Renn Faire Ramblings (or how we accidentally went to Harrisburg)

We had to go back to the PA Renn Faire one last time before it closed for the season. We had enjoyed ourselves so much on our first trip that we bought cheap return tickets to use at a later point in the season. And this time, Willow dressed up!



Costume courtesy of her Grandmother. Willow is seriously one lucky girl - out of the nine Halloween costumes she has had in her life, seven of them were handmade by Grandmother. This time she was a Renaissance girl, complete with a purple velvet cloak - no doubt influenced by our last trip here, because prior to that, Willow had intended to be Cleopatra for Halloween.

This time we decided to take in more of the shows and activities at the Renn Faire (as opposed to all the window shopping we did last time), and this resulted in an active day for Willow. Not only did she ride an elephant for the first time in her life:



I don't think Andrew believed me when I said I have done this before. We used to go to the Vancouver Game Farm (apparently now called the Greater Vancouver Zoo) almost every year as a field trip as kids, and I rode an elephant there as a child.

Willow also got to be a circus performer with Tribal Circus:



They had her hold the spinning plate on a pole, which was very cool... and then they started juggling bowling pins around her:



You should have seen Willow's face - she went from being so chuffed to being on stage to absolutely terrified that these pins are spinning around her! This circus performance was my favourite part of the day - these two were great performers, and they even pulled Andrew up on stage, to his mortification. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of that because he had the camera in his pocket when he went up there.



He had to help Shelly up to her ring in the air by boosting her up. he went to lift her from the waist and she took his hands and put them on her bottom to lift her better. Poor Andrew - he was so red!

Willow even got to meet the queen after the children's costume contest:



My poor, competitive, child - she was upset that no one actually 'won' the contest - all the children who participated received a medallion from the queen. We can't wait until next year to go back.  Maybe next year I will be able to whip up a costume of my own. I could so rock the corset...

(Oh - and the Harrisburg part?  We are driving on the PA Turnpike.  The Renn Faire is on exit 266.  I give Andrew the 2 mile notice.  Then the 1 mile notice.  I start digging in my purse for the toll, and look up and Andrew is passing exit 266...  Words were said.  Maybe angry words.  We had to drive to the next turnpike exit - 20 miles away - at Harrisburg to get off and turn around to come back.  It's a good thing there is good beer at the Renn Faire.)

Almost there!

How Close Is Piper to Walking?



And on the way back:



We have had so much use out of this firetruck toy - it belonged to Willow when she was little, and I don't believe we paid more than $10 for it to begin with. I pulled it out of the basement yesterday and washed it off, and you should have seen Willow's face - you would have thought I had brought it out for her. I don't know who has had more fun with it the last two days - Piper walking around with it, or Willow helping Piper walk around with it!

Halloween Preview

Piper was able to try on her Halloween costume for her daycare's Fall Festival (just imagine my requisit rant on why this has to be called 'Fall Festival' and not 'Halloween Party'...).

Happy Cowgirl

All Sorts of Finished Objects

And I bet you were all thinking that I never knit anymore!



Ta-da!

Actually, the knitting of this dress has been finished for a while, but I finished it in the middle of a July heatwave and I knew that it was still way too big for Piper at that time... so it sat on my loveseat for a few months. This weekend I finally got around to crocheting the button holes onto the neckline and sewing the buttons on.



Andrew thinks it will work better as a tunic with leggings, and I am inclined to agree - and that is what the designer had in mind anyway. The designer, Tora Froseth, envisioned it as a baby dress that could segue into a tunic top as the little girl grew (and thus getting more usage out of knitted item!)

The Particulars:

Pattern: Little Sister's Dress by Tora Froseth (Rav link)
Yarn: Bernat Satin Sport in Beachcomber colourway
Needles: Size 4 Knitpicks circulars, 16 and 24 inch.
Size: Here's the kicker - I knit it, unchanged, from the 3 month size. Yes, I know Piper is small, but not that small :) Don't worry - the anomoly was intentional. The pattern designer recommends 'worsted wool' but many people read that incorrectly as 'worsted weight wool,' so there has been a lot of unintentional experimentation with sizes and different yarns
Would I knit this pattern again? I already am - and this time I am using the sock weight yarn the pattern actually is intended for, and I am making the 12 month size. This is an easy pattern, and it makes a very useful garment.

I have also (finally) finished Tara's Birthday socks:



I love this colour - it doesn't photograph particularly well, and it is hard to explain just how happy and orange it is. Tara won these socks by guessing the correct date for Piper's birth pool - and as it happens, Tara chose her own birthday. I will get them in the mail this week, Tara - so you can enjoy them this fall.


I love looking at stitches close up!



The Particulars:

Pattern: Summer Lovin Socks by Dawn Matkovic (Rav Link)
Yarn: Lola-Doodle's Classic Sock in Sweet Sassy Molassy (bought off Etsy)
Needles: 2 - 16 inch Knitpicks circulars
Size: One size
Would I knit this pattern again? Yes - this was my first foray into lacy socks, and even though I though row 12 was going to kill me (seriously - why did the row have to end with a yarn over? It made it so finicky for making sure I had the correct number of stitches on each needle), the pattern was easy enough and I was very happy with the results.

And I am not the only one around here with a finished object!



Remember this sweater, Mom? It finally fits Piper! My Mom knit all sorts of things when she came to help with Piper's birth and my maternity leave, but Piper was so small that even though she had made the 0-3 month size for the cardigan, Piper just swam in it. Now the weather is cooler, and Piper has been wearing the sweater and matching beanie all the time.

Snippet from Willow's Homework

I may have to remind Willow of this in a few years...

We Went to The Renaissance Fair...

And these were the only two pictures I took... Okay, I'm not normally that lame when it comes to photography, but there was a reason for it. We went to the Pa Rennfaire on Sunday for the first time and had so much fun. It only took a little over an hour to get there on the PA Turnpike and it was a beautiful day for a drive. Here is a picture of Willow sitting on a gorgeous butterfly bench on the way into the fairgrounds:



So you see, I did bring my camera with me. Before we left, I was reading the fair's policies (as in where I could nurse without getting hassled - turns out you can go to any first aid office and they have a little privacy area set up for nursing and changing) and I saw a bit about photography - it said:

Taking photographs and video on the grounds of Mount Hope Estate and Winery and all our events is permitted provided the photographer understands that the photos and video are for personal use only.

It was that last bit - 'personal use only' that stumped me. I mean, I haven't commercialized my blog, but... I decided to have the camera ready, and just see what other people were doing. As it turns out, the only place I saw people overtly taking pictures was at the joust.

In any case, we had a wonderful time - so much so that we bought return tickets before we left. Willow is ready to run away and join the SCA at this point (Andrew says the circus is declasse) and desperately wants to come in costume the next time we come. I'm trying to think of what I can whip up for her. It was Pirate's weekend while we were there, so there were more people on the scantily clad side than probably normal - some how I don't think that a corset and jeggings are period correct... There was an amazing variety of costumes as well - everything from handstitched and incredibly accurate to Disney princess costumes - it was all fun.

And Tara - I am in the home stretch on your socks - I've turned the heel - see:



I had hoped to have these done by the first day of autumn, but seeing as that is Friday - not sure that will happen. But, it won't be long after that. These are going to be great-coloured socks to wear in autumn!

Uh-oh, Grandfather -

I think we may have to share more of the asparagus next year!

Piper has been eating Level 2 baby foods, and I have tried to introduce the odd soft solid, but she hasn't been terribly interested so far. Cut to today - Andrew had to work late, so Willow and I took advantage of this by having salmon, buttered rice, and asparagus for dinner. My strange husband cannot stand the smell of salmon, so they only time we get to enjoy it is if he is out. Anyway - Piper had already been fed, but I wanted to keep her occupied while I tried to eat my dinner without too much baby intervention. So - I gave her two stalks of asparagus. At first I thought she was just playing with them - there was an awful lot of swinging them in the air and squishing them with her fingers:



But then I noticed that one stalk was noticeably shorter than the other... and then the next time I looked, she had the stalk in her mouth and was sucking and gumming on it.



Don't let the expression fool you - she ate one entire stalk and part of the other. Success!

More Proof

That I hoarded baby clothes for nearly 9 years...

Willow in 2002:



Piper in 2011:



Recognize this shirt, Mom?

Ten Years Ago

Ten years ago I was not a mother or a knitter.

Ten years ago I was working in a position I had no intention of keeping. It was just something to bide away the time and make some pocket money while I waited for my husband to study and take the bar exam. Andrew had graduated from law school a few months earlier, and we moved back from Colorado to Delaware in early June. We were living with his parents while we waited for the results, and spent our time imagining where we might end up moving once some lucky law firm snapped him up. I had plans to go back to teaching, but had no intention of taking the Delaware teaching certification exams if this was not the state we would be staying in.

Then 9/11 happened.

It’s true what people say – it was an absolutely beautiful day. The East Coast humidity that had me cowering in air-conditioning all summer had finally let up, the sky was blue, and I was looking forward to being able to spend time outside when I got home later. The first clue I had that anything had happened was that Sue, a woman in my office who had come into the office late because her daughter had a dentist appointment, said her car radio had breaking news that a plane had hit a skyscraper in New York City. She asked me if I had heard anything – I looked on the usual news websites, and didn’t see anything. That quickly changed.

Pretty soon all the news sites were clogged – you couldn’t get on CNN or Fox News or MSNBC to save your life. I started directing people to the Canadian news website for CTV news – I guess since Canada is less populous the website wasn’t bombarded like the American news sites. Everything stopped at work. There were security guards placed at all doors, and the people in my hall were crowded into one of the director’s offices, listening to the fancy old-time radio that he usually listened to Phillies’ games on. Andrew called me to ask me if I had heard. He begged me to go home. I told him we weren’t told to do that yet – but once schools started calling parents and telling them to come get their kids, my company sent everyone home. It was eleven o’clock in the morning.

My office was very close to home – on a normal day it would take five to ten minutes to drive home. In that short time, I saw three car accidents on the main road. The only thing I could think of was that people were so consumed with what was on the radio – and virtually the same thing was on whatever radio station you listened to – that they didn’t notice the other cars around them. I arrived home, and spent the rest of my day sitting in front of the television, flicking back and forth through all the news channels. Andrew came home and watched with me for a little bit, but then he couldn’t take it anymore. He still can’t.

The days that followed were strange. It’s odd that 9/11 is so crystal clear and absolutely fixed in my memory but the days after are cloudy. I remember stomach-aching sadness. I remember worry because I was so far away from my family and there were so many fears and theories about what had happened and what possibly could still happen. Andrew’s parents’ house is on a Philadelphia International Airport flight path, and on a normal day, you see planes go by every 5 – 10 minutes and the engine noise is near constant – but in those days afterward it was eerie in its absence.

About two weeks after 9/11, I started to take knitting lessons at Michaels’. I already knew how to crochet, but I still felt the need to do something else to calm down. About a month after 9/11, Andrew and I decided to take a weekend away – we spent the weekend down at Dewey Beach in Southern Delaware:



Willow was conceived that weekend. We have long maintained that we were neither trying nor terribly avoiding getting pregnant – but that Willow had willed herself into being.

People wonder how you are affected by the events of 9/11. You know the game ‘Seven Degrees of Kevin Bacon’? The idea is that you take any actor or actress, and within seven degrees of connection, you can get back to Kevin Bacon. It’s something like that. Everyone seems to know someone who knows someone or is related to someone who was affected – especially here on the East Coast. I was listening to the radio the other day, and someone said that we on the East Coast are so much more emotionally tied to 9/11 - here in Philadelphia and Wilmington we are practically equidistant between New York and Washington, D.C., and I wholeheartedly agree with that emotional punch. Personally, the events of 9/11 delayed many things for Andrew and me; we ended up living with Andrew's parents for nearly three years (to my eternal gratitude). Jobs were hard to come by - law firms that had expressed interest in Andrew prior to 9/11 were suddenly freezing all hiring. But things got better. We got stronger.

Ten years later I am a mother to two and a knitter. I am happily working at the same place (although I have moved quite a few rungs up the career ladder), and the closest I come to teaching anymore is training my co-workers on new systems. We live less than two miles from my husband’s parents and are firmly in place in Delaware.

Water Baby In Training

Oh, I have been waiting for this day for a long time!


Piper started her swimming lessons! Willow has been taking swimming lessons since she was 3 years old, and she is now at the penultimate level for the YMCA swimming lessons. I have been at the pool for nearly all of Willow's lessons, and I always loved watching the baby classes. They would sing songs, dance around the pool, and all the nervous mommies and daddies would be hovering around as the instructors would take the babies away and miraculously the babies would be kicking and paddling on their own. At our pool the babies must be six months old and be able to sit up on their own to start lessons, and this was the first session that Piper could sign up for after turning six months old.

Willow came along to take pictures for us - here is Piper strapped to the floatation belt and using the dumb bell to float and chase after toys:



Here is Piper doing the back starfish float:



(Look! She is wearing her Applecheeks washable swim diapers! All the other babies save one were wearing disposable swim diapers. Piper still couldn't wear one if she wanted to - she is still 2 pounds underweight for the smallest size.)

Willow even took a video - you might want to turn your volume down a bit - a combination of Willow being happily shrill and not realizing how close she was to the microphone and me being pissed that she was running around the pool:



Piper had a ball and loved kicking and splashing in the water - I can't wait until next week!

WiP It Wednesday: Really, I Have Been Knitting

Admittedly, my knitting time has been extremely diminished between sick and teething baby, but it has been happening. I took the socks that I promised my friend Tara for winning Piper's birth date pool on vacation with me, and managed to get quite a bit of it done while in the passenger seat of my Mom's minivan:

 

And a close up:



Someone asked the last time I posted a picture of these socks in process if this was a feather and fan pattern - but no. The lace pattern creates interlocking diamonds. I have also been working on a project for a swap in my January 2011 Babies group on Ravelry, but since I haven't sent it to my partner yet (and it is late!) all I can show you is a odd close up of the pattern in front of the garment:



This is the first time I have knit anything in Knitpicks' Swish Superwash. I wanted to test it out on something small before I bought a whole bunch of it for a larger piece. I do like it - and I really like this dark teal colour I am knitting with for this present.

Lots of stuff has been happening on the Willow and Piper fronts as well - Here is Willow on her first day of Grade 4:



We did have some bus drama, however - on the first day of school the driver missed her stop on the route altogether (apparently missed about half of them and had to re-do the route three times...) and she didn't get to school until nearly 10am, and on the second day she was a half hour late... that afternoon there was an administrator riding along to make sure the driver hit all the stops.

As for Piper, she has mastered all sorts of things in the last two weeks, such as sitting up on her own:



Feeding herself:



And standing up using things as props:



But today was her second day of 100'F+ fever, and she spent chunks of her day sprawled out on the floor like this:



Hopefully the fever is gone tomorrow and things can start going back to normal around here. Well, as normal as things get for us.

Piper's Baptism

We had a big party planned for Piper when we went on vacation - her baptism! The timing was perfect - Piper was just the right age and size to fit into the baptism gown that my grandmother had first made for Willow nine years earlier.



(from L-R in back: Willow, Auntie Daryth, Rev. Wearne, Piper, Andrew and L-R front: my nephew Will, my sister Jaime, and me)

We held the service at my Auntie Daryth's church, St. Philip Anglican Church, and the service was officiated by Reverend Michael Wearne. Piper's godparents are my sister Jaime and our friend Peter. The service itself was lots of fun, particularly because Rev. Wearne gave Willow and her cousins jobs to do during the service. Willow poured the water into the font, Will was the candle bearer, and the smaller children all sat around with us in a circle.

The only thing that worried me was the candle. You do see what Piper is doing, don't you? Here's a close up:



As soon as Andrew and Rev. Wearne were holding the candle, Piper's hand shot up and she decided she wanted in on this action as well. All was well in the end - and apparently she wasn't the only one drawn to the flame. Once the candle was blown out, Piper's 3 year old cousin Hunter audibly complained, "But I wanted to blow the fire off the stick!"

Here is Piper and her godmother, Jaime:



Piper and me (and the beautiful baptism gown!):



The Happy Family:



The Whole Fan Damily:



(Back L-R: Dad, Mom, and Auntie Daryth. Middle L-R: Andrew, me, Piper, Teri, and Jaime. Front L-R: Willow, Hunter, Dharma, and Will.)

We had a lovely little party afterward with a beautiful cake:



And then just had fun afterward taking pictures outside:











It was a beautiful day, and a beautiful service. Auntie Daryth, thank you for helping make this happen!

Radio Silence Explained

We were on vacation. More to come on baptisms, bears, and beaches. I'll leave you with one interesting little nugget of Canadiana... or make that several nuggets:



I kid you not. Dill pickle flavoured popcorn.

I'm Six Months Old...

And look what I can do!



I've decided to bypass crawling altogether. Who needs intermediate steps?



Just a bit more practice...



And I'll have that cat exactly where I want him.

You know, Mama...

I'm fairly certain that feeding someone spinach and rutabagas for breakfast is considered torture in some countries...

(And Mom - as you can see, her eyes are still blue.)