Tag Archives: Camera Case


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wednesday, thursday & friday

On Wednesday Jakob and I went to see The Nanny Diaries. We had a good time, and ran into some of our playgroup buddies there. The movie was cute, but I preferred the book.
On Thursday we did some shopping then I took Jakob for passport photos because we might be going away at Christmas time.
My little MVP looks like his passport photos are mug shots and I won’t know until I go in person if they will accept them or not. It’s hard because I can’t be in the photo, not even my hands, so I was literally sitting on the floor behind a stool, holding him up with my hands under his shirt so you couldn’t see me. We took two photos and we’ll see…if they aren’t accepted the woman at the store promised to redo them.

Mommy with Jakob at 15 weeks.

After the photos we went to our playgroup, then to visit my parents. We picked up Jakob’s Auntie Laura from Fairview and brought her back home to our house where we had dinner together with Laura, Yannick and Yannick’s friend Kevin.

My goal for Thursday night was to watch Big Brother and knit, but at 8:05 Yannick started drilling in the garage to remove the garage door opener and change it, and the screeching noise scared the hell out of Jakob. He had just fallen asleep and started SCREAMING. He cried in his crib until 8:45, when I couldn’t take it any more. Laura had left, Yannick and Kevin had left, and it was just me and him, crying. From 8:45 to 9:30 he cried in my arms until he fell asleep- but he was due to eat at 9:30 then go to bed. He didn’t eat until later, I got no knitting (or anything) done, and all in all the night kinda sucked. The only positive thing was that I was so tired from listening to him cry non-stop that I went to bed as soon as he did, instead of staying up until 1:00-ish like usual.

On Friday I took Jakob, his little blankie-bunny Foo-Foo and my sister Laura into town. First we went to Home Depot so Laura could watch Jakob in the car while I ran in to buy Yannick’s anniversary present. (Our first wedding anniversary is on Monday, which is also Yannick’s birthday, and Yannick loves tools. Since the traditional first anniversary is paper…he’s getting gift certificates! I know this sounds like a cop-out and not romantic, but TRUST ME, he always prefers the practical. I’m the sappy mush who wants the long-thought-out romantic gesture. He’d be happy with a vacuum if he really needed one). After Home Depot we picked up my grandmother and went for lunch at Marathon on Decarie Blvd. It was really yummy and Jakob was flirting with everyone there. Plus the hostess Erin already had met Robyn and Sean, so Bubbie was happy to show off her other great-grandson too.

After lunch we stopped by the JCA Crafts office so I could drop of my finished socks, then we drove Bubbie home and headed home. On our way I brought Jakob’s passport application and photos to our cousin Marlene who is a vet and could sign as a guarantor. I think we finally got home around 4:30pm! I was so tired I stopped at Starbucks first for an (expensive) vanilla latte. I needed it! I also picked one up for Maaike, who came over to take a few test photos for me.

Yannick and I decided to order in some junk food and get pizza, but after an hour and a half the delivery guy called, lost, unable to find my (really easy to find) street, and after I spent 20 minutes on the phone with him telling him exactly where to turn but he didn’t understand me, I cancelled the order. I called the restaurant to complain but they said in order to give me a credit I’d have to have the food delivered. Basically I had to pay for cold food this time to get a credit for next time. No thanks! Plus we’d ordered early enough for Yannick to eat and get to the stores before they closed at 9:00, and it was already 8:30. He didn’t even have time to eat any longer. So he left and I reheated some pasta from Thursday night’s supper. It wasn’t the night I’d planned, but I did get some ample knitting time in. Wanna see?

Oh, wait, that doesn’t show the knitting very well, does it?

Better? 🙂


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can someone pay me to knit all day?

I keep having so many design ideas but have no time to do anything about them! I keep filling pages in my notebook with knitting plans…and ask me if I’ve ever knit anything of my own design. Well, ok, I have knit a few things, but I haven’t really pushed to publish anything. I think that will be my goal for the new year (and by new year, I’m saying “starting in September, at Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year”)-to try and make something from my knitting, if not money then at least recognition.

I don’t think I would charge for my camera case design, I think I’d rather offer it for free. So far I have 2 free patterns available in my sidebar, the Knitting Game and the Bowling Socks, only one of those (the Game) that was of my design. The Knitting Game was in the 2006 Pattern-a-Day calendar and I have a new (never before seen, even on this blog) pattern being published in Stitch ‘n Bitch’s 2008 Pattern-a-Day calendar.

I think I’m going to try to expand and see what happens. I’ll try to offer up a few more free patterns, like the Sweetheart Mittens I designed a few years ago. I’m also thinking of submitting a few things to Knitty.

The only real thing holding me back, and I think I’ve mentioned this before, is the sizing issue. I feel confident to say that I can design anything and make it fit me. Where I have a problem is making sure it will fit you. I know that it is not a simple case of applying the same changes to all measurements (like adding 20 or whatever). I will have to take into account stuff like the fact that arm lengths won’t change that much, but shoulder-to-hip lengths might change more when going up in sizes. Or whatever. I’m scared to try and work out the math without actually knitting a sample in every size and having someone of each size try it on. I know that real designers don’t do it that way. I just need to learn how they DO do it. Is it all just using software, then designing in the details? I know there is design software out there…and that there are just as many flaky ones as there are good ones (or maybe more sucky ones).

I don’t know. I have to work on this. I think I’ll start by making up a few designs for me…I can always offer the patterns in my size only. 🙂

This morning I took Jakob for a walk in his stroller. It was really hot out and the sun was very strong, so I got to play the “I Get to Embarass You While You’re Young” mommy card and have Jakob in his safari hat and sunglasses. I was going to walk him over to a nearby government building to sign him up for a Social Insurance Number card, but we stopped at Maaike’s house first to pick up the sock needle holders that she’d received for us (we’d placed a joint order) and to borrow her Heart to Heart sling. I have a Snugli for Jakob but want to see if he might prefer the sling instead. It was so hot out that I gave up on the rest of our walk and came home to relish in our air conditioning. I am SO not a summer person! Give me a cool, breezy, rainy Fall any day!

After Jakob’s first afternoon nap he woke up in such a good mood I decided to try working on his sitting. He’s not tall enough to see over the bars but he was able to lean quite well without slumping over. He is really good at leaning backwards to sit against something so I thought I’d give this a try. It’s probably not a skill he needs but I thought it would make a cute photo. I love the little feet sticking through the bars!

Finally I brought Jakob to my parents’ house so they could babysit while Yannick and I went to see Stardust, for real this time (unlike Friday’s cancelled date). Jakob was so tired by the time we got there that I was able to swaddle him and put him on his Elmo sofa/bed. This thing is so cute, it folds up into a couch and folds down like this for the bed.

Yannick enjoyed the movie, it is very much like The Princess Bride in spirit but with better special effects. I didn’t get any knitting done but I did finish typing up my camera case pattern! I’m really happy with how it came out and I am just working through it once myself before having it test knit. I’m glad I decided to work it myself first because there are some things that worked in my head that didn’t translate too well onto paper. By following the pattern step by step I can find things I forgot to elaborate on because I’d assumed it would be done, and make any changes I need. Then I’ll edit the pattern and sent it out, and if it works well I’ll offer it up here.

It should be cool…it’s a camera case pattern worksheet, which means you can use any yarn and any size needles you want. You can use it for any size flat camera and it even has built-in double layer protection around the exposed screen area. Plus a cover that stays on and CAN’T come off, all without any snaps, ties or velcro. Oh, and did I mention that it’s seamless?


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i’m so dumb

They tell you that when you get pregnant you get stupid. It is SO true. I had never been more dumb in my life than when I was pregnant…and the smarts- they don’t come back once you deliver.

Most of the time it still takes me 3 tries to get out a complicated thought and the simplest little things become great big concepts. I don’t think the light of day has shone on my brain in a while.

Case in point:

My temporary office in our new house is a big (12″x15″) room. It is actually the spare bedroom, but I felt it was a waste to have this whole big room with just a bed and dresser, and only used the odd time someone sleeps over, so at the back of the room is my filing cabinet, computer desk, and bookshelf. Ah…I’ll go take a photo. Hold on.

So here is the view when you open the door and walk in…

…and there’s my desk at the back. It’s not a HUGE room, but it is big enough that when I’d have garbage at my desk it was too much of a pain to keep getting up and throwing it out in the garbage can which was aaallll the way over on the other side of the room, between the dresser and rocking chair.

I swear, for the last 3 weeks I have been getting a grocery bag from the kitchen to keep ON my desk for used Kleenex, papers, whatever garbage I have. Then when we collect for garbage day, the garbage can is empty but we’ll grab my little garbage bag.

You want to know what never occurred to me until this very morning? To move the freaking garbage can to under my desk.

I’m going to go sit down for a while. All this thinking hurt my brain.

Before I go, here’s a FO to report. I designed and knit a case for my new camera. I know this isn’t the best photo, but it is deliberate. I’m working on converting the pattern to be a pattern generator so anyone can use it for any size camera, with any gauge. Once I write it out I will have it test-knit, then probably offer it with my free patterns in the sidebar.


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i’m so dumb

They tell you that when you get pregnant you get stupid. It is SO true. I had never been more dumb in my life than when I was pregnant…and the smarts- they don’t come back once you deliver.

Most of the time it still takes me 3 tries to get out a complicated thought and the simplest little things become great big concepts. I don’t think the light of day has shone on my brain in a while.

Case in point:

My temporary office in our new house is a big (12″x15″) room. It is actually the spare bedroom, but I felt it was a waste to have this whole big room with just a bed and dresser, and only used the odd time someone sleeps over, so at the back of the room is my filing cabinet, computer desk, and bookshelf. Ah…I’ll go take a photo. Hold on.

So here is the view when you open the door and walk in…

…and there’s my desk at the back. It’s not a HUGE room, but it is big enough that when I’d have garbage at my desk it was too much of a pain to keep getting up and throwing it out in the garbage can which was aaallll the way over on the other side of the room, between the dresser and rocking chair.

I swear, for the last 3 weeks I have been getting a grocery bag from the kitchen to keep ON my desk for used Kleenex, papers, whatever garbage I have. Then when we collect for garbage day, the garbage can is empty but we’ll grab my little garbage bag.

You want to know what never occurred to me until this very morning? To move the freaking garbage can to under my desk.

I’m going to go sit down for a while. All this thinking hurt my brain.

Before I go, here’s a FO to report. I designed and knit a case for my new camera. I know this isn’t the best photo, but it is deliberate. I’m working on converting the pattern to be a pattern generator so anyone can use it for any size camera, with any gauge. Once I write it out I will have it test-knit, then probably offer it with my free patterns in the sidebar.