Fiona Grace

Ms. Fiona Grace became a part of our family at 9:55 pm tonight (April 11th) and you have never and will never come across a more proud aunt! After a grueling 38 hours of labour the decision was finally made to deliver by c-section as no amount of pushing was going to force an eleven pound baby out of my tiny sister!! Yes, that is correct, and even eleven pounds! My amazing sister pushed with all her might for over three hours and impressed and surprised the heck out of the doctors and residents with the progress she was able to manage but Fiona was doing everything in her power to thwart her efforts! But oh is she worth every last bit of that effort!!

She is simply beautiful with intensely deep blue eyes and dark black curly hair. And her cheeks are so large that they may even make up at least three of her eleven pounds! Until we brought the cameras out with the flashes, she was bright eyed and very alert, and quite content to suck on her middle finger! She did “talk” to us when we were holding her however in the softest little noises.

I think I may be glowing and beaming as much as the mother and father….I am positively bursting with joy!! I am so proud of Alana and Adam and I am thrilled to be Auntie Sav!

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Fantastic Raffle!

Head over to Peaceangel’s Knitting blog and sponsor her in the Walk Now for Autism event before Saturday!  A ten dollar donation will earn you a ballet in a wonderful raffle full of yarn goodies!  An excellent opportunity to make a donation to a worthy cause and have a chance to win a treat!

I Have Sock!

I successfully finished my very first sock! I began it about a month ago but I did procrastinate at certain portions, mainly before the heel and before the toe. That was just my ego coming out to visit as I didn’t want to try those bits in case I had difficulty. It’s amazing how much neurosis can come into play lol! But I conquered the sock and may now begin a true love affair with these knitted treats!

For this single sock (and yes, it is remaining a single sock as it was strictly for learning purposes) I used the top down sock chumtorial on the Lime & Violet site. I then (as per recommendation in the chumtorial) used the kitchener stitch grafting tutorial on the Knitty site to close up the toe. I will be trying toe-up construction for my first two pairs of socks which will be for the lovely Ms. Shells and wonderful Mr. Nickbee as a much deserved thank you for the swift that I am continuing to go on and on about lol! Please cross your fingers and send good knitting vibes my way so that I may construct something remotely wearable for these two fantastic people!

And now I shall inundate you with pictures of the entire process of the sock construction as I was entirely fascinated watching it come together from an engineering perspective. The coloured backgrounds in the pics are the backs of some of the quilts I have made but ignore the stubby foot near the end! Please cue the sappy life story montage music:

Love At First Spin

I am thoroughly in love with my swift and it was only intensified by the addition today of my brand new ball winder! I truly don’t know how I lived without them in my life! I’ve heard folks say that before and I doubted them; I thought they were being mildly melodramatic. I now completely understand! I want to spread the love that is the swift and ball winder combo!

I accomplished so very much all in the span of an hour. The yarn I wound tonight in that hour would have taken me a minimum of eight hours without these tools and very likely much longer than that. Not to mention how much more enjoyable the tools were to use! I love the yarn cakes that are the result as well.

I am very happy to cross the swift and ball winder off of my list of 101 Things in 1001 days. Not on the list but also acquired with the ball winder…..some Harmony needles! I needed a set of circulars in size six with a 40″ cable for the Mystic Light KAL that I’m about to start as well as some size one dpns for socks I’ll be making for Shells and Nickbee as a thank you for the swift. But I’m afraid I’m getting ahead of myself here lol! So very much to blog about! Here is a close-up pic of the size six needles as the wood is so incredibly beautiful:

I am going to adore knitting with these just from the blast of colour alone!

Clearly I Have the Best Friends in the World.

I have friends that go above and beyond on a daily basis. They listen when I need them to, they make me laugh, they teach me so much, they entertain, they encourage and offer amazing advice and sympathize and share. Well two of them went entirely above and beyond even all of that awesomeness and dipped into the realm of things I do not deserve!

Shells is a knitter/spinner artista, Nickbee is a woodworker extraordinaire and together they conspired to build and ship me my very own swift!! They even kept this secret for a couple of months despite it being lost in the mail and visiting several states lol! It is GORGEOUS! I have been avidly following Nickbee’s woodworking since he first began building Shells’ swift and as amazing as it looks in the pictures, nothing compares to seeing his pieces in person. He truly has a gift. How lucky am I? I can’t even express it in words! How kind are these two? Again, the words I know are not big enough, not deep enough to explain.

No more winding up yarn from hanks stretched around my feet!! Hooray!

Here are some pictures but they barely express how amazing it it…..the wood is so smooth….not a single flaw……and you can see the precision of each cut…..utterly fantastic!:

The swift is made of poplar and has a wonderful tinge of green (that doesn’t show in the light of the pictures) that I just love!

It is perfect for hanks of Koigu KPPPM (which is fantastic as I have several hanks that I have been avoiding winding.

This is just the beginning! Oh the hanks I shall wind!

I cannot thank the pair of you enough! *big hugs*

Wilson, my bestest buddy, I love you.

My dog Wilson, the most loving, stubborn, gentle, hilarious, emotional, cranky, princess-y, beautiful, intelligent, snore-y, incredible dog I have ever known, died today. We found out just last week that he had cancer (a form that couldn’t be treated) but that he wasn’t suffering yet. Thought maybe there would be another month or two with him. We had to make the decision to put him down today though as his health decreased incredibly rapidly. I’m still in shock.

I would like to update this with memories and more pictures of him later; I just can’t right now. This one was from this past summer at Port Burwell on Lake Erie. He loves the water….and sticks logs of course.

Bliss is……

A giant bag of Hershey’s Kisses accompanied by a ginormous Hershey’s Kiss.  And there were TWO of them!  One um….couldn’t be with us this evening…….. .  The regular Kisses also have fun messages on the flags.  Because I am entirely spoiled I also received a beautiful rose plant.   Yes, not cut roses that I can enjoy for a week and then miss them as they wilt but an actual plant that I can transplant into the garden once a more permanent residence has been acquired!  What a sweetheart!

Now I don’t really buy into the Valentine’s Day shmuckola and neither does F but it was still a very much appreciated gesture and a reasonable excuse to do something lovely for each other……..and we both separately included chocolate.  Yes, I’m an addict!

Because I’m a procrastinator I put off taking photos of the chocolate until I could bear it no longer.  One ginormous Kiss already didn’t make it this far.  I can’t wait any longer to dig into that bag however so I felt blogging about it had to happen immediately so that I could indulge.  Now I am off to let some Kisses melt in my mouth as I work on my knitted socks.