Essay writing

I am currently in the throes of a major essay writing moment - my first assignment for the Reader course is due in on Saturday.  So I've been frequenting a certain coffee shop (that has free wi-fi) every morning since Monday, leading to much disgruntlement of the husband, as he is having to do the childcare.  I guess I have probably left it a little late, but life, as usual, got in the way of all my good intentions.  And as it is unpaid, my 'work' comes a very poor second to everything else.  Including other people's computer games.  Ah well.

In the few off moments I am continuing with the sock, which I am enjoying, having given up for now on the clapotis, which I wasn't.  Don't know why, as I'm on the decreasing rows, the yarn is lovely and I'm really going to enjoy it once it's finished, but the pattern just doesn't seem to do it for me.  I will finish it one day, hopefully soon, so that I can wear it.

The snow has gone, being replaced by a rather dull greyness,  but at least the cloud has lifted a bit today and we can see the hills again.  Walking home from the station at lunchtime was actually rather pleasant.

Anyway, better go do a bit more writing elsewhere.  Ah well.

Merry Christmas!

Well, the replacement Christmas trees never happened, but we now have our big one back much to Hannah's relief.  The knitted decorations were excellent:

There were all sorts, from fluffy baubles to proper tiny socks.  Very cool.

We have had a lovely Christmas at my mum's, lots of rest and food, and lots of presents to be unwrapped.  We are now back home and I have an essay to churn out by Saturday, so I must get my brain in gear.

Merry Christmas!

The week of elving

I am particularly enjoying SouleMama's week of elving this week.  Today is fabric gift bags, which I love - I did a few last year and hope to do more next year, but this year I just don't have time.  Also there were little trees made from fir branches stuck in clay - memo to self: try this with the kids!  Our Christmas tree has disappeared to be with lots of others at a Christmas tree festival, representing the knitting group and therefore covered in knitted decorations.  I am greatly looking forward to seeing them all at the weekend.  In the meantime, and to help Hannah with her 'we need to get ready for Christmas don't we Mummy?' fixation, we need a substitute, and these look like a great idea.  I'll have to get out and see what branches I can find.  I'm thinking a big one for decorations and little ones for the kids to glitter.  We haven't had the glitter out yet this Christmas, and we need to. I feel a glittery making moment coming on.

Presents, birthdays, Christmas, etc

Yes, it's that time of year again.  The birthday season goes a bit bonkers and then Christmas arrives.  So we had Hannah's birthday party on Saturday, which went well as far as I could tell.  We had a rainbow theme, and we had it in church so there was plenty of space, and we had craft, games and food, all the things that Hannah likes in fact. (And glow sticks.  Not very eco, but we do like them.)  I went with the decorate-you-own (brown paper) party bag, which may be a bit different but I think they enjoyed it.  I did have fun doing everything in rainbow colours, even down to the food.

So now I need to think seriously about Christmas presents and get them sorted. Another one came from the book man at toddlers today, so that's another one in the bag so to speak.  Well literally actually, as wrapping this year is courtesy of more of those brown paper bags, suitably decorated of course.  I'm tempted to put a little 'please recycle me' message on the bottom, but that might be taking it a little far.  It just seems daft to me to smother things in paper and sellotape just so the paper can be ripped off, and then it can't be recyled because of the sellotape and who can be bothered to sit and cut off all the sellotape-y bits on Christmas Day? (Ah yes - that'd be my mother, we used to reuse wrapping paper when I was growing up, until my sister and I banned it.) Anyway, I'm trying paper bags this year, and hoping to enlist the help of sundry small people in the decorating.

Better go and make (yet another) list.

Sweetcorn

Yes, sweetcorn - what Hannah wanted for snack after school today.  I was flabbergasted.  And between them they ate the whole tin. What well brought up children!

In other news the jumper for Chris is finished - I'd take a photo but the camera has run out of charge and we can't find the charger.  Also, and I got very excited about this last night, I have finished turning the heel of my first ever (adult sized) sock - wahey!! I get the sock knitting thing now I think (though I haven't done the second sock yet). Again I'd have taken a photo, well, actually, I'd have taken lots, so perhaps it's just as well we can't find that charger.

Snow, and other things

Just to report, we have finally joined the rest of the UK in winter with a heavy snowfall. I had to use my crutches again to walk up to toddlers - I'd forgotten how much arm work they require and my arms really ache now!  Chris and I both have a cold so we're taking it in turns to be pathetic on the sofa while the other one sorts out the kids.

Yesterday Zoe took me to Chester which was lovely, it reminded me of other old market towns I have spent time wandering around, but I love the double decker-ness of the rows, and with all the decorations and the cold it felt very christmassy.  Then we went on to Stash Fine Yarns and oh what lovely woolly things - I finally saw Manos Maxima in the wool as it were, and they had a jumper knitted up in it, mmm, want one!

Pressies

Fairly manic weekend, but hey, what's new?

Anyway, I finally managed to do some shopping with my birthday money.  So I bought two knitting books, a little bit of yarn, and my very own niddy noddy (so I don't have to borrow Michelle's any more - thanks Michelle!).  I am greatly enjoying the books, Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac, and the Yarn Harlot.  Very different but very entertaining.  I've promised to lend the Yarn Harlot to Bridget when she has the baby.
It was great as the different parcels all arrived together so it was like having a second birthday! The yarn is some silk sari yarn which I've always wanted to try, the colours are beautiful but it stinks so I'm going to have to wash it before I do anything with it.

Next on my list are a ball winder and a swift - great baby occupying tools as well as for winding yarn.

One plan down, three to go...

Well, I was a good girl last night and I now have a Baptism Plan - it's really not as complicated as I think (just wait till next week and I have to put it in to action).  I also managed a bit of sweater knitting, and today I did a bit on the sock at Oasis (and got some nice comments - thank you!).  That was my favourite kind of morning, knitting, endless refills of tea, baby asleep and good company.

Plans

I need a Plan.  Actually I need two plans.  Hang on, make it three (or four).  Better get planning!  What has brought all this on?  Well, its that time of year when everything starts coming all at once.  I am another year older (my birthday is mid-October) and that has always been my sign that I need to start thinking about Christmas.  Nowadays between October and Christmas there are two more birthdays, and this year is even more eventful.  So we have Rebekah's baptism followed by Chris's birthday, then there's Hannah's birthday (complete, this year for the first time, with a proper party) and then it's Christmas.  Interspersed are all the other events like carol services, a christmas tree festival and possibly a christmas labyrinth.  Add an essay due on 1st Jan, and I think I've got my work cut out for me over the next couple of months.  Hence I need a Plan.

So the Plan is: make the plans.  Then do them.  Simple really.

I think I better start with the baptism, for which I need to organise lunch, and I could also do with getting ready presents for the family members we will be seeing.  That would be being super-organised, not something I normally am.  Here goes: stage one - lunch.  stage two - presents.  Stage three - keep knitting to remain sane!  So off I go for a spot of thinking about food, followed by a bit of knitting.

The knitting is another story.  I'm making Chris a nice thick warm jumper following Elizabeth Zimmermann's directions in 'Knitting without Tears'.  I've just joined the arms to the body and I'm starting the colourwork on the yoke - definitely the interesting part.  And I might just get it done in time for his birthday; at the moment the rounds seem very, very long.  It's got to the stage where it's not generally portable, so for knitting out and about I have discovered the joy of socks.  Having experimented with baby socks, I've now started a proper adult sock, and unlike previous attempts, I am a) enjoying it and b) getting somewhere - wahey! Very chuffed. And very portable.  And housed in a lovely project bag (thanks Michelle) so it's a double whammy of knitting in my handbag.

Home again

Hannah has had her op, and has bounced back (as young ones are wont to do) and is running around like nothing has happened.  She is on a soft diet for two weeks and is eating a lot of tinned spaghetti letters, ice cream, jelly and cheese as we struggle to find things that she both is allowed to eat and will eat.  Bread is out which is one of her main foods.  She is being very good about the restrictions especially as we are having to eat things in front of her that she can't have - we are all avoiding crisps though, so we'll be that much healthier for a bit!

I am getting towards the end of the Mystery Item I am making for later in the summer - more details will be forthcoming after the Event has taken place, just in case certain people read this!  I am on the last repeat of the pattern, but I think I will do one extra repeat to make sure it's big enough.  It's progress has been helped by a certain amount of stress requiring knitting therapy and a bit of quiet hospital time.

I've finished quite a few items in recent weeks, starting with blocking the pinwheel blanket and finishing the yellow Endive at the beginning of the month,

The pinwheel blanket, blocking in the sunshine.  Sunshine, when was that?

another darkside cowl,

The first darkside cowl - bad light but you can see the stitch pattern; the second was the same but purple instead of lilac.

a couple more skeins kettle dyed with food colouring which was interesting and great fun, and a bit of it knitted up to see what it looks like. 

Kettle dyed wool on the stove - actually this one didn't work but subsequent ones did.  I just like the reflections in the pot!

Oh, and a hat for baby Sophie's birthday.

Ants in our pants

...well, actually, in our kitchen.  Eek!

We've had the odd ant running around for a while now,  but today was something else.  The ants have been sprouting wings and today when we got back they were swarming (is that what they do?) all over the floor. They appear to have been nesting under the fridge.  Now we don't mind sharing our home with a few things (slugs for instance have taken up residence under the sink since the cold weather in the winter) and after my experiences with ants in South Africa (think long columns of ants on the kitchen worktops and ants on the patio crawling up your skirts) British ones tend not to bother me. I apologise to ant lovers everywhere, but we had to do something, so the kids and I were banished to picnic in the living room and then to Michelle's (thanks Michelle!) while Chris pulled everything out, cleaned up and put down ant powder.  So our kitchen is now the cleanest its been probably since we moved in, and I haven't done what I was going to do this afternoon, namely pack for Hannah going into hospital tomorrow.  Yep, just what we needed the day before that.

So tomorrow we hopefully take H in for the op on her palate [crosses fingers, prays, etc].  We have to phone the ward at 8am to check there is a bed for her.  I hope there is because we have prepared her as best we can (without scaring her witless) and this is good timing school- and holiday-wise.  All being well she will have the op on Thursday.

In other news Rebekah has started on solids and has taken to eating like she should have been doing it all along.  After weeks of looking longingly at our food she now has her own, and is already on two meals a day.  This means the breast pump has resurfaced (last used in those heady days of engorgement about four months ago), as the method of preparing her meals starts with 'first milk the cow'.  With my boobs rapidly becoming dispensable again I am definitely feeling that my baby is growing up too quickly.

Tools of the trade...

I just picked the baby up out of her seat to find she's been sitting on a small green plastic spanner.  Poor child, her sisters keep giving her toys to play with so she ends up surrounded by plastic fruit/magnetic letters/pipe cleaners/lego or whatever.  She doesn't usually sit on them though.

I have lots of photos to upload so hopefully I'll have things to show soon - lots of knitting has occurred, some of which has even been finished!

Finally two bits of important news - important to us that is: 1. Hannah has a date for her palate op - 28th July, which is, agh, soon [pulls scared face]; and 2. Hannah has her revised statement through and has got 25hrs support a week for school next year - yay! that's full time!

Been a while...

Well, its been a bit manic around here.  My Gran had a stroke a few weeks ago, and she died two weeks later.  So I have been down for her funeral and generally been a bit vacant.  Then the flu struck which we have all had, I still have the head cold bit of it.  Generally not a good month all round.

The upside of going down to my gran's was the chance to visit the lovely yarn shop, Interknit.  I have seen their advert in knitting magazines and thought I must visit next time I'm down.  So the day after the funeral Rebekah and I went across to see.  What a fantastic shop, lots of yummy yarn, and also Friday afternoon is their knitting group which we promptly joined for an hour.  We got a great welcome complete with home grown strawberries, so thanks ladies, it was lovely meeting and knitting with you.

Excited!

We're going camping today!
We're going camping today!
And the weather is... grey. Ah well.

Knitting progress

Rows knitted yesterday: 18
Rows knitted today: 12
Not bad going so far, and I may get a couple more done while R settles. Halfway up to the armholes now (on the back that is).

The wool, it has arrived...

...and much knitting has ensued.

So the wool for the lacy cardi arrived today and I got very excited and cast on straight away and did 18 rows of the back. If I carry on like this I might even finish in time (it needs to be done by 2nd July but that may be pushing my knitting speed way too far). Tonight I knitted watching a programme about Atlantis on iplayer (it featured Santorini rather heavily and we went there for our honeymoon so it was nice to see it on tv, as well as the programme being interesting in its own right), and then I watched Junior Apprentice. I still think I prefer the adult version but this has grown on me over the weeks, and is quite entertaining. I do wonder what the 'process' might do to impressionable teenagers, but I guess if they've got this far they can't be too lacking in self confidence.

I forsee a weekend of knitting and tea in brilliant sunshine and good company, with (and here we get into the realms of fantasy) lots of sleep. I can but dream.

Musings, and WIPs...

We had a manic (but good) weekend, what with the church open day and Hadfield carnival. At both we were promoting the Glossopdale Food Co-operative, and I've already had one email requesting the order form (thanks Jennifer!). The weather at the carnival was at least bettet than last year, though that's not saying a lot, it was very cold and wet and horrible last year. This year it rained at first but it brightened up later on, and it was warmer too. As we are camping next weekend we are thoroughly obsessed with the weather in our house at the moment.

I've just realised I can post from my ipod and therefore whilst feeding, so there might be a lot more very random posts coming along now. Especially during the long night feeds. It's 6am and this is Rebekah's second feed of the day. In some ways she's growing way too fast, in others (night feeding being one) I can't wait for her to get a bit older. (Actually, I'm not sure I can think of mamy more, four months is such a lovely age. She's watching and smiling and chuckling and chatting and rolling and reaching and grabbing, need I go on? Yes, they grow way too quickly.)

Well, we've switched sides so I'm now typing with me left hand, not nearly as quick. On a knitting front I have been doing a bit to my clapotis of late, but have now started another darkside cowl. I am also going to be making a little lacy cardy for a friend, just waiting for the wool to come to start that, and I'm also going to be making a wedding present for my cousin, so that lot should keep me busy and the needles steaming.

Round and round...

There is so much going on in my head just now, and yet so much of it is the same old stuff going round and round...


Ah well.  I haven't been feeling very good recently, hence the lack of posting.  I think everything is catching up with me.  There have been some brighter days though, including a trip to the Black Sheep Wools sale, and a family party at Tatton Park.  Otherwise life continues much the same as ever round here, complete with lack of sleep.  One day we will be unable to drag them out of bed... one day...

And now we are two...

Yes, I know, unoriginal title, but my baby is two! (And yes, I know, I have another baby now, but this one's still my baby too.)  I can't believe it, as I am repeatedly told, they grow so quickly.


So we had a birthday party with a few friends and relatives, and because the weather was so nice last weekend we were able to have it outside in the (newly revamped - thanks Alex!) garden.  It was lovely, and required minimal organisation on my part, because I am not with it enough to think about these things in advance at the moment.  The cake was made the night before, and on the morning we decided on what the cake would be - it turned out to be a wellyphant cake (as in the book Elephant Wellyphant, which she loves).

And to go with it we had lion fairy cakes (because she loves being a lion and roaring).

And that's the last birthday for this season (the birthday season runs from October to April in this house), so six months off before we all become another year older.

And really annoyingly blogger won't let me upload photos at the moment.  So I'll try again later.

Make do and knit

We had a K1S2 group outing to Make Do and Knit today, and had a great time!  R was very good and slept most of the time.  Oh, there were some wonderful yarns and fibres, in gorgeous colours... mmm... And we had fun trying big knitting with Ingrid Wagner, spinning with Kate from a mill in Halifax,  drooling over buttons and just stroking lots of yarn.  Photos to follow!

Out and about

New arrival, or welcome to the land of sleeplessness...

Yes, baby Rebekah finally made her entrance into the world last week, 13 days overdue and weighing 7lb 6oz.  Not a great labour (induced) but not too bad either, and no pain relief again, although not by design (I'd just decided I wanted an epidural when she decided she was coming - the anaesthetist didn't even make it in time).  My hospital report, under pain relief, just says 'attendant support' (wonderful husband!) but there was also a bit of knitting in there too, until the cannula in the back of my hand made it impossible and I had to give up.  I can recommend it though.

So we are now in that peculiar version of hell when all three children are up in the night for varying lengths of time, and I have no idea what day it is or what time, and just sleep when I can.  Admittedly we are no strangers to sleeplessness, given Hannah's ideas on when and how much to sleep, but unsurprisingly it just got quite a bit worse last week.  Just as well these babies are damned cute then.

But I have discovered one thing that makes the nights bearable - knitting podcasts!  I can listen whilst feeding (it's a two handed job at the moment a lot of the time, and takes about an hour per feed) and get my knitting fix that way, even if I can't actually do any knitting.  My current favourite is Lime & Violet, but I'm still trying different ones out.

Pin wars

I bought myself some new pins the other week, because I don't have enough left in the old box for most projects.  I thought they were pretty much the same as the old ones, a pin's a pin, right?  Apparently not.  These pins are rubbish, the attrition rate per project is astounding.  Worse than slightly bent pins is what happened to these two:

 

That kink went right down between the feed dogs and got stuck.  I've never seen that happen - usually either the pin or the needle breaks.  I've since had one more do this, and then one that shattered, and I mean shattered, the needle (think bits flying everywhere and Chris threatening to make me wear safety goggles).  

So, I've gone back to the old pins.  No problem there, and I've now finished the mini-quilt project I was working on, and yes, it did get finished in time for Saturday.  It was a 90-patch quilt, for my Nana's 90th birthday:

For the observant among you, the other 9 patches are on the back.

Lastly, I managed to get a photo of the pinwheel blanket in progress, as I was transferring it onto the next size cable:

 

It's quite a bit bigger now, each round is over 300 stitches, and I've gone up to the longest cable.  I'm going to try and keep going till I've finished the ball, no point having a small amount of yarn left over now is there?

Currently working on...

Time for the usual (occasional) round up:

Reading - Colour: Travels through the paintbox by Victoria Finlay. 

Found this in the Oxfam bookshop and am enjoying it a lot, especially as I've just finished indigo and am now on violet (my favourite colours).  Very interesting, even if it is more about pigments than dyes.  Next up is the reading group book, The Family Tree by Carole Cadwalladr, which will probably be a breastfeeding book, if I can remember how to read while feeding.

Knitting - Pinwheel blanket, as blogged earlier.  I've finished the squishy baby blanket, which has turned out very soft and squishy and worth doing even if the yarn was a nightmare, so I can now concentrate on the pinwheel.  Currently it measures about 12 inches across, so a fair bit more to go then.

Sewing - currently in between projects, I've just finished felt monsters (had the craft workshop today, and had lots of kids making monsters - they were brilliant, loads of creativity and perseverance and quite a bit of good sewing!) but there is another project in the pipeline, though as the deadline is next Saturday and the baby is due on Wednesday, I may have left it a bit late.  Ooops.

A moan, and more knitting...

I'm really struggling with this pregnancy now.  My bp is up (which I've never had a problem with before), my pelvis is hurting all the time despite the painkillers even when I'm resting, and I'm so slow on the crutches it took me 20 minutes to pay for the parking and walk back to the car at the hospital today.  Just as well there's only a few weeks to go now.

Still, I had a lovely midwife at the hospital today, we were discussing genetic syndromes which was very interesting (she has a different one in her family), and they were very nice about carrying my stuff around for me so I didn't have to struggle with coats and bags as well as crutches, which makes a huge difference.  Still no induction though, as, in the words of the doctor, 'it wouldn't work'.  I don't want a long slow labour (or worse), so I'm glad not to be induced, but I do wish Lentil would hurry up and make up her mind to come out - she's obviously still quite happy in there for the moment!

So, to take my mind off things I've started two blankets.  One is the diagonal baby blanket, in a lovely, soft, multicoloured chenille yarn that is horrible to knit with.  I've had it in my stash for ages having got it very cheap (probably because no-one else likes knitting with it either) and was wondering what to do with it - it needed an easy pattern that doesn't involve being able to see your stitches.  It will make a lovely baby blanket though, and if I make a mistake you can't see it at all.

The other is the pinwheel blanket, I love the geometricity (is that a word?) of the pattern and am really enjoying knitting it, though as I'm doing it in sock wool it could take a while.  I might try it again in some much bulkier wool afterwards to see what the difference is, but I chose the sock wool because I just love the colours, and I'm using 4mm needles so it's quite lacy in a way.  It's nice to be back in the knitting habit after the post-Christmas hiatus.

A plastic-free Christmas?

It occurred to me this year just how much we use plastic in the disposable bits of Christmas - namely wrapping.  So I determined to try to reduce the amount of it I used.  So, how did I do?  Well, I still used sellotape (sorry, sticky tape) and paper to wrap up most of the presents.  A few got wrapped in homemade fabric bags, tied with a fircone glued on to a pipe cleaner.  The beauty of this system was that the tag could be threaded onto the pipe cleaner, and it made a nice Christmas decoration once off the present. 

The fabric bags themselves were an attempt to find an alternative to cling film in which to package sweets (homemade fudge and the like).  In the past when giving these sorts of gifts, each piece has been individually wrapped in cling film, a very tedious, and plasticky, process.  I thought about boxes, but didn't have time to make that many.  So fabric bags it was.  I think I made six in all, out of red gingham material so they could be reused for anything (plus its cheaper than Christmas material).  I think they looked pretty cool (eco-chic maybe?!) but I think some in the family were a bit bemused!  I stuck to paper for the kids, after all, what's Christmas if you can't rip the paper off presents?

Next year my goal is to abolish the use of sellotape so that the paper can at least be recycled, or even (horror of horrors) reused if it's big enough.  I have abiding memories of my mother assiduously cutting the sellotape off wrapping paper on Christmas afternoon so that the (usually very crumpled) bits of paper in the middle could be reused the following year.  How come it never occurred to us not to use sellotape in the first place?

The white stuff

It's snowing.  Again.  Need I say more?  And at 35 weeks pregnant (nearly 36!) with a dodgy pelvis and using crutches to get around, not to mention the car, that's not particularly good news.  But I love the snow.  Especially days like today when the sun shone down and threw the hills into relief.  We even managed to get up the Torside road to see the views - it looks a lot more wild and remote and snowy at the moment than it usually does.  Just wish I could get out and walk.  Friends of ours are off to a cottage in Wick this week, I'm very envious.

We went sledging yesterday, Hannah had a whale of a time going down on her own, very brave of her, and Steffie slept through the whole thing.  Then we came back to tea and mince pies, followed by fish and chips for tea.  It doesn't get any better.