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confessions suck

Do you know how many times over the last week I have sat down at the computer to post? I’ve lost count. I check my email, then click over to Blogger and…something happens. Baby crying, phone ringing, kettle whistling, etc…etc…

But right now no phone is ringing, the baby is playing with his toys and there is nothing in the kettle so I’m giving this a shot! In the 6 days since I posted last a strange rash was broken out, a doctor was visited, a medicinal allergy was discovered, antihistamines were taken and the rash disappeared. We’re still working on the itching. Friends were spoken to and caught up with, friends were visited with, a new baby was met and cuddled, an old friend was seen again and new friends were hung out with and a good time was had by all. Swimming lessons were started, splashing occurred, a first shower was taken and pool-time was greatly enjoyed. Unpacking was done, laundry was done, more laundry was done, cleaning was done, another suitcase was found with (crap) more laundry to do and some stuff has been folded. Playgroup was held and visiting with other moms (and a dad) was done and discussions on breasts, bottles, periods, sex after baby and oh so much more were held. Laughter ensued. MUCH laughter ensued. (I think we scared the dad).

All in all it’s been a pretty busy week for our first week home. I was the one with the medicinal allergy- turns out that I’m allergic to the penicillin derivative I took for the mastitis. Symptoms appeared a full 2 weeks after I stopped the meds– crazy, huh?

But enough of this boring stuff- I know why you’re here. It’s for the photos, huh? Something quick you can skim your eyes over and race on to the next blog. Well here you go. I’ll put some trip photos in another post. This post is dedicated to my weekly Jakob photos and knitting.

Mommy with Jakob at 29 weeks.
Ignore the nasty pink pj shirt. (Yannick calls it my Pepto–Bismal shirt).

Mommy with Jakob at 30 weeks.

I’m not putting a photo at 31 weeks. I forgot to take one of the two of us, and for Jakob alone it would be the holiday photo I posted just before I left so you’ve seen it already.

Mommy with Jakob at 32 weeks.

No photo for 33 weeks as we were away from each other, and no photo for 34 weeks either ‘cus apparently an 11 day break in schedule is enough for me to forget I took weekly photos, and I never took one last week. Sorry!

Now then. I have a confession to make. I don’t want to make it, and as you can tell by the title of this post, I’m not thrilled about making it, but I will make it anyways.

Maaike was right.

Arrfrghrhghrhrhgbhgbhgh that hurt! 🙂

Let me explain. Ever since our move my ball winder and meter counter have been missing, packed up somewhere amidst the 100 boxes we have left to unpack. Yes I moved almost 7 months ago. Shhh.

A few days before I left on my trip Maaike came over with her ball winder and we set upon my sock yarn stash. I knew I wanted to bring some sock yarn with. Socks were the perfect project- small enough to stow in my purse so I could have them with me at all times, and depending on the pattern, mindless enough for me to knit for a few minutes here and there while saving seats for the show or even in the dark during a show. Hell, I think a few times I even knit while walking around the boat, waiting in line at Passenger Services or for Bingo cards, or while waiting for my family to show up at dinner.

I couldn’t decide which to bring so in my over-eager innocence I might have decided to bring with a tad too much yarn. Maaike laughed. Yannick (when he found out what was going on) agreed with Maaike and laughed. I didn’t think it was so funny. Of course I brought with too much sock yarn! Some days I’d be relaxing by the pool for a few hours so I could work on something with a chart or three. Other days my knitting would be stuffed in and pulled out of my bag so often that I would need stockinette or ribbing or something that didn’t require frequent looking at a pattern. What’s that old motto- “be prepared”?

Apparently I didn’t realize that I’d brought with enough yarn to knit 7.5 pairs. That’s 15 socks. I went on an 11 day cruise. This really didn’t seem odd to me.

This photo shows the knitting I actually got done on the cruise. Remember the Fibonacci socks? I’d knit the first one during the holidays about 2 years ago, then put them aside. I brought with the remaining pink and cream Regia 4-ply and cast on for the toe on the plane to Fort Lauderdale. I clearly didn’t knit as fast as I could have, nor as often. I must have spent way too much lazy time taking the sun, going on excursions or enjoying the ship’s facilities as it took me just over a week to knit the second sock. I got speedier after that. The project to the right is the beginning of a Sidewinder Sock using black/red/white Regia Winter Color from my LYS. I would have had the first sock finished before leaving the boat but I was afraid to lose my addi turbo needle at the airport with US customs so I packed it up. I brought some bamboo dpns with for airport knitting (thanks Robyn!) and I cast on for Mona’s Barcelona Socks (the November Mystery Socks) while waiting in line at the Air Canada counter. The yarn is Trekking hand art and the color is Karibik, also from my LYS. I got 4 rows done before putting it away and I could have had more done had I not chosen to sleep the entire plane ride home. THAT was a flight well wasted!

This, uh, next photo shows the rest of the yarn that I brought and didn’t knit. I can explain, I swear! Ok, starting from the left is the Socks That Rock mediumweight in Gingerbread Dude. I brought that to knit the Rock and Weave sock pattern. I started/swatched on the bus in Puerto Limon while driving past banana and pineapple plantations. I got as far as you can see above when I realized my gauge was off. I needed bigger needles- which were at home. I’d brought every size from 3.75mm down. Now I needed 4mm. That project got thrown aside in favor of the Sidewinders. Next along the top is some brown/black/white Regia Winter Color which was destined to be Jaywalkers but now that Yannick has seen my Sidewinders he wants a pair for himself so I might give the brown ones to him. The blue ball in the middle is Colinette Jitterbug in Jewel, which, unless I find a pattern that isn’t obscured by all the flecks of color, will be knit into plain stockinette socks. Moving up again to the black ball, that’s Socks That Rock lightweight in Obsidian, a black/brown subtle color that will be gorgeous as a pair of Boyfriend Socks for Yannick. The last ball, the orange/turquoise one, is Time To Go by Lotus Yarns, and was the October (and first) yarn in the Robyn’s Nest Sock Club. I am going to be knitting a plain sock with an eyelet pattern out of one of Barbara Walker’s books, but silly me, I forgot the pattern at home.

I probably shouldn’t mention this…but these two balls? The purple The Flirting Kind by Yarn Oddity (Robyn’s Nest’s November Sock Club) and the Socks That Rock lightweight in Fire on the Mountain that Yannick had bought for me? These were balls wound in anticipation of coming on the trip but I pulled them out of my bag at the last minute. I thought that two more balls of sock yarn would be, honestly, too much to bring.

Stop laughing.


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Happy New Year!

Hi everyone! I’m back!

I wanted to post tonight with some photos but the wind is going crazy here and our lights have flickered so I’m going to turn off the computer. If things clear up later tonight I’ll hop back on, otherwise look here tomorrow SOON for a new post.

Hope everyone had a great New Year’s Eve and holiday season!


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coming clean

I know. I said it again, and I did it again. I promised I’d post more often, and I didn’t. I think I’ve averaged about 1 post/week.

But there are things going on here that I don’t blog about. I’m not one of those bloggers who post every detail from their lives. I don’t think anything is wrong with that however in my case I tend (in person anyways) to share too much and only think later “why did it take me 100 words to answer when I could have answered in 15?”. I didn’t want to have to keep editing my posts so a few weeks after Jakob was born I stopped describing the minutia of our daily lives and stuck to some basics, and, of course, my knitting. That means I haven’t always blogged about the little things that happen, or that are bothering me.

Lately there has been a lot going on.

I’m going to try to lay this out fast because it is already 1:30 am, I have another 2 hrs of work on the computer to do before I can go to bed, and I haven’t slept more than 3 hrs/night for the last 3 nights.

Here’s the deal:

-I’ve been dealing with the mastitis. I’ve felt fine since I was put on the antibiotics but my doc was concerned about a duct that refuses to unblock, so I’ve had to run to her office twice a week. I had to go to the hospital for an ultrasound (supposedly fine) and might need to go for draining when I get back.

-I’m leaving tomorrow morning for 2 weeks. My family is taking a cruise and I’m not bringing Jakob with. (But there are people staying at our houses- any would-be robbers take note). This has been a very difficult decision and one that wasn’t made lightly. Long story short his doctor advised against it as he is too young for the hepatitis vaccines and the ship doctors aren’t trained for babies, nor will there be baby-safe medicines on board. Plus if something happens we would be stuck out in the middle of the ocean.

-This decision has caused me a lot of stress, primarily because my son refused to take bottles. Refused. I was going to leave him to wean cold-turkey with my mother in law but had a very sudden change of heart Friday night and woke up Saturday morning determined to make him go cold turkey myself. Saturday he cried and slept and cried and slept and drank 1 bottle under much duress and after a lot of soothing at 6:30pm then slept all night. Sunday was mostly a repeat of Saturday. Monday he drank 2 bottles with minimal fighting. Today he drank 4. You need to pin his arms down (or he’ll push you away) and force the nipple into his mouth but if you’re quick it only takes 30 seconds and once the nipple is in his mouth he drinks. He’ll even hold the bottle on his own and gobble it down. It’s almost like he forgets that it is the source of his food so he refuses it completely until you stick it into his mouth, then he remembers and is ok. The bottle/no boob/will my son drink or dehydrate himself stress has only begun to lessen today.

-I have never been away from Jakob for more than 3 hourse (not counting sleeping over night). I don’t know how I will make it 2 weeks without him. I will try to hold it together, but am already missing him so terribly.

-I’ve had to take care of everything. Packing Jakob for my inlaws’, packing Yannick, packing me, writing/sending our holiday cards, wrapping gifts, making lists of Jakob’s schedule, doctor info, etc to send with him, making sure dry cleaning or shopping was done before Christmas and before the trip, printing our boarding passes, making sure we had our passports, etc… You name it, if it was necessary to be done for either of us, Jakob, our house or our trip, I took care of it.

All in all there have been a lot of balls in the air these last few weeks and I’ve been doing everything I could to juggle them without hurting myself. I know I will get a much-deserved chance to rest in the upcoming days and I will take advantage of it, even while my heart is here at home with my son.

I don’t want to make another promise that life won’t get in the way because let’s face it- that’s what life does best. But please excuse my absences and have a wonderful holiday season and a very happy New Year and I’ll see all of you (those I read and those who read me) in January.

Take care, everyone.


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hey lookit that- my name in print

Guess what? I’ve had another pattern published! It’s in Debbie Stoller’s new 2008 Stitch n Bitch Pattern-a-Day calendar and I’m on Friday, December 5th. Woo hoo!

I completely forgot about this because I designed it last year and am still waiting for my copy of the calendar. Luckily my cousin Robyn opened hers and went looking for my pattern…and found it! Thanks Robyn! (p.s. I took this photo from you).


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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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snow, slippers and sock yarn

I’m baaaack.

I knew I was ready to start posting again when I’d catch myself taking photos “for the blog” instead of “for myself”. Physically things are getting better chez boob, but not back to 100% yet. I’m being followed by a specialist, so that’s good, and now the incidents of pain are sporatic throughout the day…as opposed to before when it was the incidents of non-pain that were irregularly spaced out.

Remember that snowstorm I (and a bunch of other Montreal bloggers) posted about? Another opportunity for a photo! I bundled Jakob up into his snowsuit, the one that is about 3 sizes too big, and plopped him in the snow and started snapping away. The brave little guy managed to even give me a few grins while trying to figure out what was this cold white stuff that was falling on his face and freezing his nose.
Last week was also Hanukkah. I completely forgot to wish those who celebrate(d) a very happy Hanukkah, so please accept it belatedly. We are a multi-religion household, so here was Jakob on the first night of Hanukkah with the menorah and his advent calendar.
A recent splurge at my LYS resulted in me coming home with some Trekking sock yarn. I’ve never used Trekking before but quite liked how the colors look.
I still haven’t decided which pair will be for me, which for Yannick. (Or if I keep both for pairs for myself).
Finally, on Thursday night I’d finished the Anne’s Slippers. They’ve pretty much been on my feet ever since.
I followed the seamless pattern as written but I added a strap because I felt they were a bit big. On the right foot I knit the strap seperately and seamed it on, and on the right foot I figured out how to knit the strap in, all while still keeping it seamless. Strangely enough I like the seamed version better. The buttons are sewn on purely for decoration.

Oh, and I might have accentally also bought a ball of the Patons Shetland Chunky in solid black to make another pair of these. I think in black they will look eerily similar to a pair of mary janes.


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ow. $*&!

I have photos. I have completed stuff. I have stuff to post.

I also have inlaws staying over for the weekend in the room with the computer.

As if that wasn’t enough to keep me from posting all the stuff I should have posted over the week, I also have mastitis.

The antibiotics are kicking in, so I no longer feel like throwing up from the pain. However I still can’t really do much with my left arm/side…including holding Jakob.

Ugh. I don’t wish this on my worst enemy. Luckily, of all the weekends I could end up with mastitis, I got it on the weekend the inlaws are over, and my MIL has been a huge help, feeding, playing with and generally watching Jakob for me so I didn’t have to bring him to the walk-in clinic I spent all day at today, where I provided amusement to the locals by alternately knitting a few stitches on the Sept Robyn’s Nest sock club kit, and clutching my left breast in agony, knitting, clutching, knitting, clutching.

I hope to return to normal, both posting and otherwise, by Monday.


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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!