Yarn Along - The Unbelievable Sleep-Climbing Baby

OK so this is what I'm actually working on today:


Rainbow wrist warmers. And that's the book I just finished, Mirror Dreams by Catherine Webb which I enjoyed hugely overall (and she wrote it when she was fourteen, which I can't help be impressed by given the number of books I've read written by adults that *sounded* as though written by a fourteen year old)! I likes the random fantasy book series finds. :)

I'm not going to show progress pictures on the shawl. Needless to say it's still not *quite* finished and it's still not blocked and you can just wait til next week when it will be both.

Anyway, the "and a funny story" bit. Last night I was doing dishes in the kitchen while baby napped on the sofa. I hear a whimper and the start of a cry from the living room and thought, uhoh I'm going to be interrupted now. Then nothing. So I didn't go to check on her.

When I came back through, this is what I found: Baby, asleep, hugging the shawl. Clearly mama smells like sheepy squishiness and vice versa.


More impressively, this is what she had done (halfway sleep, remember) to get to the shawl!


Yeah, I have weird kids. And also, yes, Martin and I laughed and took pictures before rescuing the poor tired darling.

Joining in the Ginny and friends for the weekly Yarn Along share. :)

Being Here Now - and curve sculptures

Jenna and I love to play on Pinterest together, and often come away with ideas of artsy craftsy projects we want to try. (It's such a great inspiration to me - as a very visual person - that any time I have a really GREAT new idea or suggestion the children immediately ask, "Did you get this off Pinterest, mama?" *sigh*) This is one of the ones she picked out with an "ooh" of appreciation the last time we browsed together.

Building and Creating with Curves

Recently I've been finding my parenting challenged by the priority-pull of running a business. You know, things like trying to nurse the baby whilst filling in my first ever tax self-assessment form (in the dark, because I couldn't reach the light switch!). Things like knowing that I have a deadline for a big order, and not having enough hands, and then realising that I've done so much "work" stuff I haven't properly attended to my commitment to help them follow *their* passions. I've said, "later" a lot - and "can I just finish this?" OK, not just a lot, actually more like almost all of the time.

I've been thinking through what I want, and how I want to model giving gracefully to others, and how I want to be present with them and set aside time for working so that I'm more available at times when they usually need me more. For the last couple of weeks I've been trying to challenge myself to say yes, to turn my attention to them fully when they speak to me, and to take action *now* rather than always putting things off for someday. The latter is a tricky one for me, queen of procrastinators.

The net result has been that my kitchen has never been tidier, and I have got so many things done *before* the looming deadlines. I have done art projects, answered questions, got messy things out, gone for walks, and read aloud every day. Often right when I was asked to. (This extends to the poor obliging Mr, too. I think it has come as rather a shock to him to find me not doing other things while he's trying to talk to me, and pausing in the middle of a knitting project to make dinner rather than moaning about why he still can't cook after all these years.)

Anyway, once more slightly off topic and rambling on rather than talking about the fun stuff!

We're going to paint them too. When they're dry. Which might take a while, because squirting glue was Rowan's favourite bit. That and messing about with the cardboard tubes...

Wish me success in my quest to find more hours in the day, and generally be a slightly less distracted more pleasant person to live with?

A week of Sunshine and Rain

1. Friends out for pizza
2. Boo just hanging out
3. Blossom
4. Laundry in the sun
5. Fronds
6. Jeweled window pane
7. Drizzly town morning: sad toddler in a happy dress

Just Tired

Knit a little more.

Read a little more.

Make another cup of tea.

Put another load of laundry through.

Serve cereal for snack.

Pick up a selection of sequin stars off the floor.

Wipe a small dirty face.

Remove a wooden hedgehog from my (cold) cup of tea.

Pair up a bag full of socks.

Knit a few more rows.



I'm running on empty a little today. And wondering when baby beloved will drop the new 3am shenanigans in favour of gifting mama with enough sleep. And grateful, always grateful, for this life. Even on empty.

Bluebell meanderings

Today we mostly pottered around at home. Jenna worked on designing a level for her favourite playstation game, and I dyed some silks, roving, and yarn. Rowan played Octonauts and untidied along behind Martin trying to clean. Morgan just wanted absolutely anybody to play clapping games with her, and pinballed around between whoever was free for a moment.

We wanted to get out of the house, just for a little while, so we headed up to see the bluebells in the woodland near where my mum lives.





Talia had been very tired this afternoon (that's what happens when you don't want to sleep at night, baby!) so I figured she would probably stay in the sling. I was mistaken. She, in fact, wanted to toddle shoe-less through the brambles, and hassle the sisters for sweeties! In the picture above, you can *just* see her little blonde head in the top left, following Jenna as fast as she was able...



Recently this big girl is really getting on so much better with everyone. A lot of that fiery frustration has gone, and she is so very tolerant of the little ones asking her for help and wanting to play with her (and interrupt her as frequently as they interrupt me). Talia often asks for her, and sits shouting "Ne-na! NE-NA!" until she gets an answer.



Rowan has looked a little lost today. Strange for her to be so quiet. But then, she is so perfectly at home in the woods, her little pixie face turned up to gaze at the trees. Sometimes it's so hard to balance everyone's preferences and needs, and I love the moments I catch one of them alone (or better still, get to take someone out for a date). Even when they are enjoying each other's company, they are really different as a group to how they are alone.

Right now, Morgan and Rowan are sitting on the floor kissing Tali's tummy and grinning at her, rolling around together like a basket of puppies. Now Rowan is lying banging her feet on the floor, and Talia is copying her. These little ones will never have my full attention in the way Jenna did at first. I think the trade-off is worth it. But I wonder what they would have been like as only children...

Yarn Along - shawl progress and other random thoughts

I think I'm around half way with the shawl, maybe a little more depending on whether I decide to use the entire three skeins, or possibly break in to a fourth! I really love the pattern, and it's flying along so easily now. The pattern felt just within my comfort zone at first, and now I'm feeling magically more confident with lace knitting around the children, and taking on bigger projects - the next couple of things on my to-do list are slightly more adventurous and using finer yarn too.



The hat, for a customer, is my hand dyed rainbow aran. Rainbow yarn makes me so happy. It hasn't all been creamy undyed fibre love this time around! I think I dyed almost a kilogram of bright beautiful sparkly colour this week. :)



It's been a busy few days. My darling Mr had his birthday, my little wild ones have eaten about their own body weight in home made ice lollies, and my monkey baby seems to be increasingly taking long day time naps in order to rampage around my bedroom at 3am (how long it takes me to reach my breaking point on this one remains to be seen).

It has been, in a million different ways, a perfect sun-kissed week of joy. At the same time, I am so bone-achingly tired, knitting is about the only thing keeping me functional. I love how yarn crafts give me that, busy hands keeping my mind present and level, and the progress of each project is a measure of moments; stitch by productive stitch, breath by breath, centred and whole and here and filled with light.

Day Book from a day of re-enactment and summer warmth

Outside my window the sky is brightest blue with tiny high wisps of cloud. It is a true summer's day with the barest breeze, the girls and I are all in summer dresses (actually, not all, the baby has been running around bare since we got back from Wollaton hall.

I am thankful for healthy joyful inquisitive children. I am thankful for the tax rebate that means we have a car again. I am thankful for the soothing repetitive work of knitting my shawl when I am tired and frazzled. I am thankful for this gentle, present, patient husband of mine.

In the kitchen... oh gosh, well I left a total disaster area in there this morning when I made our picnic. We had caramelised onion quiche, couscous with lemon and herbs, home made falafel with yoghurt and mint dip, raw crunchy veggies, and raspberry muffins. And I left all the washing up and now *really* don't want to do it.

I am wearing a floor length teal jersey dress and non-matching brown socks, with my favourite headscarf.

I am creating a summer shawl of loveliness (about half way now). I have plans to dye a couple of sets of lovely summer play silks for my shop. There is also more yarn coming (tomorrow, I hope) because I have plans for a lovely fine lace cardigan for Jenna and striped wrist warmers for a friend. :)

I am going swimming tomorrow, I think. We have been throwing around a few ideas for what Mr Martin might want to do on his birthday, and he reckons swimming. Possibly preceded by a cooked breakfast, if he's very lucky.

I am wondering whether my poor rhubarb plant will survive having been attacked by a renegade four year old with a spade...

I am looking forward to a planned trip to stay with Ashleigh in Yeovil one last time before she moves house (and county) over the summer. We will see friends around Bournemouth and Poole, visit the fossil beaches, explore the gorgeous parks, and quite probably eat an indecent amount of icecream.

I have learned several quite interesting things about cannons and cannonballs this morning (as well as having to calmly prevent one of my children from flinging one at another). I am also learning just how wonderful it is for my children when their mother is calm and happy, and not frantic and miserable. I really feel that the sun has been a major factor in this corner we have turned, as well as the positive and gentle encouragement of some wonderful friends.

I am pondering good habits. Just Add Light and Stir

A favourite quote for today: You can't save people - you can only love them.

One of my favourite things is the funny little bop the baby does any time she hears music.

A peek into my day:

Seven Days of baby portraits

1. Nap time
2. Loving on a tiny
3. Morning cheeky
4. Helping mama
5. Fraught little pickles needing a cuddle and a nap!
6. Spring hand knits plus smoothie
7. That blonde head

Unexpected Gifts and Awesomeness

You know all the really rubbish stuff that has happened this year? You remember me saying (when I was nearly passed out from an infection after the baby broke my tooth) that I was trying not to feel that somebody really OWES me for all this?

I'm not saying it works like that, ya know, but I've had some of the most amazing random blessings, financial stuff somehow going right for once, amazing co-incidences, kindnesses from people who know nothing about the struggles we're having this year...

So how lucky did I feel a couple of weeks ago to randomly win some of Flowerpecker's beautiful jewellery. (You can find her on Facebook too: HERE.)


And the huge great vegan chocolate cake. And another bracelet (I'll show you soon). And a tax credit backdated under-payment (I know, not exactly the same, but it feels like a win to me)! Anyhow. I can't keep my the-world-is-out-to-get-me expression on in the face of so many gifts...

Perfect Things

The museum had live field mice visiting.



We all love exploring the beautiful galleries full of interesting things.



Treasure hunts...



Colouring...



Followed by a sunny picnic lunch in the River Gardens with friends.

And a free cake from The Cake Hole (I am SO lucky)!



My spinning wheel is here and unpacked and GORGEOUS, and such a generous lovely gift I can still barely believe the kindness of friends.



I have done lots more gardening and enjoying the sunshine.





And a whole lot of yarn dyeing. :)





Today could not have been more perfect if I had planned it this way. :)

Unschooling on a Low Tide day

Every time I record a busy-school-y-academic sort of day-in-the-life, I promise myself that I will write another on one of the other kinds of day. Not a bad day, nor a stressful one. Not an exceptional day, not a more (or less) "educational" day, just... a different kind of atmosphere, different priorities.

Today we meandered from one thing to another. We didn't have a plan, or a project. We didn't focus on a subject, or drag out a load of interesting reference books, or set up an activity. It's days like today that lead me, when people ask whether we have "school holidays" to joke that we're always on holiday. Well, we are!

We tidied up a bit and Rowan helped me clean the bathroom (she loves spraying the tiles with water). Morgan drew a clock face and explained to me how she knows what time it is (I had no idea she knew how to tell the time). We made smoothies and I froze the left overs in ice lolly pots - I'm fairly sure this is the first year we have managed to find an actual set of these from the previous year! Jenna played a new level on her playstation game, then decided to do some painting and took a watercolour box into the garden and left it out there. Meanwhile Morgan wanted muffins, so she and Roo helped me make some.

Morgan did some wool winding with me, and Jenna did some gymnastics on the almost-totally-broken swing frame. When she got fed up with that she came inside and helped me price up new swings for if (when) we get some of last year's tax back. Then she read one of her library books, one of those choose-your-ending mysteries, which she kept exclaiming was "really annoying" because she kept choosing options that led to stories she didn't like.

Rowan asked about a billion times if the ice lollies would be ready yet. Every time I said they weren't, she had to go and open the freezer and poke them to check.

My father in law and sister in law came over to borrow one of our car seats from in the attic for a visiting family member. They offered to take us out for lunch; the children voted for MacDonalds and I didn't moan or roll my eyes. ;) We got glared at a bit, as is fairly usual as a large family out and about during school hours. The children chatted to grandad non-stop, fed the baby their chips, and helped clear up when we were finished.

Morgan and Rowan pretended to be superheroes as we walked home.


Everyone then played in the garden for a couple of hours, mostly putting on a series of pantomimes using an old pallet as a stage. I picked up a whole bag worth of general rubbish from the patio area, broken plant pots and bits of tile (one blew off the roof last week), part of a chicken feed dispenser from years ago (I still miss having chickens), a few small toys missed in previous tidying sessions (all thankfully salvageable). We watched ants going to and from a small apple core for a few minutes.

I came in to start making tea, and when the children followed me a few minutes later they had painted each other's faces with green watercolour "to be Shrek's babies", so I bathed them before food. There was lively discussion about which soap they like best.

So: we tidied, played, read, chatted, smiled, and walked. And we were learning and exploring in just the way we needed to be. And it was good.

Woolly Wednesday - undyed obsession

Here's shawl progress...


That's what one whole skein of undyed aran looks like, folks. :)

This week I've also made two tiny natural cream hats. Undyed yarn makes me happy. Colour makes me happy too, but right now, something about the squishy undyed state is really deeply satisfying me. :)


Pure undyed alpaca. Oh gosh, this is so dreamy soft, and I just cannot bring myself to dye it yet... It's a test skein for a new range. I don't know where to begin, I'm totally in love with it just as it is. :)


Sort of half joining in with Ginny and friends this week. Nothing much to report on the book front!

Daybook with Hama beads, cupcake chaos, and a broken washing machine

Outside my window the children are playing in the garden. Two are dressed as superheroes, and one is a mermaid. The garden is in its usual disarray, with children's hand tools, toys, and empty flower pots around the place. I have just recycled an old toy box into another raised bed and weeded all the areas of my garden soon to receive the tender little seedlings from my kitchen window sill. 

It's a warm bright day in spite of the clouds, and the willow tree is almost fluorescent yellow with catkins. The hint of pink frills at the tip of one or two buds on the apple tree promise a shower of blossom any day now.

I am thinking that I will miss the warm heavy weight of this baby on my arm when she no longer falls asleep on me. :)

I am thankful for the warm fresh earth, dirty finger nails and naughty toddler footprints in the middle of my vegetable bed, the deep resonance of the wind chimes in the kitchen, the fuzzy blonde fluff of this baby's hair, and the chaos and peace of family life.

In the kitchen the floor has an array of muddy footprints, and the surfaces show evidence of an eight year old having made chocolate cup cakes all by herself - I can see dirty pans stacked up, a bowl with traces of luminescent yellow icing, and a good sprinkling of pink edible glitter. 

I have a pan of boiled eggs cooling to make sandwiches, as the children are still apparently hungry after their lunch of vegetable soup. All of this fresh air is not helping the food budget!

I have the ingredients for mixed pepper veggie fajitas and I am SO looking forwards to it - I finally found a way my children like to eat peppers cooked. :)

I am wearing my favourite yellow tshirt, and unfortunately, pink PJ bottoms with lace around the hems. I have four pairs of trousers, and all of them have been child-ed, and our washing machine is broken. We have had to go four days without doing any laundry (except what we can carry over to my brother's house to use his machine) because it took us that long to get money together and find a machine within budget. My brother is helping us pick the new one up tonight hopefully, and I will have clean trousers, yay!

I am creating a huge cream shawl (for me), a small ribbed beanie (for the gorgeous Jo of Journey's Way Photography), and a yellow bonnet for my shop. Oh, and the children have had the Hama beads out today, though I'm not so much creating with those as constantly finding stray beads and picking them up...

I am wondering what Rowan is saying, talking in a funny voice to her Octonauts in the big wooden dolls house. Her sweet chatter is rather endearing when not directed at me in a stream of requests for more food (she is definitely having a growth spurt again)!

I am reading Mirror Dreams by Catherine Webb - written when she was just fourteen and really very inventive and fun, but unfortunately I am just not getting anywhere with it as I've only had reading time this week very late at night when I'm too tired to concentrate!

I am hoping for good news from one or more of the applications Martin has been feverishly filling in. He is struggling with rejection and not feeling useful. (Prayers welcome!)

I am looking forward to getting a backdated payment from working tax credits from the short period when both Martin and I were working long hours. I have no idea how much it will be, but it will be something, and when you have broken appliances and close to zero income, the prospect of a one off payment for *anything* is a relief.

I am learning how to make easy skirts from large tshirts, how to properly clean beeswax crayons, more lace knitting skills, and as usual I am learning how much easier it is to manage the garden if I work it all year round rather than April to September. ;)

Around the house I have a lot of laundry. Four days without a washing machine will do that when there are six in the house and one in cloth nappies and one who still veery occasionally wets the bed (and of course did so, on the day the machine broke). *sigh*
Oh, on the other hand, I did finally manage to hang (in my bedroom) the beautiful shell garland I made when Talia was born - from shells sent to me all the way from the very far North.

One of my favourite things is the joyful creativity of a group of children with a cardboard box.

A few plans for the rest of the week: well I will hopefully have some new shop yarn arrive soon for dyeing. And we'll be at the museum session on Friday. And that's about it. Next week it's Martin's birthday. :)

A peek into my day...





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