Abi the Artist

Abi's made an incredible leap in her drawing and colouring skills in the last 2 weeks.  She went from scribbling over a picture she was 'colouring' to actually paying attention to the lines. (All by herself. I've never made attempts to correct or change her drawing and colouring.) Although she still goes over the lines with her broad strokes of colour, she is clearly cognizant of the forms and adds different colours to different parts of the picture.  In her drawing she's recently been working a lot of spiral forms, adding legs and faces and calling them dinosaurs or dragons. Sometimes she adds wings (for a dragon). Or spirals as rose flowers. Or just single lines in wandering shapes that she will look at after and decide what it resembles.
Last week she presented me with a picture she'd drawn of me. It had a head and face. It also had arms and legs where they should be (not protruding from my head), but no torso.  I asked where my torso and neck were. I then had to add that a torso is a body.  I think she added them in. (I can't find that picture.) A couple days later she brought me a new picture and there were all the major body parts - much to my surprise since we hadn't talked about it since.  This evening she drew an even better picture of me, hanging on the wall. (At the end of the video. And yes, she added breasts.) A few pictures later I pulled out the camera and asked if she'd draw a picture for Nana and Pa-pere. The video follows:

Argh - is youtube down or something? None of my videos are working.

Here are the pictures:

Nana and Pa-Pere (first time I've seen her draw short hair) with baby Mandy, Dorion, and Abi below. Deliberately made smaller and proportional in size. She insists she is bigger than Dorion - who is bigger than me as a baby.

Me/Mommy. With flowers adorning my hair (a later addition while it was on the wall and stickers were out.)

One of many spiral animals.

I'm no artist. Nor is Robin. At least not with drawing skills. I'll have to seek out someone more talented to guide her skills later. For now she keeps surprising me, especially this last week or so.  She's also started showing an interest in writing letters, but since she is left-handed I've been doing some research to help her in this regard. Robin writes with a 'hooked' hand, but I've been learning about the technique of turning the page and working with a straight wrist from below so that the things written (or drawn) can still be seen. Plus, less smudging.  In the video Abi is holding a fat marker, but normally she holds a pen or pencil better - and has since she was about a year old and started drawing.  She's never liked the art utensils designed for young children - the fat tools. They never made sense to her because she couldn't hold them normally.  I'd picked up those fat little markers as her first lil markers a year ago, but she has some finer ones that are easier for her to hold and I'll make sure to only buy thinner markers from now on because she can hold them better.

Also, I picked up a small package of plasticine modelling clay a couple of days ago, made a little dog figure and had to go out that evening. So I suggested (as a distraction) that she make me an army of dogs. She did. She quite likes plasticine.  I'll have to get more - for a larger army.

On the needles - doing my dreams

It's been quite some time since I wrote about what's on my needles.  Typically I just make my updates on Ravelry and share with Ravelry folks.  Every now and then I figure I should share my art with friends and family too.
Let's see... What's the last thing I shared here? Dragon shawls and some handspun and dyeing experiments. A new hat and another not-so-new shawl were part of the pictures from Corey and Ed's visit.

That leaves several finished objects to share, but I'm still waiting on an opportunity to get better photos, so those can wait a little longer.  How about what's still on the needles.

There's the Echo shawl above and the mystery summer shawlette below.  They're the most recent projects to be cast on. The mystery shawl was started because I saw a post about it and happened to have a new hank of alpaca lace sitting next to the computer. I'd picked it up for less than $5 at a clearance table. How could I resist?

There is also an Indigenous shawl blocking on the bed right now. I've been waiting for a not-too-humid day to do it. I've had the yarn since my only visit to Saskatoon and one of my earliest shopping excursions to a local yarn shop.

This enormous white Freya shawl has been on the needles for months.

And these socks for about as long

There is also another Hatchling Dragon shawl on the go, but since I'm spinning the yarn as I go it develops in spurts.  Waiting on an opportunity to spin more singles and then ply them.

Also awaiting more spinning is the Wheel of the Year project. It's a circular design so far but I'm about to transition it into a square with the new yarn to be spun.  First I had to dye some fiber (in the background).

Earth Day and Designing - a belated post

If the rains and lack of snow and flowers and buds are any indication, it must be spring time.  And let's not forget the ducks in pairs and the birds building nests and and warm weather.  Yes, it is mostly definitely Spring. Even if snow or ice should come crashing down right now at my window I would still declare it is Spring and the cold stuff can "Foxtrot Oscar", as my dad would say.

Seeing as how we celebrated Ostara/Easter while Corey and Ed were in town a few weeks ago, we didn't do much last weekend.  For Earth Day (aka Good Friday this year), Abi and I dyed pencil roving given to us by a local woman trying to get rid of it.  Abi and I experimented with the cakes. We dyed one in the form it comes in and the other I unrolled into a skein.

 Here's Abi trying to get colour into the entire cake.  We started with the microwave method of heat setting the (food colouring, as usual) dye, but it wasn't setting all  the dye. So we switched to the slower oven method to let the yarn soak for longer.  I flipped it over part way through so both top and bottom would be immersed in the oven.  The result is quite nice.  The purple absorbed fastest at the outer edges, but as the dye was slowly absorbed by the roving in the oven, the blue was set inside.

After that fairly simple dye job we tried our hand at rainbow dyeing.

 Unfortunately, the results were not nearly as dramatic as the bath. I suspect more time and dye would have helped.

Regardless, I think it will knit up nicely.

I was also working on a new shawl design to show off my first full skein of handspun yarn.  I was aiming for an Earth Day finish, but apparently I was expecting too much of myself to spin, ply, design AND knit the project in a week. So I finished it Saturday. (In part because my friend 'expected' me too. As a joke. So I proved I could.)  The second half of the spinning and plying happened on Friday... one day... yes, I'm apparently as fast at spinning (with a drop spindle) as I am at knitting.  You see, I had to spin it up quickly because I ran out of yarn half through the project that day.

The photo at the top of the posting was the first ball of singles.  Above is what I had after plying the first two balls of singles and starting the knitting. You can see all the stages of fiber, singles, two plies, and knit. And my spindle. (I want a better one...)
Alas, I had to frog the entire thing after binding off. My design was... off... I shan't speak of what a silly mistake I made.  But I did learn several things from working the design, not least of which is how GORGEOUS my first handspun yarn is!! (not including all the little skeins I played with before having the courage to spin the "special" fiber I had bought).
I'm currently testing a redux of the design on not-handspun yarn.
In the meantime, I had time to actually skein the yarn, wash it, let it rest... all things one should do before knitting it.  It's not advisable to spin, ply, then knit from the ball in the same day... unless you want to work with "energized" yarn. (I won't delve more into spinning talk here...)

Once the design is knit and tested,  I can sell it. And then I can buy a better spindle on Etsy. And some fiber.

Yes, I already have two lovely designs for sale on Ravelry. People are actually buying them too.  Ah, my first day of sales was so exciting.  Tomorrow my designs will also be featured for sale at the DKC Frolic in Toronto.  Both designs use yarn by Waterloo Wools. And I was surprised to find one of my designs featured on another blog - with a design by Jared Flood.  Technically, my design was "above" his. ;) And for the non-knitters, you should know that's illustrious company.
I'm waiting for all the people who have bought the pattern to start knitting it so I can see pictures! And for my test knitter to restart (she didn't like her first yarn) so she can share it too.

Both are dragon-inspired designs.
First came the Dragon Hatchling Shawl.

 It's a quick project (I knit it in 2 days to get it blocked and mailed on time). My sister received this one for her birthday.
And then I finished the much bigger project. The Battle-Weary Dragon Shawl.

This one is knit in a cobweb weight lace yarn. My favourite. It's Montague Yarn from Waterloo Wools - a blend of merino and silk.  When I saw this skein of Silver Fox for sale I had to get it.
I'm also donating some of the sales from the Battle-Weary to local animal rescue.

For the record, I really don't spend all my time knitting. I swear.  But there are plenty of opportunities while I'm playing with / watching Abi, nursing, long car rides when I'm not the driver, having coffee with friends (many/most of whom are also knitters), making Abi finish her meal, walking to the park with Abi (this way I can walk at her speed without going crazy!)... lol And then I discovered that spinning actually helps me drink my coffee/tea BEFORE it's cold. Spin, drop, sip, draft. Repeat.

Dangling Bits

I made myself some pretty dangling bits.
Yes, I jumped on the pretty-stitch-markers bandwagon.
I used to be satisfied with plain white circles around my needles when I needed stitch markers. I was satisfied because that is what I inherited from my MIL and they work.
Then I wanted some colour, so I bought a small package of rainbow coloured rubber ring stitch markers at the Knitters Fair last year.  Different colours and different sizes (particularly the small one for socks) is great, but I do find the rubber markers to be a bit sticky. I wouldn't want to use more than a couple on a project.

Still, I've been admiring the pretties dangling from my friends' projects on the needles.
Thus, today for crafts I made my own pretty stitch markers.  It's been a long time since I delved into my bead collection.

 The moonstone markers are my favourites of course. I also made two more that are clip-on style to attach to a stitch rather than on the needle. They're already in use.

 I call these ones the Bees and the others are the Ocean markers. I think they'll need new homes.  The Bees can also function to count things.

 The Pretty in Pink markers used up leftover heart pieces from Abi's baby blessing votive gifts and beads from an anklet my friend made years ago that's been sitting unused. (I trust you're not offended Aileen. You're probably rather surprised I still have it.)  The purple-blue set is my second favourite and the clip-on marker features a fluorite stone. I made many of these, you know, for projects that need a lot of markers.

We also prepared a basket of yarn bits for the birds and nested it in the tree outside. Hopefully the birds will help themselves to some nest-building materials... rather than try to nest in it... I'm intending to bring it inside every evening. (Emphasis on intentions.)

There's much more yarn to refill it as necessary!

 Not these yarn bits of course. This is my special mini basket of mini (teeny-tiny) skeins from my favourite yarns.

Lest you  think I would leave you without a cute-kiddo picture after all this time, I give you "walking the animals on a cloudy day".

Seeing Green

We had yet another failed dyeing experiment this week. We tried dyeing a large skein of tan-coloured fingering weight yarn - over 400 yds - in the microwave (using food colouring drops done by Abi, so I don't really document the ratios etc.) using 3 dishes to try and get three slightly different areas of colour.  All were green. Unfortunately, for several reasons, the dye was only affecting small amounts of the yarn. Those reasons include 1) too much yarn in each dish and not enough water to distribute the dye and give the yarn space to move and 2) probably too much vinegar in the yarn causing it to immediately absorb the dye before the dye had time to reach the rest of the yarn.  After every round I'd look and find huge areas still of tan, so we'd mix and add more dye after pulling up the brown so it would catch the dye first... Eventually I had to give up and say UGH to the yarn above.  Also, we'd run out of blue and green and red food colouring.
The next day we got more food colouring, a very large bowl, and overdyed everything in one pot to achieve the yarn below.  Then I had to rinse it about 20 times because of all the dye added over the last couple days - far too much to be absorbed fully by the yarn. There is still a lot of wild variation, but I'm hoping it will look great when knitted...  My friends son suggested it should be called Jungle yarn and would look good with some red accents. Sounds like a design plan...

Not all green was horrid this week. I did finally finish this project started last year.

And we had two boxes of gifts arrive this week for Abi.  Today was Nana's box, which included this adorable outfit Abi immediately put on.

And magnetic dress-up dolls and craft stuff. Earlier in the week she got more dolls (and she's very happy to have a boy doll) and roller skates and other things.  That was a snow day, so she had to test out the roller skates inside. She's very good at it.

not all dyeing yields desired results

"Every skein is sacred.
Every skein is great.
If a skein is wasted..."
you know the rest (or should. and if you don't - your own loss)

I found myself singing this as I hung some recent dye experiments to dry.
It started with some blues and pinks-purple needed to finish Abi's new shawl.  The results of the first batch were lovely and what I expected from Abi's colours.  They  were used for the picot bind off.

Sharing some love

The large section of blue near the bottom is my handspun yarn :)

Remember the yarn Abi and her friend dyed? It was knit up into these:

However, not all of our yarn experiments are equally lovely.
Yesterday proved that...

Abi wanted yellow. It took a while of being dissatisfied with the resulting pale yellow to add a drop of red to make it darker / visible. For the last skein I thought I would transform the yellow dye bath into some orange. There was still plenty of yellow left from trying to make it darker. Maybe adding a drop of the neon pink wasn't a great choice. It didn't matter how much red I added after... the skein is doomed to be crazy-bright.
No idea what I'll do with these...

And then there's this pink and blue in the same yarn base.

It's rather meh in my books.

Getting my knit on

I was curious to see myself knitting (and purling), so with the tripod already out and the sun shining in the window, I took some video footage.
I'm going to use the longer footage to calculate my knits per minute. Just because I'm curious.
Aside from cutting out most of the footage, this is not edited. Ie, that is really my speed for knit stitches and purl stitches (slower). Plus on the knit row I'm slipping two stitches (for that row).  Not every stitch is so quick to do.

I also did a quick video demonstrating a decrease technique used in my shawl design that creates 2 mirrored decreases from 3 stitches. (Not actually made in the correct place because I had already completed that row of decreases.)

And, for a joke I video recorded as I frogged back many rows of knitting on the shawl after changing the pattern for better increases along the sides. (This video predates the knitting above.)

For the non-knitters, "frogging" refers to ripping back: rip-it, rip-it / ribbit ribbit. Yes, it's knitting humour. Like "tinking" is to un-knit stitch by stitch or k-n-i-t backwards. tink.

Research Interests

I was inspired by today's PhD Comic to write about MY research interests, which I don't think are accurately represented by the following pie-chart.
Contrary to the above, my advisor's interests do not dominate my research. In fact, except for when I was his research assistant for one or two terms, he's not had much impact on my interests per se. Certainly he's been very helpful in clarifying my research, but my specific research with children is not his field of study. Like in the chart, my research interests have shifted since I began, but my research topic has remained the same. That is, I started my MA knowing that my PhD research would be with children in contemporary Paganism. The shift that has taken place has concerned my emphasis. Whereas I was previously more interested in the development of new religious movements and contemporary Paganism, I am now far more interested in the sociology of children and religion / spirituality. Unfortunately, pretty much everything that I want to research is what "nobody will ever pay me to do". I am hoping that will change over the years as the sociology of childhood and children grows as a research field. My own academic interests certainly would take up the majority of the pie chart. I am pleased to be able to say that I get to do my own research, not someone else's! (Except when I am being paid as a research assistant to do their work.)

As for the non-academic items from the chart, they really don't apply here (celebrities, sports and online shopping are not in my field of interest whatsoever). My "other" research interests include things related to pregnancy and babies - everything from cloth diapering to the evils of plastic. Along with that is my current interest in researching new patterns for wool soakers and then knitting them. Knitting is my morning relaxation. It is also how I justify watching DVDs with Robin, because I can knit and still feel productive while enjoying his company and being entertained. Before I could see or feel my pregnancy, knitting a baby blanket helped me to connect with the baby. And when I need to procrastinate, good ol' knitting projects are always on hand to help me out ;)

Sun Peeking Through

Despite it being another drab, gray, rainy day... the sun is shining just a little inside in the form of new cloth diapers that *finally* arrived!!! That's right, my Fuzzi Bunz are here in all their fabulous gloriousness. Just look how cute they are! Okay, the white are a little boring... but I figure I might not always want an orange bum showing through!

We're going to check out a couple of Peg Perego strollers from Kijiji ads this week. Yippee. Less than two months to go and I'm realizing that there is a lot yet to do... such as make the co-sleeper matress and matress covers. I also have to finish sewing my wrap (got the thread today). (Robin adds I should make the kitchen curtains, but I have priorities. Granted, I should do it before baby arrives...) Wool soakers are coming along well. I'm still hoping to find someone local who makes prefolds or contour diapers. Otherwise I'll just order them. Also have to make some flannel wipes and the intended quilt from the leftover matress-cover fabrics. Unfortunately for me, I don't particularly like sewing... I'd much rather be knitting or crocheting...

...Then I can make things like a Yoda Hat. Oh wait, I already did that. Here it is, unfelted. It will obviously be much smaller when felted. This is Robin's favourite item. And NOW he wants me to make matching pants to go with the hat, socks and wrap-sweater. Sheesh! First I have to figure out what size the hat and socks will fit her at. No point having them all in different sizes!

I suppose I should get back to work. Not fun work - worky work. Research work. Right after I call my sister to inquire about something...

(She'd seen some alternative fibre fill for making a mattress. Corn-based I think. But I can't find it anywhere.... I could get raw cotton from Len's Mills to stuff the mattress.)

Grumpy!

I want my diapers and I want them last Friday when Canada Post was supposed to deliver them (according to the email sent to me by Canada Post). At the latest the package should have arrived today, according to CP's shipping standards (I looked it up). When I called CP to inquire further I was informed it has not been scanned since it was mailed and it must be intransition (duh!). However, only the sender can track the parcel. I think this is ridiculous, and I've already sent CP a complaint stating so. As far as I am concerned, the sender (Parenting by Nature) and I completed our business transaction when they entrusted my package with CP. I should not have to ask them to track the package for me. They are a busy company, and now I have to wait for them to find time to track the package and reply to me. I should just be able to do it myself since CP did send me the item number for delivery. Needless to say, I'm not impressed and am subsequently grumpy. I was looking forward to my colourful diapers arriving on this gloomy day that follows a series of gloomy, gray days. (May as well be on the coast with this weather!)

I was hoping to be able to post something more upbeat today! For example, I recently joined a yahoo group with other women (I've not seen any male names) who make wool soakers. They share patterns, revisions, reviews of yarn, and other ideas related to wool soakers (and subsequently, cloth diapering). I'm trying out two (so far) of the wrap style soakers in newborn size (since that's the quickest/smallest) using wool I have leftover from other projects and sales. I've realized that I can probably avoid buying cloth covers altogether if I make enough wool soakers and wraps. Surprisingly, this would actually work out cheaper. For example, some of the wool I am using I picked up at Sally Ann for a dollar. Even a new ball of commercial merino yarn is about $5 at Len's Mill and makes more than one wrap. The wraps in particular are very quick to knit up. I think I'll try a couple more of the patterns provided by the yahoo group as "test" pieces. Already I have some ideas for how they could be tweaked, but I need to a) try them on baby and b) have a reference to base my adjustments on. I can't believe that about a year ago I had just started knitting and had no yarn stash... I never imagined I'd be making my own pile of wool soakers. That seemed far too complicated compared with rectangular blankets.

There is a woman in the local barter-works who makes cloth diapers. I saw her wares at Queen Street Commons once, but they've sadly cut down on the amount of items they display in there now. Unfortunately, one has to be a barterworks member to find out how to contact other members. I considered joining before... but what do I have to offer for barter?... Wool soakers :) Maybe once I've found a pattern I can work with well.

Midwife and Ultrasound Update

I met with the midwife yesterday and heard the results of the Christmas Eve ultrasound. As it turns out, baby is slightly larger than "average", which is perhaps why I was measuring larger than "average". Yesterday's measurement of my belly revealed no extra size or fluid. Maybe we just caught her in a growth spurt before. Regardless, baby is healthy and growing well. I'm doing well also. And growing. I bought some new PJs (suitable for breastfeeding later) and maternity clothes recently (there were some great sales at my favourite consignment shops this week). Warm maternity clothes were much needed! Most of what my sister sent is summer wear (despite the fact that she was pregnant in winter like me...) and the pants are very very long. I hemmed one pair of pants, which became the only nice pair I had to wear out of the house. I bought myself a pair of maternity jeans - the kind with the large elastic belly front. I remember laughing at such clothing once upon a time (I'm sure Ericka remembers also). Now I know them to be very comfortable! I find other styles of pants, particularly if they just have elastic in the back, do not fit as well or as comfortably. It's good to be back in jeans! I'm tired of sweat pants or dress pants. I missed the thick comfort of jeans.

My diapers should be arriving soon... Maybe I should check the mailbox again today...

But first, let me go photograph and upload the socks and new wool soaker I finished...

The socks are to go with the yoda sweater and yoda hat (not yet finished). I realize yoda doesn't exactly have frog feet, but this is the closest pattern I could find. The soaker is my first attempt at a Curly Purly wool soaker knit in the round. I love the yarn - a soy-wool blend. I may make one more... before holding off to see what style of soaker I like best with A.

Would you like to see more photos I just downloaded from the camera? How about some holiday pictures...

Darla is looking festive. And at Rita's I took a lovely nap. (Apparently Robin thought this was photo worthy.)My Belly featuring a sun tattoo from the sunrise Yule ritual I attended during solstice. It's fake of course, but stayed on forever until I scrubbed it off. The kalanchoe that has been growing wild in the living room from multiple cuttings has finally decided to flower for the first time. Here is its first bloom. And, since everyone seems to love this purse, I thought I'd share some pictures of what I knit for my mom. I started this last spring when we picked up the yarn in Saskatoon. Then I grew to hate the project. However, I was determined to finish it for Yule. And I did. My sister has asked me to make her one... I laughed and said NO! Never again. Or, not for a long while... Maybe as a surprise one day when I feel inspired to try my needles at a new purse design I make up. In the end, I don't hate this purse. Actually, I think it turned out very nice.