Winter Hat III

It's Esmé again! Only I had no part in this hat's making - it was a hand knitted gift from my lovely sister. Apple blossom in silky soft cashmere-merino. It was worn all afternoon for raspberry picking (yes more Jam) and then later in the evening by a sleeping beauty in my cold car.



My sister wants to see more of me on my blog and the tricky thing about that is that 1) I am always behind the camera, like always, my dh just never picks the thing up and shots by the boys equal a picture of my left knee or sheepskin boot and 2) to be honest I am very scruffy. My children look pleasing on film but I tend to look like I am out dog walking. So I tried really hard to take a picture of myself and the best of about, ohh four (I get bored taking pics of me too - which adds to few of them) was this skewed one. Ta da. I wanted to show off the lovely necklace my sister also sent just for me but Esmé was trying to eat it so it is hidden.



Also sent were some lush soft and thick organic cotton PJ's from People Tree. I just LOVE organic cotton. I'd so much rather have only a handful of clothes for my babe that I wash and use and wash and use than 30 outfits from the supermarket. They are super duper soft and they stay soft. They really do. Provided you use a gentle washing products. And they are still so nice after 40 wears you can give them lovingly to another baby (hopping off my little passionate clothing soapbox).

Do you like my new quilt? Can you see it there on the bed? I love quilts. Especially hand made ones (I will I will I will ONE day make one and I get very excited thinking about it). This one is French and an early Christmas present (right). It has a wide dusky cotton/velvet trim and followed inwards by linen and then the rose fabric. It has been cold here at night so while I flicked this onto my bed to see how it would look before stashing it for Christmas (right) it just sort of looked so nice I left it there to look at for the day...... and then thought I'd see how it felt on my bed for a night and then, well, that was four days ago.

And Jam. More jam. Raspberry Jelly bejewelled jars. Delicious. Next on my list is Apple jam from a bit of er, more scrumping. I see some lovely neglected fruits further down the lane that require attention.

Crafty Sunday

Isaac was horse riding this morning with his dad so Felix and I decided to do some more of the autumn inspired crafts we embarked upon earlier in the week. He got a head start in his Christmas gift making and made his sister two woollen bracelets.




Then we started lantern making.



So necessary in Autumn when you get to eat supper in a room where the daylight has already slid towards another land. We make far far too many of these every year, we just get into the groove of tissue paper and glue and then it's applied everywhere. Particularly pleasing is the effect of tissue paper bits covering a jam jar with a tea light inside. But today we made card ones for the table and window. Without my noticing Esmé grabbed a handful of blue torn shreds and stuffed them into her mouth, taking on the look of manic lollipop sucker. She looked frightful and we laughed at her depraved looking state, she joined in as if really on a sugar high. I made my customary fern candle holder. I make these every time, surely the fern has one of the most beautifully shaped delicate leaves? They look fab with light behind them I think. Here's a hint though, be sure to cover the 'window' with a sheet of white tissue, dab and stick you coloured tissue on (or leaf) and then add another layer of white to seal it - we have had some exciting table top fires in previous years when the paper and leaf dry and curl dangerously towards candle flames. Dinnertime is surreal when one can boast of table displays of fire - although the scent of singed hair on a frazzled tea-towel wielding mother spoils showy effect somewhat for guests.



We rolled some beeswax candles too, we seem to have masses left over from last winter so before they are crammed back into the craft cupboard I need to make a mental note to drag the stack of honey sheets out again for winter rolling. I love the smell of beeswax - it's linked in my mind with polishing and care and love bestowed upon home and hearth.



Today though our home smells of woodsmoke as enthusiastic child-pyromaniacs toast marshmallows outside on the pot bellied fire stove. Hope they save me one!

The next quarter

Evening walk - part summer-mellow scent hanging still in the air but with a final dying breathe. The evening was draped with the overriding briskness and richness of colour that heralds Autumn's arrival. This day felt like the verge - and we tipped over into the next season standing and playing in the field. Bliss for the senses.

Winter Hat II

This is the Pilot Hat from Little Turtle Knits. And no I have not gone on a binge Esmé hat making spree, this one was supposed to be for my nephew Ruben who's mama asked me to knit him a hat with ties cos' he pulls off everything else.... knowing he's a strapping kind of lad (two months older than my little dd) I decided to knit the toddler sized version of the hat. BUT it fits Esmé so there is NO way it's gonna fit him. Nope. So The Beauty has another hat. Ahem. Time to get making for the bigger boys.

Coincidently dd is wearing the same little romper suit thing as in the last last winter hat shot - I just love that little thing - it was Felix's too and is just so snuggly and soft. It is from a the German company Lana who no longer make such nice things I think. Such generously cut stuff is hard to find - got to get around that big cloth bottomed baby-butt.

Back to the hat - it was a good pattern. Interesting to knit and not too long or boring, good clear instructions too. I liked knitting it very much. But is was one of those scratching head sorts of patterns where I just could not figure out how the thing was going to look. It was decidedly odd. I was maybe 2/3 through before I thought ahhhhh! Now I see how it will look. Also I knit it during two different nights of film watching with my dh so I would stare up and then back down at my knitting and have forgotten what I was doing. I tried to knit once with a subtitled film - what a stoopid thing to try! Unless you are a touch-type sort of knitter. I am not. Cute hat though yeah? The yarn is a local Welsh merino-cashmere blend and is rich and soft - a darker cocoa colour in real life than this photograph shows.

rose hips

I am very blessed to have this amazing wild rose tree outside of my front door. Can you get rose 'trees' or just bushes? Prolly not a tree really but it looks like one; thick gnarled 'trunk' and thorny green/pink profusion at the top, draping softly, just like a tree. That there is 2lbs of rose hips and I still have 3/4 of the 'tree' yet to pick from. Only the rest are high and drop away sharply to the stream so I will try and convince dh that his time would be best spent this weekend picking them for me. On the top of his wobbly ladder.... set in the stream? He is gonna need some convincing for that. And for the manure I snagged from our landlord's gardener, that er, needs picking up via the wheelbarrow.... I forgot to let him know about that particular job I heartily agreed to on his behalf a couple of days ago....poor man. Will his time ever be his own? He laughs though. A lot. And he really likes being at home, and if he's here he'd rather be doing than not. So another blessing to be counted!

Happily for him he has rose hip and apple syrup to look forward to as a sweet prize for his efforts. It tastes divine, light and fresh and summery. I must have bodged the making of it somehow though as the recipe said I'd have fourteen and a half pint jars worth at the end and I had..... get ready for it.... a measly TWO. Very strange. Not sure what happened I'll try again after the weekend with my freshly picked hips. I was very jealous upon visiting a friend last weekend to see she had masses and masses of elderberries, just dripping from about 20 trees beside her house. Yum. My sticky jam making hands inched towards them. Felt rather foolish though - I had loving and proudly taken along one of our THREE remaining jars of bramble jelly, carefully hand labelled with a scrap of paper and tied rakisly with thick cords of red and blue - only to hear her telling my dh about how she made twenty two jars the other day and still had masses of blackberries to pick. I hastily and with pink cheeks tucked away my measly offering remembering instead Isaac chiding me that morning about how he loved his jam and could I please not give any more away? So it's his gain :)

Saw masses of rowan berries at the end of the driveway... are they edible I wonder? I should check.... I am so into this free food thing. It is so satisfying.

Winter Hat I

The first of the season's winter hats, for Esmé. She was first in line as the smallest in the bunch. It's the hat from that same Bliss book for beginners, that I have knit a trillion times and probably shall knit another trillion more. It does not tie under the chin, nor have ear flaps but it is so endearing and so easy to knit and as long as it is not too small it really does not curl up and require tugging back over the ears. This one is knit in Noro Silk Garden and is beautifully soft and velvety. It is the hat of choice for my boys who call it the 'Willy' hat. Any guess as to why??!!!! And want another each this winter. Stay tuned for Winter Hat II!

Bramble Jelly

In between spurts of rain we managed to pick blackberries, not so many maybe only 2lbs, but certainly enough for jam making. I was ecstatically excited about doing it on my own and it was ridiculously easy. So easy, I laughed and pranced around the kitchen saying, Look! Jam! I made jam! A life long ambition full filled! Well er, if not quite lifelong, certainly perhaps a new year's resolution that I can put a tick beside (not that I actually made a list but If I had jam making would have featured). I am desperate to make more. Quite desperate. I have jars aplenty with the prerequisite peeling labels but no free fruit. It's like that first time I completed something I started knitting; exhilarating, wholesome, exciting, satisfying and proud - all mixed into a fabulous feeling soup. I want to give them all away they look so shiny and black and pretty in my favoured jars. But I only ended up with four pots so that level of giving is not quite reached, especially when hungry boys have practically demolished an entire pot already and it was only made today. If the sun is friendlier next year and there are more fruits to be had I shall make as much as possible. I used the recipe from here, the River Cottage website..... isn't Hugh kind of dreamy..... I love seeing men who cook and gather fruits and make chicken houses....and... slaughter pigs? Maybe the slaughter I could do without.... cooking programmes are the one real thing I miss about not having TV, so ultra thankful now for Internet viewing :)



We have been getting lots of free apples and also needlessly pilfering them from an overloaded tree we walk by (neglected though I feel, so it feels good to take the bounty). But still it rains on and our stream has reached the limits of it's banks and we have sandbags all over the place and it feels excitingly like a pretend-disaster. Sort of play-acting, the drama without the true blue flood.

Still beauty-beads of water to be seen.



And another Beauty, too small for jam tasting but delicious and ready to eat.

Pink Roll-y Poll-y

It's the Debbie Bliss Boat Neck Sweater (again, I know, what a bore). I added the garter stitch ridges just for my own amusement whilst knitting. It is my favourite knitted item for my babes to wear (although not maybe my favourite to knit - it's kinda boring a pattern.

It rolls at the neck, all comfy and easy to pull on. It rolls at the sleaves so it can be rolled down when little arms grow.





And it's rolled at the bottom just, well, because every other edge is rolled.

I have made this once before in pink for my niece with an over sewn rainbow heart, then in purple and blue stripes for Felix the toddler, then with some spring-green self patterning sock wool last year again for Felix the bigger boy (only I was so bored by it that it ended up a tad short.) Then I made a teeny newborn gooseberry coloured cashmere/merino one for Esmé. And now this one. I even have pics of them all I think - yeah here you go:









Er.... I really need to find another pattern, this one feels well and truly explored!

The start of a Love Affair

A one sided Love Affair I am pretty sure. She squeals and chirps and tries to gobble him up and grasps at his eyeballs, and fist his ears - he flicks his tail and in a whisper-y-whip trots daintily off and she cries in his wake. Honey Bun, don't fret! Play a bit harder to get I whisper silkily in her ear, don't worry, he'll be back. But each and every time she can't resist his delicious soft fur, glinty eyes, his dream of a figure and she throws herself at him. Life often is such :) One sided love affairs abound. You see paradoxically the cats adore me, I have to haul them from my neck, throw them out of the door, I walk outside and they twine around my legs puurring - this all when out of the whole family I show the least interest. Mad 'innit?

Mei Tai

So much for discussing and reviewing one sling a week! More like one a month at this rate. S - L - O - W is the pace here, I just start getting into the groove of a week to find it's over and Friday has arrived. This is my new Mei Tai I have another but it needs dying and of course it's much easier to sit here and click click and a new one arrives pronto with the post than it is to make a journey somewhere to buy dye and then find the precious time to dye it - so my eco soundness found me buying another sling. My dh is a fan of this one. It is super comfy, slightly padded straps and lengthy enough if you are less than svelte (check for dh) but not huge dangly straps of several meters or anything outrageously unmanageable. I picked the black and white because it's the one combo of colours I yet to own on sling fabric :lol So here is the lovely babe asleep after a brisk-ish walk. It is my sling of choice for shopping, marching through town and walks. Around the house I still opt for one of the ring sling for ease, super ease (how does a mama survive without a ring sling or two? I swear they keep us all sane and Esmé quiet as a mouse - which helps towards the sanity I have to say).

'Nother angle.


Can you just SEE those adorable merino leggings? They are my favourite item of clothing. Ever. I wish I could both buy them in adult sizes and that my physique warranted legging wear. Luckily I get to see them in full glory and cuteness on an adorably chubby female (it's allowed when you are small - not even allowed but every inch is cooed and adored and fawned over). If any of your children are without merino leggings then I suggest a purchase is in order just for the giggle cute factor if not the fabulous warmth, softness and vibrancy of colour (we also have a lime green pair to switch with). Swoon. Bonus feature - I decided to lanolise them and try them out as day time 'longies' instead of the current wool nappy pants that are a bit small. They work! I think a bit more wear and another lanolin treatment or two are required but thumbs up. Miles cheaper than any other longies I have seen (or the cost of wool required to make a pair). Not for nighttime use though really, for me double thickness wool is better or a tighter knit for nights.

Once upon a time I imagined I'd make several pairs of longies by myself but in fact I have made nil. Can't find the inspiration for them, I prefer knitting jumpers and cardigans and socks and hats. And I am knitting again, which is enormously satisfying, I'll post my pics soon. I have knit my first ever pink thing, very funny after my boy-palate of past.

Why I am not a detective

When the boys were away my dh and I took to going for new and undiscovered evening walks around about where we live - country lanes, paths through fields etc. It was on one of these nightly delicious stroll-y types of walks with the babe asleep in the sling that we stopped on the over-grown barely-there foot track at the side of a wheat filed to find: a rubber mallet.

Black rubber and shiny new silver handle.

With complete certainty and with the sort of authority of voice that would make a police chief say, yeah boys call off the dogs, search over, she's got it, I say;

Yep. It must be from a mallet throwing competition.
A what?
You know, a village fete type of thing, like a welly throwing competition only with... rubber mallets! (*shrug* Case so obviously dismissed!)
From where?
Huh?
Where would this competition have been held? (Gestures around huge wheat field and next door field of sheep).
Oh! Over there some where... (arm wave in vague 360 degree direction).

I stop walking (deep in thought, of course).

Actually I've changed my mind. It wasn't a mallet throwing competition you're absolutely right, it must have been..... a MURDER!!!! I suspect the murder took place in the wheat field with the rubber mallet! (chortle chortle, silly laughs from me that shake me all over the place)

Walk on a bit.

Well? You're quiet what on earth do you think a strange mallet is doing here in the middle of no-where?

I ask because I am flumuxed. Confounded. I have exhausted all possibility and feel as through I have just awoken, entered the bathroom to find a donkey braying and chomping on my toothbrush and cannot fathom for one second what it is doing there or WHY??? Or who put it there.... I give up.

Walkers.

'Scuse me?

Walkers. Campers, walking this bridleway, it dropped from their backpacks. It's for knocking in tent pegs probably.

Ohhh. Well. Yeah! God!!! How did I not think of that? That is exactly it! God you're a genius! (Genuine enthusiasm on my part)

Hmmmmm.

Then lots and lots of laughter that wakes the baby.

And that is an example of why I am not a chief detective.

Or even an assistant detective. Some where, some how, that teeny spot in my brain that solves mysteries was addled.

But it's ok, it manages without my meaning to, to give us lots of laughs, which I think is better than being right. Mmmmmm Hmmmmm certainly better. Tra la la.

(That's my explanation anyway, and I'm sticking to it :) )

Felted and loved up

In the manner of Heart Felt I totally plagiarised her felt embellishments for two gifts today. One is a tiny newborn cardigan knitted from organic cotton that Esmé never even wore once as she was far far too big for it. Oh well. It has sat waiting for a tiny babe to be born so I could pass it on to and hurray my cousin had a 6lb baby boy last week and so I have a gift all ready :lol But.... it needed *something* .....it seemed lacking some how and this morning in a snatched ten minutes of baby nap I cut and sewed a little bird just like the ones in the above blog/shop. Very pleasing.

Then I decided to jazz up an outgrown pea green sweater of Esmé's for baby cousin Evie with another birdie, this time lilac and chocolate, now it's that little bit extra loved up. Voila!



This is the what happens when you try to take photos with the baby right by your side. She's not quite ready to give it up yet. Obviously.



Just squeezed into her purple cardigan, for one of the last times, alas, but pleased to be getting each drop of warmth and comfort from it - Happy Beauty :)