water and wool

Wonderwool on Sunday was sooooo wet and cold! My poor girl was freezing after I stripped her of her soaking coat. It was so cold! Unbelievable. It's the most I can remember from it to be honest! Well not really. There was also wool ;)











There is now some deliciously soft Lama yarn on my teeny tiny sock needles. I have never knit with Lama before, it has the softness and warmth of cashmere, with something like the look of silk. it was so expensive (£12 for 50g) I bought one tiny ball of 2/4ply. And ta da, the tinniest (warmest?) socks on earth are being produced. So nice, actually to knit something so fine and delicate after my recent months of dk spree'ing. I am thinking I will get two pairs from this ball which will be perfect. I found this free newborn sock pattern on ravelry and it is really quite good, simple, sweet and very well proportioned, with extra long ankle cuff to fold over.



Bought my dd a sheepskin rug, and she used it wisely as a fine layer to keep the chill out in the vast barns of Wonderwool.



Back at home, on her favourite chair, resting after the cold rain.



I bought lots of off cuts of sheepskin pieces at bargain prices. Last year I did this and they proved so useful - I cut insoles for wellies, made little chair pads for the chairs at the table.... oh I don't know they just seemed so handy. I have my feet resting on one strip just now because I have cold floors.



It has been raining and pouring here, with a few hours of sunshine here and there. But mostly rain. Living by water this is scary. Literally living buy water I mean, just by your door, not you know, in the distance. The usual 2 inches of water is a raging torrent four foot high right now. Several times in the past couple of days I have stood biting my nails and wondering what exactly to I start to move first in the downstairs of my home?? Surreal. You can't *quite* imagine water pouring under the door, but when it starts inching towards that it feels quite strange and other-worldy. I abandoned ship (ha) this morning, sick of the rising water, loaded us into our mega tractor-truck and took us in to town. Which was empty as many roads are shut due to flooding. The most excitement everyone had was when our mega wheels splashed through masses of flooded road, roaring over our heads. What a lot of cheering and clapping Esmé and Felix manages between them. We picked a good time to buy a super-car in any case as it has been needed this week.



In between rain, the ground dried up quickly and look, basking and outdoors.







But then, yep, rain again and raging rising water.

Indoors I made Felix and Esmé these little books for them to write their stories. I make these quite often. They are just card outers and inner paper, all stapled together. Esmé's was a bunch of words she had me spell and them draw the corresponding pictures (leg, mouse etc). Felix's is a story about a mouse who plays tricks on Ninja's (I think). they will spend a few days, odd moments working on them until the novelty (or story) wears off. Then it will be a couple of weeks before they ask for another book.









Here I am 22/23 weeks pregnant.



From the front - who would know?

But sideways? Hello baby!



And feeling even bigger. Am I going to say that with every photo? It's true though. My boobs and butt and tummy are super cool and curvy (that's my positive spin on things). I read a study recently comparing 40 Inuit women who took cod liver oil during pregnancy with 40 Inuit women who did not. The women were randomly selected and socio-economic backgrounds were all random, mixed and varied. The women in the CLO group, on average, had babies born 1/2 pound larger than the non CLO group! Wowzers. I am taking fermented skate liver oil and krill oil with similar properties, so it will be interesting to see how this baby turns out, size wise. I didn't really take supplements with my other pregnancies. Also this is my first GF pregnancy, and mostly paleo. Also interested to see how limited carbs and more protein and veggies affect the birth weight outcome (and um, my own post pregnancy weight gain :) ) which of course, us birth and baby loving mamas are never supposed to mention, being so earthy and happy, body shape is not supposed to figure. And in many ways it does not, but also sometimes it does. From a self confidence perspective. Speaking of which, has anyone reading this ever done belly wrapping/binding after birth? There seems to be such a lot info out there on the benefits, and I am thinking this practice is vastly underplayed in the West. Many other cultures bind the mothers belly straight after birth for several weeks to support the returning abdomen to correct shape and help promote good posture and healing etc. I think this would help with the separation of abdominal muscles, I had this after Esmé was born and do not wish to repeat.