One down

Hexagon, a photo by tatiacamilla on Flickr.

And a number between "some" and "many" to go.

Officially it's a quilt for Nicholas, born on Easter Sunday and so all of three months old. If he's lucky, he'll get it before he goes to university.

To keep it unified, I'm only using shwe shwe fabrics from here, and the vast majority will be plain blue. The plan, such as it is, is to keep making diamonds and sewing them into larger hexagons until I run out of fabric, then decide how bored I am and how big I want it to be. I may tessellate the hexagons with squares and triangles, I may not.

One hexagon takes an evening to sew (and a preceding evening tacking fabric onto papers, saying thank goodness for the invention of pre-cut papers). It's going to take a while.

Nicholas, by the way:

 He spends an awful lot of time smiling, and laughing, and cooing. It's strange and disconcerting having a happy baby.

Busy day

Going

Today we, all three and a half of us, went to the local Christmas Fair. Mostly to hear Chris and his choir singing various Christmas songs (I thought they sounded lovely, he's still muttering about wrong notes, but it was a last minute booking and they had very little rehearsal time). They looked very smart in the freezing cold church:
Libby spent the time alternating between running up and down the aisle, and some very complicated dancing with much flapping of mittens. She did say she liked their music at the end though.

And we bought some Christmas decorations from the Norwegians who come over every year:
Wooden, so although breakable if Libby get too enthusiastic about them, not as dangerous as the glass baubles (still banished from our tree). There were a lot of knitted baubles too, most of which I recognised from Arne and Carlos' book, which I think I may well get. Two of the patterns are in the newest edition of The Knitter (with a fair isle tunic on the front, not the one that has a jumper with a rose-patterned yoke). Not breakable at all, and very festive.

Reading

I seem to have reached the reader's block stage of pregnancy again, although rather later than last time. In a wintry mood, I have been skimming through Icelandic Sagas, in a rather lovely Penguin edition with an introduction by Jane Smiley. I have also joined the DoveGreyReader's Team Middlemarch, as I'd been meaning to re-read it for several years. Far less intimidating read in small chunks, as originally published, and I'd forgotten just how easy to read a Great Book can be.

Gratuitous Libby Picture

I was checking that the new camera cable actually fitted the appropriate sockets, and she said "Libby camera smile", and did. I am partial, I admit, but the camera really does love her. Two years and one month old.

Making Monday - and I make a blog post

It's been a while, and more than a while - seven months, in fact, and I can't make promises of amendment, say I'll be a regular blogger from now on, because all the various things that eat up my time are still there. Works is still there. The seventeen month old child is now a two year old, no less insane and even more energetic. And I've been busy making something else for the past 21 weeks:


Due somewhere in the general region of Easter, and one of the main reasons for my silence - it isn't the easiest of pregnancies. Nothing dangerous for either of us, just even more than the usual number of discomforts and inconveniences. I'm supposed to be in the blooming middle months now, but what with the never-ending sickness meeting the breathlessness of the last months, the only blooming I feel is blooming tired, and I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that women of five foot nothing probably shouldn't get pregnant.

There has been knitting too, of course. Various small things, various slightly larger things for a child who seems able to grow an inch in a week (she's 2'10" already, which is well over half my height). Mostly, however, I want to show off my Big Jumper. Way back in the spring, round about when I last managed to write a post for this neglected blog, I got hooked by The Killing on BBC4. Like half of Ravelry, I wanted a jumper like Sarah Lund's.

Only not quite the same, because although I frequently forget just how short I am, I didn't think three broad horizontal stripes would do much for me. So I trawled through hundreds of patterns, and finally came up with a free one from Drops that was cosy and Nordic and everything I wanted.

And promptly cast on the wrong size, because as well as thinking I'm taller than I am, I also think I'm bigger. I kept on knitting and hoping, and in the end it's worked out very well, because how else would I have fitted into it at five months pregnant?
Please excuse the expression, I'm trying to look serious and thoughtful and not at all as if I've forgotten both my NHS-issue support belt and my packet of paracetamol and the effort of standing up is beginning to catch up with me. It's a lovely big cosy jumper, I feel warm all over for the first time in a couple of months, and I may take up residence in it all winter.

Things we have been doing II

Waves, a photo by tatiacamilla on Flickr.

Discovering waves.

Things we have been doing I

DSC02181, a photo by tatiacamilla on Flickr.

Knitting a hat.

Ginger Fairings

A Cornish biscuit.

8 oz plain flour
4 oz margarine (really margarine. 99.9% of the time, butter is better for baking. This is the exception)
4 oz granulated sugar
4 oz golden syrup (2 tablespoons or thereabouts)
pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon mixed spice

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C/Gas Mark 6

EITHER sift together dry ingredients, rub in margarine, add syrup and mix together to form a smooth pliable paste

OR (what I do) bung everything into food processor and whizz until it forms a ball

By hand, roll into a long sausage. Cut off small sections and shape into balls (makes 32). Place on greased baking tray, leaving plenty of room for spreading. Bake on top shelf until golden (about 7 minutes), then on a lower shelf to drop and spread for 5 minutes. Cool on a wire rack (best left on baking sheet for a few minutes if possible - they're very fragile at first).

Nothing left to achieve...

Yes, she really is that big already.