additions.

For something completely different, we have decided to try juicing. This has nothing to do with knitting or crafting or anything so I will understand if you stop reading now! I thought I would share some personal thoughts about my weight loss journey since tinytuna was born.

Along with a friend of mine, we are sticking to Weight Watchers quite diligently. I have had some success with it in the past and post-partum, I thought I would sign up again for the online membership. I have lost 5lbs thus far since getting back on the wagon in October. Ideally, I would like to slim back down another 10lbs to my pre-pregnancy weight.

What I really struggle with, though, is fruits and vegetables. I know I should eat them. I love the taste of them – I’m not a picky eater. I really enjoy most all foods except olives. Truly. I’ll be honest: I actually eat very healthfully. My shortcomings happen when I am hungry. Is that the case for most people? I kind of think so. Snack time is the worst for me! Particularly 10am and 4pm. It is just that when I’m hungry, I would way rather eat a piece of bread with jam. Or chips. Or candy. Or just about anything but fruit and veg.

How to overcome this?

There are a couple of reasons I would like to ‘overhaul’ my eating habits (I’m not calling it a diet because this needs to be sustainable forever):

1. We want more children and the idea of heading into my next pregnancy heavier is a bit daunting to me (I think about post-partum the next go round!),
2. I want to feel healthy inside and out, and
3. The food that I love is calorie-rich but nutrient-lacking.

 

I decided to sit down and figure out what my trigger food is – I didn’t actually realise I had one until I was reaching for 72% dark chocolate for the 5th time last week. Who knew? I still have my bars in the fridge but I’ve moved them to a spot I can’t see them every time I open the fridge.

We looked up some recipes online: juicerecipes.com has been a great place to start as you plug in the ingredients you have and it spits out recipes. Also, it details the health benefits of the juice you are making.
 

 

For now, we are going to stick to the slightly more labour intensive blender rather than invest in a juicer. The blender is great for the morning smoothies I make and while it means I have to strain the pulp out of the vegetable juices, I’m willing to do this for now.
 

I have to insert a caveat here: I didn’t think they would be so good. Who knew that a little lemon (fresh squeezed) and apple could sweeten kale, tomato and spinach enough that you almost polish off the glass before remembering to take a photo? Huh.

Do you have any experience with juicing? Has it been successful? A labour of love? Hate it? I’d love to hear the good, the bad and the ugly!

ps. I promised a friend I would include an update about cloth diapering soon and I will. I wanted to take some photos to show you what has worked and not worked. That’s coming soon!

toques, toques … & more toques!

The majority of the Christmas knitting this year was of the toque variety. Everyone got a toque this year … it was a good exercise in stash busting. It was also nice to have items fly off the needles without hours and hours of commitment!

 

This actually isn’t the whole pile but I had to mail a couple off quite quickly for them to be there in time for Christmas morning in Ontario.
 

Let me show you the various patterns and designs for each recipient.

The first set of toques went to my sister-in-law and her fiancé.

 

I decided to knit my favourite men’s toque pattern for J, which turned out perfectly. There is something so satisfying about a fully reversible toque!
 

Pattern: Botanic Hat by Stephen West
 

Yarn: Cascade 220 Heathers in Grey (8401) and Schoppel-Wolle Zauberball in Grey (1507)

Needles: 4.00mm circs
 

For L, her favourite colour is baby blue so this was a no-brainer. I picked a pretty blue out of my stash and proceeded to find a colourwork toque for her that would have a little slouch to it as she looks great in beret-style toques. Just a side note, I looooved the decreases for this pattern – brilliant!
 

 

Pattern: Seasons Toque – slouch version – by Jared Flood
 

Yarn: Knit Picks Palette in various colourways
 

Needles: 3.00mm
 

The second set of toques were gifted to my brother and sister-in-law.
 

 

My brother, P, is always easy to knit a toque for since he loves them so much. It is so great to see him wearing the myriad of toques I’ve knit for him over the years. He looks best in blue so whatever I chose for him would be blue.
 

 

Pattern: Windschief by Stephen West
 

Yarn: Cascade Wool 220 Heathers in colour
 

Needles: 4.00mm
 

I used the same pattern for K as I did for L since the first one turned out so perfectly. Instead of the slouch version, though, I knit the beanie as K has a great beret from me already. I thought this would be more of a warm winter toque for her.
 

 

Pattern: Seasons Toque – beanie version – by Jared Flood

Yarn: Knit Picks Palette in various colourways
 

Needles: 3.00mm
 

Lastly, I gifted my mom and dad (aka Nana and Gramps) with toques.

 

For Dad, I knit off the top of my head (sorry for the pun!). He has a large head (25.5” diameter) and he likes his toques loose. I cast on 24” worth of stitches and just knit. I had picked up the ball of yarn on a whim at my LYS and I wasn’t wrong: It is perfect for him. I knit 3” of 2x2 rib, then 3 garter ridges, then straight St st until the toque measured 8” from the brim. I then worked decreases at 5 evenly-spaced points. Easy-peasy!
 

 

Pattern: My own inspiration (see above)
 

Yarn: Berroco Quasar in colour 8220 Ultraviolet
 

Needles: 6.5mm
 

Lastly, Mom’s toque was the most premeditated of the bunch. I had knit the same toque for her dear friend who is battling cancer in Halifax, NS, and we had mailed it off in November 2012. When Mom was trying (but having a lot of difficulty) choosing yarn for her friend’s toque, she kept showing me yarn that she liked. This particular skein she kept returning to, so I went back and bought it a week or so later. She loved the toque I knit up for her friend so much that I knit her the same one using the yarn I’d returned to buy.
 

Unlike my first version, I made this one the full length as Mom looks great in slouchy toques.
 

 

Pattern: Molly by Erin Ruth
 

Yarn: Malabrigo Yarn Rios in colour 139 Pocine
 

Needles: 4.00mm
 

My only regret is that I didn’t get a toque knit for my husband – I literally just ran out of time. We are headed on our yearly retreat to Tofino, though, and I’m thinking I might get one finished for him while we are there. Wish me luck!
 

 

Merry (although belated!) Christmas!

a little Christmas blessing.

A very close and dear friend of mine welcomed their first child into the world last week after a harrowing few hours. Thankfully, baby and Mom are doing wonderfully. The family will be spending Christmas at home with their family in a town in South-Eastern BC called Cranbrook. It’s a gorgeous town that thrives on resource-based industry nestled in the Rocky Mountain trench. So it is cold. Very cold. Beautiful. But cold.

I couldn’t send little Kate home with her dear parents without a new winter toque to brave the snow and ice! What kind of a friend would I be?!

Pattern: Alfalfa Baby Hat by Kate Gagnon-Osborn

Yarn: Malabrigo Yarn Rios, colourway 139 Pocion

Needles: 4.00mm

I just love this toque. I still think it looks like a gnome hat – it is just so adorable. TinyTuna’s head has grown since I made his but the toque still fits (although snuggly). It will be a little big on Kate but she’ll grow into it very quickly – she is the same size Tiny was when he was born (and the same length, weird, huh?).

The Rios is perfect for this pattern as it is interesting enough too highlight, rather than detract from, the pattern of increases and decreases. You can see in the two photos below, if you read the pattern and study the photos carefully, that I changed the decreases slightly and worked them as follows:

Knit to 3 stitches prior to marker, ssk, K1, sm, K1, k2tog.

I did this because if you look at my original toque, the ssk and k2tog pull apart when they are stretched over the baby’s head. It is not terrible but now that he has grown, they pull apart really profoundly. I do not like the look of them so I thought adding the 2 stitches between them would help with ease.

As you can see in the photos, it worked perfectly:

I will mention, though, it made working the decreases in the crown a little tricky as I had to move things around a little bit but I will definitely work this the same way next time. I have one more half-skein on Rios in my stash that will become a second slightly bigger alfalfa for Tiny. I am thinking about knitting it on 4.5mm for the extra room he now needs.

weekend glory.

We have had a difficult weekend. Early Saturday night, after Christmas party number 2 (of 4), I came down with the stomach flu. Unfortunately, I haven’t fully recovered. M came down with it last night almost immediately after his final exam, which finished his semester (yahoo!) – we should have been out celebrating tonight … but we ended up giving the tickets to my parents. Thankfully, TinyTuna did not get a bad case of the flu – he only vomited a few times on Saturday and that was the end of it. He was back to his cheerful, although tired, self yesterday.

We did make it to 3 of our planned Christmas outings … it was fun to get dressed up & have some nights out just the two of us - my lovely parents babysat! Bless them! What holiday festivities are you enjoying throughout the month? I hope you stay happy, healthy & enjoy the season!

summer change.

In keeping with some of the blogs that I enjoy following, I wanted to post my summer manifesto as well! It’s hard not to be thinking about the summer when the sun has been out, I am 33 weeks pregnant today & life seems to be flying past me in this last trimester (I didn’t want to believe people when they said time flies at the end … but they are right). So here’s mine:

Number 10 is especially important to me – I have been keeping that running in my mind like a mantra the past couple of weeks. As we approach birth, breastfeeding and parenting, I am heeding all of my midwives' advice (I have 5 midwives – it’s a shared practice so whomever is on call when you go into labour, stays with you): “Plan for the best, educate yourself about the worst, keep your expectations low (to ensure no disappointment), and above all, remember that this is your experience, whatever it looks like.” I have approached pregnancy with this mind set and I have to admit, looking towards the end now, I can honestly say I have enjoyed the experience. I don’t want to be pregnant forever (especially because I keep spilling things on my belly because it’s in the way) but I’m glad I didn’t go into it thinking, “This is going to be the best!” or “This is going to be the worst & I’m going to hate it!” It was neither. It was what it was.

And now we are looking to a summer of enormous change! What are you looking forward to this summer?