Dotty Valentines Cards

A few weeks back I decided it was time to introduce M to the heady excitement that is arts and crafts as done at home, as opposed to anything organised by the nursery.  With this in mind, I started stocking up on suitable arts materials, aided and abetted by a 50% off sale at the Early Learning Centre.  I also started looking into potential projects or activities that would be suitable for a small person of M's age (currently nearly twenty months).

In my wanderings through the interwebs, I came across many crafty things and started cataloguing them over on Pinterest for anyone who may wish to take a look.

In particular I came across this suggestion for a Valentine's Card on Sunhats & Wellie Boots (which I highly recommend), using a simple template to stencil a design in relief onto a card.

It caught my eye, I pinned it and then I set about gathering my supplies.

Supplies needed:-

• Card
• Some scrap paper
• ELC Easy Painters
• One small child
• An arts apron/bib for small child
• A mummy or other suitable adult to assist
• Scissors
• White tack or similar temporary sticky substance
• Glue stick
• Lots of newspaper

I started by covering out kitchen table with a newspaper, something M immediately recognised from our earlier trial run a week or so ago with the easy painters.  Excitement filled the kitchen as she loudly declared "PAINTING! PAINTING!" and tried to climb into her booster seat. I helped her up, strapped her apron (which most definitely is NOT a bib) on and handed her the easy painters along with some sacrificial paper while I carried on preparing stencils and cards.

The ELC easy painters are an interesting idea, they're bottles of premixed and watery paint with a sponge applicator. They need shaking vigourously to mix the paint before working with them, but that's about it. The sponge applicator means the paint pretty much stays inside the bottle until applied to something; if dropped onto the floor with enough force there will be a little splatter but only a few drops which are easy to clean up. The first time I showed these to M she was a little hesitant but quickly got the idea.

Easy Painters in action

On this occasion, M got to work enthusiastically, happily decorating the newspaper covering the table and occasionally aiming at the sacrificial paper.

In the meantime, I cut out two heart templates and stuck them to the front of some folded card using some white tack. Once prepared M and I got to work spotting paint onto the cards.

There was a brief moment when M considered ripping the heart template off the card but she decided painting them was more fun once she saw me having a go as well. At that point M got stuck in, happily painting her card and even working on the inside. I gave her the heart innards which she decorated as well, and even took my card to add her touch to it, thoroughly enjoying herself in the process.

A short while later we had painted valentines cards which I duly rescued as M declared she was finished with the paints and moved onto crayons.

One of the cards just after it had been painted and before drying - you can see the heart template still in place and covered in paint

One of the heart shape cutouts which M very prettily painted - I think this one looks a bit like flowers!

We put the cards aside for a couple of hours to dry and then carefully peeled off the hearts.  I decided to use the painted template and the innards on the inside of the cards which I thought was very effective.

And this one is M's, entirely her own work except for the cutting and sticking bits.

M's card, I love the way she deliberately placed the colours

M chose to add paint to the inside of her card too

Not too bad for our first go at a 'structured' activity, as opposed to just letting M loose with her creative side and a piece of paper. 

M deep in thought choosing which colour to add next

M deliberately placed her dots with a great deal of thought and concentration, she even overlaid the heart innards to get in some additional stencilling.  She also had fun with her fingers, blurring the edges of the dots to give a softer edge. I guess this comes under colour play, colour recognition, fine motor control and sensory play since she also got stuck in with her hands.  Most of all though, it was fun and M was equally pleased with the result as I.

If you can't beat em

Gosh, it's been a while since I posted here!

Life has been trundling on and while I have had the odd thing to post since May last year, I've lacked the fundamental time aspect to do so. I never knew that being a working mum would leave me with so little time to... well, do anything really. Typing or crafting are real problem areas for me these days as M still loves the laptop and believes that she should have a go at anything I'm doing. With computer time at a real premium I'm also very slow to upload photographs since M always tries to take over and is a dab hand at reconfiguring the laptop.  At nearly twenty months, this is impressive to behold and it can take quite a while to figure out what she did with a few swipes of the touchpad and the click of a couple of buttons!

Ahem. Onwards and upwards though.

A week late but, last weekend we had snow overnight on Saturday. This meant we headed outside for the obligatory snow sculpture.

Dave showed us how it was done, rolling huge snow balls around the lawn hoovering up all the sticks, rubble and leaves he could find, to construct his snowman who is largely hardcore.  He topped him off with his ushanka.

M says "HAT! SNOWMAN!"

A week later, while most of the snow is gone this snowman is still standing and a testament to Dave's snowman construction skills.

M and I chose a slightly more sophisticated approach, carefully collecting clean snow and packing it together to form our snowman.  She grew more slowly than Dave's and ended up a lot smaller, but both M and I liked her.

Mummy lends a hand building a snowman.

M chose to decorate the snowman with one of her old beanies.

M adds the finishing touches.

She also inserted the arms and added the eyes herself.

A week on and our snowman has taken on the delicate proportions of an Edwardian Lady.

We did of course have snow on the ground throughout December in 2010, but M was only six months old when it melted and so probably doesn't remember it.  She wasn't really mobile back then, so this was her first year of playing out in the snow and I think she enjoyed it.  M had seen snow in books before this and knew what a snowman was.  Indeed her reaction on seeing snow this year was "SNOW! WHITE" and after building the snowmen she was very excited when we came inside to warm up.  She spent a good while running up and down chattering about her "NO MAN".

The snow may have only been around for one day but it certainly impressed one small person.

A rainy bank holiday and a new car seat

Yesterday was the late May Bank Holiday which marked the anniversary of the start of my maternity leave last year, but otherwise was a fairly unremarkable day. Constant rain throughout the day meant our plan for a picnic had to be put on hold and as new parents we're still unsure of our options for a day out with a very small child when the weather isn't co-operating.

So I guess I should start with a quick call out to parents with small children, what do you suggest as a day out when it's raining, blowing a gale or being very cold?

Yesterday aside, we have had some excitement over the past few days, although in the first case it's excitement I could do without. I ended up needing to see the out of hours doctor as I had a serious allergic reaction to a cause unknown. An awful lot of antihistomines later and I'm on the mend, but still no wiser as to the cause and therefore unable to do anything to avoid a repeat performance. Needless to say I'm racking my brain as to the cause, but as of yet can't think of anything I did that was obviously different.

Saturday we drove to Milton Keynes to buy M's new carseat, which we really needed before she outgrew her baby seat. Admitedly we probably had a month or two left before she was in desperate need of a replacement, but it's really not something I wanted to leave until the last moment.

After doing the usual rounds in terms of research I decided I wanted to keep M rear-facing as long as possible, or at least until she's about four which presented a problem since Group 1 carseats on the highstreet seemed to all be forward facing.

The internet came to my rescue and so Saturday found us visiting the In Car Safety Centre which is a specialist carseat place which I found via Child Car Seats and Rear Facing. After spending nearly two hours there, over an hour of which involved trying out carseats in my car and persuading a reluctant M to help check fit we finally settled on a seat that fit the car, fit M and had plenty of growing room in it.

This is a surprisingly tear free M in her new carseat after the drive back to Coventry.

I say tear free because M is a bad traveller; whereas most parents tell me their babies/children enjoy being in a car, M never has. I do what I can to make journeys tolerable for her, providing distractions and breaking up long journeys as much as possible, but my little girl just wasn't born to roam.

The surprise hit of the journey home wasn't the new laptray toy we bought her while we were there, but mirror baby (in the mirror I bought so I can keep an eye on M whilst I drive) who she happily pulled faces at the whole time. Fingers crossed the novelty doesn't wear off and not being cramped in her baby seat will make travelling in the car a little easier on M.

A block a month doesn't sound too difficult

A while back, when M was tiny, I tried to indulge in crochet whilst she was asleep in my arms. This worked well until I was forced to return to work and suddenly found that all time was at a premium meaning there was and is very little for myself which effectively stopped all craft related activity.

I'm sure this ongoing hard slog is not good for me but there is no sign of things letting up. In fact with the recent redundancies at work I suspect things are set to get worse.

In an effort to distract myself, I've been trying to make small projects again and came across a block a month CAL on Ravelry. The idea is to make one block a month throughout the year and after twelve months, join all the blocks together to make a blanket. Block patterns are offered in either six or twelve inch squares and I thought I'd have a go at the six inch ones... Mostly because I really don't have the time available to be ambitious and I wanted a project which is achievable.

Decision made, I started the January block in March with lots of enthusiastic help from M.

Now that I'm back at work I find I have so very little time to spend with my baby girl that I prefer to spend as much of the time that I have got in her company as I can. This means for me to indulge in any hobby type activities I need to be able to do them around her. M wants to be involved in everything I do and so I anticipate her joining in, choosing my yarn accordingly and providing a chunky hook for her to wave. M's natural tendency is to mimic and so she 'll study what I'm doing intently before happily prodding the yarn with the hook.

The January block goes by the name of Smoothfox's Flower Button Granny Square, designed by Donna Mason-Svara AKA Smoothfox.

The pattern itself uses American notation and is very clearly written making it easy to follow. I chose to use two colours rather than the three specified in the pattern working in a standard baby DK on a 5.5mm hook.

In one month I managed to make four squares which is quite an accomplishment for me at the moment!

Making the most of Easter

Easter has been and gone already, which was (thanks to the upcoming royal wedding), the first of two back to back double bank holiday weekends. With work continuing to be horribly stressful I was determined to do something fun especially since Dave decided to stay at home rather than abandoning us for Maelstrom as is his usual habit.

Fun turned out to be a trip out to Coombe Abbey Country Park on Saturday for which Richard joined us and on Sunday we headed to Ryton Gardens.

Our last trip to Coombe Abbey took place just a couple of weeks before M was born, when walking any distance at all was painful on my poor swollen feet. Then, the park seemed impossibly huge as I tentatively picked my way along the paths... On Saturday however I'm pleased to say Coombe Abbey seemed much more manageable and we saw a lot more of the park.

April has been unreasonably warm and the full blossoms of a cherry tree provided welcome shelter from the sun.

After which we walked through some woodland with very big trees, finding an obstacle course and playground aimed at children much bigger than M. Naturally Dave had to put it to the test as did quite a few other dad's.

We had a picnic lunch and a very excited M was persuaded to have a sleep before we went for a brief wander beside the lake, eventually admitting defeat because the sun was too fierce.

Ryton Gardens lived up to expectations on Sunday and having visited there a few weeks ago it was fascinating to see how the place has changed in such a short time. With no particular agenda or schedule to keep to, we allowed M out of the sling so she could wander around and seeing her cruising around garden benches really brought home to me how fast she's growing. M was again very excited to be out and about; we had to hastily intervene several times to stop her eating sticks or leaves but she loved it.

I also discovered that eating a picnic lunch with an awake baby on my lap meant I was obliged to share.

All in all, both days out were good, relaxing and fun. Just what the doctor ordered and I mostly avoided thinking about work. With a double bank holiday I reverted to just being M's mummy for a couple of days, which was great.

Alas spare time, I knew you not, but...

The last time I posted here, I was lamenting on how little time I had to update. That was before I returned to work and discovered that if I thought I had little opportunity for, well, anything before... Once numbered again amongst the gainfully employed, I'd have absolutely no time at all!

And that dear reader is why this blog has remained silent so long. There have been moments when I had something to write. I may even have been near a computer, but I haven't had the time to do much more than work, deal with some very unpleasant work related fallout and look after baby. In those rare moments I have managed to turn my thoughts to something creative, trying to write about it or photograph it, let alone actually get the photographs onto a computer have become incredibly challenging.

So, please bear with me for this post which I started back in early February!

Christmas and early January flew by, lost somewhere in the preparation for returning to work. Christmas itself was good, with the present aspect of things dragged out well into the New Year as we only opened a few of M's gifts each day so that she had time to appreciate each new toy. By the end of the Christmas season, M had become an expert present unwrapper and learnt a new skill, that of ripping things. This new skill transferred well to many things, but most successfully onto paper and food.

Wrapping paper was also a great hit and in M's eyes, as much fun as the gift it concealed. She liked hiding under it, crinkling it, waving it, ripping it and of course nomming it.

With Christmas out of the way, preparation for my return to work stepped up and I spent a couple of hours at the nursery every day, settling M in, which pretty much took up all of my remaining maternity leave.

I did make a couple of hats as Christmas presents, but just didn't get a chance to photograph them before passing them to their new owners.

Having successfully crocheted three hats and discovering in the process how easy they were, I decided it was time to make a new hat for M. After all, the ones I'd bought were only sized to six months, so I knew that she'd need another one - what more in the way of an excuse did I need?

I eventually found some yarn to my liking. Wendy Mode DK is a 50% Merino Wool, which is deliciously soft, had no scratchiness at all and was machine washable. The high wool content should mean it is nice and warm, while DK is a good weight for a baby's hat. White seems a nice traditional colour for a hat, but I decided I wanted to jazz the final result up with a little surface decoration, so I dug out a brightly coloured, very loud acrylic which normally shouts from across the other side of the room.

I swatched for a bit and decided to work a little tighter than I normally would with a DK weight yarn, opting for a 3.5mm hook which gave me a guage of 17 stitches x 11 rows = 10cm square worked in trebles - note I'm using British notation here!

Once I'd decided the guage I wanted to work at, it was just a case of doing the maths and aiming for a hat that would be a little too big since I wanted it to last this winter and if possible take us into the next.

After sneakily measuring M's head whilst I distracted her with a sock, I worked out that I needed to aim for approximately 70 stitches at the brim, giving a circumference of approx 40cm (16 inches). Armed with this knowledge, I decided to start with a circle of 10 stitches and increase up every row until there were 70. I put row of eyelets at the brim before adding a round of doubles in my chosen contrast yarn.

Finally, I made up ten spots or jewels, each made up of twelve trebles joined in a circle. In each case, I used the loop method to start and left the tails long, using them to secure the jewels to the hat, arranging them in a random fashion. And this is the result.

M very kindly helped throughout the project, testing the yarn for potential felting hazzards and confirming that it was very tasty as well as squidgy soft. She has also decided that she wants her own crochet hook and wants to play with string just like Mummy. Having taken a keen interest in progress on her hat, M was more than happy to model the final result and here she is, the proud owner of a new hat.

The contrast yarn works well and in very small amounts, this exceptionally loud yarn is considerably subdued working to complement the creamy white of the main colour. The hat is slightly too big, but not so huge that M can't get any wear out of it this winter and as far as I can tell, there is no scratchiness to irritate very delicate skin. The hat used very little yarn, taking about 3/4 of a ball of the Mode, which according to Ravelry is approx 100m or so. I used a tiny amount of the contrast colour, scraps really, meaning I still have a few balls of this stuff to get through, so it may be featured here several times in years to come.

I like it and so does M :-)

Struggling to reach the computer

With temperatures in Coventry struggling (and for the most part failing) to get above freezing for a while now, I think we can safely say that Winter has arrived. We've got off fairly lightly compared with most of the country, only seeing a light snowfall; certainly no more than a couple of inches. That said, I think this the first time I've seen snow in November, despite living in Coventry for 12 years now.

Christmas is almost upon us and I'm trying not to dwell too much on my impending return to work in January. Maternity leave seems to have just flown by and I can hardly believe that my daughter is six months old.

Christmas itself is likely to be a low key event this year; we've foregone the typical tour of the country which normally marks this time of year for us. The current weather aside, it just isn't practical to do flying visits on that kind of scale anymore. Instead we're looking forward to our first Christmas as a family at home together.

I haven't had much of an opportunity to update here lately because M is a lot more aware of her surroundings. Little hands seem to need to explore everything and the laptop is particularly exciting. All those buttons and a bright screen are enticing but the fact that Mummy is playing with it make the computer great fun.



I on the other hand am proving to be a bit of a meany. I just don't think drool and keyboards mix very well and no amount of excited shrieking has so far persuaded me otherwise.

Our difference in opinion regarding computer use is seriously impacting my time online. I can of course use the phone, but it's not the same thing at all.

I may be absent from the internet but I have managed to do a tiny amount of crochet. M has a keen eye for yarn and likes to handle (and nom) anything I'm working on - if this continues I foresee my daughter developing an interest in textiles! My usual approach to her assistance is to show M what I am working on and talk to her about it which seems to go down well.

While I hunted down suitable baby yarn I decided to have a go at crocheting a hat... for ME!!!

The last time I attempted to crochet a hat for myself it didn't end well but I was willing to give it another go. My life as a non hat person does seem like a bit of a wasted opportunity for endless crafting fun.

With limited stash diving and acquisition I opted for the top down or last in first out approach in my yarn choice. I picked up some Sirdar Hug from Mrs T's last spring with a chunky waistcoat in mind. As the nearest thing to hand it became hats.

Dave bought me a copy of Melody Griffiths' Crochet in No Time for my birthday which had a pattern for a simple hat called Cloche with Flower (Ravelry Link). All of the designs in this book are intended to be either quick or easily picked up and put down again so seem ideal for working around a small baby.

I had a go and the pattern actually worked. For me this was unusual because I always end up having to tweak a pattern before it works. Not in this case though. I worked this hat up exactly as written and got what I was expecting. No fuss. No need to puzzle over the instructions. No experimenting to test the pattern. It just worked. Wow! All i can say is a heartfelt well done to the designer.

And here is the result...



I tried the hat on and was shocked to discover I liked the result!!!





Sirdar Hug is a chunky yarn, 50 percent wool mix spun as a single ply so works like a roving. It has a very soft hand and I suspect would felt fairly easily. This hat was worked on a 7mm hook to achieve the specified gauge.

These photographs were taken in milder weather but having worn the hat in snow I can say it kept my head and ears toasty warm. Excellent stuff.

The woes of an inadequate stash

Today looks to be shaping up to be wet and woolly (which in our house means stormy) and I'm sat nursing my daughter on the sofa with a damp cat curled up beside me.

It's 7:30 in the morning and I'm in a musing frame of mind and the phone is handy so I can write this.

With change in seasons my thoughts have been turning towards hats, particularly hats that I could crochet. Hats are after all small, quickly made and shouldn't be too difficult as projects worked around a small baby. In fact they sound ideal.

Why then am I having problems getting started?

I think the answer can be summed up as - my stash is not fit for purpose.

I've reluctantly come to this conclusion as I've tried to match patterns for baby hats to the yarns I actually own. Baby hats sound like a good idea after all because I have a baby, she's still young enough not to protest about my fashion choices on her behalf and lacking much in the way of hair she needs hats. The problem is that her little head is very sensitive and trying to get a warm, snugly but soft yarn in a colour I'm happy to put on a baby is proving a challenge.

Fingers crossed I find a suitable yarn soon or I may need to buy something. But if so, what sort of yarn should I be looking for?

This post was brought to you by a frustrated crocheting mummy with an inadequate stash.

Sunshine Booties

Autumn looks to have finally struck with temperatures starting to drop. The new boiler appears to be doing sterling service in these first days and nights of needing the heating and we've all had colds.

This is M's first cold and I think she's coped remarkably well - at least through the day. Nights have been a bit fraught as tiredness and feeling grotty have gotten a hold, but otherwise M has been quite chirpy about the whole thing.

I've also had a birthday which passed fairly quietly this year - not that my birthdays are ever really raucous affairs! We did manage to get together with friends for lunch last Saturday which was good. I also received a good haul of crochet books for which I am grateful. So far I've only really had time to glance through them but they're all focused on small projects which can be squeezed in as and to when around M.

All of which means I really do need to get on and make some stuff.

Following on from the success of the Flaming Hot Booties I decided to make another pair!

This time I did a little stash diving, rummaging in my sock yarn hoard and pulling out two solid balls. One of the joys of sock knitting is watching a self striping or patterned yarn do its thing, as a result I don't own many solid colours. In fact I only had three colours to choose from - pink, yellow or grey. The pink had a bit of silk mixed in, so wasn't ideal for booties so I put it aside, leaving me with the yellow and grey. Hopefully the result looks bright and cheery.



The sock yarn in both cases is a standard Regia 4 ply; 75 percent wool, 25 nylon making it both warm and durable. The same 3mm hook was used and because the booties followed on quickly from the previous pair they were easy to work.



Once more the pattern is Little Feet by Joan Nossa (Ravelry Link) but learning from experience I reworked the stitch count to make joining the sole easier. I also rang the changes a little adding a scalloped edge to the cuff rather than picot. The resulting booties fit a foot up to 11cm long which should fit between 3 and 6 months I hope.





Changes I made to the pattern are as follows.

I started the top of the foot with a sliding loop rather than a chain, just because that’s my preference.

I had to resize it to fit a 4 month baby foot as follows…

• 8 inc rounds on the top of the foot, to give me an extra 5mm of growing room
• R9 - (2scx1, scx6) x4, 2scx1, 33ch leaving 11 st gap
• R10 - (2scx6, 2sc1) x4, sc until end
• 10 rounds of sc rather than 6 as per original pattern (72 st)
• Pick up sts for ankle and work 14 rows
• Work scallop edging - ss, (3sc into next st, ss) repeat in brackets until end

Work sole as per pattern, except

• R6 - (2scx1) x4, 12sc, (2scx1) x12, 12sc, (2scx1) x8 (72 st)
• R7 - work sc around

Note - all mods follow original pattern writing style and assume American notation… So 2scx1 means “2dc into next st”

Again, a good little project easily worked around a baby and made up fairly quickly. Using solid colours makes them appear more chunky somehow, despite this pair being only marginally larger than the first. M likes them and has indicated they are very nom-able!

Not happy campers

We've been a bit derailed this week as some thieving toerags have broken into our shed and cleared us out.

Our garden is fairly secure from the front, the only access being via a side gate and a tiny bit of fence, both of which are six foot tall. Imagine our surprise last week when we discovered a muddy footprint on top of it. Surprise turned to irritation when we realised our garden bench was missing.

It took Dave some time to find the bench where some bods unknown had tucked it behind our shed. Along with the bench we found coke and beer bottles suggesting a group of someones had had a little private party at the bottom of our garden. We back onto several properties all of which are fenced to different standards which would make accessing the garden difficult which was why they apparently came over the gate. Our big question was why?

We contacted the police who said our prowlers were most likely just kids looking for somewhere private to hang out. My response was that our garden seemed an odd place to choose, given how difficult it is to access. I asked if there could be something more sinister behind it - like someone scoping out houses or gardens for burglary but was laughed at and told no, very unlikely.

Yeah, right.

They came back and this time were prepared.

They took down a section of fence at the back of the garden to give themselves easy access via a back neighbour who's side gate was open and removed the shed doors. They then had a leisurely rummage through our shed contents helping themselves to some large items and pretty much clearing us out on camping gear.

The lucky toerags haul included - a gents bicycle, a ladies bicycle, 2 camping stoves, 4 tents (ranging in size from a 6 to a 2 man), a garden strimmer, an electric pump, a collection of camping chairs, a travel cot, tools and a turquoise silk ball gown which stank of smoke so was airing in the shed.

To shift all that stuff we think means there must have been at least two people involved and they must have had either a very large car or a van to cart it off.

So far the police response has been less than sympathetic with the officer Dave spoke to being a bit flippant about the whole thing. The impression I'm left with is that in the scheme of things it's unimportant other than as a statistic. The police won't even investigate, so the culprits are pretty much certain to get away with it unless caught red handed with our stuff.

We are not happy campers.

Flaming Hot Booties

With my new found skill for crocheting small things around a baby, I wasted no time in looking for a suitable first project.

With autumn well under way and winter drawing in, my thoughts turned to slippers. Specifically I was thinking how cold my own feet get during the winter months and how cotton socks just don't cut it in terms of keeping my toes toasty warm.

So the search was on for baby slippers that could be worn over cotton socks both indoors and outside. M doesn't need much in the way of a sole since she is a long way off walking, let alone running about outside, hence providing the slipper is substantial enough it should do for outside use.

I don't have much experience with babies in general, but in M's case she is a very enthusiastic foot kicker. For any slipper to have a chance of staying put it would need to have a cuff around the ankle... And so what I obviously needed were booties.

After a trawl through Ravelry's pattern database I eventually settled on Little Feet (Ravelry Link) by Joana Nossa.



Little Feet are worked in a spiral, starting on top of the foot and then extending around the heel before working down towards the sole. The yarn is cut and rejoined to work the cuff, while the sole is made separately then attached to the body of the shoe. The bootie is finished off with a picot edging around the cuff.

The result is a rather robust looking bootie.



M's feet are not that big and didn't need a huge amount of yarn so I made these booties using left over sock yarn. The yarn in this case was originally used for my very first pair of socks. It's a standard Regia 4 ply, 75% wool and machine washable - so should be very cosy and fairly durable.

Being the left over yarn from another project, I can only estimate but would say I used approximately half a ball or 25g to make both booties. I don't have the ball band so don't have details of the colourway but it's made up of eye catching reds, pinks, orange and grey; very cheery and I love the way the colours work together. That the colours match a little on both booties is a happy consequence of having tried to match them up on the original pair of socks. Since I was using the remnants of two 50g balls, each had ended in a similar place in the colour striping which is why these two booties look similar.

I used a 3mm hook to make the gauge specified by the pattern and sized up to fit M's non newborn foot. Hence the pattern mods were as follows...

• I started the top of the foot with a sliding loop rather than a chain, just because that’s my preference.

While I followed the pattern, I had to resize it to fit a 4 month baby foot as follows…

• 8 inc rounds on the top of the foot, to give me an extra 5mm of growing room
• R9 - (2scx1, scx6) x4, 2scx1, 30ch leaving 11 st gap
• R10 - (2scx6, 2sc1) x4, sc until end
• 8 rounds of sc rather than 6 as per original pattern (69 st)
• Pick up sts for ankle and work 14 rows

Work sole as per pattern, except

• R6 - (2scx1) x4, 12sc, 2scx1, 1sc, (2scx1) x9, 1sc, 12sc, (2scx1) x7, 1sc (69 st)
• R7 - work sc around

Finish as per pattern and add picot edging.

This gave me a bootie to fit a foot approx 11cm long which will hopefully mean there is a little growing room while not being too big for my 16 week old baby.

The overall result is a striking, colourful bootie which I'm hoping will stay on despite vigorous foot and leg kicking on the part of M.

Initial tests suggest they'll do nicely and here you can see them in action.



This is the first time I've tried to photograph knitware on a baby and it is more difficult than I thought it would be. M, bless her, loves waving her feet especially when excited (and who wouldn't be excited by a pair of crocheted slippers?), hence most of the shots I took came out very blurry. These were the best of the lot so hopefully they do the booties justice.



I thoroughly enjoyed making these booties. The pattern was a little difficult to read but the pictures showing the construction helped a lot. Since I was resizing, it was more important that I understood how to put the shoe together than following the pattern exactly as written. My notes reflect the style of the original pattern which they're intended to compliment.

I would certainly give these booties another go, sizing up again as needed. All in all, a fun, quick and importantly small project.

Some small activity

A few weeks ago after some experimentation I discovered that I can crochet around M whilst I'm nursing.

This was a fantastic revelation because M has a voracious appetite and as a result I'm often stranded for hours, sitting still while I feed her. I've tried reading at the same time but found the activity too relaxing, which in my sleep deprived state was just making me drowsy.

Crochet on the other hand requires my brain to stay engaged so isn't having the same effect. Of course the other bonus is that I get to indulge my inherent need to 'make stuff' - albeit small stuff and very slowly!

So small crocheted items are now a possibility and hence there may well be activity which is blog worthy again.

Mind you finding time to type anything up or process photographs is perhaps another matter... Although I've discovered I can type up text on my mobile phone which certainly opens up possibilities.

My latest, all consuming project...

It's amazing how much your life can change in the space of several weeks...

The Saturday after my last posting was the first Saturday of Knitting in Public week which saw Dave and myself in Coventry's Memorial Park with my fellow Knit-Wits having a picnic. I made chocolate and prune brownies a la Delia (very yummy combination I assure you); I also took a savoury option but those brownies provided valuable sustenance in the days that followed, so I consider them to be a good call and a valuable dietary supplement to hospital food.

I finished a sock, bar grafting the toe closed... I also worked on a baby cardigan which I rather optimistically hoped to get done before the new arrival put in an appearance. The weather was glorious, ideal weather for a picnic and it was a good day.

The next day, the eviction notice was served on the baby and I went into labour.

Things dragged on a bit. After some to'ing and fro'ing from the hospital over the next three days, minor complications and an emergency c-section later, my latest work-in-progress was introduced to the world (albeit reluctantly, she was very comfy where she was).

This is Meredith who has become central to my days and nights since her debut.



After a rough introduction to motherhood, I'm finally showing signs of healing while Meredith is growing before my eyes... I'd swear she's putting on the cm's (and indeed ounces) overnight!

What I'd not really understood was just how all consuming and 24 hours looking after a small baby was. Or that my hands, arms or indeed body no longer belong to me but have been annexed by a small and exceptionally cute person.



One day... I may have two hands free again, but until then there is no knitting, crocheting, sewing or spinning happening... I can however distract myself with cute baby photos!



And one more to finish...

More baby gifts and one I made myself

A week on and I'm still here and still waiting, perhaps a little less patiently than last week, but waiting none the less. I keep being asked if I'm excited and if I'm honest, the answer is no. The main feeling I've got at the moment is one of impatience, a sort of need to just get on with things now. And I could still have a couple more weeks to go, so I guess I need to do what I can to distract myself!

At the end of last week, my mother took me completely by surprise when a large parcel was delivered by the postman. Inside it was crammed with blankets and baby cardigans, so time to give another shout of thank you for more baby gifts.

My mother, who doesn't really knit very much, made a sweet little lemon cardigan, trimmed with ribbon...



Isn't it lovely?

She also crocheted a double layer blanket in yellow and white - I didn't know my mother could crochet, so that was a double surprise. It's gorgeous and sure to be useful if the good old British summer continues to be as unpredictable as ever!



There were also several cardigans and a couple of blankets knitted by my mother's friends, plus a stack of blankets passed along by my little brother from when his daughter was a baby.

So a big thank you to my Mum, my brother Gary and my Mum's friends.

In the meantime, I've actually had a go at making a baby cardigan myself. I decided to make something simple and dithered for a while as to what exactly I should make. Then Dave came back from one of his usual wanders around a charity shop bearing a gift in the form of a book called Baby Gifts, The Australian Womens Weekly Craft Library. Inside I found a pattern for a simple garter stitch cardigan, so I had a go and here is the result.



I knitted this one up in Paton's Cotton DK, left over from my Tiramisu blanket; the pattern called for 4mm needles, but being a tightish knitter I used 4.5mm so that I made gauge. I knit the 0-3 months size, so it should be wearable straight away and followed the pattern as best I could, but have to say it didn't seem to be terribly accurate.

First problem was with the fronts, with the instructions for left and right rather confused. The pattern writer had assumed they'd be mirror images of each other, adjusting stitch/row counts accordingly, but then seemed to forget they'd done so half way through so there was no way they'd work.

Next up, the instructions to pick up stitches for the bands wouldn't work no matter how I tried, so in the end I just picked up what seemed like a good number and placed button holes myself. I think it turned out OK and the little duck buttons seem to sit well, so hopefully I got it about right.



Finally, I was concerned about how much bulk was being added to the shoulder and underarm area on such a tiny garment, so decided to pick up stitches at the shoulder and knit towards the wrist.

I studied the original sleeve instructions and then picked up 40 stitches, knitted 12 rows before decreasing one stitch at the beginning and end of the next row. The pattern didn't say which kinds of decreases should be used, so I just knit two stitches together. After that, I continued to knit, repeating the decrease row every fourth row until I had 30 stitches left. Then I knit another 3 rows before casting off.

I don't really have a lot of experience with seaming knitting, particularly garter stitch but I had a go with mattress stitch, discovering it doesn't produce as smooth a seam as I'd like. Still, I think it's serviceable and not too shoddy for my first knitted cardigan and baby garment. Not as good as the one's made for me, but I'm fairly pleased with the end result and I'm sure the baby won't notice!

Baby gifts

I can hardly believe it, but my maternity leave has finally started, with the first official day being yesterday. After a bank holiday weekend and two days off so far, I'm feeling far more sprightly than I have in weeks, which can only be a good thing I think.

I'm a bit behind with blogging due to ongoing exhaustion, but since I'm enjoying a slight respite - here I am!

Last Wednesday I didn't make it to the regular gathering of the Coventry Knit-Wits. I got home from work, collapsed on the sofa and just couldn't motivate myself to make a move. Instead I stayed where I was, idly flicking through knitting books and generally relaxing, which was very much needed.

Half asleep I was rather surprised when Jane called and asked if she could drop round to see me... There were baby gifts from the group waiting for me!

First up, we have two dungaree sets from Jane with instructions to pick one once the baby arrives.



Aren't they sweet?

Then there was a matinee jacket from Dee along with some bath-time toiletries for me.



The jacket is very delicate and tiny looking, with a little bit of sparkle from a shiny yarn worked into the ply. It really is quite lovely.





Finally, the whole group had been secretly working on squares which were then turned into a quilt. The result is absolutely gorgeous and I love it. Dave said he was impressed as well. It really is beautiful - thank you to everyone who contributed to it and a special thank you to Christina for putting the quilt together.