Getting ready to send off 2013

It seriously seems like yesterday when we were just welcoming 2013, and welcoming Nathan into the family. With our little guy's birthday so close to New Year's, it hits home how quickly the days are passing. Then again, this past year has been really fun, so maybe that's why it went by so fast.

This year on Facebook I attempted to post at least one photo for video every day. It turned out to be a remarkably good photo diary of every day life, particularly since the kids featured quite prominently in them. I've been going through my old posts just to look at them and reflect on the year. Here's a few favourites that I think really captured our first year as a family of four.

Up until he was about 4 or 5 months old, Nathan was the type of kid who needed to be held in order to nap. I think I was more okay with that this time around. Knowing that he's our last baby probably was a factor.

This was Andrew and Nathan's first ride together at Canada's Wonderland. I loved how happy Andrew was to have his little brother with him, even if Nathan didn't totally know what was happening. 

Nathan has been hitting all his mobility milestones faster than Andrew did. I'm not sure why that is, but I suspect it's because he's not as heavy as Andrew was so he doesn't need to build up as much muscle. I still remember coming in to check on him after his nap and being greeted by this sight. He was just so happy with himself that it was hard to stay shocked for too long. Needless to say, Jamie's first task when coming home that day was to lower the base of the crib. 

Despite the look on Andrew's face, he loved meeting Mickey. It was on this trip that he became obsessed with Ariel, and the rest of the gang from The Little Mermaid. This was a trip that Jamie's dad arranged, and it was for the entire Wells clan. We had a truly amazing time, and I can't wait to bring the boys back to Disney World when they're a little older. 

The entire crew enjoying dinner on our last night at Disney

When Nathan was able to sit up and crawl around on his own, Andrew seemed to become more interested in what his little brother was up to. No big fights yet, but Nathan did get his first bloody nose thanks to some roughhousing.

This was the first year where Andrew actually started to grasp Halloween. I took him out trick-or-treating, and he really liked it. We only did about 5 houses before he got a bit scared and asked to go inside, but he liked the whole process of getting candy. These photos were taken at a Halloween party with friends.

Andrew had stopped drinking a cup of warm milk before bed for a while, but wanted to take up the habit again when Nathan would have his bottle before bedtime. Now, Andrew will say something to the effect of "And now gonna have milk together," before laying down with Nathan for their pre-bed drink.

Here's Nathan at around 10 and half months old (almost 11 months, I think) being a total cutie. I took this photo on an unseasonably warm day. I think it captures his cheerful nature.

There will come a day when Nathan will be embarrassed by this picture, but until then, I will post it proudly on this blog.

I've got a few more of Andrew playing in the snow, but I will save those for another post, probably lumped in with a recap of Christmas. I'm hoping Grandpa Wells didn't get the boys too much stuff, but it wouldn't be the same if he didn't.

Now, on to the requisite crafting stuff (this is a craft blog after all). I managed to finish one thing, and make good progress on another.

I finally finished the blanket! Yay! I took so long on it that I've decided not to give it to Nathan, but gift it to my brother and his wife for the baby girl they are expecting in April.

And here's all the progress I've managed on these socks in the past 5 or 6 months. Pretty dismal. I'm making the heel flap right now, so I suppose I'm about half way done? I'm not sure what I think of the way the yarn colours are pooling, but I'm not going to frog it at this point.

And that's about it for me. I'll try to post a little more often despite my lack of crafting. There's always stories to tell when it comes to the kids :) Take care!!

Some things the same, some things a little different

Hi there, good 'ole blog. Yes, it's been a while; I hear ya. To tell you the truth, I haven't really managed to get much knitting done for a while. Here's a photo explaining a good chunk of the reason why. Andrew is a real handful these days - 2 years old already!

And just as the photo would imply, I am expecting again. Baby Wells #2 on the way sometime between Dec and Jan.

Below are some photos of stuff he's been up to this summer. We've taken him to Canada's Wonderland a couple times (getting a season's pass next year for him), and he was the ring bearer at my brother's wedding.

Even with all that, I did manage to get a few things done. I finished that Baby Yours sweater, but was on such a deadline to finish that I didn't manage to take any photos. I also finished knitting my Milkweed Shawl, but it still needs a blocking. I've started a baby blanket for the little one on the way.

It's made out of Dream in Color Classy, in the colour Good Luck Jade. From the first photo, you might be able to see that the two skeins I got don't seem quite the same. I checked that they were the same dye lot when I got the yarn, but perhaps I was mistaken. I have since lost the ball bands, so I can't confirm. Even though it looks a little weird, I don't want to rip it all back so that I can better integrate the two shades by alternating their use. If the baby isn't going to be fussed about it, neither am I.

Lastly, I've been wanting to try something a little different than my usual yarn crafts, and picked up some Pyssla beads from Ikea a while back. Here's what I made with them.

This first attempt was pretty fun, and I quite like the result. My plan is to glue some black felt to the back side, and make a few more of them with different colors. I realized a little while ago that we have no coasters in our house, so these would make a nice, if not geeky, set to fill that void.

Almost there!

I've finally finished putting all the squares together for my friend's blanket. Now, that doesn't mean it's done, not by a long shot. One look at the photos will tell you why.



See all those ends that I need to weave in? Yeah...there's a whole lotta them. Plus there's a dark blue border that's supposed to go around the whole thing. But good lord, the ends that need weaving in...It's my least favourite part of completing a project, so I'm really hoping that I don't procrastinate too much on it. I'm setting myself a goal to weave in 3 ends every day, so hopefully it won't take too long.

I've started a new project too: the Five-Way Cable Shrug by Lily Chin. I've decided to make it using some Malabrigo that I've had stashed originally intending to knit myself a February Lady sweater with it. I've obviously changed my mind about the sweater, and think that the shrug will be a nice versatile piece that will be great in the transition from winter to spring. I think I may even have enough yarn left over to make a hat, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

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.

Finally, some actual yarn-craft!

After the litany of posts about random things that weren't related to yarn, it's about time I posted something that WAS yarn-related.

Way back in 2007, I started a crochet ripple blanket, and even blogged about it (here's the entry). Well, that blanket never got done. I made more progress on it, but it was just turning out to be...well...really wonky. Being an inexperienced crocheter, I kept adding stitches, losing stitches, miscounting stitches; you get the idea. The blanket was misshapen and malformed. So, I decided to frog it, and try my hand at something that should eventually net me a blanket.

Granny squares.

I have to say, those little squares have been pretty fun to make. Kinda addictive. I think they'd be even more addictive if the yarn I was using didn't split so easily. Debbie Bliss Cashmerino is wonderful to the touch though, so I really can't say I dislike it.

However, that project is currently on hold for a bit. A while back, my friend Elaine and I embarked on a mission to design and make our friend Carolyn a blanket for her baby. We scoured through Stichonaries, and yarn samples to work things out - I gotta say that it was a pretty fun process. Being a joint effort, we each got an assortment of squares we were to knit. Here's an example of one of mine.


Recently, Elaine and I met up to discuss how we were going to piece the whole sucker together.

There's all the squares laid out on my dining table. We decided to border each square with single crochet in white, and then join the squares using a reverse single crochet that will create a bit of a bump that would resemble an i-cord (also in white). In addition to that, the whole thing is going to get a seed stitch border in navy blue.

Sounds great and all, except we're kinda late on this project. Carolyn had her baby back in November. Heh heh. Oh well. The blanket is big enough that they'll still get use out of it when we do finish it. I'm hoping I make good headway on it before my own baby comes. I've finished putting the border on 4 squares, but as you can tell, there's a whole whack more to go.

Speaking of babies, someone has to tell my cat that he's not going to be the baby of the household for much longer.

Kitty, just 'cuz you're in the portable crib, that doesn't make you the baby. Sigh. We're really going to have to watch him. At 18lbs, he's going to outweigh Baby for a while to come.

Colourful FOs

I've been doing some finishing lately. First of all my basketweave scarf knit out of a Sophie's Toes Magic Ball, in all sorts of pretty pastel colourways.



Then the Tulip Baby Cardigan from Dream in Color, knit from a kit purchased at Lettuce Knit last Christmas.



(the sleeveless cardigan-in-progress fit her much better. Maybe I'll have to make her a little Dream in Color vest!)

And there are even more colourful knits on the horizon. When WEBS was having its anniversary sale, I bought a bunch of Reynolds Whiskey for Fiddlehead Mittens.



I also got some bright Plymouth Encore for a Circle of Friends blanket from Last Minute Knitted Gifts.



I'm very glad that there are so many ways for me to indulge my love of all things rainbow. =)