Make do and mend...

The plan was that I'd look after the boys during the day, and then after they had gone to bed, I'd write some new crochet patterns. It hasn't turned out that way at all, P started out as quite a good sleeper but the last few months he's been waking up maybe 3 or 4 times a night. So once he's in bed, I'm exhausted and the last thing I feel like doing is switching on my laptop and typing up patterns, my brain switches off after 7pm! So I've been doing some easy crochet or hand-sewing in the evenings, (because my sewing machine is too noisy and would wake them up).  

I found all their old bath towels from when they were tiny babies and I didn't want to throw them away, so I edged them with polka-dot bias binding, and turned them into hand towels. It's an easy project because the towels are already edged, you don't need to cut anything. I added a band of ditsy polycotton along one edge.

Then I got addicted to bias-binding everything, and made some easy quilts. These are cotton cot sheets from Ikea, one has funny vegetable characters on (they remind me of those Garden Gang childrens books from the 80's), and the other is cats and dogs.

I quilted around the characters by hand, then I backed them with some soft blue jersey, and edged them with bias.  

Lovely and snuggly for nap time!

Just a quick update..

I'm currently on a baby break, enjoying my baby boys but with not much time to crochet :)

Quite often I'm asked if the pattern for 'Sweet Yolk' baby cardigan comes in bigger sizes - I'm working on toddler sizes at the moment. It will be published on Ravelry soon, and if you've already purchased this pattern, you will receive a link to the PDF of the new sizes automatically, free of charge.

The Journey of a Cardigan...

  'Sweet Yolk' Scandinavian-inspired yoke cardigan.

Here's a picture of Henry, taken in August 2011, when he was 4 months old. I made the cardigan some time around February 2011 before he was born, and we didnt know whether he'd be a boy or girl so I chose neutral brown and rust colours.

September 2011, aged 5 months.

 November 2011, aged 7 months. Getting a bit small now...

And now here's little Peter, taken in June 2012, just over 2 months old.

I love it that Peter gets to wear Henry's clothes, there are some things that I will keep even after they have both grown out of them, and this is one of them.

Welcome Little Peter

Here's my baby boy modelling a Peapod Soup original cardigan. He's nearly 8 weeks old now, getting more aware of his surroundings and starting to smile.

I'm slowly getting back into making things, but H is nearly 14 months old and almost walking, so I've kind of got my hands full!. We've converted our loft into a craft / office space, so I'm really excited about having some space to work and be creative once the littleys are in bed. 

Both my etsy shops are now open after a short break.  Holding a street party of the Royal Jubilee? Then you need to whip up a patriotic tea cosy, available from The Tree Bridge, my crochet pattern store! There's also a pattern for English cakes and biscuits, for your Jubilee cake stand. 

Happy Making!

strange days...

My baby was due 4 days ago! I closed my online stores a couple of weeks ago, but my patterns are still available at Ravelry, and there are some free patterns there too.

I've been nesting, organizing, sewing, but not really crocheting. H is standing up (and toppling over!) so all my time is spent watching him and catching him at the last moment, he is suddenly very hard work. But lots of fun, and really starting to communicate a lot. He'll be 1 in a couple of week's time. The spd pain is worse than ever, some days I can't stand up long enough to make a cup of tea (which is a disaster for me, as I drink gallons each day!). I'm so looking forward to having this baby, getting back to normal and going on long walks along the canal with the double pushchair.

I made a 'cheat' patchwork quilt for the baby, out of the tablecloth fabric we used at our wedding, and some other scraps. In the evenings I've been doing cross stitch, sometimes I like to do a project that doesnt involve any thinking, its quite therapeutic. I have to do something to stop me going insane from being trapped in the house. I pretty much only leave the house for midwife appointments, even walking to the car is torture.

And a kitsch 70's tapestry for H.

Maybe next time I type here, I'll have a baby!

Waiting...

 

It's kind of a strange time here, I have 3 weeks until my due date so I'm tying up loose ends with work, making sure my website is up to date, sorting out baby clothes, packing my hospital bag, and just generally nesting, but not making any plans and trying not to start any new projects. We're in the middle of having our loft converted, and in the meantime all our junk is piled in heaps in H's bedroom, (which is soon to become 'the boy's room!'). So until it's finished, I wont feel I'm ready for our new little boy. I still think I'm denial about having another baby!

I guess its time to enjoy H being on his own for the last time, but I'm still pretty much housebound, I can just about walk to T's car but managing stairs, or picking up H are getting harder all the time. I can handle constant pain (just about!) but I can't handle having to ask my husband to do pretty much everything for me.

Here's H, falling asleep halfway through lunch! Probably my own fault for keeping him in his PJs all morning.

I finished my hexagon blanket, the colours I chose were just scraps of yarn I had, but I really like how it turned out. 

 

I'll be turning off my online shops in 2 weeks, so now's the last chance to buy my crochet patterns until autumn.

Hurrah! Finished Socks.

I seem to have about a hundred crochet projects waiting to be started, mostly for other people, so I'm glad I finished my cosy autumn socks last night. Now I can start on something else...

They are made from 1 ball of King Cole Zig Zag yarn, (bought from ebay for less than a fiver) and I went up a hook size because my feet are bigger from being pregnant. I also added a few more rows to the main foot part. A really nice project to carry around because they're so small, I worked on them a lot during our 3 and a half hour car journey to see my grandmother, it was the first time she had seen her new great-grandson. The pattern is on Ravelry and Etsy.

Hurrah!

It's time to start thinking about making things for Christmas; the raspberry gin is getting nicely pink in the back of the cupboard, I've made my little H his first stocking, and today I baked the Christmas cake. I've used this Delia recipe for the past 5 years and it always comes out great, the only change I made was, after soaking the dried fruit in sloe gin (instead of brandy) overnight, the mixture still seemed quite dry so I so added half a cup of strong black tea and let it soak for a few more hours. This will be my first christmas at home with my husband and baby, (we got married in July), I usually go to my parents in Worcester, so I'm getting really into the idea of making it really special. After 4 and a half hours in the oven this is what came out:

Really moist and yummy looking. I will wrap it in foil, feed it every now and again, then decorate it with fruit and nuts.

Crochet Tank Top... or vest if you are American.

Check out my handsome model! This tank top was made using a pattern I wrote a couple of years ago, available at Ravelry and Etsy. The pattern uses 4ply sock wool, and comes in 4 sizes up to 24 months. Perfect for autumn with a cute t-shirt underneath.

Reasons to be cheerful...

It's not much fun having SPD/PGP, so I thought I'd distract myself by writing about some much nicer things...

1. Finding a Christmas present for H in a charity shop, a Djeco vintage-style wooden puzzle. American bloggers sound so much more hip when they say 'thifted'!

2. Making a funny monkey, another present for H. I've been reading a book called 'Radical Homemakers', about reclaiming the home, not being a consumer. I'm not sure that its particularly radical, but I do like lots of the ideas. I can definitely relate to it since giving up work to be a mummy. When you work full time you do spend more money; for example, after work you might be too tired to cook so you buy a takeaway or a ready meal. At the end of a hard week, you might feel you deserve a nice new dress. I dont want to buy H plasticy toys made in sweatshops halfway round the world. The book talks about making toys for children, but you cant really avoid consumerism altogether, I mean I still had to buy the wool and the stuffing... The pattern was from Ravelry.

3. Making some lovely crocheted socks, just for me! I'm always making things for other people or for etsy, its sometimes nice to have a project that's just mine. Cosy socks for cosy evenings at home. They're made following this pattern.

4. What a horrible word 'weaning' is! H is 7 months old, and eating us out of house and home, and its nice that now we can all have bowls of porridge, just like the three bears. Mine has brown sugar, cinnamon, seeds and a sprinkling of bran.

5. Carving a Halloween pumpkin, then hiding upstairs with the lights off because we're scared of trick or treaters! We made spicy pumpkin soup the next day.

6. Best of all, my brother and his girlfriend had a baby girl, no name yet, but she was 2 weeks late and weighed 9lb 10!

Folksy

In between looking after a baby and doing tons of housework (how did it ever get done when we both worked full time?) I'm really enjoying getting back into crochet pattern writing. I've just re-opened my Folksy shop. Folksy is a British version of Etsy, lots craft-loving people selling handmade, vintage and quirky items. All my patterns which are available on etsy, ravelry and my website, are also now on Folksy. 

Happy Hexagons Organic Cotton Baby Blanket

Happy October! We've having a heatwave, so it doesnt feel very autumnal at the moment. Yesterday I somehow a lot of work done, which isnt easy when you're looking after a 6 month old at the same time. I managed to get some patterns listed in my etsy shop, and this is one of them!

My brother & his girlfriend are expecting a baby in 2 weeks, so I decided to make them a blanket. They love bright colours and dont know whether they are having a boy or girl, so I raided my stash and found lots of different colours to make motifs with. I played around with squares, and stripes, and finally settled on hexagons. I wanted a plain kind of shape that wasnt too girly.

 

Later, I was making a cushion cover from some organic cotton, and when I had some left over I decided to make some more hexagons, as they are so nice to make! So I ended up with another blanket. It's made from lovely Twilley's Freedom Sincere Organic Cotton.

I enjoyed working with Sincere, it was a bit splitty, but all cotton yarns are. I often question the ethical and environmental sourcs of yarn. Acrylic yarn is essentially made from oil. When I was (mostly) vegan I hesitated about using Sheep's wool, also it makes me itch. There are soya and bamboo yarns available, but I guess there isnt really a truly sustainable yarn. 

   

Freedom Sincere is just like Rowan Organic Cotton, but about half the price. I stopped liking Rowan yarns so much when I worked in a wool shop. The colours and textures are gorgeous but when you come to work with it, it often has knots in, and it bobbles when you wash it, which isnt great when you've spent a lot of money. Modern yarns like Sirdar and Patons are so much nicer than they used to be, and are washable and dont bobble. When I'm making things for H, I tend to use budget acrylic yarns because they need to be washed so often, and he grows out of things so quickly.

Happy Hexagons Baby Blanket pattern is available from The Tree Bridge and Ravelry.

Blackberry & Apple Jam

It's definitely feeling more Autumnal here in Wiltshire, and there are plenty of berries in the hedgerows. I took H out blackberry picking, its such a nice feeling picking the abundant fruit, knowing its going to make enough jam to see us through the winter. People always stop to talk, and lots of kids stop to ask what I am doing.

Blackberry & Apple Jam

You will need:

Equal quantities of fruit to sugar.

For example, 3lb of blackberries, 1lb of apples to 4lb of sugar.

If you use crab or cooking apples, you wont need to use jam sugar, regular granulated sugar will be fine.

About 8 jam jars with lids

Cling film or waxed disks

Directions:

Wash and sterilise the jars, either by putting them upside down in a warm oven for 20 minutes (about gas mark 4, 180 degrees) or use sterilising solution.

Wash and pick over the fruit. Peel and core the apples and put them all in a large saucepan, and heat until soft, about 30 minutes. At this point you can strain the fruit pulp to get rid of pips, but I don't usually bother.

Add the sugar and stir on a gentle heat until you reach the setting pojnt, this should take about 20 minutes. To check for setting, put a teaspoonful of the jam on a cold saucer, leave to cool for a few seconds, it should be jam-like and not runny. 

Pour the jam into the jars,m sela with waxed disks or clingfilm and put the lids on. 

Enjoy on toast, or my favourite is a big spoonful on my porridge.

My brother & his girlfriend are expecting a baby next month, they don't know what they are having but I know they like bright hippyish colours, so I made them a hexagonal blanket in yellows and using all sorts of scrap colours I had in my stash. I will be publishing the pattern in the next few weeks.

Cornish Coast Baby Blanket - Free Crochet Pattern

I've been making a blanket for H, when he's out and about in his pushchair and car seat. I wanted it to be small enough to carry around, and made from acrylic yarn so it can be washed easily. I used Robin Picasso Chunky, and managed to get the whole blanket out of one ball.

Here's the pattern:

Cornish Coast Baby Blanket

UK crochet terminology.

You will need:

15mm / Q hook

10mm / P hook

1 x 100g ball Robin Picasso Chunky, (150m per ball) or equivalent yarn.

Tension

Approximately 6 sts x 7 rows over 4 x 4 inches, using 15mm hook.

Stitch Key

Ch = Chain                            

Dc = Double Crochet

*---* = Indicates a sequence of stitches to be repeated.

Instructions.

With 15mm hook, Ch 51. 
R1. Dc in 2^nd ch from hook. *Ch1, skip next stitch, dc in next ch*. Repeat across to end of row. Dc in last ch. Ch1, turn.

R2.  Dc in 1^st st. *Ch1, skip next stitch, dc in ch1 space.* Repeat across. Dc in last ch. Ch1, turn.

 

Repeat row 2 until there are 39 rows in total. Do not turn.

Edging

Using 10mm hook, work all the way round the 4 edges of the blanket, working 1dc in the end of each row, 1dc in each chain, 1dc in each dc. Slip stitch to join.

Fasten off. Sew in ends.

The USA version of the pattern is available free on Ravelry