off the hook...toddler cardigan

I have an entire Jacobs Crackers tin full of buttons and yet couldn't find three suitable buttons to finish off this cardigan.

Following a pattern for a 6 month size but with any old DK instead of the recommended brand resulted in a size suitable for a nearly two year old. Lesson learned. Luckily this was with foster children in mind and my sister in law fosters children up to three years old. Phew.

I'm going to attempt another baby cardigan next, excuse me while I go and work up a tension swatch!

Bargain...

I've had my iPad a while now and I've only just got round to using the Kindle app on it. I also have a Kindle which I must admit I don't use as often as I should given that it cost £89. I find myself taking it along whenever M has a day off and we go out for the day. Inevitably he has to take business calls when we're having lunch or coffee and I get bored looking at the back of his phone.

M takes his iPad everywhere and therefore always has something to read, something to take notes on, something to look up the nearest... whatever (wool shop!) So I thought I'd get my Kindle App up and running and make a start on my backlog of free novels. Somehow I got browsing and stumbled across this American crochet book, One Skein Wonders, and couldn't believe it was only £1.49. The paper version is nearly £10 at the moment. I orderd it and downloaded it and hey presto, it's in colour! Doh. I'm not sure why I thought it would be in black and white, perhaps because my Kindle is.

It's a big improvement on owning a Kindle I must say. I like being able to click on something of interest in the table of contents and go straight there. The book is organised in yarn weights with a good variety of projects. I've resisted buying this kind of book in electronic format until now but at this kind of price I'd gladly buy any of my paper crochet books for Kindle just for the portability aspect.

Simple crochet baby jumper...

I was right about my baby cardigan. It turned out a little large for 3-6 months. In fact it was nearer toddler age, so I put it to one side today (because I was a bit miffed with it) and attempted an altogether simpler pattern. This one is by Vicki Brown and was featured in Issue 27 of Inside Crochet. I ran out of blue wool with one row to go which is why it has a pale blue neckline. I tried various embellishments but decided it looked better plain, though if it was for a girl I did a cute pale blue flower with a white middle.

Just to give an idea of how dinky it is I laid it on my newly acquired angora/merino sweater. Made in Italy and only £3. This is the second expensive wool sweater I've bought recently. The first was a lovely dusky blue cashmere and wool affair in a fine knit with three quarter length sleeves, that was £4. I think these things end up in charity shops because some poeple find them itchy. They both look brand new.

Tomorrow I will return to my first cardigan attempt and finish it anyway. It's a much cleverer looking garment and I reckon cardigans are always a better option for dressing babies, no pulling clothes over their little heads!

Once that is done I am going to take a break from following patterns and take a leaf out of my Mum's book. She's much better at crochet than I am and never follows a pattern. Now that I am armed with chest measurements for baby sizes I'm planning a boat neck top, possibly with a button or two on the shoulder, using granny squares.

This reminds me of a very good friend I had when we were both studying (me, graphic design and her, illustration). When she heard I was expecting Ella she decided to learn to knit. This was nearly sixteen years ago and there weren't as many classes or knit and natter groups as there are now. She joined a local knitting circle which was mainly grandmothers. Her first attempt was a cardigan which used only squares of garter stitch with two folded down for a collar. It was great. I loved it. I appreciated that she had learnt this new skill and made it completely herself. Later attempts became more adventurous and colourful. By the time Ella was three she declared that she was too big for hand knits and would start making clothes for her favourite doll instead. 'Dolly' has an extensive wardrobe of hand knitted skirts, cardigans and jumpers and even shoes based on bootie patterns (the doll had big feet!).

A new toy...

It's taken us seven years to get round to purchasing a proper apple picker. I guess we've had other priorities. Spurred on by my tasty apple pie (and the danger involved in picking the apples) I googled apple pickers and read reviews into the small hours. There are quite a few different models out there. Some seem to have aluminium teeth with mesh bags and telescopic poles, and they don't come cheap. The general feedback on these is that the teeth break and the bag parts company with the frame.

Eventually I stumbled upon a good old fashioned wooden stick with a metal basket on the end. The basket has prongs that hook the branch that the apple is attached to and with a gentle tug it just pops the apple into the basket, which has a foam pad to stop the apples bruising. It's brilliant! I can definitely recommend it. The pole is only 1.4m long which, with 5'8 and outstretched arms means I can get most of the good ones. The rest will have to be harvested by M standing on something.

I got mine from a website called greenhousesensation.co.uk. It arrived very quickly. Would have been very handy for the plums at the end of August too.

Just the sleeves of my baby cardigan to crochet and attach and then buttons to choose and sew on, and then I will show you... I'm either out of touch with how big 3-6 month old babies are or this one is only fit for Hagrid's love child!

Baby crochet...

One minute you're rocking them to sleep in your arms (Ella) or rubbing their backs until they fall asleep (Jake) and the next minute you're dropping them off in town for work experience! On the outside I was saying all the right things and on the inside I was thinking 'how did it all go so quickly?'

Work experience was an ordeal for me. I didn't have the social skills (shy) nor the equipment (ears) so I hated every minute. Later I got a second chance at it, press photography for the local paper and I loved every minute of that. One highlight was finding myself at a 'do' for the Mayor. We had to mingle and drink Sherry before taking photographs. Between you and me the photographer I was with liked a drink or two so he encouraged me to be polite and take one, despite the fact that I was only 15. Yuk. Foul. I've never had one since.

Meanwhile back at home, the kitchen is in a stalemate situation and I needed to take my mind off the whole work experience thing (I didn't find out til much later that it had gone well). So I did the only sensible thing this afternoon and sat outside with my crochet. It was gloriously hot. Harvey sunbathed at my feet. Mollie reclined in the spare basket chair.

I've been all over town today trying to locate a good crochet pattern for a baby cardigan or jumper. I've got a couple of online possibilities but I like a good paper one for portability. In the end I found just what I was looking for in the indoor market. I had the tweedy yarn already. It started off with a row of granny type squares with 8 clusters in the middle, making a flower shape, it's squared off with half trebles (love that stitch) which makes them cute and dinky.

I'm half way through the pattern already. Baby clothes are the perfect little project with a useful outcome. This will be the first of several. So who is the lucky baby? M's sister is a foster parent and looks after babies mostly. They are not always short term and often don't arrive with much of a wardrobe so she's asked for cardigans or jumpers in neutral colours. I don't usually like requests but who could resist baby clothes?

More baking...

So, while we waiting for the electrician and plasterer I seem to be in a baking mood. Typical that this occurs when all around is utter chaos and only the top oven works.

Do you like my vintage new rolling pin? I bought that today in an antique shop, only £4. Quite useful for baking but also useful for the roller printing featured in this months Mollie Makes. For a minute there M thought I'd gone all domestic.

The apple pie is all gone. It met with approval, which was a surprise because M assumes I'm totally incompetent in the kitchen. He did comment that he thought there was a touch too much cinnamon. Really? Can you have too much cinnamon?

I have been up the rickety ladder and risked life and limb on the shed roof and picked a few more apples. I'm planning another gluten free apple pie but this time using the pastry recipe supplied by the gf flour: Doves Farm. Simpler and probably more reliable.

In the meantime...

...is there anything better than the smell of freshly baked cookies? Oatmeal and Vanilla with chocolate chunks. This was my second batch. I did half of the batch with the chocolate for the family and half without for me. Yes I do realise that I get the better deal quantity wise, but they don't need gf cookies. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. Jake in particular won't touch anything that he knows is gluten free because he associates it with an inferior taste. Little does he know he's been munching gluten free oat cookies all week!

Spot the conkers? I love conkers. One of the best memories I have of primary school is donning our Wellies and going out to collect things for our nature table. I can still remember the fascination of catkins. They just struck me as incredible things. The children bought a handful of conkers back after school on their walk from the bus stop. I was a bit of a conker champ who I was ten. They're with the solitary acorn that I picked up the other day and two silver birch leaves the colour of Werthers Toffees.

Harvey thinks he's getting extra frisbee catching practice when in fact it's just an excuse to collect things for my nature table!

My first ever apple pie...

How did I get to 40 something cough, did I say 40 something? What I meant to say was 39... so how did I manage to get to that age without making an apple pie?

OK so mine doesn't look like the book version...

Left over pastry for leaves? You've gotta be kidding me. Blasted stuff fell to pieces as soon as I lifted it. I blame the gluten free flour. On the other hand I might add a bigger egg next time and a dash more milk.

Taste wise though; wow! Fabulous. More than likely extra tasty because I haven't had an apple pie in a long time.

Meanwhile, who needs a new kitchen when you can have a fabulous sink like this one? Suspended with washing line while the floor was being levelled, it now has to stay like that until the new sink arrives. I bet Nigella never had to put up with this aggro!