work in progress

Once again, Kids Clothes Week Challenge has been scuppered by illness and a severe case of cabin fever, resulting from not being able to leave the house due to torrential downpours. Little B has a cough like a seal's bark, and the sound of the sewing machine in the evening seems to wake her from much needed sleep. I have a couple of projects on the go that I hope to finish soon. In the meantime it's easier and quieter to crochet these granny squares.

little mabel

This project has been a long time in the making. It's been traveling with me up and down the country, it's been unravelled and started again, I've lost bits of it along the way, ran out of wool... Finally it's finished and I really must parcel it off to my friend's (not so new) baby Nina before she grows any bigger.

The pattern is Little Mabel by Sublime, and the wool is Sublime baby cashmere merino silk dk.

Here is Betty wearing her one, knitted for her by my friend Linda.

kids clothes week challenge

It's Kids Clothes Week Challenge coming up. A sort of bi-annual sew-along invented by Meg Spaeth of the Elsie Marley blog. The idea is to make time to sew for your little ones. Ideally an hour a day, but I find I get nothing done for the first six days, and then have a sewing frenzy on the seventh. Nevertheless, I did manage to make this, and this and this and this on previous challenges. Pop on over to her blog to sign up.

sprinkle

Have you ever been to Loop in London? I think it's quite possibly the most exciting yarn shop in the world. I saw a little cardigan (sprinkle) knitted up on display there last year and was told the pattern would be published shortly in Juju's Loops, a new pattern book by Susan and Juju of Loop.

It's a fairly quick and easy bottom up knit, but it's a little disappointing that the pattern is only one size; 3 to 9 months. With a little adding on here and there, (an extra chevron in the sleeves and back), I enlarged it to fit a one year old, and I reckon with a little scaling up the pattern could work for me!

three little pixies

It's taken four months to get these three to stand still whilst all wearing their hats.... two more Stella Pixie Hats made for twins Mia and Eli.

Gingerbread biscuits

Last week I met up with Kay for a coffee. I've been a fan of her blog for a while now and when she said she'd be holidaying in my town I suggested a meet up. Turns out I remembered meeting her before! Probably in my previous life working in a bookshop. It's a small world!

Her talented friend Zoe, (who I also recognise from around town) came too and we had a very nice chat. Kay gave Betty and me a caterpillar cookie cutter, so without further ado we got baking...

The recipe is from here, but I upped the ginger from 2 to 3 teaspoons. Betty did eat rather a lot of the raw dough. No egg in it so can't be too bad.

Intense concentration.

Enjoying the results up at the allotment. Thank you Kay!

to chit or not to chit?

Beautiful weather today so we did some work in the garden. I sowed some seeds... Leeks (Musselburgh and Tornado) and lettuce (Quattro Stagioni). I unpacked my seed potatoes that had arrived a few days ago and laid them out in egg boxes for chitting. I didn't bother chitting last year, and from what I've read, I don't think it makes much difference whether you do or not. Still, it feels like a small achievement to be doing something towards the allotment. This year I am trying Salad Blue, Pentland Javelin, Sarpo Mira.