our little dictator of cute

A few days ago, I was using my iPad to check the weather forecast before we went out, when the Spanish Inquisition noticed what I was doing. This is what happened next:

SI: Mummy take a picture!
Me: No, sweetie, mummy's just checking the weather.
SI: Mummy take a picture NOW!
Me: Oh, you want me to take a picture of you eating a snack?
SI: Yeah!
(I go to the other end of the dining table and prepare to take her picture)
Me: Okay, say ... Hi, mummy!
SI: HI MUMMY! (pause) Want to see!
(So I show her the picture, and then move to take the iPad away)
SI: No, want to see AGAIN!

So here, courtesy of her Royal Cuteness, is the Spanish Inquisition having a snack (and mugging for the camera):


It's a little blurry because while she likes posing for the camera, she hasn't quite grasped the concept of holding the pose. So now, instead of a lot of blurry pictures of her running, I have a lot of blurry pictures of her grinning.

Like everything else, it's a work in progress.

In this picture, she is wearing the green dress that I knit last week — Spud & Chloë Sweater. about 2.5 skeins, pattern out of the Vogue Stitchionary and my own brain. Strawberry buttons at the top. It's a sweater dress and goes down to about her knees — but I haven't managed to get her to stand still long enough to have any pictures of the bottom half yet. Rest assured that there is a bottom half ... and that she's wearing pants. Usually.

royal purple princess rabbit

The Spanish Inquisition's favourite colour is purple. Consequently, there's a lot of that going around our house right now.


The matching wasn't actually on purpose, although I don't think Pd believes me. The dress on the right is from Roots, which so far she has refused to wear, but I am harbouring hopes. (The upside of having a toddler with definite opinions is that she changes her mind like a toddler — which is to say, like the wind.) The knit on the left is  Roo, from Twist Collective.

I have had this pattern queued since before the Spanish Inquisition was born — since before I was even pregnant. I even waited patiently until she was old enough to really do it justice (it's not really a pattern for babies, is it?). She had a growth spurt earlier this summer, and it's become obvious that not a thing from her spring wardrobe is going to fit her this fall, so it was the perfect time. The yarn is Berroco Ultra Alpaca in "deep purple," which was surprisingly ideal; I was worried that the alpaca would be too drapey, but the merino and tight twist firm it up and it has the proper coat stiffness.

And ... it's too small (and she hasn't even worn it yet!). I'd measured her chest; it's about 20" (which, yes, is like the 18-month size, but she's a skinny bean). I knit the 22" size, to be safe, and for once I cannot even blame gauge because — and I never do this, really — I made a gauge swatch and I blocked to measurements. To measurements! And yet, it's too small. I tried to see if we could repurpose it as an open-front cardigan, but the armscye is too tight to be comfortable and she wanted it off right away.

So, no go. It breaks my heart to have to take it apart — it's a beautiful coat, it really is — so we're going to keep it for the kidlet, or give it to someone if the kidlet turns out to be the kind who doesn't like purple. It won't go to waste. And, meanwhile, I had a lot of the same yarn left over, so I am going to knit another one. A bigger one.

(I told my mother all this, and she laughed at me. It's all her fault, really: when I was growing up, she would buy or knit things for me to "grow into." Except I never grew as fast as she anticipated, so things were always baggy or too big — and now I hate baggy clothes and knit almost all my sweaters with negative ease. She's still at it, though. She likes to buy the Spanish Inquisition clothes, but this fall she's decided to up the ante to 3T so that she can "grow into it," and I've had to tell her that, yes, she will ... next year. I've now started a drawer full of 3T clothes that we can pull out when she's big enough. It's actually very useful, given the Spanish Inquisition's sudden growth spurts. But there really isn't a way to make snowpants that are three inches too long "work," and yes, we tried.)

Anyway, I haven't started yet, because while the knit itself was enjoyable (the first time), the second time 'round it's just ... demoralizing. And I've got all this to give my attention to:



Maybe I should consider doing the 3T thing after all.

easing back into it

It's that time of year again!


Okay, no, it really isn't. That would actually be a little insane; even I know that. Although — all of my "October" nesting magazines have arrived, and they all have ads on the back for their November/Christmas/entertaining issues. So it's not outside of the realm of possibility.

It's just that it's been literally years. Remember how I was going to sell some of my designs? And then I was completely bowled over by a bout of flu right at the beginning of December ... and then I got pregnant ... and then I had a whirling dirvish of an 18-month-old ... and now it's three years later, and I still haven't finished the cards I'd pre-printed in 2010. (You can see them, in the top left of the photo, the gold and red.)

So maybe it's about time. I've been feeling the itch for a few days now. Also, I'm trying to plan ahead. I think, by the time Christmas-card season rolls around, I'm going to have a bit more trouble leaning forward. And this way I can do a few at a time, instead of trying to mass-produce everything inside of a week; that part was always a bit insane (but very characteristic, admittedly).

I spent a couple of hours last night just doodling calligraphy, practicing swashes and getting my hand back. I'd forgotten how lovely and relaxing calligraphy can be.

(I just realised I'd promised you knitting, oops. There will definitely be knitting later — I just finished a sweater dress for the Spanish Inquisition; you can see it (the green thing) at the top of the photograph. I just need to get my act together and actually take pictures of things.)

catching up

The weather has turned cold, I'm wearing my beloved jackets and wooly socks (sometimes) again, so — it must be fall, and time for me to get back to blogging.

(I say this, and we are in the middle of a one-day heat wave — 40-degree Humidex and everyone is running for air-conditioned cover. O well. At least the light is right.)

I didn't mean to go dark. To be fair, that means almost nothing; I never mean to go dark. This summer passed in a haze of fatigue and nausea, which would have made me entirely cranky if I hadn't been too sick to have moods. (Pd will probably tell you that this is not true. I had moods. I had, in fact, two that I spent a great deal of time veering between: tired, and difficult. Oh, and hungry. Is hunger a mood?) Anyway, it's very hard to blog when one is trying to either a) sit very, very still whilst avoiding looking at the computer,  or, better option, b) lying prone on the sofa, so: no blogging. And, sadly, not much gardening, either, so the garden is a right mess that I have washed my hands of until next spring.

 Because, yes, absolutely, I think it is going to be so much easier to garden when we've got a toddler and another wee kidlet. I'm starting to imagine the garden as something akin to retirement planning — and by "akin," I really mean "part of; not executed until." This could be applied to other things, too, like "time," or "positive bank account balance."

Meanwhile, the Spanish Inquisition turned two. She continues to be a reasonably happy kid, and we are very lucky that, so far, the two's have not hit the terrible stage. On the other hand, there is definitely a palpable change from, say, 18 months. To whit: the kid runs (see picture). She started walking later than usual, and so is making up for lost time by being speedy. Consequently, I have lots of summer vacation photographs, not so many not-blurry ones. And even then, they are usually of her moving.

Enough, now. I'm still organizing photos back into Flickr so it will probably be a couple of days before the next post, but I will be back. I have so much knitting to show you! The kidlet is due in winter, so my mind has been living there — that's what pregnancy does; it collapses the seasons in between. So I have been planning and planning, and knitting like a fiend.