little knits

While I'm not really blogging, I am knitting. And thanks to recent talking to's I've had from myself, I've ended up with two projects on the go, both for the boys. The first is an Elisaac (you should really check it out, its a great little jumper with a cool construction). My gauge is off but I really love these yarns (both together and seperately). So I am re-knitting this after I knit an entire one already and tried to fool it into being the right size by putting it in B's jumper drawer. Maybe proximity would help....but no. Still wide enough for a six year old and long enough for a 3 year old. But after frogging and reknitting the body I lost heart at the sleeves. Enter a new jumper, this time for F. I don't like the colours but I love the yarn (Rowan purelife wool dk), and the pattern ( Drops) is cute. So now two bodies and no sleeves...
Oh, the talking to was about knitting for fun, which is why I cast on a second jumper rather than muddle on with something I was sick of knitting. Unusual for me. But now I think it would be more fun to have new jumperd for my boys, so sleeves it is.

cold

Life seems to be increasingly busy, for all the best reasons. But this means that there is always a choice being made - if I choose to spend my time on this, then I dont get to do that. If I want this, I have to forgoe that. Obviously this is always the case, its just more obvious to me now when the choices are so often between things that I value equally. But in the end theres no choice, really. A walk in the cold winter sunshine with all my boys always wins (even over knitting).

winter walks

mobile blogging. How very 2012 ( or maybe 2011 and I'm late to the party). Out walking without kids but with new gloves.

Timely

Well, with one thing or another, I missed posting for a whole month there. Turns out that working a busy job, having a family, a few hobbies, remnants of a social life and the odd holiday takes up pretty much all my time. Oh, and sleeping. Or not sleeping, as the case may be. Anyway, I'm still here, I have many, many blog posts in my head, and intentions of sometime maybe actually posting them. In the meantime, there are new cyclamen in my house, which can only be good. 

Blackcurrant cordial

I like cordial, but not really the bought kind. And I like making stuff, but really I have enough jam already. So I decided to make some blackcurrant cordial. Last year I made elderberry cordial, and it worked fine - I'm still drinking it! So I decided to wing it with the blackcurrants and did this:
Brought my blackcurrants to the boil with a dash of water, then simmered for a few minutes until they all burst. Then I pushed this through a sieve (you could drain them in a muslin), and measured this in a jug. I then added as much water again, and half as much sugar, brought this to the boil for a few minutes, then put into sterile bottles and kept this in the fridge. I'm sure it wouldn't last for ever, but it lasted at least 5 weeks until I had drunk it all! I'd definately do this again with other fruits - raspberries, elderberries, maybe blueberries too.

Redressing the gender imbalance

 A few weekends ago, we went and collected three new additions to our brood...

Meet Bat (a Nera), Butter (an Oxford Brown) and Mrs Bogey (an Oxford Blue). This is what happend when you let your two year old name your chooks. It took me a full week to realise we had named one of them Butter Chicken.
They are quite lovely, and very messy. They let B pat them, eat everything that comes their way, and dig up all my plants. They also poo everywhere, and escape from every attempt to pen them in to one corner of the garden. They give us three lovely little eggs every day.

Big boy quilt

 Over the past few weeks, I have managed to turn this:

into this:

 A new quilt top for my big boy, who is soon to progress to a big boy bed and clearly needed a quilt for it.

Fabric is Wee Woodland by Keiki (Moda fabrics), from Fabricworm. I used this zigzag quilt tutorial as a guide. Its flannel, so its a lovely big warm thing. The plan now is to store it away until I hit the Festival of Quilts, where I can hopefully find some good backing fabric, then turn it into a useable quilt over winter. It turned out a little Christmas-ey, but otherwise I think its ok, and B likes it (for the moment), which is really the main thing.