Sunday, January 30, 2011

Spinning, my love!

I'm spinning some lavender superwash wool with a hint of sparkle to make a February Baby sweater for a little someone who is kicking around on my insides. We're listening to a selection of classical music tonight and I'm relaxing after work.

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Tomorrow I work, and hopefully my KnitPicks order will be in by the afternoon. I'm having way too much fun planning all the things I'd love to make, and daydreaming with Alex about our little girl and all the things we're going to teach her.

I spent much of yesterday evening loading up my Kindle with new books, an herbal reference, The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe and William Shakespeare, Alice in Wonderland, Anna Karenina, The Millenium Trilogy and the Complete Jane Austen. I can't decide which to start first - probably the Millenium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson as I've heard so much about it. I'm always open to book suggestions, though ;)

Have a good night, all.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

January, oh January - where have you gone?

While my favourite vegan curried lentil soup simmering on the stovetop (recipe, anyone?), I’m taking a bit of time to think about the last month. It’s literally flown by – it feels like just the other day we were opening our gifts on Christmas and thinking about the coming year, and how next Christmas, our little girl would be here with us.
We saw our baby moving about and got lots of pictures, Alex felt her kick for the first time, and I hit the half-way mark in the pregnancy.

I’ve learned so much about my new camera, about how it functions with my two lenses, about using vintage lenses on a modern D-SLR body, and about how it all works together to make interesting photos. I’m in no way implying I’m anything other than amateurish at best, but I’ve definitely shown improvement during this month of Project 365. I’m proud of myself for taking the bull by the horns and learning about photography – something I’ve meant to do for years and have always put off.

I wanted to share my set for the last month, though the month isn’t quite over yet. I really hope I can continue taking a photo every day (or every two days as the case sometimes was). It feels great knowing that I’ll have a collection of little snippets of my life, my husband, my kitties and hints at what we’ve done to look back on.



www.flickr.com


I was debating on posting my 101 in 1001 list. While I love the list and it has a great deal of things I wish to be doing, calling it a 101 in 1001 list is kind of a misnomer at this point. I don’t really have a time limit on it all, as the list is mostly for my reference when I want to devour a new topic, try a new craft technique, learn a new recipe or am bored with my current reading material. Here it is, I haven't counted the items, but there are quite a few. Oh, I love making lists so much. It feels good to get everything out, makes it all easier to keep track of. Here it is!

I’m still knitting the sleep sack, and have finished the twisty faux-cabled ribbing that encompasses the top. I’m now on to even more mindless, long rows of stockinette which makes up the body of the sack. Currently the whole she-bang measures 3” or so (egads, I’m such a slow knitter lately!) and I’ve got to knit it until it’s about 16.5” in total length. Oii. I’ll probably end up making it a bit longer than that only because I have a feeling I’m going to have a long skein of a baby and 16.5” will be too soon outgrown. Even if she prefers to be swaddled and doesn’t sleep in it, it’ll be a nice alternative to wearing a blanket in the sling if we go for an evening walk and need another layer.

It feels so good to be looking forward.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Oh my goodness.

20 weeks365.18

A beautiful baby girl!
She even has a name, and it's the most perfect name I can think of for our little one. We got to see her moving around on the screen, moving her arms and legs, her head and even her little fingers. We saw her spine and tiny little ribs. It was beautiful. It's amazing how much she was wiggling, so much I couldn't even feel. Alex and I got so excited every time the tech would show us something, that she just kept snapping screenshots. By the end of it, we had nineteen little snaps all printed out in a huge connected strip like a garland. She's nice and big, which makes me feel better about not gaining much weight in the last few months. 

It's so wonderful to think of my baby as a little person, with a name. It makes every kick and swish all the more meaningful. Alex has started to be able to feel her movements regularly and it makes me so happy to see his face light up when she gives him a good solid boot in the palm.

It's all coming together for us, I'm twenty weeks pregnant now - halfway! I've got to get knitting!

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I'm knitting this sleep sack right now, waiting for a KnitPicks order to arrive. I ordered a bunch worsted weight Wool of the Andes in a gorgeous rainbow of colours I picked out for the little one. I placed the order before we found out the sex, which is fine, because making the soakers in gender neutral colours and sizes will ensure we can use them with future babies if we need to. I can't wait to get started. There will be plenty of wool for all the soakers we'll need, and enough for a few adorable toys I intend to knit from Amigurumi Knits by Hansi Singh.

I'm thinking I'll knit six soakers in newborn-3mos size, six in 3-6mos size and four or five in the larger sizes. I found a seller on ebay who sells chunks of solid lanolin really inexpensively, so I'll be able to get plenty to lanolize them regularly.

My vintage lens and adapter showed up in the mail and I've been having so much fun with it! It's short and stubby and heavy for its size - metal, not plastic. It works perfectly, and it's really neat to use manual focus and play with the depth of field on an older lens with the more modern camera body. I'm still keeping up with my Project 365 and I've learned so much about how my camera works already.

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I'll leave you with an out of focus snap of Alex with a sweater sleeve on his head like an old-tymey sleeping cap. We are teh dorks.

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Tuesday, January 11, 2011

So this is the New Year.

The New Year is off to a great start! I've been sticking to most of the major habits on my list. I haven't had any pop, and have mostly stuck to water, juice, soymilk and tea. Once I have this cold kicked, I plan on cutting juice out more than I have been. I've also been successful at Project 365 so far.

Here are a few of my favourites from the last week or so

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Pregnancy nails

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My most favourite yarn I own - when it was in the skein, it made me think of Monet.

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<3

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This is the swatch for my newest project - Evenstar Shawl. The pattern instructions recommend you knit a swatch of the lace pattern for practice, and to figure out each stitch. I'm about ten rows from finishing it. I put it down when this awful cold started, and I'll pick it up again soon.

I'm 18 weeks now, and everything is progressing really well. Next week we get the chance to find out what the sex of our baby is, and I cannot wait. It'll be nice to know that the baby is healthy, and to be able to think of the baby's name with a little more certainty. I'm so excited to meet our little one. It's totally mind blowing to think I'm almost halfway there - that's probably the happiest thing I can think of.


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