Master of the Spooniverse

OK, so maybe he hasn't fully mastered the use of the spoon yet. But he's doing a damn fine job of trying!

Art Of Crochet squares 1-8

It's taken me faaaaaaaaaaaaar too long to make these. Not because they're difficult, but because (that's right you guessed it) I'm super slack. I also have a nearly one year old so that sort of counts dunnit? Plus I'm distracted by shiny new projects such as...embroidery...sewing...card making...see how I'm digressing right now? That is how I craft as well. Nuff said. Back on track.

Square 1.

I quite liked this one. It uses simple stitches & looks pretty, quite thick though, no drape at all. It came out at exactly at the required 13cmx13cm after blocking. It's also available as a pattern called Lemon Peel in 200 Crochet Blocks for Blankets, Throws and Afghans by Jan Eaton. Fabulous book BTW.

Square 2.

I quite liked this one too, although I wasn't sure I got it right a few times so frogged & restarted. Looks all right now though. It came out about 14cm x 14cm rather than the required 13. Meh.

Square 3.

My first ever granny! I can't believe I've been crocheting for about 6/7 years now & not made a granny square before this one. I love it, although it's too small. I hoped blocking would fix this, but it didn't. Someone in the Ravelry group for this part works pointed out that on the finished throw image, all the grannies have 3 rounds of the final colour, not 2. Adding an additional round of blue will make it the correct size. Way to go Hachette.

Square 4.

I didn't like the pattern for this at all. It was DCs (US) and cross stitch. I couldn't figure out how to cross stitch onto crochet without leaving a hideous mess on the back so decided to make my own pattern instead using the same colours.  I used a 5mm hook for the vanilla granite stitch (pattern here) & a 3.5mm hook for the tiny star (pattern here).

Square 5.

Again, this one called for cross stitch. No thanks! I used the aforementioned blocks book to make bobbles in the same pattern as the cross stitch, again using the same colours & a 3.5mm hook. Much more fun!

Square 6.

I LOVE this stitch, it makes me want to crochet a whole sweater with it. It's so warm and floppy. Hmm, maybe if I lived in Iceland? The colour is great too. Lots of people say the colour is horrible, but I really like it! Ner to non-likers-of-maize. It's supposed to be a vintage throw. Have you seen colours from the 70s?

Square 7.

I thought the pattern for this square was terribly boring & embroidered yet again so chose the Starflower pattern from 200 Crochet Blocks using the same colours as the A.O.C. pattern & a 3.5mm hook (I think, or it may have been 3.75mm) omitting the final round to keep it 13cm x 13cm.

Square 8.

This one was a real labour of love. I started it a month ago. I chose to work it in SC (US) not DC (US) as stated in the pattern. I think it looks neater & more uniform this way. The bobbles  are from 200 Crochet Blocks rather than being the pattern bobbles. I don't think I liked them as much. Not enough panache. I don't really know what happened, actually it was probably my crafty absent-mindedness/magpie-ness, but I only finished it yesterday. I didn't even feel gleefully triumphant like I usually do upon completion of a project. Ah well, they can't all be little gems can they?

Thoughts on the part works so far:

I'm glad I have my own hooks because the one supplied is not great. I quite like the colours of the yarn, but it doesn't feel terribly nice. I guess you get what you pay for. I'm learning new things & I'll have an immense throw at the end of it all plus I've made a new friend along the way so I'm not complaining!

Now all I have to do is catch up to issue 32. ROFLMAO!

Just So Festival 2010

It's taken a week, but today I've finally Henry hoovered up the last of the festival mud from the hall. It made me smile thinking back to last weekend and how the mud got there. 

It came from the Just So Festival, held at a Scout camp ground by Rudyard Reservoir just outside of Leek. It's a truly magical setting with little glades containing different themed areas all offering different activities (e.g.: lantern making, small cinema, traditional games (croquet, cricket, hoopla etc), sand pit, face painting, circus skills, story time, bands etc). It was the first time the festival was put on and I have to say that the guys organising (Sarah & Rowan) did a sterling job. The camping glades were dotted around the site and were all named after animals from Rudyard Kipling's (whose parents named him after the reservoir) Just So Stories (it all makes sense now). We were pretty lucky to be in the Elephant glade which was relatively close to everything. I guess it's because we had quite small children with little legs. 200 families camped and an additional 300 families came in on day tickets each day of the festival (Saturday & Sunday). It was beautifully organised with coloured lights strung along the paths, baubles in the bushes and bunting galore. There was even a bush with brown labels for you to write your festival memories.

We arrived on Friday afternoon & managed to get the tent up just in time for a rain shower. It's the first time we've used our new bell tent and we absolutely LOVE IT! It looks pretty small in the picture, but it's 5 metres of massive. I can't imagine using any other kind of tent again. The only downside was that the inner we purchased broke. 3 times. Imagine, if you will, the centre pole of a bell tent. About 2/3rds of the way up said pole is a hook on which one can hang various items such as a tea light chandelier or, in our case, an inner. We chose to use an inner as the children are still small and feel the cold, plus it separates the sleeping area making it easier to keep clean! Anyhoo. The order of the inner, from the hook, goes - hook, ring, fabric loop, inner. The loop of fabric at the top of the inner can't have been stitched very well to the inner because it snapped on one side, so I fixed it, then the other, so I fixed that too. Then the ring snapped into 3 pieces. So I fixed that too. How? I took a sewing kit with me. I have no idea why I packed it, but I did & good job too! I used a canvas strip that was used to tie the tent in its bag to replace the ring & it held fine for the duration. I can't believe I took a sewing kit to a festival and had to use it. 

That was the worst bit really. The rain was intermittent, but enough to be annoying. however because the site was established it had proper paths and so we didn't end up swimming in mud like you can do at some festivals. The toilets were a festival goers dream! Loo roll, soap, paper towels and lights! Quite magnificent...for a loo. I hope it hasn't spoiled the girls for future festivals - Aoife's quite particular about loos! The food was wonderful and we all ate very well while we were there. There was a baby deli serving home cooked food for the youngest visitors. We chose not to use it because there wasn't any finger food on the menu & Isaac still isn't big on being spoon fed apart from breakfast, which we took with us. To both mine & Simon's delight there was a Pie Minister stall selling the Heidi Pie. Sold. Relief in the form of a pie!

The activities were great, the ones that we did. I think next year we really do need to plan what we want to do & do it. The rain meant that we didn't do as much as we've liked and Isaac being so small still meant I couldn't do as much as I'd have liked (he's very clingy to me at the moment). I felt very jealous of all the beautiful lanterns I saw waiting to be collected. The baby sensory tent looked lovely, but a bit soggy as it was at the bottom of a slope and the rain had leaked in & wet the rattan type flooring, which was a shame. The was a lot for babies, all in the Peekaboo glade.

There were some adventure playgrounds which the girls loved. One was for under 8s & the other for over 8s. Unfortunately, parents weren't monitoring this so by Sunday morning there was a marshal monitoring it. Much to Aoife's annoyance.

We went on a wildlife trail & made dragonflies & masks with the RSPB. The girls  practised their circus skills, listened to stories, made sandcastles and watched Punch & Judy. We painted their faces and rocked them gently in hammocks. Simon & the girls watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in the Silver Screen glade while Isaac and I napped.  Isaac took it all in from his carrier. He watched his first live band sporting some borrowed baby ear defenders. He also practised kneeling against the tent pole (I'm not sure if I should be pleased or bemused by this!) I'm very excited about when he's bigger and can do things like the den building, campfire building and foraging activites. I want to do them!!

Click image to zoom (a bit)

The time flew and before too long it was time to pack up the tent. We decided to cut the weekend short and leave at about half past two on the Sunday. We were all shattered after a broken nights sleep on Saturday & we hadn't managed to book in for some of the activities we wanted to (apparently next year there will be more room in the activity groups). I felt for the day crowd because most activities got booked up on Friday evening. So, no Moomin Tea Party for us! Boo!

We had lots of fun and are all (those of us that can voice opinion, that is) eager to go back next year. I think nearly everyone that went is though, so we'll have to book our tickets soon!

Thank you Rowan & Sarah for a fabulous experience!

While I've been quiet online...

...I've been furiously crafting away! Seriously. I couldn't post most of these until recently because they were gifts for or being sent to people who I know sometimes read this blog. Then I got lazy & decided to post them all in one übercraftpost.

So here goes. 

First up, Noah's towel. Our NCT group agreed not to get presents for everyone, but to do a secret santa type thing & spend between £5 & £10 on one present for one child instead. We all picked names out of a hat & I got Sarah's little boy, Noah. I decided to make him a hooded towel with his name embroidered on the hood. It's my first attempt at embroidery & (typically, feet first Sarah) I chose a tricky fabric to embroider. I also discovered that towelling is not easy to transfer a design onto hence it was a lot bigger on the towel than I'd anticipated when drawing it initially on paper! I ended up drawing it on freehand because none of the transfer methods worked. Tailors chalk? Pfft. Transfer pen? NOT A CHANCE IN HELL. Especially as I chose a darkish towel.

It's a bit wonky, but in my defence it was made with love & towelling is a BUGGER to embroider. Structurally speaking it's the best & neatest hooded towel I've made to date. 3rd time's the charm. What did I learn from my first embroidery experience? However much floss you think you need, always buy two more skeins if you are working satin stitch.

Second. Isaac's birthday party invite. He's going to be the big o-n-e soon so we decided to have a little tea party for immediate family, Not-Godparents & their partners. Little, hehe, that's 18 people already! So, me being me, I had to make special invites. My boy isn't one every day y'know!

Next. Amy's A. I know we agreed to only get one present for one child in our NCT group, but technically I didn't get this gift. I had everything already and the fabric actually belonged to the recipent in borrowed-no-longer-fits-sweater form! I wanted Steph to know that I appreciate how much she does for our wee group of babies & parents, she really is the glue that holds us together. So, I made this for little Amy Mae. With hindsight I should've photographed it before going into the glass to avoid reflection & stitch squashing. I've never framed embroidery before. Does one use glass? Who knows! It'll stop it getting dusty at any rate.

Finally, for this post. Fairy wings! As I'm sure you know, we went to the Just So Festival this weekend gone. I read on the programme of events that there was a fairy trail through the forest, at the end of which was the Fairy Queen. So, I thought to myself, what little girl can meet the Fairy Queen without wings?! With this in mind I set to and wings came forth.

Click image to zoom

They were a hit :-) I have tonnes of tulle left. MUST CALCULATE FABRIC QUANTITIES BEFORE GOING TO BUY ON A  WHIM. Although I figure, little girls + pink + sparkly = not a bad thing². My brain is conjuring up sparkly skirts & dolly clothes for Rosh's Barbies.

I'd like to acknowledge my patient as hell husband Simon for putting up with bits of towel, paper, floss, glue, scissors, card, pens, needles, fabric, cutting mats, sewing machines and other such crafty miscellanea strewn all over the kitchen during my creative bouts. And also for not grumping about the finished crocheted square that's been pinned out on a board on the lounge table for nearly a month while it waits for the one that's been sitting on the arm of the sofa for nearly as long to be finished. And various other U.F.O.s dotted around the lounge/computer room. Thank you hun beam! I suppose I'd better finish those...and the other thing I should've finished by now...and the other thing I should really start...

Stairgate (SG-1)

That's right folks. We have a stair gate. It doesn't transport its users to far off, mystical lands. It doesn't even glow, but it does mean I don't give myself a mini hernia every time Isaac drags himself super-fast towards the top of the stairs in a bid to catch the dog.

Upon measurement, it transpires our staircase is just-too-wide-for-a-regular-without-extenders-stair-gate kind of staircase. This instantly narrows our choice of gates as we (being seasoned stair gate users) wanted the screw-to-the-wall kind and not the trip-over-the-bottom-rung kind. See image to the right which conveniently demonstrates both irksome features. In addition to wide a stair case, we have silly 70s bannisters & ridiculously small skirting boards. Also from the 1970s. I was slightly concerned about fitting any stair gate in our house. 

Having had experience of pressure mounted death trip gates (from when Roisin was wee and also from keeping Rinny out of the kitchen at our old house) I think we were justified in our decision to spend more than we had planned on a gate we A) liked the look of, B) worked with our bannister/skirting board and C) can be tidied away easily when not in use.

We decided on the Lascal KiddyGuard which is essentially a sideways roller blind. It's BRILLIANT!* I read many a review & even ordered (and then cancelled) a BabyDan Flexi Fit before hitting the checkout button. (I cancelled the BabyDan because, despite moving house, space is still an issue and there aren't really any walls against which we could leave a conventional gate open). Lots of people complained that the KiddyGuard is noisy & that you can't open/close it one handed. Something about the push-button-in-click-forwards-the-back system confused people & the noise woke up their kids? After reading the instructions & a few practice attempts both Simon & I can competently use this gate.  It's doable one handed, but it makes the noise (clicking sound used as safety feature to alert parent to possible child tampering). That doesn't bother me because if I'm trying to do it one handed then I must be holding Isaac who almost certainly won't be asleep!

It was a doddle to install and the bannister/skirting board potential problem didn't even come into it. Granted the supplied rawlplugs were of usual shoddy supplied-with-product standard, but nothing a quick trip to the toolbox couldn't fix, plus I got to use the drill! MORE POWER! Isaac thought it was all very exciting & happily dragged himself around while I fitted it, munching on the occasional carrot & pumpkin rice cake.

It's not in use lots yet as we don't spend much time upstairs with Isaac on the loose so it's open for much of the time. It's pretty inconspicuous I must say. In-fact, it's so discreet that the girls haven't noticed it yet!

So anyhoo, here is our Stairgate SG-1.

Closed

Open

Job done, thank you very much, goodnight.

* Personal opinion, no one's paying me to say nice things. About anything on this blog actually.

Absent minded observation.

I was flicking through some of my old posts & this one has a picture of me at 5 months old. Here it is.

I can't help but notice that I've crossed my feet. Isaac does this loads. To the point where it becomes comical. 

It's amazing when he does it while sitting bolt upright, a stern look on his face & eyebrows slowly changing shape on his forehead until he bursts into a crazy faced grin! He's kind of doing it here, but rather than looking at it sternly, he's scowling at the toastie.

I wish I could've seen more of Simon's baby photos. I wonder what similarities there are between baby Simon & his son?

Clappy clappy joy joy!

Isaac has finally learned to clap! I say finally because I was wondering if he ever would. As with everything Isaac does, I thought, it'll happen in his own sweet time when he's good and ready. He'll probably have been thinking about it for months before he actually tries it out. He liked it when we clapped for his entertainment, but was never really taken with the act of physically clapping himself. Until Monday. With a handful of dinner he started to throw hand smackings together all over the place interspersed with the over excited bounce/jerk/exclamation of glee combo that he's perfected lately. Bless him.

Last week: a summary

Gosh it's been a week since my last post, and that was a hastily thrown together picture affair rather than a proper post. So. What have we been up to? Well...

Monday

Isaac & I do our food shopping together; he likes to check out new things so I let him explore stuff  from his perch in the trolley while we're going around the supermarket. Today he decided to sink his teeth into a red bell pepper before we got to the checkout! He looked at me as if to say "I know I probably shouldn't be doing this, but what the hey". Who am I to stop a mini-scientist? And besides. Isn't that the cutest little set of bite marks?

We discovered that Isaac is a BIG fan of cherries.

Nom nom nom

And also of eating bits of carpet fluff. Busted!

Tuesday

We went to a soft play with some NCT chums where Isaac had his first ride on a rocking horse! He loved it.

Wednesday

In the mornings after breakfast & while I'm doing the dishes, Isaac likes to drag himself around and discover new things. This morning he particularly enjoyed removing & replacing a cloth from the gap between the washing machine & the cupboard under the sink where we hang the tea towels. I now truly understand the saying "it's the little things".

Thursday

We were going to go swimming, but Isaac decided to sleep from 9.40am - 12.15pm! This meant there was no point us going (the pool we had planned to go to with a friend is about a 20 minute drive so by the time I'd have got him dressed, booby fed, in the car & there the session would've been over as the baby slot was from 12-1pm). So, no swimming last week. Plans? Forgeddabouddit.

Instead we went to clinic and got Isaac weighed. 17lbs 11oz! At this rate he's putting on 1lb a month which is pretty good going. He's still on the chart & doing what the piece of paper says he should. He sat up on the scales this time. I remember seeing other babies do that when I first started to take him to be weighed & I remember thinking "gosh look how grown up they are". Now our Little Man is growing up just like that, but he's still my baby boy...

Happy post-nap baberoo

Friday

Today was the start of the Just So Festival, but more about that in another post. Needless to say it was a totally insane rush to get everything ready & we didn't end up leaving until 3.15pm. Exactly what we didn't want to be doing. PLAN, ORGANISE & PACK THE NIGHT BEFORE NEXT YEAR! Before the craziness started, though, I managed to snap a shot of Isaac doing something he loves which is sharing his food. He really is a very generous child with his munch, despite putting a healthy sized portion away!

Observation

Since Tuesday Isaac's naps have become more regular. He sleeps for 2 hours twice a day with a good 4 hour chunk of day in between. This is great! We do more stuff during the day; he eats a small lunch  at 1 o'clock now instead of getting stroppy & chucking it about meaning he's full after tea and subsequently he goes to bed later (about 8pm) which means...*drum roll please* he sleeps through & gets up later!!! Between 7.30-8am. OH YEAH! I feel like that bit in The Matrix where Neo finally *sees* The Matrix. Lets see how long it lasts....!

There's nothing better...

...than mucking about with water!

Secret midnight snapshot

The Munchkin is so cute when he's sleeping, even in a travel cot away from home.

 

Evolution of eating

Isaac, it would seem, no longer wants to be fed with a spoon. He screws his face up and has a little fit. There is a single daily exception to this rule and that is breakfast. He simply cannot get enough of the tasty banana-wheat biscuit-hemp milk combo in his mouth fast enough any other way than if I feed it to him. I guess it's because he's gone without food for so long (i.e.: all night) and he's super hungry by morning time, even with a boob feed at about 5am.

This morning he wolfed down a WHOLE BOWL of the stuff without stopping to whinge once AND THEN ate a WHOLE PIECE OF TOAST too! It was cut into dinosaur shapes, but still. That's some good going for the Wiggler, who usually gets to 2 spoonfuls left & then quits. 

I tried, again, to feed him his lunch, to no avail. He screwed up his face, again. He threw a little fit, again. So. I left him with the bowl and the spoon & went to do the washing up. I look up to see a perfectly contented Little Man playing with spoon & food and later on even eating it!! I think he managed to eat most of it, but it's difficult to tell with vulture hound stalking the underside of his high chair, ready to pounce on any freshly discarded foodstuff. He was happy enough to eat this way and even managed to get some on the spoon and subsequently in his mouth! Excitement!

It looks like a total mess, but it's not. Believe me. This is relatively clean when compared with previous baby led weaning exercises. Anyway, I think he enjoyed himself! And the fact he looks a little like he has food stubble is too cute :-D

And he's off!

Isaac is officially on the move. He doesn't crawl yet. I like to think of it as a commando-style belly drag. He's pretty quick about it though! Or, you know in zombie movies when the zombie has lost its legs & it still drags itself towards you, desperate for a taste of human? A bit like that, but without the insatiable desire for brains and with a cheeky grin & some slobber.You can tell where he's been because he leaves mini piles of evidence. He's so happy while he does it! Constant babble as he Wiggles about.

He particularly likes pulling DVDs off the shelf & getting them out of their cases. It seems to be a standard baby tactic - "Right, I can move I shall beeline for the DVDs". Why is this? Also, Rinny's ball is not safe. At all these days. I have to put it away when he's around & on the move because between them they won't leave it alone! 

Anyway, he's very happy about being mobile and I'm sure crawling proper isn't too far off. Then walking...then running...then leaving home...

Blue Monday

Last week we had our first colour day. I've decided that it's a good idea to have colour days, maybe once a week, where Isaac wears the colour of the day and I point out things to him which are that colour. So anyhoo, last Monday was (of course) Blue Monday. 

He had a lovely time playing with the blue Mega Bloks in his blue t-shirt & blue jeans. We spotted lots of blue things on the way to the swimming pool, around town and on the way home. Even his swim nappy is...blue! How convenient!

I think this week our colour day will be tomorrow & might well have to be Orange Wednesday. *groan*

Fruity fruity!

Today Isaac had his first taste of nectarine. He used all 4 of his teeth to nash his way through it. He has 4 teeth now by the way; the top 2 came through just before the weekend and now he's onto his next lot. He puts his hand to his gum & grimaces...poor little mite. I don't envy him this pain at all.

Anyhoo, I think he liked the nectarine as he scoffed nearly the whole thing! :-D