Category: the days of my little life

I am officially finished knitting all the pieces of my masterpiece.  I sewed up the last bootee just now… at barely 7:00 a.m. 

I have now entrusted my washing machine with the wetting and spinning all of these pieces for the purpose of blocking.  I’m AFRAID!!!  I worked so hard on this project.  I don’t know what I would do if my machine ate something.  (I think I would need more than sheer motivation to chuck it over my balcony?)

I hear it soaking…. now spinning.  PLEASE LET THIS WORK.  (I’m still afraid.)

In the meantime, here are some lovely pictures of my flowers:

The way everything turns green in the spring just amazes me.  It’s all the “new”.  It’s breathtaking.  I started noticing things like this a few years back.  I love leaves and trees and flowers.  Sometimes, depending on how the sun is shining, nature takes my breath away.  It’s amazing.

Ok.  Here goes.  Keep your fingers crossed that this works.

I had to improvise on the bonnet.  I shouldn’t have sewn it together until it was blocked.  Lesson learned!  Hope this works.

Now I’m going to go shower ’cause I’ll likely be late for work!  Oops.  I get carried away sometimes.  But, now it’s finished.  AMEN!

The jumper’s finally finished.  All that’s left is the blocking and buttons. (By the way, I’m so glad I took that Frearless Finishing class last fall.  It totally paid off – my seams are beautiful.)  I haven’t purchased the buttons as of yet.  That’s what I’m going to do after work today.

 

I hope all this fits Patrick.  He’s so small.  Even if they wait a month to have him baptised… I made the smallest size though…  I hope they won’t be disappointed if it’s big.

I stopped counting my hours when I finished the gown but, I have at least 20 hours in this thing.  Isn’t it adorable though?  I had to modify it drastically from the pattern but, it turned out great.  I was genuinely afraid to modify the pattern in case it didn’t work but, I pushed and it worked.  Lesson:  Don’t be scared.  If it looks funny, rip it back and start over.  (I did the sleeves about 6 times.)

Left:  bonnet and booties!  Piece of cake.  (Oh, and weaving in all my ends on the dress – that’s just gross.  Then blocking everything.) 

So, I think spring is finally here.  I haven’t had to put shoes on in weeks.  It’s like everything went green overnight!  I played in my flowerbed last weekend – took out the dead stuff I didn’t have a chance to cut down before the snow.  I had some of these:

I don’t know what they are but aren’t they pretty?  My mom probably knows what they are.  My tulips are coming in as well and I should be able to photograph them this weekend if the rain lets up.  BUT, I don’t mind the rain because it’s taking care of my flowers. 

I love spring.  Everything comes alive with color (mostly green) with a pop of yellow (daffodils) and red (tulips).  It’s just beautiful.  I walked outside Tuesday morning and all of a sudden, my trees looked like this:

GREEN!  I love it.  They’re even fuller today with the rain.  This is why I love where I live.  Without effort (and because I choose not to have curtains) I see this every time I turn around.   It’s fantastic.

It’s time for work now…

I was so happy this morning when I got up and it was Friday.  What a beautiful day we’ve had.  Turns out my boss was feeling generous and he gave me the afternoon off.  Jacob had a PD day and was hanging out at my Dad’s.  So, I picked him up early.  First thing we did was go meet the new arrival…

This is Patrick.  He was born on April 22nd at 8:02 p.m.  He only weighed 5lbs 11oz.  We weren’t expecting him for another two weeks but… Welcome little buddy!  Isn’t he adorable.  I had a hard time putting him down.  I could have sat there and watched all the little faces he made for hours.  And, his little fingers.  Oh, and, this little guy has the longest eyelashes I’ve ever seen on a baby.  I’m an aunt!  (Well, not really because technically, I’m not related to either of his parents but, I’ve just decided I’m going to be Tante Mimi.)

This is my teenage son all ga-ga over a little baby.  I told him he still wasn’t allowed to have one ’til he was at least 27!

After we left the hospital, we went back to my father’s where Jacob showed me his new guitar (which will take him years to pay off) and I inherited his old one.  It’s actually quite small but, I figure, it’s ok for me to learn on.  I learned three notes today (just don’t ask me what they are).

When we got home, we hung out in the great outdoors.  We brought up the patio set, did a little demo (the old vanity from my bathroom)…

Jacob and I literally threw this ugly thing over the deck so that it would shatter like this.  It was so much fun. 

Then I did this:

Then we did this:

It was so perfect.

Now we’re going to watch a movie and I’m going to knit.  I have to finish Patrick’s stuff on time.  He’s so small I hope it fits!

To take a break from life this weekend.  I turned off all my ringers, mentally disconnected the cable and did what I wanted.

First, I did the necessary: a load of laundry and some dishes.  Then I cleaned out the office/spare room which had been looking like it had been ransacked since the renovations.  I had managed to shove a lot of things in that room so the guys could easily move around.  But, when everything went back, for some reason, there was still lots of stuff left in that room!

Anyway, I did that and it looks wonderful. 

Next I attached my yarn.  I have yarn everywhere in the house.   So, yesterday, I decided it was time to catalogue it all on Ravelry.  They have a “stash” where you can input all your stuff.  I was happy.  I got to do three of my favorite things (four if you count drinking lots of coffee).  I listened to music (the Twilight soundtrack – I’m a loser), played with yarn and took pictures of yarn all day. 

This little picture doesn’t do it justice.  That “Stash” tab of my Ravelry makes me very happy. 

This is what my house looked like when I went to bed.  I should probably point out that I had been doing this since about noon yesterday and it was pushing on 11:00 p.m.  This is what’s left; the stuff with no ball-band or left-overs that I don’t want to put in the left-over bin (yes, I have a Rubbermaid container of just left-overs). 

 

This last picture – this is how all of my yarn is stored now.  I’ve seen a few moths around and I’m taking extra precautions.

I also discovered that my ball-winder doesn’t only wind “galettes” of sock yarn.  She does big stuff too!  Youpi.  They’re not as pretty – they’re actually quite sloppy.  Maybe that will improve when I get my hands on a swift.

Back to work.

Oh.  I didn’t work on the jumper yesterday.  I’m at the chest part.  I figure a little push and I’ll be done the jumper in no time.  I think the bonnet is going to be quick too.  No sweat.  (Man, I better not get too confident  or the gods will punish me…)