A hat, a cowl and some owl wrist warmers - January's been busy!

Here's my latest train knitting project:

This is the project at week one of being knitted up on the train - I've just finished the hat 'cuff' and will be starting the lace pattern for the crown next week.

It is from Wendy Knits Lace and will be my first ever hat; the only problem with this book is that it is American so a lot of the yarns aren't available over here - I'm using Rowan Lima Alpaca Mix Yarn in Andes. Most excitingly, it is destined for..... me! Counting up for the purposes of this blog post, I've discovered that it has been more than two years since I made something just for me. This is in part due to the fact that I got very excited knitting things for Izzy, even before she arrived (baby knits are just soooooo quick!) but also because for the last two years I've been trying to reduce the number of presents I buy, in favour of something handmade.

Take January as an example - both my mother and my daughter have birthdays two days apart. This meant that I got to create this:

'Elizabeth's Cowl', also from Wendy Knits Lace in the same yarn as my hat. I even did the whole 'blocking' thing to bring out the lace pattern - this year has been chock-a-block full of new skills!

and these:

I adapted these cute owl wrist warmers from a pattern in Mollie Makes magazine. Intended for an adult, I swapped out the chunky yarn for a dk merino one and Voila! a pair of toddler wrist warmers - more practical than traditional mittens (which she won't wear) and so far, she loves them!

both of which have stretched my knitting skills and kept me occupied on my commute to and from work. I've done my first project on double-pointed kneedles, my first and then second project knitted in the round and my first lace project all within about 3 weeks!

But this one's for me and I'm enjoying it without guilt, knowing that next month's going to be all about new-baby gifts (there's four on the way among friends and family).

Shouldn't we get her some more?

'Essentials' from ELC

Let me begin by saying that for ten twelfths of the year I'm a paragon of ethical consumerist virtue. I think before I buy. I buy organic where I can, and if not I buy local, or British or Fair Trade accordingly. I even buy quite a bit secondhand and I like to think that I entered into parenthood with my eyes wide open to the array of nonsensical 'essentials' that companies tried to flog me from the minute I got my first 'maternity pack' of vouchers from the midwife.

But then we come to occasions. You know - the sort where you get presents. And I like presents - and the more there are the better. There's nothing quite like the pile under the tree at Christmas - I find squishing and prodding irresistible and regularly 'restack' everyones presents for 'aesthetic' and 'organisational' reasons. I also enjoy a good birthday haul - and it doesn't even have to mine. I love giving presents as much as receiving them - particularly if I've spent a lot of time planning and sourcing something, or coming up with a great, or unusual gift or 'experience', or I've made something myself. For adults, this at least translates into one or two thoughtful presents. But for some reason, when it comes to Izzy, I feel an overwhelming urge to splurge on as many things as possible and I really don't know why! I wasn't deprived of 'things' as a child - in fact with no siblings I probably had a lot more bought for me than my contemporaries in larger families. Having said that, I don't think (with two primary school teachers for parents) that I was unduly spoiled when it came to volume of gifts.

But when it comes to Izzy's second birthday next week, it's me who's having to be reined in from buying 'just one more thing'. I think this is probably why it was so funny to read the piece in The Guardian today on 'going cold turkey on kiddie consumerism', as I'm obviously not the only parent out there who, for whatever reason, can't stop buying things for their little ones. At least my mania only hits me for these two months over Christmas and her birthday in January - the rest of the year I tend to get by with 're-purposing' household objects into new toys. 

Oh well - I'm off to redirect this desire for 'one more' birthday gift into the creation of a pair of fingerless mittens, made from wool from my stash rather than anything bought new, and for the prosaic reason that my darling daughter absolutely refuses to wear her normal gloves at the moment.

January in the garden (part 1): Tidy up time!

'Tidy up time!' - My daughter is fond of saying this once she's spread as many of her toys across the living room as is physically possible, then stands by to supervise as Mummy picks them all up and puts them away.

40 clean pots and 7 soapy propagator units

Sadly for me, there is no one to tidy up the mess I made in the garden and greenhouse last growing season (well, except WH, and he'd only put things away where I couldn't find them!), so this January is going to be all about the cleaning and the clearing, ready for the spring sowing marathon.

Hmm, now what exactly needs doing again?

1. Wash all the plastic sowing and potting-on paraphernalia, including pots, seed trays and modules, and electric propagator units
2. Tidy out the greenhouse, including throwing away old plant labels and bits of rubbish, and group items together (watering-related items, nuts and screws, pegs, plant food, tools, etc)
3. Scrub down the potting table and the greenhouse staging and shelving
4. Clean the greenhouse, inside and out
5. Replant some of the overwintering garlic which has 'popped' out of the bed 
6. Weed and cover last year's beans and peas bed with frame and micromesh
7. Dig through last year's roots bed - there may well be some beetroot and parsnips to harvest
8. Dig through the brassica bed - this has been terribly unsuccessful this year as we had a bit of an infestation of caterpillars, which didn't leave us much apart from stalks!
9. Thin out the teeny tiny leeks (I planted them too late in the season) and hope they grow a bit for spring cooking.
10. Various other tidying jobs, including raking up leaves, replanting bulbs, etc, and that's without going anywhere near 'the heap' between the greenhouse and the shed where we 'store' (dump) used compost, compost bags, bits of trellis, broken tools, larger containers, etc, etc..

There is really so much to do, that I've had to break it up into lots of little parcels of tasks to stand any chance of not just putting it all off (probably forever - some of these tasks I've never actually gotten around to in the 3.5 years we've lived here!) So this morning I spent a good two hours cleaning the units for the electric propagator and about 1/3rd of the plastic pots, with the rationale that these will be used first for February sowing, so even if I do prevaricate on further cleaning, I'll at least be able to start the 2013 growing season! I also achieved items 2 and 3 on the list, and washed half of the inside of the greenhouse - once I got started, I was actually very productive!

As a reward for today's hard work I'm planning to start looking through my piles of seed and plant catalogues tomorrow to prepare my order for our new season.

(to the tune of Bing Crosby's White Christmas)

I'm... dreaming of a .... full harvest,

not like the one the year before.

Where no snail trails glisten,

or garden birds listen,

for the sound of unprotected berries ripen-ing.