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Big update
I know, I know.. it has been ages since I last posted. So much has been happening here. UniDone, done, done and dusted (if I pass). Gosh, I hope I pas. I don't think I can handle another semester. The last couple of weeks were really stressful.Admittedly. it is because I had not done enough work throughout the semester, but hey, it's me! I never do enough work early in the semester. In a few weeks, I'll find out whether I passed. If I do pass (fingers crossed...) I graduate in September. Yay! AlexAlex has recovered well. His nose is still a little stuffy at night but aside from that, he's a well boy. Finally! It's taken long enough. We're almost back where we were before he caught the cold. Our nights are getting better. He's nowhere close to sleeping through the night yet, but we'll get there. A new shopAfter handing in my paper for uni, i have been busy setting up shop here. I am slowly building up stock and getting ready for the opening on Friday. I have started listing stock in the hope that I will generate some interest but none of the products can be purchased till I activate them on Friday. Anyway, feel free to stop by and take a look. Dyeing up a stormAs can be expected, I suppose, with the new store and all. Almost all they new stuff will listed on either my Etsy store or the Ozebaby one. SwapsI am a little behind on my swaps.. well, just one. I posted off my ISE4 scarf nearly two weeks ago and I am just waiting for my pal to tell me that she has received it. I joined Sockapalooza4 but have not even selected the yarn yet!! I thought I'd dye the yarn myself but I wasn't sure about that. I am considering Baudelaire in an almost solid coloured yarn. The only way I know how to get that is by dyeing it myself. I received my ISE4 scarf last week. I have been waiting for the weather to clear to get some decent photos of it. It's a nice wide scarf - really warm! I have already worn it twice! Thanks Latoya! Life in generalHas been pretty sweet. Since my last post, Chris and I have both celebrated our birthdays. I have turned the big three-oh and Chris..well he's older ;). Gosh, I feel old! As the boy was still unwell, and we could not go out to celebrate my birthday, Chris brought dinner home. He bought take-away Indonesian food, including a dish which he does not like. How's that for a gem? So what's this food that he doesn't like? Petai! Stink beans! It's ok if you're wrinkling your nose by now. Most people would. I am just weird.. or maybe it's just the Malaysian in me coming out. For my birthday, I scored the Barbara Walker treasury set. Uh huh.. all four books. I am going to have so much fun when they arrive. I also got the set of Spun-out patterns. I can't wait for them to arrive as I want to knit the baby surprise jacket. I am impatient, of course, and have been eagerly hoping that the postie will arrive soon with my books. Speaking of which.... I am most upset with the postie this week. I posted a suggestion on Rachel's blog and won a skein of yarn. My postie delivered it alright.. he just didn't bother leaving it in the shade away from the elements. On our way to work yesterday, Chris spotted a yellow envelope in the bushes near the postboxes. It was my yarn from Rachel - so wet that the envelope was disintegrating! I have tried to rescue it by re-skeining it and drying it. It's still damp but it smell okay and looks okay. I think I will turn it into a pair of pants or a little sweater for the little guy. Oh, and what yarn was it? It's a ball of Lion Brand Magic Stripes. Such a long post and no photos? Oh alright.. here's one of the boy.  Labels: Alex, etsy, ISE4, life, Ozebaby, Sockapalooza 4
ISE4 scarf is completed
No photos yet as I still need to weave in the end and block it. It's looking better than I thought it would when I first started. The blue/purple tones suit the pattern and don't interfere with it too much. I promise I will post pictures as soon as I have blocked it. Today Alex wore the knitted pants that Cynthia gave him. Thank you, Cynthia! I no longer have to roll it up as much. Alex is growing into such a big boy! Just look...  Yesterday Alex had his 4 month shots at the doctor's and we weighed him. He now weighs 7.6kg - that's like a whopping 16.7lb! The shots were not as bad as I had feared. He yelped when the needles went it but was happy and gurgling in less than a minute after that. I think the shots hurt me more than they hurt him. Oh well.. it will be another two months before the next lot. Alex has been a grizzly little boy for the past two days. he is asleep now, but I wonder how long that will last. He is really getting on Chris'nerves and I must admit that it's starting to annoy me too. He just refuses to be comforted by his father. As soon as Chris passes him to me, the crying softens and soon stops. What's with that? I told Chris it's not personal, but gee.. if this carries on, I will be very tired! Alex also doesn't like bottles as much as he does the boob. He'll hold out for a boobie feed if he thinks that there is one coming. My usual routine is that I feed him before and after day care and once at around lunch time. They give him two bottles at daycare. The most that he has drunk from a bottle is 160ml, and that happened just ONCE! Usually I'm lucky if he drinks 125ml. I suspect he drinks just enough to not be hungry because he knows he will get a boobie meal at lunch time and at dinner time, and as a result he's terribly hungry by the timelunch or dinner rolls around. What a silly boy.. so clever that he has worked out the boobie meals and so silly that he'd hold out for them and drive me insane! Labels: Alex, ISE4
I persevered..
And this is what has become of it thus far:  I must admit that it is growing on me. The colours are coming out nicely, though I am still disappointed that the green tones appear to have been devoured by the blues. At the moment I have completed 17 1/2 repeats and it measures a little over 37 inches unblocked. As it is quite a skinny scarf, I am hoping to get it to about 70 inches so that my scarfee can wind it around her neck twice if she wishes. That is 70 inches blocked, which will probably be about 60-65 inches unblocked. I'll probably get to 30 repeats and measure again. B1 came over yesterday for a knitting lesson. She has been making a garter stitch scarf and it's coming along nicely. She started it with a couple of balls of yarn from her mother's stash. It was unlabeled and I'm not quite sure what it was. When she went to try find some yarn with which to add to her scarf at a certain Sydney city yarn store, she was told, "that's acrylic. We don't have that here". I'm not sure it's 100% acrylic - may have been a blend. I didn't test it either - what's the point? It did sound rather snobbish and dismissive of them, though. However, I did warn her that they can be rather snooty at that store. Credit where credit is due - they did help her to find some yarn to use on her scarf and she ended up buying a couple of balls of Cleckheaton Country Silk. It's a pretty yarn from 85%wool and 15% silk. It's soft and has a really nice hand. Guess who ended up with a ball of that? Yup, B1 gave me a ball as a thank you for teaching her to purl.  Gosh! That girl is a fast learner. It took her minutes to learn the purl stitch and after that she was practicing it without a problem. Look at that piece that she knitted in a couple of hours here ... pretty good, huh? Her stitches are mostly nice and even too.. I am almost envious! I am quite sure I could not knit like that when I first started. Alex was a gem for the most of the time that B1 and B2 were here. He got tired at around dinner time (as usual.. he seems to ALWAYS know when I am done cooking!) and started to grizzle a little. He was easy enough to put to bed, though, as he was probably so exhausted from all that talk talk talk with B2.  This is his latest trick. He's still too young to be told it's rude to poke his tongue out at people. Well, that and he thinks it is amusing and it does amuse me. Yes, I am easily amused by my boy. :) Labels: Alex, ISE4, knitting, life
Spinning is done, now onto the knitting
I finished spinning the yarn for my ISE4 scarf today. It's now washed and hanging to dry. It turned out prettier than I thought it would. However, the greens and purples seem to have been swallowed by the blues. You'll see what I mean when I get around to posting some photos. I hope that the greens and purples will reappear once the scarf is knitted. Isn't it strange how the colours in unspun roving always look different from yarn, which again is quite a different animal from the final knitted piece? I'd post a pictured, but I am not likely to capture the subtle varigation of colour in the yarn at this time of the night (9pm), so I'll just have to wait till tomorrow. So, what have I been up? Not much, really. Yesterday I was as sick as a dog... I think the last time I was so sick from a bout of food poisoning, I was still a student! That was probably a good ten years ago(okay.. I'm showing my age now..) Chris picked Alex up from daycare yesterday (thank goodness for husbands!). After some sleep and lots of fluids, i think I am better now. My stomach is still not quite the same as it was before, but at least the food I am eating is staying down. In fact, I am well enough to have spent most of the day house-hunting. Yes, we are looking for a house to buy or rent. Our little flat is getting just a little too little, and I want to move BEFORE Alex learns to crawl. Our quest for a house to buy is rather disappointing. Today we viewed 4 houses: 1. Nice-ish. I like it, but I don't love it. Chris is nonchalant about it. It is too expensive, but it's going to be auctioned so we have half a chance that it may go for lower than what the real-estate agents told us they are expecting. 2. Not nice and just as expensive as House 1. 3. Nice. I like it, Chris likes it BUT it is on a large road and has a front deck and no back yard. They are asking more for it than I think it is worth. 4. Chris likes it, I don't. I guess we'll start again next weekend. Labels: ISE4, life
Spinning only, no knitting
 No knitting done in this house - just some spinning. That's merino wool that you see there. It is for my ISE4 pal. The colours are not as bright as I had hoped but I hope she'll like them. I have spun 50g, and have another 50g to go. Right now I am thinking of either using the yarn as a single or plying it with some mohair - Kidsilk Haze or something similar. So.. why has there been no knitting? My parents are here. They arrived the day after my brother-in-law and his wife left. Chris and I have been busy spending time with them when we are not at work. It's great to have them around. Alex loves his Kungkung and Ahmah* and has spent a lot of time talking to them. A result of spending time with Chris family while his brother was here and then with my parents this past week is a total lack of routine in Alex's life. I have spent the last 2-3 weeks waking up more in the middle of the night than before. This week, we are trying something new. We want to try to make Alex sleep longer at night while we are asleep**. We allow him to nap from about 6 or 7 in the evening and then wake him for a feed sometime between 10 and 11 at night. We feed him and play with him and I am hoping that the activity will reset his internal clock such that he will have a long sleep starting from then. One night he had a 5 hour sleep. That's the best we've had so far. I am hoping that if we persevere, he will eventually sleep 6-8 hours from that night feed onwards and Chris and I will get some decent rest. Wish us luck! We were shocked this morning when we woke up to see Alex's face and body covered in spots. Okay, maybe not "covered" but he had little red spots and I can't work out whether they are bites or something else. They don't seem to bother him and he is not running a temperature. I stripped his bed down and washed all his bed covers, just in case it is a bug of some sort biting him. Over the day, the spots seem to have faded somewhat but they are still there. Poor little tyke. I hope we won't wake up tomorrow to more spots! * Chinese for Grandpa and Grandma ** He normally has a long sleep from about 6pm for a good 5-7 hours, which is not much good to us as we are awake for most of that time. Labels: Alex, ISE4, life, spinning
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