calendar. I think it is hysterical that I (Jewish) bought this for Jakob, and had to explain to Yannick (Catholic) what it is for. Of course, we’re not letting Jakob eat the chocolates, but it makes for a cute photo op!
Finally, in this collection of random photos, here’s a skein (actually 2 smaller skeins together) of Hand Maiden’s Rumple, 100% silk yarn. I made a joke to Yannick the other day about how he’d gone to our LYS 2 weeks ago to buy me yarn as a way of making up for something but left empty-handed, and never went back. Friday he left after supper telling me he had an errand to do, and he came home with this! I had been raving about my mom’s gift, which was knit with that pale, almost banana-green Hand Maiden Sea Silk (70% silk, 30% seacell) and Yannick wanted me to have something for ME that was out of a yarn as nice. Isn’t it pretty? The colors are actually much deeper in real life but the lighting sucked when I took the photo.

In other news from this week:
-Jakob can roll over both ways (left or right), from his tummy to back and vice versa. Gonna have to start baby-proofing the house!
-Yannick’s dad came over yesterday and today to help work on the den. Still a few more weeks’ worth of renos to do, but at least it’s finally gotten started
-I hand wound the Rumple with Yannick’s help and started the scarf/shawl but needed to pick up some pointier needles (to get into those k2togs in the boucle-esque yarn) so I only have an inch or so completed and no photos yet.
-I knit up to the first repeat in the Chain Melody but forgot to take a photo
-I don’t know if Jakob is teething or growing, but for 2 nights now I’ve had to feed him at 4am to get him to stop crying, plus he cries for 2 hrs before finally taking any of his daily naps. This can NOT continue…
-I started a pair of Pocket Book Slippers for myself (I’ll post the link in my next post with some photos). I went stash-diving for yarn and found a soft mauve in the proper gauge in the stash I inherited from my grandmother. I got halfway through the first slipper last night when it hit me- I only had 1 50g ball of yarn…and 2 feet. Further exploration of my stash got me to find out that the Patons Shetland Chunky I’d used to knit Jakob’s vest was the exact same weight and yarn content (75% acrylic/25% wool) as my Bubbie’s vintage stuff. I had most of a 100g ball of the gray left, so I completely undid my slipper and started over, working the new pair in 2 row stripes. The pale gray and pale purple actually go well together, in an almost old-fashioned way, which makes me happy that I could find a use for my Bubbie’s yarn and transform it into something I would use and have to remember her with. I think I explained this really backwards and I’m too tired to go back and rewrite this paragraph…but I’m glad I was able to mix the two yarns and come up with new socks that look old-fashioned and thus will remind me of my grandmother.
-I just used the word “thus”. I need a nap.


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eye+candy

I’m still not sure what to do about the Marble clapotis. I had made up my mind to rip it out and save the yarn for another project, but when Maaike was over this morning she got me thinking i should keep it and continue. What do do? On the one hand…no it’s not as nice as the project I just finished. But on the other…it’s not the same thing at all. This isn’t silk laceweight. This is dk acrylic in vibrant colors that I do really like. And would it kill me to have a machine washable, workhorse scarf? I think it’s just the thought of slogging through another 3 balls of yarn that are getting to me. I’m going to think on it a while and decide- without ripping it back just yet.

My KnitPicks order arrived! I took advantage of their yarn sale to get a little bit more, and decided to try out some Shimmer (70% alpaca, 30% silk). It is sooooooo soft! I had a hard time deciding the colors I wanted, but I think this brown mix is going to be perfect. I would like to use this yarn to design an oversized, lacy top to wear over a tank top, and since I usually wear jeans or black pants, and a black tank, this will go with the neutrals but will still be dressy if I choose to wear it somewhere dressier. I have a bunch of sketches of this one, but nothing concrete yet.

I got some knitting books too…mostly more stitch pattern books for designing.
Last night the stars aligned and I was able to finally cast on for the Chain Melody socks. I like how the yarn is knitting up, the short repeats make each color last only for 3/4 to 1 row before changing…but when I did my swatch I was able to have each color stripe for a few rows and I have to say…I LOVED that. I almost wish I could get this same colorway but in longer repeats to stripe on my foot. I’ll probably have enough left over to add this to the blankie, though, which will be shorter repeats and will stripe the way I like.
10 minutes ago my Ram Wools order arrived. Check this out- 12 knitting magazines for $2 each! With the US/CAD conversion, that comes out to about $1.89 each LOL…and when brand new the mags cost over $7.00. Not a bad sale! I think my favorite part is the plastic zippered bag they came in…perfect for storing a project in. Thanks Ram Wools!Finally, here is a real treat. My friend JayJay over in LA sent this to me in exchange for the Baby Knits duplicate book I’d recieved. Who do you think got the better end of this exchange? This is Lamb’s Pride worsted (85% wool/ 15% mohair) that she dyed herself. Isn’t it gorgeous?
She also sent me this HEAVY box of chocolates…which Yannick was very disappointed to find out that we would be savoring it- not devouring it in one night.
Thanks JayJay! Swapping is fun!


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…a bit of this…

I think I forgot to post a photo of Mommy with Jakob at 24 weeks, so here it is. I still haven’t figured out how to take good weekly shots, like Robyn does. If I use a flash we get stuff like this:
If I skip the flash, even in well lit areas, I get blurry photos. On November 1st when this was taken, no one was home to take the photo for me, so this flashy photo is what you get!
As I mentioned in the last post, I liked the idea of “whipping up” a vest for Jakob to wear to the Bar Mitzvah we had this past weekend. I know it meant putting off my other projects for a bit, and one of them does have a deadline, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt too much to squeeze in a quickie. I don’t remember if this yarn is considered a worsted or a bulky, but boy did it knit up fast! On Tuesday afternoon at Robyn’s I had only the ribbing done, remember? Well this photo was taken on Wednesday morning, when I had intended on posting.
Not bad huh? That’s all of the sweater to the armpits, then the front completed and waiting for a 3-Ndl BO on the shoulders. The back was done up to that spot you see on the right.
I would have liked to have finished the vest on Wednesday, but instead I spent part of the day making this:

That’s 3 Ziploc bags of baby food ready to pop into the freezer for when Jakob starts his fruits and veggies. From the left, there is banana, butternut squash, and zucchini. I couldn’t believe how easy it was to make! First I measured my ice cube trays and found out that each cube holds 2 tbsp of liquid. I know I could have just mashed the bananas fresh for him but it would be lumpy and I didn’t want to always have to have bananas on hand and hope they’d be ripe enough, so I took a few I had and pureed them up, and that was it. The squash took about 20 minutes in the microwave, sliced in half and cut-side-down in a baking dish with some water. It got so tender it practically fell out of the skin and into my food processor, although I did quite a bit more of the cooking water than the booklet I have said (about 2/3 of a cup v.s. 1/3 of a cup) because I found it very gloppy and thick and hard for even me to swallow, so I wanted it more liquid for Jakob. The zucchini was also super simple, just boil the peeled rounds for 5 min then puree without adding any extra water. I had all 3 batches done in about 2 hours, and that was WITH cleaning my supplies and food processor in between each batch! I put them in ice cube trays (covered in saran wrap) in the fridge to cool down, and a few hours later put those trays in the freezer for over night. The next morning I popped them out and into labelled Ziploc Freezer Bags and now I have food that will last for 6-8 months, with no chemicals or preservatives. Cool.

Here’s Mommy with Jakob at 25 weeks. He was being so snuggly at playgroup and I thought he was sleeping. Turns out he wasn’t, he was just enjoying resting on me. I had no idea what he looked like so when one of the other moms took this photo I couldn’t believe that look on his face!

I love my mommy.

I’ll leave you now with my favorite photo from last Thursday. I had done Jakob’s laundry and found an outfit that I didn’t realize before was for up to 3 months. He had never worn it, so he wore it to playgroup just to get some use out of it. The shirt might still fit him with jeans, but the pants are way too short for him. I liked what it said, though, “Junior Mechanic”, since Yannick does construction and renos for a living, and wanted to have a photo of him in the outfit in case he never wore it again. So I parked my little guy on the couch to practice his sitting, and I snapped a few quick photos. I did a bunch in a row because every so often the flash would make his eyes close, and when I checked the photos later I was stunned to find this one:

I love that face. I love this boy.


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lotsa fun stuff

There was a lot going on this weekend, here in our little neck of the woods. Saturday was a huge milestone for our family- we started Jakob on solid foods!

Here he is having NO idea what he’s about to get into.

…here comes the airplane…open the hangar…

…and the verdict is…

…he likes it! Ok, he really didn’t express any form of like or dislike over the strange mushy stuff we were repeatedly spooning into his mouth. He did, however, avoid crying or fussing, and kept breaking out in his usual grins, so we’re counting this as a success!

We’ve been giving him a sippy cup with some purified water after each meal to help wash down the cereal, and he has yet to refuse the cup. If he continues to take it we’ll see if we can get him to take breastmilk or formula in it, and since he’s still refusing bottles, this might be a way to be able to leave him for longer than 2-3 hours. (Of course, I’m not going to try to get him to take bottles any more, because there is no sense in getting him started on them just to have to wean him. I’d rather him go straight to the sippy cup).

Here’s another photo of him, just because. 🙂 I can’t stop taking photos of him and I can’t stop staring at them, so now you all get to see what I get to see every day. My gosh I love this boy!

Does anyone remember the Froggy Hat and Socks set? I finally found the bag of handknits I made while pregnant. Just in time too…the socks are too big still but the hat barely fits! I think he will have worn it just for this photo, and it is now going to go into the “grown out” bin.
Sunday was another exciting day- I attended an all-day Fiona Ellis workshop! She is so nice and warm, so genuine, and I am really, really happy I took the course and got to meet her. In the morning I took a class on short rows, and in the afternoon it was about slipped stitches. I felt bad because Yannick had to bring Jakob to me twice so I could feed him, but it was remarkably non-disruptive. The first time he brought him in was during the morning class, but they came in silently, I fed Jakob on my lap and then they left, all within about 10 minutes and all without causing any interruptions to the class. The second time we called a bit more attention to ourselves, but that was because it was during lunch hour and we played with him for a bit. It might also have had something to do with the fact that he wore his Superman costume. (I had been asked to bring it in).

This is my short row swatch. The pink section uses the “wrap and turn” method, which I usually tend to use in garments (like the bum area of the Superman costume). It works well, but if you look closely you can see the 3 turning points. The blue area uses a “yarn over, slip first stitch” method, which I enjoy. I find it shows less than the wrapped one, and I tend to use it a lot on short-rowed sock heels (and toes). The yellow sections use what I think she called the “Japanese or catch method” where you grab the back of the stitch in the row below to close the gap. I didn’t mind it, but it was fiddly. I was knitting fast on Sunday so I had enough time to make a second “catch” swatch and do the short row/3-ndl bind off shoulder method. I didn’t really need practice on that, however, as I almost always adapt patterns to enable that bind off on the shoulders. I really, really like the professional look it gives.

Before the short row class was over we were given the time to work on a creative swatch. The assignment was to work the short rows while interrupting a pattern, and the examples given were lace and cables. I decided to see what would happen if I worked short rows while working a striped pattern. This was the first time I used 2 different colors to cast on (I did the long tail method) and I was able to practice my Fair Isle. I tend to pull too tight when switching colors (probably because I do a lot of intarsia) so I was trying hard to keep things loose. I was also holding the green with my left hand and practicing the two-handed technique. I was able to knit pretty fast using both hands, but I had to remember to knit that color through the back loop on the following rows because the stitches I knit from my left hand wound up mounted the wrong way on the needle.

This is my swatch from the slipped stitch class. There are 6 different techniques shown, I did the first 4 twice each for practice. I never before realized how much fun slipped stitches are, and how much I enjoyed working them and how much I like the look of them. I think this is something I will definately have to play around with some more!

Two last things. First of all, I tried a new recipe tonight. I found this on Caroline’s blog not too long ago, and remembered that I had some apples in the fridge about to go bad, so I made it for dessert tonight. The only modification I made was to bake it in individual dishes instead of one larger pie plate.


It was delicious! Thanks Caroline! Next time I would probably try adding just a dash of lemon juice (I like how it brings out the flavor of the apples) and I would put less sugar, because I found it sweet. I would also probably make up for the less sugar by serving it warm, with vanilla ice cream. 🙂 What I also found cool was that I’d sprayed the dishes with Pam first and the resulting dessert was able to pop out and still hold its shape…so I would try making it in smaller ramekins next time I entertain and each person could get their own little one for dessert, maybe with some melted chocolate drizzled across the top…

The other last thing is my current knitting. I have been working on something but I can’t show photos of it here. I can tell you it’s a hat, but I can’t say much more because it is one of my Knitty.com submissions. My mom’s manicurist saw a photo of it and wants me to make her some to give as gifts, but before I can figure out how much to charge I need to make a second one and record how long it took, the exact yardage it took, etc. So I’ve been working on that for about a week now, but today I decided to put it aside temporarily.

We have a family event to attend this coming weekend and I wanted to dress Jakob up a little. I decided to knit him a little vest to wear with a white button-down shirt and dress pants. After rooting through what little of my stash is unpacked, I found some gray Patons yarn left over from the Glam Coat. I have two balls left, which I’m sure is more than enough for a baby’s vest. I didn’t feel like hunting down a pattern at the right gauge, so I spent today writing one up. I was able to knit the ribbing too, and hopefully I will have a vest in time for this weekend.

Here’s my swatch, before I unravelled it. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to use a garter or ribbed edging for the cuffs, so I swatched it with both. That’s regular garter on the bottom, sideways knit-on-as-you-go garter on the top left, and ribbing on the top right. I like the look of the regular garter the best but the swatch kept flipping up really badly along the first stocking stitch row, so traditional ribbing it is.

Tomorrow I get to go knitting with Robyn, Tara and the blogless Kate, so I hope to have some vest progress photos by night time.


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where did last week go?

Whoops! I kept thinking I’d posted, but it looks like I missed a few days. Here’s the brief recap:

Mommy with Jakob at 23 weeks. I made a slight mistake in the last weekly photo, I’d accidentally labeled it 21 weeks, but it was 22. Not that any of you care, but I’ve fixed it. (No, I didn’t paint that picture, one of Yannick’s cousins did).

The week was spent sick, recovering, knitting, wash, rinse, repeat. Yannick was around all weekend, which was nice because it gave me a bit of a break from all the hands-on mothering. Jakob isn’t sick but he is a bit congested and has been coughing once in a while, although it is hard to tell the real coughs from the fake ones he does for fun. Still, we’ve been home all week and he’s been very clingy, so it was really nice to have Yannick around.

Next weekend will be interesting. I have an all-day Fiona Ellis workshop on Sunday, and Yannick will be watching Jakob all day. Since he doesn’t take bottles any more, and I’ll only be a 5 minute drive from home, Yannick is going to bring him to me each time he needs a feeding. I think I’ll be gone for 2 or 3 feeds. It’s a strange set-up, but the only other alternative that doesn’t involve Jakob screaming for 8 hours and going the entire day without eating is me bringing him with me, and call me selfish but I don’t see the point in paying for a class when I can’t properly learn because my hands are full with my son. I love him to pieces but I don’t think one 8 hour workshop is too much to ask to have my hands to myself.

To prepare Yannick for the day when I’m really not around (and to give me a day of relaxation) I’ve decided to spend next Saturday pretending I’m not home. My goal is to lounge in bed all day with my knitting and our laptop and to catch up on blogs and rest. Yannick will take care of Jakob and only bring him to me for feeds. That might sound like a wierd thing to do, but I think it will be good for Yannick to practice having Jakob for an entire day while I’m there if he has any questions, plus it will give Jakob a chance to bond with Yannick more but still know I’m around, and it will give me a chance to take a mini-vacation in my own home. This mommy job is 24/7, I’m the one who can soothe Jakob to sleep, I’m the one who has to feed him, so I’m ALWAYS the one to get up, regardless of the time of night. Yannick sleeps like the dead so he doesn’t even wake up if Jakob’s death alarm goes off (the mattress sensor that goes off if he stops breathing…it has always been a false alarm but worth it to me to have) so I’m literally “on call” 24 hours a day, without a break. I know I can’t even relax in my sleep because Yannick won’t hear the alarm or wake up if something is wrong, so even my sleep isn’t really a full sleep because I’m always “alert” in case something happens. So yeah, I’m going to take some time for myself, while still being here for both of my boys.

This past weekend we took Jakob to a Montreal landmark. I was hoping for an outdoor picnic lunch, but it was POURING and Jakob was asleep, so Yannick and I ate in our car.

I haven’t been to the Orange Julep in about 14 years, and now that we had our rediculously overpriced hot dogs, fries and famous orange julep, I’m good for another 14 years or so.

Tonight we went to a knit-out that Robyn organized. I think I met everyone quickly, but to be honest I was a little overwhelmed with how few people I knew and was too embarassed to ask for everyone’s names. I was admiring everyones projects though, even if you thought I wasn’t looking! (By the way, if you were there and have a blog and happen to be reading this, please send me a link!) Quite a number of cafe patrons came over to exclaim about our “knitting class”, and a special shout-out goes to the woman who asked if Jakob was my son, and then commented on how young I was to have a child. I said I wasn’t that young, and she said I looked about 18. I was very happy to tell her that I am, in fact, 30. 🙂 THAT made my night!

And finally…it’s almost done.

Just have a hemmed neckline to sew down, and snaps to sew onto the back.


And a cape to make. Every superhero deserves a cape, no matter how young or inexperienced at flying.


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superprogress

Up…up…and away!

This is where we were at with Jakob’s costume as of last night. I didn’t realize the sleeves were too short, so today I’m going to add at least another inch to each sleeve, then I will be joining the body to knit the yoke in the round. Timing will be the deciding factor on whether or not I knit him a cape.


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five months old

By five months, your baby

…should be able to:
-hold head steady when upright CHECK
-on stomach, raise chest, supported by arms CHECK
-pay attention to an object as small as a raisin CHECK
-squeal in delight CHECK
-reach for an object CHECK
-smile spontaneously CHECK
-smile back when you smile CHECK
-grasp a rattle held to backs or tips of fingers CHECK
-keep head level with body when pulled to sitting CHECK

…will probably be able to:
-roll over (one way) CHECK
-bear some weight on legs CHECK
-say “ah-goo” or similar vowel-consonant combination CHECK
-razz (make a wet razzing sound) CHECK
-turn in the direction of a voice CHECK

…may possibly be able to:
-sit without support FOR A SPLIT SECOND

…may even be able to:
-pull up to standing position from sitting WITH HELP
-stand holding on to someone or something CHECK
-object if you try to take a toy away DOES HOLDING ON TIGHT COUNT?
-work to get a toy out of reach CHECK
-pass a cube or other object from one hand to another CHECK
-look for dropped objects I DON’T KNOW
-rake with fingers a tiny object and pick it up in fist ONCE OR TWICE
-babble, combining vowels and consonants such as ga-ga-ga, ba-ba-ba, ma-ma-ma, da-da-da HE DOES THE BA-BA-BA ONE SOMETIMES

I wonder why the book doesn’t mention his newest favorite passtime- yelling! If we ignore him or leave him alone for a bit, he starts to yell or shriek, sometimes even “calling out” to try and get us to come back.
In knitting news, here’s the latest progress on the Superman Costume. I’ve stalled here because I now need to chart out the upper body with the big S logo on it. Once I get around to that I will be able to continue. I love how it is coming out so far!