Seascape

There has been knitting going on here between nappy changes, feeding, washing and general mischief and merriment.

This is seascape stole from knitty summer 2008 I started it back in July 2008 but it came a cropper to knitting things that didn't take as much concentration... I never managed to memorize the chart..., hibernating, and general life. It's not as airy as the version in the pattern, but I like it, and it makes for a bit of a different type of scarf for me.

The other knitting project that I've been working on is my city and guilds - that, like seascape, stalled last year but I've been making some good headway and am hoping to have the first module done by the time my parents come in a couple of weeks time. I'm excited about keeping going with it and getting some momentum going.

monochromatic

The weather here recently has been very stable - cold and dry. We haven't really had any serious snow for a few weeks now, but because of the temperatures it's stuck around. We've also had a lot of hoar frost.

I was thinking the other day when I was walking around how monochromatic everything was looking, I'm seeing the outside world in greyscale. I thought I'd take a few photos, these are all taken in our neighbourhood.

It really accentuates the shapes of all the trees. It's very pretty although I think I'm ready now for a bit of colour - I can't wait to see the first shoots of green on the trees. (the person in blue is David pushing Frances by the way).

Nappy summary

I thought I'd do a bit of a nappy summary - more for myself than anything else....

The nappies I made: so far I haven't used them at all - at the beginning they were way too big, I tried one on Frances the other day and they gape a lot around the leg, so I can't imagine the containment would be very good.... and as we all know, it's all about the containment.

Disposable: slim, easy, reliable... but.... I don't really want my daughter walking around as an environmental disaster. I've read about disposable nappies not even starting to decompose until she's an old lady, which just feels wrong to me. So, we have some as backup and sometimes to use for convenience - ie if we're going out and aren't sure of the changing facilities etc.

Imse Vimse reusable nappies as supplied by Kela: I've tried to use these, but every time they just haven't contained anything and we've ended up in a soggy mess. I've heard that these only start working once the inners are washed a few times - I guess they must mean a few thousand times.

Muslins: Old fashioned muslin squares with knitted wool pants on the outside. These have been what we use the majority of the time. It's quite a game to "pin" (using nappi nippas) them around her while she's wriggling, but no more difficult than trying to get her into a disposable nappy while wriggling with her legs in the air. I'm curious to know how these will hold up as she gets bigger - maybe I'll have to double them up? I'm still a bit shocked that the wool pants work - I wash and retreat them with lanolin if they get soiled, other than that they just get aired.

Mothercare Smart Nappy: We used these when she was first born and are now using the medium size at night. They're pretty convenient although we do occasionally get leakage at her lower back, and even though the outers don't need to be washed every time they're used, they soon start to smell a bit pee-y.

First day of advent

Another project that came to light when my Mum was helping me organise last spring was a half made advent calendar. We think this was something my Nanna had found half finished in a charity shop she had been working in and brought home and given to me to finish off. I apparently hadn't finished it, but once again my Mum volunteered and it appeared in a parcel along with a few presents to fill the pockets. I added some more bits so there's one for each day of advent.

The pockets aren't that big, so I thought the best thing to do was to get some sweets to put in each pocket and then attach some wool to join each sweet to a present....

Today's present were some reindeer socks for Frances...

...not quite sure what is in the socks but despite all the kicking she hasn't managed to dislodge them yet.

When "stuff" stashed becomes useful

Last August, in what seems like an age ago now, I decided to make a concerted effort to use some "stuff" that was in my stash to make something useful, rather than just continue to carry it about.


One of the things in my stash was some red heart acrylic yarn that I'd bought while I was living in the US and had been having a small foray into the world of knitting. I'd bought it as I liked the colour and thought it would be good to make a cabled jumper out of - I still like the colour, but I now know better than to knit something like a cabled jumper out of cheap acrylic yarn. The surplus yarn has been sitting in my stash ever since and the jumper not worn.


A plan formulated itself to knit/sew some sort of picnic blanket, using the red heart yarn, some fleece that was also taking up space in the stash and some waterproof material that I'd acquired at some point along the way.


I cut out the fleece and started knitting the squares, then became pregnant and started to hibernate.


Enter Mum, who came to visit me while I was hibernating and helped me organise my crafting stuff into a newly acquired IKEA shelf unit. She saw this (and a couple of other) half started project and volunteered to knit more squares. We frogged the jumper and she was sent away with the yarn and needles.


When she came to visit just after Frances was born, she came armed with the squares she'd knitted and the yarn that was left. We started to put it all together and she knitted a border for it too. Over the following weeks I've slowly been sewing it together and yesterday, while Frances was napping, managed to finally complete it:

It's not the time of year for picnics, but it's finished and can be used inside as another blanket for Frances to wriggle on. It has a lot of texture in each square as they're all knitted using a different pattern, and also the contrast between the knitted and fleece squares which will hopefully be interesting for little fingers. It's also washable and has a waterproof backing, so perfect for sitting on under the apple trees next year.


It's also very pleasing and satisfying that some "stuff" has been used from the stash.

Retro knitting

A little while ago I ended up with quite a few old knitting patterns - I quite like the idea of making some of them despite how cheesy and old fashioned the patterns themselves might seem.

My first foray into retro knitting has been a hat for Frances - the bottom left of the following:

Made from just over one ball of Garnstudio DROPS Merino Extra Fine yarn and without the pom pom. It's a bit big for her yet, so probably won't be worn by her until next Autumn. In the meantime polar bear has been wearing it on his adventures.

It's about time I blogged something...

Life is good.


Our move to Turku went very well.


We've had both sets of our parents come to visit already and are due my sister-in-law in December.


Frances is doing very well, she's what could undoubtedly be called a happy, contented baby (without being on a strict Gina Ford regime).

We've decided not to put too many pictures of her up on the internet.


The usual focus of this blog is craftiness - there hasn't been a huge amount of crafting going on since Frances has been born, but I'm sure that will increase as time goes on.