We went to see Verdi’s Macbeth the other night and it was a blast. I have been going to the opera for about three or four years now and it is not uncommon for me to glaze over some of the bits, but I was engaged the whole time on Saturday.
Category: General
Film – Young Victoria
Today might not be the first day of spring, but it felt like it was. Owen and I went for a nice walk. He is getting very heavy, this was probably the last time I will carry him in the sling for a longer period of time.
I just realised the next week is the Canada Reads panel on CBC. I managed to get through two of the books and am half way through the third one. I really hoped to have read all the books but I just was not in the mood lately. I finished “Good to a Fault” and “Jade Peony”. Both were pretty good. I am now reading “Nikolski” which is promising as well. I don’t think I will get to the other two, but I will try. Last year I was hoping to save the podcast for until I am done with the novels, but with radio and internet, I ended up seeing/hearing who won before I was ready.
Film – When In Rome
My free ride is over. It has been nine weeks since Owen was born and the last grandparent on duty has finished his shift. It’s swim or sink now. While the grandparents were here I managed to finish up and do a few crafts. It is not so much that I had the time to do them (I didn’t) it is more that I had to do them to keep my sanity.
The first craft I started late last year. I wanted to make a couple of pairs of gloves. Here is the recipe I decided works best:
Yarn: Brown Sheep Nature Spun Fingering
Needles: 2.25mm dpn
Size M
Cast on 58 sts
Ribbing (k2p2)* to the top of the wrist
In the last row of ribbing increase the number of stitches to 70 by adding a knitted sts k2 in 2k. (or something, don’t feel like looking up terminology now)
2 rows of k
3rd row k2 m1 (slant backwards) k m1 (slant forwards) k* (this row reverse for the other hand)
2 rows of k
6th row k4 m1 (slant backwards) k m1 (slant forwards) k* (this row reverse for the other hand)
…
last increase row k20 m1 (slant backwards) k m1 (slant forwards) k* (this row reverse for the other hand)
2 rows of k
then put the thumb gusset stitches on the waste thread , cast on seven stitches and continue for two rows in k then decrease the seven stitches with ssk k3 k2tog, two more rows of k, then ssk k1 k2tog, two rows of k, slip1, k2tog, psso. Similar decrease is done on the thumb.
For fingers, knit until you get to the bottom of finger, knit the finger then knit the remaining fingers together until you get to the finger separation. I don’t have a good strategy for fingers yet.
This has been heavily borrowed from Knotty Gloves on Ravelry. I don’t think this is plagiarizing since the pattern used in here does not seem to be too original and I have made enough modifications to make the look and feel of the glove different.
My mom modeling the fancy red gloves
A lesson I learned is to not mess with the yarn. I got a different yarn for my sister’s gloves and the result was disastrous. I still gave her the gloves since I did not have the time to make new ones, but I will never, ever, make such drastic substitutions ever again. Sorry Barbara, I’ll make you something nicer later.
The second craft was a travel bag for my dad. This isn’t really my craft since my dad did all the design and cutting. All I did was sew on the line.
My dad and Trevor testing out the travel bag
This bag is the perfect airplane bag as long as you don’t mind your belongings being banged around. It is the largest allowed size and it weighs next to nothing allowing for maximum capacity. It is also made of sturdy recycled pre-faded fabric. The toddler does not come with it.
The last craft is my needle case (etui for you crosswords solvers). It is smaller version of this pattern except I did not sew the top fold because it would make the cow’s face look funny. I might add some clips to keep it folded properly though.
Next challenge: socks.
Oh the fun we will have!
This is the point where I usually talk about favorite moves of the past year, but I really haven’t seen too many movies, definitely not enough to make a list. The past year has been strange and though I managed to do some fun things, most of the time I was really tired, partially from work and school, partially from being pregnant.
I don’t really know what to expect for the next year and I do not want to make any resolutions. I will spend most of the time taking care of Owen and Trevor. Trevor loves being outside, and I want to encourage him so I will try and get him to be outside as much as possible. However, I will also have Owen with me, so this might prove to be difficult from time to time.
I want to work on getting back into shape. I did pretty well during the pregnancy, but I still have far to go. The challenge with this is that I do not want to overdo it and end up in physio like I did last time. I am hoping to do a lot of biking, which will be challenging because Owen will still be too young to take on the bike. I also want to do some cross country skiing, but how I am going to manage that, I have no clue. I probably won’t.
I need to finish my thesis. I have been making very slow progress over last six months.
What I will probably be able to do is spend time with my boys. I just have to make sure I am rested enough to be able to enjoy myself.
Bundling up
We’ve had the first snow last week so it is definitely late fall. I am getting ready for the Season. I just finished the bulk of my Christmas shopping. I still have a little bit of sewing and a lot of knitting to do. I don’t really have to do any of it, but I find that knitting is very relaxing lately. It is much more convenient than reading when Trev is around. I can talk to him and play with him while knitting and when he is not around I am too tired to do anything else.
My pregnancy is going well so far. I am now in my 35th week. Five weeks away from the due date and two weeks away from the point where Trevor was born. I am feeling good, though, like pretty much all through this year, very tired. I still have three weeks of work left and it still looks like I will be able to wrap up my projects. I have a lot of things to get done at home, and unless Owen comes early, I just might be able to get those done as well. I am expecting Owen to be the polar opposite of Trevor, I don’t know why. Perhaps because he is sitting in the textbook position whereas Trevor was breach. Then again, before Trev was born I thought I was going to be the strict parent and Chris the softie, when it is actually the other way around.
Film – The Informant!
I’ve had a very lovely weekend. Trevor went to visit his Grandma in Montreal and Chris and I were left to fend for ourselves. We missed him a lot, but we managed. Saturday was my birthday so Chris took me on out traditional birthday fall foliage tour. We started off in Carp, where we went to the farmer’s market and got some fruits and veggies. We also had some tasty hot cider which suited me very well as the weather is turning chilly and I am still a bit hoarse from my cold.
We then took a scenic ride to Carleton Place where we went to one of my favorite cafes, The Good Food Co. and had a light lunch with more tasty hot cider, this time with a twist of orange and cinnamon. We walked around Carleton Place for a bit and then continued on to Quebec via the ferry. Through scenic Gatineau Park we arrived in Wakefiled where we walked around some more, looked at the steam train and then had lovely dinner at Chez Eric.
On Sunday we run errands and closed down the back yard for the winter. We’re going to get our little boy from Montreal tomorrow. I hear he has been having fun as well.