Thursday...finished, but not quite

Yay!  When the ends are sewn in, and I have a satisfactory picture of them on chubby feet, I will try to write out the pattern.  It is totally seamless, done with short rows and magic loop.  I thought I would be annoyed by the jog in the stripes, but actually I quite like it. Or maybe I am just determined to be blind to any faults.

Also:

A tiny bonnet knitted from leftover sock yarn, to add to the slow growing stash of dolly clothes for abi's birthday...also still needs ends sewn in...

Been buying junk again...

Dan is mega pleased with his 'bash street kids' desk as he called it!  And it was a good excuse to sort through the stationary junk he owned, far too much for a boy!  Though I've put it away for now as I am terrified of chucking out precious things by mistake.

Also found this little crayon pouch thing I remember making him yonks ago, now appreciated by Abi

Its not exciting, but it made me smile.
Then we did some more crafty sticky messy stuff

before pootling off to get Dan in the rain



tuesday - bumbling

Bumble bee colour slippers for bumbling in.  I like these.  When I have tested the pattern by knitting the second one, I'll post it.



Monday - knitting and crafting, and the next big thing

Gosh I just seem to be sooo busy at the moment.  I'm not sure what I'm doing...I seem to do a lot of housework, yet the house is rarely clean.  I seem to do a lot of knitting, but things are rarely finished.  I seem to be tired quite a lot....today I fell asleep with the baby and am now up at 4am.  Hmm.  Maybe I need to be a bit stricter with myself about at least some of these things.

Anyway, I did at least finish abi's vest

Here is a not-good picture of it flat

It is the sort of thing one wears to sweep carpets

I am very pleased with it, apart from next time I will knit the bottom in rib rather moss stitch, as it has a tendency to ping up every time she crouches (and toddlers crouch quite a lot).  I reckon there will be a next time though, and next time I will know to buy 3 balls, and it will be done super quick.

It worked very well as one of many layers for our first real play in the garden this year

there was plenty of grim neglected-over-winter stuff to fiddle with.  I started getting Dan to help me, but then realised he was much better used to entertain Abi. I spent an hour taking down most of a jasmine bush which, lovely as it was, was also taking down my fence. This is my jasmine bush after about 10 minutes of me hacking at its ludicrously entwined branches

And here it is (was) again an hour later.  I now have an awful lot of twisty branches and twigs and vines all over the lawn, but thats OK because daniel says he is going to weave them into his climbing frame to make a viking dwelling.  Awesome.

Today I had to hang around town for a bank appt, so decided to treat Abi and I to coffee in Whitstable's chicest (I suspect that 'chicest' is not good english, but then 'chic' isn't english at all, so it doesn't matter what I do to it really) little coffee place.  I even bought a guardian.  Only to have a bash at the easy puzzles, you understand.  We had a very nice time people watching out of their big window.  Behind me, one middle aged man was attempting to convert another middle ages man to Buddhism.  It was awfully funny (not buddhsim, just the middle aged crises apparently going on behind me, and the mutual flattering of intellects) and very hard not to look round.  Luckily I was consuming croissant and kakuro, so it was OK.

recently I have started to realise that Abi is no longer a baby, but a toddler.  In fact she has been pointing this out with little changes in her demeanour.  So it occurred to me that I ought perhaps to provide some entertainment slightly more structured than flinging crayons around the room.  I have decided to attempt some valentines day crafts.  Seeing as there is no big reason to celebrate valentines day in this house, the obvious answer is to make it excessively valentinesy, for the children, and to make each other cards etc.  As my ma used to.

Anyway, today we made valentines playdough

Luckily she got bored in time for me to cook it, and was ready to play again when it was cool.  her little face when she realised that what we had been making was now magically transformed into ruby red sparkly playdough was a real delight!

This was the best bit.  Pouring and kneading lots of glitter.  It sort of felt like a waste, and sort of not at all.

And here is a pic of the next thing which has been causing me to prevaricate, stay up to late, and only do half the washing up.

It will be a bumble bee slipper.  It looks a bit crap at the moment, but I am reasonably confident that it will end up being a pretty cool thing.  I wasn't going to post any pics til its done, in case it doesn't work, and because it looks pretty dodgy atm with loose ends, vague short rows, etc.  But that would make having a blog pretty pointless. I will share the pattern if it works out.

Saturday...stuff and that

Abi's simple raglan vest is nearly finished.  Irritating ran out of yarn a few rows from the bottom...tried to convince myself this length would be OK, but I didn't need much of an excuse to buy more yarn.. Especially this wool/alpaca stuff.  Am pleased with the subtle shaping made by working the sts cast on under the arm in 1x1 rib for about 12 rows...you can *just* see the ribbing in these pics, it makes it flare out just very slightly as it hits tummy level. Mmm toddler tummies.

And here's the turmeric dyed coaster.  It is now *the* coaster.  I only need one, because there is only one of me, and not a lot of visitors.  I am going to dye some more cotton with just turmeric, and make filet placemats.  Undecided yet as to whether to dye them solid turmeric, or sort of space dye it again. Hmm.

The colours are much more vivid IRL, more like this (had to hold it up to window for crappy phone pic):

Also, we have been, eating fried mung beans

(I remember these so fondly from girlhood, they are nearly as good as I remember, Abi thought were OK too and tried to feed them to her toy cat, and also her uncle.  Neither of them were as impressed as we were)

Enjoying each other's company:

and waiting for spring...the days are definitely getting gradually brighter, but I'm things will get worse before they get better



Friday - Joojoo

a single photo capturing a simple, special, extraordinary moment from the week. inspired by soulemama. if you're inspired to do the same, share a link to your moment in the comments!

Wednesday - cleaning up in order to make a mess

Yesterday after knitting group I had to go to the wool shop and buy some wool.  This is in fact inevitable, I don't know why.  It does make knitting group slightly more expensive.  Anyway, I bought the wool for a vest top I've been meaning to knit abi for ages.  Because I am stuck on the now unloved shalom, but am trying to be disciplined and not undertake another major thing until its done, I've just been knitting random bits of crap.  So I decided to just accept that it is not shalom-time right now, and knit the thing I've been wanting (and needing tbh) to knit for abi.  A nice, simple raglan vest like this, except I am stingy so decided to just make it up and hope for the best.

And its chugging along nicely.  I started as soon as possible.  Cast on 40 as it seemed a likely number and is divisible by 4.  But those 40 did not look like they would easily fit over her head, so I cast on another 4 to add a little button placket.  This is the back

Anyway I was amazed at how fun it is to knit something new and necessary.  Its nice chunky wool/alpaca so its not hard to keep going.  And I knitted most of the evening, apart from when I was wasting time on the internet. 

Which meant that this morning there was a lot of washing up and cleaning to be done.  Oops.  And as I was washing up and contemplating the dishcloth

(its funny how a knitted dishcloth becomes more beloved the more abused it gets), I was reminded of the determination to knit some placemats and coasters etc.  (The idea for which I wasted an evening knitting a stranded mushroom which is now somewhere or other.)

Anyway I was thinking cotton like-this-discloth would be oh so much better.  But boring.  So I could dye the leftover cotton, oh yes I could.  In fact I could just grab some stuff around the kitchen and dye it RIGHT NOW.  because I've always wanted some funky knitting cotton, and am often tempted by the peaches and creme (sp?) stuff but its a bit lurid, and the colour changes are so frequent they all end up looking like a big splodge.  So I thought I would attempt dying it so that it would go from a nice shade of turmeric, to a nice shade of coffee, gradually.  So I grabbed the remainder of the dishcloth cotton and wound it around some chairs, all the time thinking 'I am crazy but this is fun, tra lalalala'

And then I did this...and then microwaved for a bit for good luck beacuse I haven't got a clue what you are supposed to do but I know turmeric stains everything so I wasn't too worried

And then...there was this!

The lighter shade is actually the coffee which made next to no difference in the end.  Weird.  But I think it is very beautiful, although possibly the beauty was in the process more than the product.  At any rate I shoved it in the airing cupboard and now have a wee small ball of orange creamy beigey cotton to play with sometime.

Tuesday - knitting group

Went to knitting group today, huzzah!  Lots of sitting and knitting and not a lot else!  Made a little easter nest, must now knit or felt some eggs to put in it.  And then not forget about it by the time easter actually gets here

Yesterday I nearly finished this dress.  nearly.  I must make myself finish that last bit because I'm sure once she can wear it I won't think its as crap as I do right now



Also today I have indulged in more furniture-moving, a hobby always guaranteed to make me feel good.  Living room not quite presentable, but am loving the little bench here next to the shoes, as it wasn't really being loved in the living room.

Used to be one of those Ikea rocking benches, til a rocker broke.  So I took them off and painted it.  It was actually quite dangerous with the rockers if more than one child was on it!