so far

...this week, I knit up a newborn soaker in Cascade 220, it's a super vibrant jade green, and far brighter a colour than I expected to arrive in the post, but that just cannot be helped sometimes with online orders. Luckily a soaker is an undergarment, and therefore any colour is fine I reckon. I like this yarn a lot for a wool wrap/soaker, it has an open-ish texture which I think will lanolise well. This is the Vanilla pattern I found on ravelry and I think I shall make some more in different sizes (and colours). The bigger sizes have an i-cord tie, and there are different ways to knit the waist band, like a button down version.



I also whipped up this little owl wash-cloth in cotton, it was a quick sunny mid afternoon single hour knit, satisfying and allowed me to cable :) The free download is available here.



I am planning to start this sweet little knit, designed by a friend tomorrow when my baby merino/silk yarn arrives. I want something so silky it can be worn direct on delicate skin. This pattern gets some good reviews so I shall test myself and see. A knitter friend said her baby had far too many knits for one human child to ever wear, and I fear it may be so too for Baby Four here. But there are worse things to suffer from than an excessive woollen wardrobe I feel. Can it be that I am a couple of weeks away from being half way through this pregnancy already? See, that thought alone makes me want to knit quicker. It may be an affliction, but probably only for the recipients of my knits, certainly not for me, the knitter.



This week I have been wild garlic mad. Well why not? Wild garlic season is short, and such a tasty one. This bunch made a good old bacon, sweet potato and wild garlic soup. The man has gone from disliking soups in the the last 15 years I have known him, to finding them palatable, to honest hearty praise for ones like this. Since I make soup ever such a lot I suppose it's been Soup Or Starve for him.















We go on little sunny jaunts just out of the garden to fetch more of the garlic leaves. This is the waterfall I hear all day long, day and night. Mostly I don't hear it, well, you can't all of the time, but when I stop and do hear it, I am always glad I did.





The dog turned one year old today, I guess it's worth a mention, we all forgot until half way through the day, by then it was too late; I had already scolded her :) But she certainly enjoyed her two extended walks we took to make up for it. Especially the bit where she ran off to see a neighbour's dog and I couldn't call her back for ages, being as she was two fields away where I could not get to. Oh yes, I am sure she thoroughly enjoyed that bit. More than we did anyway.

The kitchen is swamped in seed trays and pots, we all look eagerly to see signs of life, but the garden must be far warmer than the house though if green growing life is anything to go by. These look dormant, perhaps I shall pop them outside to warmer climates.





It was a barefoot and pregnant, walking in a dewy grass meadow, sun on bare arms and shoulders sort of morning for me. Which sounds blissful, and it was sort of, until the dog clawed my foot (accidentally) and then I trod on nettles, those vicious spiky sort which look dead right now but still have sharp undead spikes, so I found. And now I am sun-pink, in March! See my shoulder?



What crazy happy weather, just hoping it holds out for months to come although the farmers in every direction around me are directly praying for rain, I know, but I am collaborating against them and praying for more sun, the days just are so much sweeter when we can spend them garden-side and wallow in the stream. Even though the black dog ends up like this.



My Kimchi is delicious and nearly gone. I am the only one who eats it, and am finding myself drawn constantly to eat the sort of foods one is not supposed to in pregnancy; tangy raw cheese, paté and every sort of ferment I can brew up. I remind myself of my French SIL who whilst pregnant scoffed at the notion of stopping eating her ripe cheeses or drinking red wine, telling me it was actually advised in France, least the mother get unduly stressed. I like that a lot. I would find it stressful indeed not to eat the paté in my fridge, and so I shall pretend to be French whilst I eat it.



Two other good things this week, one, I was asked by Tiana to write a testimonial for the coconut oil, and in return they gave me a whopping £90 worth of their fabulous (normally too expensive for me) oil! It is a huge pail and I am giddy with coconut ideas just looking at it. I use VCO anyway, and so this should last a good few months. Whooppeee!

And, two, I have been selected to test out lots of natural/organic pregnancy beauty products and write some reviews. I hardly ever use 'products', I have a face oil I make up myself from jojoba and rosehip seed oil and then I use plain jojoba or almond oil on the rest of my body. I wash with a wash cloth and what ever soap I have bought for the rest of the family. That's my 'beauty' regim. Testing this stuff out will be a treat, I wonder how my skin will react? I have yet to find a moisturiser that did not make my skin itch. Even 'natural' ones, so it will be interesting. And can there really be so many pregnancy products out there to test? Wow, I look forward to seeing what arrives in the post!

Birthday number three, first born baby Isaac turns 11 tomorrow, so no doubt more midnight cake baking for me! I think every birthday is destined to be like these, mad rushing and happy exuberance.

baby seeds

seeds and earth and water and sun. we are all growing and i am just in love with being outside. i plant my seeds and as i squat i feel the little melon size ball of utero/baby and it feels like every time i breathe in the air and sun and earth it grows, just a bit more. seed like. i am smiling, vigilant and coaxing with both seeds and baby, although i know that they will grow (or not) with or without my will that they should. but love certainly makes it all the more enjoyable a process to be part of.





The Beauty and i spend so much time in the veggie garden whenever weather and free time permit, even if it's just to weed or turn bits of earth/sand and tidy things. lately The Man too has been involved. a tree fell on the greenhouse over winter and we (um, i mean *he*) renewed it totally and bubble-wrapped the whole thing in lieu of proper glass. it works, it was cheap, and in a place where trees accidentally fall fairly often, glass is not an option. plus The Man originally *made* the whole thing and it only ever was designed to support thin sheets of plastic. which have warped cracked and become brittle. lets see how the bubble wrap holds.





naughty squirrels have been eating every single seed i plant, over and over and over in the greenhouse this year. we rigged up this net cage on bamboo poles and i brought my most precious and squirrel tasty trays and pots of veggie seeds inside to grow on windowsills.





this is The Beauty when we are digging and 'doing' over there. full of the joys of spring.





its a good place to be.

just knit (and knit)

This post has taken me a week to write in hasty snippets of time and now it's all feeling topsy turvy and out of sync. One thing continuous at least is that I have been doing much knitting and am eager to show it. Two (which after yesterdays marathon journey to Legoland became three) Milo vests and a couple of strange cardigans, one so small I think if this baby is over 8lbs it won't even fit. I also whipped up a super quick pair of newborn soakers which look HUGE to me, perhaps I can fold them over. I have never cabled before, ever, and after the first cable pattern repeat in the Milo, I was all why? Why did I wait so long to cable? It's interesting, and makes me knit quicker to see how the pattern will turn out. Which was why I knit three straight up, and still I sort of want to make another to keep trying out the multitude of cable options given. I am dreaming happy cable dreams where everything could have a cable strip incorporated.....





Esmé is sitting here asking me if she can go on holiday 'around the universe, up a tree and then over the rainbow so she can get to the Land of Oz?' And can she get over the rainbow in a helicopter or a normal car? It is very important for me to give the right answers to these sorts of questions. And she is often telling me '*THIS* is *VERY* important!' and it is something like glueing a scrap of paper at exactly the right angle to another scrap or paper, 'writing' all over it. And then likly never wanting it again unless I throw it away. Both Isaac and Esmé are at the table with me making birthday cards for Felix while I type this. Isaac just dropped his pencil 'what the bloody hell are you doing Isaac?' She asks him while adjusting her hair-band and holding her own pencil poised just so, annoyed and the noisy interuption to her train of thought. It's much easier to laugh than cry, although doubt I am setting a very good example (again) since obviously she is copy-catting and probably I should duck when the finger is pointed at the original cusser.





We have watched Return to Oz twice this week (um, now, last week). I think it is really scary actually, very gothic and dark with a David Bowie 80's feel. Esmé loves the Wheelers and I had to go and research who the actress Dorothy was as she seemed very familiar. And yes It was Fairuza Balk, from the Craft, and probably other things. I was in love with this film as a child (along with The Worst Witch) and it was interesting to watch it as an adult. Better than I remembered and also, did I already say, scarier?









I took a lovely long lonesome walk again up the hill here in total fog, I could not see but 20 feet either side of me. But the birds were singing and the lambs were bleating far below. Tiny dustings of green along the branches. It was so damp and earthy and GREEN smelling. I often wonder at taking a yoga class in these couple of free hours a week, but nothing really would relax me as much as these alone hill/woodland walks on my own with the dog. They are so reviving.



I am going to delay birthday posts until Isaac has his too then I can do a big multi layer cake post for all three. I am always overwhlemed in birthdays at this time of year when my kids have theirs all two weeks apart(obviously No planning went into the timing of their conceptions or birth). Before I know it both February and March have gone in a whirl-wind of planning and celebrating and eating and doing. This year is no different. Add in regular life happenings, seed sowing, gardening and knitting and I am like the old lady in the shoe who has so many children/activities I don't know what to do. But of course I simply don't have enough children, since loins perpetually tell me so, and of course in a few short weeks I shall be halfway through this pregnancy already. I am more excited by this pregnancy than any of my others, and I just have no idea why. I am a walking secret smile. And when I am not daydreaming I am knitting and wool purchasing and more knitting. And um planning DIY jobs for the Kind Patient, Tea-bringing Man.







Yarn info: I'll upadte my ravelry soon, for sure. The next five minute snippet I have. The first tiny Milo was knit in scrumptious silky soft Aysen from Araucania, as was the second, in a different colourway. The third with the Aran Braid was knit up with Cascade 220 merino in one of the Heather range colourways. The soakers were knit with Wool of The Andes merino in worsted weight. As was the brown stripe cardigan. The tiny jade green with red buttons cardigan was knit with my favourite Colinette Art. Still one of my favourite yarns, although the cascade Milo was lovely lovely to feel and knit.



Oh! If you are able to I'd be honoured if you checked out the article I wrote on healing childhood tooth decay in the latest issue of The Green Parent magazine and let me know your thoughts on the subject :)

forest school

I always forget to take my camera in the hustle of getting us all there with waterproofs, lunch, gloves, hats, a just-in-case dog lead (dog!) and a heavy backpack chock full of what feels like utter crap but I am always sure at the time of packing they are necessities. Anyway, no rain yesterday meant I dared take my (camera bag-less) camera. It seems like I ought to occasionally take note of the 'educational' activities we partake in (even though I feel like playing with Lego or reading a magazine counts as education, should I ever get sprung by the LEA - god I am sounding criminal - then I can at least show them some photos).



The day usually takes shape with everyone working to make a fire. Then toasting marshmallows and having a sit down and early-ish lunch. The fire making often involves lots of foraging for dry kindling and sawing of logs and branches by all of the children, so it can take well over an hour some days.









I usually take this time to slip off with my mad dog and try to walk some energy out of her (ha, as if). The nice thing about forest school and the dog is that a) I get to take her and no one minds, in fact for the dog-less children she is a novelty, and b) importantly for her and my sanity she can be off leash in the woodland the whole time.



So today the activity after fire making and lunch was to make reindeer.



This involved selecting pieces of wood, cutting branches and whittling them to fit in the drilled holes to make legs etc. Ours lost their antlers on the way back to the car, so hey ho, today will involve me and my trusty glue gun rather than me and my untrustworthy whittling knife (the non existent one) fashioning a few more. Both Felix and Esmé were mightily pleased with their efforts, and I think I may even buy Felix a knife for his ninth birthday next week. He has always seemed hesitant to use one, and did so very feebly and inefficiently until yesterday when I saw that he really got to grips with it, gained a measure of control and confidence and was really pleased with himself.



I think that is the sort of learning Forest School is about, not necessarily being able to memorise the names of various fungi (by the way that red thing on the log is a Red Elf Cap) but the feeling of confidence in ability. You can see by the saws and hacking things that the kids do get to use serious tools that any scary maniac would be proud to own. The teacher is a nice guy, and ex-head teacher who manages to be both interesting, kind and reigns in the stragglers who are easily distracted. It is a very nice thing indeed to sit around a fire chatting while children are purposeful and busy and the dog finally flops down, dare I hope, a tiny bit tired.