Plugging away

I am finally going to post about something craft related!

Remember that blanket that Elaine and I were making that was still a WIP? Well, we continue to work on it. I've finished adding the crochet border to each square, and am now blocking them all so they can be joined together.


I had all these grand plans to block the whole whack of them, but ran into a serious bottle-neck: I didn't have enough pins. Of all things to hold you back! And plus it takes about 2 days for those puppies to dry completely. And so, I'm not finished the blocking process yet. Sigh. For once, it's not me that's slowing down the whole process.

Next post: Why I love, love, love, the Toronto Public Library.

Houston, we have a problem...

Actually, Houston doesn't have a problem. I do. A serious one.



Yes, it is exactly what you think it is. Yet another bag. It arrived in the mail from Mamabargains yesterday. The first time they went up on sale, I felt the tug. I couldn't believe how cute the bags were (there's a whole animal series). I wanted more than one, that's how cute I found them. And then I told myself, "No, you've got lots of perfectly good bags, among them is a perfectly great diaper bag." And so, I resisted and didn't buy one. Then, the bags sold out and the site moved on to the next deal, and I felt this huge pang of regret that I didn't buy one on the cheap when I had the chance. Despite how much I rationalized the fact that I really didn't need another bag, I couldn't help that gut feeling.

So, when the site featured them again, I couldn't help myself and ordered one. I had a really hard time deciding which one I wanted - I loved the elegance of the Peacock, the bold print of the Toucan, the clever use of frog closures on the Panda. In the end, I picked the Penguin. Cute won out in the end.

Like I said, I have a problem.

Also, you may have noticed a slight change in the look of the blog. What do you think? I've been playing around with the new templates that Blogger has available. I thought this one looked similar to our old style, just a little more refined. I've been surfing around looking at other free templates, but don't really want to change things here too radically yet. Don't worry, Adrienne; if you don't like this change, I have our old template saved and can reinstall it at any time. Just let me know :)

Coming soon: an actual crafty update. Really. I promise.

Where to even start?

So, it turns out that taking care of a baby is as busy as they all say it is even though all you seem to be doing is feeding it, changing its diaper, and trying to get it to sleep so you can get some sleep too. When the day is over, I often try to sum up everything that I've done, and I often can't think of much else. Little to no housework, minimal cooking, and laundry get sprinkled in there too. I think laundry is the one chore that I have been really keeping up with, mostly out of necessity. When you only have a few nursing bras, and find yourself leaking milk on a daily basis (oh, the things they don't tell you when you're pregnant), you get pretty good at doing a load here and there. Jamie, being the wonderful hubby that he is, looks after cleaning the kitty litter, vacuuming (I have allergies), mowing the lawn and tending to the garden, and taking out the trash. He even changes pretty much all of Andrew's diapers when he's home. What a guy :)

And before you know it, 4 months goes by. Yikes. How did we go from this:

to this:
???!!!

Given that I used to work in research, I am simply not used to so much change so quickly. It boggles my mind sometimes.

While I finally have some craft related stuff to write about, I think I'm going to save it for another post. Some of the photos we've been taking are just too much fun not to share.

This was one of the first smiles we caught on camera when he was about 1.5 months old.


Since then, he hasn't stopped smiling.


Well, sometimes he stops smiling...


Things can get messy...


Things can be unexpected and puzzling...


And things can be incredibly heartwarming...


All in all, I think our little family is doing just fine so far.


We'll keep working on it; the ultimate WIP.

Yes, still alive

I'm sorry, I've been a seriously delinquent blogger, I haven't touched this space for ages! I don't even have any good excuses, such as being too busy travelling to exciting places, or making a whole new person. Ugh. I think the problem is that my knitting doesn't excite me so much anymore, so I'm not motivated to take pictures of it, and if I don't take pictures, then I also don't update Ravelry until much later, and I don't blog about it either. It's not that I don't enjoy the knitting, it's more that I'm not in awe of the finished objects anymore because it's very much been there, done that. I really don't feel the need to discuss every single pair of toe-up stockinette socks I knit, you know?

In any case, until I figure out what to do about that, here's a roundup of some of the things I've knit over the past little while:

Green Gable (on Ravelry)

Pile-able Pups (on Ravelry)

Poppy (on Ravelry)

(Yay, the sleeves more or less match! As do both sides of the front! I don't think I'll be knitting another sweater out of Silk Garden anytime soon, worrying about getting the matching to work took too much out of me)

Citron (on Ravelry)

Katrina Rib (on Ravelry)

I'm happy that I'm now able to knit sweaters for myself that more or less fit. I don't think that I have a sweater FO that I'm 100% delighted with, but everyone who knows me well will probably say that that's pretty much an impossible endeavour. It's enough that I'm at least willing to wear them out in public! My next sweater goal is to tackle a fingering-weight sweater, maybe a Featherweight Cardigan?

And now I'll probably have to elapse back into blog silence, because I have to get a start on my Christmas knitting. Who knows though, maybe I'll manage to sneak a little something in there for myself, too.

Does this count as an FO? Or is it more a WIP?

So, Jamie and I finally finished a project that we started 9 months ago. Or, maybe we've just started the biggest project of our lives that will forever be a WIP.



Say hello to Andrew Chang Jien (張健) Wells. Born at 5:09am on April 29 after a long early labour (over 24 hours), but fast active labour (just under 4 hours). He came just in time for me to avoid an induction; even avoided taking castor oil. He cost Daddy $5 in a bet based around his due date, but maybe that's just his way of punishing Dad for making a bet on him.

This is gonna be the best project ever.

Plushies!

Well, in answer to the lovely Alice's question that she left me in the last post, no baby yet but we're still waiting patiently. Sorta. Going for an ultrasound tomorrow, which will be officially 1 week overdue, just to make sure things are still okay. If things are starting to look risky, I could very well be induced right there. Yikes! While I've got my bag packed, I think I'm going to have to pack another bag of things to help pass the time, just in case. Also need to pack a variety of snacks; hubby's only got one type of granola bar packed, and I think I might want more of a variety. Guess we're coming down to the wire.

To pass the time this weekend, I made my first non-knit, non-crochet plushie since grade 7/8 sewing class.

In a conversation with Jamie, we thought it would be nice idea to make one of those for Baby. After all, what parent wouldn't want their kid to have an extra life stashed away somewhere just in case? I made it out of felt and sewed the whole thing by hand. No real pattern - just sketched out a 1-up mushroom, cut out pieces accordingly, and just gave it a go. I have to say that making these little guys is kinda addictive. Here are some photos so you can get a sense of scale, and see the front and back.



I've got some red felt as well, so Jamie and I were debating the merits of making a red mushroom too. I wasn't so sure about it; after all, wouldn't that be like wanting Baby to grow up in an instant? But Jamie pointed out that it would also mean that if Baby got dinged by anything, it wouldn't be an instant Game Over. Haha! What silly discussions we have. What do you all think?

In addition to making plushies, I did some baking this weekend too.

Honey Cranberry Cornmeal Quick Loaf, as suggested to me by my good friend Becky. I froze the whole lot of it so that I can eat it after Baby is born. Yum!

I've been really wanting to put in some serious time on that baby blanket for my friend Carolyn, but have hit an unfortunate road block. I'm finding that crocheting is seriously aggravating the usually mild, pregnancy-induced carpal tunnel syndrome that I've developed. Argh! I can get a border on about half a square before my right wrist feels like it's on fire. Somehow, knitting doesn't produce the same effects. Must be the way I hold my crochet hook. Sigh. I've only got about 7 squares done, there's still a whole whack to go, and the clock is a-ticking.

Things to pass the time

Baby is now officially 2 days overdue, which means that I am in need of things to do to pass the time while we wait. I know it sounds like I should be getting lots of knitting and crocheting done, but that hasn't been the case. For one thing, Jamie and I have been going on walks to see if we can get labour going. And these aren't just little walks either; they're 4 hour epics which render me quite tired by the end of it. Still, I'm not going to complain because I do get some nice contractions while we're walking. I'm happy that he's accompanying me on these treks since it can't be a picnic for him to do that much walking either. Sure, he's not carrying a watermelon around with him 24/7, but he rarely does that much walking in a day.

On one of these walks, we decided to go to High Park, which is not too far from where we live. It was a good thing we decided to do that because we were able to see the cherry blossoms in full bloom.

We'd been by that same way about 3 weeks prior, and there was nothing on the trees at all. I called my parents to let them know about it. They had recently gone to Japan in the hopes of catching some cherry blossoms there, but didn't have much luck. So, they were quite happy to see these ones.

Seeing these reminded me of cotton candy. Mmm...cotton candy...


And this is me playing with the macro mode on my camera. The flowers are quite pretty though.


Still with the idea of trying to keep the contractions coming, I decided that the more time I spend standing at home, the better. It's been the case that as long as I'm on my feet, I get more contractions. Since it's not that convenient to knit/crochet while standing, I've been baking. That might seem weird since I was diagnosed with impaired glucose tolerance in my third trimester (which basically means I eat like a diabetic, but don't take insulin), but I enjoy it, so I decided to do it anyway.

I recently attempted a new recipe for double chocolate cookies that starts with cake mix. I usually don't use cake mix for anything, but it was sitting in the cupboard, so I just felt I should use it up. Plus it saved me from having to make a trip out to the grocery store to pick up missing ingredients. Having no experience with making cookies from cake mix, I wasn't sure how they'd turn out.

I'm guessing this is what I should have ended up with.


However, thanks to my idiocy, this is what I ended up with.

I really should have taken a picture when they'd just come out of the oven, before I separated them all. It was a solid sheet of cookie, and seriously looked pretty ridiculous. I fail, really I do. Still, I sent Jamie to work with the lot of them, and from the sounds of it, they were quite popular. Lesson learned. Next time, I will make the cookies smaller, or put more space between them. Sigh.