Granny's favourite.

We managed to take some photo's of Rose wearing her new cardigan this afternoon. I had the cardigan blocking on the floor just outside of the back door and she kept going to check if it was dry yet or not, she'd been desperate to have it on to wear ever since she saw me pinning it out early this morning.

 

In the end she actually only wore in for 10 minutes before saying "Mummy, too hot!" I did warn her it was too warm today to be wearing a cardigan but she wouldn't listen.. she is a very stubborn little girl!

The pattern is available to buy here on Ravelry and the yarn I used was Rooster almerino dk in colour 213 (cherry). I bought the yarn when I was back in Dorset from Bridport Yarn which is a gorgeous shop. I originally planned to knit a jumper for Arthur with the yarn but then I realised the colour was much more suited to Rose and I had other idea's for items I wanted to knit for him anyway. It was Amazing to knit with, glided over my needles and is so super soft now it's knitted up.

 

I've really got my knitting mojo back now...  I can't believe that there were Months when I was pregnant with Arthur that I didn't knit a single stitch! All of that time that I wasted where I could have gotten lovely things made.. ahh well, I must have felt Really tired if it meant that I couldn't face my knitting needles!

xxx

Yarn and a summer salad

I've been hurrying along on a couple of my current knitting WIP's, as I desperately want to join in with Sarah's knitalong over at craftsfromthecwtch but I cannot have So many things on the go. I find I actually start to feel stressed over the amount of unfinished projects I have half-knitted, which is silly really as it's supposed to just be a very enjoyable hobby!

I've chosen and printed out the pattern for the Cloud Illusions shawl which looks so beautiful... hopefully I can manage all of that lace! The yarn that I've chosen to use is a 100g skein from The Yarn Gallery which I hope will look good with that pattern. 

I finished Rose's cardigan this morning before 7am, as all of the little people in the house decided to be awake nice and early! It was good to get it washed and and blocked out at that time though because it meant it has dried very quickly in the sunshine today! I will take some photo's and put them in a post soon for you to see.

I'm still trying hard with the healthy eating... it's been hard on a couple of days when we have been visiting family and things. It's always easier for me to eat the right things when I'm at home and have the option of something healthy. 

xxx

Heatwave!

We've had the most wonderful day here today. This morning Ray went for a bike ride with Rose in her bike seat down to the canal where they fed the ducks and watched the boats going up and down the canal. He sent me a video of Rose watching a boat going by whilst they were calling over 'Good morning!' and she looked completely fascinated by it all. It also meant that I had a good hour where the house was a little quieter with just Arthur and I in. Fortunately I managed to get him down for his morning nap quite quickly which meant that after getting dressed, I actually had a little luxury Saturday morning knitting time! Always a bonus!

We went down to a Fun day fair thing that was happening just out of Chichester but returned pretty quickly as it was heaving with people and Rose, who would have enjoyed it much more than us was actually sleeping in the buggy. So after a quick wander around, we returned home (stopping off at the shop for a few picnic goodies) and got everything together to head down to a really beautiful gardens that is a short walk from our house. Unfortunately there was a huge gust of wind through the house as we were about to head out the door and our hallway door slammed on a couple of Rose's fingers. The look on her face was just awful, it must have been so so painful. Luckily there wasn't too much damage and she's just scraped a little skin from above her fingernails on two fingers. But this meant that the walk round to the gardens was a bit stressful with me pulling Rose along on her scooter while she wailed away to herself. No amount of cuddles seemed to make her feel any better, so I ended up singing a Very long version of 'Old MacDonald' to her which she just couldn't resist telling me which animals to sing about next, it didn't stop her crying but we had a little pause between the wails at least!

I'd actually choose to have a simple afternoon in a park any day over a big busy event like the one we went to first of all. It was so lovely to spent some quality time together, just us. Rose was soon distracted from her sore fingers by running around the gardens chasing her ball with either myself or Ray (a little chocolate cake may have also helped here!). It was also peaceful enough that Arthur had a huge nap in the buggy and woke up a very happy chap. I could sit and knit a few rows of Rose's cardigan and have some lovely conversations with Ray.

Apparently the weather is supposed to be beautiful and even warmer tomorrow, so I plan to spend most of my time outdoors if possible!

xxx

How 7 months has flown by...

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Arthur is already 7 months old and I can't quite believe how quickly it has all gone, Rose's first year seemed to go by quite slowly looking back but with Arthur is feels like only yesterday that I gave birth to him. He's a very chunky boy now and sometimes I almost forget about what a tiny poorly baby he was, back when he was only a couple of weeks old. He's very laid-back compared to what Rose was when it comes to rolling...sitting...crawling... he's quite happy to just, lay there really! Rose will roll him onto his front and he's happy as anything giggling away with her but he hasn't quite managed to go over by himself yet. Rose goes and gives him a toy when he's upset, so I think he knows he can get away with being a bit lazy!

I seem to have finally found some motivation now when it comes to trying to lose my baby-weight. According to the scales I've lost a couple of pounds this week which is a good start, I just need to stay away from those sweet treats! I don't have a huge amount to lose... but it's so frustrating not being able to wear any of the nicer clothes in my wardrobe that I feel like putting on. I already have a limited choice of what I can wear due to breastfeeding, so it would be nice to be able to wear a few different things that I've not worn since before I was pregnant with Arthur.

The garden has gone completely wild. Everything seems to have doubled in size within the space of a couple weeks and I'm so behind on keeping on top of it all. I find it a really hard thing to get done at the moment, Rose is okay playing with me out in the garden but as we have a courtyard garden, there isn't a soft lawn to be able to lay Arthur down on and if I pop him in the Bumbo seat, he always seems to be able to reach over and grab things that I don't particularly want him putting in his mouth. My Nan is coming to stay for a few day's nearer the end of the month and she always helps me out a Lot in the garden, so I'm really looking forward to getting a bit of advice from her and finding out how to control the huge giant plants that have grown out there.

I've cast on Another knitting project... (I know, so unlike me!) and it's the Granny's Favourite cardigan from Ravelry. It's a lovely pattern, now that I've got the hang of the pattern. There is a LOT of writing to get your head around and with the huge range of sizing options, it can get a little confusing as to which numbers to actually concentrate on. I'm sure it doesn't need to be a whole Ten pages long...

A heatwave has been predicted in this part of the world over the next week, which would be a Very nice contrast to the wet weather we've had for most of the last few months. Hopefully we'll get down the beach again while the weather is nice, as Rose absolutely adores it down there... the sand does just get Everywhere though! 

xxx

I do love little newborn handknits...

I had all of these photo's uploaded already in a draft post but I had completely forgotten that I still hadn't posted them on here. These are the little knitted things I made for one of my very good friend's who had her third baby around 6 weeks ago. 

Due to some tricky complications she had him 3 weeks earlier than was expected so I never actually got a chance to block them! The cardigan luckily was looking okay-ish without being blocked, so that was a big relief! It was all finished very last-minute. It's all been worn lots by her sweet little boy though, so I'm so glad I rushed to get it all done in time.

The cardigan is the Puerperium cardigan which is a brilliant free pattern on Ravelry.

I bought the buttons from The Eternal Maker which I'm lucky to have just down the road from me. My friend didn't know the sex of the baby, so I wanted to go for something quite natural and neutral looking.

The booties were knit from this pattern and are super quick and simple. I made a pair for Arthur out of an Aran weight yarn which he wore a Lot.

The little hat is knit from a pattern by Ginny at one of my favourite blogs Small Things. 

Here is the link to the pattern on Ravelry, it's a lovely sweet little knit.

Isn't he just the sweetest little boy!? He was so small that even though the hat was tiny, it was still a little baggy on his tiny little head! 

xxxx

Back to blogging about the little things.

I'm going to try and blog more often so that I have a record of some of the normal every day thing's we get up to. I love looking back through my blog from when Rose was a lot younger and some of the special day's out we had. We've had plenty of day's like that recently but I just haven't even thought to record them. I think you look at the little things in a totally different way when you are going to blog about them. You take photo's of the small details that would easily be forgotten about if they weren't recorded on a blog. I'm hoping this will motivate me to use my camera more. I use it so little these day's just because of the fact I usually have my phone so close to hand when I want to take a photo and so I usually end up taking most photo's on my phone. The camera on my phone is pretty good but I don't think the photo's would be of high enough quality if I wanted to get them blown up as printed photographs though...

We recently went back to stay in Dorset with my Grandparents for a few day's because it was my Great-grandad's 90th birthday and we were all having a big meal out to celebrate. I had such a lovely time being back there, I can't wait until we're living a little bit closer so that it's possible to just pop over for the day with the kids.

Rose and Arthur surprised me and were actually really well behaved for the meal. I had mentally prepared myself for the worst and thought it would be a bit of nightmare keeping them occupied and happy for the whole evening but we were relieved that they didn't play up at all!

I've been trying to use up some of my left-over scraps in my wool stash, just to have my Tiny craft corner a little more organised... I decided I wanted to knit a hat  to go with Arthur's Rocky blanket using up the wool that I hadn't needed to use up for the blanket. I used this pattern on Ravelry to get the right about of cast-on stitches for the 12 month size and then sort of made it up for the rest of the hat. It's the perfect way to use of the left-over little balls of wool and I love the scrappy look it has to it. Rowan pure wool is such a lovely yarn to knit with, not at all splitty and so soft.

Here's Arthur in the finished hat. It's supposed to be the 12 month size, so Arthur either has a very large head of the hat is a little smaller than planned. It's got plenty of stretch to it though so I think it will last him for a good while anyway...

I also knitted up this sweet little hat using some green Debbie Bliss Cashmerino aran that I had left over, it's wonderfully soft. He can either have the brim folded up like this or it looks really cute as a slouchy beany, maybe he'll wear it that way when he's a little bigger. I'd like to knit a hat for Rose now, for the winter... but at this rate she'll need a hat very soon as the weather isn't exactly sunny and warm!!

Right, well have to go now... the kids are needing my attention. Especially Arthur right now! I'll be back soon to show you a couple more things I've made.

xxxx