summer's over

wow, it has been a really busy time around here, what with the baby taking up all of my waking hours, and tons of trips - how many kids get to travel by car, bus, train, airplane, and canoe, all by the time they're six months old? but we're eager to get back into the swing of things, now that the kiddo is old enough to keep himself entertained crawling around at my feet while i knit and quilt!

i did finish the angora turtleneck that i mentioned in my last post, but unfortunately it was too warm and made the baby all perspirey, and also it sheds a LOT - he ended up with a big lint farm aka choking hazard under his chin! maybe i'll give it a wash and see if that helps with the shedding.

meanwhile, he has already outgrown his totoro hat:

wow.

long time no post. sorry about that. who new having a baby was so much work? i guess i should have read the books and done the math more carefully: 10+ feeds a day at 25+ minutes each doesn't leave a lot of time for much else. like eating or sleeping, for example.

however: when we were visiting ottawa last month, i saw a newspaper ad for a sale at the awesome wool-tyme, an opportunity not to be missed. so far, i have a half-finished argyle cardigan for the little one (which has reminded me why i rarely knit patterns - all those little balls of yarn! augh!) and i'm almost done a charcoal-grey angora turtleneck. because angora is such a great fibre for someone to wear who spits up all the time. but it will look so cute with his totoro hat!

stupidest thing ever.

have you all read this?

i can't believe how stupid that bank is. long story short: lots of people signed up for the blue moon fibre arts rockin' sock club. So many that blue moon's bank decided that it couldn't be true. surely there are not that many people interested in knitting socks? so they froze blue moon's account and refunded everyone's money. boggling. you can see how such an action would throw a small business into total financial turmoil. idiots!

anyway, blue moon has a new bank now, and is rebuilding their website to incorporate the new bank system. they are magnanimously not revealing the name of evil bank (but if they do, you can be sure i'll post it here so that any small business shopping around for a bank shall be forewarned). but once they're up and running again, i will definitely be buying some yarn from them as a show of support. also because their yarn is lovely.

not joining the sock club, though. i already have enough sock yarn and single completed socks to outfit an army of lepers and amputees. i think i'll get this!

now that's just silly

still busy getting ready for baby - a task that will inevitably fill the amount of time available. why is everything like that? it's just always easy to find another thing that "needs" doing... right now, i'm making a new mattress pad and bumpers for the moses basket. just because it is always more fun to start a new project than it is to finish an old one! which is also why i built a wee table/stool for the bathroom before finishing the sewing table. priorities? what are those?

meanwhile, thought y'all might enjoy this pattern for a hat that looks like a giant glove. tres stylish!

more progress!

okay, i am determined to get a mitre box today and finish this sucker, but in the meantime, i thought i'd post a terrifying before picture and a look-how-far-we've-come picture.

before:



yikes!!!

but look at it now:



so much better! i can see where everything is! whee!

and not only that, but being able to find things makes it easier to do things. i was able to find my button stash and slipper bottoms, so i finally finished the slippers that i started months ago:







i started out with the plain jane pattern from kinda grape, but made them stockinette instead of garter, and a lot smaller (i was halfway through the kinda grape pattern when i realised they were huge! and i wear a size ten! i swear i checked my tension!), and made the toes less square. i am quite pleased with how they turned out!

progress

okay, i have spent the day cutting and drilling and painting, and the sewing table is very nearly done. i'm even feeling ready to think about posting progress pics soon! when all there was was "before" it was kind of demoralising, but now that i've got some stuff done, i'm feeling quite confident that the rest is doable.

what i'd really like are some proper sawhorses. using a circular saw isn't half the fun when you have to waste time trying to sort out where to put your 96" x 28" piece of wood before you start cutting. and, to make matters more irritating, i was nearly done my final cut when the not-properly-supported-by-sawhorses plywood gave way a bit, resulting in a nasty-looking chunk taken out of one end (on the good side, of course). so then i had to waste even more time repairing it (25 minutes of clamping while the glue was setting). grr. but, after a quick bit of sanding, you couldn't tell that anything untoward had happened. yay!

oh joyous season!

the season of sleeping in! i have now been off work for two whole weeks, and it is nice! sleeping willy nilly, time to do stuff. so far, that has mainly meant cooking and baking and cleaning (well not so much cleaning, really) and hosting and shopping. but the house has almost recovered from the holiday influx, so it is just about time to get back into project mode. currently on the go: the sewing table project. the base is assembled (and i've already started piling crap on the shelves) - next step is to attach the top, and then all that's left are the gatelegs, hinges, and edging. speaking of which, i need a mitre box. just when i think i have all the hardware i need, something else pops up...

next: finish painting the room, and refinish/reupholster the comfy chair. i can do all of that in two weeks, right? right?!?