Overheard...

Adam: Ruth, what’s your favourite colour?
Ruth (very emphatically): Chicken.

A letter to the World Heath Organisation

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to ask what (if any) promotion of breastfeeding is directed at
the medical profession.

Whereas in my experience midwives and health visitors have been excellent at
supporting and encouraging my choice to breastfeed, my experience (and that
of others) has been very different when in contact with doctors.

I tore badly when delivering my second child, and as a result had a
consultant check-up at 6 weeks post-partum. At this point she was horrified
to hear that I had not yet recommenced menstruating, and was surprised to
hear that I was breastfeeding.

When my daughter was 15 months old I developed mastitis. Both the emergency
GP I saw initially, and my own GP who followed up, put considerable pressure
on me to stop breastfeeding at that point.

A friend also developed mastitis when her daughter was over one. It was
suggested by her GP that she was still breastfeeding “for kicks”.

Another friend has been accused of “over-breastfeeding” by a consultant – her baby is 7 months old.

These negative attitudes do considerable damage. Although we are all
sufficiently convinced that we are taking/took sensible courses of action to
maintain our breastfeeding until we are/were ready to stop, it is very
undermining to have medical professionals directly contradicting WHO advice.

Clearly there may be situations where the hazards of breastfeeding outweigh
the benefits, in which case it may be appropriate for alternative feeding
methods to be used. However it is not acceptable for mothers to be made to
feel that they are behaving wrongly in following WHO guidelines.

Can anything be done to educate such doctors?

Thank you,

Anne Pettigrew

OK – Mary’s already given me a couple of tales of the idiocy of others when it comes to b/feeding – go on, add any others you may have to the comments…

How much is your blog worth?

Well, apparently John’s blog is worth $14,678.04.

However:

HAH!

Tams and bedtime prayers...

First the easy bit – the tam. Kate asked if it was a hat – well, yes, tams usually are hats (so far as I know – that’s the only other way I’ve heard the word used) and I guess that this is derived from that as the construction is similar, with the mitred increases. I’ve done more:
(and look at me using Magic Loop [that’s the loop of the circular needle you can see sticking out – it means that I can use this needle even though it’s too long really] and everything – just after I’d described my total and utter incompetence with it to Daisy – but when I reached 252 stitches in a round, it was kind of time to take it off the dpns [double pointed needles] before it fell off, especially since it gains 24 stitches every 3 rounds… ). Once it’s about 26 cm across I’ll stop going round and round and start doing cuffs, buttonbands and the suchlike.

Now the tricky bit. Ruth asked what approach is appropriate with small children in Sunday School – especially in the following scenario:

If a child asks me “did Jesus really die and come back to life?” should I reply:
a) yes, or
b) that’s what we believe as Christians, or
c) neither of the above (!)

And now I’m going to totally fail to answer the question while I witter on about the aspects of this that I’m currently working through.
It’s times like this that I feel that being a signed-up evangelical would be a lot easier. I’m not meaning to denigrate evangelicals there, but I know the “right” answers largely from having attended an evangelical church at one point, however I don’t always feel entirely honest using the “right” answers.

I recently referred to not being happy about how bedtime prayers are going with Adam at the moment. I started doing these with him after Greenbelt last year (August bank holiday w/e.) We started by following the ACTS acronym (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication) – and for a while it worked really well, but then he started dragging them out, and messing around, so I introduced him the the Lord’s Prayer – not least so he would be able to join in in church (which he now does, and it’s lovely). I explained it to him, a phrase at a time, making up stories to illustrate it, and he would make up stories for me. And again, for a while it worked really well – although he much prefers to have his “trespasses” forgiven rather than his “sins”. Most recently we’ve been taking a page a night of a book he was given for his birthday. (I can’t remember the title, but it gives a brief simplified Bible passage followed by a briefer prayer.) And I’m really struggling with this. In large part this is because it goes straight for the aspects of faith that make me want to run away screaming anyway. (I was going to say “struggle with”, but “run away screaming” is more accurate.) For example the other night the passage was on evangelism. It’s written as God/Jesus writing to the reader which is difficult enough when reading it aloud (do I change the voice, do I not?) and of course it takes the line “Go and tell everyone about me – don’t be ashamed to tell everyone about me.” And the prayer that followed was something along the lines of “Please help me to tell everyone about you.” Oh. Ah. Um… I’m not particularly thrilled by the idea of Adam running into nursery and telling Haleema and Abdullah that Jesus is God. I mean, yes, I do believe he is, but I have absolutely no wish to be offensive to those of other faiths. So I told him not to talk to everyone about Jesus, just those who ask him about him.

Back to Ruth’s question. With Adam we did pretty much go for a). He first met the Easter story the Christmas before he turned 3 in Feb. We went to an RC church with friends (we attend the local Anglican parish church these days) as we were staying with my parents who are Quakers, and although I would happily go to Meeting, it’s not a sensible environment for a lively little boy who isn’t used to it. We were sitting quite near to the end of the sequence of stations of the cross, and Adam was fascinated by the soldiers. So after the service we took him round and showed him the whole story (yeah, I know “Happy Christmas – oh, by the way kid, the baby dies” ) In that context he desperately needed the happy ending, so we gave it to him straight. But I’m happier telling him stories than conveying facts.

I hope we will bring them both up with the confidence to question their faith. I’m not entirely sure what I believe – Scott Adams (yes, the Dilbert one) has been asking questions about what people believe – and yes, of course, he’s largely trying to stir people up, but some of the questions have made me think. I know that the way I try to live my life would make little sense if I didn’t believe in God, but the way that I see some people creating God in the image they like scares me, although I’m pretty sure that I do exactly the same, except that the image I like is different to theirs.

And changing the subject completely – scroll down and look at my egg – it’s rocking! Does this mean it’s going to hatch?

Bah

Well, the tam jacket is growing, but slower than it might as I’ve now caught Ruth’s bug. (I guess there’s a kind of symmetry there – a month ago I had it first and gave it to her, this time she had it first and gave it to me… ) Still, I’m fed up with it – I know I wanted to lose weight, but this is not the way. (I’ve lost about 5 lb in the last month – and that’s not including that bit I expect to go straight back on when I start eating again … )

I’ll post some pics of the tam when I’m feeling a bit more with it. (I know I’m doing it right, and so far it’s easy – just doing mitred double increases at 6 equally spaced points on 2 out of every 3 rounds – but I keep getting my brain tied in knots when I try to work out what comes next. Never mind, I’ll get it.)

Sometimes you really have to wonder...

Read here

Kind of answers in the affirmative the question “If [so and so] told you to go and jump in the lake, would you?”, that we were always asked in school if we gave the excuse ”[so and so] told me to” for doing something stupid.

Sockapalooozas finished

And here they are, being “modelled” by Ruth:
– pattern: based on Crusoe , but with lots more stitches, and short-row heels and toes; yarn: Opal Haggebutte; needles: 2.5mm dpns
These are definitely Jekyll and Hyde socks – beautiful and vibrant in daylight, dull and boring in artificial light.

So I’ve started on the tam jacket for my friend’s baby that’s due any-day-now…
– it’s not bottom-up, it’s not top-down, it’s armpit-out…
Watch this space for further developments.

Kentwell Hall

This post will be light on words, and heavy on photos (it’s a promise!)

We went to Kentwell Hall today. We can highly recommend it – especially if you can get there on a day when the Tudor reenactments are on. For an hour’s drive each way, and £10.50 entrance fee for each adult (under 5 s are free) we got to see:
Lots of sheep:
(see the big house in the background, we looked around that too – there was cooking in the kitchen, polishing in the [room next to the kitchen], cheesemaking in the dairy, pomander -making in the solar, embroidery in [the room next to the solar], a fantastic camera obscura, an alchemists’ hut, complete with alchemists more than happy to explain how to convert base metal to gold (two possible answers – 1) Sell it, 2) ... “it’s very simple but you need to bring down the heat of the sun…” etc… ) )
more sheep:
– these were teeny-tiny newborns in the lambing shed. We did see one mother-to-be panting rather heavily, but we didn’t see any arriving.
goats and cows:

more pigs:
(Tamworths – beautiful pigs – if I were to ever consent to John keeping pigs in the back garden they would have to be Tamworths, but I won’t, so it’s kind of a moot point really.)
More goats:
– apparently these goats are purely of historical interest, they provide neither good meat nor good fibre.
More cows:
– longhorns – with (to my eyes) very oddly shaped horns – they look as though they’ll grow round and poke the cow’s eye out…
A thatched hovel:
– I loved this – I think because it was the bit that reminded me most of Maihaugen – the wonderful Folkemuseet near Lillehammer that I visited when I did 3 weeks working at an asylum-seeker centre. (Most people do this sort of thing in their late teens/early twenties – I was 32 – I’m a late developer!)
Black hens with very feathery legs (click on the pic – then you’ll see what I mean):

And I’m keeping the best ‘til last:

– upstairs, above various horse-drawn vehicles, the weaving shed – there was a loom with a warp on it (I was proudly able to talk Adam through it), some huge spinning wheels (I told him “Yes, they’re spinning wheels” – sadly that’s as far as my knowledge there went) and these beautiful skeins of what I presume must be hand-dyed wool using natural dyes. Unfortunately there were no Tudors there to ask, but aren’t they gorgeous colours!

We did have a fantastic day – which is just as well since we’re not a well family – Adam’s tooth is hurting again, and on inspection, he now has a large lump on his gum – I’m guessing an abcess So it’s an emergency dental appointment for him tomorrow morning. Ruth still has her stomach upset – we thought she was better as she was so much chirpier, and her colour was much better, but this evening’s nappy… So it’s a doctor’s appointment for her tomorrow. My period has finally arrived (remember I’ve been complaining about hormones for about a fortnight… – but in the middle of my hormone-induced haze I’ve lost my mooncup – oh the irony!)

Oh knitting – yes, I’ve done some – I’ve only got about 10 rows of the toe left – pics when it’s finished.

*Update: I had to frog the toe last night – somehow I’d ended up with 1 dormant stitch on one side, and 3 on the other… *

And if you run out of people to knit for...

... you can always knit a sweater for a tree ...

Daisy's got one...

... so I want one too:

Watch and see what surprise I get in my egg! (Thanks for the tip Daisy )

Mugging the postman postmen

Yup, that’s right – not just one, but two postmen were needed to deliver all my goodies today.

This is the state of the bed by the time I’d finished unwrapping everything:

First of all John and I got to lie in until about 9:45 – yup, that’s right, we have two small children, and we didn’t have to get up until nearly 10. Sadly this is because Little Girl is still poorly – she’s not been sick again, but she’s listless and cold. Still, she’s had a banana for lunch, without any untoward effects (yet!)

Enough of the poorliness, and back to the postmen…

First there was a thud from somewhere. To start with I was worried that Ruth had fallen out of bed, but there was no accompanying wail, so I went downstairs to investigate, and there were two parcels sitting on the frontdoor mat. One for me and one for me and Ruth:

Parcel for me:

It’s a beautiful pincushion with sewing thread cunningly attached round the edges – thank you so much Marji (Btw, there’s something you should all know about me – I’m greedy – if you post on your blog that you have stuff to give away, then you can be pretty sure that there’ll be a little message arriving from me saying something along the lines of “Can I have one? Can I? Can I? Huh? Huh? Perleeeeeeeease?) Marji – this is way above what I was expecting (not that I had formed any idea of what to expect, but this far exceeds it anyway!)

Parcel for me and Ruth:

This is from Annie – a friend whom I promised to knit I do in black bamboo – I haven’t even started it yet, but she’s already given me a thank-you gift in return. To be fair, I couldn’t have started it as she’s only just sent me her arm-measurements – that’s my excuse, and nothing you can say will persuade me to take it back. And there was a lovely birthday card for Ruth, and the little bag contained:

– a very pretty pair of blue hair clips, with a matching bracelet. She’s not really up to expressing much enthusiasm for anything today, but she does love her new “set” (I think she means bracelet!)

... then …
Someone rang the doorbell, and banged on the door too for good measure – I ran downstairs in my pjs to find the second postman with a big box full of lovely lovely goodies:

Renata thank you soooooooooooooooooooooooooo much – there are so many goodies in here – clockwise from the front – Knit Picks Sock Garden sock yarn in Pansy (I’ve been lusting after some Knit Picks Sock Garden, but they don’t ship to the UK, so this was inspired – thank you so much); some sachets of Tazo tea – yum, yum, yum; a little bag full of Burt’s Bees samples – I love Burt’s Bees, but so far I’ve only tried the cuticle butter, so this means I’ve got so many more little bits to experiment with; some Red Heart in white and red – my very own Red Heart – apparently the red doesn’t have any ball bands as she had to fight a little old lady to get it – (this brings wonderful images to mind!); some Playmobil toys for Adam and Ruth (you can only see the horse and rider here – Adam had already scarpered with the farmer and his dogs before I could take the pics – they played a large part in getting us our lie-in this morning ); a lovely card with a thoughtful message and a beautiful blue and yellow glass broach. Now all I need is a little self-control before I launch into something with the Sock Garden – I can be strong, I can be strong…

Oh, and Renata – I didn’t have a clue who you were – I had worked out that Anastasia Beaverhousen was probably a pseudonym… Thank you again for all the goodies.

Poorly girl again.

I need to keep this brief as it’s bedtime really.

This morning we went to the children’s Good Friday service at our church. – it was excellent – we went on a journey round different parts of the church with a different part of the story and an activity at each location – activities ranging from making hot cross buns (which were baked and ready by the end of the service) to making crosses from a variety of different materials, putting greenery in oasis , etc etc. The most dramatic moment was when we all gathered in the chancel for the laying in the tomb (a white cloth was laid under the bare altar table). Everyone was standing, informally arranged, in everyday clothes. Last year’s Easter Candle that we had taken with us on our journey round the church, representing Jesus, was extinguished, and smoke curled upwards. The visual effect was amazing – I so wish I could paint in oils. (I wish I could paint… ) The combination of the composition, which was reminiscent of an Old Master, with the modern-day clothing, and the expressions on peoples faces as they took in the story – familiar, but always with something new … – I hope I can at least keep it in my memory.

Then this afternoon Little Girl got all “peely-wally” (no idea how to spell that – it’s a Scottish term meaning pale and unwell – at least, that’s what I take it to mean). She didn’t have much lunch, she did sleep for an hour (very unusual) and then later vomited on the sofa. She was sooooooo good. John bathed her straight away, and we only offered her dry bread, ricecake and water for dinner – she wasn’t impressed “No Daddy, Me no yike it toast” – and she sat on her chair at the table (we’d offered her the option of watching Balamory, but she wanted to sit “up table” ) and gave us the silent treatment with her little white face resting on the table as she examined her fingers on her lap.

John took her up and got her ready for bed straight after dinner, to which she consented on the grounds that I would sit with her. I never sit with her usually – she settles herself to sleep much better on her own – unlike Adam with whom it took several months to gradually ease ourselves out of his room (yup, that’s right – every night took several months – it certainly felt that way sometimes – no, each bedtime we started closer and closer to the door, until the one on duty simply sat reading on the landing breathing heavily so he knew we were there… ) But tonight she wanted Mummy – and I loved every minute of it. I sat on the floor next to her for a while, trying not to catch her eyes as they gradually closed, then I moved onto the armchair and read while she gently drifted right off. She did wake up and try to chat at one point, but I told her that if she was going to chat I’d have to leave, so she scrunched her eyes closed again and tried to go to sleep. Eventually she was right off, so I tip-toed out, in time to do Adam’s final story, bedtime prayers (need to rethink that one, what we’re doing at the moment isn’t entirely working) and bedtime song.

Knitting news:
I’ve done some – the heel is turned on the second Sockapaloooza sock, and I’ve started on the foot (why does the foot always take an eternity compared to the leg?)

This time it’s my husband quietly breathing down my neck waiting for the computer, and as I said, it is bedtime – I’m off!

Imaginary Friends

Most of my posts are at least vaguely knitting-related, as this is basically a knitting blog, but every now and then I like to think about other things. This evening in the shower I was thinking about the online community and the contacts I’ve made through it. I know people who refer to their “Imaginary Friends”, but is it more than that? I am/have been part of a number of different online communities – an email list for Greenbelters , a bulletin board on BabyCentre and now the less well-defined knit-blog community. With all of these there have been people I have encountered who I click with, and others I don’t so much. There are people I have met in the flesh, and others I haven’t. These can all work well, and be very cosy places to visit, but are the interactions we have with others in cyberspace real, unreal or just different. Certainly there are big differences between the way we interact with people we meet in the real world – not least, we get to see/hear what they look like. For example I read everyone’s blog with an English accent, because I have an English accent. (Although bizarrely whenever I fantasize about podcasting – and let’s face it, haven’t we all? (What? No? It’s just me then – yeah, yeah – and you’re going to say that you don’t sniff yarn either aren’t you?) – when I fantasize about podcasting, I do so with an American accent – probably because the main two I’ve listened to are Brenda Dayne’s Cast on and Pixie Purls (Aaaarrrggghhh – just realised that I’ve missed two of them – now downloading!) – and they both have really cool American accents.

I think the big thing about the online community is the ability to switch it off when we’re not in the mood. This means that we are free to present ourselves in our best light. This isn’t a bad thing, it isn’t a consciously devious thing – it’s what we always do when we meet new people, but here in cyberspace we can do so without people noticing. (If you’re bored senseless go and find someone else’s blog to read – it’s fine, I won’t know.)

The point where the problems start is where the problems start. I’ve been lucky – (and I’d like to stay that way ) – probably because I don’t have that much traffic on here, and I don’t think I’m that controversial really, and I’ve not been flamed in any of my comments, but I’ve seen blogs where people have been majorly flamed. And as for bulletin boards! OK, so Babycentre is an interesting one – the only real thing that people have in common on the board I frequent is that we all had babies in approximately the same month (give or take early arrivals and overdue ones). When at the stage where being pregnant or having a tiny baby is all-consuming that works really well. It’s very reassuring to know that there are other women out there going through the same experiences, some of them quite disgusting, and certainly not suitable material for conversation with normal people. But we all have very different backgrounds, and occasionally someone will take offense at a comment someone else has made. (In fact this is very rare on the board I frequent – there are others where flare-ups seem to be much more common.) This sort of situation could probably be dealt with much more easily in person, but in cyberspace, with the time-lags and the lack of body language, these can mushroom out of control – everyone seems to feel that the matter should be allowed to drop, but that they’ll just have their little say… and so it goes on. And as for trolls – DON’T FEED THE TROLL!

So are they real friendships? Yes, I think they are. They are different, but no less valuable. There is a danger of projecting – imagining attributes that we would like cyber-friends to have, but then that danger exists with other friends too. I think the biggest danger is that of revealing too much. It feels very personal sitting here in the gathering gloom on my own in the front room. I could confess all sorts of things, but actually I’m publishing this to the outside world. There will probably be people reading this whom I’ve never had any contact with before. (Wishful thinking – everyone has probably taken the advice at the end of paragraph 2 by now!) Even worse – there will be people I know reading this! (That’s much scarier.) So, on the whole, I will pick and chose my confessions – my house is untidy – yeah, well, you all know that already. What I really think about Whats-her-face… – no, I’ll keep that one to myself thank you.

Enough navel-gazing.

I took Adam into town today to buy a maths text book for my tutee. (I tutor one evening a week – two evenings during the holidays – it’s quite fun, and makes some useful money.) We went to Starbucks for a coffee. Starbucks = evil, or Starbucks = good? – I know the whole globalisation, putting small coffeeshops out of business thing is evil, but, but, but… – I believe their employment practices are pretty good, they serve FairTrade coffee, the sofas are lovely and cosy AND they serve gluten-free wheat-free cake – what’s more they don’t make a big song and dance about it, it’s just the normal chocolate and orange cake that they have out on the counter. I can be normal (Except that I ordered an Americano with a half-shot of coffee – so not so normal after all – ah well… )

Knitting!

I’ve been doing some – honest.

Well to be entirely honest, I’ve been getting absurdly stressed over a particular item of knitting, and behaving very oddly about it – and inveigling others to behave oddly too – although strangely enough no-one pointed and stared when Liz, Ruth and I were lying on our backs kicking our feet in the air outside Kings College Chapel. But that’s more than enough about that.

I’ve just woken up to a few responsibilities – Alison pointed out a couple of days ago that there are ONLY THREE WEEKS LEFT of Sockapalooza – less for us European types with American recipients (not giving a huge amount away there ) So, some serious sock knitting has taken place:

I took it with me to the Cambridge K2Tog (I think that’s what it’s called – don’t shoot me!) on Tuesday evening. I’m enjoying these evenings more and more. They’re a lovely bunch of people (although I was rubbish at finding out names – must make more effort next time).

And the friend for whose baby I’m intending to knit a tam jacket is due in 3 weeks (which means we’re in any-day-now territory, and it’s mean of me to hope that it’s another 5 weeks, especially as she’s been feeling so ill the whole time .

And I want to knit a silk scarf for my cousin whose birthday was in March, but whose party is at the end of May.

So why have I been spending so much time on this:
?
... because I’m bad and have absolutely no self-discipline whatsoever. That’s why. (Still loving that Karaoke yarn.)

It’s been a social whirl here this week. On Tuesday Ruth’s godmother came to visit for the morning/lunch (past experience says that it all works if they’re here for the morning – we haven’t experimented with letting them play when they’re tired and crotchety, and we don’t intend to try just yet!). It was lovely to see her. That sounds really lame – it was wonderful – we’ve known each other about half a lifetime, and although we’ve drifted in and out of contact there’s so much of each others pasts that we get, because we were there – I’m still thrilled that we both have children of about the same ages – and that the children get on well. Adam was soooooo excited about them coming.

Then yesterday another college friend came with her husband and 3 boys – aged 12, 10 and 4. The 4 year old posed no problems – I’ve got one of those, a sociable one who will play with pretty much anyone once he’s had the time to recover from a shyness fit. But 12 and 10? We don’t really do that here – I don’t think they watch CBeebies, or play with Happyland stuff. But they sat and chatted politely for half an hour or so, and then retreated to their Nintendo DSs. AND THEY LIKED MY COOKING Sorry to shout, but the highlight of the visit for me was when they polished off my roasties. (Even though that meant I didn’t get any seconds myself … – and I’d done loads – yet again proving that there is no such thing as too many roast potatoes. )

I’m sure there was more I was going to say, but I’m being pestered for computer access, so I’d better go.

Over The Fridge

We don’t actually have a Cupboard Over The Fridge, as we have a lovely pantry with the fridge-freezer, the washing machine (which continues to be a total joy) and the second freezer on one side, and food on the other side. However, we still have a fair bit of junk on top of the fridge:

(do click on the image for a larger version… )

Working clockwise from the bottom left:
1) Our smaller stock pan – used for making delicious stocks from chicken carcasses etc. Also used as a jam pan, or if I want to make large quantities of something.
2) Spare kitchen roll.
3) (The yellow thing hiding in the background) – more spare kitchen roll.
4) (little black thing) – pouches to cook baked beans in a toaster… – in fact they’re for me to use on holiday if I want to make gluten-free toast without risking contaminating it with crumbs from a toaster – I’ve not used it yet, but it sounds incredibly useful…
5) A stack of empty ice-cream/margarine tubs – great for using as sandwich boxes.
6) 3 green space ships… – no they’re Eco balls – I’d forgotten about those (whoops!)
7) Empty kilner jar with no rubber seal…
8) Old margarine tub containing ready-to-roll icing – needs binning
9) (on top of margarine tub) Plastic box containing words from a poetry kit (you know, those magnetic words you can stick on the fridge door to say something deep and profound… ) and the icing shoes from Adam’s Christening Cake.
10) (on top of that) Box of matches
11) (under that to the left) – tin of white chocolate maggots – sounds grim, but Adam loves them, and they were reduced to 20p after Christmas
12) (in front of that) safety plug to stick in socket to stop little fingers poking where they shouldn’t.
13) Red plastic lid to put on cans of cat food.
14) A few stray poetry kit words.

I think that’s everything – there may be more stuff up there, but it’s not visible in the photo, so I don’t have to declare it – right?

Oh – and the hormones are getting worse – I’m doing this now because I’ve given up on church – felt much too woozy and peculiar Still, at least that means that I’m that much closer to the hormone tide turning…

More birthday stuff...

I’ve been feeling a little disgruntled with blogging recently (hormones – it’s all down to hormones), but after everyone’s lovely comments about my birthday girl yesterday, I’m so much happier – so thank you all.

Yesterday was frankly a stupid day (hormones, it’s hormones)...

I’ve already mentioned baking Ruth’s cake – although I didn’t mention that I completely forgot that it was in the oven, and only just got it out in time… (Stupid, stupid.)

So I did meet up with Mary and her gorgeous children – although it was rather cold, and all the playground equipment was impossible, so we went for a hot chocolate at Bella Italia instead – except that I realised that I had cunningly left my purse at home. (Changing bag (with nappies, wipes and change of clothes), yes; camera, yes; knitting, yes; money, no.) Mary kindly bailed me out. You’ll notice that I had my camera with me – did I take any pictures? No, I did not. (Stupid, stupid.)

Then I drove home – just in good time to get dinner in the oven (fish and chips – we always have it on Fridays, not from any religious conviction, simply because it’s easy, and everyone likes it) – I had remembered to put the oven on the timer to heat up before I went out (my one and only not-so-stupid act of the day). As we drove into the driveway I realised that we no longer had the changing bag with us – I had left it sitting in the carpark when I put the children into the car. In the bag were the nappies, wipes and change of clothes – annoying to lose, but not a catastrophe; the camera – John’s camera, not mine – fortunately I forgot about this, as I was much too worried about MY KNITTING – with MY ONLY SET OF 2.5mm DPNS!!!!!!!!! AAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!)

With great presence of mind, I dashed into the house and threw dinner in the oven, then back in the car – another 15 min back to the carpark – and…. there it was sitting, exactly where I’d left it, waiting for me. I usually complain quite a lot at Adam about the loud noises he makes for what seems to be to be absolutely no reason – he couldn’t quite believe his ears at the scream of delight I gave.

So back we went – dinner was fine, although in another fit of stupidity I put vinegar on John’s chips (he never has vinegar on his chips, and I couldn’t swap them with mine as everyone else was having non-gluten-free fish fingers). The evening continued in similar manner – one mildly stupid thing after another – I hate feeling so out of control.

Anyway, onto today. I even have pictures of today (well, one so far… )

First the infamous cake – not only was it somewhat overcooked, but Ruth was so excited by it that she prodded a couple of holes in the bottom layer while it was cooling (it’s great what a layer of jam and another layer on top can hide). Then the icing was too thick – I was too scared of getting it too runny, so it turned out somewhat lumpy. And this morning Ruth was so excited by the icing that she prodded a hole in that too – less easy to disguise. And I’m not so good at drawing with writing icing. But never mind – she thought it was wonderful. Can anyone spot the inspiration?

Then on to Funky Fun House – which was just as good as last time (photos aren’t allowed on the premises, so I haven’t got any), then back here for lunch with our neighbours and their children.

And in knitting news – I’ve finished the thing I absolutely had to finish by tomorrow, but that’s all I’m going to say.

I’m off to watch some tv, and with any luck not do anything too stupid. (Wretched, wretched hormones )

Birthday girl

Shameless Mummy is going to post pics of her birthday girl:

(New Wendy House from Granny and Grandad)

(New apron – already used to bake her birthday cake)

(With Mummy – she insisted on sitting on my lap when I wanted to take photos – I’m pleased we’re both in the shot!)

So far we have had fun playing in the garden, and baking a cake together – yup, a 4 year-old, a 2 year-old and a (cough) year-old – and nobody got cross, not even me. They’re now happily watching her new Charlie and Lola DVD. Then this afternoon we’re off to Lammas Land with Mary and her children.

Happy days.

Cute as a button

See my lovely new button from Grumperina

See – I’m not the only yarn-sniffing freak out there

Freebies

I’ve been doing a clearout – listed a whole pile of stuff on Freecycle, taken another large pile of stuff to the Oxfam clothing and book banks, finally posted off the baby sweaters (with a pile of other ones that Ruth has outgrown) to Feed the Children, (I really, really should have made the actual posting part of my Olympic Challenge, but I didn’t, so I’m keeping my medal, so there – interesting that when I phoned to check on which address I should send them to, the man on the other end had heard of the Knitting Olymics.) and I found a couple of things I don’t want, but someone reading this may fancy:

Item 1) Three copies of Needlewoman and Needlcraft – issues 53, 57 and 61. Published in the 1950s

These contain lots of embroidery transfers as well as some knitting patterns:

(See, Norwegian mittens!)
Also some other random floral embroidery transfers, together with handwritten notes.

Item 2) Patons – A Story of Handknitting by Michael Harvey.

If anyone is interested in either or both of these, just email me your snail mail address, and I will sift through the hundreds (hah!) of replies and send them to the most deserving (by my undisclosed criteria) case(s).

Sushi

So it’s that time again, when the schools close their doors and parents wonder what to do with these small people who live with them.

So today we made sushi:

It was fun, very messy to eat (not the most professional sushi ever, but frankly I’m not bothered – it (mostly) stayed rolled up… ) and oh boy, but the boy can put away sushi – I was amazed at the quantity that disappeared! (And I made the mistake of trying wasabi again – wow! That stuff goes straight for the sinuses!!!)

Oh, and knitting is being done, but slowly, and little bits here and there, so although progress is being made, nothing looks much different to last time.

And I didn’t flash my stash – it is too big for my requirements, but looking at other people’s beautiful selections of yarn it felt a bit shy and insisted on staying under the bed.

What nappy (diaper)?

I know, I know, sometimes I do far too many of these – but do have a go at this one – I helped write some of the questions (but not the comments – need a new hobby to add colour to my life?! Pah!!!) And do have a look at Annie’s nappies – they’re almost too pretty to cover up.

You are intelligent and articulate. Quality and substance are important to you and you don’t suffer fools gladly. Practical and efficient, you are not very adventurous and like to be comfortable in your surroundings. Perhaps you could take up a new hobby to add some more colour to you life?