‘K’ Is For Knitting!

As anyone who reads this blog on occasion has probably noticed, I find it hard to find time to knit. With two young children, I have no idea why that might be the case ;0). I still have my Not So Shrunken cardie on the needles but, as it’s fitted as you knit and I was rapidly changing size last Fall when I was working on it, it got put away until I gave birth to baby number two. I do not like having two sweaters on the needles at the same time (despite my habit to have many other types of knitting projects on the go at the same time!) and I have been concentrating on small projects. They still take me forever though.

Here are the second pair of Tangle’s Fingerless Cable mittens that I’ve knit this year.


The lucky recipient, whose birthday was in April – whoops! – only just received them. Project specifics: free Tangle pattern found here. Misti Alpaca’s 100% Baby Alpaca, Chunky 2 ply in black, which was lovely to knit with but holy cow does alpaca ever run when you lose a stitch! I also used less than a skein to knit the pair and have enough left over for something very small.

Here are the second pair of Fetching gloves that I’ve knit lately.



Here are the specifics: Mission Falls 1824 100% merino superwash in the Wildflower 662 colour. I had a very accomodating model! Iain calls these the "arm ones" and was breathing down my neck to wear them when I was binding off the second one.


These are going to a very special lady in my life who occassionally reads this blog so I hope she does not mind the 'spoiler'!

I have really fallen in love with this colour and would love to knit a sweater for myself with it someday.

Here is a picture of the gorgeous Malabrigo that is to become a Whisper Cardigan someday.

I bought 2 skeins.

And here are two other DK weight sock yarns that I picked up at Baadeck Yarns. Yummy!

Believe it or not, I actually have another project that will be ready to come off the needles soon. Go me!

A Journey Home - Part Two

Warning: Unlike my last post, this post is very picture heavy!

The rest of our trip went much better. I think the knowledge that we had no more schedules to keep, other than getting DH to the East coast by Sunday the 26th to begin work on the 27th, changed our mood into a holiday one and that certainly helped with the driving.


On the morning of our third day of travel, we arrived into Port aux Basques, NL around 5:00 AM and to a beautifully calm and clear morning. Daybreak promised a beautiful sunny day and we headed to the hotel, where we were supposed to have spent the night, to cancel our reservation. As luck would have it, they had no record of me booking two rooms, despite my having a confirmation number! It didn’t really matter as we no longer needed the room but could have been an issue the night before had we arrived on time to a ‘no vacancy’ sign. DH had the discussion with the hotel people leaving Mudder and I with the boys and pets to fend off the mosquitoes (we call them ‘nippers’) – the only downfall of a windless summer morning – out in the parking lot.

Our next stop was at a Tim Hortons for breakfast and then we hit the road again, with the people van only stopping once to nurse Aidan before pulling onto the highway again and making the three hour drive to Deer Lake in good time. The zoo van stopped more often for coffee and we arrived with poor Mudder having a caffeine withdrawal headache. Luckily, we had two rooms booked at the Deer Lake Motel and one of them was available for us to check into early. By that time, I decided to use my “‘we’re all exhausted after getting off an unexpected overnight ferry with a two week old’, can we please check in early?” card.

After showers and a bath for Iain, we headed to the beach. When planning our trip home, DH and I had tried to factor in short driving days, ideally when the kids were napping, and hoped to incorporate some fun time over the course of the trip. To me, fun time on the West coast of Newfoundland in the summer means ‘beach’. Our day in Deer Lake was ideal as the weather was beautiful and there is nothing our toddler likes better than to play in a lake with his dog. The newborn and I enjoyed the view from our sun shelter (well, as you can see, Aidan enjoyed the view of the back of his eyelids). I got a row of knitting in before succumbing to the chip wagon up on the parking lot.



Playing with Iain in our motel room.


Bath time for little boys!



Mudder and DH went for pizza for supper while I stayed behind in the people motel room with the children (the pets stayed in the ‘pet’ motel room with Mudder). After supper, we all went to our respective rooms and, at least in the case of our room, quickly fell into an exhausted sleep.

The next morning dawned bright and sunny again and marked day number four. While DH packed up the vans, Mudder, Iain, Aidan and I crossed the TCH (Trans Canada Highway) to the Irving gas station across the road from the motel to check out the giant moose that Iain had had his eye on. I’m not sure which he was more entranced by: the moose,


the big rocks or the transport trucks!



Off we went again only to have the people van pull over at the Howley exit to tend to Aidan. By that time, we were enjoying the drive without the stress of a schedule so stopping did not hold any of the stress it had on day two. Unlike most of our forays off the highway to tend to the boys, DH was able to meet up with us for this one and he, Mudder, Para and Iain played while I nursed and changed Aidan. We set off again and made it as far as Lewisporte for a late lunch. Here are some pictures of Iain showing how much he loves his new little brother.

Holding hands.

A hug from big brother - aw!


After Lewisporte, the feeling of getting closer to home really set in as we drove to our destination for that night: Victoria Cove, Gander Bay where my parents intend on eventually retiring and where we had ‘booked’ accommodations with my second cousin, Mudder’s first cousin and one of her best friends. Thanks for the room and board again, V!

News of our arrival had preceded us and, in true Newfoundland Labrador style, we had people dropping in to see us (lets face it – they came to see the boys!). We had a nice evening chatting and relaxing.

The next morning, we visited my great-great grandfather’s house that is the construction zone where my parents intend on retiring within the next couple of years. Doesn’t it look great?


And here is the view from their sun room and the front rooms. Wow.



We left Gander Bay after gasing up at my cousin’s gas station in Gander Bay South, our usual stop when in that part of the island. We managed to see a few more relatives there and to show Aidan and Iain off to a few more people. Our next food stop was at a park in Clarenville where Mudder and I entertained Iain and Aidan while DH brought us lunch. Iain really enjoyed the jungle gym and it amazes me how good a climber he is at his age (amazes and terrifies…)! Day number five of travel brought us all the way to Upper Gullies, Conception Bay South and my parents house. Mudder had been away for 5 weeks and was, I think, very pleased to be home. Although we were tired, it was so nice to drive in the drive way, be greeted by Dali (the family dog) and to see the Atlantic from the back windows.

Before we left NS, DH asked me if I wanted to do something special or symbolic on our way back to the island to signify the importance of me moving back home after being away for thirteen years. At the time, I could not think of anything. Now that I’m here, I’ve found that what I want to do and what has become a symbol of this journey home for me is my intention to bring my children to as many of those spots that I remember from when I was a child as possible. More on that in another post!

Since arriving home, I have seen two pothead whales from Mudder and Fadder’s back windows (on two separate days). The children and I have visited many family members, friends and many St. John’s city parks. Most exciting of all, we finally found and bought the third house Aidan and I viewed our first week back! We take possession of it on September 15th. All in all, it has been an exciting first month here.

The adventure continues in my next post and there might even be knitting content!

A Journey Home - Part One

We left Middleton on Tuesday, July 22nd in two vans. Mudder and I drove in the ‘people van’ with the boys and DH escorted the zoo in the camper van. We were absolutely loaded down (and I didn’t get any good pictures of that. Sigh) and got away from our house and Middleton much later than we’d hoped for. However, we only drove as far as Truro that day and the trip went a lot faster than anticipated. We stayed at a hotel that took pets (the Holiday Inn Truro in case you need similar accommodations) and had a reasonably good nights sleep. Not bad for our first day of travel.
The next day was a bit of an adventure and established a pattern. Aidan began screaming for the first five minutes of most legs of the trip, resulting in Mudder and I finding the next exit off the highway and me tending to him. I thought the van’s DVD system was a bit over the top when DH mentioned he wanted that option (I wanted the leather seats to assist with easy spill clean up so both of us have expensive taste) but it really helped appease the toddler and maintain my sanity as I do not deal well with a newborn screaming when I cannot get to him immediately.

The 1988 camper van overtook us on the highway at some point when we were stopped tending to the children so we met up with DH and the pets in Baddeck, on Cape Breton Island. I highly recommend visiting Baddeck if you are ever in that neck of the woods as it is a lovely town. Setting Baddeck as our next meeting point worked out well as DH really wanted to see the Alexander Graham Bell historic site (it's the Centennial year of the flight of the Silver Dart) and he took Iain while Mudder, Aidan and I went to Baadeck Yarns. As luck would have it, Aidan was hungry as soon as we arrived so I sat and nursed him while surrounded by yarn. That was lovely until he needed a significant diaper change so we went back to the van to do that and for me to top him up. Disaster struck when I realised that one of the ladies I saw working in the shop leaving and I noticed the time – 5:00 PM – closing time! Almost in tears, I handed Aidan over to Mom and scrambled back into the shop in hopes that they closed at 5:30. I have been trying to get a relaxed and lengthy visit to browse in that shop for two years now and each time something seems to prevent it.

When I stuck my head in the door and asked what time the shop closed, the owner said “We close at 5:00 but we knew you were outside with the baby so come on in and shop.” Be still my beating heart - what sweethearts! It turns out the owners live in the same building as the yarn shop (be still my beating heart again!) and are a retired Canadian Forces couple like DH and I! We had a lovely chat and I walked out with some gorgeous yarn including two skeins of Marlabrigo Lace (100% Baby Merino) in the Mariposa 125 colourway. Marlabrigo is a type of yarn which I had only heard about on Suzanne’s blog and had never seen in person. It is gorgeous and, when I saw a knit up sample using this yarn in the shop, I decided that it was going to be my leaving NS treat to myself. My newest stash addition will become this Whisper Cardigan.

After that very happy experience, the whole family grabbed sandwiches at a local deli and got back on the road. The original time to catch our ferry from North Sydney, NS to Port aux Basques, NL was at 6:30 PM. However, we had heard that Marine Atlantic was having trouble making their booking times and were not surprised when we received a telephone call from them advising that our ferry crossing was delayed and we had an extra hour before needing to be at the terminal. When we arrived in North Sydney, the ferry traffic line was, literally, backed up past the terminal line up area and out onto the highway. None of us had ever seen the line up so bad. And, our situation got worse.

Aidan started screaming the last 40 minutes of the ‘creeping forward at just fast enough of a pace that Mudder could not jump out of the van and grab him and walk next to us’ phase of the line up. When we finally got to the ticket gate, he was pretty much hysterical. The ticket agent then proceeded to have an extensive telephone call with somebody about an issue unrelated to our booking before completing our registration process. Aidan continued to scream and I was very close to tears myself, so Mom saved us by getting out and taking Aidan from the van and walking with him until we got through the booking process and parked in our waiting spot for the ferry. I may just blank out the whole four hours prior to leaving NS due to emotional trauma!

Through the jigs and reels (and the luxury of time having softened the memories somewhat), we did not leave port until about 12:30 AM after struggling, exhausted, into our cabin. Thank God I insisted on only taking a crossing that had a cabin for us as I was not sure how I would be feeling after the delivery and a journey with a newborn. Iain was so overtired that it took about 30 minutes of him screaming before he finally dropped off to sleep. After that, the rest of us managed to crawl into the bunks for about four hours of sleep (Aidan sleeps wonderfully next to Mommy :)). I must note that, despite the number of times she has taken this trip, this was the first time that my mother had ever been able to sleep on a ferry crossing from NS to NL. Apparently anything is possible if you’re tired enough!

The first part of this trip was so stressful for me that I did not take any pictures and I am already regretting that oversight (the pictures above were taken in Deer Lake, NL the day after our ferry crossing). However, reality was that we were all exhausted, physically and emotionally, from just having had a new baby and packing and preparing for a big move. I have some great images in my head from that first gorgeous morning when we arrived back on the island in Port aux Basques and of the drive East. However, our first pictures of the trip are of our first day back on the island in Deer Lake where we spent most of the third day and night number three of the trip. Unfortunately for you, those details will be in my next post. Catch up with you soon!

We Are Here!

I have a lot to tell you about the past month but wanted to drop by quickly to let you know that we are all here safe and sound. It has been a journey of ups and downs. Aidan has done wonderfully. He weighed in at a whopping 12 lbs 7 ounces today at the Doctor’s office. He continues to be a wonderfully calm little boy who likes his naps – bless him!

It seems as though we have thrown a bit too much at our wee two year old who has really had a change of personality. Like DH said over the weekend, it’s as though someone flicked a switch. However, who can blame him? New environment in which he doesn’t have free rein as usual, new brother, new job meaning Daddy worked for 12 days straight for 16 – 18 hour days (that is now over and Iain has done much better the past two days when Daddy was home at supper time), sleep deprived and overly stressed mother…. You get the picture. Our days are a work in progress and I’m trying to get him/us back on a schedule similar to our days in Nova Scotia and he seems to be responding very well to that. Suggestions welcome and appreciated and, please, wish me luck.

I will write a longer blog post about the exact details of our trip here soon. We are currently ensconced at my parent’s house in Conception Bay South. I spent our first week here looking for a house and we seem to have found one that we really like. I will provide further details if/when the transaction is complete.

I also have another FO to report on – a pair of Fetching gloves in Mission Falls’ beautiful Wildflower tri-colour colourway. I love the colour and hope to use it in a sweater in the future.

So many things to tell you when I find the darn whatsit to get the pictures off my camera…

We're Off!

You may not have noticed but there is a flurry of activity around Chez Fibreholic these days. Not only have we been blessed with a newborn but we are moving...tomorrow! This is a quick post to let you know that I will be out of contact until we get semi-settled at my parent's place in Newfoundland. We are taking our time with short driving days and are hoping for great weather so that we can visit a couple of beaches along the way.

Wish us luck!