Category Archives: parenting

Happy New Year! January 2026 Life and Ink

by

1

We made it! Plan “get the dog and us across the country with an RV and our friend who loves driving” was a total success. We were lucky to get a very nice agent at the border and didn’t even have to have the whole RV searched. It’s tempting to point at the past week of news to explain why I’m so happy to have made it out safely, but if I’m honest with myself I could have pointed at nearly any past week of news in the year or so since we started making more concrete plans to leave and it would have seemed just as urgent then as now. But yeah, I made it and I’m excited for J to have his turn to be the immigrant; hopefully it won’t be as demoralizing for him as it often was for me.

A largish RV sitting in our new driveway in the snow, with lots of winter shrubs and trees around it.

We’re kind of rattling around in a large empty house at the moment, and there’s some stress going on with the moving company and the internet setup, but at this point most of the scariest parts of this adventure are over. Unless you’re our anxiety-ridden pandemic dog, who now has to meet a lot of strangers who come into the house. Thankfully he’s got lots of other nice things to enjoy that make up for the stress. He particularly likes the kid’s new game that he calls “melt the dog” which involves turning on the fireplace next to the dog bed and watching Hatch slowly sprawl out. I’m not sure why the kid thinks this is hilarious but Hatch obviously doesn’t mind. We’re giving kid a few more days of vacation to sleep and adapt before getting him registered in school but that’ll be soon.

Hatch, a black lab mix dog, is sprawled in a white fluffy dog bed with his front feet sticking out one side. There is a lit gas fireplace behind him, warming him up.

It took me a bit before I sat down and made some stationary choices for this month, mostly because cleaning up the remaining drywall dust and flooring sawdust and whatnot took precedence. Also sleeping. A lot of sleeping. And figuring out how things work and where to put stuff. And people stopping by (good for everyone but poor dog).

A set of stationary supplies: two sticker sheets of birds from Mind Wave and winter dragons from Stickii, three inks and four fountain pens and two washi tapes. Everything is described in more detail in the psot.

Stickers

  • Japanese birds in costumes for all seasons (Mind Wave)
  • Winter Dragons (Sara Capello Illustration for Stickii)

I’ll probably need another sticker sheet but I may just use up some leftover bits. We’ll see how much I write once I’m tired from work.

Fountain Pens & Ink

  • Platinum Preppy Wa – Koi pattern <F>. This has the original black cartridge in it.
  • Kaweco Liliput <BB> – KWZ Jurassic Treasure
  • Pelikan Pina Colada <M> – Diamine Celestial Skies from Inkvent.
  • Pilot E95S <M> – Pilot Iroshizuku fuyu-gaki

Two of these are new pens, both from Fountain Pen Day sales but I hadn’t gotten them inked with the chaos of December.

The Liliput has been on my wish list for a while as a shiny upgrade to my kaweco sport pens, which get regularly rotated in and out because I like writing with them but the aesthetics of them have never grabbed me. I’ve only written with it a bit but the nib is lovely and I suspect I’ll get used to having to screw the cap onto the back of the pen though that’s not my favourite. Still, I love the feel of it, so light and satisfying to hold. And the shiny blue looks just as good as I hoped it would. I wasn’t sure if the double-broad nib would be too much, but I rather like it, especially with this super smooth and shiny ink.

The Pelikan Pina Colada was more of an impulse buy because it was cheap and used the same converter I have for the Pelikan Twist. It feels light and maybe looks a bit unappealing because of the plastic, but it has a really nice clip and the grip is more comfortable for me than the one on the Twist. I’ll withhold final thoughts until I see if it handles a month of writing with sparkly Diamine ink. So far it’s not really bringing the sparkle as much as the Twist did, but I don’t think this ink itself is quite as sparkle heavy as the last thing I used in the Twist so who knows. We’ll see if it clogs.

KWZ Jurassic Treasure and Pilot Iroshizuku fuyu-gaki are both inks I’ve had a while but I’m not sure I’ve inked pens with them. I bought the rest the KWZ “all that glitters” line when it came in stock because it is my favourite sparkle ink that works in every pen and it only has 4 colours — I’ve used the blue/silver and orange/gold ones, this is gold/gold and there’s also a green/gold. I hope they make more. I’d love a purple/silver. Fuyu-gaki came in a little set of Pilot inks and I wish it was more red and less orange (the swatch is a bit darker than my writing with a non-dip pen) but it’s a fun colour even if I was really hoping for a good red.

Celestial Skies was possibly my favourite of this year’s Inkvent Teal calendar, so I figured I should ink it first. It’s nice that the gold sparkle goes well with Jurassic Treasure for a lightly matched ink palette.

Notebooks and Bags

This setup hasn’t really changed since I last posted, I think, but here’s a picture since it’s been a little while:

My current notebook setup: Lihit labs pen case with fountain pens, washi, stamps and scissors above, Lochby Field Folio case with a Campus free monthly calendar on one side and a Lechtturm notebook on the other.

My current notebook setup: Lihit labs pen case with fountain pens, washi, stamps and scissors above, Lochby Field Folio case with a Campus free monthly calendar on one side and a Leuchtturm notebook on the other. There’s a wooden pencil in the pen slot and a sticker sheet barely visible on one side.

All of this is working well for me: I used one of the calendars in the back of the campus diary for swatching inkvent and was impressed at how well it handled even some of the wetter swatches. The Leuchtterm is about half full from my start in October and it also handled some paintbrush swatches of ink. I won’t say I’ve completely gotten used to how much more ghosting it has than some of the other notebooks I’ve tried, but it’s usable and I could see myself using it again if I wanted a higher page count. Mostly I want less page count so I don’t have to carry as much with me, though. The pen case and A5 Field Folio are both great. I’m tempted to try some of Lochby’s other offerings, but they’re a bit thick for what I want out of a purse notebook so this bigger journal setup may be the only place they fit in my life. Oh, also I’m using a little midori calendar stencil instead of calendar stickers this year for the little monthly calendar I put at the start of each month for a quick “what day is it again?” check.

Commuter Stationary Planning

I’m going to be commuting to my new job on the bus several days per week, and I decided that rather than just transferring my existing little purse-backpack notebook back and forth, my commuter backpack should get its own notebook. Not sure yet if I’ll use that for work or it’ll just be for doodles on the bus.

A lochby TN size notebook tucked into a TN zipper case insert, with a clear TWSBI eco sitting on top of it. Beside it is a small maurman flip notebook with a todo list in it from december, sitting on a Tom Bihn ghost whale pouch. there are two more fountain pens beside it: an Ooly duo and a pilot varsity.
A Lochby TN size notebook tucked into a TN zipper case insert, with a clear TWSBI eco sitting on top of it. Beside it is a small maurman flip notebook with a todo list in it from december, sitting on a Tom Bihn ghost whale pouch. there are two more fountain pens beside it: an Ooly duo and a pilot varsity.

Right now I’ve put together a TN-sized notebook from Lochby and my TN zipper case and stuck them together so the zipper case serves as a notebook cover (I used to use this zipper case stuck to the back of my calendar to hold stickers). I’ll probably fill up my TWSBI Eco with something non-sparkly so I don’t have to worry about clogging. Maybe pull out the bottle of Nitrogen for a bit of sheen, not sure yet.

In practice, the only stationary I really used in my last job was my running todo list notebook. I’ve yet to find a digital to do list that works as well for me as a little paper notebook does. Not sure if that will still be the case but I threw it in the picture with the commuter notebook because there was space. I’ll see if I wind up using it for work or if it will be only for personal lists. Mostly I stick two or three pens and the notebook into the pouch and then into my pocket and use it around the house on days when I will absolutely forget to do things if I don’t write them down, or when I need a little boost of checkboxes to keep me on track.

Stationary Shopping in Canada

Shipping even small stuff from the US seems to cost about $25 minimum so I’m unlikely to do many orders from the US in the future, stationary or not. That’s definitely not a surprise, since before I left it was pretty common for people to put together big group buys of stuff to defray shipping costs. And with the political situation in the US, Canadians are kind of aggressively refusing to shop American and support the whole war machine, which rather makes sense. Thankfully it’s not much of a concern if I can’t shop where I used to: I’ve got a comfortable amount of supplies after my enthusiastic shopping since I started using fountain pens again in 2024, and I could probably write happily without buying anything new for a year or two. Still, I’m intending to find some Canadian stationary/pen stores to shop at, online and maybe offline (I know there’s one near my old apartment that has a small selection). If you know if great stores in Canada that carry fountain pens and ink, let me know!

I don’t have a big wishlist at the moment: maybe some standard inks to balance out my collection which is very dominated by inkvent holiday inks? No pens on my radar right now, since the Liliput was the last one. A friend may be storing his pen lathe in our garage so maybe I’ll get a kit and try turning a pen or two if we get that set up. I’ve got paper and stickers enough to last for probably over a year at my current journalling rate, though I’m always open to stickers when I find new artists I want to support.

New Job

New job starts next week and I’m excited! This was the best team I interviewed with and I’m looking forwards to getting to know them. I’m also very much looking forwards to having income again as we deal with the last moving bills and no doubt new expenses as we figure out what we need in the new house. I’m less looking forwards to a long commute to the office three days a week, but I also have no furniture for my office and for some reason the flooring guys forgot that room so I also have to wait for a new floor… which is all to say that I’m going to be glad to have a desk and proper chair!

Mom, I’m bored

I feel like I should wrap this up somehow but my kid is telling me he is BORED so I guess that’s that. Happy new year!

Shark Pen!

by

3

It’s a fountain pen shaped like a shark! It’s made by Jinhao, who are known for making cheap but often decent fountain pens. It sounds like not all of their pens are winners because quality control isn’t great but if you’re willing to roll the dice and don’t mind that the design may be a total knockoff, sometimes you get a pretty decent pen at a discount price.

A shark-inspired fountain pen sits on my desk with two kitty pencil sharpeners. The shark pen has a shark shaped head with eyes, gills and a small dorsal fin. There is no tail on the other end of the pen; it tapers to a slightly smaller cylinder. The pen is made of a silvery blue/grey plastic with a clear section in the middle so you can see the ink. This section is a bit thinner than the rest of the pen and has some dents to support a triangular grip.
Image description: A shark-inspired fountain pen sits on my desk with two kitty pencil sharpeners. The shark pen has a shark shaped head with eyes, gills and a small dorsal fin. There is no tail on the other end of the pen; it tapers to a slightly smaller cylinder. The pen is made of a silvery blue/grey plastic with a clear section in the middle so you can see the ink. This section is a bit thinner than the rest of the pen and has some dents to support a triangular grip.

My shark pen cost $4 and was an impulse add to hit free shipping or something, but you can get them considerably cheaper from Ali Express or Amazon — search for Jinhao 993 or Jinhao shark pen. If you buy a pack of them I think they’re less than $2 each, which is pretty sweet for a pen with an included converter. It’s a bit longer than most of my other pens. Here’s a photo showing it with the Platinum Preppy and Pilot Varsity, both similar pens appreciated for their cheap prices.

Jinhao Shark Pen, Platinum Preppy Wa, and Pilot varsity. The shark pen is longer than the preppy which is in turn longer than the varsity.
Image Description: Jinhao Shark Pen, Platinum Preppy Wa, and Pilot Varsity. The shark pen is longer than the Preppy which is in turn longer than the Varsity.

I’m impressed at how nicely it writes. It’s got a very fine tip, so it’s not ergonomically great for *me* but as long as I’m not writing pages of stuff it’s pretty decent for notes and todo lists, and still a bit easier on my hands than a ballpoint. It’s thin enough that it works nicely without show-through on my thin-paged calendar and on cheaper notebooks without fancy paper. Well, it doesn’t show through in normal use: my kid definitely managed to get it to bleed, but that was very intentional on his part as he was exploring how the pen worked.

Shark pen sitting on my Field Notes (larger size) notebook that I carry around. It has been filled with kid doodles while my kid was playing with the pen, including a stick dog which has been labelled "dog" a butteryfly, a rainbow, a happy face and more. Most has been drawn with the shark pen although he's added some accents in purple (using my Pilot Kakuno)
Image Description: Shark pen sitting on my Field Notes (larger size) notebook that I carry around. It has been filled with kid doodles while my kid was playing with the pen, including a stick dog which has been labelled “dog” a butteryfly, a rainbow, a happy face and more. Most has been drawn with the shark pen although he’s added some accents in purple (using my Pilot Kakuno)

I bought it with the intention of it being a fun pen to have in my backpack for kid entertainment, and I particularly appreciate that it’s got a bit of plastic covering most of the nib, which makes it considerably less messy to hand to my child. (I’m not sure all versions of the pen have this, but mine does.).

Shark pen unchapped on my book. You can see that there is a black "hood" over the fountain pen nib. It is sitting on a notebook where you can see that my kid was delighted to discover that if he held the pen at the right angle he could get the ink to bleed through. Hands on learning!
Image Description: Shark pen unchapped on my book. You can see that there is a black “hood” over the fountain pen nib. It is sitting on a notebook where you can see that my kid was delighted to discover that if he held the pen at the right angle he could get the ink to bleed through. Hands on learning!

It is worth $4 for me but I’m mildly regretting not shopping around and getting a set instead, especially since there’s a good chance my one pen will wind up meeting an ignoble end while providing child entertainment. Oh well, maybe I’ll get a set next time if that happens!

Jinhao Shark Pen in blue/grey. It's a pen with a shark head shaped cap.
Image Description: Jinhao Shark Pen in blue/grey. It’s a pen with a shark head shaped cap.

Travel Gear Review: Tom Bihn gear

by

As I mentioned in my post about my cane, I use a Synik 22 Guide’s Edition for travel because of the cane mount point. But it’s far from the only thing from Tom Bihn that I use, so here’s a ridiculously long and photo-filled exploration of what I carry in my various pouches and bags.

I’ve been a Tom Bihn devotee since I bought their Parental Unit as a diaper bag when my kid was a baby, and we loved having a sturdy bag that didn’t scream “only moms change diapers” (this was an ongoing issue in kid gear — ask my husband about the High Chair of the Patriarchy). I’ve bought a lot of gear from them over the years since and like the way many of the parts are interchangeable or work well together, so unsurprisingly they’ve become my go-to for both everyday and travel bags.

This is just a run down of my travel collection, but it’s still a lot of stuff!

Synik 22

My beloved backpack!

A collapsible hiking cane with cork handle attached to a green backpack with a strap intended for an ice axe.
A collapsible hiking cane with cork handle attached to a green backpack with a strap intended for an ice axe.

Things I love about this: the cane mount point of the guide’s edition was really the big seller for me, as I described in the post about the cane. The bottom mount points get less use but are still handy for jackets. I do wish I had a quick-release for the cane: it wouldn’t be hard to make one but I haven’t gotten around to it because I got hung up on seeing if I could find matching clips and nylon webbing.

The luggage pass-through is another accessibility feature for me: being able to put this bag over a luggage handle helps me reduce the amount of extra weight I put on my injured leg, and it makes a huge difference to how I feel during and after each leg of the journey. Before I bought this bag I used to use a bungie harness thing but the pass-through is easier to do in a hurry and there’s no risk of sudden slippage. It’s been a huge upgrade for me, and I look for it every time I consider a bag now.

I also find the full clamshell-style zip incredibly useful during packing, as well as the straps inside the bag to hold things in. We often have to pull out kid entertainments in airports and those straps really help keep things organized so I can pull out just the right thing. It also makes this bag a lot more suitcase-like which I find really nice for travel. (Turns out it wasn’t particularly useful for my work commute, though, so my original Synapse is still my work laptop bag, not that it gets much use since I work from home most of the time now.)

I also appreciate the size: 22L is about the maximum I should be carrying, but it’s better if I make sure not to stuff this. I had a synapse 25 as my travel bag some years ago and it was just subtly too big for me. (Thankfully, it turned out to be a good size for a friend who needed a new bag and it’s working great for her!)

A light green suitcase (Luka mini luggage) sits next to a red backpack (Tom Bihn Synic)
A light green suitcase (Luka mini luggage) sits next to a red backpack (Tom Bihn Synik)

Very observant people may have noticed that I also have a second red Synik non-guide’s edition which I had my kid use on the last trip, again so that his backpack would slip over luggage handles. Honestly, I probably shouldn’t have bought this bag but I didn’t know that a guide’s edition would be coming and I was very excited about the luggage pass-through. (Which, again, is a big deal for me as a cane user.) So I used this red bag for a few trips but then promptly bought the Guide’s Edition when it came out and replaced this one. But its found its niche now even if it’s no longer my primary travel backpack and instead has become my kid’s primary travel bag. When we’re not getting on a plane, it’s also good as a day trip bag and my husband will grab it when he needs a smaller backpack than his own monster travel bag.

Packing cube shoulder bag

I have used the packing cube shoulder bag since back in the days when they used to hold all my breast pump gear. We used them as smaller diaper bags when we didn’t need to carry around as much stuff, and they still get used as emergency kid entertainment packs for short trips or for leaving in the car. We have 4 of them collected over the years: grey, blue, green and yellow.

For travel purposes, I use one as my purse/knitting bag. It’s big enough to carry larger amounts of knitting as well as being a kid support unit (nosebleed cloths, snacks, toys). It’s light and flexible enough to easily get packed into my backpack as needed. We typically use them as packing cubes for amusements rather than clothes, since they’re a bit small for even my kid’s clothes at this point.

When I’m out and about at my destination I do sometimes miss having something with a bit more structure, as well as the slightly larger size of my Paradigm purse-backpack. I love the Paradigm at home because a backpack is easier with the cane, but it’s not quite big enough for the stuff I want to carry on the plane.

I do own a Side Kick that I used to use as a travel purse, but I wasn’t in love with it and the death knell rang when my kid got a tablet and it didn’t fit. I did use it for a number of trips before he turned 3. Thankfully it hasn’t been useless since then: I use it as a bag for my bullet journal and it’s great fit for that with organization for my pens and stickers and space for my fairly large A5 book. So I’m back to the packing cube shoulder bag for travel, which is more volume for less weight.

I feel like I’m still searching for the perfect bag here, but the packing cube is currently the best I have for this niche.

Ghost Whale Pouches

I use these constantly even when not traveling! The ghost whale pouches current come in 4 sizes and I think I have all of them in my travel kit, though the super mini is a little dubiously useful.

Here’s the ones I had on my last trip.

My basic first aid kit: wipes, bandaids, meds. Someone on the Tom Bihn forum recommended these locking carabiners for pick-pocketing deterrence, and I added one as baby proofing when my kid was small enough that getting into the medicine was a concern, though I rarely need to lock it now. I carry this in my purse-backpack unless I’m traveling especially light. (I wish I could claim it’s for my kid but I’m the one more likely to trip and bleed all over everything.)

A small first aid kit in a Ghost Whale Pouch. There are bandages, wipes, antibiotic cream, lactaid, painkillers, allergy meds, tums and sudafed sitting beside the bag, and all of these things fit inside. There is also a tiny locking carabiner used to baby proof the bag.
Description: A small first aid kit in a Ghost Whale Pouch. There are bandages, wipes, antibiotic cream, lactaid, painkillers, allergy meds, tums and sudafed sitting beside the bag, and all of these things fit inside. There is also a tiny locking carabiner used to baby proof the bag.

Knitting notions bag: scissors, measuring tape, yarn needles, crochet hooks, stitch markers and scrap yarn. I have one of these in my purse and a nearly identical set in my knitting bag when I’m at home. If you’re not a knitter you may not realize that dental floss can be used as a knitting tool for lifelines and makes a good emergency thread cutter.

A Tom Bihn ghost whale pouch being used as a knitting notions bag. Beside it are scissors, measuring tape, a small black container (for yarn needles, stitch markers and scrap yarn), a lip balm, three short crochet hooks on a keychain, a lolipop, and dental floss.
Description: A Tom Bihn ghost whale pouch being used as a knitting notions bag. Beside it are scissors, measuring tape, a small black container (for yarn needles, stitch markers and scrap yarn), a lip balm, three short crochet hooks on a keychain, a lolipop, and dental floss.

My personal travel stationary set is new this year. I talked about the ruler/stencil/bookmark and the notebook in previous posts. Previously I used to carry a tiny notebook and a space pen, but I found myself just not using that setup any more since I’ve developed a preference for bigger notebooks thanks to 2 years with an A5-sized bullet journal. I also carried a fountain pen not pictured here. I don’t know how I feel about flying with fountain pens yet, but I *do* know that I didn’t love that particular big-nibbed pen with this notebook so I’ll be switching it up for next trip if I bring a fountain pen at all.

A pair of Tom Bihn Ghost whale pouches and their contents laid out beside or on top of them. The larger A5 size has a notebook, pikachu mechanical pencil, animal eraser in a case, Field Notes notebook and a metal ruler/stencil/bookmark from Midori. The smaller case has a couple of gel pens (also pokemon themed), a tiny set of coloured pencils, a lip balm and a lollipop.
Image Description: A pair of Tom Bihn Ghost whale pouches and their contents laid out beside or on top of them. The larger A5 size has a notebook, pikachu mechanical pencil, animal eraser in a case, Field Notes notebook and a metal ruler/stencil/bookmark from Midori. The smaller case has a couple of gel pens (also pokemon themed), a tiny set of coloured pencils, a lip balm and a lollipop.

Kid stationary set: this is used for amusing my kid when we’re stuck waiting somewhere. We play a game where one of us draws something and then the other person has to guess and draw what the first thing/creature is thinking. It gets very silly. The pen roll is also made by Tom Bihn. It’s got an interesting design where there’s a plastic piece inside to help the pens stay in; it’s actually a little overly sticky and my kid complains that they’re hard to get out, but I’d kind of rather that than having them constantly falling out in my bag. The other advantage of the roll is that it’s easy to tell if a pen is missing. This usually lives in my purse-backpack when we’re not traveling, though I do take it out for weight sometimes.

A notebook with a lenticular Google summer of Code logo thing, a set of stickers, a rainbow set of washable markers in a bright yellow pen roll and an A5-sized ghost whale pouch.
Image description: A notebook with a lenticular Google summer of Code logo thing, a set of stickers, a rainbow set of washable markers in a bright yellow pen roll and an A5-sized ghost whale pouch.

Battery case: This is just a small USB backup battery for my phone that I keep around for emergencies or for playing Pokemon Go. Having a tiny bag for this is likely overkill but I already owned the bag and it’s handy for keeping backpack lint from getting into my charge ports.

A very small purple pouch with a very small off-white USB backup battery meant for use with a cell phone.
Image description: A very small purple pouch with a very small off-white USB backup battery meant for use with a cell phone.

Key Straps

The Tom Bihn “system” has little o-rings sewn into the bag. The ghost whale pouches can clip to the o rings directly, but I also use a number of key straps so you can pull things out without unlatching them. I like that they come in different colours so I can see what I’m going to fish up, which is especially nice for the keys and wallet (also from Tom Bihn) in my purse but also for the various things in my knitting bag (pictured below but not used for travel).

A pair of purple and bright orange key straps leading to mysterious items buried in the bottom of my knitting bag. There's also a narwhal themed knitting project bag.
Image description: A pair of purple and bright orange key straps leading to mysterious items buried in the bottom of my knitting bag. There’s also a narwhal themed knitting project bag.
A blue nylon wallet clipped to a matching blue key strap. Some American money is visible in the outer pocket of the wallet.
Image Description: A blue nylon wallet clipped to a matching blue key strap. Some American money is visible in the outer pocket of the wallet.

I use my older RFID-blocking wallet when travelling to Canada and miss the clip part frequently! Maybe one day I’ll upgrade my Canadian wallet to something that I can clip a strap too but for a few trips per year it doesn’t seem worthwhile.

Some Other stuff

I bought the clear 3d organizer bag to be the liquids bag for baby shampoo, but nowadays it’s mostly used for toothbrushes and typically gets packed in the checked luggage so I don’t have to deal with security theatre in cases where our legalized bribes (I mean “trusted traveler numbers”) don’t let us avoid that part of things. Kind of overkill but it lasts better than a plastic bag. I did regret checking it when we got stranded in Chicago so maybe I’ll put it back in the carry-on eventually.

A Tom Bihn rounded pouch and two pairs of sunglasses in adult and child sizes. The pouch is purple and sewn from nylon with a zipper opening and a plastic clip on one side.
Description: A Tom Bihn rounded pouch and two pairs of sunglasses in adult and child sizes. The pouch is purple and sewn from nylon with a zipper opening and a plastic clip on one side.

The pouch pictured above was called the Q-kit (I could have sworn it was the Q-zip though) and is currently on the discontinued list. I think it predates my beloved ghost whale pouches. This is especially nice as a sunglasses case that fits both my sunglasses and my kid’s. This way when I get mine out I can offer his at the same time, which is handy.

Honestly, I didn’t like the Handy Little Thing much when I first got it because I’d envisioned using it in a way that didn’t work out. But I kept experimenting and eventually it replaced my previous charging setup for travel. It fits in the otherwise slightly awkward bottom pocket of the Synik, which is handy if I think I might want to charge on the plane/train while the suitcase is overhead, but mostly I leave it in the suitcase to reduce weight and use a backup battery for charging en route.

Overall

Yup, I’m a Tom Bihn fangirl, and I have a very expensive collection of stuff thanks to being a well-paid security professional with a love of travel gear and bags. But that slowly-grown collection of interchangeable pouches and straps has really helped me have a travel bag setup that grew and changed as my kid’s and my own needs have changed over the past many years since I bought that first diaper bag. I imagine 5 years from now I’ll look back at this and I’ll have a very different setup again, but some of these same components will be part of it.

Meat Hat (free pattern)

by

My kid decided he wanted to have a “meat hat” and after some consultation to figure out what he meant by that, it was determined that he wanted a green hat with some sort of meat pixel art on the hat, possibly inspired by Minecraft. He picked out the yarn in the spring, but it was already too warm for a hat so I didn’t get around to actually knitting it until fall. I got him to make some additional design guidance and handed him a pixel art editor for final designs, and this is what he drew:

Notes from my meat hat design meeting with my kindergartener. On the left is hand drawn picture of three types of meat with arrows between them, on the right are the same meats as pixel art. They are supposedly steak, chicken and meatballs.

He then clarified:

  • The types of meat are steak, chicken and meatballs
  • Each one could go on its own line but had to be repeated around the hat

Seems clear enough, although I’m still not sure what inspired the need for a meat hat. But he has outgrown his previous winter hat, so away we go! I can’t really imagine other people wanting to knit a meat hat so it feels a bit odd to document this as a pattern, but who knows maybe your kindergartener is also into meat?

Spoilers: here’s what the actual hat looked like after we made it!

The Meat Hat (and matching mitts) designed by my kindgergartener. The meats represented are meatballs, chicken, and steak.
The Meat Hat (and matching mitts) designed by my kindgergartener. The meats represented are meatballs, chicken, and steak.

My kid’s head is 21″ which is basically an adult small. Yes, he has a huge head (and I had the stitches to show for it, thanks. And not the knitting kind of stitches!).

  • I used the free Barley hat pattern from Tin Can Knits as a base to figure out sizing because it was free and I wanted to try out the new sizing in their app (which is pretty neat). If you need a different size, you could maybe use that to help you figure it out. The matching mitts are the kid’s size from the simple collection, also available in the app or their website.
  • Sorry, I haven’t made a written or accessible version of this because I honestly can’t imagine anyone but me knitting it. There is alt text describing what’s in the charts for curious passers by, but no written instructions or higher contrast charts available, and my kid’s dark green and dark brown colour choices aren’t the easiest to read. If you do want an accessible version and you promise to actually try knitting it, ping me at terri(at)toybox.ca and I’ll see what I can do.

Yarn: Worsted weight. I used Dream in Colour Smooshy for the main green colour, Amano Yarns Warmi for the brown meat colour (the heathering really rocks for this) and Knitpicks Swish Worsted for the black and white bits. The contrast here isn’t as good as it could be, but that’s what happens when your kid picks the colours based on what feels nice in the yarn store. I’m not sad: these were lovely to knit with.

Needles: US6 for brim / US 8 for body. If your colourwork tends to be tight you probably want to go up at least one needle size for the colourwork. (I did not do this, but then had to stretch the hat a bit during blocking as a result.) There are some long floats here: this might be a good piece for practicing the ladder back jacquard technique if you want an excuse.

Brim

Cast on 84 stitches with smaller needs (US6 for me) in main colour (or a contrast colour, you do you!)

Ribbing Row: (Knit 2, purl 2) repeat around

Work ribbing row for around 1.5 inches or however long you want your brim to be.

Switch to larger needles (US8 for me)

Stockinette Row: knit around

Work stockinette row for 1.5 inches if you wish to have a folded up brim and don’t want the pattern to get hidden. If you don’t like a folded brim, you can just work 2 rows instead, but you’ll have to start decreases earlier in the hat colourwork (or enjoy a slouchier hat!)

Colourwork

Increase row: m1, knit around

My pixel art program produces 16×16 sized images, but 84 doesn’t divide evenly into 16. However 17 is a multiple of 85, so I just added an increase in the first motif and repeated each steak motif 5 times. Technically my kid drew stuff with a lot of white space so if you’re really committed to 84 stitches for some reason you *could* trim his charts down to 12 stitches and make them fit. I just didn’t do this for the steak and chicken charts.

If you tend to have tight colourwork, you should go up another needle size here.

Follow steak chart for the motif, but I removed most of the green lines and kept only 2 between the steak and chicken.

A pixel art rendition of a steak. It is rectangular with some black "grill marks" on one side.

Follow chicken chart for the motif, skipping some green lines as you prefer. I moved my stitch markers so that the chicken lined up with the gaps in the previous chart. I kept 1 green row before starting the meatball chart and removed all the others. I personally did the top of the chicken and black bits as duplicate stitch because I was tired of carrying long floats, but you do whatever works for you. (if you took out more green columns the floats might not be so bad.)

Pixel art as a knitting pattern featuring my kid's rendition of "chicken" which appears to be a slightly rectangular roast chicken shape but it's white with black dots on the end of the "legs"

At this point, I decided I wanted more meatballs, so I tucked a k2tog in the start of the meatball chart to go back down to 84 stitches and adjusted to a 14 stitch motif repeated 6 times instead.

Pixel art as a knitting pattern featuring 4 meatballs on a green background.

Note that I needed to start crown decreases while I was in the midst of the meatball motif on the top meatball, so I just stuck them in between the meatballs (see below for decrease instructions)

If you went up a needle size for the colourwork, you can decrease again here.

Crown decreases

Once the motifs have reached around 6 inches you’ll need to start decreases:

Decrease row: (k12, k2tog) repeat around (6 times)

(Or if you’re still in the middle of a motif, work motif for 12 stitches then the decrease. )

Work decrease row then stockinette row for first 4 decreases, then work decrease row only until you have 6 stitches. Cut yarn leaving a 6 inch tail and weave through the final stitches then pull tight and tie closed. Weave in ends. Block.

The Dread Pirate Kid wearing his Meat Hat in the snow.
The Dread Pirate Kid wearing his Meat Hat in the snow.

And that’s the meat hat! Kiddo did indeed wear it this week when we had actual snow and cold, though I expect the hat won’t get much use since he’s pretty anti-hat unless it’s actually cold. It’s seldom below freezing here for more than a week per year . But it was fun to work on his design so I’m not sad even if it only gets worn a few times. He says he wants a rainbow sweater next!

Pikmin hat

by

I know the yarniverse is all abuzz with a very pink movie coming out this weekend, but my kid and I are more excited about Pikmin 4, so he asked for this last night and I made it today:

Terri is wearing a hat based on the video game pikmin. It is blue with a round base tapering to a point with a green leaf sticking out of it.
Terri is wearing a hat based on the video game pikmin. It is blue with a round base tapering to a point with a green leaf sticking out of it.

It’s a Pikmin hat!

Yarn: some bulky blue I had in stash with no label, plus some green variegated Red Heart Super Saver held doubled.

Hook size: I (5.5mm)

I used this “pixie hat” pattern for the base since I’d made one ages ago and remembered it: https://crochetcrochet.livejournal.com/428082.html

Before rows 3, 4, 5 I added a row of double crochet to make the “stem” a bit longer than it was in the original design. It would be a bit more game accurate to make it thinner/taller but then it might need some reinforcement to stand up. As my 5 year old immediately put on the hat and started headbang-smacking his dad with the leaf, I think I made the right choice to avoid any stiffeners or wire in this project.

For the leaf I used this pattern: https://www.cookiesnobcrochet.com/home/fall-leaf-garland (I have made my own leaf patterns in the past, but I liked the finishing on this one in particular.)

Then I sewed the leaf to the top with some extra work and some longer stitches into the stem to make sure it was on securely and wouldn’t flop over too much.

My kid has an adult-sized noggin so it fits both of us.

It took most of the day to make between playing board games with my kid and giving the dog a bath. (That is to say, it took all day but very little of that day was spent crocheting.)

Pikmin hat sitting in a basket of purple and pink flowers. The hat itself is blue and tapers to a point with a leaf on the tip.

Of course now I kind of wish I had more random bulky yarn to make a yellow and red one so the whole family can match.

Sleep apps for parents

by

One of the hardest parts of early stage parenting is the sleep deprivation. When you add in a pandemic where “safe” childcare suddenly wasn’t easy to come by, then all time and especially sleep becomes a zero sum game between me and my co-parent. And the whole world is having sleep problems.

Work provided me with subscriptions to several programs to help with sleep as part of our healthcare program, so I thought I’d try them out. I tried out Sleep.io and Headspace. Both were marketed to me as having help specific for parents. Both helped me, but I think *I* got a lot more out of Headspace, and Sleep.io’s advice triggered headaches. Here’s some of my notes on them both in case it’s helpful for other parents or people looking for sleep help:

Headspace vs Sleep.io

Headspace is primarily a meditation app, which includes a number of meditations to help you prepare for sleep, including a course on sleep to help you learn and practice techniques. I initially tried it for a 30 day meditation challenge at work, doing both regular meditation and sleep-oriented content in that time.

Sleep.io is a 10 week sleep course. It’s absolutely filled with known research on sleep and focuses on a few techniques plus asks you to keep a sleep diary so it can help make specific recommendations. It’s also got a big encyclopedia of articles and some discussion forums, but I only read one article and didn’t try the forums at all. I also did my 10 weeks not entirely consecutively because I missed the reminders and forgot. (I probably should have another whole blog post about how badly I am served by most reminders as a parent, but that’s another story for another time.)

I started using both in 2020. I’ve kept up with Headspace because I continue to find it useful but haven’t gone back to Sleep.io since I completed the course.

Parental Sleep vs Kid Sleep

A lot of times when people say “sleep help for parents” they really mean “helping your kid sleep better” but… honestly, I think we put a lot of pressure on ourselves for kids to sleep well but their bodies are gonna do what they do. I don’t think I’m going to be able to stop my kid from waking up in the middle of the night sometimes (it’s normal for his age!) so focusing on that wasn’t going to improve my sleep. What I wanted out of these apps was to improve my own sleep so I could deal with nightmares and try to minimize insomnia.

Sleep.io had an article about helping kids to sleep that repeated stuff I knew, and most of it was more relevant for older kids. It didn’t really have anything for parental sleep.

Headspace has kid sleep meditations in conjunction with Sesame Street monsters. They’re pretty cute but my kid was so excited about having a video at bedtime that I think they were mostly counter-productive but still kind of fun sometimes. They have some pretty good content for parents, though honestly I found the regular sleep content was more of what I needed for my parental sleep needs.

What worked for me

My biggest sleep challenge was about getting back to sleep after being woken by my child (or by pandemic nightmares), as well as some busy-brain/having to do tasks late at night before-bed insomnia.

Sleep.io contained a lot of information I already knew about preparing for sleep and having a good sleep environment. But it was good to review, and it primed me for noticing when we needed a new mattress so that was helpful long after I finished the course.

Doing the course encouraged me to try changing my pre-bed routines, which is why I seldom write in this blog any more: the screen/brain active time right before bed was noticeably causing me to stay up later than I intended. I’m going to have to find a different solution for writing if I want to prioritize it. (do I? probably. do I want to right now? It’s probably ok if I don’t. I’ve volunteered to do more writing for work so I don’t get out of practice but also don’t have to fit it into my personal time.)

The most mystifying thing I found in the course was their assertion that reading before bed was bad but watching tv would be fine as part of a wind down. I can’t tell if I’m more active about my video watching or just more sensitive to blue light but TV was not a viable wind down for me when I experimented.

Headspace was the real winner here, though: it took very close to the full 30 days of practice, but Headspace trained me to recognize when I was drowsy enough to sleep and help me put my brain into “sleep mode.”

Honestly, I didn’t think it was going to work and for the first few weeks it kind of felt pointless. But with repeated practice I got to the point where the repeated sleep meditation could help me let go, and some of the other exercises like the “noting” one actually did help me stop fixating on stuff right before bed. (It took longer than the 30 days before I could just run through the ideas in my head and get similar results.) I can fall asleep faster after wake-ups pretty consistently now (my biggest issue) and it’s helped with my occasional bouts of insomnia. Not every time, but most of the time I can snap myself out of it and sleep now.

What didn’t work for me

The biggest fail for me was the “sleep efficiency” stuff in Sleep.io. The idea is to improve your quality of sleep by giving up naps and making sure you’re tired when you go to sleep so you’ll stay asleep better. This completely doesn’t work when you have an external force in the form of a young child waking you up every night. Mostly it gave me headaches, so I gave up without giving it the full go because I didn’t want to trigger a migraine.

The other fails were more minor. Headspace leans heavily on a “picture the blue sky” visualization in their early training program. I’m incredibly photosensitive when I have a headache, so “picturing the blue sky” was viscerally painful to do at times. I switched to visualizing a night sky with stars and it was fine. There were a few other visualizations that didn’t work for me unmodified, but aside from me thinking a few unkind thoughts about ableism I was able to adjust them to work for me.

Also, it’s worth noting that while I mostly do the sleep meditations as expected, I typically knit during the daytime meditations. This isn’t my first foray into meditation, and when I last did it in college I found it significantly more effective for me if I was moving (at that time it was mostly walking). It needs to be something simple that I can do with my eyes closed and without looking at a pattern, but knitting helps immensely when I can do it without it becoming a distraction. You may notice I’ve knit more plain socks with self striping yarn in the past year: these are perfect for meditation time.

I also really hated the logging system for Sleep.io. If I hadn’t had the data mostly from my fitness watch thingy, I likely would have given up on logging entirely because the data entry form was such a minor but consistent annoyance to me. I already knew what a minimal amount of sleep looked like thanks to my fitness band’s tracking, though I think Sleep.io might have been helpful there if I hadn’t already analyzed that data myself. I’d tracked this for headaches, so I knew when I was dangerously tired. I also knew that sometimes naps would be required in lieu of painkillers, which didn’t fit into the Sleep.io worldview at all. I would not be surprised to find others find the program a little problematic when combined with other sleep-impacting health issues.

Conclusion

Headspace actually improved my sleep. I felt foolish, but forcing myself to keep up a regular practice actual had an impact and I’m very happy to continue. I’ve also found it very helpful in switching from “parent mode” to “work mode” which is a big thing for me thanks to my pandemic-instigated lack of childcare. I no longer do it every day, but a few times a week I still find it helpful.

Sleep.io improved my sleep minorly at the cost of giving me intense headaches when I tried to follow their recommendations. If you’re not headache prone or simply haven’t spent as much time reading sleep research this program may be good for you to go through all of that, but for me it was only a partial win and I wouldn’t recommend it for parental sleep in particular because of the focus on uninterrupted sleep.