Gifted (1)

Baby F was lucky enough to receive some gorgeous gifts, includings some beautiful handmade things. This lovely jacket is from Esmerelda. The picture really doesn't do the colour justice - it is a lovely variegated forget-me-not blue. Thank you, E - it is truly gorgeous, and gets lots of comments when we go out! And thanks for coming to visit on your hectic UK visit :)

This baby is growing so fast, none of these baby handknits look like they will fit for long, but the weather is ensuring we are getting to make the most of them while we can!

Snuggypants

Speaking of sewing, I managed a little before F was born. These are some trousers for the new boy - snuggly and warm, made from a felted men's vest I got at the charity shop, using an Ottobre pattern. They were meant to have the intact bindings as cuffs, but I cut the pieces out wrongly. In the end they worked out fine though - they are a bit high-waisted, but that is useful for a cloth nappied baby in winter - everything is kept nice and warm. Also, the stripes in the gusset match at the back, but not the front. I still love them though - he feels a bit like a teddy bear in them!

Covetousness

If you sew, and you have little ones, you have probably heard of Oliver + S. They do lovely patterns. And now they have a book coming out - Oliver + S Little Things to Sew. I am very much coveting it...so much so, that I might just have to buy it! These things are almost always 'girl' pattern heavy, but even so, it looks very sweet. There is a trailer here and some info here

PS Happy Australia Day for yesterday - hope you saw some sunshine/ate some anzacs/drank some good Aussie red in celebration (or all three!)

Christmas update

I know, I'm miles behind the times, but I have an excuse! Anyway, this is a quick post mostly for myself to remind me about Christmas cake next year :) In 2010 I made a Christmas cake from Delia's recipe (see blog post here). I fed it and petted it and the day my mum turned up, we cut it (16th Dec). The three of us managed to eat it over almost exactly a month (S ate the last bit on 17th Jan). It was very nice - more boozy and a bit more crumbly than Mum's melt & mix fruit cake recipe (my usual). I would definately eat it again, and it was pretty easy to make - but not the pinnacle of Christmas cakes for me.

Made with real gorilla's chest

Before I went on maternity leave, I started B a vest. It was autumn, and I figured it would be useful. I used my standard vest pattern (Drops b17-9 sleeveless top, Ravelry link here), made up some colourwork and used some yarn I got on special (Sublime Organic Merino DK). The yarn is a single, very soft and in very pretty colours. Despite growing to hate knitting this (thus the looong time it took to finish it), it turned out pretty nicely, and fits B well. The picture above is after two washes and one de-pill. It has sort of become a tunic vest - it's grown widthways quite a bit (luckily it was already pretty long, so it will now fit next winter as well as this one!), and the yarn has felted somewhat. I wash the kid's woolens on a wool wash in my machine and then line dry - if they can't handle this then they tend not to get worn. I'm a bit miffed that I put so much time into knitting this with yarn that I wasn't sure about, because I don't feel this is going to wear very well at all. My verdict: as usual I love this pattern, and think vests are the bee's knees for keeping boys snug, but will probably get rid of the rest of this yarn now.

Christmas Dress

I didn't do much crafting for Christmas this year, what with babies and two year olds and work and most family being in hotter climes. I did make one dress, for my niece G. It was a crazy day, sitting and sewing a sundress in the freezing fog (you can see some of the fog on the bushes behind the dress). But it is a great pattern, super easy and quick, and if I could just get the tension right on my machine then the shirring would be excellent fun! I'm slightly tempted to make one for me for the summer...although I don't think I can pull off red gingham anymore.

Pattern: Heather Ross' Smocked Sundress (you can find it either in her Weekend Sewing book or at Martha Stewart's website ).

Fabric: I have no idea where this came from, but I obviously bought quite a bit of it - I've used it for lots of things now. The ric rac is from the V&A.

Gratuitous freezing fog picture from the same day.

New Year, New Things

So the new year bought us a new family member. He is wonderful and gorgeous, and I'm having a lovely time swapping him through the handknits both generously gifted by various talented folk and handed down from B.

Bright spots

I have one cyclamen on my windowsill at the moment. I look past it out the window when we eat meals, or when I work at the dining room table. Often, its one of the few bright things in my field of view, and I'm enjoying it so much. I'm also enjoying the last of the apples, now on the ground and being devoured by a motley flock of birds every day. Most days we have 15 or 20 birds in the garden at any time, gradually making their way through the last of the crop.

Christmas cheer

The sloe gin is bottled. The gift bags have been made. The shortbread has been baked (and eaten!), and tomorrow I think we'll cut the Christmas cake. What a most excellent time of year.

I bulk bought the bags for the wedding - treat bags for our very little guests - and had some left over, so a wee scrap of ribbon and hand printed labels (not by me!) made them a bit more festive. I really love how they came out. The ribbon and labels are from Flash in the Pan - a pop-up shop in Summertown at the moment. Very much worth checking out - lovely lovely stuff in there!
The sloe gin is not destined for gift bags - it is destined for a years eeking out, its such lovely stuff. It is quite a light colour this year, I think my sloe-piercing was less than thorough. But it still tastes divine.

pride and falls and so forth

Yes, I promised pics of newly spruced kids rooms. And evidence of this nesting that I've apparently been doing. But really, all I have to show for the last two weeks is some thermal backing on our downstairs curtains (not inspiring at all but most wonderful in keeping us just a little warmer during this first chill), and a chest infection (and at over 35 weeks I really don't have the lung capacity to spare). Its been a week of colds & 'flu and I've really had enough of it. So I've submitted to the magic of antibiotics in the hope of still eeking out a few weeks of pleasure with my gorgeous and entertaining two year old and a few days of calmness and creativity for me. Fingers crossed!

And there was

So yes, if you were wondering, I've started nesting. 32 weeks pregnant, and I have just spent two days on annual leave tethered to my sewing maching. There are a few things to show off, but the one I have pics of is this:

We just couldn't find a lightshade we liked, so I made one. I have a small stash of this Mairo fabric from the wonderful Northlight, and a few cushions purchased from them too, and the plan is that this is the 'theme' fabric for our lounge. Anyway, the kit was from Duffy London and was super-easy and quick to make. You can use it as a lampshade too. Thanks to the lovely slubby linen, the lampshade looks best in the evening, with the light shining through, although this was a bit tricky to capture - you get the idea! Next - turning our little boy's room into a little boys room, not a room with a cot and some boxes in it.

Christmas come early

So this year, I seem to be ludicrously early on the Christmas front. I might have forgotten all sorts of important dates throughout the year (sorry again, mum!) and been writing February when it was actually April, but suddenly its October and I'm on the ball. Admittedly, I do have good motivation - my mum will be here for Christmas, as will a new baby :) So I'm doing things while I have the time, assuming that things will just get busier.
So cake is done - Delia's recipe, which seems to be the UK standard. And I was getting ready to make fruit mince (S likes the odd mince pie) but my supermarket didn't have any veg suet. For 3 weeks. In the meantime, I got the River Cottage book on preserves out of the library, and there was a recipe for fruit mince without suet, but with fresh plums and apples. I happened to have some plums in the freezer that needed to be used to make way for more substantial fare, so I gave it a go. The stuff is delicious. I'm not a huge fan of fruit mince - too sweet and cloying. But this is lovely and fruity. I'm just annoyed now that I only made a half batch (thats how many plums I had)!

Normande

We recently spent most of a week in the lovely town of Barneville, on the Normandy coast. It was sunny, warm and generally delightful. We visited the beach each day - and the boulangerie! B managed to turn up to our accommodation covered in croissant crumbs, which set the tone for the remainder of the holiday. The beach was what I think beaches should be - enormous, empty, windswept, with shells and seaweed and stuff for beachcombing. But the tides were something else - when the tide went out, it went out for miles.

We became market groupies and visited towns according to when their markets were running. We also visited a fantastic family run calvados & cidre business, ate lots of seafood (especially mussels) and had a nap nearly every day. The perfect holiday!

Quintessence

Its quince time here in the UK. I've managed to get hold of a few enormous beauties while on holiday in France, and a bag of lovely little gems from a local tree. I cooked four of these tonight using this recipe from Nigel Slater. I have eaten a lot of quince in my time - it is one of my favourite fruits - and I have to say that I think this recipe has resulted in the most concentrated quince taste (and also the most beautiful colour). I did overcook at both stages, and it was still lovely.
So, if you're in the UK, go find some quinces. Or if you have a tree, let me know :) If you're not in the UK, you'll just have to be envious!

new acquisitions

This arrived in the post this week. I love the colours, and that it is handmade. There are a few little wear marks, and it has very little batting, but I'm very happy with my new acquisition! It will most definately do whilst life is too busy to make my own double bed sized quilts :)

Believe me

Knitting! I know, incredible. This is Meret, in Lang SilkDream in charcoal (a gorgeous yarn gifted to me in a swap by the lovely Jinnee, all the way from Switzerland).


And some sewing from a few weeks (months?) ago - a skirt from an old 70's pattern and a top from a new Simplicity pattern, both in Amy Butler fabrics. Although I love the Coriander fabric of the skirt, turns out I don't wear white-based skirts much. Had you asked me this beforehand, I would have agreed, but I just didn't think. Still, it is nice. The top is huge, but I'm growing into it :)

Now I'm off to find out who turned the date stamp on the camera...

Last days of summer

That time of year is here...one of picking, freezing, preserving, arguing about how much fruit is in the freezer as a proportion of overall freezer content, bottling, eating and generally being obsessive about hedgerows and farm shops. Loving it.

The berries were picked last weekend, and turned into blackberry & apple crumble (with our new apples) and blackberry & apple crumble cake (yep, doubling down there, but they were both delicious). The raspberry jam is on my extremely successful and yummy white sourdough, which is my other pride and joy. I have to say that, to my mind, there is little better in this world than fresh homemade bread, good butter and new raspberry jam. Although a little clotted cream could squeeze its way in, I reckon.

Rainy Tuesday delights

So what to do on a rainy Tuesday morning in Oxford? Well, my suggestion would be to pop into town early to nab an easy park, wander through the back lanes and past the colleges to the High St. (make sure to stickybeak in every possible door and window), nip into Northlight to do a little essential shopping*, duck across the road to Toast to buy up on a few maternity-suitable trans-seasonal items*, back over the road to the Vaults for delicious coffee, cake and babycino for the boy (who will behave delightfully and entertain all those in the vicinity), then home to a newly cleaned house before the rain comes down, with a child who goes directly to sleep leaving you to catch up on reading some blogs.

Couldn't have scripted it better. Hope you are having a lovely Tuesday morning too.


*there is nothing essential in Northlight, it is all entirely and deliciously frivolous. How I love design focused shops.
*how I would dearly love to curl up on their big couch and knit and drink coffee and watch people come in and out, but I'm not sure they'd be up for it.

Buckwheat Blinis

S bought some buckwheat flour last time he was at the supermarket. Voila - blinis for breakfast. Yum. Served with vanilla poached peaches.

absence

Sometimes, even when you really want to be in somewhere , its harder to get out than you expect (this apparently includes laundry hampers). We've moved. Today we (finally) handed over the keys to the old house, which means we can stop finding more things to do to make it cleaner/tidier, and start properly unpacking the new house. I love the new house (although its a long way from our friends over the road/next door/round the corner - well, not that long, 6 minutes in the car!), it is light and has a big empty-canvas garden and is quiet. B loves it too - he runs and runs. So as soon as I find the cable to link the camera to the computer, there might be pictures. But to be honest, very little knitting or sewing. Quite a lot of jam though...