French Knots

Chills ahead

A brilliant bargain from Ebay to beat the winter chills ahead

 
£1.26!

Even with p&p it's a great deal and a much richer green than these 'taken on a grey day' photos show. And a good excuse to knit another scarf.

For The Baby Brother to keep his baldy head warm

 

  A perfect fit!

 

And not forgetting his dimply hands. Soft cotton mittens that will pull well over his wrists and hopefully stay on for more than five minutes.

So all set for chilly days but hoping it stays dry and mild for half term as we are going away in the caravan again. Apologies to anyone living in or visiting North Devon as no doubt the rain that has dogged our holidays this year will strike again! Fingers crossed for a dry spell. It's not an area I know - any suggestions of things to do most welcome.

Right a certain little chap is hungry.......you don't grow finger dimples without a hearty appetite!

July already?!

Goodness where has the year gone, I spent the winter and spring in hibernation gestating and suddenly it is summer. Perfect weather, unless you spend a lot of time holding a small hot water bottle baby! We have both been sweaty bettys the last few days and nights, thank goodness for fans.

 

Despite being up a couple of times a night I'm finding it hard to go to sleep during the day. I finished off this little jumper  for my newest niece the other day - I started it before she was born and then once The Baby Brother arrived it languished in the knitting bag. So while he was asleep I whizzed through the last bit of sleeve and sewed it together, hopefully it will fit her - otherwise she'll have a well dressed doll!

July is a birthdayfest for us - 11 in total! I have a list ( now there's a surprise) of things I want to make but time is short and I am distracted by an idea I have for someone who has a birthday in August and I want to get stitching on that. Two of the Birthdays are The Big Sister and My Little Helper so I'm party planning, one riotous bouncy castle and games party in the church hall for 6 year olds and the other a more grown up 10 year olds' trip to the cinema followed by a nosleep over - no doubt the 4 of them will spend most of the night giggling and chatting but as I'm up so much anyway it doesn't really matter!  It old seems a matter of moments since The Big Sister was asleep in my arms, the size of The Baby Brother and now she's going to be 10, how quickly it passes. One of the joys of blogging is recording all the small things that would otherwise be lost in the mists of time and rushing through life. 

The Baby Brother is 9 weeks old today and since his first smile 2 weeks ago has discovered the joys of interaction, smiling his open mouthed toothless smile at people and discovering they smile back. His little chuckle is wonderful and often comes prompted by my silly faces. He is trying to roll over but that pesky arm keeps getting in the way, but an enthusiastic wiggle/shuffle on his back propels him to the top of his cradle, where he finds he can't get any further and grunts till I appear - very sweet but not a game I want to play at 4am. Bless him, it's such a treat to be marking the new discoveries he makes, remembering the older two at the same age and thanking my lucky stars I was made redundant opening my eyes to the possibility of a third child. So thankful.

Have a wonderful weekend!

ps Thanks for all the chicken advice, we are weighing up the best place to put a coop and run in the garden and then, once we get back from holiday, will be taking the plunge I think!

Snuggled in love

A wonderful package arrived, filled with snuggley cardigans for The Baby Brother. Amazing, intricate knitting, complicated patterns and all soft against his skin.

 

 

I love the colour of this one, so vibrant

but this one is my favourite, it has a real vintage feel to it. I could imagine a '50s baby in a cute little jacket like this

 

Hasn't he got a clever Grandma!

The weeks are flying by in a bit of blur, I keep trying to remember to take photos of his tiny baby days as they are so fleeting but one day blends into the next without a proper night time to differentiate it. He has a wonderful range of grunts and groans, accompanied by lip pursing and gurning.  He smiles at opportune moments too, which I know is not a conscious act yet but his timing is so good it melts my heart, and when his lower lip does it's little wobble......! 

Knitted Patchwork

I just can't get to grips with crochet no matter how much I want to make a granny square or ripple blanket! So I was delighted to find a pattern for knitted hexagons over at Knitty Vintage and Rosy which is easy to follow and saves my brain having to try too hard.

   

They knit up quickly so I might make a blanket with them, or if I get tired of stitching them together it'll be a cushion cover! The wool is the Louisa Harding silk that I picked up in the sale and I'm loving the richness of the colours together.

I haven't done much knitting since finishing the little jumper as my hands, and especially my thumb joints, have been aching a lot. But no need to worry it's just pregnancy related carpel tunnel syndrome! Great, I can add it to my growing list of pregnancy ailments along with my malfunctioning bladder, worn out back and  sudden urge to clean out cupboards!

This and that

Well thank you for all the good wishes and blog recommendations, lots of new ones to add to my list, which was handy last week as I was taking it easy (backache/sciatica) so I was kept entertained reading and being inspired. So much connects us all around the world and reading through a blog's archives is like finding a really great book about my favorite things.

My Little Helper acted as random number generator and chose the number eight which is Lina so the little parcel will be on it's way when I can waddle down to the post office. 

I thought I'd show you my new spotty slippers ( the plan is I don't need to bother trying to bend to put socks on with slippers to keep my feet cosy instead)

 

Hmm what's the big boulder doing in the way??

Goodness I think I must be growing an elephant, 34 weeks. Thanks to My Little Helper for his photography help!

I've finished the sock yarn jumper, my first knitted garment with seams - socks are easy to finish off but this needed to fit together. I read up on matress stitch but as usual just winged it in the end.

 

A cute little jumper, all I need now is a cute little baby to go in it!

WIP

 

My first proper garment! Not counting socks of course. I've been reading up on finishing, so hopefully there'll be a cute little baby sized jumper soon.

And what do you do on a wet Friday? Well inspired by Lavender House I nipped off to Wilkos to get some tea towels

 

then chopped them into big squares, mixed the stripes up a bit, 20 minutes at the sewing machine and abracadabra!

the perfect antidote to grey skies. I'm going to try out my walking foot and see if I can quilt it, backing it with a recycled blanket for summer picnics. Grand total 2 quid, excellent. Because we are having a summer this year aren't we?! Just planning ahead.

Have a lovely weekend!

Pottering week

A low key half term for us, bit of baking, park visiting, some crafting and dvd watching. Naturally we had to buy HSM three and watch it several times, we also bought Sky High which was really entertaining. In fact My Little Helper would have done nothing but watch it all week! Throw in a growth scan ( all well, just the size it should be for 29 weeks) and the week off was gone in a laid back and pottering flash!

    

I finished sewing my little squares together, I'm glad it is a pram blanket and not a king size - some of the seams will not take close inspection!

A friend kindly showed me how to crochet an edging, now I have the crochet bug and see some granny squares in the near future.

The robot was eventually stuffed, (once the bag of stuffing had been unearthed - the sewing room is undergoing a transformation into a new bedroom and smaller sewing room so everything is goodness knows where ) and sent off along with a couple of kind contributions from friends too. Whilst I know giving money is probably the most practical way to help it feels good to send tangible evidence of our concern.

Hope your week has got off to a good start, the children were surprisingly keen to get into school this morning, must have had enough of my company!

WIP

 

Some squares in different stitches, mainly the same size..ish! Need to read up on finishing techniques so I can make my little blanket. Cotton cashmere has not been a joy to knit with, very splitty, so I foresee the need for more chocolate ahead as I try to crochet a border.

A little light reading

 

What a lovely stack of inspiration, these are keeping me company at the moment. The great thing about books for Christmas is the weeks and months of pleasure they give. I've earmarked projects in Sew Fabulous Fabric and Childhood Treasures but will have to wait a while to get started as my sewing room is undergoing a transformation. Mr FK is building a couple of walls to split it into a nursery and little sewing room, such a treat to still have my own little space even if it might be a bit neglected after May! The Cath Kidston Make book is my least favourite, nothing in it really grabbed me.

So while the building work is going on upstairs I have been knitting instead, some little squares to make a pram blanket trying out different stitches. Some are a bit wonky but I'm working on the basis that once it's been sicked on and through the washer a few times I'm not going to notice.

 

These lovely dpns were also a Christmas present, thanks to my lovely ( but blogless) friend Amanda. I find wooden needles much easier to knit with and now have them in every size I might need - more hats and socks to come I think. No surprises there!

Some advice too please. I have a great, woollen, stripey rug in lovely zingy colours that I got from a fellow freecycler in perfect nick apart from the fact that the end is fraying. I think I need to bind it with something to stop it getting any worse but amguessing I'd need to stitch it by hand as it's pretty chunky. Unless any one knows of an iron on wide thingy that would do the trick?!

Hope you are having an inspired and cheerful start to the week.

Sun at last

A lovely sunny day here has put me in the mood to get things done. As yet another dose of illness had me under the weather again last week (after months of one thing after the other and a total lack of appetite I now weigh the same as I did when I got pregnant 24 weeks ago) , a veerryy slow computer and typepad eating half written posts put me off writing anything for a while today was the day to get back in my groove. The sun just seems to lift my spirits and give me some energy, much welcome after grey damp days.

Thanks for all the photo love on my last post, they were taken at Beaumaris on Anglesey between Christmas and New Year on a freezing cold but wonderfully bright day.

Have been doing well with my cost control goal apart from a little blip in the wool shop

    

Such amazing, zinging colours had to come home with me! At least they were in the sale, it's silk and really soft to the touch and no, I| haven't a clue what I'm going to do with it.

Other than that my spotty jug keeps me on the straight and narrow

I stuff all the household shopping receipts in it and than have a grand tally up at the end of the month. I did this all last year too and it reinforces how much is actually spent, handing over a debit card still doesn't feel like spending money. Once I've got my monthly total I divide it by the number of days in the month to compare on a like for like basis ( I know, how sad....must be hankering for the days when I was working and a ran a £40million budget!) I aim for £10 per day for food and household stuff which is about right for us I think. I stockpile when things we use a lot are on special offer so my pantry is groaning under the weight of cartons of orange juice and passata at the moment.

Right might just fit in a walk in the sun before collecting the children...... hope the sun is shining on you too.