not quite a yarn along...

This week I've been reading Caitlin Moran's How to be a Woman, which is frankly hilarious! All women should read it as part of their path to womanhood, even though Moran's experience of becoming a woman is not so generic as I think she presumes. I'm only snatching a paragraph here and there, and this book is perfect for that. I highly recommend it.

The merino baby gown is unfinished. There hasn't been any knitting for two weeks because I have been a bit busy with this little chap:

A good excuse, huh?

I'm typing this one-handed while he sleeps on my chest. We're just finding our feet, especially me! Having a newborn and a preschooler is big challenge, but these boys are pretty lush! Joining in with Ginny this week. Now how does she do it?

A tiny yarn along

Joining Ginny this week...

Approaching 39 weeks pregnant, and the amount I can get done is seriously diminishing! I am already six weeks more pregnant than I have ever been before, and I can't believe how much bigger I am! I feel like a walking time bomb, which is not so nice. In my head 'Madge was arriving over the Christmas break, so to be back doing the preschool run, swimming lessons etc. isn't sitting well in my head. I just want to sleep!

The abandoned Christmas knits remain abandoned in favour of baby knitting. I had a sudden panic about what the baby was going to wear to keep it warm at night, so I cast on a sweet little gown using some lovely Louisa Harding Ianthe 50% cotton/50% merino yarn. It's soft and delicious, and has a beautiful drapey texture for a baby knit. Plus, it is a discontinued yarn that I picked up for a steal on a site well-known for its lovely reductions! Sadly the lady I ordered lanolin from is on holiday until next week, so I won't be able to lanolise the little soakers until then, but there are two newborn size waiting to be done. They're so tiny and sweet! When this gown and maybe one more are done I will whip a couple up in the next size too. It's slow going though. I've made a couple of silly mistakes in the little gown already, just through being too tired to knit, and my brain is too addled to sort them out properly, so I have just bashed on. The baby won't notice, and actually probably nobody else will either.

I'm still reading The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul, a couple of pages here and a couple of pages there. More often I am reading with Sausages, or he is reading board books to "his baby." Sweet, affectionate boy. Oh, and husband did shave off his "crunchy birth partner" beard. Sad; it was looking lovely! He wouldn't believe me though.

I hope you're having a lovely week, and not waddling around avoiding your phone in case you've had a text to ask "how you are" (everybody knows this is code for: "have you had that baby yet?" You're fooling nobody). Sausages has promised me the baby is coming "after Christmas, on Tuesday," so maybe I'll have something other than knitting to share next week (or the week after...or the week after that!)

Have a lovely week!

E

The First Yarn Along of the Year!

Yarning along with Ginny, who encourages us all to share our reading and knitting each week.

This week, despite not actually having finished my Christmas gift knitting, I had an overwhelming urge to knit for the baby. I figure that when you're nine months pregnant it really is the time you can give in to those feckless urges, so I cast on a Little Seedling Soaker in the newborn size. I like the look of this soaker, because it looks more like a nappy wrap. I'd rather do the soaker up than pull the whole thing on and off over legs. I've met breastfed babies before! The first one is knitted but awaiting buttons and weaving in, and I have started a second in the hope of managing two out of one ball of yarn. They are pretty tiny! The newborn size takes around a day, even with the help of a three-year-old.

I've definitely made the ribbing too tight on the first one, but I might go back and redo it when I'm finished. They are pretty adjustable. I'm tempted to use a ribbon tie for flexibility, but Husband is pushing for buttons.

This week's reading is Douglas Adams' The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul, from his Dirk Gently series. This was a Christmas present from Husband. He knows me so well! It's that rare find, a charity shop bargain that has never been read. A new book for 90p, combining surrealist fiction with our frugal policies! After so much earnest reading about pregnancy, birth a parenting recently I was due a bit of light relief.

Speaking of my recent reading, I haven't given a review of the New Active Birth book. There are some great bits of this book, discussing prenatal exercises, labour and birth positions, but a lot of the book is very dated, and talks a lot about a system of maternity care that no longer applies. I think the author must be delighted with the direction in which mainstream maternity care has moved in this country though, and considering the book is about as old as me, the dated nature is perfectly reasonable! Husband is valiantly reading Ina May Gaskin's Guide to Childbirth, and has grown a beard in order to fulfill the role of birth partner (see my facetious recent post), but he'll probably shave it off before he goes back to work on Monday, so come on baby!

What are you reading and crafting this week? Have you broken into books and materials received for Christmas? Are you starting the year as you mean to go on?

E

New Year's Aspirations

I don't know what 2014 will look like. I really have no clue. Husband is still not 100% after a poorly December, and getting him back to himself is top priority. Second priority is 'Madge, due to join our little family this month. I haven't met him/her yet, and I have no idea what they're like, and what they need. I have no idea how Sausages will adapt to this gargantuan change. I just don't know what my family will need this year to look like, and my most important task is to make life work for them.

On the other hand, I do have a few personal aspirations! They're mostly frivolous and small, but hopefully this makes them more realiseable...

1. To learn to use my lovely Matilda, who is sitting so patiently waiting for me to get my act together! I have the manual, Husband has fixed the sewing machine table he picked up on freecycle and is in the process of installing it (in Sausages' bedroom, which two weeks before 'Madge's due date he has decided to swap with the study, leaving the entire house in chaos, but that is another story!).

2. To learn to use the drop spindle given to me by Crochet Queen back in April or May. There is fibre in my stash, and YouTube tutorials have been duly bookmarked. A few have even been watched, but as yet no spinning has taken place.

3. To work my crafting stash into a more manageable size. I am, by nature, an awful hoarder. My craft corner (Husband has quite another name for it) is packed with yarn, magazines, and bits and bobs gathered with all sorts of projects in mind over the last year or so. It has definitely grown since we moved to the Bungalow and I was allocated my own space for such things! Husband's reorganisation of our living arrangements seems like a prime opportunity to take stock and manage the chaos. I will do my best this year to actually make the projects I have stashed the yarn for.

4. To purchase only natural fibres, and only when absolutely necessary. I hate knitting acrylic. Why do we do it? I currently have a small addiction to a certain budget natural fibre yarn brand, and really have no idea why I have so much acrylic in my stash. I used to think it was more practical for babies and toddlers, but now I think I just believed what somebody else told me on that one. Why clothe my beloved babies in inferior materials, just for washability? I'm a cloth nappy mum, for goodness sake! I make my own baby wipes out of flannels! I have a top-quality washing machine with a choice of cycles for delicates and woolens! I shall work through the stash of acrylic on practical projects, and not replace it.

5. Knit socks. This was on last year's to-do list, but thanks to spending much of the year with a pregnancy-generated yarn aversion so little knitting actually happened that I never got to it. In the mean time I have taught my mother to knit socks while I was working on other things, and several people I taught to knit in the first place have gone on to knit socks. This year I will get it together with socks!

6. Publish at least one of my own patterns, and write up all of the rest. Keep an eye on this one, there might be a free pattern or two heading blogwards!

7. Publish some of my non-academic writing in an attempt to generate some income around looking after my precious family. I always thought that you had a family around your career, and never dreamed that I would stay at home to care for my children. The reality of how I feel now that they are here is totally different, and I need a career that will contribute financially while making them the top priority of my time and energy.

8. Run one stall at a fair in 2014 selling my own produce, be it yarn, original hand knits, whatever. I had this plan in mind when Mamar and I went to Wonderwool this year, but somehow ended up pregnant and hating yarn instead.

9. Get back to being organised enough in the house and kitchen to resume our weekly veg box order. I gave this up when I had awful morning sickness and just couldn't go in the kitchen. We ate junk for months. I am back to doing most of our cooking and using a meal plan, but there are still smells that send me running for the bathroom. Luckily I know this will all disappear when 'Madge gets here, so I'm looking forward to getting back to a more regular domestic role.

10. Restart the daily learning journal I started for Sausages a few months ago. I made a few entries, but I was put off by some critical comments from a couple of friends. I don't know why, I must have been feeling low. I still think it would be good to record some of the things he does. I will dig out the nice book I bought for the purpose, draw a line under the previous entries, and try again. And maybe start a little book for 'Madge for its own little timings and changes.

11. Give birth. Ok, this is a cheaty one, since it has to happen, and has to happen soon. But it's always nice to have something to tick off your to-do list nice and early in the proceedings! Also, it's not an insignificant achievement, whatever form it takes. I have my hopes for this birth, but I know it's a whole event in itself, not related to Sausages' birth or anything else that might be going on, and that it could unfold in almost any way. I have very little control over this one, and am open to following it's unique path.

Phew, that is a much longer list written down than it was in my head! Ten is a nice number for a list, and number eleven is a bonus. I think I will print it off and stick it over my desk in the new study (if it ever comes together) as a motivational tool. Then, in around April when I can actually look at something that isn't my children, I could bring myself back to what I want out of the year. I don't need to accomplish it all. They are not commitments. Some are more serious than others, and nearly all can wait longer than a child who needs you: number eleven being the obvious exception
.

What are your aspirations for 2014? Do you find yourself focusing on your home life, career, or recreation? Do you think I'm mad to have any aspirations at all when a new baby is arriving at any minute? (If so, I suspect you may be right!) Let me know, and feel free to link back to your own blog posts on the subject in your comments. I hope 2014 is a great year for you all, both through what the world throws at you, and through what you throw back.

E

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

Me and my Starter

A friend recently asked me what I do with my sourdough starter, apart from daily bread. The answer, sadly, is not very much!

What is a starter? A starter is a yeast culture that is kept in active or semi-active form, and used in baking instead of commercially available yeasts. Because the yeast culture in a starter is usually wild, harvested from the flour itself, or yeast spores in the air, it tends to be less aggressive than commercial yeasts, so you are not likely to get thrush infections from handling it all the time. There are different ways of creating and caring for a starter, and you can make one fresh for a single bake, or keep one alive for years.

Our starter lives in an ice cream tub with holes stabbed in the lid, in the fridge. It's called Honore, after the patron saint of bread, and because I am the daughter of a great anthropomorphist. Some things take a while to wear off...Ours is an old starter, handed down by my Mother in Law, and full of tasty sourdough flavour. Due to the living nature of the culture, it bakes differently according to the weather, especially temperature, and its flavour has changed over time. If it spends a bit longer in the fridge between feedings the sourdough flavour tends to get stronger. I love it! The living, changing nature of baking in this way really appeals to me.

I spend about a day making our daily bread (I refer to it as daily bread, but what I really mean is everyday bread. We don't eat a loaf a day unless we have company), but it's not a time consuming process; just a slow one. I start the night before, taking Honore out of the fridge and mixing him in a large bowl with 8oz bottled water and 8oz bread flour. I use bottled water because the culture doesn't like the chlorine in tap water. Overnight the starter is "activated," coming to life and respiring, producing lots of bubbles to show it. In the morning I put half of what's in the mixing bowl back into the cleaned ice cream tub, mixing in 4oz each of bottled water and bread flour. With the half left in the bowl, I mix in sugar, salt, oil, any extras I fancy (such as seeds or herbs), and enough bread flour to make a slightly tacky dough. Then I cover and leave to double in size. Round lunch time I knead the dough, and transfer to my loaf tin to prove for a second time. When I'm using the oven to cook dinner, I stick the bread in for around half an hour, and allow to cool in the tin overnight, ready for lunchboxes the next day.

I now use Honore to provide all of our yeast for baking, and usually this involves simply exchanging the yeast in a recipe for a spoonful of starter in a guessing sort of quantity, but there are a couple of exceptions: Pizza; and hot cross buns.

For pizza, I start out as though I am making my regular bread, but when making the dough I use half semolina to bread flour. This gives a base that cooks through well, and goes crispy underneath while still having soft crusts. I don't like hard crusts!

For hot cross buns I follow this recipe. I don't bother with the crosses (I make them beyond Good Friday!), and I swap the sugar glaze for warmed marmalade. Oh, and I steep the dried fruit in tea overnight. We drink leaf tea from a pot, so there's usually some left over to stand duty for this. The hot cross buns are spongy and light and delicious! And because they are not so cakey, they make a very nice breakfast, in the manner of fruit toast. Mmm...

They go quickly! The only thing I really struggle to make well with the starter is nice rolls for hot dogs. Any suggestions? I hope that has pushed someone to have a go with a starter, or maybe to try using it for something new, and I hope someone can come back to me with something new to do with mine! See you Wednesday for Ginny's Yarn Along!

E

A Woolly Wednesday

Well, this is Christmas knitting, but not gift knitting, so I can share with you and Ginny this week!

Last week I got an email from Sausages' playschool telling parents that all of the children were going to be sheep in the joint nativity with the school infant children. While searching for a nice little hat pattern this fell into my lap(top). Soooo...I got a bit carried away, ordered some delicious yarn and broomhandle needles, and they arrived on Saturday morning. Over the weekend, thanks to some enforced "feet up" courtesy of my lovely Outlaws and a girls' night at a friend's, I knitted up the hat (Saturday) and the tunic (Sunday). On Tuesday while Sausages was at playschool I sat outside in the car and did the making-up. Then, on Tuesday night, I had some sort of plot-losing experience when I decided that the costume was SO AWESOME that a stuffed-sock tail would be totally inadequate, and I had to knit one. It took several attempts while I messed around with diameter, stitch pattern and gauge, and thanks to pregnancy insomnia I finished it and sewed it on to the tunic before breakfast. Crazy!

He looks pretty good though! This is it: the pinnacle of my mothering career. Never again will I manage to appear so competent. This year I have produced the best sheep costume in school, thanks to the generous genius of Margot Stevens, who sadly seems no longer to run a blog. Unless Sausages has to be an alpaca next year, it is unlikely to be matched again, since I am no seamstress, but I have enjoyed my day of school-gate glory. It's over now, thank goodness!

Reading-wise I am still plodding through Daiper Free in a slow way, although my free time has been little of late. I agreed with a lot of the first half of this book, but as I progress the later chapters are troubling me a little. I was expecting a more child-led approach, I think, whereas a lot of the accounts from parents practicing "natural infant hygiene" seem to be increasingly about a parent taking the lead by "cuing" the infant to relieve themselves. This makes me worry that if I were to follow this path my child would be responding more to the cues than to their own body sensations, which strikes me as a little unhealthy. As does the preoccupation in the book with regular morning defecation as a healthy objective...I feel like I have wandered into some surreal world with this! It started so well! I might have to indulge in some trashy fiction after this to clear the brain.

Christmas present knitting continues, as do the crafts, although I'm definitely slowing down now towards Madge's birth. Thanks so much to all my cheerleaders, I am now almost two weeks further into this pregnancy than I managed with Sausages, and feel like a term baby (and all the wonderful things that go with it) is within my reach. Sitting in my cosy, Christmassy house knitting and crafting with my lovely son in our last few weeks alone together sounds like a really good way to spend some time. I hope you're enjoying the last two weeks of advent, and are ready to embrace whatever seasonal celebrations you are looking forward to.

E

P.S. Later this week...me and my starter x