Back to Life, Back to Reality

Today is Iva's first day of daycare. Please, whatever you do don't put something like, "wow, it's so soon for her to be in daycare" in your comments. I am already feeling very sad to be leaving my baby, but in order to continue getting paid I had to come back. My department has been really great about giving me duties other than teaching, so I can ease my way back and have a flexible schedule. I even plan to nurse her over my lunch break for the next few months, so I'll be seeing her once during the day. Despite all that, it's still really hard. Thankfully, I really love my job so I am looking forward to getting back to my actual work.

While I was on leave, I did manage to do a bit of crafting, but mostly of the sewing variety. I am trying to make Christmas stocking for everyone in the family and have been making pretty good progress. I had a stocking that I sewed years ago for myself that served as my starting point.  I have lots of holiday fabrics in my stash, so I was able to buy just a couple more fabrics and put together a patchwork quilted stocking for RJ which I got done before Christmas.  Here it is after I did the patchwork.  I will take a finished photo of it soon and post it. My stocking is made from a panel of vintage 50's-60's holiday fabric, so I was trying to mimic that in RJ's stocking.

I also did one for the hubby in dark red and green plaids, so more masculine. I have the quilting done on this and just need to sew it to the back and make a cuff.

I also started one for Iva before she was born. Hers has a more "country Christmas" feel, with blues, burgundy, and tan. Here it laid out before piecing it together.  I now have it all pieced and am working on quilting it right now.  I should have it done in a couple weeks.   It was really fun to make each one unique and I am so excited to put them up all together next Christmas!  This has also gotten me on a sewing kick, and I will share my next big sewing project with you soon.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

We had a great time this summer visiting Trinidad, my husband's home country. However, whenever I tell people where we went they picture us sipping Pina Coladas on the beach. Trinidad isn't really like the other Caribbean islands, though. It's not really set up for tourists. We did go to the beach twice, but it takes about 45 minutes each way to drive there and it is the rainy season so we it always rained for at least part of the time on the beach. I didn't mind the rain, but RJ did not appreciate it so that would usually end our beach outing. She did love jumping in the waves, and is still talking about it. Also, the bugs were a constant battle. I would spend every meal hovering around RJ with a mosquito beater (electrified tennis racket) trying to keep her from being eaten. I had at least 30 bites at any given time. It was also extremely hot and humid, and like most places in Trinidad there was no air conditioning where we were staying. Despite those unpleasantries it was a great trip. We enjoyed seeing family and getting to know where my husband came from. I also had time to knit, both on very long flights there and back and while we were visiting with family. Here are some photos of us at the beach (RJ is conveniently blocking my baby bump) and some of the many beautiful sights.

Going Green

My wonderful sister-in-law has recently gone back to school to get a teaching certificate in English. As a result, she is reading lots of books for class and then passing them along to family members, like me. Most recently she gave me the book Having Faith by Sandra Steingraber. I think it's good for everyone to read, but as a mother and a scientist I was both impressed by her research and frightened by how we are killing the earth and ourselves.

Even before reading the book, I have been buying more and more organic foods and opting for locally grown when possible. Mostly, I always thought about organic food from the perspective of the direct health benefits for me and my family. However, this book made me see it from the perspective of supporting farming and manufacturing practices that reduce pesticides and other chemicals in our environment for more long-term benefit for all living things. It also made me think a lot about my parents, who not only talked about saving the environment 30 years before "going green" became the rage, but also quietly backed up their beliefs with behavior. The amazing thing is that they made the effort to live "green" even though we were extremely poor. And they did it in big ways, like discontinuing use of chemical pesticides on the crops of our farm. Thanks Mom and Dad for being such wonderful role models!

Now, to the actual crafting. I really need to make some progress on the shawl for my niece. I meant to get it done for her birthday last December, but it looks like it will be a year late. What's the problem? I keep making mistakes. The pattern really isn't all that hard, but I kept trying to do it a little at time here and there and it goes better if I give it more attention. It is the Sweet Pea Shawl from The Happy Hooker. Below is an old photo, that if you look closely has a mistake in it (the fans don't line up correctly on rows 2 and 3). Sadly, I haven't gotten much farther than this because I've ripped back to this point at least twice.

Back From Vacation

I am just one day back from a two week vacation on my parent's farm in Wisconsin. RJ really enjoyed being on the farm and running wild in wide open spaces. For me it was great to see my family again, both close family and extended family. I was shocked to realize that it had been 4 years since I've been home! My plan is to visit for at least two weeks every summer, but life sometimes gets in the way of even a good plan.

Speaking of plans, my plan for the blog was to post about my upcoming vacation and then post one or two times while one vacation. Unfortunately, my summer work schedule (I have 3 masters students finishing up) really got in the way of that plan. I even spent a portion of my vacation reading theses. The good news is that the last student will defend this Friday (woohoo!), so after that my summer schedule will free up a lot. That will give me a few weeks to finish some work projects and prepare for the fall semester. I am crossing my fingers that I will also get some good crafting time as well.

I did manage to do some knitting while on vacation. Although RJ has become quite active, her grandparents spent a lot of time playing with her which freed up some time for me. I will post soon with details on my latest projects, but as a preview I finished one project that involved the yarn on the left (the orange, yellow, and white colorway) and the plain yellow in the bottom photo. I also got my mom hooked on knitting dishcloths, so I feel like it was a worthwhile crafting vacation. My only regret is that I never got the chance to check out the local yarn shop (I'm not absolutely certain, but I think it is Good Thyme Knitting in Medford, WI). My aunt said that they have some lovely handspun and dyed yarns. Hopefully they will still be around next year!

Getting A Jump on the Holidays

I recently told my husband that he is lucky to be with me during these harsh economic times. I come from many, many generations of poor folk, so if there's one thing I know how to do it's live on the cheap. For example, you can eat for a week on a carton of milk, a bag of potatoes, a dozen eggs, and some veggies from the garden and it costs around $10. With our current single-income household situation, I am thinking that homemade gifts are going to be the way to go this year for Christmas. Since I love crafting, making complex plans, and hunting down the materials for projects, this is one area that doesn't seem so much like a sacrifice as a strategy-shift. However, with my fall class load I need to get a lot of gifts done this summer. I've been active lately on Ravelry trying to get some bargains on yarn for gift projects and I've posted some things to destash to generate some extra revenue to buy all the supplies I need (if you're interested, take a look here; anything in my stash is fair game not just those things in the trade section, so just send me a message on Ravelry with an offer if something looks good; I am also open to trades).

I am happy to report that I have my first gift done for holiday season 2009! This is for my brother, who lives in frigid Wisconsin and loves the flexibility of a gaiter. It can be worn as a neckwarmer or a hat, depending on what you need at the moment. This used up a fair amount of yarn that I frogged from the World's Ugliest Scarf (if you're thinking the scarf didn't look that bad, I assure you that in real life it was way too wide and the colors looked odd together). The gaiter is quite warm and soft and looks pretty nice on as well.






Yarn: Lion Wool-Ease Chunky in the color Willow

Pattern: Modified version of Four-In-One Gaiter from One Skein Wonders

Changes: I used chunky yarn instead of worsted weight. I tried to use worsted weight, but it seemed like it would be way too tight and I thought the chunky would be better for the bitter Wisconsin winter. I also made the pattern longer so it would cover more of his head as a hat and would fold over as a gaiter. I bound off on a really large needle (US 15) so that it would flare out a bit at the bottom.

Yardage: about 3/4 of a skein (114 yards)

Needle: US 10

Time: Started November 2008 and finished June 2009

My Wonderful Husband

Today is my husband's birthday. In honor of this wonderful day, I want to name just a few of the things that make him such a great guy.



-He is a great dad, very patient and loving, and always happy to change diapers and do the other unglamorous stuff of parenthood.

-He's one of the smartest people I know, but he's very humble about it.

-He's very romantic, bringing flowers and chocolates randomly for no reason at all.

-He works really hard, both at his job and doing things around the house.

-He has a fantastic sense of humor, and makes me laugh every day.

There are lots more wonderful things about him, and I feel so lucky that he married me. Happy Birthday!

A Lucky Date

Thanks to those who have shared words of support, both publicly and privately. My foot is feeling much better and we are slowly getting over the shock of my husband's layoff. Things have always worked out for the best in the past, and we are hopeful that things will work out this time as well.

I wanted to be sure to post today, since it is Friday the 13th. Although we're not especially superstitious people, my family has always felt that 13 was our lucky number. It stems from my mom, who was born on a Friday the 13th. It might seem obvious, but it certainly was a lucky thing for me that my mom was born. My affinity for 13 has continued and had recent significance. For example, our plot number for our house was 13. It is one of the few houses with a larger yard and a private corner, so it was not surprising that someone else had chosen it. That person backed out just as we were starting the buying process so we got our lucky number 13! Luckiest of all, my daughter was born on the 13th of March, and she shares her birthday with her grandmother who started all this 13 stuff. A very lucky number indeed.

What's Been Going On

I know that the long absences have been more common than the regular posting lately, but honestly I just haven't felt up to it. My goal is to keep this blog focused on knitting or other crafts, but frankly other things have really dominated our time lately. I have been knitting a little, though. Here is my brother's gaiter, which is coming along.



What has really been dominating our thoughts, however, is the recent news that my husband's manufacturing plant will be closing it's doors permanently. So far this horrible economy has affected so many of my family and friends, and now us. It's hard not to let it get it you. We are trying to stay positive and hope that he will be able to find another job. It always seems like when you are under extra stress that's when accidents happen. Yesterday morning I woke up at 4:00 am and in my groggy state I went to check on the husband and RJ, who had not come back to bed after getting up at 2:00 am. I didn't turn on the light (in case they were sleeping) and tripped over the last step, breaking my foot. Thankfully, it's not a bad break so in about 4-6 weeks I should be good as new. I am particularly ticked because I just got a new pair of cute shoes, and now I won't be able to wear them for a few weeks.


Hopefully, in a few months we will look back at this bad streak of luck and laugh.

Hogwart's For The Weekend

Sorry for the long blogging absence. I didn't do that well with NaBloPloMo and then was overwhelmed with other stuff. I have lots of things to blog about, but I've been swamped with grading, my duties on a departmental hiring committee, and preparations for the holidays. Gotta love the end of the semester! Soon my parents will be here and I should have more time for reading blogs and posting.

A few weeks ago the whole family attended what can only be described as the most authentic and fun re-enactment of Hogwart's ever. Wherever possible, our lovely hosts did there best to make it feel like we were really there.

Saturday was the Quidditch World Cup, and my husband's team (Ravenclaw) made it to the final game, along with Hufflepuff, that was to be played on Sunday. Part of our admission to the World Cup got us a pouch of wizarding money, which we could use to buy spirit items (flags and pins), picnic lunch, and of course sweet snacks (licorice wands and chocolate covered newt's eyes, yum!).

Sunday we donned our school robes and waited admittance for the school year. I was a first year, so had to be sorted (Gryffindor, yay!). Next we had the usual beginning of the year feast. There was French onion soup, salad, shephard's pie, and trifle for dessert. Oh, and I can't forget butter beer! It was a fantastic meal. After our meal we went to our classes. I had potions, ancient runes, and charms. Here is my wand (from charms). Pretty fancy, huh?


Following classes, RJ and I rooted for the husband's team in the Quidditch Championship game. They won, leading to much celebration! Here they are, playing hard for the championship:


Finally, we had the awards ceremony at the end, in which Ravenclaw won the house cup. Gryffindor finished last this year, despite our resounding win at removing garden gnomes from the forbidden forest (we captured 50!). I think our poor performance at trivia was our real downfall, but we're not really known for our brains. Here we are at the awards ceremony, waving our Ravenclaw flag.

Happy Thanksgiving!

There will be some serious knitting as we drive to our Thanksgiving dinner plans. I will update tomorrow.

An Update

Thanks for all the concern about RJ. She is feeling a lot better, although she's still massively clingy. Some days I feel like I've grown a new appendage, one that's really cute and babbles a lot. I'm glad she finds me comforting, and I hope that being home together over Thanksgiving break will give her time to fully recover. We will have family visiting as well. My brother-in-law and niece will be arriving late tonight and will stay until Sunday. We are quite excited about their visit, particularly because my husband's family lives so far away we hardly see them (they are from a Carribean island).

I apologize for the lack of craft content. I am behind on blogging about my latest crafting adventures (it's difficult to do these things with the appendage), but I hope to catch up the next couple days. First, I need to show off all the fun crafting from the truly off-the-hook Hogwart's party we attended. Second, there's the sewing from last weekend's get together with Theresa of Knitting Underway. So this won't be a completely boring post, here is RJ's post for her 8 month birthday. I can't believe she's so much bigger than the bear now!

Not Like Me

Unlike me, my daughter is black. In my mind she is German/Caribbean, or multi-ethnic, but because her father is black the world will see her as black.

Unlike me, my daughter will grow up in a neighborhood where people from different countries, ethnic backgrounds and races all live together.

Unlike me, my daughter will grow up in world where a black man was elected President. It is no longer just a possibility, it is a reality.

Thinking about the possibilities open to her and the new world we live in brings tears to my eyes.

A Full House

Much like my blog for the last few weeks, things are suddenly quiet here at Chez JayJay. We've had nearly a month of visitors, both family and friends. The lure of RJ was enough to convince many visitors to make the long trek to California, some from the east coast and Canada. We've loved catching up with them and each visit seemed too short.

And how is little RJ? She is getting bigger and learning new things each day. She now sits up fairly well, grips like a champ, and has developed a fondness for grabbing her left foot (I think she's trying to get it to her mouth). She's also developed a strong dislike for riding in the car, particularly in stop and go traffic. She does seem to like a smoothly flowing freeway, however. I guess she really is a Californian. I should be able to post more regularly now that the first wave of visitors has come and gone, and perhaps even get some knitting done.

I will leave you with some beautifully modeled knitwear that I had nothing to do with. Here is RJ in her baptismal outfit. The gown was knit by my mother knit for me 35 years ago. Isn't it lovely? My wonderful friend JennC knit RJ a matching bonnet and slippers. So she was literally dressed in handknits from head to toe. Despite a warm day, she was a real trooper and hardly complained at all about the fancy attire (although the bonnet took some coaxing) and didn't even cry when she was woken from a lovely nap by having water dumped on her head. I'm pretty sure if someone did that to me I would cry (and probably swear a bit), so I'm quite proud of her.

RJ_baptism
Originally uploaded by JayJay2003

A Special Mother's Day

This is a very special Mother's Day for my mother and me. It is my first as a mother and hers as a grandmother. I've only been a mother for 2 months, but I have to say that so far it has been the most wonderful experience of my life. RJ takes up all my time (including my knitting time), she hardly allows me any sleep, and she generally leaks some sort of bodily fluid on me several times a day, yet she makes me incredibly happy. I imagine my mom felt many of the same feelings some 35 years ago. So, in honor of Mother's Day here is a photo of me as a toddler and recent photo of RJ.





Our plans for the weekend include Sunday brunch and I'm told their will be gifts as well. If the weather warms a little we may even be able to sit outside for brunch. (Notice how I managed to avoid any real knitting content by including cute baby photos. I have been taking lots of photos of RJ in her handmade knits, so expect some model shots soon.)

Two FOs

"One good husband is worth two good wives; for the scarcer things are, the more they are valued." -Benjamin Franklin

The first FO is actually my brother's wedding, which is really a finished event rather than an object. I didn't really have a lot to do with its actual completion, but it was a very happy event. My new sister-in-law is a wonderful person that we are exceedingly happy to now call family, and she and my brother seem very happy together (I should apologize to him for the quote, but he loves Ben Franklin quotes and this one was too funny). It doesn't get much better than that! Here is a photo of me at the beautiful outdoor wedding at Red Rock Canyon this past weekend. It was a bit chilly, so I kept on my jacket for the ceremony and then took it off later for photos. Since this is a side view, you can sort of see my growing belly. I was my brother's Best Woman, and even got to hold the rings. I have to say the ceremony was very touching and I was so happy to be a part of it.

The second FO is actual knitting. I am willing to admit that my progress on even the simplest of projects has been pretty pathetic these past few months (one could argue that this has been the case since the beginning of this blog, but things have worsened to an even more atrociously slow state recently). There are numerous reasons for this, including a neck and shoulder injury brought on by too much time spent hunched over grading (I should have known that grading was dangerous for one's health; it sure feels unhealthy when you're doing it). Also, the yarn for Le Slouch was so old (12 years and moved more times than a failing TV series) that it really upset my dust allergy. I think I have enough yarn left to make matching fingerless gloves, but I plan to wash the it first.

Yarn: Lorena DK (40% wool/60% acrylic) in burgundy
Pattern: Le Slouch by Wendy Bernard
Changes: None, I basically knit the pattern as written
Yardage: 1 skein (200 yards)
Needle: US 7 dpns
Time: Started July 2007 and finished January 2008
Notes: The seed stitch was a little tedious and I kept dropping stitches from the dpns, but these were really minor negatives. Overall, the pattern was easy and fun and the result is a very flattering yet practical hat. Below are a couple photos of the finished hat and an actual action shot.





Shockingly, I have more FOs to post, but don't want to splurge on putting all of them in one post. It may be awhile before I finish anything else afterall.