London Knitters with kids

I helped Mel and Luise organise a picnic in Kew Gardens for our little Ravelry group - London Knitters with kids. The idea was that we would drag our other halves and kids for a knitterly meet up. We could knit and the kids could go play with daddies. The picnic had been in the diary for months and I kept my fingers crossed for the weather to co-operate. I needn't have worried. The weather was glorious - practically the first sunny day in London for months! The kids played well together. The menfolk got on well together. We got to knit and spin. Just brilliant!

Baby bell bottoms

I used to enjoy summer. The prospect of going on holiday and relaxing, barbeques and not having the kids on a strict regime for school and activities. But since being back to London, with no help and no extra entertainers (I mean grandparents and extended family), I have had enough of the kids. The constant attention and entertainment and cooking and cleaning after them is KILLING me. Plus the extremely crap weather in London has meant we've spent a lot of time indoors.

I have had very little time for anything else. Luckily, I booked them into a summer Day Camp program for this week, and I'll only have one baby for most of the day. this means I get a chance to get on the computer and update my blog!

I signed up for Ravelympics for a few events and heaven knows, how I'm going to manage as we've got less than a week left. I've managed to finished one project - Baby bell bottoms. I made this for Zoe in the 12 month old size. Unfortunately, it's still a bit too big. I'll arrange for the modelled shot in a few months time.

Notes:
Pattern - Baby Bell bottoms by Alison Hansel
Yarn - Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in Pink-a-boo (1 skein) and Tea Rose (0.3 skeins)
Needle - 4mm
It was a relatively quick knit and I love cotton fleece. It wears well and is soft yet strong. I hope Zoe likes this.

Spinning course

I had the best time yesterday. I signed up for the Drop Spindle masterclass at Socktopus. The first instalment was yesterday and 3 hours later, here is my first hank of handspun. It's undyed BFL and I must have spun about 15g of yarn. You can't see too much from that pic, but it looks a bit like Rowan Chunky print - thick and thin. Yay!!! I see a new obsession developing......

Here's more roving to be turned into lovely handspun.


Photo courtesy of Alice of me getting a hang of using the drop spindle.


ETA : Kim, we'll be trying out spinning wheels for our next course in 3 weeks time. I can't wait.

Zoe is 1 today!

I know I must have said this before (at least twice!), but I can't believe how fast a year has gone by. Zoe celebrates her first birthday today. Happy Birthday, darling! A year ago, you were causing so much stress by turning up a week late. When you were ready to come, it took very little time for you to make your appearance. In fact, the midwife was completely surprised by your quick arrival, she didn't even have her gloves on. Look at you now. You've grown, but not by much (some 6 month old babies are bigger than you!) You can talk and certainly scold, without actually saying any words. You've learnt so many new things in the last few months - clapping, waving, crawling, cruising, almost walking - the list is endless. We all love you so very much - Happy Birthday!

Quick stop in Hong Kong

In our tour of the Far East, we also managed a quick stopover in Hong Kong to visit my BIL and SIL who are expecting their first baby.

What's even better, I got to visit some HK lys, well only 2 but it was great fun! I didn't buy any yarn, mainly because I didn't need any more and it was quite expensive. Anyway, here is Keira having fun in Yarn Mart in Causeway Bay. Sorry, I have no pictures of my adventure in Cheer Wool in Wan Chai.

But I did succumb to a few Japanese magazines. Yummm......
And I also managed to finish Keira's Ruby dress. It fits perfectly - mainly because I had to frog it and re-knit almost 70% of it. There was also "Will there be enough yarn?" drama. Because of that, I had to redesign the arm hole shaping and the straps. And because of all that, I made a little mistake with the neck shaping. I had to add button holes on one strap, otherwise it wouldn't go over her head. But it finished! And it looks pretty good.
Pattern notes:
Pattern - Ruby dress from Patons booklet, Sugar and Spice
Yarn - GGH Samoa in a dark pinky red, instead of Patons Fairytale DK
Needles - 4mm and 4.5 mm
Modifications - Knitted in the round. Changed the straps and neckline.