Saturday, October 20, 2007

Shock of the day

My shock of the day went something like this:
Scene - Aidan playing on the Ninetendo Wii (baseball, I think)
Aidan - "Look mum, I've scored a home run."
Me (distractedly cooing over baby) - "Great, darling."
Aidan - "Argh. I'm not doing very well. I can't hit the ball."
Me (still distracted) - "Don't worry, darling. Keep playing."
This carries on for a few minutes.
Aidan - "Arrghh. This f**king thing!"
Me - "Hmm. Hang on, what did you say?"
Aidan - "Nothing"
Me - "What did you say?"
Aidan - "Nothing"
Keira - "He said "f**king"!"

At which point, I was so shocked, I couldn't speak. Both kids swore, one of whom is almost 5 years old and the other is 3.5 years old. How did this happen? Hubby and I are very careful about swearing in front of the children because they are such sponges. I guess it's quite easy to pick up from anywhere. I'm not going to beat myself up about it. We'll have to keep educating them. And, there's not point making a big deal over it.

Can't even talk about knitting just yet.

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Progress

It's been difficult trying to carve out some "me" time these last few weeks. A lot of my waking hours is revolved around the kids . Whatever time I have I'm trying to knit, read some of my favourite blogs and of course, looking at Ravelry.

I know I said I'm going to tackle some of my WIPs. I have taken them out of the WIP pile, assessed the situation, but I haven't done anything about them. So instead, I start a new project. I've been wanting something new and fashionable to wear this autumn/winter. So I decided to cast on Iceland from Rowan 42. The recommended yarn is Rowan Cocoon, but I've decided to use up some stash yarn and knitted it in RYC Soft Tweed in Mist (a bluey grey). Here's the progress so far. I had some slight gauge issues, which I think I've resolved so we'll see how it'll look.

About 10 years ago, hubby and I planted some dwarf fruit trees (apple, pear and cherry) in our tiny London garden. They didn't bear fruit for about 8 years, in fact, the pear tree still hasn't. Then in the last 2 years, we've had lots of apples and some cherries. I don't know what the cherries taste like because it's always eaten by the birds before we get a chance to pick them. We've had loads of apple. As a result, I've been making lots of different appley desserts - apple muffins, apple crumble , apple turnovers and a chocolate apple betty (recipe from Nigel Slater). I'm surprised that they are such tasty apples as I don't look after the garden very well!

Saturday, October 06, 2007

Ballet wrap cardigan

Hmmm, it seems quite quiet here in blogland. It must be because everyone seems to be getting onto Ravelry! I must say I've had a lot of fun poking around. I'm in danger of joining lots of groups and disclosing the full extent of my stash and WIPs. Yikes!


Speaking of Wips I have managed to finish a few things. One of them is the Ballet wrap cardigan for Keira. She recently started ballet lessons and needed a cardigan for the colder months. I thought I won't buy one, I'll just knit her one. I have a lot of pink yarn and it won't take too long. I did forget about how much time that I would have for knitting. So here we are 2 months later, the cardigan is finished.

Pattern : Ballet wrap cardigan from Knits for Children and their Teddies by Fiona McTague
Yarn : Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in Pink-a-boo instead of the recommended Rowan Kid Silk Haze (used doubled!)
Needle size: 4mm
Modifications: I added a garter stitch border on the hem of the body and added a few rows to the length of the cardigan. I didn't make the folded sleeve version and I have foregone the crochet picot edging in Rowan Lurex Shimmer. I also didn't make the 7 foot garter stitch ties. I sewed on a pretty ribbon instead. I just wanted this finished! She loves it and that's all that matters.



My mother in law had bought some novelty yarn when she was last in Hong Kong, to be knitted into fluffy, airy scarves. So I obliged and made 1 for her and with the leftover yarn, made a matching one for the grandaughter. Now I just have to make another one with the multi-coloured pom-pom yarn. (Not high on my priority of things to knit, I have to admit!)