by 2 Comments

the week so far

On Saturday I spent my time crocheting to have the face/wash/dishcloths done in time for our dinner Saturday night, as they were a hostess gift for my mom’s friend who was having all of us over. I managed to finish 4 in time.

I used worsted weight Bernat cotton from Wal-Mart and a 4.5mm crochet hook for all of them.

This Brick Wall dishcloth was inspired by the one in the Mason/Dixon book. The free pattern can be found here. I followed the pattern but added a row of single crochet around the outside to finish off the side edges nicely.
This one is called the Chain-8 cloth and the free pattern can be found here. I really enjoyed this one, and plan to make more for our house.
This is a closeup of the cloth. What is really cool is that you knit the cloth much wider, with these chains of 8 chains wide on every row (hence the name). Once you are done your height, you use your fingers or a crochet hook and link the chained areas up in exactly the same way you would hook up a dropped knit stitch. As a variation you can give the loops a twist first before linking them up. I did. It gives a nice raised line that would work well for scrubbing.
This is the Diamond cloth and the free pattern can be found here. Instead of working to 21 rows then doing a fancy border, I did only 17 rows then a row of single crochet around since I had to leave for the dinner.
This is the Sunshine cloth and the free pattern can be found here. If I knit this one again I would make one of 3 alterations: I would either do it all in orange or yellow, or I would do the last row before the border in the border color, or I would do it the same as I did it, but I would do the border through both loops not just the front one. Doing it as the pattern states leaves a clear “front” and “back” whereas any of the other ways would have it reversable.

We had a nice dinner to break the fast (not that I fasted) and Jakob was a big hit, being passed around from person to person and behaving wonderfully.

Sunday we had my friend’s daughter’s first birthday party, and again Jakob was scooped from my arms the moment we arrived, and only given back to me to feed him. My friend had moved to Toronto and the guests were all of our old high school friend and her family, so even though most of them were people I have known since I was 12, none of them had ever seen him before and it was great to show him off. Everyone was amazed at his smiling, bubbly personality, and especially how, when it was time for his nap, he fell asleep in my arms (even though I was sitting on the floor in the middle of a crowded room while everyone talked and laughed and the birthday girl opened her gifts and cried and screamed).

On our way home from the party we did an impromptu stop- I bought a Nintendo Wii! I was talking about it with Yannick and next thing I knew we were in front of the store…and it is mine! We didn’t set it up because we had planned a date to go out and celebrate my birthday. My sister and her boyfriend came over to babysit Jakob and Yannick and I went for dinner and a movie. Dinner was great ‘cus we got to watch football at the restaurant, and I had a really yummy steak sandwich. Then we saw Good Luck Chuck which was a very cute movie. Also very wrong…in a few ways LOL. Penguin pr0n. That’s all I’m saying.

When we got home it was still early so we hooked up the Wii and played some Big Brain Academy with Laura and Mike.

Monday Yannick babysat while I went to have an old root canal worked on a bit (over a year later and the tooth still hurts), then I spent the afternoon both tidying up the house and playing on the Wii some more. When Yannick got home we challenged each other in the bowling and golf games that came with the system.

Tuesday I went into town to hang out at Robyn‘s house. I didn’t get any knitting done, but we had a good walk and some lunch then watched Knocked Up together. I found it cute but hard to catch all the jokes with the kids playing, so I’d like to watch it again with Yannick once Jakob’s asleep.

And finally today I took Jakob to the movies with Robyn, Sean and my aunt. We saw Across the Universe- the movie with all of the Beatles songs. I really enjoyed it, although it was REALLY trippy. Now we’re at my mom’s for supper then will be heading home later. I plan on putting Jakob to bed then knitting while I watch CSI:NY so hopefully I’ll have some knitting progress to post by tomorrow.


by 1 Comment

photos later

So I didn’t blog over the weekend ‘cus it was the High Holidays, and then every night since then something has come up, and last night I was going to sit down and blog…and Yannick was sick and decided to sleep in the spare bedroom/office. We’re off to the movie today but I’m taking two seconds to write this first. I will catch up later, I’m going to upload some photos now so I can blog from my mom’s later.

Just wanted to share though- got my Ravelry invite today! Woot! Something ELSE to have no time to do LOL.

Ok, more later…


by 3 Comments

crochet? worms? boxes? I thought this was a knitting blog!

It is. But I’m tired, and taking a break from knitting ‘cus I’m bored with repeating the same 4 rows over and over.

Today I took Jakob for his 4 month vaccinations. My big boy is 14 lbs 2 oz and 25″ long! He was great and didn’t really cry, but between the shots and his teething, he has been really needing extra cuddles today.

I went to Toys R Us on our way home to buy a gift for a friend’s daughter’s first birthday, which is coming up. While we were there I decided to buy Jakob a Gloworm. I like thinking that he’ll enjoy toys that I used to play with, but I was really disappointed to see that they changed the design!

This is the GloWorm I remember. I’m also having vague recollections of a TV cartoon…or am I crazy? Oh- speaking of cartoons, anyone remember The Racoons? Did it air outside of Canada?
Anyways…this is the new GloWorm:

It’s cute, but totally not the same thing. It does play a few different lullabies though, so I guess there is some improvement. I’m going to wait until Yannick is around to give it to Jakob and see what his reaction is. It’s rated for ages newborn and up, so we’re good.


When we got home there were more boxes waiting for us! I think there is only one more package to go, and then I can open up all my books. Woo hoo! 🙂
Tonight starts a holiday called Yom Kippur. It is the Jewish Day of Atonement. You’re supposed to fast until sundown tomorrow, but I’m breastfeeding so I get out of it. I got out of it last year too ‘cus I was pregnant. (If Jews had hell, I’d be SO going for saying I’m “getting out of it” LOL). We went to dinner at my mom’s for the traditional “eat before the fast” meal, and tomorrow will be going to a friend of the family’s for the “breaking of the fast” meal. As a hostess gift I’m making her a few crocheted dishcloths. (As many as I can do by tomorrow night). Here’s my progress on the first one:

Finally, for Tara, I will tell you what yarn I used for the hat, but only once I remember to bring up the ball band so I can tell you. 🙂


by 2 Comments

can i go to bed yet?

It’s been a long day and I’m so tired! I only went to bed at 2am last night and was up to feed Jakob at 7am. I napped a little until his 10am feed but only for about a half hour, and once I finished the feed we left for the day and didn’t get home until after 6pm! This morning we went to the LaSenza outlet so I could pick up some stuff. They are liquidating all of their off-season merch, and the prices were just crazy! (For my American readers, LaSenza is kinda like Victoria’s Secret, which we don’t have in Canada). There was a full room of bras in every size and color, all for $5 each…but I can’t wear those padded, push-upy things while breastfeeding and I don’t know what size I’ll be after…so it just isn’t worth saving the money to buy something I might not end up able to wear. Another room had bin after bin of really cute panties all for $1 each, so I stocked up there. I almost wrote “underwear” instead of “panties”. I don’t know why that word seems almost naughty somehow. I’d love to see the look on the guy’s face who accidentally finds this blog now after Googling some of those words! Hahaha

Before we left I got some photos of Jakob in his new hat. I’m not super crazy about how it looks on him, but I do think it’s cute.
It’s kinda like a helmet. I can’t decide if its too big or too small…or just right. I’m not reknitting it, so he’ll just have to wear it and look cute in it as it is! For new readers- the details and link to the free pattern are in yesterday’s post.
After the shopping we went to our playgroup, then for groceries before heading home. He could NOT stop pulling at his ear today, and yelling at me. Not fussing, not crying, just yelling over and over while chewing his fingers and tugging at his ear. The poor boy…he’s upset all day and instead of his father getting home to play with him, he tries to give him a bottle…which gets him into a huge upset for over an hour. It’s so hard for him and so frustrating for Yannick.

Luckily we’re seeing the doctor tomorrow morning for his 4 month vaccines and I will have him check to make sure there is no ear infection, and I will also ask what he thinks about the bottle refusal. Maybe we’re trying to give him too much at once, and should wait until the teething stops. Maybe we’re doing the right thing and should keep pushing. I don’t know…Yannick is very upset that when he gets home after work he has to make Jakob all sad, instead of getting to play with him, so we will start trying to give him the bottle feed first thing in the morning instead of in the evening. Maybe when he’s half asleep he’ll be hungry and take it without realizing, and then when Yannick gets home they can play together and bond instead of getting frustrated.

This kid thing is tough! :}

Here’s a photo of Mommy and Jakob at 18 weeks. Man my teeth are yellow, which is strange ‘cus I quit smoking 5 years ago and I drink very little tea or coffee. I’ve GOT to find a whitening system safe for during breastfeeding, LOL.


by Leave a comment

maybe it’s just me?

I took Jakob to the movies today. I almost didn’t go…the two “Stars & Strollers” movies were Superbad and Evan Almighty. I definitely didn’t want to see Superbad, but I’d heard really bad things about Evan Almighty. All the reviews I’d read said it was a horrible movie. I really don’t know why- I loved it! Jakob woke up about a half hour into it, and after feeding he spent the rest of the movie sitting on my lap, watching the screen. He LOVED the animals and laughed out loud when he’d see them…which is odd ‘cus he shouldn’t be able to see that far, I don’t think. Anyways, I really enjoyed the movie. I found it funny and sweet, and very well done.

After the movie we went to my parents’ house for supper so that my brother Aaron could see Jakob (he’d spent the last 10 days in Shanghai for work and missed his nephew!). I sat outside with Jakob and knit, and when he woke up we both enjoyed the cool evening air. His teeth were really bothering him, and he kept chewing on his fingers. At one point he didn’t realize it- but he was giving me the finger!

I love this photo of Jakob and my mom…

I kept knitting after supper when I went outside so Yannick could give Jakob a bottle. He was only marginally more successful tonight, but I think it helps when I’m not physically around for Jakob to hear/smell/see. Plus Yannick doesn’t feel like I’m judging his skills as a father in feeding his son if I’m not there to watch…and I think they need time alone anyways, to bond and get to know each other. So I sat outside and knit.

I kept knitting when I got home tonight and guess what? I have a FO!

I saw this cute little cap on someone else’s blog yesterday…don’t ask me who…I think I’d followed a link for something else and kept browsing. I didn’t think it would take too long to knit, and voila- from on the needles to off in one day. I’m not sure if it will need i-cord or ribbon straps, but for now I like it as it is. The only mods I did were to not do the k2togs at the end to go from 7 to 1 st…once I got to 7 I threaded the end of the yarn through and pulled. I didn’t want a pointy cap. I’m going to take photos tomorrow ‘cus Jakob’s sleeping now.


by 1 Comment

maybe it’s just me?

I took Jakob to the movies today. I almost didn’t go…the two “Stars & Strollers” movies were Superbad and Evan Almighty. I definitely didn’t want to see Superbad, but I’d heard really bad things about Evan Almighty. All the reviews I’d read said it was a horrible movie. I really don’t know why- I loved it! Jakob woke up about a half hour into it, and after feeding he spent the rest of the movie sitting on my lap, watching the screen. He LOVED the animals and laughed out loud when he’d see them…which is odd ‘cus he shouldn’t be able to see that far, I don’t think. Anyways, I really enjoyed the movie. I found it funny and sweet, and very well done.

After the movie we went to my parents’ house for supper so that my brother Aaron could see Jakob (he’d spent the last 10 days in Shanghai for work and missed his nephew!). I sat outside with Jakob and knit, and when he woke up we both enjoyed the cool evening air. His teeth were really bothering him, and he kept chewing on his fingers. At one point he didn’t realize it- but he was giving me the finger!

I love this photo of Jakob and my mom…

I kept knitting after supper when I went outside so Yannick could give Jakob a bottle. He was only marginally more successful tonight, but I think it helps when I’m not physically around for Jakob to hear/smell/see. Plus Yannick doesn’t feel like I’m judging his skills as a father in feeding his son if I’m not there to watch…and I think they need time alone anyways, to bond and get to know each other. So I sat outside and knit.

I kept knitting when I got home tonight and guess what? I have a FO!

I saw this cute little cap on someone else’s blog yesterday…don’t ask me who…I think I’d followed a link for something else and kept browsing. I didn’t think it would take too long to knit, and voila- from on the needles to off in one day. I’m not sure if it will need i-cord or ribbon straps, but for now I like it as it is. The only mods I did were to not do the k2togs at the end to go from 7 to 1 st…once I got to 7 I threaded the end of the yarn through and pulled. I didn’t want a pointy cap. I’m going to take photos tomorrow ‘cus Jakob’s sleeping now.


by 1 Comment

for tara

This is the one I have…I was wrong, it’s by Fisher Price, not Jolly Jumper. We got ours from the Babies R Us in the mall where La Cage Aux Sports and Future Shop are, in Pointe-Claire, corner hwy 40 and St-Jean’s blvd. It’s great! 🙂 We also have the matching swing, which is AMAZING because not only does it swivel to rock back and forth, or side to side…but it PLUGS IN so we never have to use batteries!


by 1 Comment

and finally…today!

Whee! I’m all caught up! (for now….)

This morning we went for a stroller walk with Robyn & Sean, and a mom (Bonnie) from my Thursday playgroup. We walked for around an hour and a half and it felt good to get in even a minimal workout!

Jakob woke up towards the end of the walk and once we were done we put the strollers side by side so he could see his cousin.
He was in such a great mood! He didn’t stop giggling and talking…its too bad that we had to upset him again today.

We decided that Yannick would give him a bottle every day at the 7:00pm feed. That way Jakob would (eventually!) get used to having a bottle, but it wasn’t the last one before bed so he’d still get a good feeding to help him sleep. Unfortunately Yannick has bowling on Tuesdays, but so that we wouldn’t miss a day, he came home at lunch time to do the lunch time feeding. It didn’t go well. After an hour of crying, resisting and passing out from exhaustion, Yannick had to go back to work and there was still 1 oz of an original 3 oz of breastmilk in the bottle. What little he had drunk was by accident as it spilled into his mouth and he swallowed so he wouldn’t choke. He finally calmed down when I held him and I got him to at least accept the bottle in his mouth. He didn’t drink it, but he chewed it like it was a teething ring, and ended up getting the rest of the milk without realizing it. It’s going to be really tough until he takes it, because his crying is really hard to take. He looks and acts as if we don’t love him and are torturing him. I think tomorrow night I will physically leave the house when Yannick tries to feed him, both so that he can’t smell me (or the milk) and so I won’t have to hear him cry. I might give Yannick a new pillow to rest him against and have him sit somewhere different so he won’t have the familiarity of my usual breastfeeding pillow and spot with the unfamiliarity of Yannick giving him the bottle.

Robyn brought me the Jitterbug I’d eyed at Effiloche. I *must* stop buying yarn! I couldn’t resist this one though, the colors just catch my eye. It reminds both of a bird of paradise flower, and those glowing neon Tetra fish you see at pet stores.

Isn’t it pretty? I think these will become just plain stockinette stitch socks for me me me. I think the colors stand out enough that I wouldn’t need anything fancy to have some pretty funky feet! (Uh…that’s funky in a GOOD way).

Look- I have been knitting! This is the progress so far on the Montego Bay scarf. I decided not to frog it after all (thanks Maaike!) and am slogging away. It’s a very easy pattern to memorize and I wouldn’t have to pay too much attention to it except that I’m knitting it on addi turbos and the points aren’t sharp enough to do the k2togs without looking. I’d advise someone else knitting this to use a sharper needle.

Something about Jakob’s pose in that photo just cracks me up. It looks like he’s saying “hey- check ME out!”


My aunt Mimi came over before driving back to Toronto today, and she brought Jakob a really soft sweatsuit. We put it on him to see if it fit and couldn’t resist giving him a cuddle while he was so warm and snuggly. Could you resist this face?

Now I’m done. Fini. Caput. I’ve done laundry, exercised, showered, taken care of Jakob, fed him and he’s currently crying is bum off in bed. I think I’m going to take him out and let him sleep in my lap until the next feed at 10:00 while I watch Big Brother and Law & Order. I’ll try and get some knitting in, then can’t wait to hit the sack!


by Leave a comment

mon, sept 17

Remember I told you about my new crocs? Aren’t they cute?
Today I gave them their first workout. I took Jakob to the park while wearing them, and MAN are they comfy! Now I really wish I’d bought them earlier in the season, ‘cus I can see myself wanting to wear them all the time.

Today (Monday) Jakob is officially 4 months old.

According to What to Expect the First Year:

By four months, your baby

…should be able to:
-on stomach, lift head up to 90 degrees CHECK
-laugh out loud CHECK
-follow an object held about 6 inches above baby’s face and moved 180 degrees-from one side to the other, with baby watching all the way CHECK
-on stomach, raise chest, supported by arms CHECK
-grasp a rattle held to backs or tips of fingers CHECK
-pay attention to an object as small as a raisin CHECK
-reach for an object CHECK
-squeal in delight CHECK

…will probably be able to:
-hold head steady when upright CHECK
-on stomach, raise chest, supported by arms CHECK
-grasp a rattle held to backs or tips of fingers CHECK
-pay attention to an object as small as a raisin CHECK
-reach for an object CHECK
-squeal in delight CHECK

…may possibly be able to:
-keep head level with body when pulled to sitting CHECK
-roll over (one way) CHECK
-turn in the direction of a voice, particularily mommy’s CHECK
-say “ah-goo” or similar vowel-consonant combination CHECK
-razz (make a wet razzing sound) CHECK

…may even be able to:
-bear some weight on legs when held upright CHECK he loves it!
-sit without support NO-only when leaning against something
-object if you try to take a toy away NO
-turn in the direction of a voice CHECK

This next photo is for Robyn- I can’t take a decent mirror photo like you do! If I use the flash they come out sharp but with the bright white spot. If I don’t use the flash they are always blurry.
Still…it’s a cute photo. I strapped Jakob into the Snugli and took him for a walk to the park.

We played in the swings again and he had fun, laughing and talking to me. There was a gorgeous breeze blowing and it was really nice to be outside.

It was also really nice to be home, when I saw these packages waiting for me:


Since the first anniversary gift is “paper”, Yannick and I exchanged paper gifts. I gave him gift certificates for Home Depot, and he gave me certificates for Chapters, our local book store. (Paper books- get it?) I’ve been slowly placing orders for the books I want, and they are slowly arriving. Yannick promised to dedicate each one to me so I’ll remember what occassion they were for.

The only thing that sucks is that Chapters doesn’t have some of the books I’d wanted, knitting ones by Elizabeth Zimmermann or Barbara Walker, to complete my collections. However, his parents gave me some money for my birthday, so I was able to order the remaining books from Amazon.com and Amazon.ca (big price difference sometimes making it worth the exchange). I’m waiting until all the packages arrive before I open any! After these purchases I’ll just be missing the First, Second and Third Barbara Walker treasuries, and will have all of EZ’s books! I can’t wait!

Oh, before I forget- I did knit! Yannick and I went for groceries late so I taped all the shows I’d wanted to watch. Once we got home and put Jakob to bed I didn’t feel like stopping the VCR so I let it keep taping and climbed into bed with my knitting and some podcasts on my ipod. I got in about an hour while listening to Quirky Nomads.


by 2 Comments

sat, sept 15 and sun, sept 16

Would you believe it- after staying up all night to send in my Knitty submissions I get an email the next morning- the deadline was pushed back by 2 days! Aaarrghh…. Oh well, at least they were in!

In the morning Maaike and I went to Effiloche, as I mentioned before. They didn’t have any sari silk in, which was the reason for our visit, nor did they have in any patterns so I could buy enough Baby Ull, nor did they have any Fleece Artist Sea Silk (‘cus I was thinking of restarting my Montego Bay scarf)…so in the end Maaike picked up a few things but I walked out empty handed. There was a colorway of Colinette Jitterbug that I loved but I knew that Robyn carried that yarn so I figured if I was to buy it, I’d buy it from her.

I got home to a rough scene. Yannick was babysitting Jakob and for the first time ever Jakob refused to drink from a bottle. He’s resisted in the past but always wound up drinking it…this time was a no-go. He even cried so hard that he fell asleep from the effort. It was really tough but we didn’t give in and feed him. Instead we vowed to try and give him one bottle per day to get him used to taking them again.

I don’t remember what we did for the rest of the afternoon, I think we played video games. I’ve been hooked on watching Yannick play “God of War II” on PS2 and we’ve been taking turns playing “Pitfall Harry” on GameCube. I like when Yannick plays because I give him tips on the mental puzzles or ideas when he’s stuck so I feel like I’m contributing but I get to knit at the same time.

That evening we wondered if Jakob was big enough yet to play in his Jolly Jumper version of an Exersaucer. Sure enough:
Here he’s just concentrating, but you should have seen the grin on his face! He hasn’t figured out that he can jump, instead he’s more focused on how to get the monkey (the hanging yellow thing) into his mouth.

Sunday was more of the same thing, which is why it doesn’t get its own post. More video games, more playing with Jakob, more crying instead of taking a bottle.
Although…Sunday was my brother’s birthday, so Happy Birthday Aaron! 🙂