Wynken, Blynken, and Nod; quilt, and sleeping tips

Firstly, I have made some promises to people: I have not forgotten them! As soon as I can, I will post about babywearing, how-to with links. Then I'd like to do a series on baking bread. Coming soon. Really.

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night sailed off in a wooden shoe.
Sailed on a river of crystal light,
into a sea of dew.

"Where are you going and what do you wish?"
The old moon asked the three.
"We've come to fish for the herring fish that live in this beautiful sea.

Nets of silver and gold have we," said Wynken, Blynken, and Nod.



So begins a poem by Eugene Field, which my parents sang to me as a lullabye. Being sung to is a great way to fall asleep; I highly recommend it. Wanting to grant sweet bedtimes to this new little one, I hoped to find a picture book on which to base a quilt for him. After a long search, I found found a lovely copy of the tale, illustrated by David MacPhail. I didn't start work the quilt until we'd successfully ordered the book, but thereafter we found it was not in stock, and not available. If you see a copy of this book anywhere, please snatch it up for me! Cartwheel Books published it in 2004. I used MacPhail's illustrations as the basis for this quilt for our new little friend Adam, who was born just a few months ago and seems to be enjoying himself.
It's mostly cotton, with satin binding, and a few silk details. I love satin blanket edges. I remember them from the wool blankets my Gramma Loretta kept on the bed I slept in when sleeping over at her house. You rub that soft smooth edge between your fingers as you drift asleep. It helps, along with the singing.

You can see some of the stars, and a feather stitch that goes all around the border.I pieced the top with an actual sewing machine! (this is a big step for me; I've been exclusively hand-sewing for a while.) I worked the quilting and other embroidery by hand. Piecing is sewing together the different blocks that make up the background of the quilt. Quilting is stitching all the layers together. This night sky is quilted with stars.

These little guys are the fishermen who catch the stars. Their boat is a pocket and you can take them out of it, to hold or snuggle with. They each have different textures lining their ears; terrycloth, velour, corduroy. They are lightly stuffed to fit extra nicely in little hands. The sail is a separate tiny quilt. you can undo the buttons to take it off. Flying from the ship's mast is a silken flag. It reads: Adam.



Wynken and Blynken are two little eyes,
Nod is a sleepy head.
And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies
is a wee one's trundle bed.
So shut your eyes while Mama sings
of wonderful sights that be,
and you shall see the beautiful things
as you rock in the misty sea,
where the old shoe rocked the fishermen three;
Wynken,
and Blynken,

and Nod.

I hope you do, little Adam.

Audi Saga, Becoming Epic

Before I start, I'd like to give a disclaimer. Last time I did an automotive blog I got a few reports that it was boring. If you find mechanical problem solving a bore, don't feel like you have to read this! Believe it or not, some people find sewing and knitting boring too. Who knew?

About a month ago our beautiful '82 Audi diesel started making an unfortunate metallic tapping sound at medium rpms. Fearing valve contact with pistons (bad) I stooped driving it and started to work.

What's the first thing I did? I posted on my trusty VW diesel forum. The amount of expertise about something as obscure as VW diesel engines from the '80's is pretty impressive. I couldn't have replaced my injector pump (big job) without these guys. You can follow my current problem's thread here.

After making sure that nothing was simply rattling under the hood, I checked to make sure that the cam was timed correctly with the pistons. It should have been, since I did that myself last November, but I checked anyway. Next I checked the valve adjustment. Instead of a set screw, this engine uses little shim disks to adjust valve clearances. I needed special tools, which I found on ebay, to take out the old shims and put in the new.

None of this made any difference, so I turned my attention to the injectors. Some folks on the forum had suggested that they can make a pretty loud noise when they're bad. I was made aware of a supposedly amazing product called Diesel Purge that would temporarily relieve injector symptoms and let me know if it really was my injectors that needed help.

Like most things I've needed for this project, I couldn't find it locally and had to order it online. Since it takes the better part of a week to get this or that part or tool,it's been slow going.

What's special about Diesel Purge is the fact that it can be used either as a fuel additive or undiluted. Since I wanted the full effect, I chose the latter. So, armed with a mason jar from the pantry, I disconnected the fuel and return lines and fed them into the jar.

Another neat thing about this engine, it has no fuel pump. The injection pump (a form of mechanical fuel injection) sucks the fuel all the way from the tank. This means that I could disconnect the fuel line from the filter and not worry about spraying diesel all over the place.

I let my engine suck down almost the whole jar of Purge while varying the engine speed. Things generally did get smoother, but my noise didn't diminish or go away. I stopped before the jar was empty because I realized that I'd set it against some coolant hoses and thought that it wasn't a great idea to heat up a volatile chemical too much. Also, the Purge had changed color. It started out a colorless clear liquid and had become murky and green by the end. I don't know what that means exactly, but maybe someone on the forum will. I also don't know exactly what to try next. Hopefully I'll get some suggestions about that too!

More crawling thoughts

I'm just amazed at Ezra crawling. It's like a miracle every time he does it. It takes so much effort! Did you see the video clip? Well, it's much more suspenseful in person-- he makes these frustrated, distressed little noises, and his concentration is so intense; it takes every ounce of his power and coordination!

It's funny, I don't remember the first time Gibbie crawled on all fours. He was a slider. He slid for months on his belly, and boy, was he fast! He would drool and slide over his drool track, mopping up after himself; somewhere between a slug and a swiffer. He gradually transitioned into this more traditional crawl.

Ezra's been moving for a while, spinning on his belly, sit-to-lay extensions, inching forward or back by extreme reaching, clambering up on or over things; but he didn't really slide like Gibbie at all. I thought sliding was the natural precursor to crawling, but they each have to blaze their own trail.

Ezra Crawls!

It's been a long time coming. Ezra is really crawling. Like so many "milestones," it's kind of a blurry line. My definition was intentional forward motion on all fours. For those of you who are interested, I captured one of the first crawls on video.

the love of a child

He is transparent in his need, wears his adoration openly.
He says as soon as he thinks it, hold me, or I want to hold you, hold me tight, and will not relent until we are in each others' arms.
He does not compliment us, hardly uses the word love. His ardor is concrete, always present. He needs us always, wants to know we are near, listening. When I cry, he brings me his ball; you want dis? For you. When I am working nearby, he brings me a little stick, You want some chock-late? Thank you very much.

He doesn't care whether say I love him. He wants me to look at him, to hold him, listen to him, sing to him, play with him, protect him, take care of him.

He asks for a story, asks to hold my hand, climbs into my lap, asks for water. He needs them equally.