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More progress on the Seafoam pantaloonies
 Thank you for the wave pattern suggestions. Kat's comments and email came in first and one of her suggestions was very close to what I wanted. This is the result. It's not bad, I think, and I hope it's what the lady who is getting this pair of pants wants. I am so glad I checked the original design with her before I did both legs. What a lot of unpicking that would have been! I hope that I won't need to unpick again, but I would rather get it right than have a customer "just settle", you know. I want my customers to be happy. That, and I am really enjoying working on these pants. I love a challenge! I am glad I can still afford to think this way (about making customers happy). I don't depend on my knitting and dyeing to put food on the table, and I am more than happy to spend some extra time making sure that my customers get what they want. It will be a sad sad day, I think, when I have to start thinking that it is no longer worth my time to reknit or re-embroider something because I need the time to knit more stuff to sell. While we are on the topic of knitted pants, I think this site is worth a mention. Not all their products are to my taste but I think the detail in the embroidery is really something. That is A LOT of attention for a child's outfit! I know what I said before about keeping my customers happy, but you know, I'm not sure how much I would have to charge for a pair of pants to make this level of detail in embroidery worth my while! Before I forget, this Sunday is Sally's birthday. Go over and say happy birthday. While you're at it, have a read of some of her posts. She has much to say about many things aside from knitting (local politics and the like), most of which are worth a read. Alex seems to be sleeping better these days. It's not great, but it's better, and there is light at the end of the tunnel. For example, last night, he went to bed at about 7pm, woke up briefly at 9.45 and 2.30 for feeds, and then was awake again at about 4.30 ready to play. At about 630, he went back to bed for another 2 hours. This may sound like an awful night to most of you, but you know what? It's much better than most of the nights we've had in the past month or two! For that, we're grateful. It means, we think, that he's getting better. He still loves his food. So far, he's had rice cereal, apples, pears, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, mushy rice and sweetpeas. I'd like to try banana and pumpkin next, but only because I am out of ideas. I was also thinking of mushy sweet corn (maize to those of you who know it as that). I want to try feeding him pumpkin because he is likely to get that at daycare when I start allowing them to provide his meals. I need to know whether he is intolerant of it. Apparently many babies are, but they grow out of it in the first year or two of their lives. Well, I should get moving on the seafoam pantaloonies. I'd like to have them finished as soon as possible and posted out by next week. Labels: knitted pants, life
More Pantaloonies
Remember those pants I was knitting? All done! Front  Back  And a close-up, just because...  Now that I am done with that pair, I have started another pair using Cleckheaton Country Silk for the ribbing and cuffs and some hand-dyed merino for the rest of it. This one is for a little boy, and it does look quite "boyish" if you ask me. Photos to come later... We're all doing really well now that we have all recovered from our respective colds and coughs and ear infections. Finally, perhaps we'll have an illness-free weekend. Alex is still loving his solids. In fact he loves them so much that he gets quite upset if you take away his bowl and he hasn't had quite enough. He has two meals of solids a day now, and quite substantial amounts too. Substantial for a tiny belly anyway. This week, his carers at daycare have started giving him only half his fruit at lunch and reserving the other half for afternoon tea. This came about after they found him trying to swipe at other kids' food at afternoon tea. Ugh.. what a greedy little piggy! Labels: Alex, knitted pants
Our first illness free weekend in 2 months - NOT!
I thought were would have an illness-free weekend now that Alex is doing so well and I have recovered. Uhm.. think again. Chris is now down with some sort of flu bug and his joints are killing him. Does it ever end in this household?! On the knitting front, not much has been happening. I am busy trying to complete a pair of pantaloonies for the little girl who got this brown and purple pair. Her mum liked them enough to want another pair, but a machine washable pair this time. She liked a pair that I had previously made, but unfortunately they are too small for her baby. So I am making her another pair, as close to identical as possible. See.. the thing is.. I made the first pair out of stash wool. I think the colours had been discontinued, and not recently either! So I had to find similar wool in colours as close to the original as I could get.  The original pair is on the right and the new ones are on the left. Pretty darned close, huh! We're nearly done with the body part now and in another few rows, I'll be splitting the piece to knit the legs. Hmm.. I wonder whether she would like purple cuffs at the bottom too. Off to go ask! Labels: Alex, knitted pants, life, longies
Just catching up all the time
Or at least that's what it feels like. I don't seem to find time to post any more and every time I do, I'm just playing catch up. Our home is finally more or less illness-free. Alex is a lot better as am I. As for Chris, well, I think he was coming down with the same bug but it never did hit him as hard as it did Alex and me. On Friday, we started feeding Alex with some rice cereal. Oh man! I would never have guessed that he would enjoy it so much. He took to it like a duck to water and we very quickly moved on to larger meals and now two meals a day. We took a video of him having his first taste of "real" food How funny is that? He complained every time we took the spoon away and tried to grab the spoon and shove it into his mouth. The carers at daycare are already making jokes about how he is going to eat us out of house and home by the time he is a teenager. Today he threw a tantrum at daycare. Why? Because he finished his bowl of rice cereal and wanted more. Oh my little piggy.. what a greedy little man! I cooked him some pears yesterday and he totally rejected them. Tonight's meal was a little better in that he did eat some. he did grimace, but at least he ate some. maybe tomorrow will be better. On the weekend we bought him a high chair. I was very pleased as we got a fantastic discount, paying only about 30% of the marked price. It was floor stock and is missing a manual, but who cares! It's a high chair. How difficult can it be to use?  Alex has taken to banging on the tray. Perhaps he is saying, "Service please!" Oh, and do you remember the purple and brown long pants I knitted? They were for a swap with Mel who owns SpunkiMunki This is one of the blankies I got in the swap (she sent me two)  And on the topic of long pants, here's the latest creation - I called them Superstar pantaloonies:   They are up for sale at Ozebaby as Alex is still a year or two away from being able to fit into them. And on the needles right now I have a Baby Surprise Jacket (Elizabeth Zimmerman's pattern). I got really confused when I was reading the instructions and stalled. Luckily, Sally came to my rescue. I am now about an inch and a bit into it. I think it's going to come out well. Photos when I have a little more to show. Right now it just looks like grey garter stitch - which is pretty much what it is! Labels: Alex, knitted pants, life, Ozebaby
The boy is still unwell but on the mend
The good thing about Alex being unwell is that he's so tired it's really easy to put him to bed in the evenings. The bad thing.. well, there are lots of bad bits - the constant waking up at night, the frequent small meals, general fussiness, worrying about him.. etc., etc. I think he is better today as he is more cheerful and actually drank out of a bottle. For the past week he has been refusing the bottle, but today, he actually drank nearly 200ml out of a bottle over two feeds. If he is starting to want food, he must be feeling better. Takes after his parents, he does! I managed to finish the pair of knitted pants I was knitting. Okay.. this first picture isn't great but it does show the pants in its entirety.  They can be worn with the cuffs up:  or down. I even added some extra space at the back for diapered bottoms!  I have decided not to keep these for Alex. He has enough pants for now. I am going to try to sell them. Chris is still designing the banner for my shop on Ozebaby. He'll be done soon, but I can't start working on the shop till I am done with uni. Current plans are for my shop to open its virtual doors in mid-June. Not long now.. Labels: Alex, knit from your stash 07, knitted pants, Ozebaby
The little guy is unwell
Again... It's the second time he's caught a cold. This time, we're not even sure it is a cold. He had his 4month vaccinations last Saturday. Since Tuesday afternoon, he's not been quite himself, and it has just gotten worse. He is now very unenthusiastic about his food, almost totally rejecting bottles and not even that interested in a boob-feed. He cries and fusses a lot. He is sniffly and has a sometimes phlegm-y and sometimes dry cough. I think it is a cold, or the result of his shots. Who knows. On the other hand, he is also showing all the classic signs of teething, minus the teeth. He pulls at his ears, loves to chomp down on our knuckles, enjoys biting his teething ring, shoves everything in sight into his mouth, rubs his mouth with his fists, smelly poos (like smellier than usual), and all the rest of it. I keep checking his mouth and there are no teeth in sight, not even little buds or hard bits on his gums. I bought some baby Bonjela, just in case. Oh, and poos.. I can now say I have been both pee-ed on and poo-ed on. Ah, the joys of motherhood. maybe that was Alex's mother's day present for me. I went to change his nappy tonight and just as I had pulled off his nappy, he farted at me and before I could say, "poo", the nasty stuff was oozing out. Luckily, it was all caught on a towel and not my bedsheet. Unfortunately, it was all caught on towel (and not his nappy)... which I have had to wash (the towel, not the nappy). I sure hope he doesn't make a habit of it.. I don't think I want one of tehse every mother's day's eve! To top it all off, he was giggling and grinning at me the whole time. he thought it was funny! Oh, what a cheeky boy! Okay, this may make me feel better...  Those are Alex's newest knitted pants. The pattern is the same as the one from last minute Knitted Gifts, but knitted from the top down. I used nearly 2 balls of Zara and a tiny bit of the dark blue Chinese merino yarn which was given to me by Emy. When I say "Chinese merino", I mean that the yarn came from China. I don't think China grows merinos, but I could be wrong. I have started another pair. Yes, I think I am addicted. I am using the rest of the dark blue Chinese merino and a ball of blue and grape yarn I dyed when I first started dyeing. I doubt I will have enough of it to finish the pants so I will have to supplement with plenty of dark blue. So far:  Labels: Alex, knitted pants, knitting
Surprise!!!
Chris' brother and his wife surprised us on Saturday morning with their arrival. They had told us they were going to arrive on Sunday morning and Chris was going to go out to the airport to meet them. Well, guess who turned up at our doorstep bright and early! Had they been 30 seconds later, they would have missed Chris as he was about to go get his car washed. In fact, he was about 10m from the car when they pulled up! They loooooove Alex, and you know what? Alex looooooooooooves the attention even more. He's been putting on a show of maximum cuteness to get even more attention.. ah my boy, the flirt :) I have started a pair of pants for him. I decided to use up two odd balls of sky blue Zara merino wool that I have hanging around - knit from the stash, right? This time, I am knitting the pants top down. So far, so good. I am even going to attempt to knit the legs simultaneously on circular needles. Wish me luck! I got half way down the top part and thought I didn't have enough yarn, so I added a navy blue stripe. Now I am thinking that maybe I didn't need to after all. I think I will have enough, but I am not going to rip back.. I'll just keep knitting. I am about to join the crotch and separate for the legs. Pictures as soon as I get around to taking them. My plan is to join the crotch bit using a three needle bind-off, totally eliminating any need to seam. Do you think it will work? Wait and see! Labels: knit from your stash 07, knitted pants, knitting, life
My boy has pants!
  And here they are, modeled by the little man.  As you can see they are still too large for him. That's deliberate. I didn't want him to grow out of them too quickly and seeing how quickly he is growing, I thought I should make the next size up - just in case, you know. I used a 63% cotton 37% acrylic yarn. As it will not shrink I didn't knit in extra length as indicated in the pattern. Oh, and the pattern is from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. On Wednesday, Alex and I visited one of his little friends, Bernice.  From the picture, you'd never guess that the two were meant to have been born on the same day. Alex was 11 days early and Bernice was 10 days late and as a result, the two are now about 3 weeks apart. I guess a 3 week age gap is quite significant when we are still referring to their ages in terms of weeks. In a year or two it will be negligible, but something tells me Alex will always be a big boy and Bernice will always be a delicate little girl. At 6.5kg, Alex looks like a giant next to his petite 4.5kg little friend. When Bernice's mum, Danielle, was taking the photo, I was afraid that Alex will elbow Bernice or worse still, lose his balance and flatten Bernice! I was trying to distract him with a rattle - that's my hand you can see in the picture. Earlier in the week, while Alex was at daycare, I went shopping. I went a little nuts at Spotlight, and ended up with these cotton fabrics.  The blue muslin at the bottom has already been turned into extra-large wraps for Alex. I love the green sheepy fabric. I have used 1.5m for an autumn wrap for Alex and the remainder is destined to be trousers for Alex. The cow and animal print fabrics will also be turned into trousers for Alex. As the weather becomes cooler, I think he will need more trousers for daycare and I think the home-made ones are so cute. I am not much of a seamstress but I think the pants will hold up for at least one season. Chris' brother and sister-in-law will be arriving from Jersey on Sunday. I can't wait. The last time I saw Chris' brother was at our wedding last year. He's always good fun, and I do miss him. I think they have already got some fun and games planned for the time, including a poker challenge and a pictionary one. Labels: Alex, knitted pants, knitting, life, sewing
When I don't have a baby hanging off me
Alex had his first day at childcare on Monday, and it went well. I stayed with him for the first hour to make sure he was ok, and he was. By the time I picked him up in the afternoon, he had drunk both bottles of milk and had had two cat naps and two longer ones. All in all he was doing well. the carers seemed to like him enough. He is the youngest baby they have had in a long while, and aside from another baby (who is four months old now), the other children are all at least 6-9 months older. When I went to pick him up, the other children were playing outside and I didn't see Alex. i was about to ask one of the carers where he was when I thought to look into the cot room, and there he was, fast asleep in the arms of a carer who was cradling him. It was really sweet of her. He was having a bit of a cry before that and since she wasn't too busy she thought she'd comfort him by rocking him. It worked too, as he was sound asleep. They had put a pair of pants on him as they thought he might be cold in his romper and asked that I put a pair of pants in his bag next time just in case it's needed. All the pants I have for him are too big at the moment and so I have to buy/make him some before he goes in again. When I arrived home, guess what was waiting for me at the door....  Cynthia had knitted a pair of pants for him and sent it all the way from Boston. Thank you, Cyn! What a timely gift! As you can see, he's not going to grow out of them any time soon. I know they are meant to shrink, but I have hand-washed them twice (once in warm/hot water) and they are still very large. I will have to try machine-washing them to see if they shrink any more. I thought the pants were so cute that I decided to start a pair of my own.  I dug out some odd balls of a cotton/acrylic blend and started knitting. I am making them to fit Alex now, or at least I hope they will fit. I am about halfway up the second leg, so not much more to go before I finish. Hopefully it will be done by tonight. It can be, if Alex is good and gives me some knitting time, but otherwise I will just have to pop a pair of his too-long-and-too-big-pants into his bag tomorrow. Like, Cynthia, I am using the pattern from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. It seems to be an easy enough pattern. As my yarn will not shrink, I am using the post-shrinkage finished measurements. Let's see if they can be done by tonight...  See the toy beside Alex? That was given by a friend who is now living in UK. She's the one for whom I made these mittens and a hat last year using alpaca handspun. It's very sweet of her to have thought of us even though she's busy planning her own wedding now. Congratulations, CY! On the weekend, I tried to 'wean' myself from ALex. I don't think he minds being away from me, but I missed him terribly when I left him with Chris for a few hours last week. This is where I went with Lara, her husband Mark and Sharlyn. I had a ball learning to play mahjong. On the way home, I sent Chris a text message to see how Alex was doing since I had not heard from him all afternoon. This is what he wrote back: "Sound asleep! No feed yet" He had a pretty good afternoon with Alex. Aside from some thirty or so minutes of crying, he had absolutely no trouble. I came home to find a sleeping baby. Why doesn't he sleep that well for me?! I am glad it went well, though. The less trouble he is, the easier it is to find willing baby-sitters*. *Though I do think that when it's your own child, it should not be considered baby-sitting! Labels: Alex, knit from your stash 07, knitted pants, knitting, life
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