Abbey who?

We decided to name Julian Julian because we liked the name, of course, but also because we liked the obvious nicknames: Jude or Jules.  But as soon as we saw his little face, we knew he needed another interim nickname that was more fitting to his little tiny, pudgy, round-faced self. 


Stephen was the source of many of the first attempts like captain pipi pants, shoe-dini, and jubilee bubilee.  Then came Oblio after the main character in Harry Nilsson (and Ringo Starr)'s The Point.  But none of these stuck as THE nickname until auntie Libby coined jujube during one of our Sunday lunches at grandma and grandpa's.  It was perfect!  And 4 and a half years later, it's still endearing ;0)

Lolo was a different matter.  I had already started to refer to him as lemon and lemon drop in utero.  But when we finally met him, lemon just didn't seem right. He quickly (and quite naturally) became lolo, lolobean, lolobear...  I think we all came up with it simultaneously.  He's a lolo! At almost three, he's starting to insist we call him Logan bean, but he'll forever be Lolo to us.  It just suits him perfectly ;0)

As for this little Abbey Violet of ours, well it's proving to be a little challenging because it feels like her very name is already a nickname.  We considered naming her Abigail so we could nickname her Abbey for all of 3o seconds.  When it came down to it though, it had to be Abbey with a "e" after our favourite Beatles album, Abbey Road.  So here we are still trying out some 
early contenders...

First was my little swiss miss.  We had brought a little polka dotted baby bundler to the hospital with us, and seeing as my brain works funny in a crafty kind of way, it reminded me of swiss dots which in turn reminded me of the swiss miss hot cocoa I remember having (and loving) at my friend Amy's house as a teen.  Little swiss miss.  It has a nice ring to it but it's just not the one.

Stephen came up with honey-bunny one afternoon during his paternity leave and it really stuck with the boys.  They like to mush up their little faces and say "aaa-bbey, my little hunny bunny"  It's the cutest thing.  But I'm not sure.  Too generic perhaps.

Then one day Lolo came up with abbioshi - as in Abbey is Yoshi.  The pink one! I got Super Mario Bros Wii for Christmas (LOVE!) and the boys are completely obsessed with it which is good because Stephen and I love to play it ;0)  Well Julian insists on being called Luigi.  Lolo wants to be Mario. And Abbey? Well she's abbioshi! Sweet.  


I'm sure there'll be many more try-outs but I just know that someday soon we'll have the perfect nickname for her too.


Until then, she can simply be my Abbey.  


ps - she's wearing the placket neck sweater I knit for Lolo when he was a wee babe.


pps - she's also wearing my first foray into sewing for her: pajama pants from Amy Butler's pattern in little stitches for little ones.  Love. 

Oh, snap!

I had been looking for a special critter scarf pattern for my lolobean ever since I finished Julian's slithering snake scarf last year, but couldn't find anything that I felt lived up to the awesomeness of Julian's scarf until I fell upon Terry Ross' "what a croc" pattern on Ravelry this fall...

I cast on immediately with some stash Knit Picks Swish worsted (in bok choy) and flew through it using up just 2 balls of yarn. I modified the teeth by picking up stitches around the snout and knitting a short picot hem. I also sewed on some eyes I knit (cast on 10 sts in cream, K 1 row, P 1 row, switch to blue and K2Tog across, cut yarn an pull through remaining stitches and sew to eye socket).

It looked a little plain and thin (and the sides rolled like crazy!) and since I was overdue with my daughter and looking for something mindless to do while I tried to patiently wait for labour to begin (it didn't for 5 days!) I decided to knit a striped lining using the same shaping instructions but without any features or scales. And then because I was really desperate and labour still hadn't begun, I knit 120 inches of i-cord and seamed it together with the croc and lining!

Turned out super cute and warm. And my lolobean loves it. Of course every time I look at it I am reminded of how annoying it is to be overdue (especially when you thought you'd be early), but still, a perfect toddler scarf! Here he is wearing it to "the slope" near Stephen's childhood home: a little incline (it's barely a hill) by the highway where my hubby and his sister used to go as a child (it slopes away from the highway for those who are wondering like I was - crazy).

It was the first time they got to try out their saucers on an actual hill and though I thought they were still little and might find the speed terrifying (I would) they actually found it thrilling! I stayed at the top of the hill with Abbey and could hear their loud laughter unfurling all the way down. Such fun!!

Guess this means we'll need to bring our snowpants, snakes, crocs, and saucers with us to Grandma and Grandpas on Sundays and stop by the "hill" on our way ;0)

Oh happy day!



p.s.: Thank you all for such a nice welcome back! I didn't expect anyone was still hanging around these parts so it was really heartwarming to hear from you all. I am so happy to be back and have so much to tell...

Abbey Violet

It's been almost a year since my last post, and what a year it's been: there were major renos {we finally finished our basement}, a new car {our 11 year old honda got really tired}, growing corn {yeah, that one didn't work out so well}, discovering lego with the boys {now 4 and a half and 3} and finally learning to sew {well that one is on-going}! But the best part 2009 was growing and welcoming a daughter!! Presenting Abbey Violet...

She was born on November 19th. A full 5 days past her due date! We were just so thrilled to finally meet her. She came into the world to the tunes of Bob Dylan's highway 61 and to a handknit little hat that I made while in labour. It was a tad too big!

The delicious Countess Elite and the large size 9 needles were just the right thing to while away labour and I finished sewing on the pompoms (which I had made at home and brought along) just in time to push. Thank you knitting! It was just the thing.

And now of course so many knitting projects are calling...full of frills and lace and girly little things.

My heart is so full <3

Life after knitting...

Way back in December, after that feverish bout of designing and sample knitting for those Buddy Sweaters, I took a deep breath and decided to quit knitting…for the holidays.

I always have these grand plans for the holidays and in the end, there are just too many chores, expectations, and too little time.  And now that the boys are a little bigger, I thought they would much prefer spending some good quality time getting excited about Christmas than watching mommy go bonkers and pleading to be left alone for ‘just 5 more minutes’ to finish something or another.  So just like that, I tore up my holiday knitting list, put away all the yarn, needles and books strewn all over my house and just put it out of my mind.

And it was wonderful…

For the first time in my adult life, Christmas didn’t sneak up on me.  By the time it rolled around, I was ready.  I accomplished everything I wanted to and had a blast with the boys getting excited about it all: we made all of our own decorations for the tree, made sweet treats for our friends and fun toy gifts for all the little people in our neighbourhood, we baked, we made bread, we celebrated Santa Lucia, had dinner with friends, went to a bowling party, saw Santa, went to Church, had picnics under the tree, opened our advent stockings every night, sneaked out to cafes after dinner for chocolate milk and fanciful deserts.  We even went to see a movie in a real movie theatre! We had our neighbourhood buddies over for a Christmas party and just were really, really merry with no pressure, just fun and smiles and giggles.

And it was wonderful…

Now that Christmas is long behind us, I’m still enjoying the perks of my non-knitting lifestyle: my life is organised, we have fresh laundry (there isn’t even an ironing pile looming in the closet anymore), my house is clean and guest-ready at anytime, I’m reading a book (!), sometimes I even nap with the boys.  I joined the gym with my buddy and have actually been going three nights a week, get to bed at a reasonable hour and am enjoying cozying up with hubby on the sofa at the end of the day.

And that’s why it’s mid-February and I’m still on Christmas break.  It’s hard to get back into the groove.   Actually, I’m not even sure I really want to get back into the knitting groove the way I have been for the past 4 years.  I need more balance in my life I guess and it took a good long knitting break to see that fibre had really started to take way to much room in my life.

I hope to get back into it soon because it did mean a lot to me and I got a lot of pleasure and self-esteem from knitting and have enjoyed sharing it with you all here and on Ravelry.  I guess I just need to figure out a way to not get obsessive with it the way I think I have been in the past and that’s going to be tricky for me because once I cast on, it’s hard for me to put a project down before it is finished.    

But there’s lots of yarn in my knitting chest and there are two perfect little guys in my midst to adorn with loving woollens so it’s just a matter of time, really.

But for now, I’m enjoying the no-pressure lifestyle…

I’ll be catching up on the blog in the next few weeks with all of our holiday adventures.  I’ll cheat a little with the dates of the posts so that the dates match up more with when the activities took place so it makes more sense in the archives.  And then, I’d like to get back into the blogging even if there is no knitting to talk about and I hope you won’t mind terribly ;0)

Thank you for all the kind e-mails and all your support throughout the years, you’ve been good friends and while I haven’t missed the knitting so much, I have missed writing about life with the boys and sharing it all with you. 

I have so much to tell you…