Things to do when your children are asleep

I have cut 200g of rosehips in half, and am making rosehip syrup. It is as interesting as it sounds.

Some things about knitting

Margaret Atwood, who I admire enormously (obviously), is on Twitter. A while back, she announced she was joining ravelry, as she is a knitter. She is also involved in this project:

http://idolvine.com/profiles/blogs/ravelry-project-knitting-an

She mentioned on Twitter, and I wondered whether dodos knitted on socks would count. She messaged me (!) to say that they would indeed count, and so I searched the internet for a suitable picture to translate into a knitting pattern and ended up with the picture at the top of this post.

Anyway, they are going to go on a pair of socks, on the legs. I will use Stephanie Pearl--McPhee's basic pattern but with a short row heel. I think I will use a pale blue as the main colour. I had to buy the yarn as I have no grey sock yarn. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

In other knitting news, the Swedish fish mittens are super easy to make. Hurrah for SpillyJane.

Mostly abou tcooking

Today, as I don't have to look after the girls, I have been doing a mental amount of cooking. I've made three pots of damson jam, which has set to perfection, and a pot and a half of a chocolate sort of fudge spread, which tastes a bit strange. I'm also going to bake a plum cake using the plums Maxine gave me over a week ago; only three of them had gone bad, so that's pretty good.

I've also scalded my finger sterilising a jar. Bum.

Accidents

Lucy has discovered a revolutionary new way of saving time when using the potty: don't take your knickers off.

*sigh*

I've got a bit of time as Harriet is spark out, and Lucy is at Cubs with her father. Hurrah. The house is very, very quiet, except for the last chapter of Unnatural Death on the iplayer, which has just come to a close. Supper is cooked, a roast chicken as they are 2 for tenner at our Farmers' Market. I want to make a teacake later, but it can wait.

Have we been busy? I can't remember, how strange. I know I went on four buses in order to get to St Margarets in order to meet Jane Brocket and buy her new book, which is lovely and I am planning to make a pair of socks from it; the cables look warm and cosy. Harriet and I went into London to meet up with a friend for lunch, which would have been nice had she not decided to stay awake for as long as possible and then have a proper screaming fit because she was exhausted. Silly rabbit.

I taught Junior Church; there were two children. It was a lovely, relaxed session, and we ended up in the Ark, doing some colouring in. Helen the curate is going to be a grandmother at Christmas, so I am going to knit her grandchild a small token. We will get our children into a church school. She's always been so kind and friendly to us and Lucy adores her, so it would be a nice thing to do, I think.

Lucy has potty trained herself, and we haven't had an accident since Sunday. That's only two days, but it's still pretty good. She now loudly announces that she needs a poo, and will often just go and sit on the potty when she needs to, and doesn't want to be prompted all the time, which is brilliant. I went to her parents evening too, she is doing very well indeed.

I honestly can't think of anything else that has happened; more knitting, cleaning, cooking, baking and running around after an increasingly mobile baby.

blogging guilt

I have lots to say, but no energy with which to say it.

Catch up

So. We went to Somerset to see Sophie, Daniel and the lovely little Oliver, who is going to be my godson. It was a bit of an adventure; Lyn and I have 3 children under 3 and we were trying to keep them entertained on the journey. Lucy was excellently behaved, except for just before the train pulled into West Ealing, when, of course, it didn't really matter that much anymore.

Sophie seems very calm and relaxed, enjoying being a stay at home mummy. I wish I could be the same sometimes, but I get terribly frustrated with not having an income and furious with having to ask for cash. I do think I've got the best of both worlds, working part-time, although I did feel marginalised at work, and would like to be doing something that's taken more seriously than Nursery. I keep telling myself it won't be like this forever, and I should just live in the moment and enjoy today blah blah blah, but it's difficult being Pollyanna.

Harriet and I managed to get into London to the V&A, to see The Cult of Beauty; Harriet does not like exhibitions. She was alright, and on the verge of sleeping, until I went into the exhibition itself, and then the big noise and the fighting Mummy started. Ah well. It wasn't so special that I had to look at every single piece in total silence, and it was totally rammed - on a Tuesday! Don't these people have jobs? We met up with Hat's godmother and her daughter; Flora, being that bit older, was absolutely fine, just getting a bit bored at the end. Hattie's main objection was that she wanted to go to sleep, and all this noise was stopping her from dropping off, and why wasn't she allowed to have scones and jam and cream, and it's not fair.

We also went to Northampton to see a friend - she is also blessed with a very bossy little girl, so Emma and Lucy bossed each other around fairly happily all afternoon, mostly watching endless Charlie and Lola episodes. Lucy was also very upset and frightened by the dog, although this dog is well trained, lovely and very friendly. Lucy did not approve of her, screaming and crying. In a way, I can see why she is frightened, but I wish she wasn't; it's very tiring, and I played with the dog and cuddled her to show Lucy that she wasn't scarey, but we were having none of it. She tried to pull this stunt with Sophie's cats, but I was having none of that.

I've got another day off today; Simon has taken the girls to Rye House in Hertfordshire, to watch Jamie bugger about on his motorbike, and I've been knitting, sewing and generally not doing very much. I was going to make a blueberry clafoutis, but someone ate the blueberries and I'd have to go outside to get more, and I just can't be bothered. Another time.

Day off

I went to the V&A today, on my own, with no children, and no responsibilities.



There is a very interesting exhibition called "The Cult of Beauty" but, being a Saturday, it was heaving, so I just wandered around aimlessly.



A couple of things fell into my shopping bag - some notelets, a postcard with owls on it and an "L" and an "H" printing blocks. I am planning to buy some ink to show Lucy how to print her name - how could this end badly?



As I was near the Fulham Road, I walked down as far as I could be bothered, went to a delicatessen, Daunt Books, had lunch at Paul, and generally enjoyed myself. I even sat on the top deck of a double decker bus. Twice! How exciting. It's very liberating not having the buggy.

In knitting news, I am making a purple jumper for Lucy. The ungrateful little so and so, having chosen the yarn herself, is now rejecting it. Joining a "stash down!" group on Ravelry has prompted a flurry of yarn buying - mostly Noro too, which quickly becomes super expensive. All because I want to make this:

http://getyourhookon.wordpress.com/2007/10/10/woohoo-its-done/

Ideally, I will make it over the next year or two, thus reducing the expense to acceptable levels.

I made this

Geri lost her husband. We loved him very much indeed. I wanted to do something, so I made her this to celebrate her new life as a rollergirl. She took the pictures, which is why they are better quality than usual.



It's not bad for a first attempt.

Time on my hands

Specifically, 22 minutes, then I have to go and collect Lucy. Harriet is snoozing - she is sleeping very badly in the day at the moment, and it affected her sleep last night - 2 wake ups, both with great big feeds. I also did a bit of a quick and dirty weigh-in with her - she's 1 stone 1 pound, which is what she was at last month's q&d weigh-in, so either I am hopeless at weighing her, or she isn't gaining weight. Hopefully I can take her to a proper weigh in this week or next and get a more accurate figure; I'm not worried yet, just a bit concerned. I'll probably have to make a bit more of an effort to take her once a fortnight, just to check I'm doing things properly. She's a happy little soul, and looks perfectly pink and fit to me.

What else? We had a very happy Easter at my parents, although they drive me insane with rage every now and then. They regard their grandchildren as somewhat of a chore to be endured, rather than a pleasure to be enjoyed, so too bad for them, they are missing out. Lucy has discovered that she only really likes our church - we went to Linton church on Easter Sunday and she was bored rigid. No one even gave her a biscuit! Actually, the Croydens did not cover themselves with glory at that service. Harriet has recently discovered her "loud" voice, which is trying, and she uses it when things aren't going her way, or she hasn't been fed for half an hour or so. We are going to put her on solids in the next couple of weeks. Can't wait.

I'm re-reading "A Spot of Bother" by Mark Haddon at the moment. It is quite good. I think I'm up to 30 books since January 1st now, not including ebooks - I have come round to the idea of a kindle - not the reality, I'm not buying one - now I've discovered that the Oz books are all available as digital versions for free. I've been wanting to own them for ages, but they are expensive and hard to find, so I've held off buying them; using the wonders of the ibooks iPod app means that I got them instantly and for nothing. They aren't very good, and I feel that L Frank Baum just brushed his bum against a typewriter for the later ones, but it's nice to re-read them after all this time.

The flower blanket was pushed into service last night, despite not yet being finished. It is looking amazing at the moment, I'm so impressed with myself. It doesn't bear too close inspection though, but the errors can't be seen from a trotting horse, so nevermind.

Time's up.