New year , fresh start

Well 2013 is come and gone and I can't say that I'm sorry to see it go . I hadn't  meant to stay away from blogging for so long , it just seemed that life in the last few months of 2013 knocked the stuffing out of me . It had mostly to do  with health issues and some family issues . I am feeling better  and I'm confident that the family issues will work themselves out bit by bit . I'm looking forward to a better and happier 2014 .

Aside from the birth of our latest granddaughter Charlie  , this little addition to the family has brought me a lot of happiness . After Alaska died in May I realized how much I missed the companionship of a dog . A friend pointed me in the direction of Animatch a local shelter and this is where I found Zoe . She was a surrender from a commercial breeder and is about 2 years old . It was love at first sight . We filled out all the adoption forms and we were lucky enough to be chosen as her forever family . She is a very sweet ,gentle and happy little dog that follows me everywhere .

Looking back at my knitting of the last year ,2013 was a fairly productive year . I completed 31 projects . I knit some socks but baby cardigans and blankets were very prominent on my ravelry project page . I had hoped to practice knitting more designs with cables but that didn't pan out  . We'll see what I can come up with for this year . I hope to reduce the stash a bit and I have made a start with this trio of hats for Charlie . My first finish for 2014 .

To help me with my goal of reducing the stash I am going to do more knitting for charity . I have enough single and odd balls to knit a fair number of hats and mittens to give to the homeless . Our local hospital also takes baby hats for preemies and newborns . Of course , there is also the Warm Hands Network , which  does a great job helping the northern communities thanks to the generosity of knitters .

Those are the knitting goals ,they are the easy ones to achieve . The harder ones are the personal goals . The primary one is to learn to let go of and  to accept  the things that I can't change . I am going to try to focus on and appreciate all the positives in my life and to forget the rest . Another personal goal is to BE healthier , which means making some changes in my diet and exercise . This has been a constant struggle in the last few years . I 've lost weight but not enough to get me off  some of my medications . I need to find an exercise that I enjoy and can stick to .

Mike, Omi and Mason , Stella & Charlie .

Happy New Year and since most of the continent is under a deep freezing cold spell , hope you can stay warm ...

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

 

She's here !

After keeping us guessing Charlie Shea arrived two days before my Dad .  When she decided that she was ready she wasted no time in getting here . Mom and dad barely had gotten to the hospital and there she was , 8lbs  8oz  of cuteness .  Her nanny MaryAnn and I were there to hear her first cries , a special moment for both of us .

Mason meets his sister

 He wasn't quite sure what to make of her , but was intrigued and concerned when he heard her cry . He kept telling her " It's okay, it's alright " ! So cute !



Snug as a bug at home

Let the crazies begin !

September has always been a  busy month in this house what with three birthdays all falling within nine days of each other . Add to that my father's annual visit and there's a recipe for crazy that usually leaves me done in by the end of October . This year there's an expected fourth grandchild , due any minute now judging from the size of Stef's baby belly , which will add a little more busy to this month . I can't wait to meet this little one and have been knitting up a storm . Here's the last two finished knits ...

I didn't have enough of the madelinetosh pashmina left after knitting the baby Tea Leaves cardigan to knit a matching  hat . I knit a cream coloured hat and then used a few yards of the pashmina to knit the flower accent . As for the blankie , I fell in love with the pattern  as soon as I saw it on ravelry . It was a fun and easy knit . Mason had two similar blankies that were well used and loved , hoping that Charlie will like hers as much as he did his.

My Dad arrives on Thursday , which is also Stef's due date . We're all speculating on who will arrive first ...

While I was away

While I've been neglecting the blog , the summer has been filled with ...

 spending time with this trio of munchkins .

 

 

Knitting . I've been on a streak with the baby knits . The purple shrug is for Stella , as well as a cardigan and vest for my expected grand daughter .I also knit a pair of socks for Jessey and there are another pair in progress for Stella. I`ll have to get going to knit some for Mason .

Reading .This  pile of books is more reflective of currently reading (The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith , also known as J.K. Rowling in another incarnation ) and to be read books . The book that I most enjoyed reading this summer and one that I can`t recommend highly enough is And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini .  The book begins in Afghanistan the 1940s and continues on through the decades and to other parts of the world with a series of interlinked stories . It entertained me , moved me to tears in places , and taught me a little more about the history and culture of the Afghan people. I have read his other books and thoroughly enjoyed them , but in my mind this is his best one yet .

 

 

On a sad note , we had to say goodbye to our cat Hey You , so named because when he wandered into our lives 17 years ago we had no intention of keeping him ,  the logic was that you can`t keep a cat if you don`t give him a name . He stayed and the no name stuck . He`d been showing his age lately but then started having seizures and getting weaker every day . We finally had to face the reality that it would be kinder to end his suffering . It`s particularly hard for me because he came to us just 3 weeks after my mother died . She loved cats and I always felt that she sent him to me . He was a very good companion , kept the dogs in line (they knew the pecking order ) even the big guy Alaska . He accepted the kids even though he wasn`t too sure about them in the beginning . They loved him in return . We will always miss him , but mom has him back with her ...

 

Emma's socks

I'm doing another happy dance this week . Emma's socks from my last post are finished . I didn't quite make my Sunday night deadline as I had hoped , but they were completed yesterday and ready for their photo shoot today .

 

These are the Baby Cable Rib socks from Sensational Knitted socks . I use this book often when I have to knit children's socks .  You are limited when you have to knit for small feet and there are a number of patterns in this book that look great with just about any sock yarn . I'm not worried about the fit because I was given Emma's shoe size and with the sizing charts in this book you can just about knit custom socks . I hope she likes them ...

 

Up next ...

 

 

Baby Tea Leaves cardigan . It's coming along nicely , more on that another time .

 

Happy dancing !

I finished  the latest baby blanket yesterday and I absolutely love it ! The yarn , the pattern and the colour which is the exact shade of pink I was looking for .To my surprise Stef chose to decorate the baby's room in lilac , but there is pink in the duvet cover , so it matches pretty well . The Ruffled Ridges pattern by Bev Galeskas is a joy to knit . I used Berocco Vintage because in my experience it has the perfect combination of easy care acrylic content with the warmth of wool .

 It speaks volumes for the pattern that I continued knitting despite the fact that we , along with much of the eastern and central part of the continent are experiencing a heat wave with temperatures in the mid thirties Celsius and the humidex reaching the mid forties Celsius . We are lucky that while we don't have central air conditioning , we do have a pool . It has finally been getting some use after our  rainy spring and beginning of summer .

 

This is the perfect time to work on a small project  . I have one of Emma's socks done and hope to get the second one off the needles by Monday  . I'm just itching to cast on another baby cardigan  .

Have a wonderful weekend and stay cool !

July ,already

Time just flies when you're retired , it's almost scary . First , I'd like to wish our American family and friends a happy Independence Day ! I know there's bound to be lots of parades , family gatherings , barbecues and fireworks ! I hope you get sunny skies and warm weather wherever you are .

We celebrated Canada Day by spending the long weekend  at Max and Stef 's cottage in the Laurentians . The weather didn't really cooperate as per usual this summer , but we had fun anyways with walks in the woods and campfires to keep the mosquitos away . It was nice to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city and just kick back and relax . I had brought some knitting and in the quiet afternoon while Mason napped I started this baby blanket his expected baby sister.

 

I've been working on it monogamously for this whole week and I have about a third done . It occurred to me that Stef doesn't have that much longer in her pregnancy and  since I am notoriously slow at knitting blankets I thought that I'd better get a move on ! She's only due in mid September , but if this baby is anything like Mason , she just might show up a little early .

 

 I would have  accomplished more on the blanket had I not started this book yesterday . I just haven't been able to put it aside . It would fall into the romance category , but it is so much more . I think that I first came across it on Goodreads where it had quite a few glowing reviews . Broadly told it's the story of a young man left as a quadriplegic following an accident and the woman who is hired as his caregiver  and the relationship that develops between them . The underlying theme of  assisted suicide and the right of a person to make that choice is what makes this such a compelling read . It is such an emotional and complex issue , especially with all the advances in medicine and the ability of doctors to prolong life , I think that it will be a long time before we can come to any legislative solution . As far as I can tell so far the author hasn't come down on any particular side of the debate , maybe she's just bringing us on this journey and telling us a love story .