What I know to be true ...

In no particular order ...

1. There is definitely a reason why most women have babies in their 20's or 30's ... it's exhausting! But, no matter how tired I am, this adorable face just melts my heart and makes me smile!

2. Exer-saucers are God's gift to moms (or grandmas) who have supper to cook, or laundry to do

3. Moist Arrowroot cookie residue must be wiped up immediately or it becomes the equivalent of concrete cement .... perhaps they could use it as mortar in arid countries? Hmmmm...

4. The baby who sleeps 12 hours through the night at home, will awaken every 4 hours, requiring complete clothing/diaper changes and a bottle

5. I can completely change a baby,who is sleeping and drinking from a bottle, from head to toe, without ever having to remove said bottle from the baby's mouth and using only one hand.

6. Oxyclean laundry additive removes all current and even former stains, acquired from formula spitups, or feeding mishaps ... YES!

7. When the baby isn't interested in eating from his high chair, he will happily sit on the tile, in front of a large mirror and eat it there! Whatever works.

8. When there's a baby in the house, nothing else gets done ... and that's OK. It will still be there to do at a later date.

9. Golden retrievers are wonderful with babies ... great babysitters, spill licker-uppers, pillows, pull toys, guards, play mates, etc.

10. It was the best, most exhausting 10 days of my life ... a real gift to a women who was never able to have biological children of her own ... and I'm already missing him immensely.


I'm still working on my scarf and am making progress, but it doesn't look any different from the last photo, so I won't bore you.

I'm thinking about getting a lace blocking wire kit. Do any of you have one? Would you care to comment and let me know which kind you have and where you got it, and whether or not you would recommend it?

Sitting in a tree ...

Here's our cutie , nestled in the trunk of the tree, with mom holding him from behind. He was more interested in trying to grab my camera, than noticing his surroundings. I was thinking that in a few year's time, I'll likely be getting after him for climbing that same tree!

Tomorrow, he comes to stay with us for 10 days while his parents are on vacation. I'm all organized ... hauled out all the toys from the last grandbaby; gave them all a bath in vinegar water; found all the 'Veggie Tale' movies that had been stashed away (they are so fun!); and my boss, bless her, offered me an exer-saucer that she no longer needed. Here's E*than given it a test drive ... seconds later, the fish was in his mouth.

My mom cleaned out her hope chest and came across a blanket that my granny in Scotland had knit for me, when I was born. Don't even ask how long ago that was! It reminds me so much of the pinwheel blanket I made recently ... the lace edging is unbelievable! There are a few holes in it that I'll likely fix, but other than that, it's gorgeous. How the moths managed to get into a cedar chest is beyond me!

Fabulous edging!
I had a skein of hand dyed yarn in my stash that I had purchased last year from Hello Yarn, intending to make a BSJ. I decided that I would use it to make a lace scarf for myself, instead. I can't seem to get the colour quite right in the photo. It has lime, lilac, cranberry& chocolate in it ... I think it will be perfect with my chocolate down coat. It would also do as a summer shawl. The pattern is a free one from Lion Brand 70337AD that I modified to make narrower. I did 4 panels of 17 stitches each, in merino/sock weight yarn. I like how the edge scallops, almost like a feather and fan pattern, but it's quite different. You'll see what I mean once it's finished and blocked.

You'll recognize the next thing ... It's amazing how odd it looks while you're knitting it and then it turns into ...

This! Yes, it's the Tudora from Knitty (minus a button). One ball of Malabrigo made both the foliage hat and the tudora, with about 2 yards to spare. Gotta love that!


That's it for now! I may get a chance to post while the baby's napping, but likely I'll be conked out too! Thank you all for your prayers and comments regarding my co-worker's niece. She's recovering well and will soon leave the hospital to go to a rehab centre to relearn how to walk, etc.

Knitting and Spring

Just needs a loop and a button closure for the front and it will be finished. This pattern was a fun one that I'll definitely be making again. The only change I would made would be to cast off 4 stitches under the arm, before putting the sleeve stitches on 'hold' while completing the rest of the body. That way, when I return to complete the sleeves, the stitches under the arm won't have stretched and I can simply pick up the 4 stitches from the cast offs and continue on. Other than that, this knit was a complete pleasure. The pattern doesn't call for quite as deep a 'V' in the neckline, but somehow I'd missed the 'At the same time' ... and continued increasing at the front, when I should have stopped already. I decided to carry on and it turned out fine. The only thing is that the fronts now overlap slightly, instead of simply meeting, but considering little 'pot bellies', I would think that could be an advantage!

I made another Foliage hat, but in the Pink Frost shade of Malabrigo and gifted it prior to taking a picture. Also made the Beaufort hat shown here, in the same exact shade of cream (I used Rowan All Season's Cotton) but it too was gifted to a very worthy recipient.

Both of these hats went to a young woman named Megan. About 8 weeks ago, her boyfriend and his friends were on their way to the airport for a trip to Hawaii. They were run off the road by a man suffering from 'road-rage'. The boys got out of the vehicle and were struggling to get it back on the road, when the guy turned around and deliberately ran his truck over Megan's boyfriend, Silas, killing him. It was all over the news, so you may have already heard about it.

Four weeks later, Megan was in the US shopping for the day (she lives right near the border) and suddenly complained of headaches, nausea and then fell unconscious to the floor. Turns out she was suffering from an aneurism in her brain. She was flown back to Vancouver where a specialist had to do emergency brain surgery. She's doing ok now, but we nearly lost her 3 times and she's got a long haul of physio ahead of her, to get her arms, legs and brain functioning normally. So, not only is she grieving the loss of her boyfriend, now she has all these health issues to deal with.

I work with Megan's aunt, and asked her if she might need some hats to keep her head warm until her hair grows back, so that's where the hats went. Please keep Megan and her family in your prayers!


Off to the frog-pond with my blue 'Silver Belle'! I had both sleeves and fronts done and after all that work realized that while I was enjoying the cables (process), I could not see myself actually wearing the finished item. From all the photos I've been seeing, it seems to only flatter those with very tiny bodies, which doesn't apply to me, and I have no intention of going to all that work only to end up looking like a Beluga!

Here's our smiley boy taking a tour of the back garden with Grandpa. Pretty much everything is up, if not already blooming, and we actually had a bit of sunshine last week. Normally, it would have been hot for a month already, but it's still very much like early Spring.

This is pretty much how he looks, all day long, unless he's hungry ... He goes from happy to crabby in about 3 seconds flat!

He loves Brinkley, who gives him lots of kisses, particularly if the baby has just finished eating a cookie. Oh well, saves me getting out a face cloth! :)

He's coming to stay at our house from the 14th-22 while his parents are away in the Dominican Republic ... don't plan on seeing any new blog updates during that time!

We have a 40 year old flowering ornamental cherry tree in our front yard. It's probably 30 ft or more, wide and when it's in full bloom, it's spectacular! All the lookie-loos are standing in our driveway, or driving past slowly to see it. Amazing!