Time travel

This is Noor in her latest fashion. Leggings and short skirt, oh and not to forget the ankle bracelet.
I must admit I have been there and done that. How old will she be when leggings make another comeback?

Noor is going on a school trip to Kentwell. All the children and teachers will have to dress up as Tudors.
Last weekend we went out and bought the cloth. Now over the last three days I have been busy with the sewing machine. So far I have made the smock, kirtle (skirt), apron and the coif. The bodice has been cut and is waiting to be sewn up. Noor loves her outfit. They will sew a little purse in school and it will then be hung off her apron.
The coif I made is a bit on the small side, I had no pattern and had no idea how to size it. But it will stay in place with some hair pins.
All this sewing meant I only knitted a few rows.
The weather was ideal to stay home and do stuff, it rained all day Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday. All that rain resulted in two leaks from our new loft into two upstairs rooms. Having buckets standing around to catch the rain really put us back in time.
It will all be fixed soon.

Too tired....

... to knit. The last week has flown by, but I feel very tired. I don't sleep very well at night.
Daytime naps are almost impossible with all the work going on.
I have been knitting but I feel I have not made much progress. The blanket seems to have epic long rows. It now measures 70 x 100 cm (28 x 39"). I still feel it should be a bit bigger. Maybe 80 x 120cm which would be about the size of a cot bed.
Yesterday I knitted the border on the baby bolero. I did it all in one big circle. Rather than in two like the pattern said. Once I had done the last cast off, I thought I had finished the bolero. Then I noticed I forgot the cuffs. How could I forget the cuffs?

8 more weeks

The End is getting nearer or is it the beginning?
Can't wait to meet our new baby. Noor asks me every day, how much longer?
She is looking forward to meet her baby sister.
In the meantime there are a few projects I want to get out of the way.
One of them is the blanket. I finished the long dark pink strip on Saturday. Then came the big debate, to finish or to carry on.
The next colour would be cream. I first was going to knit a cream border all around it. But looking at its size, I thought a little bit bigger would be nice and she (baby) would get more use of the blankie in years to come.
Yesterday I took another trip to my local yarn store and bought three more balls of Rowan Calmer. I'll decide again after I finished with the three more blocks.

Sunday I did not knit anything. But Monday morning I thought about the other project I wanted to knit before baby arrives.
It is the baby shrug the second. This time I am knitting size 12 - 18 months. The shrug is for my niece who is now nearly 6 months old. The one I knitted previously is for my other niece, she is nearly 2 months old.
Then there is only one left to knit for our own baby in size 3 - 6 months. Hopefully all three girls will be able to wear their shrugs around the same time.
Perry is usually a busy cat, he just is lazy when he is at home. I sort of managed to capture him leaping out of 'his' tree. He went up the tree after a Magpie. The Magpie was faster!
Now Perry is back at home and resting. Of course in his pram.

Learning new things

Knitting is something that I learned in school. Whee I grew up all the girls started their handiwork lessons in the second year of primary school. We learned knitting, crochet, sewing and a few other things.
I remember knitting a pair of red mittens, but we never covered sock knitting.
I only got interested in sock knitting after I started reading about it on the Internet.
I got myself a few German sock magazines and I knitted my first pair of socks using those instructions.

Last year I bought myself some Regia Silk and their booklet. In there are instructions for what they call the Boomerang Heel. I have knitted the last three or four pairs using this technique. I Have now reached a stage were I am happy with the result. Maybe I'll try toe up socks next.
Sometimes after knitting intensively for a few days, like I did with the Daydream cardigan I feel a bit knitted out. Knitting one row on the blankie seems to take forever.
The socks have been living in my handbag, but I prefer to knit the heel at home in peace and quiet.
Which has been lacking here since a week now! Builders have started work on our loft. So far, they are shut away in the loft without having to go through the rest of the house.
Perry is finding it really hard, he has had to move back to the pram, but now he lies in the foot end. Who can understand cats?

Daydream the third

This is my third finished Daydream. I knitted the first one with left over Jaeger Aqua, the second with Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino and now the third one with Debbie Bliss Cathay.
I am happy to have knit the third one for my own baby.
I cast on on Tuesday and finished Friday evening.
It was a great knit, with lots of different features to keep it interesting.
I love the little lace border, the ribbon row and the eyelet raglan sleeves.
I finished the cardigan some time yesterday afternoon but I did not have the ribbon or buttons. Luckily Perry the cat was booked for his yearly check-up.
The vet is next door to our local yarn shop! I left Noor and Perry in the waiting room and dashed next door for ribbon and buttons. Of course I had not told Noor that we left a bit early for the vet! Perry by the way is healthy and well. He celebrated by bringing a mouse home at 3am, there was my pregnant self running after a little mouse with a cardboard box at 3am.
No problem, I caught it and put it outside, I don't know for how long Perry searched the house afterwards.
One lucky mouse that lived to tell the tale.

Spa day

Yesterday was the mark of 30 weeks pregnant.
I had been given a voucher for a spa day. I finally managed to go. It took a lot of organising. Not me, but Noor with school and after school activities.
The Sanctuary spa is amazing. I had pre booked a facial and a soothing foot treatment.
Every guest at the spa is given a bathrobe to wear. It is funny seeing everybody dressed the same.
I had a really great time. The treatments were fantastic.
Of course I needed some knitting to take with me. A day of relaxing also means time to knit.
But what to take? The blanket is to heavy, the intarsia jacket to much and the socks, well they and the jacket felt to woolen.
A trip to the local yarn shop was in order for Tuesday. I had made my choice of pattern. The lovely Daydream from the Rowan Babies book.
The pattern uses Rowan Cotton Glace. But our LYS did not have any in white or cream. Instead I bought three balls of Debbie Bliss Cathay in nearly white.
I love the way it knits up and how soft it feels. I knitted up the back and the border whilst at the spa. Not bad for a day spent relaxing.
The antibiotics are working and I feel a lot better as well.
Finally there are only 10 more weeks to go.