Can you guess what those are? That's a penny in there for scale.
Later that night there was some of this: We went for dinner with one of the other moms in Jakob's playgroup, and her husband and baby. She is actually married to someone I grew up with so it almost feels like we've been hanging out forever.
Today we had some of this:
My family came over to help Yannick grout the tiles in our den, but of course there were "Jakob breaks" every 10 minutes or so. Luckily the smurf took some naps, or they wouldn't have gotten any work done!
There was also some of this:
My dad brought Jakob a Rubix Cube. He's determined to give Jakob "thinker's" toys to keep his brain working. My dad is also a huge fan of Art Bell, and his latest obsession is the Coral Castle...so I'm just lucky that he didn't show up with a huge box of magnets (not that that won't be cool once Jakob is old enough to not swallow them!).
Finally, there was some of this:
Can you tell what this is? I think I left too many details showing- I don't think it is actually that hard to guess.
Go figure, one of the few times I manage to sneak into Ravelry during the day it goes down for maintenance!
Oh well. I'm slowly working my way through adding my wips and fos to my notebook. Then it will be time to organize my stash. Oh, my stash. :)
Speaking of stash, 3 balls of Dream in Color Smooshy got added to it last night! No, Maaike, this does NOT count as a yarn purchase. The yarn was actually ordered in December, before starting this "year of the stash" nonsense. I'm allowed to pay now for what was previously ordered- Yannick's rule, not mine. :p I bought it from Robyn's shop, and I'll take some photos when I get home.
To celebrate my blog reaching seven hundred and seventy seven posts, I'm holding a contest.
You've heard of the Seven Deadly Sins, right? (Or you've at least seen the movie Se7en, with Brad Pitt?) No? Well, the Seven Deadly Sins are Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Anger, Greed and Sloth.
Pride is excessive belief in one's own abilities, that interferes with the individual's recognition of the grace of God. It has been called the sin from which all others arise. Pride is also known as Vanity.
Envy is the desire for others' traits, status, abilities, or situation.
Gluttony is an inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires.
Lust is an inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body.
Anger is manifested in the individual who spurns love and opts instead for fury. It is also known as Wrath.
Greed is the desire for material wealth or gain, ignoring the realm of the spiritual. It is also called Avarice or Covetousness.
Sloth is the avoidance of physical or spiritual work.
I started thinking about how these sins could relate to my knitting. I know that they don't fit exactly, especially with the definitions as stated above. But, I knew that my knitting hobby wasn't all love and roses either. So here's my list:
Pride- Knitting Bag with Perfect Pocket. Oh I was so proud of myself! I *knew* I'd designed the PERFECT knitting bag, with exactly the right pockets to hold exactly the right accessories. I'd even created the Perfect Pocket with its specific features and purposes. It was going to be huge! Um...yeah. It's been in storage so long that I have no clue where it is. It used to be Sam's favorite sleeping spot, so what was a black felted bag is now really white and hairy. It's huge- but in a "really big" sense, not a "everyone wants one" sense. And it's unfinished. I consider my pride a wee bit checked, thanks to this project.
Envy- A swift and a niddy noddy. I'm so jealous of all of you who have one. Do I need them? No. But oh do I want them!
Gluttony-Homespun jacket and hat. Oh the gluttony here! I was in Ottawa and given the opportunity for a rare trip to Michael's, the craft store. Did I buy something special? No. I bought about 35(!!!) skeins of LionBrand Homespun. I bought enough to make the jacket and hat for myself, plus enough red and black to make Yannick and I each oversized hooded sweatshirts. Well, after knitting with the homespun long enough to make my jacket, I discovered how the yarn releases little tufts of fiber as you knit. I was fed up of knitting with it long before even finishing the jacket, not to mention the way the yarn bunches along itself and has to be eased back down. Oh- and did I mention that I NEVER wear the jacket? It has lived on my mannequin ever since the original photos were taken - in 2006!! This was definitely a case of "eyes bigger than stomach"...in knitting terms, that is.
Lust- The Noro Kureyon striped scarf, as seen at Brooklyn Tweed. Maaike had pointed me over there and when I took one look at the scarf, I was hooked. I had to have one. NOW. I think I ordered the yarn for it in under a week, and not long after that, as soon as we'd finished our "current" projects, we cast on for a knitalong. Ever lust for something and then when you get it, it's not as good as you thought? This was SO not like that. It was better than I'd thought. The knitting was mindless, the yarn was softer than I'd thought, and the color combination still thrills me. Score one for lust!
Anger- my dad's thrummed mittens (no completed photo, only some old wip shots there, sorry). I've made peace with the mittens, but I'm still a little bitter about them. Of course, I'm mostly angry at myself. I was so looking forwards to knitting with a new technique (the thrums) that I didn't stop to consider the recipient. Sure, my mom said my dad's hands were always cold. Sure, nothing would be warmer than thrummed mittens. Sure. Unfortunately I didn't think about who the gift was for- my dad, the smoker. Mittens have no fingers. You can't smoke with mittens on. The mittens don't get worn. Sigh. Moving on...
Greed- Patterns. Oh my- I can't have enough. And it's not just the free ones online or magazines, it's pay ones too! Rogue, the pocket pals books, the wonderful Wallaby...so many patterns have found their way into my grubby little hands. And am I knitting them? Of course not. They are being stored so they can be savored...while I sit here trying to design my own stuff. There's probably some irony here if I could be bothered to look.
Sloth- the Kosher Sweater. Come on- 3 years sitting in a bag with only 20 stitches waiting to be bound off?? That's just plain lazy, folks.
So there you have it- my Seven Deadly Knitting Sins. I want to know what yours are. You can send your list by email, you can post it in a comment to this post, or you can post it to your blog and leave me a comment here to go take a look. You can use all words or you can include photos. My only condition is that you list something for each of the seven sins.
The contests starts today, and will end at midnight Wednesday, April 2 2008. That gives you 7 days to play.
Wanna know what you're playing for?
The winner will get a $30 gift certificate to the online yarn store of their choice. Good luck!
Before I go, here are a few photos:
Mommy with Jakob at 45 weeks. He's getting so big! This photo isn't so great 'cus he looks much chubbier than he is, but you can always go back a few posts and see him in his pjs on the rocking chair to know that he doesn't have all that pudge. I'm not sure if you can click on the photo to see it bigger, but if you can- look at those teeth! You can also get a look at some family and wedding photos in the screen behind us. :)
I actually took this photo a few days ago but never got around to posting it. Since we had our time change so early in the year, there is so much light in the house when I get home from work! I took this photo at 6:30 at night, with no flash, in a room with one big window. I couldn't get enough of the natural light and so I took this wip photo. Finally I managed to get one photo that shows the colors accurately AND shows the cable. This is the same cardigan front I showed you a few weeks ago.
Tonight there was a West Island Knitters meetup at a local brasserie (tavern) and I finished the front piece. I also helped my cousin Amy finish her swatch bunny. This was her first time seaming, and came right on the heels of her first time purling and her first time following a "pattern".
It is so cute! Go over to her site to check it out, I'm sure she'll have FO photos to share. As if I didn't have enough on my plate- now I want one!
Last week was a blur. Jakob was still sick. Yannick was sick. I wasn't sick- but was taking care of the two of them. Absolutely no housework got done. By the time I got Jakob into bed, Yannick was usually in bed himself and by then I didn't want to do ANYTHING. Some knitting was done, but I can't show you. I'm working on a new design and it has been driving me crazy. Every night I'd finish getting the boys to bed, make myself some supper and sit down in front of the TV. I'd finish eating by 8:30pm. I'd take out my knitting, get started, realize some error in my chart, and head up to the computer to fix it. I'd have a new chart printed by 9:30/10pm, then sit back down in front of the TV. If I was lucky I'd have an hour to knit before realizing a new error. The next day I'd work on the chart at work, come home and repeat the process. I thought I had it all finished by the time we went up north Saturday after work, but after knitting for 2 days I realized I wanted to make yet another change, so all that work will be pulled out too. (So even if I could show you, I'd have nothing to show you 'cus it is all being ripped out. That's a small consolation, right?)
We spent the weekend up north celebrating Easter with Yannick's family. I took this cute photo of Yannick's mom and his nephew/godson Justin helping Jakob go for a walk.
Sunday morning Jakob met his first Easter bunny. (Yes his pjs have been changed - we're having diaper issues. Anyone know of the most leak-proof for boys??). Yannick's sister wanted to see Jakob's reaction to tasting his first chocolate, but I didn't let him try it. I know you're missing a "Mommy with Jakob at 44 weeks" photo, and that's for a good reason. I look HORRIBLE in it!
...should be able to: -stand holding on to someone or something CHECK (this is his favorite thing to do) -pull up to a standing position from sitting CHECK -object if you try to take a toy away NO- he's good natured and doesn't object to much -say "mama" or "dada" indiscriminately CHECK -play peekaboo CHECK -exchange back-and-forth gestures with you CHECK ...will probably be able to: -get into a sitting position from stomach NO (he did it once but seems to have forgotten how) -play patty-cake (clap hands) or wave bye-bye CHECK -pick up tiny object with any part of thumb and finger CHECK -walk holding on to furniture CHECK -understand "no" (but not always obey it) CHECK
...may possibly be able to:-stand alone momentarily -say "dada" or "mama" discriminately NO (but I think he said AT once when he saw Sam, our cat) -point to something to get needs met NO ...may even be able to:-indicate wants in ways other than crying CHECK (he smacks his lips when he's hungry) -"play ball" (roll a ball back to you) NO (but he's thrown it to play "fetch" once or twice) -drink from a cup independently CHECK (but water gets everywhere! Does it count if he doesn't do it neatly?) -pick up a tiny object neatly with tips of thumb and forefinger CHECK -stand alone well NO (but he can do it for a moment) -use immature jargoning (gibberish that sounds as if baby is talking in a made-up foreign language) NO (but he does repeat sounds like dadadadada in a way that sounds like he's trying to have a conversation) -say one word other than "mama" or "dada" NO (unless he really did say AT for "cat") -respond to a one-step command with gestures ("Give that to me"- with hand out) CHECK -walk well NO
the one that should have been posted on sunday march 16
Sunday seemed to be off to a good start. We thought Jakob was feeling better, so we braved bringing him out. We deliberately skipped his swimming lesson in the morning (that would be the LAST place we'd need him to have a tummy problem!) but things were looking good, so we took him to the Purim carnival at my parents' synagogue. (Purim is like the Jewish Hallowe'en, and they do a mini carnival for kids, with games, prizes, etc...).
I waited until we got there to put him in his costume, and was very happy to know that it still fit him. It's actually still a little loose, but he's very slim, so I am relieved to know that my estimate of it being a 9-12 month size was accurate. Here's Jakob and I with Chicken Little. You'll be happy to know that no sky was falling. :)
We left the synagogue in time to get to another Purim carnival at the Jewish Y, but planned on stopping at a nearby shopping center first. Yannick and I would have lunch, we'd feed Jakob, and before leaving there I wanted to show him the animals they had on display for Easter.
Well. Luckily I had changed him out of his costume before putting him into his carseat. I had intended on only bringing Jakob and the stroller into the mall, leaving the carseat itself (the bucket part) in the car. Except...when I moved to take him out of it...I saw that he'd had another tummy incident. This gastro sucks.
I'd been prepared for such an event, and had lined his carseat with thin blankets. I had to bring the whole bucket into the bathroom, but it wasn't too difficult to clean him up, and once the dirty clothes and blankets were safely in a sealed Ziplock, at least his bucket was clean and dry and he was able to go back into it. Needless to say we decided against going to the 2nd Purin carnival. At his age it wasn't even worth the risk to the costume, as all of the events were geared towards older kids.
In the end I fed Jakob some lunch while Yannick shopped for more funky t-shirts at Winners, and then we introduced Jakob to some furry little friends.
Bunnies! I see a theme developing here.
Should I mention that I'm currently designing a bunny? It's nothing like Kate's or the Swatch Bunny or any other bunny I've seen, but yes, it is a bunny. These things do multiply fast!
Jakob had a good bath when we got home, and he looked so cute in his little bathrobe that I couldn't resist snapping a photo. He went to bed without too much fuss, and I made a note to call his doctor in the morning, as he was still having the gastro symptoms and I needed to know if he would be able to go to playgroup the next day, or if he was considered contagious.
the one that should have been posted on saturday march 15
Saturday was more of the same sicknesses as Thursday and Friday, with the main difference being that I was able to leave Jakob at home with Yannick when I went to work. This was the first time since Jakob's birth that he's been alone with Yannick for more than 3 hours, since the previous times they'd spent the day together I was still breastfeeding and Yannick brought Jakob to me to feed every 3 hours or so. My boys spent the day together on the couch, watching tv while Jakob slept in Yannick's arms. He (Yannick) loved the feeling so much that he never got off the couch to do any of the tidying up I'd hoped for...but I can't fault him. As much as it sucks when Jakob is sick, it is really sweet the way he cuddles. The gastro had the poor kid soiling his clothes so often that we got tired of doing laundry, so for a little while in the morning we gave him breakfast in only a bib and diaper. I can't get over how tall he looks in this photo. He's average height, but I find his arms and legs look so long!
Saturday night we went to the Biftheque with my family to celebrate last years' birthdays. (We're a bit behind). After dinner they all came back here to open gifts, and I FINALLY was able to give my mom the Montego Bay scarf I'd knit for her. It had been sitting in my drawer since November when I thought I'd be giving it to her on her actual birthday.
In other knitting gift news, my inlaws have both requested socks for Christmas this year. Everytime they were with Yannick when he was wearing his handknit socks, he kept raving about the fit, the comfort, etc. Could it be? Could I finally wind up with some family members (besides Yannick) who *gasp* appreciate my knitting?
March has been a busy month! Last weekend we celebrated my immediate family's birthdays. None of us have a birthday in March, but we had to finally get around to celebrating our 2007 birthday before any of us had a 2008 one.
This week is my father-in-law's birthday (Happy Birthday Marcel!) and my...well, I guess my nephew (Yannick's sister's son) Justin's birthday. (Happy Birthday Justin!). Justin is also Yannick's godson, and we will be celebrating both of those birthdays this coming weekend.
Finally, there is one more special birthday in March.
A very big HAPPY BIRTHDAY! goes out to little RJ who made March 13th her birth day. Congratulations JayJay!
the one that should have been posted friday march 14
BUNNIES!
I tried to knit just one...but you know how they multiply! :)
I have an old friend from high school who moved away a few years ago and got married. She came into town recently with her 2 and a half year old daughter, and I had a chance to catch up with her for the first time since she'd moved. I brought Jakob with me and was pleasantly surprised when my friend presented Jakob with a gift. I also felt bad, because I was empty-handed. I emailed her that afternoon to ask what her daughter's 3 favorite colors were, and I cast on for the bunnies as soon as I heard back with a reply. (It was pink, purple and blue...I think those are the obligatory favorite colors for all girls under the age of 8).
I used Kate'sBunny pattern, and a 4.5mm needle. (Or a 4mm. Shoot. My notes are downstairs. If anyone really cares, email me and I'll check). The first one was knit with purple Fun Fur only, and while it was fast and easy to knit, I HATED the seaming. I think I've mentioned here before that I enjoy seaming, and my preferred method is to mattress stitch. With this fuzzy yarn mattress stitch is not an option (at least not without some really good light and a magnifying glass), so I had to seam with a whipstitch on the wrong side of the work. It came out ok, but I didn't want to have to do that again. This wasn't Kate's fault, it was mine for forgetting that I hate to seam with Fun Fur.
I also wanted a bigger bunny. The pattern comes in 3 sizes (Baby, Mama and Papa), and the purple one was knit to the Mama size. I didn't want the Baby bunny to be any smaller than the Mama already was, so I went stash-diving and came up with some white Bernat baby yarn.
This blue bunny was knit to the Papa sized pattern. Same needle size as the purple one, but this time I did 2 rows of the smooth white yarn only, and 2 rows of the white with blue Fun Fur carried along. I wound up with a bunny that was much bigger than the first one (which was what I wanted) and also with a bunny that allowed me to see the stitches so I could work a mattress stitch seam (which was really what I wanted). The nature of knitting fur-type yarns has most of the fur wind up lying on the purl side of the work, which was the wrong side for this pattern. I had the option of turning it inside out before seaming, but I liked the less-fuzz/more-stripes look of the right side.
The pink bunny was knit exactly as the blue one, but with (duh) pink Fun Fur carried along. She is also knit to the Papa bunny size.
I was going to give them eyes but I didn't feel like embroidering them, I don't know where my sew-on googley eyes are, and sewn-on buttons made the bunnies look dead. So they will remain eyeless.
I tried to get something in the photo that would show scale, but I couldn't figure out what I owned that would be standard everywhere. (Now that I'm typing this, I am coming up with a ton of items I could have used. Ah well. Hindsight/20/20 and all that). Here you have the Bunny Family with Yannick's sunglasses.
And yes, it was done deliberately that a blue Papa and pink Mama make a purple Baby. ;]
I'm catching up slowly. I thought I'd do more but it's late and I want to go to bed. I'm going to try to get through the rest tomorrow. In the meantime, there are 2 new posts below this one to keep you busy until I get back. Good night!
the one that should have been posted on thursday march 13
Remember how I mentioned the Shiva in the last post? Here's where it becomes relevant. Three of us from playgroup went to the Shiva house (house of one of the mourners where family/friends come to pay their respects. We each brought our kids. One woman's son spent the entire time sleeping in his portable car seat. He was the lucky one. The other 3 kids (Jakob and 2 little girls) all ended up with GASTRO.
Oh I am so sick of gastro. There's nothing worse than watching your helpless little baby's body heave and shake while he throws up, and you know he doesn't understand what's going on, and he's scared and sick and sad.
Jakob woke up fine Thursday morning, drank his bottle, played with us as usual while waiting for Yannick to wake up enough to give him breakfast, when suddenly he started to throw up. I stayed home from work with him and when he continued to lose everything we gave him to eat/drink I made an appointment for him at the doctor's that evening. By the time we got to the doctor's office he had a fever of 101F, and by the time he went to bed that night it was 102.5F.
When he wasn't actively sick he was in relatively good spirits. At one point I had put him down, seated, in his crib to play so I could have my hands free for a few minutes. When I came back to get him I found him like this: For the first time ever he pulled himself to stand up in his crib. He was so proud of himself! Unfortunately the excitement didn't last long, as the sickness had completely exhausted him
He ended up spending the rest of the day and all day Friday like this:
(Mommy with Jakob at 43 weeks).
I felt horrible that he felt so bad but at least I got to spend 2 days curled up on the couch with my sleeping baby. Nothing beats that.
the one that should have been posted tuesday march 11
I'm going to try and recreate a week's worth of posts tonight before I go to bed. I had a lot of stuff I wanted to share but didn't, and I know if I keep putting it off then I'll never get around to it, so I'm going to try and get as much out as I can remember.
Last Tuesday Jakob and I left work in the early afternoon to attend the Shiva for the grandmother of one of the other moms in my playgroup. I mean Jakob's playgroup. Yeah - it's for him. I mention this because it will become relevant by Thursday. This was my little guy all dressed up for his big day. (Thanks for the vest Debbie!)
p.s. these are Yannick's legs!!
Anyhoo...Tuesday night was the March MKG meeting.
This month instead of having a topic discussion we were all encouraged to bring some random stash yarn that would add up to a chunky weight, and we were to knit 1 hour hats which would be donated to a charity. I brought these yarns:
I know the thin glitter strand is from my Bubbie's stash that I inherited. I'm pretty sure the burgundy tweed is from there too, and the peach polar fleece was a thrift store find. The two thicker yarns were not ones I could ever see using on their own, and I threw in the glitz to keep myself awake while I knit the hat. Because I spent most of the meeting helping one of the members with a crochet pattern I didn't get the hat knit in one hour, but I DID finish it when I got home that night.
Voila- I wasn't consistent about what order the yarns landed in on the needle (sometimes the peach was first, other times the darker one) which is why the hat doesn't have a uniform color. When the peach was first the burgundy became the predominant color on the following row, and vice versa. It is a simple stockinette stitch hat, knit flat and seamed up the back, with a rolled brim. This is why I'm glad it will be given to a charity, and is not intended for me to wear. Man I look stupid in hats. :] I'm 1 step away... LOL
27 letters in the alphabet. Yup. That's right. What? You only counted 26? Oh, well, you forgot the letter "and".
This is a clip from Sunday night's episode of Big Brother 9. Oh. My. God. That Natalie is really something huh? They cut out the part of the exchange where she couldn't count to 4 (she thought that the red, blue, yellow and green bars of a toy in the hamster cage were "3 different colors" and how that was very significant), but at least they kept in the alphabet thing.
(p.s for those of you who don't feel like watching the whole clip, once it loads you can skip ahead to somewhere around 3 min 45 seconds and just watch the end from there. That's when Natalie shows up).
...the swatches! I am so happy with how the yarn turned out! I think I've been over using the word "love" lately (I love the yarn, in love with certain patterns, love the way things come out) so I don't want to sit here and say there's yet another thing I love. I might have overstated my affection for some other projects. There might be projects that I merely like, projects I wouldn't mind seeing again, and projects I think I might have a future with. But this yarn? This yarn I really do love!
I did the swatches with a 2.5mm needle (my usual for socks) and on 64 sts, which, depending on the pattern, is roughly my size. Here's the Black Cherry. This photo shows a pretty good variation of color, but is lacking the deep tones of wine that permeate every strand, even the deep blacks. This will be stunning with either an open lace or a cable pattern. Yannick would like to claim it for himself but it is mine! This is one side of my Oxford swatch. I took a photo of each side to show you how the yarn will behave on a larger swatch (or a sock). You see how the black-striped section starts at the lower left and moves up on a diagonal to the top right? And how the colored section with no black seems to do the same? Here's the other side of the same swatch. # 1 had one dark section in the middle. # 2 has 2 dark sections, one on top and one below, with a lighter middle. What I'm trying to show here is that the two areas of color will spiral around each other, and around the sock. Look at this! It worked! I can't believe it worked! I made a self-striping yarn! There is so much I enjoy about this one, especially the palest row of green right above the darkest one. Something about the way one looks near the other really tickles me. If I was to do this again I would only change the concentration of dye to water to try and get another shade in there, as I feel 2 of the rows look the same. It might be related to where I cast on from and how the yarn is wrapping around itself, though.
I have been knitting Bunnies for the last week. The pattern is great, but I'm knitting in Fun Fur which is such a pain! I knit the first one only in the Fun Fur stuff, but seaming it was NOT fun, so I knit the second with the FF held along with a strand of white dk weight acrylic. It made the FF somewhat more bearable.
I'm knitting the Bunnies as a gift for a friend's 2.5 year old daughter, who brought a gift for Jakob when we introduced them, and I unfortunately showed up empty handed. I found out her favorite colours are pink, purple and blue (is there any 2.5 year old girl who doesn't have those as her favorite colours?) so I'm knitting a pink mommy bunny, a blue daddy bunny, and a purple baby bunny. As of tonight only the pink is left to knit. Photos tomorrow after the Guild meeting.
Last night, after Jakob was in bed and Maaike had left, I commandered Yannick's arms (I still don't have a swift) and wound up the yarn I dyed Monday night. They wound easily but it was quite a sight to see Yannick standing with both arms outstretched and the Celery colorway wrapped from arm to arm, around his neck and under his foot in an attempt at keeping it taut. (I don't have a niddy noddy either for rewinding a smaller skein). MUST add those items to my stash soon!
Well, without further ado, here are the yarns I dyed:
BLACK CHERRY
I love how this came out. There are some true black spots, and some raspberry areas, but most of it is a tone-on-tone mix of black/red and red/black and it is so subtle and striking. Did I mention I loved it? Unfortunately it is really hard to take a good photo of at night and indoors, so this is the only shot you get. The other angles came out really dark.
CELERY
This came out exactly how I wanted. It is a soft transition from the darkest to lightest shade of a, well, celery green. (Or is it sage? Or moss?) There isn't a lot of variation, but I wanted a yarn where the colors had interest but wouldn't compete with the stitch pattern. I think this might work perfectly! (I love it too).
OXFORD
This yarn came out really funky. I'm reserving my opinion until I work up a good swatch, but I think I'll like it no matter what, if for no other reason than the fact that I made it. If things worked out correctly than the black third will spiral around with the colored two-thirds. It will be busy, but it was designed to work with a plain stockinette stitch sock.
I made sure to post this tonight because Yannick's parents are sleeping over tomorrow night and I don't know if I'll have time to get to the computer before they go to bed. I know it is a short post, so to make up for it I'm leaving you with a video of Jakob. I took this on Feb 29th (the leap year day) at work- you can see my messy desk in the mirror. Just about a week ago and he was waving with minimal coaching. Now he'll wave for fun, if you say the words "hi" or "bye", and when he doesn't want to eat any more he waves "bye-bye" to his food. I think it is the most adorable thing!
(Don't you find he waves like the Queen? You know, that "arm in the air, wrist moving back and forth" thing"? I love it!)
p.s. I posted this at 12:43 am EST. Youtube takes a few minutes to process the video once I upload it, so if the link isn't working for you just yet, please wait about a half hour and try again. Thanks!
I was just leaving a comment on the Yarn Harlot's blog when I typed up the following paragraph:
You can never have too much yarn with you! I was daydreaming the other day about what it would be like if I was in the Big Brother house and realized that I'd be sneaky and hit the thrift stores before leaving and find some mens' 3X knit sweaters to put in my luggage, so once I was in the house I could unravel them and have something to knit. I'm still working on what to use as needles since you're not allowed writing implements. I could probably sneak in some dpsn as hair sticks though, or as shawl pins. I think I've been thinking about this too much! :)
It's sad but true. I really was thinking about that the other day. I mean, they go through your bags and veto what you can and can't bring. Plus you only get one small duffel. So bringing in obvious yarn would be out of the question. But they can't stop you from unraveling your own shirt, can they? I mean, as a last resort I could even finger knit it...
(Let's ignore the fact that I would never be appearing on Big Brother because it is a US show, as if that was the only reason).
Here's Mommy with Jakob at 41 weeks (last week). I know it's not the clearest of photos, but I love the way he's cracking up, and couldn't resist posting it. Here's another shot. I know he's not looking- but guess why I posted it? I'm wearing the Kosher Sweater! You can see here that the sleeves are a little baggy, but otherwise I love the sweater. It's great to throw on with a pair of jeans, but boy- the Decor yarn is warmer than I'd thought! Here's a photo from today, of Mommy with Jakob at 42 weeks. I need to start wearing makeup, or tanning, or something- I look so pale and washed out!
This is a photo from yesterday. Jakob was having fun sitting and "hiding" in his little tunnel, and popping his head out to "surprise" me. Did I mention that he crawls now? And he waves to EVERYONE. I have it on video, I should post it one of these days...
So is anyone out there wondering what I did on Monday night that I was so excited about? Get your minds out of the gutter- I dyed yarn for the first time! Maaike and I went over to Gillian's house (another member of the MKG) and Gillain taught us how to dye yarn. We used regular dyes that we mixed with rubbing alcohol (as opposed to Kool-Aid or natural dyes) then heated them in the microwave to set them, and we each dyed 3 skeins. This is what mine looked like after I got home, re-nuked them, did a few rinses and hung them up to dry. The one to the right I dyed in an attempt to get a fake "Fair Isle" look like the self-striping Regia yarns. I find the colors look very "preppy", so I call it my Oxford yarn. The one in the middle is my Black Cherry yarn; it is mostly black with random splashes or Madder and Grenadine colors. The one on the left is my best achievement, I think. It is dyed to be self-striping (the stripes are longer than the number of inches it takes to work 1 round) and goes in 5 shades of green from dark to light. I worked hard at watering down the colors to get a subtle transition, and I LOVE it. I also dyed this yarn, my Celery yarn, with a specific project in mind. I've wanted to knit Mona's Embossed Leaves Socks (ravelry link) for the longest time, but have mostly striped or patterned sock yarns in my stash, and wanted something a little more solid or subtle to let the lace show up properly. I also wanted something "leafy", be it green, brown or orange tones. Well, I can't wait to start those socks now, because this yarn is exactly what I was looking for! I should have taken photos of the yarn twisted into traditional skeins, but I forgot. Anyways, here's Oxford. I know it looks weird to have the solid section and the striped section. I'm hoping that as I knit it will make 2 spirals up the foot, one solid, and one patterned. Here's Celery. This photo actually shows a pretty accurate color. I don't have the stripes lying in order, but you can kinda see the transition from one shade to the next. Finally, here's Black Cherry. I love this color too! I'm hoping to find a good pattern for this yarn, something with cables maybe, or perhaps lace...but something that works well with a more solid yarn. I can work a project like the Jaywalker Socks (Ravelry link) in any old striping yarn. The pattern for this sock has to be special!
According to 
This was my little guy all dressed up for his big day. (Thanks for the vest Debbie!) 
I'm 1 step away... LOL
