Stash bags (FO)

It's a big week this week. 


On Friday our son - the bean - has his last day at preschool. And, a new big scary chapter in which he starts school, begins. He is most definitely ready for this, but I am not. As the yarnharlot might say: it scares the snot out of me. 


Anyway, that's all for another day and another post, and this is meant to be about the fruitful stash diving and sewing that went on over the weekend. So, as I was saying - the bean finishes preschool this week, so I have been wondering idly about the best way of thanking his teachers. Of course, whenever there is idle wondering, there is idle googling and reading of blogs. 


Kelly at handmade at home hit the spot with her post about fabric bags. I half read the tutorial, and let the idea marinade for a few days. I talked to the bean. He thought it was a good idea.I went diving into the stash and pulled out some likely bits and bobs. The bean  had a look, and made his preferences clear.


So, Saturday evening, I unpacked the sewing machine and the cutting mat and set them up, along with the ironing board and iron. I folded, measured and cut fabric - enough for 8 bags. And then I sat down to sew.


At that moment, that very moment, the planets aligned themselves in a most unfortunate, er, alignment. It was now after 9pm, and the jelly bean - who had snuck a 1 hour nap that afternoon - was not sleepy. Not. At. All. No sir. She was as far from sleep as a 2 yr old can be. So, she was wriggling and getting in and out of bed and generally making us aware that she was wide a w a k e. 


While that was going on, my cousin rang to talk about our Olympic trip and meeting up and life with twins and parenting and Boris Johnson (London mayor) and all the other things that cousins talk about when they don't see each other from one year to the next. It took more than an hour...


It was now near to 10.30pm, and not a stitch had been stitched, and the jelly bean was still very awake. Surrender was the only course of action possible. We made our bed (sheets stripped and washed and hung out to dry at the first glimpse of sunshine earlier in the day) and offered her the chance to sleep with mummy. It was 11pm. I climbed into bed next to a wriggling jelly bean and wondered what sort of useless parent I was for giving in like that. 


It was gone 11.30 when the wriggling finally stopped and the warm feet on my belly could be gently moved away. Asleep, at last.


Sunday morning was slow and gentle and full of sunshine. We pottered about, reading books, eating, giggling. I caught up on my missed sewing session - sitting in my pyjamas at the table, while people around me drank and ate and dressed themselves. I consulted the bean on progress. He seemed happy, so in the evening after they went to bed (exhausted by swimming and cycling and lots and lots of fresh air) I sat down to finish things off. By (my) bedtime, there was a pile of 8 little bags. Start to finish in about 24 hours. Not a bad days work. 

41/7

It's that time of year again. The one where I have my birthday (41, ahem) followed shortly after by our wedding anniversary (7 years). To add to the excitement, my brother and sister in law arrived last weekend with their two young sons. 


It's such a shame that the weather has been so awful - but if I have learned one thing in my 41 years on this earth, it is this: moaning about the weather never, ever, ever make one jot of difference to the weather that comes. You just have to make the best of it. So, the driest days have involved trips to beaches, farms, play parks and walks around and about; and the wettest days have involved trips to museums, swimming pools, soft play and inside sorts of places. Edinburgh's blessed with a number of such venues, so it hasn't been too hard - but still, a shame for them not to have seen some Scottish sunshine.

My in-laws organised a gathering of the wider family to celebrate the visitation from the American branch. As both my mother and father in law celebrate their 70th birthdays this year, we made the most of the opportunity to celebrate, and surprised them with birthday cake and champagne! They were completely unprepared for the surprise - but both seemed really delighted. Significant birthdays are always worth celebrating, and the greater the age, the more reason to take stock and give thanks for health and happiness. 


Meanwhile there has been knitting. Dolly (age 3-6 months) now has 2 sleeves. A back will follow methinks. There is also a sock making good progress - mostly encouraged by the tennis, which was superb this year - and one or two other things have sprung on and off the needles. A tank top began a week or so back, but was no sooner started than ripped again. Not. Quite. Right. 

De-stashing

Whilst I have been working hard on the stash busting over the last couple of years, there are some corners of the stash which look decidedly dodgy. There is some really awful acrylic and wildly coloured yarns which came either from charity shop raids, or from my grandmothers knitting basket. I think I inherited her thrifty ways, as well as her bag of yarn unravelled from long forgotten jumpers. 

But, I have a plan. It is cunning, and a bit daring and probably also rather mad. And I'm hoping it might look a bit like this...

 

Apparently highly coloured acrylic yarn is just the thing cos it lasts for ever .... who knew?

Moving on...

Things are moving on here. The new kitchen is almost finished, and the days of chaos and the to-ing and fro-ing of joiners and painters and plumbers and the gaffer and the architect and all and sundry are almost at an end. 

I'm ready for it to finish and for things to return to normal. 6 weeks with only a microwave - even if we did have a washing machine and a dishwasher and a sink - was a bit wearing and wearying. But the results are just as good - if not better - than we hoped. We can now see through the house from front to back; we can see out into our garden in a way that we couldn't before. It's nice. Really Nice. I like.


Today the new floor was laid. The fitter left the paper template in situ because of the painting and grouting work happening tomorrow. We couldn't really pass up the opportunity to draw on such an enormous piece of paper, so after supper the chiddlers and I got to work...

As you can see, the decorating didn't stop with the paper, oh no. The jelly bean drew on herself. A. Lot.

In other news, I finished some socks. They are pink, and a bit stripey and I really love them (although they are impossible to photograph). Trouble is, I lost concentration somewhere along the line and they are teensy bit too small for me. 

pattern: generic top-down socks

yarn: Kaffe Fassett Random Stripe for Regia (#02901 colourway) 

combined with some plain pink 4-ply in a grumperina stripe (tute here)

Seeing as I have a dozen or more pairs of handknit socks in my drawer, I don't really need another pair. And, in these days of austerity I don't want to appear to be greedy - so I've put them in the gift stash


and promised myself that 


if I happen to pass the shop where I bought the yarn, I might allow myself to buy a couple of balls because, well, most of my handknit socks are a year or two old now, and must be quite close to wearing out. So, making some more would just help me to keep the others going a bit longer because I wouldn't need to wear them as often....and if there's anything a girl really needs, it's a pair of hot pink stripey socks.

Beanies and bobbles (FO)

The pink hat I lost last week is still hiding in Glasgow somewhere, but the other #9 baby beanies are all washed and ready to drop off at the Pregnancy and Parents Centre.


They look kinda cute all stacked up and ready to go...

Baby beanies (9 here)

pattern: own 

yarn: any and various odds and ends in the sock/4 ply stash

At the weekend we went to a friend's fifth birthday party (happy birthday Aisling!). I was itching to make something for her, so I spent a happy half an hour or so trimming scraps of felt to make this sweet pair of rainbow hair bobbles. I did it while watching England play Sweden in Euro 2012. There were places where my cutting was decidedly wonky; but, I just think that adds to their charm.

And, in other news (in case you were wondering) the building works are still on-going, but due to finish this week. We can't wait! Things already look and feel so different, it's hard to remember what it looked like before... 

FOs reporting for duty.

Deli is done - finished on Sunday evening while watching the color purple. (We have a Love Film subscription, and I'm trying to fill a few holes in my (our) cinematic education). Here is a bad phone photo of it in action on Monday.

Today I was in Glasgow at a conference. I took some small knitting with me and polished off baby beanie no. 10 before lunch. Then I accidently cast on a sock in the afternoon plenary. All I can say in my defence is: there was yarn, needles and a requirement for me to sit and listen to some people talking for an hour or two.

I'd show you the hat - which is super scrummy, using some Kaffe Fasset striping sock yarn in hot pink - but it has escaped somehow. I suspect it jumped out of my bag at the conference...  If you are in Glasgow and find it wandering about, do send it home!

WIP

Things are happening here. Big things. Things that have been planned and thought about and discussed for some time. In fact, I knew I wanted to do some of these things when we first saw the house (7 years ago!)


We have builders in. We have a temporary kitchen (aka the batcave) and many boxes. There are tiles and lights and worktops and all sorts waiting to be unpacked and installed. 


It's an exciting thing. We've just moved beyond the slow structural elements of the build, and into the quicker and more palpable progress of wall finishes and kitchen installation. Yesterday the kitchen arrived in a myriad of boxes, and this morning the joiners arrived to start putting it together: a three dimensional puzzle of components. 


It feels very grown up, although we are not thinking at all about the grown up bill that will also arrive shortly. 

 the jelly bean tidies herself away in the old kitchen

The contractors have been great - tidy, considerate and punctual. The gaffer, is a very likeable man who says things like 'no problem', 'we can do that' and 'its all pretty straightforward'. We like him. 


There is knitting here too, of course. Hat no #9 sprang off the needles yesterday and no #10 is just being cast on. Tonight it's a knitting night, so I'm planning to take Deli for a night with the girls. Hopefully it'll be her last night as a UFO!


In other news, some sunshine and the long jubilee weekend meant a wee bit of time in the garden. The chiddlers helped me plant the rather wizened seed potatoes that had been waiting to be planted. And, the wigwams for our climbing french and runner beans are also up. Must plant the seeds now!