Thursday 19 December 2013

A Cosy Yarn Along

Joining in with Ginny and sharing our very cosy knitting and reading this week.


Most of the current knitting is still gift-knitting, and the reading baby-orientated. I have just started this Active Birth book, handed down to me from a generous mum whom I only know through a local natural parenting group. I love that women will come together to support each other in this way, and hope I can pass on good sisterhood in this way too. My copy is from the early nineties or late eighties, and has some fantastic pictures of women in labour, but most especially I like the beards on the husbands! This seems to be a bit of a theme in these sorts of books (have you read the beloved Ina May Gaskin's Guide to Childbirth? Some cracking beards!). OK, OK, I know I should be focusing on something else here, but I find it hard to stay serious for too long! The lovely alpaca yarn is aiming to be a set of matching mittens for Sausages and one of his heroes, but I'm really struggling to turn the magic cast on into a row of knitting. Four or five times I have cast on this first mitten! I suspect that my tired, baby-addled brain is more to blame than the complexity of the project. I cannot for the life of me work out why it should be so difficult!


In preparing for Christmas I have dragged out my collection of cake-icing books, some gifted from my Grandmother-in-law, some from the rather fabulous Penn bookshop. This is part of an annual ritual, whereby I get out the books and ingredients, look at them for a while, and then chicken out and use ready-made icing from the supermarket. I seem to have a complete mental block in this area. I love to bake tasty things, but I just don't really engage with their prettification!


Sausages did help me marzipan the cakes


And we made mince pies





He also helped me to make some pretty gift tags using plain tags and my little collection of Christmas tapes. These tapes are seeing a lot of action at the moment! I'm fairly sure there isn't anything they can't cheer up! As you can see above, Sausages' contribution involved building the leaning tower of tires from the Casa Della Tires in the Pixar Cars film. He really will find a way to make ANYTHING about cars!


Today he's a bit under the weather, so he and I are snuggling under his duvet on the sofa, playing with cars and reading from the Advent books box. We had the pre-homebirth visit from the midwife yesterday, and are so close to making it to term with 'Madge. All is calm. All is bright. Not much reading, not enough knitting, but plenty of warmth and love. How are things with you? A last week of crazy before Christmas, or hunkering down like us? Merry Christmas!

E

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