Feral Knitting

she will return

Feral Knitter — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:20:47 +0000

Okay, trying this on my new, tiny computer with its tiny,tiny keyboard. Eventually we will get the big machine operational, but for now this will do.

I can’t show the projects or adventures I had in December, but I can show what I’ve done recently.

First, a project I have been meaning to do for a long time. I hesitated until I discovered that it had fully written directions, so I tossed the chart aside and had this done in about two weeks. Could have faster if Danger Baby didn’t spend the entire day trying to find new ways to terrify me. I’m kind of proud of this one. I did not think I could make something so pretty, make so few mistakes and finish so quickly while my kids were still so small. Sometimes, at the end ofthe day I am so tired that my eyes shake, so getting anything remotely creative and not related to cleaning chiding or cooking done seems miraculous. Okay, enough complaining. My Haruni:

Yay it worked! New technology + learning curve + small children does no always equal success. Now that I can write from this tiny machine I might be able to keep up to date. Unfortunately I won’t be able to show what I did in November and December, which was quite a lot, but whatever. You’ll have to trust me.

Okay, what else? Yes, my Theolie:

Had this pattern for a few months,and had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to use for it, but Christmas got in the way, so it was put off. I used Sweet Fiber Merino Lite, which hasbeen sitting on my shelf winking suggestively for a while now. I am very pleased with it and wouldn’t be surprised if I made more in the future. Hey, check out the snow! It doesn’t snow often, but when it does I try to get FO pictures so I can get some cred as a Canadian. Okay, so far so good.

Werewolf Bar-mitzvah, spooky scary/ Boys becoming men/ Men becoming wolves!

Feral Knitter — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 01:09:32 +0000

Yep, it’s Halloween. This is our first year really doing Halloween. We’ve given out candy before, but never did the pumpkin thing or had any little people to take out. We figured at almost three, it was a good time for C to start. Of course, having no other kids on our street makes it a lot less fun, although one of our neighbours just called to see if he was coming, which I thought was pretty sweet.

So, pumpkins. We bought two of them, and we each had one to carve. Mine was done in about fifteen minutes. This included the planning, predrawing and carving. I think she turned out pretty good!

I like cats, and I didn’t want to make the pumpkin too scary. I think it’s pretty respectable for someone who hasn’t done pumpkins in a long, long time, and was never really trusted to carve one herself.

Here is pumpkin number two:

What you don’t see is the halogen lightbulb that has to illuminate the thing. Husband used a template, and carefully spent several hours carving this out, but when I tested it with a candle, it was not carved deep enough, so he had to take out some power tools and spend several more hours on it. It is far superior to mine, but I do think mine has a certain rustic charm. And, I will admit the whole GMC thing kind of freaks me out. It reminds me of high school, where the boys would argue about Chevy vs. GMC. Apparently truck loyalty starts young. I feel like we’re picking a side here, and I don’t necessarily want to irritate the Chevy crowd. Ah well. It was fun. Soon I can put them both in the oven and harvest their innards for my nefarious baking purposes.

Knitting! I done some!

Can I tell you how convenient it is to have small people around. I knit two small people sweaters in a week! And seriously, I don’t have that much time. So yay for that. Here’s number one:

A Little Hoodlum in probably the ugliest variegate in my stash. I must have been compelled by price, or perhaps it was one of those yarns that looks nice unwound but knits up baaaaad. No worries, though, he seems to like it, and overall it doesn’t look too bad.

Here’s number two:

It’s the same sock yarn tee I did a few months ago, but this time bigger, and with fish. Cute!

I finished a pair of birthday socks for the husband, too.

Anyway, one handed post, and getting tired of the balancing. Baby says hi!

pelicans fly

Feral Knitter — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 05:35:43 +0000

mmmm…! Halloween candy! one of life’s small pleasures. (But I tend to eat too much at once, so I really can only have some about once every two weeks, to let my tongue recover. You’d think I’d learn…)

Busy, busy time. Busy with nothing, though, just the business of small children, running a business and trying to sell the house. Lots of starts and stops, and of course, in this real estate market, frustration. We really need a new place, though, as the ridiculousness is getting epic. But never mind. Just another thing I have no control over.

And can you see that in this family we like to have control? Here’s little Big Boss himself, helping out before a viewing.

I don’t know where he get’s that attitude! (tee hee hee)

Okay, I don’t really have much worth reporting. I have a bunch of half finished projects. The one I have most recently completed was the Cedar Leaf Shawlette, which I made in Malabrigo worsted. Here it is:

I like the finished product but boy, was this ever a boring, boring knit. Yikes. I suppose that might be all I have time for, but wow. I’m not sure I’ll make it again, even though I have the pattern. Maybe we just need some space.

Of course, the first time I put it on and foolishly picked up my baby he threw up all over it. This was after carefully washing and blocking it, and drying it by the fireplace. Well, at least he has good taste. I guess he just likes to share. Oh, he has two dear friends! This baby is very gregarious and social, so this should be of no surprise. Here’s his girlfriend:

Indeed, it is difficult to change his diaper, as he twists and turns and has to coo and grab at her. His other good friend is someone I am more familiar with:

(sorry about the photos. I can’t resize when kids are running around making happy shrieky getting in troubley type noises…) Yep, this kid is easily amused! Put him in front of the mirror and he’s just tickled. Of course, he usually throws up a few seconds later, as he is also the King of Spit Up, but hey, it’s all just experience in carpet cleaning.

Okay, thing to go to and kids to clean up first, (and I have to try to find clothes that are not covered in spit up, and can be worn outside the house) so that’s all folks.

I’m a snowplough…

Feral Knitter — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 17:07:17 +0000

look what I made!

The kid, not the hat. I think both were pretty well made! (The hat was a gift for C when he was a baby.)

I promised a cute sweater in Malabrigo sock. Here it is.

I”ve been trying to write this post for the last three weeks. Every time I get a bit of free time, something comes up, or wordpress is slow to upload photos and somebody starts crying. But ha! Two of my boys are gone, and the other is (finally) sleeping. He has been spitting up like a madman lately (which is so, so disgusting. Especially when I get out into the warm summer sun when he’s finally napping, only to find that acidic pukey smell that is following me around comes from my shoulder! Yuck. If I had more time, I would design a line of terry cloth post partum wear that is both fashionable and functional. Sadly, I lack the time.) and it has been making his naps shorter. I did a bit of homework this morning and found a few strategies I might try, before mentioning it to his doc next week. Anyway, sweater is Hannah Fetig’s sock yarn sweater. The sizing goes up to like, fourteen years, so that’s pretty cool (there’s also an adult version. I briefly considered buying it, but then realized that the chances of me actually knitting a sock yarn sweater within the next say, five years, is pretty much nonexistent. It’s a lovely pattern, though! And hey, maybe sometime I’ll magically shrink down to a 32 inch bust (ha! not likely) and I can use the pattern I have. Or I could do the math, but meh… math only works out for me when there is a dollar sign attached. Otherwise it makes no sense.

But isn’t it cute? And used way less than a skein, and was a quick knit, so I say a winner all the way.

What else? Well, we had a potato haul. Here’s C planting them during my first false labour with Miles. I was slumped heavily on our cheap wicker Ikea chair (which will be burnt/thrown into the blackberry bushes as soon as our house sells) feeling horrid, waiting for my mom to come and pick up C, and Pete was entertaining C by digging holes and letting him drop some sad, sprouted grocery store potatoes that had been relegated to our shed months before. There’s a video, it’s dead cute. Anyway. Um. Let’s see if I can find the planting pictures….Yep, he had a blast. He was also wearing his glow in the dark pajama bottoms. Why don’t they make those for grown ups?

And here’s our haul. He and I spent some time last week digging and pulling and finding. Good times!

There were a lot more than that. We have eaten from them twice, adding the chives from the other side of the garden, and the basil as well. We didn’t have a lot of crops this year as my ambition was squealched by a certain tiny wunderkind.

Anyway, as I write this, my backyard neighbours are having some kind of church service. Hmmm… I have to say I am intrigued by these people. They are Japanese, and from word from their neighbour (my other backyard neighbour, who is quite fond of us) they don’t speak much English. Every summer they have this gathering. The first time I heard it, I was fascinated and kind of horrified. It was like I was listening into some Temple of Doom score. There was a mass of people on the property, and flags, and singing, this crazy, crazy singing. Some of it was chanted, and over top of it was a the trill of some sort of operatic voice. It was not in English (though didn’t sound particularly like any language I knew). Then there was some kind of ceremony or sermon (hard to tell. I couldn’t see, just could hear, as they have a high fence with lattice work, and I didn’t want to look too nosy) followed by more singing. I was later informed that this was a salmon festival, (or ceremony as it seemed to be). Sure enough, each time the CBC told me that the first run of salmon had appeared, the ceremony happened again. I did a bit of homework, (okay, it was just internet homework, so it wasn’t that intensive. But next time I’m at UBC I’ll poke in the library a bit) and found out that there is a group of Northern Japanese (they said indigenous. But aren’t all Japanese indigenous? Did they just mean More Indigenous, as in Different From Us? Who knows.) who celebrate the first run of salmon. They also mentioned how the women of this group traditionally greet each other with an operatic-ish trill. Interesting. So, anyway, maybe that is what they’re doing. I don’ t really know for sure. I do know that that woman nearly ran me over once, so I’m a little wary (but just of her driving. Seriously, who doesn’t stop at the end of their driveway, especially when a woman holding a baby is walking past?) Anyway, right now they appear to be having some kind of church service. I don’t know how this coincides with the Salmon Ceremony (see why I’m so intrigued?) I’m not sure that Buddhists have choral type singing, so it seems more Christian that Buddhist… who knows? It’s just nice to hear someone in the back yard singing.

Anyway, guess who’s now crying? Thanks, kid for the 25 minutes of quiet. Grrr…. Micronaps stink!!!!

Voices carry…

Feral Knitter — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 17:46:14 +0000

So, yesterday we really put it on. We have been trying for the last few weeks to get our house sale ready, which involves a lot of little annoying jobs that, lucky for me, Husband has taken on. (I think that keeping this house civil, with a 2 and half year old and a 2 month old is a job unto itself, so I’m telling myself to not feel too bad about not doing as much as I really think I should be.) So the garden was priority number one. Many, many hours have been spent by little and bigger men folk digging and reclaiming and rearranging. Thankfully (kind of, but kind of not) we have an overgrown laneway behind our house which many people have used (previously, because, um, no I would NOT put up with that now if it happened) it as a dumping ground. Both backyard neighbours and apparently a gardening company dumped plenty of waste back there. At first it was a problem because of the in season stream that runs in the area.With such a big build up of soil-ish material we had deep pooling our first year here, which ended up with the Great Crash of the willow tree that almost killed my husband. But, nevermind that. Now we have a rich source of soil close to home that we don’t have to pay for. Hold on, I have a picture somewhere of the Great Crash.

I have plenty more, but that sums it up quite nicely. Just imagine that thing crashing down on someone who you love more than anyone else ever. I think I can be forgiven for the panic attack I had afterward.

Anyway, this area of the garden has mysterious properties. About three years ago we found this beautiful flowering grass type thing thing growing, just the one. My husband dug it up and transplanted it, where it took root and went bananas. We now have groups and groups of them all over the garden. They are a beautiful orangey yellow, and attract good bees and hummingbirds. I approve. Here: maybe somebody knows what they are. I know they are used extensively in city plantings, as I’ve seen them on boulevard gardens and in big planters in Kits.

Okay, anyway, so what did we find growing back there? Thimbleberries! What is a thimbleberry? Well, to be honest, it kind of scared me at first. I had seen the giant blooms, which looked just like blackberry blooms, and had figured they were just giant blackberries. But then my husband pointed out that, hey… what are those? They looked a bit like sloppy raspberries, big and oddish. One fell off in my hand when I picked it (and I kind of flung it away, shrieking, as I have never encountered a berry that just fell like that). I went inside to investigate and found out that what we had were thimbleberries, which are not cultivated because they are so soft. Thimbleberry jam is a rare treat, and apparently the natives used to (or maybe still do, how would I know?) press them into cakes. So, out I went to taste test. Delicious! Tart but sweet and very, very nice. Some pictures:

This one is overripe. I could photograph it as it was close, but it wasn’t good to eat. As usual, and as a berry, they like to hide under the leaves. Here’s a shot of some underripe ones:

Anyway, how cool is that? I wish I knew more so I could figure out what else wants to spontaneously grow in my yard.

Anyway, what else? Oh yes, we did a bit of garden shopping. Sadly this season has been cool and wet (glad I’m not in the nursery business) so even though I felt sheepish about going at the end of July to get bedding plants, we were certainly not alone.

Anyway, we found some shade plants and have filled up our front garden. Just a bit of painting to go and I think we might be market ready.

Stressful, but I’m trying to stay positive (a bit hard with the post natal hormonal woes I have been enduring). Here’s front garden! I hope the mailman likes it.

We also reinstated our house address post, so now we won’t have to explain exactly to everyone where we live. It’s good. Even if it doesn’t sell, it’s good to have these loose ends tied up.

Okay, baby crying off and on and I can put this off no longer. Next time I post… a brilliant baby sweater! I’m quite excited and not that far from being finished. Lucky baby dressed in Malabrigo sock!

I can’t decide between “Friend” and a very somberly intoned “Birthday greetings we will bring you….

Feral Knitter — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 04:58:48 +0000

birthday greetings today…

May the Father up in Heaven

bless and keep you always…”

This is what we sang after the ever so cheerful “Happy Birthday” when we were in elementary school. While “Happy Birthday” was upbeat and positive, “Birthday Greetings” was much more Calvinistic… somber, bottom notes, unblinking and in retrospect, quite depressing. Again, it wasn’t the sentiment, it was just the way it was delivered. Sort of like the harmony to “oh Canada” wow… totally depressing, but it gives me a bit of a giggle nowadays. I can’t imagine making kids sing that in a classroom. Come to think about it, if I found out that that song was actually the bass harmony for a much happier song I wouldn’t at all be surprised. But anyway. Yes, I just had my birthday. It was a chaotic day, to say the least.

I meant to start it with a trip out with C. We were going to either go to the beach or to the forest. C voted on the forest, and we agreed that we were going to go out looking for foxes, which he thinks are the scariest, most horrible creatures ever. I just liked the idea of walking through the forest in the early morning. Hey, I’ll take phantom foxes if it means I get to get out of the house guilt free. However, it was (gasp) raining this morning. Gah! Rain. Madness. Everyone on the continent is complaining of heat wave and we have this silly damp, coldish cloud hanging over us. Meh. I’m so over it. Every now and then we get some decent weather, but for the most part it has been ick. So, anyway, we instead headed out for part two of our outing, which was to the store for cake.

Oooh, back up, though. Keep in mind that Baby Miles did NOT want to sleep last night. I kept trying to put him down, and he kept freaking out (which would not normally sway me, but with a tiny house and a cranky when awoken 2 year old I wasn’t so keen on letting that go on). Finally I got a bit of help, and sat down to watch some old MASH episode, only to have Evil Cat come over and demand love and attention. Gaaaah! get away! I love you, kitty, but seriously, stop head butting me, stop clawing my foot and stop trying to crawl right up to my face to get my attention. I have had smallish people on me since four this morning and baaaaah! leave me alone! Then Miles was up at 2 until 3:30, then again at 5… at 5 I grabbed him close and he snuggled right up to me, his little face about an inch from mine… This kept him quiet for another hour, but by then he woke up again, panicking. Yikes. I think what bugged me most was that, no, I couldn’t just hold him, I had to get out of bed and walk around to hold him… and yes, if you stopped moving or sat down he’d start panicking again. Anyway, suffice it to say last night was not one of our better nights.

So, anyway, C and I went out to get cake, then we went on a family trip to the bank (yay! two small children in a financial institution! what fun…) got home, got C fed and in bed and then the visits started. Good visits, but with little time to recover, it was definitely a busy, busy day.

Anyway, hmmm…. oh, yes, presents! I was spoiled. Oh, I forgot to photograph my gnome family. Another time. But I did photograph some fun times. Here’s my card from Jan:

I mostly want this for posterity and inside humour. Ha! Jan. You’re hilarious. Oh, she also got me an awesome book on knitting cultural icons. My father in law was particularly enamored with it. I agree! It’s great.

I also got another copy of the Joy of Cooking. My copy has mysteriously gone missing, and while I was waiting to find it, I was in desperate need for reading material and borrowed Jan’s, only to discover that hers was waaay different than mine! This current one is apparently based of the ever so famous 1975 edition. It’s also massively different. Hmph. Well, we’ll see. From a rather cursory glance I could see a lot of it was changed. But, never mind, I love that book and I’m sorry that mine got borrowed into oblivion. Now I have my own and the world is right again.

And the kind of most awesome gift of all:

Yep, that’s my own meat slicer. We debated which would give us better use (between this and the sausage maker.) and decided on the slicer. Oh how my slightly evil mind dances! My own slicer! I kind of want to slice up a lot of ham and sit outside at a table offering my meaty wares to the local construction workers. No, seriously, they are putting in utilities up the street from here as well as building a large house. I’m sure there are hungry construction workers who would pay for a nice cut of pork tenderloin. Yes, I am ridiculous, but happily pleased with this acquisition.

Look! look what my boys got me! Also, in the background, a replacement for my missing 77 Dodge van. Sadly, my brownish one has gone missing (I’m sure we’ll find it if/when we move) and no matter how many times I have dropped down to floorish level I haven’t been able to find it back. But! Now I have a replacement, and it is happily perched on my window sill, where I can see it while performing the daily drudgery of dishes and counters. Also pictured is the Silver Delorian! Yep, I first has the black, then found the gold, and finally now I have the silver. Man, do I love that car. I mean, not really in real life, but as a Hot Wheels car, it is the bomb.It’s the silver Delorian!

Okay, what else. Um. Well, I was spoiled and it was a lovely, although very hectic day (I definitely heard the experimental jazz on more than one occasion). I still could use some sleep, mind you. Speaking of sleep, it is way past my bedtime. Here, in closing, is a shot taken an hour ago of the Man Who Thinks I am the World’s Greatest Mattress (I wish that was as saucy as it sounds…)

hey hey nadine…

Feral Knitter — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 21:21:42 +0000

Finally some summer! Just a wee bit, though. A day of sun here and there, but mostly it’s been cool and dark, especially in our normally cool and dark bottom floor. With the trees blocking out the sun, and the sun blocked by clouds, we have lights on down there nearly all the time, which is kind of depressing. I can’t work in half lit rooms, but feel foolish switching on lights in the middle of July.

Anyway. Look, raspberries!

The bush is quite full. C is learning through experimentation that the green ones don’t taste good, but the red ones taste very, very good. He evaluates everyone he tries. It’s quite funny. That being said, we have told him time and time again not to eat the green ones. But when you spend your days telling him pretty much everything time and time again, you start to let a few slide.

Just finished this:

It’s the ubiquitous Traveling Woman shawl, which I’ve had in my pdf library for quite a while. Before the postal strike I ordered some Quince and Co. yarn, which of course ended up taking forever to get here. Not that I have had much time to knit, but let’s just say that the anticipation of it’s arrival is almost better than getting it the next week. It is lovely yarn, though. Just up my alley– simple, nice to work with and gorgeous colours.

Of course I wanted my shawl to be big enough, so I made I think two more repeats, but then, of course, I ran out. Well, almost ran out. I threw in some Cascade 220 sport for the end of chart B, then kept enough on hand for the bind off, which I think made it look much more deliberate than it really was. But anyway. It’s 25 degrees and far too warm to take it out for a test drive, unfortunately. Ah well, come fall I will be well warmed.

Not much else. We are in the middle of potty training woes here. It is far more dramatic than we’d like it to be. It’s really not adding positively to my overall malaise, but hey, things can only get better, right?

In the room downstairs he sat and stared

Feral Knitter — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 17:58:43 +0000

So, the sleeping is getting a bit better, and the horrific smells and shrieking have definitely gone down, but all I can say is lucky for Mr. Baby that he’s so darn cute. Also, lucky for him that he coos and talks so much (which his older brother didn’t, and darn is it ever cute!) and I just love love love the smiles I get from him. Babies are difficult! Of course I knew this, I knew that it would not be easy, and indeed, it is not. I don’t know how people do this. I remember telling my mom that I had no idea how people had more than one smallish kid at a time. I think maybe running a business with professional suit types showing up at my not big house and calling very often might be adding to my stress but wow. Who knows. Maybe it’s just my personality. I tend to not be able to process too many things at once without feeling like there is an experimental jazz band in my head. Yep, that’s exactly how I feel… like there is an experimental jazz band in my head. A few weeks ago I felt more like I was on a six week long greyhound bus trip, and I was the lady with the crying kid. But now it is just jazz band, maddening and unpredictable and spinning around and around.

So, how to regain some sanity? Knitting, of course. I may not watch TV (meh, who does anymore? It is amazing how much difference ten years has made on broadcast television… but that’s a whole other discussion.) and I may have to glean the local new from the edit-worthy CBC website and I may shower waaaay less than I should (and hey, fenugreek tablets and nursing tea make you smell funny. There, I said it. Not bad, just funny. A bit like I just immigrated from a country in which wonderfully spicy food is a mainstay… only, we’re eating patched together pasta and (gasp!) ground beef way more often that I’d like.) but I do try to keep some simple, ends-achievable knitting going on, just to maintain some kind of sanity. Here we go:

Ha, notice how my gauge got wacky right where I divided for the sleeves? Here’ s my secret, people. Knitting in the round. I knit in the round at a blinding pace (one of my few talents) and every time I have to divide for sleeves my gauge gets wacky. Back and forth knitting is not my friend, anymore at least. Ever since I stopped pit-knitting a few years ago. Anyway, pattern is the Baby Owls Vest (or Owls Baby Vest, not quite sure and too lazy to check) and is the same one that Sue knit for C for his first birthday (something I only really realized later. Now I have two of them? Hello, dummy!). I used a skein of Madelinetosh DK in a colourway called Silver Fox. I am glad it was called Silver Fox, because if it was called “Sweatsuit Grey from the late 80s” I definitely would not have bought it, but truly, that is the exact colour. That’s marketing for you, folks. I like silver, I don’t like heather gray. Weird but true. Anyway, about the pattern. Easy peasy, cute and nice. I was a bit afraid it wouldn’t fit over his head (and inded, his nose does get a bit smushed) but it does and of course, is adorable.

But, the yarn. What is deal with Madelinetosh? So much hype, so much going on about how squishy and lovely this particular yarn is, and the colours! oh the colours! Okay, I will allow for the colours. I think they are quite lovely and I do approve. However, the yarn itself… yikes. I almost thought that maybe that specific dye had made it feel so crunchy and cotton-like, but I messaged somebody on Ravelry who was the only person I could find to make a slightly negative comment about this yarn, and asked her if I had lost my tactile sensations since giving birth, or perhaps I am completely crazy, but wow, doesn’t it feel like cotton? Thankfully she reassured me that I had not been abducted by aliens and experimented on (of course, now I have no satisfactory explanation for the random bruises all over me…) and that it will get slightly better after washing/blocking. It’s still not what I expected, though. Maybe people were so excited because it doesn’t feel like wool. Well, I want my wool to feel like wool, not like anything else. But then, I think Cascade 220 sport is the be all and end all, so who am I to comment?

Okay, gratuitous baby pictures. I’m going to milk this kid’s infancy for all it’s worth while I can…

okay, formatting is off. But small person is starting up, so time is up!

Who’s that trip trapping…?

Feral Knitter — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 16:19:16 +0000

Just a quick one. First… look at the other salmon berry bush! The one near the alley has very, very pretty fruit. They are a gorgeous red yellow. These particular ones became dessert yesterday:

No, that is not my pudgy hand.

And, look what I made! I actually got something done! Of course it was all garter stitch and it’s baby sized, so that explains how it got done. I didn’t have to think much, and could get it done fast. This is from the new EZ book Knit One Knit All, which is a very nice book. I was a bit skeptical about a posthumous EZ book, but this is totally worth it. It has lots of patterns and is very well put together. For some reason the pattern I started out with is not in the Ravelry database, which I thought was a bit odd. But never mind that, I knit it and, though it lacks buttons, it is pretty much finished.

Two Piece Baby Jacket:

I lengthened the sleeves and made the body a bit wider. I probably shouldn’t have made the body any wider, but I was afraid it wouldn’t fit. I suppose I know for next time. I used Cascade 22o sport, which, btw, is my favourite yarn. If I had all my yarn taken away and could only have one, it would be this one. It shouldn’t be called 220 sport, though, as it is much more like Eco Wool than 220. It is lovely, lovely lovely. I can’t wait until I have more time on my hands so I can make myself a yoked sweater out it.

Okay, that’s it. Not that cognitive, again. I find it difficult some days to string together sentences, what with running on an average of three hours of sleep these past six weeks. It’s getting better, but I still feel like I’ve been on a Greyhound bus for six weeks and the crying baby is mine. Yikes.

sheila take a bow…

Feral Knitter — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 20:54:11 +0000

So that last month has been one longish, sleepless blur. Pretty standard newborn stuff, so I won’t go on. He’s doing really well, though, and gained over two pounds past his birth weight in a month. I think that’s pretty impressive. I”m happy that he’s a big, healthy boy.

The weather this spring has absolutely stunk. I hadn’t really noticed, being sleep deprived/and or hugely pregnant, but wow, everything is late, and warm sunny days are in short supply. One bush we have in our yard that I usually cut down pretty low was, of course, neglected. It grew like a weed, and is now about fifteen feet tall, and just about as wide. Imagine my great surprise when I found out that the neglected bush actually flowers! And I started noticing them all over the neighbourhood. I have no idea what it is, but the flowers are very pretty and quite the nice bonus.

The random potatoes we planted are also growing like mad, which is nice. Apparently they also thrive on neglect and bad weather, at least in my yard. The raspberries are starting to bloom, but we have no strawberries yet, just teeny tiny green ones that are not ripening. We do, however, have salmonberries. They don’t taste like much, but they sure are pretty. Oh, and my hacked up rose bush is doing great too, which I am thrilled about. There is nothing quite like the wafting aroma of those blooms.

Hmm… what else? Seriously, tired, people, that’s what you’re witnessing here. Okay, um, well… Oh, okay, I’ll just post a cute baby picture. That will distract you from all the disjointed, awful writing.

His feet are so cute!

Oh, wait, wait. I did some knitting too! Yes, I just finished it yesterday. It’s Carol Sunday’s To Eyre Shawl. I only have a lousy picture of it (I have a questionable spare photographer in this house and it is hard to photograph myself. Also, shawls look best when modeled on someone, not draped over the staircase or dumped on the lawn.) Anyway, I used Silk Garden, and am wearing it right now. Ha! It only took me about five times longer than it should have. Easy pattern, though, interesting enough and with easy to memorize repeats.

Okay, I will photograph it better later. Okay, somebody is cooing and rolling around, so I must go…

Okay, just as a side note. Seeing as this baby has gained two pounds in less than a month, he has already outgrown several of his outfits. When he first came home, I held the sweater Judy had made for him up, and realized it was still too big. Well, four weeks and endless eating, fussing, burping and farting later, he has grown to fit it! I really want Judy to see it, so here he is. By the way, photographing babies is hard! They keep tipping over, or lolling their heads back (adopting that oh so attractive Churchill appearance). This is the best I could come up with. Oh, and yes, he is missing a lot of his hair. It started falling out with decision last Saturday. He is now, sadly, Mostly Bald.

Without further commentary…