Happy Birthday To You.

It was almost two years ago, exactly from right this moment, that I brought a 6lb 10oz baby into this world. In that moment, all the misgivings and fears and hesitation I'd sprouted when finding myself unexpectedly on the other side of a two-lined pregnancy test disappeared. I was a mommy.





It's been two years since that first glimpse of Elodie, so tiny, so precious, so helpless. As much as I don't remember of the 13-hour labor, I sure don't forget that first moment I saw her, or held her, or heard her. My, how she's changed.





When I snuck into her room a few moments ago and scooped her into my arms, she's heavy. Her teeth show through an open mouth, and her arms quickly and easily find my neck and wrap around it. Her feet are bigger now.

She can climb onto the couch, run, tell us exactly what she likes or, more often, does not like. She tells us, I love you, something that we've known since she was born, but she's just finding the voice to say it. She's growing and morphing before our eyes into a girl, no longer a baby.

And yet...

She is my baby. She will always be that way. In my mind, I will always see her roving eyes and gummy smile of the infant hidden just below the features of a child, a teenager, an adult. I have deperately tried to be a good parent so far, and I hope I'm doing well. She deserves no mistakes, a firm hand, a warm hug, and I hope I can provide that. I don't want to see her scrape her knee, but I'm sure it will happen. I don't want to send her off to school, but she will go with anticipation.

I will miss the little, warm, spindly arms finding my neck while she sleeps. I look forward to watching her grow.

Happy Birthday, Elodie. Mommy loves you.

So Long

We lost another family member today. Nan Stockley, Robbie's grandmother, passed away this morning. Details are still kind of sketchy, but details are not what are important right now. She will be deeply missed.

My first time meeting Minnie was under sad circumstances. Minnie's daughter, Robbie's mom, has passed away from lung cancer, and she was down for the funeral. She was very sweet, and told me that Vera had spoken highly of me. She asked me to come into the room to view Vera's body with her. She asked me to pray.

The second time I saw Minnie was the last. I was four months pregnant, and we had surprised her by flying to Toronto on what would have been Vera's 50th birthday. She was doting, caring, loving and still so sweet. I remember her being very concerned with my eating, and she was continually offering me food. A can of pineapples. A tray of bananas. A sandwich. She was desperate to see me eat. Had I said the word, I'm sure she would've cooked a four course meal.

Minnie was always the doting grandmother. She called nearly weekly, and I talked to her not a week ago. She'd sent Elodie a birthday card. Elodie was so excited to get it. She was shocked that mail had come for her. It's a shame that Elodie will never get to meet Minnie.

It seems like Robbie and his brother have lost so much family the last few years. First their mother, then their Pop and now their Nan. It's something that I haven't experienced the way they have. I still have three of my grandparents, my dad's mother having passed away when I was two.

I guess all one can do is hold onto the memories. Remember the good times and not the end. Minnie had a great story that she told me about when she was in labor with her twin daughters, Vera and Verna. She told her husband, Charlie, that she was in labor. He asked if it could wait until morning. She promptly told him, no, she was in labor now.

It was snowing, as it usually is in December in Newfoundland, and Minnie was taken by sled as close to the hospital as they could get. She had to walk the last half a kilometer in the snow by herself. Rather than waiting for a bed, she ended up giving birth to the oldest twin, Verna, in an office.

I will miss Minnie. I'm sad that I didn't get to know her better. I will remember her stories, though, and I hope that she is happy in the afterlife with her daughter and her husband there to hold her hand.

Kind of Like Love.

I love my new wheel. Love him. He spins great, and my spinning groove seems to have come back. Even though I had too much work to be legal yesterday, I still managed to pull some superwash off the wheel.



I gave the yarn a bath to set the twist, and this morning, it was all nice and dry, ready for its closeup.



The stats:

Plied Socks (100% superwash wool)
Colorway: Maple
Fingering to light fingering weight
200 yds
4 oz.



This is the superwash that I bought from Sheep Shed Studio, and boy did it turn out pretty. I've still got about 20 oz of this to go, and it's going to be presents for my friends at knit night. I'm very excited about it.



As for today, still a lot of work to go. I've got 144 minutes to finish, and I've done...11. Yikes.

In other news, it's Elodie's second birthday tomorrow! It's hard to believe my baby is growing up so quickly. She's a hell raiser, but there's nothing like sneaking into her room at night and just holding her while she sleeps.

This is Going to be Quick

I'm kind of a single parent today, so you're going to have to deal with a short post. My daughter's dancing to techno music, so she'll be entertained for a bit.

I got my new Traveller going last night, and boy, does he spin like a dream. I've named him Pepper. :) After Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Anyway, here's what I pulled off the wheel.



Plied Compliments 100% Silk
Colorway: Mermaid (hand dyed by moi)
Weight: Lace to light fingering
~125 yds





Yesterday, I had a great time at M1, chilling during their TGIF knit. Great people, a nice glass of wine, no work and lots of knitting. I'm officially half done my clapotis!

Techno's done, kid wants attention. See you later!

I Can't Believe I'm Going to Say This

I've got the Clap. The Clapotis, that is. You know, I never thought I'd knit it, but here it is, on my needles. There's something about knitting with yarn that I spun and turning it into something that I will wear. (Have you noticed this selfish knitter thing lately?)

It really is lovely. I've been working on it for about two days, and I'm about 25% done. You see, I've actually been following my mantra: Knit one thing at a time. It's working! I do have a sock in progress, but we'll just ignore that fact. It's my knit night sock at M1, not that I've been able to go lately. *sad face* You see, my hubby works most Tuesday nights, and if he's not working, the weather is usually crap.

This Tuesday, though? The hubby is not working, the forecast is good, and I have four-wheel drive if all else fails. I'm going!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now, since I haven't been providing you all with WIP pictures lately, here's a few of my Clap to tide you over until this sucker's finished.







The color is probably the best in the top picture, by the way.

Myself in Pictures

This is stolen from Hadley Gets Crafty. I thought it was rather ingenous and beautiful.

The rules:
1. Go to http://www.flickr.com/
2. Type in your answer to the question in the "search" box
3. Use only the first page
4. Copy the html and paste for the answer


What is your first name?




Favorite food?



What high school did you go to?



Favorite color?



What is your favorite drink?



Dream Vacation?

I do have a note to make on this one. This church below came up when I typed in Jels, which is where my family is from. This just happens to be the church my grandmother is burried at.


Favorite Dessert?



What do you want to be when you grow up?



What do you love most in life?



One word to describe you?



What do you dream about?

Off the Needles

STATS:

The pattern: Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn Clark
The yarn: Araucania Ranco Solids in Purple. ~380 yds
The needles: 3.25mm/4US
Started: 04.14.2008
Finished: 04.21.2008
The photos:







I really enjoyed this pattern. It was great for helping me get my mind off the whole medical thing. It was a fairly quick knit, and I probably could've done it sooner, but had a bunch of work to do. I think this shawl is going to get quite a bit of wear around here. Especially since I sit near a window in my office, and it gets chilly!!!

As for the dreaded nupps, they really weren't that bad. I found out pretty quickly that it's important to keep those nupp stitches pretty loose. After I'd gotten that figured, there really were no issues.

In case some of you were unaware, the Swallowtail shawl pattern by Evelyn Clark is available for free until sometime in May as a part of the IK booklet of five free patterns. I'd go snatch it up and print it out while you can!

Not For Fun

I must say, the colposcopy is not as bad as it sounds. I was totally freaked out thinking that it would be this wretched thing, but it wasn't that bad. Certainly not nearly as painful as an unmedicated labor, but not fun, nonetheless.

We went in this morning for it, and it looks like they are definitely severe cell changes. Ick. They took two biopsy samples (which was yucky), and took a scraping WAY up there (which was worse), and then said that even though they think they got it all, I will probably be getting a LEEP biopsy. I'll get the results in about two weeks, so please continue to keep your fingers crossed that the margins are clear and I don't need any more stuff!!

Guess who's Blocking?

I LOVE how this turned out. Blocking has always made me all giddy inside, but this was particularly fun. I love how lace actually becomes something when it's blocked. The stitch detail on this is great, and the pattern is just beautiful! I can't wait to give it to Tanner and Kyla for their new addition, Caysen.

The pattern: Hemlock Ring Blanket by Jared Flood
The yarn: 3 skeins Patons Classic Merino in New Denim
The needles: US7/4.5 mm - highest circ used was a 32", but it was tight!
The time: About three weeks of knitting.
The modifications: I did knit this on smaller needles than called for because I knew it was destined for a baby blanket. I quite like the tighter stitch work than the larger needles would've given me. As well, I did a few extra repeats of the feather and fan pattern than called for.

Are You Ready?

Here comes the big one. I have a lot of photos and not a lot of time. My kiddo has been really yucky sick with the stomach flu the last four days, and she's only just started back on solids. I tell you, our wash machine has been running nonstop for the last three days, and we've changed her bedsheets so many times, it's ridiculous.

I digress.

So let's start with the dying. I bought and dyed some silk hankies. It was a lot of fun.





This one is by far my favorite. It's dyed with easter egg dyes.

I've already spun up one set of the hankies. It was a nice lemony green color. It spun up very fine, too, so I'm pretty happy with it. I plan on spinning the one color above about the same thickness and plying to two to have a nice laceweight.



More fun with hankies, I spun up some BFL, pictured with the silk single below:



I then plied it with an unspun hankie in white, and I wrapped the hankie in places. I call it "Cocoons."



Also on my to-do list is a pound and a half of hand painted superwash wool from The Sheed Shed Studio. They have great prices, and for only $18 for a pound and a half, how can you pass it up? They also have the mill ends, which are great, too.



I think it's really beautiful, and it will make great Christmas presents for the knitters in my life. I know so many sock knitters, it's insane.


Okay! On to the knitting! I've been working for a few weeks on the Hemlock Ring Blanket by Brooklyn Tweed. It's lovely.



I've been casting off for three days, which is getting a little tiring, but the blanket is going to be stunning once it's blocked. I can't wait!



Finally, I bought more sock yarn, Aracuna sock yarn, to be exact, and I'm going to make Jeanie with it. It will be a gift to myself once this Hemlock Ring is all finished up.





I guess that's everything. Sorry it took so long to get this up. It's been a crazy month so far. Cross your fingers for me for my doctor's appointment on the 16th! I'm a little nervous.