Islay finds, makes and bakes...

A new home

A new home for my ramblings! Henceforth I will be chatting over in that space, rather than this one. Please remember, if you follow me in any kind of blog reader/subscription service, to change your subscription to the new address: http://lifeinlists.typepad.com.

I've found, over the past year, that this blog has become about much, much more than my vintage haberdashery (I named my blog after the shop rather than the other way round), and I wanted a space to write that more clearly reflected the way I live and blog. And, as you know, lists feature rather a lot in that. Seriously, you should have seen the length of the list that resulted in the new blog.

Don't expect any major changes in the new space, except maybe a few more lists (seems a shame not to, really). Just plenty of the same hand making, home and family focused pictures and writing that I hope you've been enjoying here.

If you pay attention to my Flickr, Ravelry or Twitter, you might notice that I've changed my usernames there too, but there shouldn't be any other changes to those spaces.

This blog will remain up for the forseeable future (at least until I go through and update hundreds of links in the new blog.

Item 16: check

Yay, we have a finished item from the 2011: a year of hand making list! These are Christmas socks for my father. And yup, I'm able to model them because our feet are more or less identically sized. I'm trying to convince myself it's because his feet are freakishly small rather than mine being freakishly large, but really (if my shoe shopping experiences over the years are to be believed), it's the latter.

The socks are from this pattern, and my Ravelry project page is here. And can I just say how incredibly useful it was to have the notes from the last time I knitted Daddy a pair of socks (on Ravelry here) to refer back to, to make sure I did the right size. Yet another reason to adore Ravelry. Now if only someone would come up with a quilting version...

Of course, most important about this project is that it marks the first finished item from the 2011 list. It feels like I'm a long way from even achieving the items on the January list, but a surprising number of them are a good way through, and I'm optimistic that although I might not get every last item finished, I will achieve pretty much everything I want to. Again, I have to say what a brilliant focus this list is giving me so far, and how I'm really enjoying having my hand making time just a little bit more structured (although I do have to remind myself every now and then that there's no pressure to finish everything on the list if I don't have time).

{this moment}

 

In Amanda's words: A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Pop over to Soulemama for lots more 'moments'.

Spreading the word

My sister's first ever knitting project

It was a lot harder than I was expecting to teach my sister how to knit, because I now knit continental style, rather than English (which is what I was first taught), but when I taught myself continental I already could knit, so I didn't have to learn the whole process from scratch. Rethinking them from a beginner's point of view was a bit challenging, but I think she's doing pretty well on my less than perfect instructions.

I've also been trying to pick the perfect pattern for her to knit. She's, ahem, quite into vintage, so we've been trying to find a nice vintage pattern that uses DK weight yarn (to no avail. She's actually contemplating months of 4-ply stockinette without fear in her heart, as far as I can gather).

Teaching Charlotte made me think about how pleased I am that I learned to knit young. OK, so I only knitted scarves for my first dozen or so projects (my step father, good sport that he is, continued wearing the luminous monstrosity I created especially for him for years. It's possible he still has it). When you learn a skill young, even if it's only the basics (I could only knit, purl, cast on and cast off until I was about 25) it's just so much easier to pick up and develop later. So as I sit tonight, surrounded by WIPS, I will send silent thanks to the two people who spent hours patiently teaching me and correcting my inadvertent increases/cast offs - a sadly-no-longer-with-us elderly neighbour, and my step-sister (who you might be lucky enough to be attended by should you give birth at home in a particular part of London).

Nothing like a sensible start

 

The logical start to our wedding quilts (we're planning on having a handful in our wedding colours to use as picnic blankets/hay bale hiders, as we're having a hog roast, not a sit down meal) would, of course, be a simple quilt, perhaps some large half square triangles, or even just 6" patchwork squares. At a push, perhaps a disappearing nine patch. Something simple, fast and repeatable.

But since when did I do anything the easy way? I spotted Rachel's postage stamp quilt along the other day and just couldn't resist joining in. And since I have yards and yards (and yards) of fabric in our wedding colours, why not make this postage stamp quilt the first wedding quilt? I should point out, this is not a quilt of large, easy pieces (the clue's in the name), although strip piecing will make it a little bit faster.

That means, of course, cutting a whole load of fabric into 2.5" strips for strip piecing, as my  planned colour scheme doesn't, unfortunately, come in a Jo and Adam''s Wedding Colours jelly roll. That's about a third of my prints/colours up there, although I'm fairly sure I haven't actually cut enough strips of each one. Ho hum.

Anyway, there seem to be plenty of other mad people tackling postage stamp quilts (some even without jelly rolls as well!) - you can check out (and join in) the fun at Rachel's blog and in the Flickr group.

Incidentally, to me, a true postage stamp quilt means 1" finished squares, but even I am not insane enough to adjust the pattern in the quilt along to 1" squares. One day, I'll do that true postage stamp quilt though. If you want some mini square inspiration check out Jane Brocket's The Gentle Art of Quilt-Making (love this book), Moving Hand's gorgeous squares, or just search Flickr for postage stamp quilt. 

In other news, Teddy's quilt top and back are ready to go, but I'm holding off quilting until I've raised the fund for a walking foot. I'm bored of my straight line quilting letting down quilts that I've invested time and energy in, so I'm refusing to quilt anything more until I've bought one. And my gosh, walking foots are insanely expensive for what they are! A couple more Etsy sales before that happens, methinks.

No such thing as bad weather

 

 

Only bad clothing, right? Teddy apparently agrees. Despite more or less constant rainfall the other day, he happily played outside for aaaaages (and would have stayed out longer given half a chance, but his poor mother became convinced he was going to get pneumonia). I did my best to ignore the weather and play too, but unfortunately I definitely fall into the bad clothing category (finding something warm and waterproof in the house that did up over the bump was a challenge!), so I left the kitchen door open and left him to it while I baked. We were both pretty happy with the situation (until aforementioned pneumonia fear set in. I am convinced this stems from my grandmother telling me I would get pneumonia and die if I went outside with wet hair).

Hope you're all having a family filled and happy week, whatever the weather!

This week I (probably) will:

My actual diary with my actual To Do list (from a week ago. Every day looks much like this though). I love seeing a new diary fill with events and lists (mainly lists, if we're being honest).

1. Bake an un-birthday cake for Adam, who didn't get an actual birthday cake last week on account of me being unable to move off the sofa due to back/pelvic pain
2. Finish Daddy's Christmas (ahem) socks
3. Doubtless make a bit more progress on the baby blanket
4. Panic slightly that I've set myself an insanely impossible hand making list for January
5. Continue making stuff nonetheless
6. Do watercolours with Teddy some more (lots of result for not too much mess)
7. Finish Teddy's quilt top
8. Start going through baby clothes and decide what we need to wash/chuck/rehome (teeny weeny cute little baby clothes! So much more pleasing stacked up in neat bundles than pouring out of the laundry basket, as they will be in a few months' time)
9. Remane my blog (yup, we're headed for a makeover!)
10. Look after my poorly back in the hope of not ending up on bed rest for the remainder of this pregnancy
11. Be grateful that I'm lucky enough to be pregnant and (mostly) healthy, and that the baby appears to be healthy too, and completely unconcerned by my back pain
12. Start on quilting Teddy's quilt

Knitting: in progress

 Currently in progress:

1. Baby blanket, first mentioned here (Ravelry project page here) - I'm in no rush to finish this and am actively enjoying dragging it out (something Adam is very perplexed by, being rather more of a practical nature than me). It's actually not even on my 2011 list, although I am obviously hoping to have it finished before the baby arrives.
2. Daddy's Christmas (ahem) socks (they are, in my ahead, never without the ahem, as I'm very aware that Christmas is long gone. Frankly I blame him, since he wanted a longer leg portion than the last pair I knit for him).
3. My tea leaves cardigan (Ravelry project page here). I'm absolutely loving this pattern so far (I'm only about 5% of the way in) - really well written and straightforward, and the Madelinetosh yarn  (I bought mine here, in the absence of a UK supplier with a reasonable selection) is absolutely gorgeous to knit with (although I'm less of a fan of the necessity of keeping two balls on the go at the same time to avoid any discrepancy between balls of the hand dyed yarn).

I'm a bit incapacitated at the moment - not sure what the problem is, but possibly either sciatic or pelvic girdle pain brought on by the pregnancy. Hopefully the doctor will give me a diagnosis tomorrow. The result is being in hobbling agony every time I try to walk more than a few hundred yards. It's a complete and utter nightmare (you try explaining to a toddler that Mummy not only can't pick him up, but also won't walk round town for three hours pretending to be a train), but I'm trying to look on the positive side - an awful lot of knitting is getting done, and we're spending a lot of time in the garden (so I can go inside and sit down if I need to) rather than going into town or to the park. I'd forgotten how nice our garden is, and am enjoying planning the year's growth (don't hold your breath for anything ambitious). I suspect I may soon be found poring over seed packets again, and I really must get on and order some seed potatoes.

Frustratingly, it's not even very comfortable to hand-quilt, as bending over the quilt to sew makes my back sore, so the sunshine quilt is progressing at a very slow rate. I'm hoping to make some sewing machine progress this week though (notably on Teddy's quilt), assuming sitting on a hard chair doesn't make things worse. All in all, things are ticking along rather nicely on the crafting front at the moment.

Fun at the farm

I know Christmas feels like an age ago already, but I couldn't pass up the chance to show you the present we got for Teddy. We've literally never bought him a birthday or Christmas present (hey, the kid has a lot of grandparents, what with all our parents being divorced and remarried. He doesn't do too badly), but decided that this was the year to treat him.

I searched and searched for a cheaper alternative to this Ostheimer farmhouse, but nothing really jumped out at me like this one did, and after seeing Amanda mention that it was the most played with out of her family's toy houses/farms/caravans, I just couldn't resist. We only splashed out on just a couple of Ostheimer farm animals (which are just lovely, really robust), but luckily my dad and step mother got wind of the imminent arrival of the farm and bought Teddy a rather fantastic herd of wooden animals, including pigs, chickens, ducks, cows and sheep (which are both named, despite my repeated corrections, "sheepdog"). The horse has been christened Freddie (Teddy was rather struck by a friend's horse of the same name. I think he's quite pleased to have a Freddie of his own).

A few weeks on, the farm is being played with pretty much all day, every day, and has been declared a roaring success by everyone in this household. As well as farmhouse, it has done duty as a train station, dinosaur museum (or possibly dinosaur tearoom. I remain unsure), garage, hiding place for satsumas (Teddy has a small addiction) and construction lesson (love the way it can be taken apart so easily by little people without fear of damage to either party).

I'm making a real effort this year (and beyond) to give Teddy (and the baby) more toys like this, which can fulfil one purpose, but aren't restrictive in the sense of only having one 'thing' that they do, as so many commercially made toys seem to. I've read a couple of times about such non-restrictive toys being great for stimulating their imagination and after seeing Teddy playing with this for a couple of weeks, I'm inclined to agree.

Can you tell I love it? The quality is amazing - solid but not too heavy. And having toys made of natural materials is just lovely beyond words for me, and Teddy seems to agree (fortunately). For anyone considering contemplating a splash-out toy, I really can't recommend this highly enough, and I hope to see it cluttering up our living room for years and years to come.

Oh, and do you see the bowl next to Adam's head in the second picture? Teddy painted it at a local pottery place where you can decorate a whole range of items and get them fired - I highly recommend it as a rainy-day activity with toddlers if you have one near you. Not the cheapest in the world, but at least you get something pleasing from it (assuming toddler paint splatters on a bowl are your idea of pleasing).

{this moment}

 

In Amanda's words: A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Pop over to Soulemama for lots more 'moments'.

Christmas smuggler

 

 

OK, so this is more likely to be a sensible fit in winter 2011/12, but we'll gloss over that for now and concentrate on how much I love this sweater. Apart from the throwing-down-the-stairs-before-deigning-to-wear-it that seems to happen with everything I knit for Teddy (I have convinced myself it's a good luck ritual that he hasn't told me about), he seems pretty happy with it too.

I cast this on the day before Christmas eve and finished it a day or two after boxing day, which is pretty good going for me (mark one in its favour). I am also completely in love with the yarn (mark two), which is a mix of 75% British (Cornish, to be precise) organic wool and 25% Peruvian alpaca, making it lovely and soft while retaining a real 'wool' feel (you know what I mean, right? not too smooth and perfect). The colours are gorgeous - saturated and yet not too bright and garish. I live in hope that they might add a few more to the range so I can knit more things from this yarn. Even so, I suspect some might find its way into a baby knit or two (although not from this batch - I finished the sweater with literally four yards of the cream left and not much more in the blue).

My gauge was off and I picked a size up, so naturally the finished sweater is enormous, but I figure at least he'll get maximum wear out of it! (mark three). It could also do with being a fraction more in proportion (it's a little wider than it ought to be for the length), but even that isn't enough to make me resent it. I'm actually tempted to cast on another one in a cotton/wool blend yarn for summer.

If you want more details, here's the Ravelry project page.

A big bed quilt

One of my January aims (see these posts for more information about my year of hand making) is to finish this quilt, started back in December, for Teddy. I was hoping to put it under the tree for him but (a) ran out of time and (b) ran out of space under the tree (my goodness, two year olds get an insane amount of presents).

The quilt is going to be for his eventual big boy bed - he's still happily snoozing in a cot, but I think eventually that even if he doesn't start trying to climb out (hasn't happened yet), he's going to get too big for it soon! And even if he doesn't, we'll need it once the new baby grows out of the little bedside cot/crib thing. It's simply a patchwork square design - for all my love of clever piecing and quilting, I also adore really simple, straightforward patchwork squares in almost any combination of colours, prints and sizes. I think there's something particularly functional and straightforward about them, while the more intricate hand pieced and hand quilted ones always seem to hover somewhere between functional household goods and highly skilled artisan crafts.

The fabrics were chosen to match this gorgeous nursing chair - my mother re-covered it in this cool print not long after Teddy was born, and I love everything about it (the cot, incidentally, is a Stokke one, and is absolutely brilliant). That fabric, and the striped and fishy fabrics above, are light upholstery fabrics by Prestigious Fabrics, and I got some from a local fabric store and some more from Ebay. A quick search suggests it's still fairly readily available in the UK.

I'm pretending this quilt is to make Teddy's transition into a big bed a bit more special and feel-good for him, but in reality I suspect he'll be totally cool about it, and the quilt is rather more to help me get over the my-little-boy-is-turning-into-such-a-grown-up trauma. I'm scarcely getting over the idea of him becoming a big brother in a few months! Think of this as quilt-therapy.

A handmade wedding, part one (of approximately 3,000)

 

As well as all the usual pre-Christmas bustle, we had to find the time to make the save-the-dates for our wedding this year (oh my goodness, this year!). We were determined to get them out in Christmas cards (and, for the most part, succeeded, although a couple of our international friends might have received their cards a little after the big day due to our last minute posting).

The idea for the bunting came from a blog post I read ages ago. I can't even remember where it was, but I absolutely loved the vintage carnival/garden party look that bunting so perfectly evoked and that we are very loosely hanging our wedding on.

My sister designed the bunting, right down to sourcing the fonts and sizing the flags. She also cut most of them out, while I was on stringing/magnet attaching (oh sticky backed magnet tape, how I love thee)/cellophane bag packing duty and Adam wrote pretty much every single accompanying Christmas card.

 

I am so thrilled with them, not only because they look absolutely amazing (thanks Charlotte!) but because they mark the proper beginning of the process of our handmade wedding, something that has seemed an impossibly long way off for such a long time. We have big plans for this wedding to really be about us and everything we value, which inevitably means a good dose of handmade goodies, a reasonable degree of eco-awareness and an awful lot of untamed children dashing around (and a baby, hopefully doing less of the dashing and more of the sleeping/burbling in an adorable way).

Edited to add: a bit of googling shows that it was Yeri's save the dates. I think I saw them on a wedding blog, but she's the originator of this fab idea.

 

2011: A year of hand making (part two)

Umm, it's possible that this is another random and gratuitous family photo from Christmas. Baking with the toddler is mainly a battle to stop him using the spatula to shovel cake mix into his mouth as fast as possible.

I mentioned on Saturday that 2011 is the year in which I shall attempt to keep my hand making (and other family activities) just a teensy bit more organised and on track than I have in the past. I'm not planning on sucking all the fun out of it by scheduling every last minute of crafting and family time, but I am hoping that I'll achieve more of the things I want to by having a rough schedule in mind, instead of being taken by surprise by every single season change, festive event or family party.

I decided that some things were more ongoing projects than tasks that could be slotted into a monthly schedule, so there's a little section of aims for the year, but beyond that I've roughly thought about the months. You'll notice that beyond about March things get progressively more vague. That's partly because of the new baby arriving around the beginning of April (I've learned my lesson the hard way about over-estimating how much I can achieve with a small baby), partly due to the wedding in July (again, not sure how much time/energy I'm going to have around then) and partly due to the fact that I don't want to stress myself out with a year's worth of plans that could be thrown off by any number of changes (like, oh, I don't know, the arrival of a new baby?). My vague aim is to always be planning at least a handful of months ahead in order to retain the benefits of planning without panicking myself about how much I'm trying to achieve.

And so, without further ado, here you go.

Aims for the year (I hate the word resolution)

1. Blog more regularly and more thoughtfully – I’m aiming for somewhere in the region of 4-5 times a week, and actually spending some time over those posts so they say all of what I want to say
2. Carry the camera everywhere – I have missed so many shots this year simply through getting out of the habit of carrying it with me. Also we have a shiny new camera (this one) so I ought to make the most of it
3. Try to make even more of our food from scratch – I currently make most of our bread and treats, but I’d like to increase what I'm doing. I used to make granola and breakfast foods, maybe that's a good place to start.
4. Waste less time – I have an almost limitless ability to idle away hours on the internet or just pottering in my workroom. I’m sure I could increase my hand-making time by about 20% simply by being more efficient
5. Master colourwork – I’m not sure why, but I am suddenly determined to be able to knit colourwork. I think it’s all the cute baby fair isle projects I keep seeing on Ravelry
6. Think about seasonal making more than a week in advance, so I can actually make some of the lovely projects that always inspire me on other blogs come Easter, Halloween or Christmas
7. Spend more time outside, whether it’s in the garden or at the park. Just generally appreciate the natural world a bit more and hopefully instill a bit of that appreciation in Teddy
8. Spend more time crafting, baking and hand making with Teddy – we got quite into this in the run up to Christmas and it was a huge success. Definitely need more where that came from, especially in order to keep Teddy happy and occupied when the new arrival shows up.

January

1. Finish Teddy’s big bed quilt (hoped to finish it in the run up to Christmas, but it never happened)
2. Organise the crafting/art supplies cupboard – it all got a little out of hand towards Christmas. Also I think there's quite a lot more we could be doing in the way of arts and crafts, and I have nowhere to put more supplies
3. Knit Teddy another pair of socks
4. Make quilt tops/blankets for the wedding (the aim is to have a handful of quilts to drape over hay bales and as picnic blankets to sit on, as there won't be any formal seating for the meal)
5. Design and print the wedding invitations (loving the save-the-dates we made, blog post coming soon on them)
6. Quilt half of the sunshine quilt
7. Start a tea leaves cardigan for myself (just as soon as the yarn arrives from the States. Fingers crossed it makes it over the pond soon)
8. Make Teddy an outfit from Ottobre magazine (I've had a handful in mind for months now)
9. Make maternity dress from Handmade Beginnings (Anna Maria Horner’s lovely sewing-for-baby book)
10. Knit a baby cardigan (once I've narrowed it down from the not-very-shortlist of about 30 patterns)
11. Knit a baby hat (I am always sad that Teddy didn't have any hand knitted baby hats. Not sure why)
12. Knit Teddy a new winter hat (the last one had a minor run in with a hot wash, courtesy of Adam being in a bit of a rush to get a laundry on, and is now more fit for use as an egg cosy)
13. Make curtains for the sitting room (we really need to stop being open to stares from everyone walking down the street)
14. Organise my workroom and plan any sewing, making or shopping that needs to happen to keep it under control
15. Knit some practice colourwork swatches
16. Finish my father’s Christmas (ahem) socks
17. Plan what’s going in the garden this year (mainly very simple things that can be planted and forgotten for a few months, thanks to the rather busy summer we have planned)
18. Make marmalade (January tradition in this family)
19. Plan what other wedding hand making needs doing before the baby arrives
20. Sew zippered bags for crayons, pencils etc

 February

1. Finish tea leaves cardigan, if it’s not already done
2. Baste and quilt wedding quilts (yup, any and all of them. That'll happen)
3. Finish quilting sunshine quilt (along with those wedding quilts)
4. Knit baby bootees
5. Knit a cotton baby vest or sweater for summer
6. Make curtains for our bedroom
7. Plan Easter/spring related hand making
8. Organise the bedroom for the new arrival and plan any hand making that needs to be done
9. Plan and knit a colourwork sweater for baby (maybe the cardigan from Vintage Baby Knits )
10. Make a change bag (mine is nowhere near appropriate for two children, as well as being deeply unstylish)
11. Sew a needle wrap for circular needles

March

1. Make baby toys (I’m thinking possibly some felted balls, or some stacking blocks. We got rid of loads of Teddy’s toys because they were too plastic/noisy/broken, so we’re a bit short on that front now)
2. Go through the baby clothes bags and plan what needs making/buying
3. Finish quilting wedding quilts if not done yet
4. Start knitting wedding shawl/wrap (even if I'm not going to manage the dress, it would be nice to wear something handmade)
5. Find a space to make a nature/seasons table for the house
6. Make curtains for workroom
7. Finish any Easter/spring related making
8. Knit another baby blanket (I have ambitions to make this brightly coloured one and back it with jolly fabric like this one, first seen on Soulemama's blog but who knows)

April

1. Mainly we’ll settle for having a very new baby this month. Anything else achieved is a bonus, including getting dressed

May

1. A bit of more baby knitting maybe
2. Change seasons table at the end of the month
3. Finish piecing charm quilt (remember that one?)

June

1. Make some summer clothes for Teddy (maybe some more Huck Finn style pants and a couple of t-shirts, or maybe a wedding outfit, depending on how much sleep I'm getting)
2. Finish knitting wedding shawl/wrap

July

1. Get married! There will probably be enough hustle and bustle this month not to add more

August

1. Make a winter coat for Teddy
2. Plan and knit a colourwork sweater for Teddy
3. Knit winter jumper for baby

September

1. Change seasons table at beginning of the month
2. Make a round of baby clothes for winter
3. Make a round of Teddy clothes for winter
4. Plan any Halloween making
5. Plan the Christmas/winter solstice time making season, including

• Wrapping paper
• Tree decorations
• Winter table cloth

October

1. Knit two pairs socks for baby
2. Knit two pairs socks for Teddy
3. Make a start on Christmas making
4. Finish Halloween making

November

1. More Christmas making

December

1. Finish Christmas making

See, told you it got vague after the spring! I'm really enjoying reading on other blogs about new projects starting and crafty aims being set (gosh, the temptation to join things like the 365 project, but I know how stressed I'd get when I inevitably missed a day or two), so if you've made some resolutions, I'd love to hear about them.

Incidentally, this list is going to take the place of the list that normally loiters in the menu bar above for the forseeable future. I'm keeping that original list (which is more of a general list of things I want to achieve) updated and all links to it live, but all the things from it that I'm hoping to achieve this year are on the new list. As with the old list, I'll update with links to appropriate posts as projects are tackled and finished (I'll only update the list in the top menu bar - this post will remain as it is today, for the sake of posterity!).

Apologies for the mammoth post, I have some less epic ones coming up to show you all the things I managed to get made over the holiday period (it's actually a bit embarrassing how much more I got made when I was away from home and the lure of the internet. Whoops).

2011: A year of hand making (part 1)

 

Random and gratuitous shot of a family walk yesterday. Left to right: Daddy, Wellington (black labrador), Teddy, Ruth (step mother), me, Nelson (yellow labrador), Charlotte (sister)

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas/festive period/solstice celebration/handful of days off work. I did intend to touch base here once or twice over the holiday period, but somehow we booked ourselves up rather more thoroughly than I had realised and therefore had virtually no free time.

Anyway, back to the matter in hand. As you may have noticed (ahem), I am a bit of a fan of the list.

And as you also may have noticed, 2011 is going to be just a teeny bit busy for us (baby and a wedding 16 weeks apart, anyone?)

And, as you probably haven't noticed (because I'm only just telling you), there's been an awful lot of sewing/knitting/general making/toddler activities/baking/general stuff that has failed to happen round these parts because I've been too disorganised to get them done in time, or have simply forgotten about them. That something that's been irritating me, even though crafting and hand making is very definitely something I do for fun

I have, naturally, decided that the solution is the mother of all lists. 2011: A year of hand-making. Somewhere between a calendar and a list, it's a rough schedule and list of aims for 2011. This isn't some high pressure thing where I'm going to beat myself up about if I don't achieve every last thing, but I do want to have a little more structure to my hand-making activities this year.

I did actually intend to have my list ready to show you on this post today, but Christmas/New Year has been rather more busy than anticipated and I haven't had a chance to sit down and look at what I want to achieve yet. I'll be sure to let you know as soon as the list is ready to go. Hopefully this will happen when we get home from my father and step mother's tomorrow, but I'm not holding my breath.

So that's the crafting bit taking care of. Now how many lists will I need to make before I'm capable of keeping one toddler entertained while feeding a newborn and surviving on zero sleep come April? (I've heard rumours about newborns that actually sleep occasionally, but I'm not believing it till I see it. My last one definitely didn't. Oh gee).

The cake of Christmas Past

We have a family Christmas cake recipe that I make most years. It was passed down from at least my great grandmother, and I normally make one for whichever bit of the family we're spending the holidays with (there are a lot of bits of family - both Adam's and my parents are divorced and remarried, before you even get started on the next layer of family). However, this year we're mainly staying at home (although we're seeing a lot of family members over the festive period), and I didn't really want to bake a heavy traditional cake to have kicking around here, so there hasn't been one.

I'm a bit sad, I love decorating the cake. Or, in the case of the one above (apparently from 2008. I have no memory of what I did last year), cajoling my sister to help me decorate. However, I'm philosophical, and I'm looking at this as an opportunity to try something new. I made this one (with a few modifications, including extra marmalade and more spice) recently for my birthday last week, and it was really yummy. I'm also tempted by Nigella's chocolate fruit cake, which doesn't seem to be on her website, but I think appears in a couple of her books. Or maybe I'll just make a few dozen batches of cookies and we'll survive on them...

Bake day

 

This baking project was as solo as I could make it for Teddy. His (no pressure, but he attempted them all, I think) tasks included:

1. Spooning out the ingredients into the weighing scales
2. Mixing them (with maybe a little help from the Kenwood Chef)
3. Rolling the dough (I had to do most of this to prevent inch thick biscuits)
4. Cutting shapes
5. Mixing icing
6. Decorating!

I've started really trying to make a conscious effort to leave Teddy to it a bit more when we're baking/crafting etc. The control freak in me wants to leap in every five seconds and do it my way (I had to really restrain myself when the sprinkles and silver balls were all mixed in one cup after carefully laying them out separately), but Teddy is so much happier if I just show him which step comes next, then only assist if necessary (like rolling out the biscuit dough so the cutter would actually go through it). The same seems to apply to things like painting and playdough, where I am trying to move on from him watching me play (something he did a lot as a smaller baby) to actually getting involved himself.

I have to say, I'm loving it. I feel I'm really growing into this mothering thing now Teddy is getting a bit older and more involved in everything we do (as I may have mentioned a few thousand times before, the whole helpless-baby-sleep-deprived-mother is all a little lost on me). I'm kind of hoping that I'll cope a little better (ahem) with number two baby as I'll be too busy trying to keep two small people alive and entertained throughout the day to break down in non-coping-hysterics too often.

Incidentally, it's taken me the best part of a day to produce this blog post. Our lovely shiny iMac is at the computer doctor's having a faulty card reader fixed, so I'm limited to my decade old (I do not exaggerate here. Macs go on for a long time) laptop, which is, admittedly, a teeny weeny bit slow. Ho hum.

The day so far

Just about the only thing alive in the garden at the moment is the little bay tree we bought earlier in the year (before realising that there were two bays in the garden).

Teddy was initially quite keen to help tidy up the garden, but lost interest as soon as he found the watering can again (this summer's number one hot accessory).

I'm ashamed to say that I've scarcely been out in our garden since falling pregnant (first thanks to morning sickness, then lack of enthusiasm for gardening in the cold), so the whole place is looking really rather drab and scruffy. I want to make a start on tidying it up and getting it ready for next year's crops (which all need to be of the extremely low maintenance variety, so as not to intrude too much on the whole baby/wedding thing)., but there's so much to do that I just don't know where to start! I'm determined to get out there at least a couple of times a week though, and attempt to make some kind of headway with the raking up the leaves, digging over the raised beds and weeding the scruffy patches that we never quite got round to planting this year.

Of course, no morning would be complete without at least one outing for the train set (luckily, putting it away is almost as much fun as getting it out, so I don't have to spend all my time tripping over it). The train set was a birthday present this year (from us but originally found by my fabulous sister, who bought the whole lot at a boot fair for an embarrassingly small sum). I wonder whether the Christmas present (which I haven't in any way gone ahead and ordered without consulting Adam) will come anywhere near it?

Watching Teddy play with the train set got me thinking about more knitting (If you haven't been reading this blog for that long, you might not know that I actually started my handmaking endeavours with a voracious knitting appetite, so this whole knitting bug isn't actually totally out of the blue). This jumper was a charity shop find by Adam's mother (can you tell we don't buy much stuff brand new?), but it scarcely covers the big toddler belly now, so I think a replacement might find its way onto the needles in the not-too-distant future.

I wonder what else we'll get up to once Teddy finishes napping... I'm planning on a long session on the sunshine quilt this evening - our house is free from guests for the first time in about a week, so I'm finally able to spread the quilt all over the sofa and do nothing but stitch away at it for a whole evening. However, I suspect Teddy might have something a little less sedentary in mind when he wakes from his nap.

New best friend

I am so in love with my cowl (more details here and on the Ravelry project page here). It has hardly left my neck since I finally finished it last Friday and gave it a good soak in hot soapy water (always alarming with wool, especially cashmere, but necessary to get the industrial oils off when you buy cashmere from here).

The stitch definition with the cashmere yarn is fabulous, and it is, of course, beautifully soft and cosy. I appreciate that it doesn't even slightly match what I'm wearing today, but I don't care even a little bit.

It was a much slower knit than I expected, but the break from quilting has been nice (I'm ready to attack hand quilting the sunshine quilt with renewed enthusiasm now) and it turned out to be well worth the wait.

In other news, I suddenly look enormously pregnant (as well as just enormously fat). How did this happen? I swear I wasn't this huge about three days ago.

Brrrrr

We haven't had any more snow since last week's fall, but the frost has been incredibly hard for the past couple of days. I don't think it's getting much above freezing during the day. Pretty though.

I actually went outside to take some photos to show you the progress of my honey cowl, but I forgot to take it (blame the pregnant brain), and once I'd come in again there was no way I was going back out! Suffice to say it's now about 8" wide (the pattern calls for 12") and is sporting a completely incorrect row about 3" in which I only noticed this morning and refuse to frog out 5" of honeycomb stitch for. I figure it'll add character.

Seeing the raised beds all bare reminds me that when we get a milder couple of days we've still got some preparation to do for next year's growing, but even the thought of going out there and doing actual work is enough to make me shiver.

Please refer back to last Monday....

Today's notepaper from The Zesty Desk

There's not an awful lot of point in writing a new list for this week. The combination of the almost-never-ending bug (touch wood, I'm finally feeling a bit better, after a really rough week last week and missing my sister's fab birthday cocktail party on the weekend) means that I only made it through points 1-3 on last Monday's list. There were a few other points that made it to completion (my fabric arrived from the States after an eye watering customs charge), but basically I'm in the same position as I was last Monday, task-wise.

Incidentally, I'm becoming rather a fan of my Monday lists. As anyone who visits here with any regularity will know, I love the list. I have a master list of things to find, make and bake, and write so many blog posts in the form of lists that they have their own tag. Having a Monday list of craft projects (and other things) gives me a bit of a reminder when I'm in danger of veering off on (yet another) track during the week. Expect to continue seeing those Monday lists (and fab notepaper from Etsy sellers) for a little while to come.

We may be having a knitting phase

Maybe it's something to do with being ill, or the recent cold snap, or simply boredom with hand quilting (why yes, hand quilting a kingsize quilt is slow, thank you for asking), but my urge to knit cosy warm things has not been sated. Having cast off Teddy's hat and  scarf (and temporarily abandoned the mittens mission, at least until I find a pattern that explains thumbs for idiots), I immediately cast on for a baby blanket. Yup, baby knitting has officially begun. More details on it here (Ravelry link).

And, since the baby blanket is in absolutely no rush to be finished (indeed, I'm rather enjoying knitting a row here, a row there, and generally having the blanket grow alongside me throughout this pregnancy), I also cast on for a cowl. Plus, as Adam will attest, I am a women who likes to have a warm neck (allegedly I own an unreasonably number of scarves. I disagree. And anyway, this is a cowl, not a scarf. And I'm not making excuses. Honest).

  

Also, I can only apologise for the zany lighting on that shot. We have a new, slightly cleverer camera (I am nowhere near upgrading to a digital SLR, although I like the idea of doing so one day), and I'm having fun playing round with all the settings. Of course, it means I can no longer take a halfway sensible photo, but I'm sure I'll get there...

The cowl, by the way, is the Honey Cowl, knit in Colourmart DK cashmere (in a pink that really is about as vivid as it appears above). I want it to be finished right now so I can snuggle up in it. I have visions of knitting some matching Toast wristwarmers, but am aware that could be a teeny bit of pink overkill.

In slightly-less-interesting-news, I am finally (I think, touch wood, fingers crossed etc etc) beginning to feel a bit better. I've been more or less wiped out for two weeks now with one thing or another, and our entire little family has been ill at one time or another during that period. Winter bugs suck, but are slowly being defeated in this household.

More toddler, more snow, more handknit

What's not to love?

Adam and I are, amazingly, ill again, but I'm pleased to report that Teddy is fighting fit again. Things might be a little slow around here (especially if you're waiting for more destash to appear in my shop) for a few days, but I'm getting there, I promise.

Ah yes, the snow post

I had to laugh when I saw Lynsey's post yesterday. At the moment it popped up on Google Reader (possibly the best invention ever), I was just lamenting that I hadn't caught any pictures of the snow before it melted to blog about. But, lucky me, we got another quarter inch overnight (hey, I live on the south coast. We have to take what we can get, snow-wise) so I snapped a couple of (out of focus, but never mind) pictures at 7:30am when Teddy could no longer be persuaded that it was too darn cold to go outside.

Needless to say, we were back in the house after about twelve minutes. My boy may not feel the cold, but I was freezing! Thank goodness for the cone of cashmere that arrived today to make some wristwarmers from. I'm almost reluctant to share where the lovely cashmere is from, as they stock the cheapest, nicest cashmere yarn in the world (and they ship internationally) but I will confess that it's here, because I'm nice like that.

Incidentally, that's his new hat - he deigned to wear it, and the matching scarf, within a couple of days, and I'm now awaiting the arrival of some more needles (how do I not own a single set of needles in any of 3, 3.25, 3.5 or 3.75mm?) to knit some co-ordinating mittens. The Ravelry project pages are here (hat) and here (scarf) if you're interested in my extremely non-expert knitting.

Oh, and apologies for the couple of days' absence this week - we were all struck down with nasty illnesses of one sort or another. Teddy is now on antibiotics for an ear infection and recovering fast and I'm feeling much better, but Adam looks like getting ill again just as we recover, unfortunately.

And finally, I have to mention something. you see that snow up there? You see it? Perhaps half an inch where it's drifted. There were no trains running this morning from our station due to the weather conditions. I laughed.

This week I (probably) will:

To Do list from papersquid on etsy

1. Admire Teddy in his new hat and scarf (almost certainly inside - I guarantee he will not deign to wear them out of the door)
2. Not admire Teddy in his new mittens, on account of how I don't have the right size circulars to knit them. And the hat and scarf were really only to match the mittens
3. Start swatching a baby blanket. Yup, baby knitting is starting
4. Finish quilting the sunshine quilt. Anything can happen, right?
5. Continue to eagerly await the arrival of some fabric from the States
6. Sew more stock (once the aforementioned fabric arrives)
7. Finish Teddy's pyjamas, now I've finally found buttons
8. Bake bread that doesn't end up semi-raw (it's taking me a little while to get used to being domestic again, ok?)
9. Bake some more faux-cinnabon buns
10. Continue to search for someone to print fabric labels for me, since mine refuse to be colour-fast, despite the promises on the packaging
11. Try to give up the sweetie addiction just a little bit
12. Have a practice run of the confectionary I'm planning for Christmas gifts this year. Obviously this will really help the above sweetie limitation
13. Contemplate ordering a new camera (it's not beyond the realms of possibility. The old one has now also developed a somewhat temperamental battery life)
14. Plan some Christmas-related crafting. And possibly even start it

***

I'm quite liking this Monday list thing. You may (or may not) be interested to hear that I actually achieved quite a lot of the things on last week's list, probably mainly due to them being on the list.