so sensitive

i'm finding as i get older that i am more and more sensitive to various dermal irritants. when i was pregnant, i had the most horrible rash dotted over my body -- legs, arms, breasts, butt, stomach. my gp prescribed steroids and a skin-thinning cream(!). i was going crazy. i got no help determining the cause so i started a vague elimination plan and luckily hit on the cause almost immediately: dryer sheets.

lately it seems that i cannot wear eye makeup. i tend to buy eye makeup from the same manufacturer (l'oreal, because i'm worth it) and have been using it for years, but for some reason, i'm reacting. time to research hypo-allergenic products. i hope i can find some that are reasonably priced, wear well, and easy to find. i hope this doesn't mean i'm done wearing makeup for good. 

maybe i just need to embrace the au natural. 

btw, we are on day 3 of potty bootcamp and (fingers crossed) it seems to be working. i'll post more after the day is done.

such a charmer

last week, the boy and i headed to toronto for our big date. we had tickets to see Kings of Leon at the ACC, a room booked at the Gladstone hotel, and a day off to play in the big city.

i was so excited to see the kings. our seats were meh; 100 level but so very far away from the stage. the show was awesome. the band sounded really good. even mix of old and new tunes. i'm new to the band like the majority of the screaming fans in the ACC but i've been digging through their back catalog thanks to youtube and downloading older tracks from iTunes. (question: why are "old" fans so proprietary? why are they so down on new fans to the band? does it really matter? yes, going from the warehouse with a capacity of 2000 to a hockey arena sucks but how can you resent the band's success? get over yourself.)

i was so excited to be staying at the gladstone again. it is such a funky little place and so much better than some generic hotel. the food is still really good. my little man will be 3 in july and this is the first time i've spent the night away from him. Nona stayed with him and he did great.

We spent our day wandering up Queen West. We hit up coffee shops, we ate, we looked at all the things we would spend our money on if we lived in the city. i picked up some superwash merino at romni, the boy got a t-shirt at american apparel (that store gives me the heebie-jeebies), we got a streamlined coat rack at umbra. it was fun. we checked out the gehry addition at the AGO but declined to spend $18 each to walk into the exhibits. we had less than 2 hours and decided we needed more time to soak it all in.

it was all kinds of amazing to walk around without dividing our attention between our surroundings and a 2 year old. it was nice to look around at a leisurely pace; there was no rushing. it's been about 3 years since we've done that.

dr. horrible & other stuff

skipping over the fact i have not blogged in months, let's get right down to it. i was on amazon looking for a birthday present for the boy and noticed dr. horrbile's singalong blog was available on DVD for  $10. of course i bought it. we watch it last night and giggled all the way through. then i checked the special features. there's a musical commentary. i'm not kidding. it's hilarious. the entire casts sings the commentary. there's a song about the writer's strike last year, why nate is better than neil, another about why asians are never cast in the lead, and a song by groupie #3. of course the lines are witty and laugh out loud funny. groupie #3 gets her solo because she gave joss $10. nathan fillion takes over her solo with a "suck it. i gave him $15." one of the last lines is something like "we've reached the end, you've listen to all our words, and that makes you a great big fucking nerd." yup, for joss, absolutely. loves it.

i've cast on another clapotis. i have small problem, i know. i tried to knit something else but it was just not working. instead, a fire engine red clapotis using collinette jitterbug (sock yarn). if i get organized, i might even take pictures and put it on ravelry. it makes me happy. and is there such a thing as too many clapotis?

i turned 34 this past week.  the boy bought me a great present. a couple years ago, i picked up the "keep calm and carry on" poster. some genius spoofed it and there are limited edition prints available on threadless that read "now panic and freak out" hee hee. my mom gave me david rocco's cookbook. yum.

we're off to a delish dinner at bhima's tonight and are going snowboarding on monday to celebrate the boy's birthday.

my baby boy is 2.5 today. he started in the preschool room at day care. he's a non-stop dynamo. he knows his numbers from 1-9 and is working on letters. he's fully into the "i want to do it!" stage. he usually says please and thank you. he has discovered thomas the tank engine and dinky cars.

we are in the preliminary stages of a basement renovation. i cannot wait to have the extra room. it'll be a place to chuck all of the kidlet's toys and hopefully a place where we can entertain as well. we're putting a bathroom in down there with a shower. the eventual plan is to replace the bathroom upstairs (original 1947 features!) but first we need the basement bathroom.

and i made one resolution for 2009: i want to be a milf.

catch up

the yarn harlot came to town to adjudicate the kw knitter's guild adjudicated show. thanks to the lovely lady lynn, i got to tag along for some birthday drinks at the heuther. jenny, julia, stephanie, rachel, lynn, me.



my favorite pocket people pals bry and beckstar have moved back to ontario avec super sassy pooch sousa, settling in toronto. this makes me very happy though i no have a reason to go to seattle.


i'm knitting another attempt at a moebius. i'm using couple hanks of handmaiden something or other. it has cashmere in it. though the colours are "my" colors, it kinda looks like the dog's breakfast at the moment. it is a quick knit so i will finish it, try it on and you all can help me decide to keep it or frog it. i think the yarn would actually be quite cute as a roll brimmed hat and maybe some mittens.



the wee one turns 2 on thursday. 2! amazing. he's pretty amazing too. we went to my brother's yesterday and he and nephew #1 actually played together for the first time ever. they ran around shrieking and having a grand time. this makes us so very happy.

i got the.worst.haircut.ever last week. i hates it so much. why? in a word: bangs. on the upside i think it will grow out rather well, i just need to be patient.

(not exactly) kid art

we bought these post cards about a decade ago. the back of the card says, mexican figuritas. they are either tarot cards or playing cards. not exactly kid-themed but i hung them in the wee one's room last week.

ack

i missed my blog-aversary (blog birthday?). anyway, it was a couple days ago. trixie, unraveled is one year old. i feel i've been a rather poor blogger. i'm still struggling with the publishing details about my life into the great beyond (i don't like it), while using this tool to stay in touch with a couple friends (hi hk! hi beckstar!). i can't seem to find a middle ground, nor do i have much time to knit so posts are sparse.

on to the updates!

the hourglass sweater: loving it. can't wait to finish it. counted the stitched on my sleeve last night, which is almost done, and i have 10 stitches too many. i really have no idea how i managed to do that. there's some decreasing and some increasing. perhaps i didn't decrease enough and have increased more than i meant to. i need to sit down in some good light with no distractions and figure out where i went off the rails. the good light and no distractions thing may take a good long time to come around so i'm miffed that my progress is no longer progressing.

question to the knitters: when a pattern specifies how many stitches you should have at the end of a round, do you ever count them? i rarely count. obviously or else i'd noticed i had more stitches than i needed quite some time ago. i figure that i know how to read a pattern so...i should just have the right number of stitches. damn it all.

a pattern note, i do hate the way this pattern is written. i feel like i need to read things 9 times before i understand it and am constantly assuring myself that no, it makes sense if i just think about it long enough. in my professional opinion (as a technical writer), this pattern is bunk. and i'm not just saying that because i have 10 extra stitches.

my mom: doing fantastic. her sister is visiting and the two of them are having a grand old time. we were just over there for some risotto and frittata. i'm still full and it had been a good 3 hours since we ate.

my wee man: just darling. i know parents dote on their kids and are biased but mine is rather cute and clever and charming. he doesn't sit still at all, ever. he stresses us out because he doesn't eat all that much. his words are coming fast and furious. he can mimic sounds really well and surprises us daily with new sounds and sentences. he's cuddly and friendly and has the most wonderful laugh.

when it rains

i go for weeks and weeks and feel like i don't have anything new to say. and wham-o, everything seems to be happening all at one.

so here's what's been going on in the 'loo.

i turned 33 last monday. john woke up before the boy and nipped downstairs to make lattes. i got to open presents in bed, sipping my morning cup of pick me up. nice.

he got me the daring book for girls and how to be the best at everything. which of course i strive to be so yea! perfect presents. and there was one more on the way.

the one more arrived today. knit picks options. i lurve them! i will keep the denise set i have but will probably only every use them in an emergency. plastic, blecky. the knit picks are metal and pointy and sharp! love 'em!

the (big) boy turned 43 on saturday. i celebrated by going to shall we knit? and buying some myself birthday yarn. i made him french toast and put the monkey down for his nap first. then went to buy yarn.

shall we knit? is the perfect store. karen is awesome. her stock is amazing. her husband is the sweetest. they have a large table with chairs for friday nights knit and chat. perfect. janelle was being so helpful and friendly i thought she worked there too but no, just hanging out and helping out. totally worth the drive to new hamburg.

then i came home and made a catalan flam for the boy's birthday dessert. mmm, flam.

i picked up odd balls of yarn. one ball of malabrigo and two balls of marisol because so many knit bloggers drool over it. two balls of sumblime cashmere merino in black. one cone of bamboo for baby hats. i got home, got on ravelry and checked out all the things i could make with my odd balls of yarn. i love ravelry. i can't wait to cast on!

the monkey turned 1.5 years old last week. his first sentence was "i got you." which mostly comes out "i gah chu" or "gah chu" but sometime is crystal clear before he runs away shrieking with laughter. he'll say "ee i ee i o" to get us to sing old mcdonald to him. he knows most of his alphabet and can count to ten though he tends to forget 9. he is starting to assert his will and has brief moments of resistance or frustration but it usually over in a flash. he's got bruises on his left shin from climbing up on chairs, the toilet, the trunk, whatever he can get his fat little leg on, and on his forehead from bumping into things or falling over, or just being a boy. he makes many animal noises and will fill in the sounds for us when we read "moo, baa, lalala" by sandra bouynton. he loves reading and has practically no interest in tv even though we wish he'd sometimes sit still and chill for a minute. he loves to cuddle and always wants hugs and kisses. he's lovely.

kid's stuff

but oh so fun.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Nas-B4ZG-28

birthday bits

monkey cake: monkey sugar cookies:
big boy of one:
banana shirts for birthday boy and nephews:
my favorite, the banana toss:

and the felt bananas:

making do

the kyoto sweater skeins are huge and making them into a ball would take forever. i knew that any attempts at a centre-pull ball would result in tangles and tears so thought i'd make my own makeshift cone using first a toilet paper roll (too much yarn for such a wee bit of cardboard.) then i upgraded to a paper towel roll. and it works just dandy but it rolls around on the couch and off the couch and across the dog fur-covered rug.

i came up with two solutions that i think are quite clever. 1) jamming the "cone" in between the couch cusions and 2) jamming the cardboard onto the fisher price stacking rings post. it wobbles a bit but works well enough when i am sitting on the floor with the wee monkey.

speaking of the monkey, i think he is going to be a knitter. he's fascinated with everything knitting releated. he loves to watch me knit. this morning he was doing his best to pick up a ball band just out his reach. i was putting my 'net kintting patterns into plastic sleeves and sorting them in binders (by catagory. i know!) and baby j could not take his eyes off the patterns.

i am still looking forward to getting the swift and ball winder...

continental knitting demo

this is too cool. i've always wanted to learn how to knit continental. it looks so elegant somehow. and sleek. and apparently it is faster. having watched the demo and knitted along with it (pausing and rewatching as i went), i can certainly see how it would be a more efficient way to knit. at the moment i am merely awkward. but maybe in time? i'd have to work on something small and inconsequential, like a scarf, before tackling a garment. hmmm.

in clapotis news, i discovered yesterday that i did not have enough yarn to finish the decreases. curses! so i ripped again. third time's a charm, right? i'll probably have lot of yarn left over now but c'est la vie; obviously i can't gauge it any closer. the boy keeps listening to me curse and watching me frog and he finally asked if it would be possible to just get more yarn. i can't bring myself to tell him how much a hank costs. i just keep repeating, i am not buying any more yarn! i could have finished the damn wrap days ago...

other knit news: my guild has a swift and ball winder available to members. sweet! i emailed the keeper of the swifts and winder and i can have it at the next meeting. in march. i kept meaning to email before this month's meeting (this past tuesday) but always forgot. now i have to wait. sigh.

i checked ebay and found a swift for $36 and a winder $29. tempting. but not right now. my sister in law has both but lives in london. i should see if they are heading this way any time soon. we'll be seeing them in march (around the same time as the guild meeting). or i could just suck it up and wind all of my yarn by hand. i just had visions of all these cute little cakes of centre-pull yarn lined up on the dining room table.

in baby j news: our little monkey is seven months old today. oddly, he was absolutely irate at 12:36pm for no good reason. flashing back seven months to the moment of his birth?