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When Daren arrived thirteen years ago, the midwife at the lying-in clinic was surprised because our baby did not look at all like a newborn. She was solidly built, weighed 7.48 pounds, had a full head of hair, and demonstrated the strength of her grip by hanging on grimly to the top rail of a crib when lifted out of it.

Daren learned to smile for cameras very early, after my mother thought of cooing and waving at her from behind the photographer. She started talking at nine months, and skipped the baby-talk stage entirely, because she lived with a houseful of adults. She had all our attention, but could be subdued with a stern look or a single word (No!)

She cracked her first joke at the age of two, while watching a Jackie Chan film. Marcus can attest to this.

Daren, pointing at the TV: Jackie Chan.
Pointing at her middle: Laki Chan.

She threw her one and only tantrum the week before Diana was born, refusing to let me out of her sight when we arrived at school, and yelling at the top of her lungs when I decided to take her home instead. The scolding she got from Dern and Marcus afterwards convinced her never to do it again.

Today, at thirteen, Daren looms over me at five feet three inches and takes a size 9 shoe.

I will not report her weight, because then she might post mine.

Her hair troubles her, as it exceeds the known limits of human growth and abundance. We thought about having it rebonded, but what might that do to it?

Her schoolmates have described her as serious and scary — my fault, because she is indeed too serious for her own good, and forgets to smile half the time. This is a pity, because she has a face that is made to smile.

She has inherited my Evil Eye, and uses it without compunction on unruly members of her class.

She drives me up the wall with research assignments that must be submitted without fail on the very next day, in obedience to (demanding and thoughtless, IMO) teachers.

And yet, she looks after Diana with patience and care, qualities I never showed at that age. She does her chores, not merrily, but with fortitude, the sooner to move on to other things — like anime, and writing fan fiction.

When I get home, she always greets me with her customary kiss and hug, and seeks reciprocation right up until bedtime.

A baby no longer, but my baby still.

Happy birthday, Daren Christine.

I was on an early search for Christmas gift options when I came across an attractive pouch design on FreePatterns.com. (It’s called Bride’s Purse, but what the heck.)

I made the pouch in variegated yellow Monaco thread, using a Size 1 steel hook (1.65mm), and without the beads, as this is just the first try.

I called it a Mini Pouch because the finished item is about 3″ short of the size stated in the pattern.

Hmm. Methinks I should use my size 3.0 aluminum hook for the next one.

Here’s the first sleeve of the Simply Striped Shrug I’m making for Daren, following yet another pattern from the fabulous Mimi:

Daren wanted this in black, and I’d just gotten started when I remembered my beef with black Cannon thread. I may try Monaco Raylon for her black shrug, instead. Would love to make this shrug for myself, but it would reveal all the wrong curves. Alas.

Just wanted to post a few new photos before Daren takes the PC back (again).

Here’s the white Shells and Flowers Shrug, or more accurately, one of its sleeves:

In my defense, it IS difficult to take a photo of yourself with your camera phone when you don’t really want anyone to notice what you’re doing.

And here’s Dana-mee’s finished place mat, which she is happily using every day at school:

Right. Logging out now.

A year ago I didn’t even know there was such a thing.

However, since I still have not learned how to wield knitting needles, I shall have to make do with my trusty crochet hooks. Let’s see … the last time I crocheted in public was in November 2008, in a hospital corridor doubling as a doctor’s waiting room February 2009, in church, while waiting for Daren and Diana to come out of choir practice. Other than all the lunch hours spent crocheting at my desk, of course.

My crochet fixation is now such that I can bear having simultaneous projects on my hooks, in various stages of completion, without fretting over finishing them in the shortest possible time. Don’t believe me?

Here’s my Lacy Cardigan WIP, which took what was left of the white Cannon thread. It’s a Japanese chart pattern from Pierrot. I can’t read kanji, but I just wanted to see if I could make something based on a chart. I started with a front panel, adjusted with an additional repeat since the thread yielded a smaller gauge. Should I continue?

I did a few rows of a black Romantic Shrug, but put it on hold while I look for a better brand of black thread. I am not that happy with the black Cannon thread, as it is quite dull and lacks the shine of Cannon’s other colors. I also have another Romantic Shrug in progress, this time in burgundy:

(Figures … I have a photo of this WIP, but none yet of the finished Vanilla Romantic Shrug. LOL.)

And last but not least, I’m doing a Renaissance Tiles Place Mat in lavender for Diana, which should be finished in time for the school opening on June 8:

The pattern for the place mat is on FreePatterns.com, but registration is required before it can be downloaded.

Who says crochet isn’t fun?

Relocation: Last night, I moved the site over to its new home at HostHelpers.Com. It took about two hours, me not being the brightest bulb after a full day’s work. Special thanks to the folks at Hosthelpers and to Podz’ WordPress restore guide — it’s a lifesaver.

Recovery: This morning, as I was leaving for the office, I discovered that my Creative Muvo TX FM wouldn’t play, having picked up a couple of Trojans, undoubtedly from last night’s labors. As of this post, the virii have been sent packing, the latest drivers and firmware have been installed, and 97% of my music has been restored (all but three songs — the available space on the player was cut by 9 MB after the install. Sigh.)

I started working on this last April 13. After two days, I had a lacy WIP:

On April 19, I finished the first sleeve and realized just how lacy the shrug really was.

At 1:30AM on April 26, my (first) Romantic Shrug was completed. And, since I couldn’t take a photo or have one taken at that hour, I waited till just now to do it.

I’ll be starting on the next one as soon as I get more thread. Mimi thinks I’m a fast crocheter, and I suppose I am, at that. (Thanks, Mimi.) Would be faster if I lived next to my Local Yarn Shop (LYS), but then Daren and Diana would probably never speak to me again.

I started crocheting my white Shells and Flowers Shrug last March 14, but when I ran out of white yarn, found myself working on a cappuccino-colored one to pass the time. This time I made bigger stitches, so it’s slightly looser than the ones I did earlier. I finished it on March 31, but photos were taken just a few minutes ago:

And, not having replenished my stash of white just then, I decided to try my hand at a shrug for Diana, using Cannon multicolor yarn.

Here’s how it looked on April 5:

I wanted to make it a bit loose for Diana, so that it wouldn’t constrict her movements, and to ensure that she could wear it for at least a few more months. I started with a base of 30 rows for the body, made and frogged the first sleeve (too tight), added three more rows to the body and frogged them again (too big), and settled for adding one more row to the original 30. After a few more experiments with the sleeves, this is how Diana’s shrug turned out:

And now I’m looking forward to working on another shrug pattern, which Mimi generously sent me. Thank you, Mimi!

I can’t wait.

She told us that she’d made First Honorable Mention days earlier, but there’s nothing quite like seeing it in writing.

Or seeing her smile after the long graduation ceremony, sitting in McDonald’s and still wearing her honor and club medals.

Or putting those hard-earned medals away, together with her diploma.

We are so very proud of you, Daren.

Congratulations!