Uh, no, Miss Stoeger? I have a note from my tennis instructor, and he would prefer it if I didn't expose myself to any training that might derail his teachings.

Errr mi gerd, I have been a bit busy recently, what with one thing (Rainbows sleepover) and another (horrific food poisoning - marginally worse than the sleepover).  All the EMOTIONAL PAIN of the last few months and years have been worth it, and I am in Year 2 doing lots of fun stuff next year - Art, Geography, History, Creative Writing, Science, what's not to like.  Fantastic.  Still got the essay of doom to do, but that will be done sooner rather than later, and at least getting one done means that I'm on track for the second one.

Anyway.  Knitting, knitting, knitting.

Stuff I am actually working on actually.

The Weather in the Streets blanket

There's been some progress.  Slight but some.  I think I've got about 16 loose ones now, I'll sew them together when I get to 20.

Yellow squares - 122/143 done - 21 to go
Blue squares - 63/72 done - 9 to go
Grey squares - 79/102 - 23 to go
Turquoise squares - 4/11 done
Red squares - 8/10 done
Pinky-Red squares - 8/10 done

Orange squares - ALL DONE

Pink square - DONE
Purple squares - DONE
Dark Green squares - DONE
Pale Blue square - DONE
Pale Yellow square - DONE
Dark Blue square - DONE

Miette cardigan - Done, except for buttons and a block.  I need to buy buttons; despite having jars and jars of buttons, I never have 10 matching ones.

Wisteria jumper - Still needing a bloody sleeve.

Hexipuff quilt - least said, soonest mended.

Petrie top - There's been a change of plan here.  The yarn I had earmarked for this is going to be put towards a Viane cardigan for the outfit along 2015.  I'm starting it as soon as I've finished typing.

It is doubtful whether these will be started this month.

Knitted Coco

Coraline cardigan 

Owls for Robin
Socks for me
Petrie top (with the remains of the yarn.  I have about 10000 balls of it, job lot, and I should have enough for two projects)

This is a WIP I have lost

Peacock Mitten

These are not being started until the weather turns crap again.  I have no guilt.

Burton Bear Cowl for Hattie. 

Elwood mittens for Lucy.  

Rainbow jumper

A Little Birds jumper with no steeks .

Reknit an unwearably large jumper for Simon

These are DONE and are therefore my favourite projects

Myrna Cardigan
Hattie's cardigan
A pair of simple socks for the children
Garter Yoke Cardigan
An Owlet for Lucy
Lucy's Cowl
Hattie's Cowl
A Burton Bear Cowl for Lucy
Simon's socks
Boreal
A tiny jumper for Nicholas
Sparkly Owlet for Hattie
Ringo mittens
Aiken
Striped jumper for Lucy
Nicholas' POP blanket

Lucy ripples

Hattie rainbows

I've done a lot of knitting since last July, and a lot of sewing.  It's a wonder I ever get time to teach.  My children are horrifically neglected in every way, although they have A LOT of blankets.

WIP Wednesday

It's all so dreadfully BORING at the moment.  I'm the librarian at school, for my sins, and I've been going in in the morning and tidying up, reorganising and generally trying to sort the wheat (good, new books) from the chaff (a lot of the other books).  This means that I am just too tired to do anything - I didn't sign up to be full-time with young children, and it's hard bloody work.  Everything's taken a backseat: knitting - abandoned; crochet - sporadic; baby grow making - on hold.  It's not great, but it's the way it is at the moment. Fortunately, there is a light at the end of the tunnel - I want to have the library looking great by next Thursday, so I can chat about it at the staff meeting on the following Monday, so not many days left to go.  Plus, I think I've got my costume sorted for Simon's birthday party, so I can stop over-thinking and generally stressing about that now.  Just got to get a babysitter arranged now.

So, the upshot is that although I've now made the middles of 18 owls, and two owls complete with eyes and beaks, and two complete owl squares, I've not made that much of a dent in the owl blanket. The Wisteria jumper is still the same. The weather blanket needs another 11 squares to be up to date. The pirate baby grow is beautiful but needs sewing. The pilot tee-shirt is still in the planning stage.

They can all wait until I am less drained.

The list has been put in for completeness.  It is JUST THE SAME AS IT WAS.  *sigh*

Wisteria - on hold
Blue and Grey Socks - one sock done
Elephant blanket - one stripe made. Second stripe nearly finished. Beyond bored with it.
Peacock Mittens - one finished, bar the thumb (still)
Idlewood - still yarn
Ringo and Elwood mittens - nyeh
Owl Blanket - 18 owls left to go
Hexipuff Quilt - lots more to go.
Paper Dolls - finished and done.
Peerie Flooers - finished and done
Alphabet Blanket for Noah - done
Granny's a Square Afghan - done

Made It 2013

If you are not interested in knitting, crochet or sewing, LOOK AWAY NOW.

I've made a lot of things this year.  Lots of bloody baby grows for a start, as well as two skirts for me, numerous things for the children, accessories, jumpers, massive blankets, everything.  Except I haven't made some of the things I wanted to make.  I didn't manage to knit from stash every time; in fact, the stash grew exponentially, and is still growing.  Stuff I did make from stash didn't take as much as I thought I would need - I made a lovely cowl last night; less than a ball of Rowan Big Wool used, now what do I do with the rest?  I didn't knit from the queue much.  I got a few things done, but mostly  I made stuff I wanted to wear or give away, sneakily adding them to the queue just before casting on.

Some photos:

Noah's welcome to the world blanket.

A skirt for me - measure twice, cut once, use a safety pin to hold in the extra three inches of fabric.

Handmade Hallowe'en.

A dress for Lucy.

Lucy's birthday blanket.  

A dress made from fabric chosen by Lucy.  It looked much better than I thought it would.

The smallest socks I can be bothered to make.

Cape Town socks, pts 1 and 2.

Cape Town socks, pt 3.  The purple shrunk like a bugger (non-machine sock yarn - WHY?), so they now belong to Lucy.

Simon's socks.

Emotionally distant, solves crimes by itself.

Conspicuous by their absence: a welcome to the world handmade gift for baby Robin (the blanket I was working on was just too annoying, so I am going to give it to Lucy for her 6th birthday, and make him something else); Christmas knitting (my family apart from my daughters and husband do not deserve handmade stuff); Hattie's Birthday Owl Blanket (suffered from being addictive to make, so was put away, half finished, in February and not resurrected until after her birthday); anything for Simon apart from socks (tall men do not get knitted for - thirty inches of grey knitting is boring).

There are more photos on my Ravelry page, which can be found here: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/sljuls?set=2013n&view=thumbnail

And for those of you who read this far (good Lord, why?), and aren't on Ravelry, there are photos on my flickr page here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/juliaclare/

Mutter

I do not wish to mention the craft fair again. The good bits are that the product I make doesn't go off, so I don't have to chuck it and I paid for the table with earnings.  Oh well.  I've opened an Etsy shop now, so watch this space.

Apart from that, it's been an ok sort of day.  Stir up Sunday tomorrow, so I've getting all the Christmas pudding ingredients together in preparation.

Normal service will resume on Monday.

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow

is the Ealing 135 Christmas Fair.  I think I am as prepared as I'll ever be.  I can't find my nice wooden pegs; so will have to improvise hanging tee-shirts from the clothes airer.

My new hair is a bit too straight - I like it, and shiny and new is better than bushy and scruffy, but it is too straight, and I can never be bothered to straighten it, so I suppose it is a temporary problem.

I finished The Testament of Mary last night; a disturbing read, with lots to think about.  I think I'll have to re-read it soon.  I recommend it to any one interested in Christianity, atheism, how to start a religion, religion generally, or who has a particular interest in reading about details of crucifixion.  I don't care what the Roman did for us; what they did to us and to each other was utterly barbaric.  Do look the book up, it is jolly good.  You can buy it from here or here (probably).  I recommend Bookseller Crow on the Hill, by the way.  Via the magic of the internet, I can buy from a lovely independent supplier.  Hurrah for the internet.

I've put a round up of all the photos of the baby gros here; it's on Facebook, I don't know if you need an account to see it or not.  What I need is a website.  New Year's Resolution #1.

Randomly on Thursday

Reading: The Testament of Mary by Colm Tobin.  It's very good.

Knitting: Not at all, just more and more sewing.  I'm going to make a cream snood-y type thing for the winter.

Watching: Ancient episodes of the Simpsons.  Nice, thoughtless rubbish.

Eating: Handfuls of Smarties as a reward for all the sewing.

Plotting: Things to do after Saturday, 1:30.  First on the list is to be a bit more interesting and to stop losing readers at such a horrible rate. 

Please come to the Fair!

Final few days

I am aware how boring I am (now?), but I've really only two things on my mind at the moment.  The sewing pile is getting steadily smaller, and I am nearly ready for Saturday morning; fingers crossed I sell at least five.

The other thing is school, which ebbs and flows between good and rotten; not so much my children, who are lively and hard work, but not doing too badly, but all the STUFF around them. Today has been interesting.

Writing the blog every night when I'm tired and preoccupied is a bit of a chore.  

Things I want to write about:

CS Lewis

The bloke on the radio this morning suggesting that there should be no prosecutions for crimes during the Troubles.

The books I'm reading.

Three guesses

Another one.  I've got 9 more to do and three more evenings. Ho hum. 

Saturday

1. Still sewing.

2. Simon took the girls to ballet and then Lidl.  We then had a 20 minute conversation about whether it is a pepperami or a pepperoni.  

3. Hurrah for articulate, assertive children.

4. I was in the kitchen at Messy Church today.  I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed it.

5. Only a week until the Ealing 135 Christmas Fair.  I'm not stressed about it.

Stuck record

I'm still sewing. I need an assistant.

This writing every day in the blog thing makes for some properly dull posts.  Sorry.

Sewing for Britain

It's good to do a bit of shouting sometimes.

Tonight, I am sewing baby gros.  So far, I have half made a Christmas pudding.  There is a lot to do and not very long to do it in.  

I'm getting a good sewing callous on my thumb.

Business Tuesday

I'm sure I've quacked on about my "business" before.  Anyway, here are two baby gros I am making for the Ealing 135 Fair on Saturday 24th November.  Perfect for Christmas!

 

Handmade Monday

More sewing! Regular readers will know that I have a small, not making a penny at all, business making baby gros for my friends children.  I've made lots and lots now, mostly for friends, but also occasionally for strangers.  I had a stall at a Christmas Fair last year, and I'm hoping to have another this year.  It's fun, and it does feel like I'm doing something completely removed from teaching; I do like my job, but sometimes it would be really nice to do something that fits around the children, rather than the children fitting in with what I do.  Anyway.

Made for Matthew's christening.

A baby controller; the first was made for an Ava, and I embroidered her name over the red buttons, this one was made for an as yet unborn baby, so no name.

Made for Karen's niece.  Nice and easy to sew, so always a winner.

My facebook page is here.  For all your baby gro needs.

Julia's Bespoke Babies, redux

I am attempting to make myself into an entrepreneur as a total change from teaching.  As previously written about at great and tedious length, I make baby gros - in that I applique little designs onto pre-made baby gros, and then sell them to people.  I've sold a whole load via facebook, and also at a Christmas fair.

My website is Julia's Bespoke Babies, and I am busy publicising it by all means fair and foul, which is why I'm going on and on about it now.  My friend Ruth runs a website called More than a Mum, and I have been interviewed by her (get me) about the business, and it should run sometime next week, which will be interesting.  I've also signed up to a couple of websites selling handmade things - both of them specialize in selling things made by mums, so will be my target market.  I'm also considering advertising and running craft parties, so watch this space.  

It's all rather exhausting to think about, but I'm sure the reality will be perfectly manageable and fun.

So, if you have a baby on the way, or if you know someone who has and wants a baby gro, please point them in my direction.  If they're not on facebook, point them at this blog.  I'll be everso grateful.

OMG etc

Gosh.  This blog has had 7001 page views, and as I don't track my own page views, they are not all me pressing refresh like a demented chimpanzee.  How amazing.  I know that my deathless prose doesn't reach 7000 people, but I'm so glad that people are reading this; I know it's a bit dull, and a bit domestic, but I do try to make it fun.  I was actually discussing Writing for Pleasure with a colleague tonight, and this is what the blog is for, and why I do it, and I'm glad that my pleasure is read by other people.  So, thank you.

Harriet the conceptual artist put the ladybird magnets in the baking cupboard.  They were carefully placed and looked for all the world as if they had crawled in all by themselves.

In other news, I am heavily publicising Julia's Bespoke Babies, spamming all my friends on facebook, and joining a crafty mums site called "Crafty Bums", so I'm hoping to sell a few that way.  I've still got a lot of stock hanging around from the Ealing 135 Christmas Fair, and I've had a couple of commissions since then.

The bicycle was a commission, the shamrocks were for a friend's daughter's first birthday.

I've added a "What I am reading" bar to the blog, so now, as long as I keep on writing with monotonous regularity, I should have a record of the books I've read this year.  The one I'm reading at the moment, "Ines of my soul", by Isabel Allende, is alright.  Not bad, but a bit too apologist for the conquistadors for my taste, and very graphic in its descriptions of unpleasant tortures, burnings and other ways of dispatching other people.  It gets 3 severed heads out of 5.

Quinoa risotto

Julia's Bespoke Babies went down a storm on the 1st, selling a whole bunch of baby gros, and taking in a few orders from strangers, as well as from friends.  So I am very happy, and have a big bag of cash, and am starting to think about other craft fairs and future orders.  I've got a couple to make this week; two for a woman in Ealing, one for a friend.  Hurrah.

It was Hattie's birthday on Monday, she is two which is unbelievable, and I'm finding it difficult to come to terms with my little baby turning into a big girl who stamps and shouts and is generally difficult.  She's been practising her terrible twos tantrums for ages now, and is quite good at them; sadly for her, I'm now immune, and I just pick her up and make her get on with what ever it is I want her to do.

We are having quinoa risotto tonight, which is an Esther Walker recipe, and I've made it before for my parents.  I was walking disconsolately around Waitrose this evening with Hattie pulling my hair and wiping mashed banana on my coat, and I suddenly remembered this recipe, and that made my life that bit easier.  Hurrah for Esther Walker, and wouldn't it be nice if she wanted a baby gro?

Work is going quite well at the moment; I am still looking around me, and still looking for a change for September, but I'm relieved that my observation went well and that things are stabilising.  A bit. 

There's more,  but I'm not sure what to say about it at the moment. 

Stir up Sunday

Another domestic couple of days.  The Christmas pudding is bubbling away in its little ceramic pot with its foil and baking parchment lid - another hour and a half to go and then it's ready for Christmas.  I'm using Dan Lepard's recipe again - I made an Epiphany pudding in January, but this year I am being more traditional and making Christmas pudding the weekend before Advent.

The collect for the day:

Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

So stir up we did, and the whole family had a go with mixed results.  Harriet did not want to, Lucy patted it like a cat with a toy and Simon gave it a good stir; I made lots of wishes while I was stirring away, mostly to do with the extraordinary amount of cooking I've done this weekend and the horrible cold that is lurking at the back of my throat, in my ears and on the ulcers on my lips, cheeks and tongue.  Yuck. 

Parents' Evening on Wednesday and a Book Fair, and dear Lord, please let the parents plenteously bring forth the cash so that we can turn over at least £400, although I'm prepared to make up the difference, so that the Travelling Book people aren't too annoyed with us.   

Next Saturday I'm at the Ealing 135 Christmas Fair, so wish me luck for that.  I've got about 13 baby gros ready and want to make another 10 or so, which may well be wishful thinking or may be completely possible, I don't as yet know.  I may even sell one or two. 

Pink gingham stegosaurus anyone?  Other stegosauri also available.  Probably.

Trivia

The cure for not having any time to write anything is to sit down, turn on the computer and just get on with it. I am waiting for my supper to cook; curiously enough, it's the same as last time I wrote in the blog, orzo from Nigellissima, but this time with baby broad beans, chorizo and stock instead of plain boiling water.  One day I'll make the recipe as written, but as it is a bit of a store cupboard standby, I just use what ever is at hand.

It's been a busy few weeks - I've been out a lot, twice with my husband, shock horror, and we have had a great time, although two hangovers on two consecutive Saturday mornings were less fun.  Last Saturday was Messy Church, where I locked myself in the kitchen, and didn't have anything to do with other people's children, which suits me fine.  We have obviously tapped into a need in Hanwell with our Messy Church - the inaugural event had 74 guests, last week we had 114.  Of course, the General Synod, in their infinite wisdom, have voted against women bishops, so all we will hear is that the Church of England is out of touch. It is infuriating.  We work so hard to be relevant - our Messy Church is exciting and involving and full of fun things to do and worship pitched at just the right level, we are heavily involved in the Winter Night Shelter charity that is for rough sleepers in Ealing, and yet all you hear is that we hate gays and women.  Rubbish.  Maybe the time has come to do some proper shouting.

Mind you, I've got a lot of shouting to do about Disney bloody Princesses - what a lot of old crock.  Big eyes, powerless and totally wet.  Mind you, the boys don't come out much better - the Beast is the only one with any sort of back story - the Prince in Cinderella is rubbish, just a cipher.  Prince Philip (what a stupid name for a prince I scoffed, oh hang on) is alright I suppose, but he is also a bit pathetic in lots of ways.  The other message from Disney is that you can only be a useful woman if you are old and a bit bats - Mrs Potts, the Fairies, the Fairy Godmother.  Grr, grr, grr, and it is only because I was forced to watch three back to back that I am on the old high horse about it all.

In crafting news, I am knee deep in baby gros - I think I have made 13 so far - for the Ealing 135 Christmas fair on the 1st of December, and as they won't sew themselves, I had better get on with it.  My target is 25 made, and I'm hoping to sell a lot of them as well as getting orders for others.  A girl can dream.

Pictures to follow.

Hnnnnnnggggggggghhhhhhhh

Which is the sound made by someone who has no energy for anything outside of work and children and desperate scrabbling around for time to write about ANYTHING.

Ah well, it's been a busy old month what with one thing or another, what with racing across London to see a man in Stratford of all ghastly places, wrestling Lucy from school to school to French Club, to Rainbows, to Cubs, to ballet, to Costa, to exhaustion and tears, hothousing Hattie in playgroups, baby French clubs, trips to the park and Waitrose.  Hattie can now sing "Brille, Brille", which is "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" in French (in so much as she can sing anything using words), and Lucy is interesting, interested and can write her own name and count up to 100, so it must all be worth it, mustn't it?

I even have time for myself occasionally, knitting and crocheting away, making baby gros, tending the orchids (which are thinking about flowering again, how exciting) and even sometimes sleeping, although never enough.  I've even had a chance to dye yarn, in order to make a new Rainbow cardigan for Lucy.

October Unprocessed is nearly over and I will have a Diet Coke on Thursday.  I have missed it like crazy, but as that is really the only thing I feel I just couldn't make at home, I felt that the letter of the law had to be applied in that case.  We have a variety of wonderful meals recently; tonight we are having Ox Cheek stew with Mushrooms and Orzo.  Ox cheeks are cheap and very meaty, although I don't really recommend cutting them up.  

entrepreneurship

Golly gosh, the power of advertising.  My last post was about the baby gro "business" and since then, I've had 117 people read the post and a whole bunch more look at the flickr page, and a couple of what I can only call pre-orders, as in people saying that they will be ordering one in a few days once they've been paid/had the baby/found a baby who needs more clothes.   It's all rather exciting really, and I think I'm going to need some more stock this week.

Let's hope that I can make £100 this year; that would be a wonderful thing.

Just in case: Baby gros