Not-so-creepy crawly

Well, he's off. Lachie's crawling. He made his first few commando-like moves a couple of weeks ago and now he's zooming around the floor like Speedy Gonzales. Lock up your daughters, etc.

I've gone mad in the Bendigo Woollen Mill sale, which ended today. I managed to get in one last order for alpaca ( in Merlin) before the shutters came down (metaphorically speaking. I don't think there are actually shutters at the mill, but I'm happy to be corrected ;-))
This means, of course, that the stash is becoming mildly uncontrollable again. And weirdly I have absolutely no projects in mind.

Clearly I'm sick or something.

Luckily, my Ravelry invite came through today, so I'm planning time to immerse myself in it to get some knitspiration. Have to say, Freckle Girl and Casey are doing an amazing job of getting through the invite list and it really is worth the wait. Will let you know how my first proper sourjourn into Ravelry-world turns out...

...in which Lachie makes a spectacle of himself

Okay, so before you set child services onto me, yes, yes, yes, I know putting a baby in specs is a really bad idea but...oh, he looked cute, alright? And it was only for ten seconds, honestly.

Lachie turned five months old last week and, on the advice of our paediatrician, started solids. I'm glad to report that he's taken to it with gusto (better than he ever was on breast or bottle). He's also cutting his first tooth, poor kid. Who knows, one day we might have a whole month in which he isn't in some sort of pain!

Ben's been in his element this weekend. Its been warm (32 degrees c today) and he's spent a lot of time running around outside with his Dide (granda) in the garden. He's also completed his first work of art (see pic) which is a relief as, until now, crayons have only featured in his life as an integral part of his diet (alongside cat food and
'maaaa-toes').

Tonight we were flipping through his animal book and he pointed at an orangutan and said (I thought) 'O-chie' (which would have been hilarious as I've been telling him since he was eight months old that it's his dad). When he repeated the word, it was actually, clearly, 'monkey'. So there y'go.

Not as funny, but twice as satisfying.

Rain rain, come again...

Its raining in Melbourne. I'm watching a downpour from my office overlooking parliament gardens. Ben was watching the raindrops through the front door this morning as I left for work. Its crazy to think that, since he was born, rain has been as rare as snow was to me when I was a pommie toddler.

I've been back at work for a few weeks now and things are quite okay. I still find it hard leaving the boys but when I get home at night I have more energy for them (despite the chronic insomnia and average four hours sleep).

Ben is talking lots, which is proving to be quite useful as I can tell, without looking at him, which dangerous feat he is attempting just by listening to what he says. "Sit down!" I've learned, is most used when he's teetering on tip-toes on the toilet lid. He's also singing lots at the moment, his current fave being the theme tune from the I.T. Crowd.

Knitwise, I'm working on a top down thing worked on 5mm addi turbos using harmony from Bendigo Woolen Mills. I'm making it up as I go alone (in a Barbara Walker kind of way). Anyway, will let you know how it goes.

Finally, just read that Yasmin's little boy turned one yesterday. That's an immense milestone and I hope she's revelling in what a great Mum she's turned out to be. Happy birthday Louis!!

The sun'll come out...

Is it possible to feel dubiously apprehensive? Or is it apprehensively dubious? Whatever it is, that's it - that's what I am. Feeling odd. Or glum. (No - too negative.) Frankly, I'm just not quite sure how I feel but its something strange and sickly : I'm going back to work tomorrow. I just don't know why...*
Tonight, for the first time in a long time, I'm wishing that I hadn't given up writing. Why did I do that again? I was making good money, enjoyed the work and always new where the next quid was coming from. I could have managed that career at home - looked after the kids and been here for them during the day.
Oh well. Too late now. And I can't witter on about it. Because I need to go - have to get to bed early... Because I have to go to work tomorrow. Did I mention that? Ugh.

* (actually its something to do with paying the mortgage and keeping a roof above our heads).

With thanks to Ms Zimmermann...

See this smile on my face?
See this grin that's so incredibly large it almost cuts my head in two?

Well, okay, no you can't, but if you could you'd see that I've been so deliriously happy today because, just two weeks on from launching my 'knit anything stash attack', I've completed Ben's stripey pullover, with ne'er a pattern in sight - all thanks to Elizabeth Zimmermann's percentage system (handily summed-up in this Knitting By Numbers article from Knitty.com).

To the more seasoned knitter among you this stripey stocking-stitch jumper, knitted in-the-round, is a bit run of the mill, ergo - no major feat. But, like I said, its the first time I've used the percentage system (love it) and I'm over the moon that:

1) I managed to knit something despite my 'two under two' devouring every morsel of my knitting time; and

2) I used up seven balls of stash (Patons Fireside) which was actually on its way to the op shop, as I'd bought it to make a baby blanket which I never quite managed to complete. (Or start, actually).

The only duffer side to this celebration is the fact that today was about 25 degrees C, so I could only force Ben to run around in it at dawn, in the wee hours of the morning. (Spring has obviously arrived with gusto, so he will probably never wear this completely-wintery pullover again. Ever.)

Yet not even this can bring me down. This sweater symbolises a lot to me. Its completion represents the closing of a chapter. We've turned a corner: Lachie is well and settled (at last), we're sleeping (not a lot, but we're sleeping) and Spring has sprung ...

Onwards, my friends, onwards ...

Four skeins and a baptism...

Two things to report on this week:

1) Lachie was baptised on Saturday, in a simple, warm and friendly ceremony at St Peter's Eastern Hill. He now has two sets of fairy God parents, and if they're reading this they should know that they've signed up to a lifetime of babysitting. Or God will be very angry...

Lachie giggled throughout the entire ceremony, which Emma (one of the aformentioned God mums) thought was entirely unfair as she was under strict instructions not to laugh (or cross her fingers or any of that stuff). Anyway, she gave birth two days later, without much fuss, to Finn (who is gorgeous) so she was justly rewarded for her piety.
Huge thanks to Father Craig. You rock.

2) I'm launching a stash attack.
In a bid to knit anything (given that Lachie and Ben can hear the sounds of needles clicking from the next suburb and use it as a cue to howl) I realised I needed to spend less time thinking of what to knit (as I have no time to think) and more time actually knitting . So, as a quick remedy, I've cast on a really simple striped pullover (for Ben), on circs, to use up some odd skeins of 8ply (with a matching gauge) in my stash.
Where I've written 'really simple' here , I probably mean 'really boring' - y'know, it's stocking stitch and the hardest part of it is counting eight rows per stripe. Taxing stuff. But, heck, I'm knitting. And I've managed six inches into the body already. So hurrah. And all that...
Pics later this week.

Outed

I outed my Simple Knitted Bodice last night - at my first SnB meet, of all places. I personally think this was extremely brave, given the stretchy, would-fit-a-sumo nature of the finished product. Aww, who am I kidding? I wore it because I could find nothing else that fit over my post pregnancy body. I've gone up a dress size and you'd think, almost two months on, I might be approaching normal?

Nope.

Anyway (says she, trying to be a little less self, er, focused) the North Melbourne meeting was great. Many thanks to Tam, Jacqui and Rebecca. My Mum (who is visiting from the UK and lapping up her grandkids) came along too and loved it.
Back in Blighty, Mum has a jumper on the needles - where it's been for eighteen years. I remember her starting it - a rather intricate thing with lots of lace. Anyway, her arthritis took hold so she had to give up knitting and now paints (brilliantly).

Off the needles: My first pair of socks, which I finished at the meet last night. Okay, so they were done on 5mm needles with extremely bulky yarn and I won't wear them anywhere but at home. But, darn it, I'm proud. Pics to come.

End of an era

Well. It's finished. 'Tsover. An era has ended, on two counts:

1) Bracksy and Thwaitesy resigned. For anyone not in Australia, this means that Victoria's Premier (Steve Bracks) and Deputy Premier (John Thwaites) have hung up their hats as State leaders. And very nice hats they were.

I am unexpectedly sad at this news, especially as I've had quite a bit to do with Thwaitesy over the last five years, most recently in his role as Water Minister, and I have to say that he seems quite a decent bloke (for a poli). I'll miss him. Sort of. Oh this is freakin' me out.

2) The Simple Knitted Bodice is finished.
And it will never see the light of day.
This is the jumper that has taken me three months to knit - the body lace finished on Mothers Day when I was in the maternity hospital possibly 'losing' Lachie, the right sleeve completed at the Royal Children's Hospital as Lachie underwent surgery at two weeks old, the left arm completed this week, at home, as we nursed Ben and Lachie through one of the worst colds I've come across (and I'm a Pom so that's saying something).
I was wondering how I'd ever wear this jumper, given the memories associated with it - but seems that is no longer a quandry.
Despite my meticulous calculations, and the fact that I swatched, measured and swatched again, it's just toooo big.
As the project was knit 'in the round' I didn't have any sewing up to do (hurrah) but as I wove in all the loose ends last night and tried on the bodice - I realised that it would fit a woman two sizes larger than me. Or a weight lifter with very muscly arms.
This could be for two reasons:
a) I was seven months pregnant when I started it.
b) I was eight months pregnant and / or extremely emotional while I was knitting it.
c) It's just a rather generously sized pattern (and I'm going with this one as I've found at least four other Simple Knitted Bodice knitters on the net who have had the same problem).
Anyway, I'm going to 'gift it" to my Mum (if she'll have it) and knit up another one in a smaller gauge to see if it makes the foggiest bit of difference.
Perhaps. If I ever recover from the first one...

Lucky Little Lachie

Well, it's only taken me two months (cough) but erm (drumroll)..... "Introducing the latest addition to the Penko household - Lachlan Callaghan Penko!!!" (Applause, etc).

Lachlan was born, in a bit of a rush, on 14 may at 12.40 am. For non Aussie viewers, the 13th was Mother's Day. My present? An epidural.
Anyway, things have been a bit hectic since he was born. Two weeks in he began projectile vomitting - I'm talking wall hitting stuff - and we assumed that he'd developed reflux, like big brother Ben. No such luck. After a 3 am trip to Emergency at the Royal Children's Hospital, we discovered that Lachie had Pyloric Stenosis, a gradual thickening of the sphyncter at the bottom of the stomach, which meant food was finding it dfficult to leave his tummy and, left unchecked, it would close completely and he'd starve to death.

Gulp.

Anyway, he had to undergo surgery which was, frankly, the most traumatic thing I think a mother can experience. To see the little fella with drips in his arms, feeding tubes up his nose, antibiotics in his arms... Just horrendous. But, oddly, the worst thing for me was that he couldn't feed for 24 hour prior to surgery - and I couldn't hold him because smelling my milk made him even more upset than he already was.

So, yeah. It's been a ride. To add insult to injury, Lachie's surgery became infected (cue heaps of antibiotics) and he was later diagnosed with also having reflux, so he's had more drugs than Courtney Love (erm, allegedly.

Still. He's here. he's gorgeous and he's rockin' my world. And I get to spend the rest of his life watching him develop into a little man. Aren't I the lucky one?