Birthday Wool

This is the Christmas cardigan I never finished. Did I even start it...? I had a manic amount of gifts I was excited to do then and this fell to the bottom of my list. I have managed to finish it in time for a birthday gift for the wee Boo. Only because I was mock-stern and told myself I could not put another project onto my needles until I finished at least one thing first (I swear sometimes I think about buying more needles simply because mine are all tangled up in half finished projects). This looked the most likely to complete and since I REALLY really want to get started on some Baby Legs I have been knitting into the small hours to finish this off (I speed up and get addicted near the end).





But it helped that the wool was so very very lovely to touch. This is one of those yarns that gets softer and softer the more it is touched. I knit a hat in the same stuff a while back and now it is keeping the head of my niece warm as Esmé outgrew it. It is from a local shop. It is a merino cashmere blend. The colour is quite accurate in these photos, I just love it! The pattern is the Shawl collared one from the Baby Knits for Beginners book by Debbie Bliss. I bought some fancy buttons with hand painted poppies on but I always knit my button holes too small and these were too big so I substituted some little dotty ones from my button jar. You can buy some lovely bags of these buttons here. I have this fascination with buttons and collecting them which is unfortunate for my dh as he has phobia of them. No joke! It took him years to tell me about it but I always forget and hold them right up to his face for his super close inspection. It's a selective phobia though, like necessary buttons are ok, but decorative ones freak him out. So he really LOVES my felt hair elastics and brooches, what with their sole decorative appeal. :)

She's doing her mad maniac look here where she screeches at us and cackles wildly.


I think I would also quite like to make her a fabric book but am not sure what sort, with fabric photos, or with bits that go in pockets? .... ideas most welcome!



While waiting for my bath to run last night I ran this up for Isaac (I had a luxurious ten minutes to myself as everyone else set up a train track). I made him a robin brooch for Christmas and he liked it lots so I thought I'd make a bigger one to hang on a random hook behind his top bunk: For sweet dreams and to rub the red belly for luck we decided. It is wool felt with some carded fleece stuffing.

Circle Time

I made these..... things. I saw them here and thought, how good; a quick and easy sewing project. And it was! They were super fast and easy and very satisfying because completion was immediate. Cut out circles of felt and cut out circles of fabric scraps, sew together any way you like (I liked spirals and lots of circles).



My dh though wondered what exactly they were....? Well..... Mmmmmm they can be used in the play kitchen, you know as pancakes to flip or fried eggs or as dolly place settings and such..... and also as stepping stones for Luke Skywalker and his super hero cronies, or stepping stones for boys on their tip toes, or playmobil men flying saucers.... who knows! They could become anything! I was enthusiastic and decided to run off to make five more. He nodded, well they are very..... nice. Thanks. I really think we need so many more, don't you? Coasters! Also they could be coasters! (Despite never having ever owned or used a coaster, yk, they still could be by the more discerning and particular house guests).

I put them in a basket for The Beauty to notice. But would she?



She did finally (after a few detours).







Isaac thought it would be good to play pancake flipping with them (see! I was right!) and then he did some sort of messy throw them all in the air for ages game, but that was good, they were being used. Then they became something to do with superhero figures (see! right again! How good to be able to second guess ones children!). Then they were forgotten. But I like them! I really do and I am still smiling about making something so easy and cute and very very.... useful :)



Make some! They'll make your day (or hour, depending on how weird you are).

Oh! Finally - this was the ball Isaac knitted Esmé for Christmas. I spotted it whilst photographing the circles. It was a very good job he stared out knitting way back in October because he was still finishing it off on Christmas Eve. I think it was from a scrap of left over Noro Silk Garden. It was basically a rectangle, scarf-like, then I helped him sew the short ends together so it looked like a bracelet. Finally a running stitch along each long end and pulled tight. It is stuffed with a bit of carded sheep's fleece. I think it pleases me to see it every time I do, no one would know it but SUCH a LOT of effort and thought and love for his sister went into it. Isn't that the BEST present?!!! :)

Saturday

We have been terribly busy this week. But terrible only in the sense that I have not had much time to do the home-y things I love most. Namely sewing, knitting, cooking, baking and just being in and around my house and garden. We did have some funny times with friends and some busy classes but I am very much enjoying my day at home today. Quietly, The Beauty and I - with The Boys off adventuring.

So last night while everyone in the house slept I tiptoed out out bed and sewed cushion covers for the kitchen chairs. Sometimes restlessness can be put to rest at the sewing machine, especially with secret night time sewing! But yeah, not a thrilling project, I really wanted to make more clothes for my girl but have long been meaning to do a more boring sewing project involving some reject cushion pads for the chairs. I remembered a pop flower Ikea fabric that I once upon a time turned into curtains to hide the inners of an ugly cupboard (without doors) and they have been folded and patiently waiting for a new home since we turned that wood-worm infested cupboard into scrap. More flowers! They clash (or compliment? - not sure) the other materials in here er, vividly. The striped rocking chair (below) is also here in the kitchen so I have the menagerie of patterned fabrics thing down to a fine mish-mash art. Ho, ho.



I made chicken and vegetable soup. Mini banana muffins also in this photo, but someone added a tablespoon of bicarb. soda instead of a teaspoon so they tasted pretty weird. Weird enough so that there is that mega pile there instead of a mega pile of wrappers had they been decent. They are near the back door so that the chickens can have some. But get this - they wouldn't eat them. The birds that are perpetually looking for food and eat anything, wouldn't eat them. So there you go, not even recognisable as food. Still I have consolation brownies left over with a random weetabix (for added crunch) thrown in - thanks Isaac!

The Beauty wearing a creamy wool jumper that once belonged to another Beauty - thank you M, it fits!

If you have hair....

.... it might like to be tied up in these. I have and mine does!

I am going to take a batch along to the home ed. group and see if any girlies want to buy some, then maybe get more stock (ohh that sounds really business like 'stock') and do a little jaunt into town and see if any little crafty shops might want some to sell. I am not sure, but I like doing them so what they hey. Thinking I might open an Etsy shop! Won't that be exciting? But will I be able to stock it with sell able things... Mmm that's the catch :lol

A needle case I made for no reason what so ever other than wanting to try making one. So I did and here it is.



Also this week we had lots of cake baking. Felix and Isaac love it and also I get to eat cake. Because I need to fatten myself up a bit I think (if only one could insert sarcastic tones into the printed word). This is a cake disguised as Good Food because it had mashed banana inside. Virtuous as always.



I HAD to (read forced into) making a bag specifically for Police Lego. I managed it because it meant time at the sewing machine. My new favourite place.




Now for the random photos of the week:

Baby Boo excavates the shopping bags in the hallway (wearing Fe's hat, because it's the sort of hat that fits everyone - excpet me who it was intended for, of course).







George Hides in a bag and makes us laugh so loudly (hooting away) he has to run and hide again from us.





Baby boo steals my apple and then sits with it staring off into space for such an age that we all laugh like mad things and she still does not blink. She is such a dreamer. (You might be wondering why my photos lean heavily on photographing my dd above all else: 1. I can follow her around and she does not mind 2. She is cute and inspiring 3. She is cute and inspiring - reasons enough?!!)







Adventures with Tom; stealing the baby's throne and having a lesson with Felix on how to colour in within the lines. An important thing to know how to do well.





Isaac with his new calender.

A Dress for Esmé

Last night I made this. It's a birthday dress for the nearly one year old. Nearly one! I should be used to this babe-growing-up fast game but apparently I am not because I gasp continuously at how scarily quick Time is speeding up and whizzing by carrying my babies into little (and big!) children. But then I am glad Time is doing this and that I am along for the ride with them. It has been a Very Good Year. Very Good.



She happily tried it on early just for the camera.



The fabric Japanese and from Fabric Rehab. It is fully lined with a cute flower bud print that I found in Oxfam. Wow, about 3m of the stuff, I was lucky there that day.

I whizzed this dress up in about an hour. Now I am revving up to make more clothes, it was fabulous fun, I have nooooo idea why I have never tried clothes making before but am very glad I gave it a whirl. It is seriously addictive. If only I looked as good in a doll print dress is what I say, if only. Dungarees next!

Purple Punk Tom - The Revamp

This was Isaac's doll, a fifth birthday gift. It has been 'madeover' for Felix who after seeing Talia's beautiful new doll Tilly, wanted his own. So here is Tom. Purple haired Tom. Not quite sure why he has purple hair, only my hair coloured yarns looked really drab and since I had been informed that this was to be an adventuring doll I decided magical purple hair would be best. I used a mix of blue and purple and the followed the hair tutorial on Crafty Sheep blog. Hair is tricky. This was my third attempt at hair making on a doll and the best by FAR. If you had seen the lump I pulled from this doll's head earlier you would have sighed and probably muffled a giggled and then maybe have ran from the room screaming because on the floor it looked really very much like a dead rat. This tutorial was fab. And I loved the haircutting session afterwards to make it boy-like. I sponged the face, reworked the eyes and re-threaded and tightened the limbs. Then I set about making new clothing since the previous ones had vanished. The sweater I cut and sewed from an old one of my own, the trousers from a nightdress of Esmé - and then some more striped trousers from scraps left over from bag making. The back-pack was very much requested and was fiddly but exciting to invent and sew. Yes, I was excited over a doll bag. My life is grand :)



Now apparently I need to knit accessories. And make a bed and some snow boots. More excitement in store for me. Oh yes. What fun I shall have. Actually I probably will, that is the funny part of this story. Ahem.



But still I made a doll with purple hair that made my son smile so it's all good.

Winter

Today we had the luxury of dh at home, well two days at home because I have had mastitis (fever in the night had me crying out that the walls were falling down and nothing would help other than dh going outside with torch to check the foundations. He didn't by the way, he's not mad. He told me I was ill and to go back to sleep. Sleep? Ha! When the walls were about to crumble around my very ears! He certainly MUST be mad). But today we walked and I felt better. The light was all golden and healing or something, but it felt like I had a dose of some medicine just being outside.



























Felix's hat? Well I sat with it on my knee a while trying to 'fix' it. It just was not working out for him, popping up above his ears pillar box style. His curses and mine sounded utterly Russian. I ended up adding ear flaps and i-cords. Now it is just right and he said it was a fantastic hat that turned him into a pilot. I forgot to mention that the yarn is by O-Wool and was part of an exchange I did with my good friend Melody. It is seriously luxurious to touch, organic merino with a matt texture. Plus I have found a place in the UK that stocks it for future purchases, because goodness, my yarn stash is dwindling; I can finally close the lid on my super big box when I sit on it (previously I could not, so now I know I need to buy more wool).





The perfect after-walk snack. Pecan nuts tossed in a pan with a dollop of butter, a squirt of agave a pinch of salt and a sprinkle of ceyanne pepper. Only a sprinkle though, don't make my mistake and add several sprinkles or you might be the only one eating them. Which is no big problem to be honest.



My favourite bit - after the walk when my baby, pink cheeked from the cold, but warm bodied from being carried by me, smooches down for some milk. I get to sit in bliss and stare at her lovely little self.