Just a quick posting today. I was surfing yesterday and came across a pattern for a little Japanese cat. I am looking for inspiration for the toys I want to make for Christmas and so decided to give this one a go. I am quite pleased with the result as a starting point. I think I need to use softer fabric and brighter colours and surely tweak the design a bit too. I am going to cut up one of D's baby pyjamas to do another one. More later.
Another Yay!! This time for small's rainbow hat which I have just finished. This is the one with the Noro silk garden skein and I invented the pattern myself (although of course there is nothing particularly original about it). Now I have to decide whether to line it with recycled D baby clothes (fleece or velvet). It is a bit big for a newborn and might be a bit scratchy so a lining would be good to compensate for that. But it is so cool and they can keep it until next winter. I think it would be a good size for a one year old. Hmmm. D has just tried it on and it's good for a four year old even. I love it and might have to buy another skein in boysy colours (less pink) for my little man (and why not one for D too and one for everyone else I know!!!). Also... I did a simple hem on the Moses basket lining this morning so that is done and put away until we get home from the clinic. I just have the final sleeve to sew into the big wool cardy and then I have to paint the toggles for it. The sleeves seem disproportionately small for the body of the cardy - but as B says, newborn arms are tiny!! It will keep him warm for sure. I'll put a picture when it's finished. So now most of my projects are coming to an end I have to decide what to do next. The Alpaca scarf for S maybe. Also sewing-wise I am now toying with the idea of doing a patchwork baby blanket and a full skirt because I saw one in a magazine with beautiful detail on the pleats around the waistband. Also Christmas is coming...
Right; onwards! I think we're just going to the park this afternoon...
Yay!!! I have practically finished the Moses basket lining! I am very pleased with the results from a techincal point of view even if the result does not actually correspond to my taste!!! Why did I go with classic? Why didn't I get some rainbow stripey material? Anyway. I now just have to decide whether a simple hem on the frill will do or whether I should get some ribbon or lace to go round. Also, I have washed D's lambskin and have decided that it will be perfect for Bubba to sleep on and that way there will be no need to buy or make a mattress. So I feel that the pressure is off now. I can give birth whenever, little man will have somewhere to sleep when he gets home! This sewing project has been really fun. I enjoyed every step, from working out how to do it right down to zigzagging the seams (old - but great - sewing machine). I even enjoyed the ironing! I am now what I should take on as a next project. Keep the momentum going - clothes for me post-bump, patchwork blanket for a friend's baby, bags for friends, toys for children for Christmas. Being not that an experienced sewer I could go in any direction it will all be new! We'll see. I still have the big wool cardy to finish and the hat for small. I wonder whether I will havethe time and the energy for knitting and sewing when the baby is here.
I'll soon find out!
Monday morning. I'm feeling tired (and look tireder) and have an enormous to-do list! BUT... I have decided to spend a while uploading some photos and downloading some thoughts. To the left are the two little skirts I made. The one that 's leaving the family was delivered to its new owner during said owner's 4th birthday party on Saturday. Never have I seen so many Princesses at one occasion. All milling about, shaking their magic wands, popping giant bubbles, and having a great time of it.
Next up... a little hat I knitted up in a matter of seconds for daughter, to go with her jumper and to use up the last of the wool. Also useful avoidance prop - knitting instead of watching awful film Final Destination 3 - too much gore for me. Daughter laughed and said that hat looks like a pumpkin (sentiments repeated the following day). I don't think she will wear it and I am certainly not about to force her (no one wants a pumkin head) but her tiger looks good in it, don't you think? At least some one in the household won't have cold ears this winter. Although actually I am knitting a similar one in red for Bubba (baby pumpkin heads are surely acceptable) to use up the wool left over from still to be stiched up cardigan. On to that subject now... I am so filled with remorse at the idea of having chosen a girly colour and style (according to B) for new boy's first knitted garment that yesterday whilst out and about with B (hurrah for Jewish festivals of forgiveness and days off work) I bought some lovely green tweedy boyish wool to make a boyish v-neck or a boyish cable sweater (I am itching to have first ever attempt at doing cables) or something else suitably masculine. I also bought some gorgeous Rowan scottish tweed (or something) in a bluey black to knit myself a beret. Here they are... (note to self: buy camera with better close-up capabilities).
Actually that's it for photos for today. But a few more thoughts...
B and I spent the day at Ikea on Sunday. Literally the day. We left however practically empty handed apart from a nice beigey rug which turned out to be beautiful in concept (zen, natural fibres, natural colours, marmite and wine stain resistance due to little patches of darker bits...) but awful in reality. No, we are all about colour and should accept it. Our friend of course recognised our mistake on first glimpse of rug. It took us longer and now we have to go back to Ikea to change it. Anyway. Just to say that spending the day thinking about our flat and what we want to do with it has reawoken my desire to eliminate eliminate eliminate. Unfortunately, I am too tired and pregnant to do much about that particular desire but repeating "softly softly catch ye monkey" to myself (that's how it goes in my head) helps relieve the frustration at not having the energy to whip around the flat like a whirlwind leaving a trail of jettisoned possessions in my wake. Also, on the train home yesterday, we came up with the idea of building a piece of furniture - a custom (of course) music center with room for record player, records etc. B's little project but we are both working on the planning development stage (since I have more practical know-how). I hope we do a good job!!
Let me quickly record my disappointment that EATING by Peter Singer still has not arrived. The VEGAN COOKING book has arrived and it is a good thing because our eating habits were nothing to be proud of last week. Lots of cheese. Lots. A sweet ricotta pie that I practically ate by myself... rubbishy breakfasts oh I don't know. Not the wholesome and healthy diet I dream of. B and I walked around a certain large, snobby and exclusive foodhall yesterday. We treat these places like museums. Our mouths were watering let me tell you (although not always for the same things - camembert, no matter what you do to it, will never get my buds tingling. Show me some dried stawberries though...). We came very close to buying something but when you could leave with the whole shop how do you decide which one, little, product you are going to leave with? Impossible. Better just to accept that the delight is in the whole panoply of goods around and not in one little packet of whatever that will soon be eaten and forgotten. Museum: you go in, you take hours looking around, you leave empty-handed but brain-filled.
I received a parcel from my lovely friends in big Scottish city this morning. What an absolute thrill. A book for me, a book for D and some sugar twizzle sticks for B (who doesn't take sugar but still). And a "hipster pda". My very own. http://www.43folders.com/2004/09/03/introducing-the-hipster-pda/
Is it obvious I have no idea how to insert links to other sites? I must come up with a suitable return package. Including perhaps a pink pumpkin head hat for their impending small...
Right onwards!
