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?