Could I be a prouder knitter?

(Two posts in two days!  I know!  But I had to share this!)

Connor isn't much of a talker (yet?).  His vocabulary mainly consists of "mum" and "dad" (and variations of both), "Nanna", "nana" (banana) and "teddy" (pronounced ted-deeeeeeeeee).  And of course, "no" (nao!).  And the rest is pointing and grunting and the happy noise when I correctly guess whatever it is that he wants.

Yesterday, we went outside to get the clothes off the line.  Well, that was my plan anyway.  Connor decided he didn't want to do that, and with the handful of cars he had (yes, he carries his cars with him everywhere) he stood near the outside table and kept saying "NingNing, NingNing".  I didn't quite get what he wanted, because I was trying to convince him to climb up the stairs with me to the backyard and clothesline.

So he put his cars on the table and ran inside and climbed onto my lounge chair and looked over the side to where I keep my knitting (out of his reach).  And then it clicked - NingNing!  Knitting!  He wanted me to get my knitting and sit with him at the table outside!

Could I be a prouder knitter/mother?!

So the washing didn't get taken off the line (until later, thanks Husby) but we had a pleasant half hour sitting at the table, me knitting, him driving his cars back and forth.  I cannot think of a better way to pass the time!

I miss my Dad

I bought this wooden music box for husby a long time ago, a year or two after we started going out (yep, a really long time ago, heh!).  It plays "Anniversary Song" (also known as the Waltz of the Danube, thanks Wikipedia!), which is the tune often (always?) used in the music jewellery boxes we all seemed to have as children - you know, the ones with the mirror inside the lid and the ballerina going round and round as the music played?

Anyway, Connor loves to play with the music box, and as I wound it up for the third or fourth time for him this morning, I thought a lot about my dad.  Because, of course, today is the 6th anniversary of his death.  So while we listened to the music, I told Connor about his Pa. And shed a few quiet tears.

I miss my Dad.

I believe in Yesterday...

So, here's the deal:

Yesterday, I Turned Forty.

Yep. 4-0

40

404040404040.

Perhaps if I say it often enough it will seem real? It's not that I have a problem with it. I don't at all. I am very happy with where my life is at.  Of course, there are things that, if being totally honest, I would like to change.  But these are all things beyond my control. And so I don't let those things bother me. It still feels a bit weird to be 40 though.  It's an age that seemed positively ancient when you are a child.  And yet when you reach it, you still feel a bit of a child yourself.  But without a lot of the insecurities of childhood (especially teenager-hood!).  One of the great benefits of aging!

I had a great day! My mum came to visit for a few days and husby took the day off work. The day started with baby snuggles and a gift, then a sleep-in (until 9am! unheard of!). After breakfast and shower etc, I had a pedicure and got sushi for lunch, followed by fancy cupcakes.

And then a trip to the Zoo! It was a warm day but our Zoo is in the perfect location for cooling sea breezes, so it was lovely.  And not nearly as busy as going on a weekend.  The perfect birthday expedition.

And finally dinner out with husby while Nanna looked after the little fella.  A local restaurant, which meant we could (a) walk and (b) drink a bottle of champagne between us.  Weeeeeeeeeee!

A perfect end to a great day!

I leave you with a sneak peek of my super special birthday suit - not a suit as such (and no, not no suit at all, heh!).  A little project I have made with some special yarn (my very first wollmeise!). 

I shall reveal all later this month!

August was Knit For Connor Month: Pembroke vest

As winter was drawing to a close, I started to feel a little guilty about the amount of knitting (or, more accurately, the lack of knitting) for Connor. So I thought I'd better rectify that and set aside August as Knit for Connor Month!

I have managed to get 3 things done (well, the third is almost done, heh!) and each will be transitional pieces into spring and will also, I hope, fit him next year as well.

Details
Pattern:  Pembroke vest by Kirsten Kapur.  A lovely, classic and free pattern which goes from 6mo to 8yo (I made the size 2).  I do love a good cable, and this vest has cables aplenty!  I wish there was a better way of managing cables and decreases, as it can look a bit funny to just stop cabling, but I'm not sure whether there are better alternatives (please enlighten me, if you know!)

Yarn: I had 3 x50g balls of the blue yarn, Karabella Aurora 8 (col 1555) and 20g of the white in the same yarn.  And I used it all, except for about 10g of the blue. I wasn't sure if I would have enough blue for the vest, so I decided to do the ribbing in the white.  And I knit the front first, as I figured if the cables ate up lots of yarn, I could do the back plain. But as it turns out, it was the white I ran short of, so the neckband ribbing is blue and white stripes. Which I think is quite effective, if I do say so myself!

Oh, and can I just say, I love this yarn!  So soft and lovely to knit with, and shows up a cable so beautifully.  And makes such a beautiful sproingy fabric.  Yum yum yum.  One of the balls did have a couple of knots in it, quite close together, which I discovered when I was knitting the neckband.  Grrr, more ends to sew in!  I'd still use this yarn again though, just lovely.

Sticks:  3.75 and 4.5mm KnitPicks Harmony Options.

Time: 14 - 26 August 2011.  I am amazed at how quick I knit this.  Especially as I discovered when I'd finished the front that I had done the armhole decreases on the neck, and the neck decreases on the armholes.  GAH!  What an idiot!  So I lost a day and a bit in unpulling and re-knitting these (yes, you heard right, I actually frogged and re-knit!)

Bottom one re-done ... much better!

Modifications: I used short rows on the shoulder shaping so I could do a 3 needle bind off but otherwise knit the pattern as written.  If I was to knit it again, I would change the ribbing so that the pattern flows neatly out of the ribbing.

I wasn't sure I liked the middle cable (some people on ravelry have actually changed it for a different cable) but the more I look at it now, the more I like it.  In particular, I like how it is designed to open out at the neckline, the designer has placed it really well on the front.

I'm very happy with this pattern, the yarn works so beautifully with the cables.  In fact, I liked it so much I might just pull out my hibernating Must Have cardigan, which also uses this yarn, and get back into the cabley aurora 8-y goodness!

They say time flies...

and they'd be right!

It's a cupcake-erpillar!

Yes, it was the little fella's first birthday today.

I can hardly believe it!  Since it was also mothers day, we had a family bbq to celebrate.  And to top it off, we had a perfect sunny autumn day for it.  I didn't quite get a sleep in (well, not for as long as I would have liked, heh!) or breakfast in bed, and I spent the morning baking cupcakes and other prep work, but the good thing about bbqs is the  leftovers, which meant no cooking for dinner, huzzah!

And it was a lovely lovely day.  Hope you all had a lovely Sunday too. 

Big Day Out

For Christmas, I bought husby a ZooFriends membership (and I bought one for me too) - I got a two for one deal that was too good to pass up.

We had to validate it before the end of this month, and last night we decided that today would be the day, as it was going to be a relatively cool. When we got to the Zoo, we found a bunch of other people had the same idea. Not to worry, I managed almost a whole repeat of this while waiting in the queue (yay!)

I remember going to the Zoo as a child (and I think the last time I went was at least 10 or 15 years ago) and feeling somewhat conflicted - "wild" animals in small enclosures, that sort of thing. I still feel that to some extent, but there have been a lot of advances in the management of animals in the Zoo, including much better enclosures, and the Zoo is doing a lot of work in conservation and education as well, and I think that work needs to be supported. Our membership also includes free entry to the Western Plains Zoo, which is an open range zoo about 5 hours out of Sydney. We'll have to do a weekend away for that one!

I'm not sure Connor quite knew what to make of it, but I'm sure he'll enjoy it more each time we return over the next 12 months.

I know I will! (check out that harbour and city skyline view the giraffes have!)

I miss my Dad

Today is the fifth anniversary of my Dad's death. And Connor's 9 mo "birthday".

A couple of Christmases ago, my mum gave us a photo album filled with photos of my Dad, along with some of my (very embarrassing) childhood Father's Day art and other memorabilia. She did one for each of my brothers and herself as well, a big undertaking given none of the photos were in digital form. Some of these, like his baby and childhood photos, I'd never seen before.

I got the album out today and lit a candle and picked some rosemary for my Dad. And I showed Connor the pictures and told him how much his Pa would have loved him, does love him.

I'm going to make this an annual event. And will do it for Husby's father too, who died 12 years ago this January gone. I grew up without most of my grandparents and know little about them. I want to ensure that even though Connor won't ever have a Pa or a Poppy that he will feel like he knows them anyway.

I miss my Dad.

Happy half-birthday to the little dude

Today is Connor's half-birthday. Unbelieveable! Six months has gone by in a flash with so many changes in such a short time:

-he's in his third set of clothes (0000 lasted for 4 weeks, 000 for 2 months, and the 00 have now lasted 4 months and still seem to be ok). Thanks to the friends who gave us hand-me-down clothes, I've only had to buy him about 4 things (plus bibs and singlets). Hand-me-downs are the best!

-he's got 2 teeth - both bottom teeth, which came through 6 weeks ago, with a minimum of fuss - I didn't even know they were coming until he chomped down on my finger one day (and I just need to say - owwww! those things are SHARP!)

-he's grabbing things (like my fingers!) and stuffing them straight into his mouth. Especially his clothes.

-and for the last few weeks, his feet! He was pretty happy when he discovered his feet. And that he could put them in his mouth. Oh to be that flexible...

-In fact, I could probably do away with all his toys and just give him little socks and facecloths to play with.

-he's lost and regrown the hair off the top of his head

-he's started eating food! apple, pear, banana, avocado (he didn't like that much!), blueberries, yoghurt, potato, pumpkin, sweet potato, corn, peas, zucchini and broccoli. I'm having fun cooking things up and pureeing them, even though the sound of the blender thingy makes him cry!

-the vacuum also makes him cry. That's my excuse anyway!

-he's rolled over twice from his front to his back (I think the weight of his HUGE head pulled him over) and once from his back to his front (which of course I missed, as I was in the shower!)

-he giggles and laughs at the strangest things, and babbles away to us quite seriously (often when he is supposed to be sleeping - like tonight!)

I converted the pram from the basinette to the seat a week or so ago, and put him in it to adjust the seat straps - he LOVED it! I couldn't get a non-blurry picture, he was so excited to sit up and look around, he really is quite a social little fella. (Especially when he's meant to be sleeping ... hmmm, I think there's a pattern there)

Happy half-birthday my lovely little dude.

The Magic Sleeping Jacket

Six years ago, my friend H was pregnant with twins. Husby and I were in the UK for a holiday and we picked up a whole suite of baby clothes for the twins from Baby Gap. (Love Baby Gap, can't wait until we get one here!) All matching fabric but different pieces, because personally I think it's tooo much for twins to wear the exact same clothes, but sweet when they match but not, if that makes sense.

In a most appreciated touch, six years down the track, H presented me with these two jackets (plus a pair of trousers) remaining from the original suite:

The really cool thing about them is that they are reversible, with wild animal fabric on one side and plain contrast fabric on the other side. And like all baby clothes which are worn for such a short period of time, they look as good as new!

About a month or so ago, Connor started sleeping for 5 or 6 hours (one night, it was even 7 hours!) through the night, from his last feed at about 10.30-11pm. Weeeeeeeeeee! That night, in addition to his usual all-in-one jumpsuit, he was wearing one of these jackets. We decided, as you do, that the jacket simply must be responsible for this excellent sleep development, and so he has worn it every night since (thank goodness we've got two of them) ... I don't know what we'll do when he no longer fits into the Magic Sleeping Jackets!

I've been to Sleeveland too...

A week or two ago Bells posted about the experience of being in Sleeveland. And I can empathise, I've been to Sleeveland too.

The sleeves of husby's Retrofit. And yes, one sleeve is longer than the other...

The first sleeve was just a bit too long - so I finished the second one, and measured it on husby this morning, and it was much better - it's amazing how much difference a mere 6 rows can make to the length.

So now the first sleeve looks like this:

Yep, I'm still in Sleeveland. Hopefully not for too much longer...

As an aside, these sleeves are a nice measure of my available knitting time now - the first sleeve was knit the week before Connor was born - it took me 6 days all up. The second sleeve I started two weeks after Connor arrived - and it took me 13 days. But I also have to add that my mum has been here since Connor arrived too (and has been a huge help) - she's going home on Saturday - let's see how much knitting I get done from next week! That will be the real test!