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?

Voodoo babes?

Okay, now I'm getting slightly concerned.
The last week, as you know, has not been good - aside from Tilly's arrival.
I did, however, think that things were getting better. Ben's third tooth cracked through, his fever broke, his flu began to subside and the Big Bloke was also feeling better. Then yesterday, having posted Tilly on the Knitted Babes blog, I started to feel positively, well, 'positive' so I took a jaunt into the city to buy a belated birthday pressie for my best buddy. As I reached to get Ben from the baby seat, I was hit by a spasm of pain across my chest and upper back. I swear I thought I was having a heart attack. The pain subsided and I did what all sensible mums do (ie ignored it and continued to lug around my nine kilo child).
Five hours later I went to bed complaining of heartburn (duh!) and then awoke this morning to find that I COULDN'T MOVE. Seriously. Ben was crying in the nursery and I couldn't actually get out of bed, never mind pick him up from the cot. Thank Goodness Big Bloke hadn't leftf or work yet.
So this is how I found myself at 9am this morning on a chiropractor's table having emergency work done.

I am seriously beginning to wonder whether there's a knitted voddoo babe out there with my name on it. If so, stop it right now, whoever you are. I've had enough.

Tilly has arrived!

Introducing Tilly! Reinvented as a blonde, Tilly today hit her strides and launched herself onto the Knitted Babes scene. Unfortunately she's still in her birthday suit (not her fault, poor dear. She hasn't got any clothes yet - or at least that's what she'll be telling Paris Match when the photos resurface in ten years time).

What Tilly wont be telling the Paris set is that she's currently got a bald patch - actually more like a tonsure - at the back of he head and will possess this for the foreseable future until I can be bothered to spend another hour sewing on her 4ply hair.

But Oh Madame Tilly! What you lack in hair you make up for in joie de vivre.
Vive Ms Tilly!

Rush to hospital

We ended up at the Royal Children's Hospital last night. Ben's flu was getting worse and he had a temp of 38.9 and had refused food all day. I phoned the telephone nurse and she said to take him to hossie asap.
Turns out our fella has TWO flu viruses (one from Dad, the other from my gorgeous Goddaughted Maddy), conjunctivitus and a toe infection. He's now on antibiotics. I feel like such a terrible Mum but the registrar kept telling us that it wasn't our fault and that we'd done such a good job because, despite his food refusal, he wasn't dehydrated.
Anyway, to add insult to little Ben's injuries, we got home and realised that his top right tooth had broken through. Poor little fella.

(Big intake of breath and long sigh.....)

Okay, knitting: My Knitted Babe is getting there. She's emerging slowly. I thought she was a redhead but when I started adding the strands she looked at me and I realised that Belinda Carlisle she is not!!! If I get a break froim nursing today I'll buy some blonde and try that. She's a water babe but as we're aussies and very sunconcious, she's a paler surf chick with a love of factor 30 sunblock.

Will post work in progress piccie later today.

Knitting saves the birthday horrors

G'day.
Okay, so this is my first post and it's not good. Nope. It's pooey. I had the all time worst birthday - turned 35 - and knitting was the only thing that kept me sane. First Age, my bloke, got sick with flu. Then my six month old got the same lurgy. Then I started to get it but can't, obviously, because I have to look after my little Ben and big blokey.
I found myself at 6pm, on Tuesday, with a shocking headache, sitting on the deck in a cold Aussie winter, grabbing fifteen minutes knitting time while watching the sun go down. That was my birthday moment.

To try and rectify the situation, my brother in law Steve and his wife, Ann, babysat for us last night so that we could go to the Melbourne Comedy Theatre to see Woman in Black. I didn't know what it was about but I'll tell ya this, it wasn't funny... bloody terrifying!!! Honestly I was petrified. I don't think I've even been so scared at the movies. I actually burst into tears? (I know!!! How lame is that?) We rushed home and hugged Ben. And if anyone else has seen the play you'll know why I'm taking the rocking chair out of his nursery today!!!! (My husband is trying to convince me that it's not a rocker, but a glider, so I shouldn't be so silly etc)

Of course, on a happier note, I bought myself a present - Knitted Babes by Claire Garland. I can't wait to get started. Hoping to join the blog if I'm allowed!!!

Okay, my current knitting learning is that I'm never again knitting a sweater that doesn't have shaping. I've just completed a simple v neck sweater in a gorgeous lilac mohair mix. Gorgeous wool, yukky jumper. It makes me look pregnant! Seriously if I wear it people will start telling me to put my feet up (which isn't a bad idea come to think of it). If anyone can tell me how to rectify this situation with clever blocking or sewing up, I'd be pretty rapt.

Okay. Off to work on my cardi.