Birthdays All Around

Well this time of year is busy for birthdays already, and with another additon to the family - Alexis Lee a wee 5 pounder by caesarian section. Woohoo I'm an Aunty again. Sister had her birthday on Wednesday, and Daughter had hers today. We had family over and had cake and a couple kilos of cheerios. Happy girl. Early this morning though we had to go and get her immunised for Meningococcal B. She didn't even flinch when the needle went in, so brave of her. True to form too, she developed a fever later in the day, and complained of a sore arm. Daughter still said "mine" when someone would ask who's birthday is it? Cute.

Cake..



matching sweaters...



new sweater from Aunty...



Granny has knit Daughter a skirt and is knitting the sweater to go with it. Will take photos once they are both finished, as I have to attach the skirt to a t-shirt.
Another item Sister knitted recently was a gorgeous baby jersey and matching hat that is for her friend's new baby due soon. This was one of the only clear photos of it, darn camera!



Also, a bit of a splash from the funds, is this new toy that the whole family can use (obviously not at the same time though). Can't wait to get out on it for a burl on the dirt...



Watching the rugby again, Go the All Blacks!! We won 21-3. Better luck next time Lions eh?

I'm A Kiwi and Proud Of It

Why does it take the Lions rugby team to come over and play against our Maori team to unite the country?
Yeah, I don't know why but rugby was actually interesting and exciting to watch last Saturday. Even Hubbys Dad was jumping up and down yelling out, and he's 74! I enjoyed it because the teams were almost evenly scored up to the end, when the New Zealand Maori team pulled through and won. That Carlos Spencer was very keen on kicking the ball lots though, and I don't know if that always paid off.

Anyway, yes I'm from New Zealand and I'm a Kiwi.

So Knitting World in Peterborough Street is having another major sale this week. I really really want to get down there and have a look at their stock. They've advertised $9 ball of wool for $3, so I absolutely must get some now. Mmm, can you tell I haven't bought wool for ages? Not since their last big sale which I think was about August last year. Also Hubby wants a black button for his coat, so that will be the real reason to go and have a look, I don't know if they sell buttons though.

Daughter has another cough and a fever to go with it. I only have the cough. So that's another day of kindy she won't go to. Seems pointless having her enrolled since she has only been there three or so weeks out of the four months she has been on their books. We watched Spongebob Squarepants Movie, and Finding Nemo yesterday, and today we're already watching The Big Freeze (cartoon with all the dinosaur kids). Seems all Daughter wants to do is sit still, keep warm, and drink milo or milk.

I've started on another hat, this one for Daughter, using one of those fancy yarns with all the fluff and uneven lubs on it. It was hard to get any kind of gauge from it, so I cast on what I thought and went with it. After knitting a few rounds, I could see that it would be too big so I did some decreases and it's going to turn out looking a little like a bucket hat, with the flare around the bottom of it. Nice and girly, and Daughter thinks it's so soft.

Jersey but not a jersey.

So with the children and me still sick and all, we've become very creative with our time. On Friday we all walked down to the closest proper mall, which is about 40 minutes (or an hour if you are walking with a five year old) and went into Sewing World to get some wool for Dads hat. Then we made our way into the mall where the kids had noodles from The Hungry Wok. So that took up most of the middle of the day. Good.

Saturday I drove the children down to Blockbuster Video to rent some kids movies. Daughter found The Incredibles to buy on the sale table hidden under some other strange unkown dvds. Good score for $19.95, so I had to get that, and we watched it as soon as we got back home. The other kids movies were The Dark Crystal and Monsters Inc. I remember the Dark Crystal as being a lot more interesting and exciting when I was a kid, my children were bored and wandered off during it. Oh well, it was a walk down memory lane for me even though they didn't like it much.

Another way to waste time is to let your five year old Son design his own jersey on the computer using Paint. Here is one of his first...

Mixed up jersey... I made the outlines for the sleeves and body and let him colour and design pictures, etc...


a bunny jersey...



a fire engine jersey...



Of course all of these will never be worn by Son if I did knit them out of wool as he has developed a sudden dislike to it.

Movie Night





So we had hired a few movies on Saturday night, and watched one. Spider with Ralph Fiennes, Miranda Richardson, and Gabriel Byrnes. Hubby found it a little slow, but I really enjoyed the pace of it. It's had mixed reactions in some reviews, but I found it to be interesting and thought provoking, in fact I want to watch it again before it needs returned, and I might listen to the director's commentary too. I was amazed at how Fiennes put the character across without the dialogue. On Sunday, we had Big Sister and husband over, so we watched the other movie I rented after tea. It was Adaptation, with Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep. We found it kind of confusing until we realized what the gist of the movie was. Don't want to say in case it ruins the film for anyone, but I enjoyed this one too. To compare to Spider though, I liked Spider more.



I have now caught Hubby's chest cold, and this brings me up to nearly a month of being under the weather. Yesterday morning I had a pulse of 116 sitting still, and it's this kind of thing that freaks me out. I have to wonder if it's going to be The One that accelerates me towards the wooden box. It slowed down on it's own after about half an hour, but didn't feel nice at all. My temperature hadn't even risen more than half a degree either, so it's a bit confusing!

During all the sickness and movies I have managed to get a bit done on the garter stitch sweater thing too. I'm nearly done with the first sleeve, and the body is done too. Will take a photo or two when it looks more like a sweater rather than just some knitted up squares.

Changes

Okay, so I should have worked out that 10 balls of this yarn wasn't enough for a sweater for me. I didn't think about that until I had knit two sleeves and half the front and only had a couple balls left. Mmmph. Oh well, at least my fingers were busy knitting during all that tv watching and rainy afternoon knitting whilst kids were happy playing! I have undone all the work as I won't be lucky enough to match this yarn to anything, as it's really old from Dad's friend's stash. It is nice and soft though, so I thought I would experiment with it and attempt a garter stitch sweater/jacket/all-in-one something-or-other for about Daughter's size. I'm piecing together rectangles and squares to see if I can get a neat pattern out of it.
Nothing to show except for a rectangle that is completely twisted garter stitch, and it's not too interesting. My thumb is still split though, even when I've been lathering on lotion before bed and throughout the day when I can, and right now it's bandaged up with ointment inside the bandage to soften the skin up. The bigger knitting doesn't seem to annoy it though. Been having the 'other' stuff happening, so I haven't been that comfortable this week, bummer.

Daughter loves this dolly I was looking at today, and said "You make this, okay?"
Well, I'll have a go once I've overcome my newness at sewing and all the cool stuff that is incorporated into the project. Like making arms and legs. And a face.
Should be fun.

Oh, and I finally found Ralph Fiennes as the fiend Francis Dolarhyde from Red Dragon. Looky at his makeup and psychotic stare...




yes it's too much. I want to see this film again soon.

Sister has finished her sweater...

Yep, didn't take her long to do this one either. I think she used the pattern stitch from one pattern, size from another, and shaping from another. It worked well too as you can see...



and the collar is neat too, just garter stitch, which sits nicely while being worn...



So she had enough wool/acrylic from this sweater to knit Daughter a jersey for winter, which Daughter is looking forward to, 'cause it'll match her Aunts nearly. Progress was fast too, in one night and a little of the next morning, there was a back...



then, by early afternoon there was a sleeve. Close up of the cables on the back...



.. so Daughter may have a winter jersey by next weekend if Sister hasn't been too busy working.