blue sky

So I finished my Evendim in time for the cold, clear weather we've had a bit of lately. Blue skies for blue jumpers! The jumper took me a bit longer than expected, given I had a fair bit of knitting time during September and October, so I'm really glad I was encouraged to make it in time for winter as part of the Luvin the Mommyhood summer sweater knitalong - these knitalongs really help me get stuff done in time to wear it for the right season!! Anyway, I love this jumper - it fits great, its really my colour and its snuggly warm. Go knit an Evendim - its a great pattern! We took the pics on a winter walk around Godstow nunnery and the canal - such a cool place.

Baby quilt the umpteenth

I love making these little square(ish) baby quilts for new babies to our lives. So much fun, so quick, so useful to try out new things, so good at using up scraps and fabrics I love but don't seem to want to have in my house (e.g., anything orange!). This one I managed without pins (except for the binding) and just using my presser foot to measure seam allowances. Super quick, super easy. And kinda cute.

Fabrics are an assortment from my stash, the backing fabric is from Ikea. The quilting was inspired by Red Pepper Quilts, and one of the first times I've quilted 'out of the ditch', which is actually much easier to look tidy than I had thought. Photos are terrible and taken on my phone, but at least this way I actually blog them!

Munchkin

Our garden highlight this year (not hard - it was a dismal year in our garden) - climbing mini-pumpkins called Munchkins.

I have no idea how they taste, but they look amazing!

On my mantlepiece...

We went to France. Amongst other things, they have the best yoghurt pots in the coolest colours. Cheap decor update!

Festivities

Festival of quilts haul. That, and a stack of fun. I met so many lovely people and had a great time.

Summer winter knitting

New knitting project. Evendim, in Cascade 220 Heathers. I'm knitting this as part of the Luvinthemommyhood Summer Sweater Knitalong. Good fun!

Summer flowers

I planted so many flower seeds this year. Some in the ground, some in pots to plant out. Gorgeous-sounding plants - Ammi magus, honeywort, toadflax. Unfortunately, I've had very little success - a combination of poor soil, poor weather, and magnificent slug-raising abilities. But we have had a few roses of our ancient and much abused rose bushes. Which is delightful and fragrant comfort :)

Shiny and new

Buttons. Lovely ones, from textile garden.

Summer colour

Wytham Woods.

pomo pins

a while ago I became obsessed with Riley Blake's new ombre dot fabric. Then I saw Colette's 'crepe' dress pattern and thought it would suit the fabric well. But I have neither the time nor the skills at the monent, so I stuck it on Pinterest as a sort of wishful idea. Yesterda, Riley Blake repinned my pin. Its kinda cool and a bit weird. But mostly cool :)

Sewable / Colette 'Crepe' dress pattern. Maybe in the new Riley Blake Ombre dots? Very cute.

New

New yarn. New jam. Delicious.

sunsine, lollipops...

There's been only snippets and fragnents of craft time lately, some of which has been used for unravelling. But some was used to make this baby quilt. It began as a wish to try some improvisational piecing, and ended with something I hadn't planned but quite like. Its not perfect - I learned I need to baste better next time. But its fun and full of sunshine. I hope the intended baby gets good use from it.

Babies

They are everywhere. Everyone seems to be having them. Which is fine by me - I like mine very much, and can see no harm in there being more of these charming things around. And, I get to indulge in some baby-related sewing that really, I have no other excuse to do. How many baby quilts does my not-really-a-baby-anymore need? None. Should I really be getting on with quilting B's big-boy quilt? Sure. But in the meantime, I'm plotting and scheming some scrappy improv quilts. Here's the start of one. Its turning out ok.

B is concerned that some of the monkeys can't see. I don't think the baby will notice. I have some leave coming up with nothing scheduled to do (luxury!!) so I'm planning on getting some more of this done in March - at least before the baby I hope to give it to grows up.


These are peanut butter choc-chip cookies. They are totally delicious. Or should I say, were totally delicious. Recipe is from Brown Eyed Baker - totally recommended.

refurbished garden

So on the weekend, we replaced the straw bales around our straw-bale raised garden bed. I have to say, for something that we planned very poorly and did no research into, this has worked really well! We still have almost no weeds in the bed, its reasonably easy to keep slugs under control with nematodes, and our plan to just replace the straw bales when they got saggy worked like a charm. This picture has the new bales on the left compared with the old ones on the right. They are from the same farm, so they are made by the same baler and should be the same size - gives you an idea of the amount of compression/decomposition that occurred in a year.

When we finished, it looked as good as new! There was no collapse of the dirt when we removed the old bales, and the new ones slotted in easily. And now we have five bales worth of partially rotted straw to mulch the rest of the garden with - very handy in this drought we're in! Now I just want to plant away - its very hard to restrain myself - I have to keep reminding myself that its only February still (just for today though), and there is plenty more opportunity for frost. It just feels so much like spring out there :)

knits!

So, inspired by made by rae (hope that link works!) I've ventured into sewing with knits. I made this envelope T for F using the pattern in Growing Up Sew Liberated, from fabric bought from Ray Stitch some time ago. All I can remember is its an organic jersey. And I think it turned out ok...it fits Right Now, so I better get it on him asap.
I'm having some computer problems so its mobile-only blogging at present, so sorry about the picture quality.



ETA: right - hopefully those links are fixed now!

vintage for boys

My attempts to marry a love of vintage style and quality with boy-friendly decor: B's new vintage Horrocks' Thomas curtains. I do believe they've never been used and the trains are slightly creepy in their expressions but we all love them.

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.