They're Plotting Against Me

I really love being a mom. I knew that it would be the best thing that I would do in my life, and it's even better. I love the sweet moments, like this morning when my 2 and (almost) a half year old daughter M told my seven month old son T that she hoped he'd had a good sleep and asked him what he had dreamed about. So sweet.

However, there's at least one moment everyday that is surreal. I find myself doing something that I could never have imagined before I had kids. Sometimes it's ridiculous - my husband and I frantically tossing our house searching for Bear, M's little stuffy that she always carries around. The few times that I haven't found Bear, I've resorted to elaborate stories about what Bear might be doing. Maybe he went to the store? Maybe he went to visit Grandma? Maybe he's in jail? That last one is a joke, but I find that the stories are getting more fantastic as she gets older.

The most surreal moments of my day to day life now revolve around the bathroom. I just want to warn you, if you're thinking about having kids, you might want to stop reading right here. You've been warned!

M can use the potty. She's a very smart girl (naturally, I'd say she's a genius). She's also very, very feisty. At first she enjoyed the novelty of the potty. We made a big deal over every time she went. But, she's recently decide that she isn't going to use the potty - no way, no how. The problem is that I'm so over diapers, it's not funny. Some days I feel like I'm just alternating between changing each kid's diaper. As soon as one is changed, the other needs to be changed.

So, back to M. I really want to be patient and let her go at her own pace. But, I'm not above trying to bribe her. I've tried various things - Smarties (the Canadian chocolates, similar to M & M's), pulling out the new Valentine's Day stickers, painting, etc. Yesterday I tried to bribe her with big girl diapers - pull-ups! Only for big girls. You just pull them down and go to the potty. Two hours later, cue M coming into the living room and presenting me with a VERY full pull-up that she figured out how to pull off, all by her big girl self! Ugh. The clean up. Let's just say that some of her room was left unscathed, some was not.

Shortly thereafter, M heads out the door and I decide that this is a good time to give T a desperately needed bath. My back has been hurting, so I bathe him in the kitchen sink. He's so cute, sitting by himself, laughing and splashing. A rare quiet moment in our house. I pull out my camera:

A minute later, he makes a funny noise that he usually makes while pooping. I scoop him out quickly and he pees on me. It says something about how long I've been parenting when I tell you that my only reaction is to laugh. My, how times have changed.

That's when I go to drain the water and discover that there was a surprise left for me in there too. It gets worse from there, but I think I've already shared enough disgusting details for today. Let's just say I wasn't laughing anymore.

But seriously, two gross incidents in one day? I think they meet up at some point during the night and plan that they're both going to get me the next day. At least the bleach was already out.

London Fog Love

Part of the inspiration for the name of my blog came out of my love of tea. I mentioned here that my goal is to drink a cup of tea and take time to knit everyday this year, since these two things are very relaxing and enjoyable for me. I don't think I know anyone who wouldn't benefit from a little extra self-care.

A little note about my goal - so far I've knit everyday this year, but I did miss one day of drinking a cup of tea. However, I did have a big mug of hot chocolate, so I'm counting it!

So, back to the tea. I will drink almost any different kind of tea - herbal, black, green, rooibos...you name it. I do have one serious addiction though. I could drink about 10 London Fogs a day. If you're asking yourself what a London Fog is, you have been missing out!

T entertaining himself and waiting patiently while his Mama makes herself a drink...

A London Fog is another name for a earl grey tea latte with vanilla syrup. My sister-in-law told me about them many years ago, thinking that it had my name all over it. It sounded good, but at the time I didn't go to any coffee shops very often (since I don't drink coffee..I know, shocking!) so I didn't try it for a month or so. When I tried it, a serious addiction was born. All of a sudden I went from rarely going to coffee shop to wanting to go every single day. Twice. Or three times.

I figured out that I had to learn to make my own pretty quickly. At first I was mixing earl grey tea with vanilla extra and milk, which was OK, but definitely a poor substitute for the real thing. This was the recipe for the real deal:

Homemade London Fog
Hot earl grey tea (I've found that nicer quality earl grey makes a difference, but have been known to use any that I come across in my cabinet)
Milk (cow's milk, almond milk, rice milk, cream - your preference)
Vanilla syrup

Brew a pot of earl grey tea. In a mug (the bigger, the better!), mix a dollop of vanilla syrup with a small amount of milk. The amounts really depend on your preference - I seem to prefer about a teaspoon of vanilla syrup with about one third of a cup of milk. Pour the hot earl grey tea directly in the mug and enjoy.

Pre-kids, I used to take a milk frother and froth the milk and vanilla mixture in a separate cup, then pour the earl grey into a mug, and then add the milk mixture. These days, I'm happy with being able to drink my tea before it's room temperature.

The vanilla syrup is the make-it or break-it ingredient for the drink. You can buy your own from almost any coffee shop. Or, you can learn to make your own. I'll post more about making your own syrup soon.

The Rainbow Blindingly-Bright Wallaby

Now that I'm focussing on some of my works in progress that have been languishing in my yarn stash, I'm actually making some headway. I finished Mom's Eleonora Shrug last week and have moved right along to M's Wallaby.

I was checking out yarn on KnitPicks a long, long time ago. I came across a rainbow self-striping yarn called Chroma Worsted in the colourway Lollipop. They have the same colour in a fingering weight as well but I had already picked out a few skeins of Felici Fingering weight yarn in Rainbow, so I didn't want two different sock yarns in similar colourways - apparently I have a slight addiction to self-striping yarn. I came across the Wonderful Wallaby pattern on Ravelry and decided that the yarn would be a great match for the pattern. I wanted to break up the stripes a bit so I decided to pair the Chroma with KnitPicks Wool of the Andes in Bare. Several helpful people on Ravelry said that it would pair well together because the weight was similar. I also liked that it was about a third the price of the Chroma, making my Wallaby a lot less expensive.

I ordered the yarn and waited. And waited, and waited, and waited. It turns out that it can take a long time to get a yarn shipment from the US into Canada. I think that it was almost a month before I received my box in the mail. My poor husband had to put up with me racing to the door everyday for a month. He had some good eye rolls going by the end of that month.

I originally cast on for a size 2 but decided to frog it and cast on again for a size 4. I wanted to my daughter to be able to wear the sweater for a while, and given my track record, I knew it could take a while for me to finish it. So, besides some minor mistakes I made from knitting when I was too tired, the project sped right along. I finished knitting a few nights ago, used the kitchener stitch to finish the hood and one of the underarms and held it up to admire my handiwork.

That was when I noticed that the opening for the neck (called the placket) and the pocket on the front of the sweater weren't lined up right. In fact, it was really off, by about an inch. The sweater is small and there isn't a lot of distance between the placket and the pocket, so it was really noticeable (at least to me). My husband could tell when I pointed it out, but said that I was a crazy person and should just leave it alone. The problem is that I had spent so much time and energy on the sweater that I knew that it would drive me nuts every time I saw it. I thought about how to fix it and couldn't think of a way besides ripping out the whole sweater. 

I posted on Ravelry, asking for help. Within two hours I had many different, very creative responses. Some people said it probably wasn't as noticeable as I thought and that I should just leave it. Some suggested that I embellish the sweater so that it looked intentional (this is when I realized I should post a picture - the sweater is already a little eye-searing). A few others suggested ways that I could rip out the pocket while saving the sweater, and reattach the pocket. I was not looking forward to another long slog of work on the sweater, especially when I had already thought it was finished. 

Last night I set the sweater out and looked at it. Frustrating. I tried to be creative to see if there was a way around fixing the pocket. I even looked at the placket, thinking that if it was moved a little, then the middle of both would line up. Obviously, though, you can't move the placket.

Except, I realized that I could. The placket is split in two and gapes open quite a bit. I figured out that I could take a button and attach it to the placket, so that it held the two edges together. I tried to place it a little higher up from the original split so that the front doesn't pucker so much. Not a perfect fix, but definitely better and now it's something I can live with.

The best part? She actually wants to wear the sweater. I'm still in shock.

Finally...

If you've seen my site at all in the last week, you've probably seen one of the twenty or so different incarnations of my layout. I finally chose this one, created by Green Tangerine Designs. You should check out her etsy shop. I hope you like it as much as I do.

Speaking of etsy, my lovely friend Jasmine recently opened up an etsy shop of her very own. Check out her beautiful photographs here. She's been a photographer for as long as I've known her (wow, how have 18 years flown by so fast?) and has a great eye for taking pictures.

So, I wanted to share a knitting project that I started in October 2010 and have finally finished. It was meant to be a Christmas present for my mom (again, in 2010!) but I've only recently completed it. It wasn't really a difficult project. Part of the reason it took so long was that I don't live near my mom, so I couldn't have her try it on while I was working on it. I guessed at her size and her arm length. I didn't want to make the sleeves either too short or too long. It also took me a while because I modified the pattern so that the cuffs weren't as wide as they were in the original pattern. This took some serious math because the piece is knit from cuff to cuff, so while you're figuring out different numbers for decreases on one side, you're sorting out increases on the other. I also made the cardinal sin on not writing down my modifications. Why do I do this? I continually have this problem. On this project, I figured that I spent so much time figuring out the mods for the first cuff, I'd easily be able to remember to finish off the last cuff. It turns out that one and a half years later my memory wasn't so great. Of course, it doesn't help that when I cast on I had a one year old, and when I cast off I had a two and a half year old and a seven month baby. So long sleep and bye bye memory!

So, without further ado...

The pattern is Eleonora, by Knitting Nonstop (also known as Dawn Matkovic). You can see my revelry page here. It's an elegant shrug and I decided that I needed some nice yarn to make it with. My mom liked the colour of the original sample that the pattern is based on, so I searched high and low for a purple DK weight yarn that wouldn't break my budget. I ended up choosing KnitPicks Gloss DK in Blackberry, which I think was a really good yarn to fit the pattern. The yarn is a lovely blend of 70% merino wool and 30% silk.

Well, my husband just called to tell me that he'll be back with the kids in about two minutes, so I'm typing even faster. I think I have just enough time to put the kettle on to make some tea before they get home.

ETA: Here is a preview of the next project that I'm working on. It's been another work in progress forever but I've decided that I'm going to finish it this week. 

Here's M checking out what I'm making for her. I explained what it was and she asked me to 'go knit now, please.' Why, yes thank you, I think I will.

Testing...testing...

Testing...testing...


Originally, I only created this post as a way to try and sort out the website. What a headache it's been! I've learned more about blogging templates and html coding than I ever planned. But, as I get closer and closer to the vision that I had for my website, I'm feeling like all the hard work is worth it. Perhaps it wouldn't sting so much if I could do most of it during the day, rather than late, late at night when the kids are sleeping!

While I've been sorting out my blog, I've had a chance to go through ravelry and pull off some of my favourite pictures from my projects. Here are a few of my favourites.

One of the best pleasures in life - knitting while having a cup of tea.

The Snapdragon Tam that I made for my sister-in-law. The pattern is by Ysolda Teague.

My July Heat Wave Ruffle Wrap, based on the 'November Ruffle Wrap' pattern by Kate Jackson

Lovey Dovey, made for M. Pattern by Sylvia Hager. I keep meaning to make a bigger one, but this one started off as a dress and now fits as a top.

My First Snow Mittens - well, at least one out of two. The other is still sitting on my needles. The pattern is by yellowcosmo (on Ravelry.com).

Little Pumpkins - pattern by the fabulous Susan B. Anderson. She's such a talented lady! I absolutely love all of her patterns.

M's Whirligig Shrug, pattern by Stephanie Japel.

My nephew's Roaring Dinosaur. Pattern by Zoe Mellor.

M's Baby Blanket. Pattern by Terry Kimbrough, Susan Leitzsch and Lucie Sinkler.

Just a quick check in tonight.

I have a lot of things that I want to write about but I want to give them all the time and attention that they require, rather than just posting something quickly.

I feel as though I have about a million projects that I want to do, but the two million chores that I have to do keep getting in the way. I wrote out a little list of about 12 things that I wanted to get done today and promptly thought of three more things to add to it. I made some headway and had big plans tonight to keep tackling my list, but...both kids are sleeping at the same time! M went down with a big fight tonight and T finally got tired of hanging out with me and fell asleep wrestling his stuffed giraffe. For a while I sat on the couch, trying to figure out what to do with these rare moments of peace and quiet.

In the end, I decided to do something that I want to do. I've got my knitting set up, Arrested Development is loaded on the laptop and I've raided the cupboard for a handful of chocolate chips. And by handful, I mean the bag. Heaven!