More knitting

Earlier this week, I posted about the projects I knitted for my nephew. This time, I'm posting about what I knit for my niece.

Let's start with a brief introduction. Lilianne was born May 12th 2010. I was so exited that I knit a tiny hat and tiny baby booties. Although it was made tiny, they were still too big for her. She was the littlest human being I had ever seen.

While we were talking about knitting for her with her parents, they said, jokingly, they wanted a one piece bunny suit. So I research patterns, found the perfect one, and came up with this:

 Eventually, I took the feet off to allow her to walk freely and wear boots.

 For her first birthday, I came up with a little dress. I love that pattern because the dress is stretchy and it should fit her for a few years, turning into a tunic.













 


 For Christmas this year, I gave her a sweater. The same pattern that I used for the one I made Cédric. I was originally picked out for her by D. Her also choose the yarn.

I also made her a litlle monster to match the sweater. I made it small because Lili is not really a plushy type of girl. And to prove it, every time we would give her the monster, she would only throw it away.








That's it for now. There'll be more in the future, because I'm not done knitting for the little ones.

Soon to come, pictures of more projects I made for loved ones.

A productive day

Today, I was busy. Busier than I've been all week, which is not hard to do since I didn't do much this week except sit on my bum, watch tv and knit. I also cooked dinner and washed my dishes every day (my mom would be so proud!!).

So, I started the day with 15 minutes on the elliptical. Than, breakfast and some experiment dyeing yarn. See, last week at knit-night, we talked about dyeing yarn and using food coloring or natural sources (i.e. plants). Yesterday, as I was eating a blood orange, I was admiring the color nd thinking that it would be great if I could reproduce it on the yarn. I need to learn more about using plants or fruit to dye fiber, because my attempt was pretty much a flop. My piece of yarn, which started white is now very pale pink. I won't give up. More experiments to come.

 After my experiment with yarn and an orange, I took the recycling out. All of it.

Then, I when to the store to get milk so I could bake some cookies.

 Oatmeal raisin cookies. 5 dozen of them. I wanted enough to give some to my mom, to my brother and his wife, to give some to my friends at knit-night tomorow, and to keep some for us.

The day is not over. I still have to take a shower, and do some groceries after dinner.

For those of you that don't knit, knit-night might be a funny expression. Here in the Ottawa/Gatineau/Hull region, there is a big knitting community, and there are groups of us meeting on a regular basis at different venues around the city. And Friday night, we meet in the west end. I love those girls, they are my best friends and I love going to knit-night. I'll probably be mentionning it often in the future since it's a big part of my week.

Knitting

Hey!!

You might have noticed that I changed the background. It came to my attention that the other one was a little hard to read, I hope this background is better. Let me know.

Now, to knitting.

Some of you (probably all of those who read this blog) know that I'm a knitter. I've been knitting for a little over 4 years now. I knit stuff for myself and for loved ones. The ones I want to show off today are those I made for my nephew. His name is Cédric and he was born November 2nd 2010. He's the cutest little bugger.

Let's start with the blanket I made him before he was born. Unfortunatly, I don't have pictures of the blanket with Cédric.

Next, the little sheep onesy. It took me a while to knit it. It's kind of a boring project to do and a lot of seaming (I hate seaming). The picture was taken last April, and the sheep still fits him, so mommy uses it regularly. He just looks adorable in it.

 The next picture shows two projects. The sweater was made for his birthday, and the matching monster was made for Christmas. When he first glimpsed the monster he started smiling right away. When he took the monster in his arms, the first thing he did, with a big grin on his face, was to bite it. Throughout that day, whenever we would show Cédric the monster, he would just smile.

I am now working on something else for him, but it's a secret project (I think his parents might read the blog). Pictures to come when it's completed and given.

This Christmas, I asked my brother to bring the sweater I made with them (I wanted Cédric to wear it when I gave him the monster, of course). My brother told me he already had it on. When they arrived at my mom's place, not only did he have the sweater on, but they brought the sheep (easier to put on when he's sleeping then a coat), and the blanket (to make sure he's warm enough with the sheep for the drive home later). It makes me feel happy and warm inside when I see my knitwear used. That's why I'm make more :)

Je t'adore mon chou d'amour.

Next time, pictures of my niece with my knitwear.

Bad day!!

Ok. So I'm feeling like crap. I have for almost a week now. The headache set in on Friday, and was under control for a feew hours almost every day. But today, there's nothing I can do. My head hurts and I can't make the pain go away. Oh, and my muscles hurt too, especially my thighs. I'm not very productive today (or yesterday, or over the week-end).

On an other note, I had a job interview yesterday morning. I think it went well. It's had to say. I was nervous of course. I don't think I did bad, but I don't know how good I did. I keep telling myself that if they're willing to hire me 3 days a week for a full time job, it's because they really need someone for the job. There's really no reason why they shouldn't hire me. It's still driving me crazy.  I got a call today from the employer's doctor's office. I filled out a medical form while waiting for the interview, and the doctor has some questions for me. I now have an appointment with the doctor to answer his questions.

I know I promised pictures, but I'm not in the mood right now. I can barely concentrate on what I'm writing.

Talk to you soon.

Post holidays

So the holidays were a little different this year. Since we moved to Ottawa/Gatineau, we go to Montreal for between 10 days to two weeks. This year, D's familly wanted to do the annual holiday dinner and gift exchange at our place. So we went to Montreal for my familly holiday thing for 3days, had lots of food at my mom's, like always (there's always lots of food at my moms, not only during the holidays, and we love it); had dinner with my father, and dinner with D's cousin (we only see them once a year during the holidays, and we weren't going to the New Year party this year, so we went to see them at their place).

After those three days in Montreal, we came back home to do some cleaning up of the house before the inlaws got here. See, D's brother and girlfriend have a 19 month old. She's the cutest thing, curious and full of energy. Our house is not baby proof or baby friendly. And I like to have the place kinda clean when I have visit over, especially my inlaws (even after 9½ years, I try to impress my mother-in-law, that's how I am). We put things away (which means we filled up the basement), do all the laundry (so I don't have to worry about it while I entertain the guests and have enough towels for everyone), vacuum and wash the floors (and it was about time), make room in the refrigerator (they're coming with the kid's meals)... you get the picture.

And then, they arrived. S (brother-in-law), N (sister-in-law) and L (19 month niece) arrived on the 29th. J (mother-in-law) and C (father-in-law) arrived on the 30th and leaving on the 31st. H (a good friend) was coming over on the 31st to end 2011 and start 2012 with us. S, N and L were leaving on the 1st. And H was leaving, when he got tired of us, or when we kicked him out (he left on the 3rd).

For the family holiday dinner, I cooked my first ever turkey. I figured it was a good opportunity to try it and if it didn't work out, we still had lots of other food. My mother-in-law was bringing meat pies, N was bringing dinner, and we had some garlic roast porc and macaroni and cheese (with spinach, ham and bacon in... mmmm). Or ya, and lots of veggies and mash patatoes. But, has it turn out, the turkey was delicious, thanks to my mom's suggestion (frozen butterball, barely anything to do other than cover and cook). And J volunteered to take care of the left overs (you know, seperating the meat from the bones, I can't think of the correct word, not even in french).

We ended up having a lot of fun, the baby was safe and had lot's of fun in the stairs (with supervision, of course) and lots of left-over.

And after everyone left, I was exhausted, but happy.

D's friend hooked him on Skyrim, a video game that is so addictive... So the rest of the holidays, we spent on the couch, him playing and me watching and knitting (and helping where I could, like letting him know he was about to die, or if there was something he missed/didn't see). Not a very productive week, but it felt good. I still managed to do the elliptical, prepare dinner and do my dishes.

This Monday, real life was back in. D was going back to work. And I was actively looking for work.
Mid-november I sent out my resume to multiple places hoping to get a job to start the new year right. See, I was completing my master's degree at the end of the month (November that is). I'll keep the story of my schooling for an other time, it's was a long process that deserve a whole post. Back to this Monday. I checked the Carreer Opportunity web pages of multiple establishements, called a chief a staff at one of them, sent a resume to a place I forgot in November, and sent a resume to a place I did'nt think would work out, and then I got a phone call from that last place. They need someone for a full time job. I told her I can only do 3 days/week. She said she would talk to the manager and call me back. She did, and they rather have someone 3 days/week than nobody at all. So I have a job interview next Monday. The big question now is, what to wear for that job interview?

Talk to you soon.
I'll try to figure out how to post pictures so I can show off my knitting (you better believe that I'll talk about it and show it off).

First blog post

This is the first time I set up a blog.

For now, I intend on writing on it on a regular basic, maybe once a week.

My first intention is to use this blog as a safe place to complaint and vent. One of my resolution for this year is to reduce my pain behaviors. Let me explain.

I have fibromyalgia. Which means I have chronic pain and fatigue issues. Pain behaviors are, for example, constantly complaining about the pain or asking/expecting others to do thing for us. Those behaviours don't help anyone and are not pleasant. Sometimes these can drive close ones away. I don't want that.

For me to reduce the verbalizing of my complains out loud, I thought it could be a good idea to at least have a place to write it down. But I don't want to write only about the bad things, but also the good days and things I did that I'm proud of.

The pain behaviours are not the only thing I want to change. I also want to get in better shape. At some point in the last few years I was using my condition as an excuse to not do anything. I got out of shape fast. My muscles are weak and I gained some weight. Getting healtier will hopefully help with the sleep and reduce the pain. In the very least, it should help me get back to participating in the activies I abandoned since it all began.

Good thing: this week I have been on the elliptical 3 times (Tuesday, Thursday and today) for between 10 and 15 minutes each time. It's a start. Plan for the day: finish the dishes, fold the laundry and grocery shopping