Daybook in the midst of pattern testing and being surprisingly housewifely

Outside my window the sky is uniformly cloudy grey-white and luminous. There is the smell of rain in the air. The garden is damp underfoot, and especially muddy where the baby upended the small salad beds in a deliciously happy game of mud pies (all four children unsurprisingly needed a bath after that afternoon).

The willow tree has that droopingly grey look it gets as the world turns towards Autumn. Being outside is delightful, achingly delicious, and my eyes find magic everywhere. Every street corner here has fruit to be foraged or beautiful leaves turning to gold, sycamore spinners on the ground like gifts from the sky, lime and linden crisp and crunchy to wade through.

I am thinking in stitch counts and gauge, carefully checking sizing. I never imagined I would willingly seek out maths puzzles, but this play with colour and stitch and the pure joy of creating has me sitting here in pattern development with papers and notes strewn across my lap.

I am thankful for the incredible variety of lovely people in my life right now, the conversations that have fed and sustained me this week, the awesome way in which women can lift each other up and encourage each other. I am so touched to see people rally together to uphold the hurting ones and give selflessly to each other. Oh the unexpected way real community creeps up on me and surrounds me with amazing friends!

In the kitchen Morgan has made cupcakes again, and is sitting at the table drawing pictures and waiting for the timer to go off so that she can check on them. She even does all the clean-up. Sweet little serious Morgan! :)

I also have a big bowl of chopped veggies ready for a warming Autumn stew, to go in to slow cook after the cakes come out. It's one of those organised and efficient sorts of days, much to my surprise. The living areas are all actually clean and tidy. I have to point this out as a temporary situation of which I am justifiable proud. ;)

I am wearing a soft slouchy grey dress with a bright teal vest over the top. I am wearing dresses a lot right now, and not feeling self-concious of the soft round mama-belly, happy in my skin.

I am creating Autumn fairies (still) - I had to re-work the heads after a disaster with the felting of fairy hair. I'm also working on Leafy hats, checking that my pattern works up proportionally in all sizes.

I am wearing a soft slouchy grey dress with a bright teal vest over the top. I am wearing dresses a lot right now, and not feeling self-concious of the soft round mama-belly, happy in my skin.

I am looking forward to a new living room carpet. I always said we'd wait til the smallest was definitely past any more little accidents, but I'm pretty sick of the ground in patchiness of the (nearly ten year old) carpet we have. So when we were offered a suitably sized (and impeccably clean) piece a relative is getting rid of, we said, "YES PLEASE!" (Yes, that loudly.)

Around the house: the cardboard boxes our food shop arrived in have been turned into a car and a dog kennel, which the baby is sitting inside on her rainbow patchwork knitted blanket. Rowan is sitting licking out the bowl of chocolate cake mixture. Jenna is lounging in the arm chair playing with some little tufts of merino.

The rest of the house really is the same old story. Laundry is never ending. :)


A favourite quote for today: "You don't need to break your bad habits. Leave the old habit to wither. Don't try to break it. Move to making better choices so that what you used to do and used to think will be left in the "choices I don't consider anymore" category." Sandra Dodd (Just Add Light and Stir)


Some of my favourite things: knitting with my own handspun, children in bright colours, teeny tiny stitches on felt, dumplings in vegetable stew, foraged plums, skeining rainbows, bunting, and stacks of library books.

A peek into my day:






Simple Woman's Daybook