Which buttons?

I’ve nearly finished making a Peapod Baby Jacket (yes I know I misread the pattern and the buttons aren’t far enough over – they’re still off centre – I think we can live with it… ), and I need to choose buttons. Polls are always fun, so go on, vote for something:
1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6)

(The jacket isn’t as grey as it looks – it’s really more of a lilac, but it’s not easy to get the colour right. – And yes I appreciate the irony that I’m trying to get you to choose the colour of something for which you can’t really see the colour… ) And as always, click on the pictures for a clearer view.

(Update – just to point out that this does have sleeves, I’ve just not sewn them in yet… )

Stuff and more stuff...

Heh! Who’d have thought it – probably the most vigorous debate I’ve sparked, and is it about anything of real importance? Nope – it’s about why so many little girls (and not so little girls) like pink! (Personally I think it’s very largely cultural.)

Anyway – this is not just about pink – this is about stuff and more stuff…

First of all, stuff:
There have been complaints. I have been told that there are not enough chicken photos, and not enough stories about chickens. I’m not sure that I can do much about interesting anecdotes (except that Kirsty has been barking at Lola – I kid you not – that is about the only word I can think of to describe the noise she makes. Kirsty does not approve of Lola. Particularly she doesn’t approve of Lola getting anything tasty to eat. Kirsty would rather forgo treats for herself than see Lola getting anything. Stupid bird!)
But photos I can do:

They are laying well now – we’re getting 2 or 3 eggs a day. (See Gary – chicken stuff!)

More stuff:

I’ve been knitting. Yes I have – and I have photos to prove it:

Yarn: Handspun (by me!) rainbow merino/silk blend from Wingham Wool Work with Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran lining. (The merino/silk is wonderfully soft, but I do get itchy with wool, so did the lining for safety’s sake – and I like the hint of pink. – See, I have nothing against pink as such, but a hint of it is generally enough .)
Pattern: From Ann Budd. Knitted on cast on to make it easy to pick up stitches for lining. Spiral corkscrew decoration.

And that’s not all I’ve been knitting. Adam’s pirate sweater/jumper is finished:

Yarn: Variegated blue 4-ply pure wool from Coldspring Mill, with bits of black courtesy of Wendy (Thank you again Wendy).
Pattern: Generic top-down raglan from Wool Works, with pirate design from Hello Yarn
It’s cute, but Adam finds it rather itchy – I’m hoping that when the weather gets colder and he’s wearing a long-sleeved cotton top underneath he’ll find it OK – otherwise it’ll be one for the charity shop…

There is more knitting very nearly off the needles, but I’ll wait until it’s properly finished before revealing it…

Oh, and that running thing. Hmmm. I’ve been thinking long and hard about whether or not to continue now I’m back to work. I’m back to cycling about 18 miles a week, which isn’t that much, but it’s better than the nothing I was doing over the summer. I’d like to carry on, but I don’t find this term easy at the best of times – I tend to get exhausted and cranky and rather depressed. Now it could be that getting more exercise will in fact help with that – if I’m that bit fitter I may cope with things better. Or maybe it’ll just be too much. Soooo… for now I’m going to carry on. And if John thinks it’s too much I’ll stop. (That doesn’t mean that I defer to him on every decision – just that it’s easier for someone else to be more objective than I can be.) I did go for a run today after work, and that was a very bad idea – I stopped after about 20 min, and have been utterly shattered since… (Sleeeeepy!)

Oh, and just one more picture, just because:

I’m not sure why either…

Think pink (or don't...)

Despite having a daughter who is pinker than a pink thing, the whole gender colour issue irritates me – there is nothing more sickly-looking than a little girl who is dressed from head to toe in different shades of pink (unless it’s a little girl dressed from head to toe in just one shade of pink… ) It’s totally society-driven. Isn’t it?

So I was less than delighted to hear that it’s all down to evolution (I’ve linked to The Guardian, but it was everywhere last week.)

But then Ben Goldacre gets in on the act – read him to find the flaws in the study, and then read this – who’d have thought it? 100 years ago it was pink for a boy and blue for a girl.

(And for the record I never intended to have a pink daughter – but then I was inundated with pink hand-me-downs – I wasn’t about to relinquish perfectly good clothes, and she does interract with other people who may not see the colour/gender issue the way I do… )

Lol

Here

And yes it’s Friday and yes I ran (Smug? Oh yes!)

Check in

For those of you reluctant to ask

6:15 – I gradually realise that I’m awake.
6:16 – I curse that I’m awake so early and it’s not even a running morning.
6:17 – I curse again when I realise that it IS a running morning.
6:17:30 – I tune into the sound of heavy rain
6:18 – I can’t run in this – no-one would expect it – I’ll put on an exercise video instead…

7:10 – I’ve had breakfast, and rats – it’s stopped raining, but it’s still pretty wild and gusty.
7:11 – I consult with Adam – should I run or do the exercise video?
7:12 – He says run.

7:25 – I’m through the door.

7:50 – I’m home, not only did I run, but a friend SAW me running (not totally sure that’s a good thing – I’m not a pretty runner, but hey – she knows I’m not making it up) – and no, I didn’t get rained on.

Quelling the inner control freak...

I’m not really that good at doing crafty stuff with my children – I get far too stressed about mess (which can just be cleared up afterwards, I KNOW that, but I stress anyway) and even worse – I get stressed about the artistic merit of their creations – particularly when they’re fabric painting on teeshirts…

but this time I think we did OK.

(Plain white teeshirts from Mothercare, fabric paints one of last year’s Christmas presents.)

And for those of you who are the slightest bit interested in such things – yes, I’m still running. (I only did one actual run on holiday, but I did brisk walks instead (up and down hills – that totally counts when on holiday so far as I’m concerned) and I did a proper run yesterday morning – slight change of schedule – I didn’t get up so early, and had breakfast first – soooooo much easier, and I felt sooooooo much better for the rest of the day )

Update – hey people – enough of the “I was wondering about the running but didn’t like to ask” – I’m only telling you lot for accountability – I need to know that if I can’t shift my sorry stumps tomorrow morning, you’re all going to be on my case!

Been on holiday...

... and didn’t want to come home…

Summary (very picture heavy – but not that many words)

North Wales has:

Woollen Mills with a handspinner – and fibre to buy:

L-R: Silk and cotton samples, cashmere (yummy brown shades) and alpaca.

Beaches:

Castles:

Mountains:

(We went up Snowdon in the train – well, 3/4 of the way up as the top is closed due to building work – it was wet. It was very wet.)

Bronze Age Copper Mines:

(I don’t do being underground – and I didn’t do the underground tour – I waited until everyone had gone on ahead, and then ventured as far as just out of sight of the entrance, but then happily scurried back out again before anyone else arrived – it was very narrow, very uneven and rather deep – no thank you!)

It also had (and shamefully I don’t have any photos) gluten free pysgod y sglodion (fish and chips) at Tir a Mor in Llanrwst (no website – but if you’re in N Wales and want chips go there – whether you’re gluten free or not – they’re fab – and they’ve got the best stained glass I’ve ever seen in a chippy) and gluten-free icecream cones at Cadwalladers – all their regular cones are gf, and all the flavours of icecream too – the best bit being that it’s absolutely NO FUSS – no sending people backwards and forwards to check. It’s fine, and they all know it’s fine.

Vote for Ryan

I read on Norma’s blog about In Turn, and now I’m totally hooked – not only have I voted for Ryan, I’ve been watching every single episode – go on, vote for Ryan

Oh and Carrie was asking about tops – these are merino tops:
– wonderfully soft and squooshy they are too (and I love love love the colours )

And I’ve already spun some up (spinning from the fold, taking a handful of each colour in turn and then plying 3 separate strands together – deliberately making the different colours overlap (this stuff would be a little too acidic if it was just green, yellow and orange stripes):

Click to enbiggen (you may want to wear shades… )

So there I am, happily showing off my spinning wheel to my in-laws, when they ask the (perfectly reasonable) question – so what are you going to do with that. I try to put them off by answering “Spin it”, but they’re made of sterner stuff than that, and they persist – “No, what are you going to knit with it once it’s spun?” Er…

Now originally, when I bought my lovely bump of rainbow merino/silk blend from Wingham’s I thought “hat”. Then I started worrying – I do find wool itchy, and although soft wool is better (and this is dreamily soft and smoochy), it can still itch, and I don’t want to make myself a hat and never be able to wear it for more than a few minutes. So I decided to test it out by wearing a skein round my forehead for a while and see if I had any problems:

Or then again, maybe I could just wear it as it is…

Monday

Did I run?

Yup.

(Oh, and is it wrong, when buying dpns from Texere, if some merino tops end up in your shopping basket too? – Dubious rationalisation – the needles were really cheap, and adding fibre didn’t increase the cost of postage, therefore making the needles even cheaper… )

Friday...

Yup, still on the plan – sore hurty shins though

But this is a fun tool for working out how far I went – about 1 1/2 miles. (Not going to break any records, but still, not bad)

Heh!

You Are a Rainbow

Breathtaking and rare You are totally enchanting and intriguing But you usually don’t stick around long! You are best known for: your beauty Your dominant state: seducing

Wednesday check in...

I did it

This time it was easier – probably because I’d read up about it – I did 5 min (oh, tedious, yes I know, but bear with me – I’m not going to do a step-by-step breakdown, I promise) – brisk walking warm up, then alternated 60 seconds running with 90 seconds walking.

I talked to my GP about it yesterday (I woke up realising that I’d acquired a job lot of things to talk about, so finally got round to making an appointment) – he checked my blood-pressure, listened to my heart, and cruelly told me that running was an excellent plan. Rats!

Not a lot else going on here… (which is worrying – I wanted to get fitter so I would feel more up for doing stuff – I run, spend at least as long stretching afterwards, and then want to curl up and do nothing… )