Thunder thighs.

So. Miss E has the most gargantuan thunder thighs. Don't get me wrong, it's adorable to see baby thighs so chubby that it looks like there's three thighs where one should be. But it's making things painful in terms of figuring out how the hell I'm going to keep this child clothed and diapered. Needless to say, I've been amusing myself with testing various patterns.


More diapers in size medium. Being the lazy sod that I am, I made all-in-one diapers. Slap 'em on the kid, and she's good to go. Pattern: Very Baby AIO.


This is from the Hippy Hippy Snap pattern. I'm a little sad about this one, as I like the pattern, but I think that the elastic I used may not be working as well as I'd want it to...thereby rendering the diaper pretty much useless. Sigh.

And even in Atlantic Canada, summer is coming. Which means sundresses! I made this one for Miss E using this tutorial, and it was very quick and easy. From selecting the fabric to the final ironing, it look less than an hour to make it.


In knitting...no pics for you as I'm working on gifts. But I must say that once again Terra's ski beanie is saving my ass.

And I leave you with the baby picture of the day:


"Yay! I'm wearing knitted pants!"

May the Force Be With You...

*Warning: Pic Heavy Post (PHP) incoming*

Like I said, this one's a bragging post about my Mum's awesome knitting skills. During the month that she was up here and helping out with the new baby, she made Mr. Munchkin some amazing knitted goodies. And helped fuel my son's OC infatuation with the SW universe.




Of course, there is some major credit due to the amazing Star Wars fair isle charts made by Knitting And dot com. But on the whole, my Mum made Mr. Munchkin's every knitted wish come true. You can see on his sweaters (the blue one's a vest, we ran out of yarn for the sleeves) an AT-AT, R2-D2, a TIE fighter, a Scoutwalker, and of course, a stormtrooper. I dunno why the pics are so pixelated, Flickr's being a booger. So far, the one knit that's received the most comments has to be the R2-D2 hat in the first pic. I want to find a baby hat in the same sort of pattern - Miss E needs a hat that even she can't object to.

As for myself, the past two months have been spectacularly unproductive. Mind you, I did spring clean like a madwoman. And managed to "out" my fabric/yarn stash in the process. Mr. Ninja decided to help with the spring purge, and he started in the storage/craft/office. All I heard from him during the entire 3 hours he was in there was muffled swearing, and lots of banging around. When he finally emerged, all he had to say was "Y'know, there are less expensive ways of insulating the house, dear." Anyhoo, here's the one FO that I have for you:


Remember this pair of pants and how I thought that they'd be too small for the new baby? Yeah. They were. Miss E has the most adorable thunder thighs, so the pants got deconstructed and reassembled into a diaper soaker. That's the best part of knitting, imo. If something doesn't work, you can just try again. It's a much more forgiving art than sewing.

Speaking of sewing, here's a pic of the baby carrier that I modded - I added a pocket for my iPod and a spot for the carabiner for my knitting pouch. You can also see the ugly unmatching knee-high baby socks - great pattern, I'll have to make another couple of pairs of these.


And finally, this sock in process is going back to the frog pond. Namely, because the tension is waaaaay off. Likely, that's got something to do with the fact that I tried to knit on this while in labour. It's knitted so tightly that the bloody thing could stomp off on its own. Guess I was a little stressed out, eh?

Wow...

What a month.

I apologize to anyone I've been in contact with during this month (including the ever lovely KOLers), as I seem to have become one of *those* mothers. You know, the kind that are able to willfully ignore your eyes glazing over as they rhapsodise about their children's bowel movements. Yup, you know what I'm talking about. I promise that I'll be back to someone capable of adult conversation in a few months. Just indulge me during our babymoon, ok?

I left off promising that I would post photos of babyknits:

Jak in the box, thank you! I admit, I suck and seem to have lost the pretty ribbon that was holding the sweater together. I'm still looking, but with my luck, it'll turn up in five months and under the cat's sleeping bag. That's the only reason I don't have a pic of Miss E wearing it. Coming soon, I promise.

Steph, the baby loves this sweater. Don't worry, it doesn't really cover her face when she wears it. I just couldn't resist the look on her face in this photo.

Ms. Barnhill, I am in total awe of your knitting. When we took your gift out of the bag, I gasped a little at how perfectly lovely it was. Thank you so much for gracing my baby with your loving skill. I swear that she doesn't always look that disdainful when wearing it.

I love all of these sweaters - but Mr. Munchkin was most partial to the onesies that Steph specially made:

May the poo be with you. LOVE IT!

And Lesley, I don't have a photo of it - but the project bag you made me was sheer genius. I attach it to the mei tai and can knit while getting the baby jiggled back to sleep. Thank you!

Next post will be about the awesomeness that is my Mum's knitting. There will be much Star Wars content, be forewarned.

Falling asleep in my cheerios...

I'd forgotten how intermittent snatches of broken sleep do not equal a good night's rest. We're in that weird newborn limbo where everyone is really tired, but equally wired...so it's like living with a pack of rather sedate zombies who are constantly muttering about supporting the Columbian bean economy. (If I could, I would totally take my coffee intravenously at this point.)

'Tis a bit of a wonder that I'm typing at all, as (TMI alert) I'm retaining fluid to the point where carpal tunnel syndrome has kicked in, big time. I can't close my right hand into a fist. The best I can do is this wretched claw type thingy, which is not earning me many brownie points with Mr. Munchkin, to say the least. (He calls it Mommy's witchy hand.) Which also means no knitting. No spinning. No sewing. *frowny face* On the plus side, I am being forced to take up other ways of occupying time. I've started teaching Mr. Munchkin how to play the piano, and I've been reading. I didn't realise how much I'd missed the feel of the ivories...and since Miss E is (miraculously) able to sleep through the very loud plonking of unharmonious keys, we shall play on.

I've been asked if I'll be posting Miss E's birth story...I'm not sure. Honestly, it was a very positive experience. I'm just a bit squicky about putting something so intimate in such a public arena. We'll see. Maybe I'll feel different when she's a teenager and I need some leverage.

Hope to have some crafty news eventually. Also need to post some cute baby modelling photos. I received the BEST baby presents, and they need to be displayed to the world. For now, you get this.

Sleepy baby. I love how she sleeps with her arms above her head.

Doesn't it look like Miss E is saying "Holy crap! DUDE, you just got smoked by Darth Vader. Maybe if you hit the X button a few more times to get some combo points, you can take him out this time..." They're playing Lego Star Wars on the PS2, fyi.

Aren't my boys handsome? Even 12 years later, I'm still all swoony about Mr. Ninja. (Those of you who know about my thing for hunky viking men may now chime in with a chorus of "Oh, well THAT explains that.") Also, there's your obligatory hand knit photo. Mr. Munchkin is wearing the second pair of Monkey socks that I've knit for myself...and then unceremoniously felted. They're his socks now. *sigh*

Introducing...

The divine Miss E.



Finally home from hospital. Short blog post. Baby had medical issues, but all resolved now. Is good baby. Sleeps a lot. Eats a lot. (Was labelled an "aggressive" feeder. Poor breasts.) Poops a lot. Ninja is exhausted. Will post more later when brain reboots.

Hi ho, hi ho...

It's off to induced labour I go.

Tomorrow, that is. Went to the hospital today for my 40 week checkup, and they took one look at me and my chart...and decided that this baby has to come out, pronto. I'm ok with it, as I figure that it can only go better than the first time with Mr. Munchkin. (Don't ask - seriously, it was definitely on the horrific side of things.) So, I'm doing laundry and cleaning the house like a madwoman. After all, who knows when I'll next get to do those mundane tasks without a small critter strapped to lord knows what body parts?

Uh...sorry about the visuals, I may be freaking out a bit about actually having a newborn again. We used to call Mr. Munchkin "velcro baby" because he would put up quite the hissy fit if he was not constantly cuddled and able to see what Mummy was doing. Funny how I'm just remembering these things now that the baby's arrival is becoming all too real.

Anyway. Am also knitting on a pair of knee high socks for the baby made out of handspun scraps. If I'd been smarter about it, the socks would match and be all cute and stripey. As it is, they're composed of two very different textured yarns and they look awful. But they will be warm, and that's what I'm going for. Or so I tell myself.

Also finished up some medium sized diapers:


The top three are from my own pattern, and the bottom ones are from the Fattycakes pattern. They're wonderfully squishy and soft...and ever so girly. I am LOVING the idea that I get to sew girl stuff. I've become quite the Ottobre worshipper, plotting cute wee dresses for the distant future.

But for now...I have more laundry to do. Send easy labour vibes please, would you?

More teeny tiny pants...

So, I finished another pair of LTK Longies. Knit from some handspun BFL that I finished early in this pregnancy... Using the drop spindle, I made it into a deliberately thick and thin slubby worsted weight which made for an interesting effect. The plied yarn was very energized, and it definitely has that "homemade" look. Not really sure if I like it or not, but meh - the colours are very pretty. In case you're wondering why there's some tiny tufts of yarn next to the pants - that is all that was left of the entire skein of yarn. I was so desperate for yarn to finish the drawstring that I was scrounging the cast-on and cast-off tails and using them to finish up. Yeesh. That'll teach me to start planning ahead when choosing yarn for projects.


Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's day - I got the BEST homemade Valentine's card from my boys and I made them Valentine Day brownies for dessert last night.

Today in the mail, I got another Valentine - my copy of the Emmeline apron. I think it's the prettiest apron pattern I've ever seen. And as I fully intend to bake more as soon as little Miss Munchkin is born (hooray for GESTATIONAL diabetes - it should go away as soon as the hormones settle down)...I need a couple of new aprons, non?