Monday miscellany

First, I feel I should warn you that my recent knitting projects are BRIGHT! I'm talking day-glow bright. Check out these socks:

Remind you of anything? Oh, I don't know, how about Newfoundland? The rock? The yarn is Regia's Canadian line. Each province has it's own colourway and this one, well this one is Newfoundland. Granted, I've never been to Newfoundland but if I had to describe it as a colour, this carnival and bubble gum colour would not be it! Dontcha just love it though? I predict that these will be my new favourite socks. I love how the stripes are of different widths and there's nothing I love more these days than orange and pink together so: Go Newfoundland!!! Oh, why didn't I get the Quebec colourway and show some provincial pride? Quebec sucks! Well the Regia Quebec anyway. Newfoundland is much better! (Nova S cotia is nice too ;0)

Speaking of orange and pink. Here's my finished Mason*Dixon washrag. I was so eager to finish it that I cast off a full repeat too soon. Oops! It's still a good size though so it's fine. Just like I thought, there's lots of Sugar'n'cream leftover...probably enough for one or two more of these.

We participated in the Bell Walk for Kids yesterday and had lots of fun. Julian even met the CFCF12 mascot (though he was asleep in the stroller for all the other mascots). Stephen and I have been participating in the walk for 4 years and are really supportive of the cause, esapecially now that we have a child of our own. The walk is in support of Kids Help Phone which is an anonymous counselling service for kids and teens of any age.

I saw a lot of colleagues there too (I work for Bell) and it was really nice to catch up with everyone. I'm really sad to be going back to work and will greatly miss spending all this time with my Jubilee Bubilee but would be lying if I said I wasn't also looking forward to going back to work.

Of course, the whole return is being made easier by my mother-in-law who is taking a sabbatical from her gradeschool teaching career to care for Julian next year. She is just so excited about it. My father-in-law is retired and will also enjoy spending time with the little guy. It's going to be great! She's even going to pick him up in the morning so we won't have to rush him in the morning and he can just wake up when he pleases. We're really lucky. And also very grateful!

Well, tomorrow is Parenting Book Blog Along day so I better go find a quiet spot and read the next chapter in the book. It's a long one too ;0)

Cheers!

Daisies and Mason*Dixon

Ta-da! I finished my daisy last night and adorned it with daisies this morning. I stopped myself at 3 and am happy with it. I also machine washed and dried it and gave it a good steaming and turns out that the cotton tots is pretty okay afterall. It's still a little numbly but the softness and easy care make up for it.

I finished the hood late last night after my husband fell asleep with the little one and had to wake him up (the hubby) extra early this morning to help me with the grafting. Yup, that's right, my husband is my grafting secret. Just can't do it without him! He reads the instructions to me as I graft and totally astonished me at 6 am this morning when, after grafting about half of the stitches, he put down the book and continued to give me instructions from memory! He's actually figured it out. I think that now that he understands the grafting logic enough to instruct me from memory, he should get started on a little grafting help program so that I can manage to finish my socks on my own without waking him up extra early!!! I could tell the wheels were turning so say tuned...

I started knitting my first dishrag this morning. It's the ballband dishrag from Mason*Dixon Knitting and it's knitting up so fast and the slip stitch pattern is so clever. I bought the day-glow orange and pink Sugar'n Cream from Mary Maxim (see sidebar for link to shop) specifically for this dishrag and since I have no other purpose for it, I'll keep making dishrags 'til its gone.

I bought the book as soon as it was available (I had it on pre-order) and must say that I was a little disappointed when I got it because while the writing style is so puny and great and the patterns and ideas are so original, there's not much in there I'd actually knit. And the things I think are cool are just so involved that I don't think I could commit to them long enought to finish them. Case in point, the mitered square bed cover.

How cool is that? Maybe I will be tempted to knit it someday because I really love it, but what I really want is for someone else to knit it give it to me as a present! And this, of course, would only happen in my alternate universe! I love the caption on the bottom of that photo in the book though. It says "don't be shy about letting company see that you've knitted an entire bedspread. (They already know you're crazy.)"

Another really cool idea I may work on if ever I'm pregnant and on bedrest! Is the aptly named 'moses basket - ambitious grandmother version'. I do have a basket though that I got for Julian which would be perfect with a handknit liner. Hmmm. If only time stood still!

Have a great weekend ;0)

Daisies everywhere?

Okay. I really have to get serious about stashbusting. So many projects, so little time! I've had two balls of Bernat cotton tots in the stash from my 'learning to knit' days and I searched and searched and searched for the perfect project to use it all up. Then I found Daisy (from knitty). And it's just right for the cotton tots. Right gauge. Right quantity.


I've finished the body and sleeves and am now knitting the hood. I'm knitting the smallest size and think that two balls will be more than enough to finish it. I was able to knit the body and one sleeve with a single ball of the stuff so I think I'll make it. Now I have to decide whether I like it plain, which is nice and gender neutral, or whether I want to embroider on the daisies?

This is another one for the gift pile so gender neutrality would be a big plus. But how cute are the daisies? They would add so much sweetness to the otherwise very plain and boring hoodie! What to do, what to do? Did I mention I have just a few yards of white cotton tots left from another project which would be just enough for subtle daisies? Oh, and also, I have the cutest little daisy buttons. Hmmmm...

I'm feeling so much knitting pressure these days because my days at home are counted. My maternity leave ends just a week after Julian's first birthday so I have less than two months left to enjoy my little bundle of joy and to knit my little heart out during naptime. Once I'm back at the office, I'll still get to knit on the train and in the evenings after we put the little guy to sleep but projects will take longer to complete and so there will be much fewer FO's.

And my stash is huge!

Ps. I never do enough of this, but wanted to thank all of you commenters out there. You are always so encouraging and supportive and make my day, everyday. Blogger doesn't collect e-mail addresses for commenters (if you've found a way to do that please, please, please let me know how) so I don't often respond, but wanted to acknowledge and thank you for taking the time. Like many of you stay at home moms out there, I really appreciate the interaction with grown-ups! So thanks ;0)

Flying woman

What a dreary week it's been so far. It's all rain all the time around these parts. And Julian is especially clingy so I haven't had time to do much, but I did finish these adorable little mary janes.

I bought the pattern is from www.shescrafty.com. They are a quick and easy knit though I did have some issues with sizing. Either I garter much more tightly than I stocking stitch, Julian's feet are ginormous so it's hard for me to judge, or there's something wrong with the pattern!

I made the little daisies out of rick rack and I adore them. The instructions are from an old Martha Stewart Baby magazine. Basically, you cut a piece of rick rack with 16 points on the bottom, run a stitch in and out of each point, tighten, sew the first and last edge together, seal with fray-away and trim. Then sew a coordinating button in the center and voila! The most adorable daisy. Have you ever? I love it! Now I just have to wait for someone to expect a baby girl!

And now for a complete change of pace, my first entry for the parenting book blog along. Warning: no knitting content ahead!

Chapter 1: What do I want more than anything for my child?

I want him to know love (and self-love).
I want him to be happy.
I want him to feel valued.
I want him to embrace life.
I want him to take his place in the world.
I want him to be the change he wants to see.

These are the things I thought of when pondering the question posed by Wayne Dyer in the first chapter of What do you really want for your children? (the book I am reading as part of the parenting book blog-along).

I was amazed when I kept reading to find that in his experience, these are the same qualities all parents want for their children. And I wondered, is this new? Did our parents want this for us too? When I think of everyone I know, I don't see many no limit role models. Does this mean that our parents failed us? Or did they simply have other definitions of success?

My mother was a homemaker. And she was very unhappy. Most days, I came home from school to find her sitting at the kitchen table with coffee and cigarettes talking to someone about how horrible her life was, what a jerk my dad was, and how she really needed to win the lottery. She would see us come in (I have two older sisters), would tell whoever she was talking to to hold on a sec while she instructed us to vacuum or do laundry or start supper. Then my dad would come home, we'd eat supper quietly, do the dishes and retire to our rooms.

Her definition of parenting success (and she still prides herself for this parenting 'feat') is that we didn't become drug addicts or prostitutes and that we know how to clean house (my mother is an obsessive cleaner, at 60 she still cleans her kitchen floors with a toothbrush every other day despite being the only one in the house)!

I learned to be the almost no-limit person I think I am from TV. Since my parents didn't model no limit living for me, I learned most of these things from the tender moments at the end of the shows I watched as a child. You know, the end of every episode of The Little House on the Prairie or Full House or The Cosby Show when the sappy music starts and the main character learns an important life-lesson? I also learned this from God. And from my friends (and their parents) and teachers.

I am happy. I feel that I make my own luck and can savour the little (and the big) things that life has brought me. I am resilient in the face of troubles and manage to get through them quickly. I know that hard work will be rewarded even if it is just the self-satisfaction. I am proud of myself and of my accomplishments. I am confident. I believe that I can do anything and be whoever I want to be if I set my mind to it. I don't look to others to make me happy. I lead a simple life. I married a great man. A loving, caring, supportive, brilliant and fun-loving man. I am not petty or pretentious. I don't seek riches. I enjoy the things I have and am grateful for all the blessings that have been bestowed upon me. I make my own luck.

I said I was almost a no-limit person though. I have a flaw. I'm the flying woman.

I discovered this wonderful Brian Andreas verse before Christmas after coming across one of his prints on Krista's site. I instantly recognised myself in it when I saw it and sobbed, and sobbed, and sobbed. It says "For a long time she flew only when she thought no one else was watching." That's me. I can fly. I know that about myself. But I'm afraid to let others see for some totally irrational reason I don't know of yet.

So here's my big flaw: I live in a cocoon, a safe happy place I've created for myself ever since I was a child. This is where I exhibit all of my other no-limit characteristics. In my cocoon, I am self-loving, able and confident. But all of that fades away when I am in a social situation, especially if there are a lot of other people around. In those situations, I do a lot of smiling and nodding and count down the minutes in my head until I can go home to my cocoon. There are others in my cocoon. My husband and son, my family, my in-laws, a few colleagues and dear friends.

I've often tried to venture out of my cocoon but I really don't feel at ease there. Outside of my cocoon I freeze up, I worry about not knowing what to say, I feel like I have nothing to contribute and am in every way a shrinking violet. So I don't go there. My husband is the same way (though perhaps to a lesser extent). So I am worried that we will pass this on to our children, that we won't be able to model outgoingness (is that a word?) This I know is something we'll have to work on ourselves. I believe it is a gift that we give ourselves and our children.

I don't know what I am afraid of really, but for now I am perfectly happy flying around my cocoon. Brian Andreas' verse is also full of hope for me though which is the silver lining. "For a long time" implies that she eventually allows herself to fly even while others watch. I hope to be able to do this too as a gift to myself and to my children ;0)