april is the cruellest month

so last night i took the super-secret father's day knitting project home with me because i was meeting up at the gem with rosary to discuss our "provisional start-up chapter" of hands & voices, so i thought i could get some knitting done on the sly, and maybe some tips on how to handle the dreaded colourwork.

so i was half-worried that tg would randomly come by and see my super-secret project, and guess what? he did! and guess why? because he'd got a call that my mum is in the hospital, so he walked over with young h to tell me.

i don't think he noticed the knitting, really.

it looks like mum will be okay - it is an inner-ear infection as opposed to a stroke like we had feared - although may have to stay in the hospital for as long as two months. we'll go up on friday to check up on her.

meanwhile, all other craft projects are on hold until i make some headway on the super-secret father's day project. it is not even 5% done, and i've been at it for over a month, and have less than two months to go... i really need to do ten rows a day every day without fail, and i've been doing two or three on weekdays only with a week-long gap or two due to sickness. sigh.

yee-haw

finally finished! months later, but there you are... harry is now the proud owner of a real roy-rogers-style cowboy shirt, embroidery and pearl snaps and all. giddy-up!




he is somewhat less thrilled with the horsey pyjamas though... who knows what lurks in the heart of toddlers.

argh

well, it is official - it was the dreaded norwalk virus (which now goes by the name norovirus) that knocked us all out last week. i still have stomach cramps. yuck.

in other news, the pace of my super-secret father's day gift project creeps on at an incredibly slow rate (there are pics on ravelry for anyone who wants to see - members only so the father in question won't accidentally stumble upon it). thank goodness i gave myself lots of time for this one! remind me never to do colourwork again. ever.

ugh

nothing like sickness to get caught up on crafting. the wee one and i are both down with "an enteric illness" (so described by the notice announcing the outbreak) and i'm finding embroidery is comparatively easy to do while semi-reclining or shuffling after a restless baby. i've picked up his roy rogers shirt, and have made a fair amount of progress (with a few pauses to fix the mistakes born of a feeble mind).

here are a few shots of the basted together yoke & body, with curved slash pockets. i'm at a point now though where what's left to do (topstitching, armscye and side seams, attaching collar, front button band and snaps) needs a machine, and i just can't sit at a desk. just typing this is stupefyingly arduous.

ugh.

all hail george s parker

maybe i should be embarrassed to admit this, but ever since i saw the royal tenenbaums, i wanted that games closet. fortunately regular visits to small town thrift-stores has rendered this almost a possibility - i don't have the closet space to devote to it, but i do have some games.

today we pulled out careers by parker brothers which is, being from 1955, alarmingly sexist. career choices include farming, politics, hollywood, going to sea, uranium prospecting, and a mission to the moon. i was winning when sadly nic had to leave.

seeing stars

the days are getting longer, next week is the return of daylight savings, and both of these factors add up to brightness at bedtime for baby. and the curtain on his window is the one that was there when we moved in - a filthy piece of floral peach nylon. yuck. so today i made a new curtain one that is opaque enough (interlined with quilt batt!) to keep out more light, but a little more fanciful as well - to give him his own bit of night sky to dream about.


i also installed a proper curtain rod - the previous tenants had one made out of cardboard (!!! ? !) but now he's got solid wood.

boo and yay

i finally went to the wychwood barns farmers' market today, and... well they are purists about only having local products, and i wanted veg, and it's february in ontario, so all they had were a few potatoes and cabbages. less than exciting.

they did however have non-food items, such as this:



the stall also had lovely yarn as well - and according to their website (still very much a work-in-progress), there is more to come!