I have finally made my Matilda shawl pattern available as a free Ravelry download.

This took a lot longer to reformat than the sock patterns as I wanted to redo the charts to make them clearer and – because I am clearly a glutton for punishment – wanted to provide written directions as well.

Pattern: Waltzer from Wee Woolly Toppers by Woolly Wormhead
Yarn: Jaeger Matchmaker Merino DK, less than 1 x 50g in color: Navy (discontinued! )
Needles: 3.5mm Addi Bamboo dpns

First FO of 2010! It took almost a week to knit this tiny hat, but I can now say I’ve started this year’s knitting.

Not much to say about this project, except it was a fun knit, despite being all moss stitch (!) and it makes for a very cute noggin warmer.

Very hard to take a photo of an excitable baby, though!

…to everyone who bought one of my patterns before 31st January. I am now able to donate £80 to UNICEF’s Haiti Earthquake Children’s Appeal.

So with days to spare, I manage to squeak in with some knitting in the first month of 2010. It’s been a “difficult” month, and I’ll be glad to see the back of it.

I hadn’t picked up the needles since I finished my Evangeline Armwarmers. I had plans, though. Plans for lace and socks and lots of creative stuff that would flow from my needles. And then my baby had a personality transplant and the only time I am free is when I am having a bath. I even have an audience when I’m having a wee – had forgotten about that part of having babies.

But we’re turning a corner and yesterday I tentatively delved into the deepest recesses of my stash for an oddment of soft pure wool yarn, pulled out some soothing bamboo needles and cast on for another baby hat. The plans will still be in my brain next week or next month, after all, ready for when I can finally turn them into reality.

The combination of baby brain and post-Christmas confusion means that I have no idea what the date is at the moment. When I posted a couple of days ago, it didn’t register that it was an important date. Which it was, being Rose’s 4th monthiversary.

The days are going so fast right now. I’ve found it’s best to go with the flow and not hope to achieve anything other than get through the day without collapsing in a wailing heap of misery. Such is the delight of the four month growth spurt. But each day is also filled with magic as Rose discovers new things. A few weeks back it was her hands and then discovering that she could use her hands to put things in her mouth. Now after spending a few days suddenly stopping what she was doing and staring transfixed at her toes, she grabbed hold of them this morning. There are also signs that she’ll be able to roll over on her own soon, although currently she just gets halfway and then cries.

* * * * *

I also wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who has bought one of my patterns since Tuesday. So far enough patterns have been bought to pay for 3 families to have basic water kits, which is just brilliant. I will post a final total after 31st January.

Just a quick post to say that 100% of all sales of my Rosamond and Trillian patterns until 31st January will be donated to UNICEF’s Haiti Earthquake Children’s Appeal. If you already have one (or both!) of these patterns, you can buy one for a friend through Ravelry’s gifting system.

I was going to post a picture of us all bundled up for the cold weather, especially for Kai, but Oscar’s school is closed because of “heavy snow”. Ahem.

It’s slightly heavier than before Christmas, but based on last February, it’s nothing. And Henry’s school was still open, much to his disgust. Just checked on the school’s website, and they’re closing early at 1pm, probably because nicer parents than me let their offspring stay at home and there’s no one to teach. *blushes*

And it’s just started snowing again, so fingers crossed that the buses stay in service til he gets home and I can stop feeling evil.

I’ve been spoilt for the past few weeks. Mr B has been working from home and then on holiday, meaning I haven’t had to venture outside first thing in the morning for the school run for almost a month. So although yesterday was the first day back after the Christmas break, today was the first day I had to see just how cold it was first thing in the morning. But I’m a knitter: I am Prepared.

Rose went out wearing a vest, tights, trousers, long sleeved top, socks, legwarmers, Sweet Baby Cap and Tomten Jacket with the hood pulled up. I wore my new socks from Diane and scarf from Kai (pictures coming up), wristwarmers AND mittens together and a hat, along with my coat and other clothes of course. Along with the baby sling, which is another three layers of fabric, this meant that all that could be seen of my daughter was her face, and I’m now considering the possibility of some sort of baby balaclava. Oscar refused to wear anything other than a hat and gloves with his coat and Henry leaves even earlier to get his bus and probably discards his hat once he’s turned the corner, so it’s just a poor defenceless baby flying the flag for extreme knitwear wearing. But it all worked as we arrived back toasty warm other than cold cheeks on our faces.

All this is a roundabout way of saying that I do love my knitted accessories and I am so lucky to have knitting friends who make me gorgeous knitted stuff. And that it’s about time I shared my Christmas presents.

A beautiful Gail aka Nightsongs shawl from Kai, knitted in Malabrigo sock yarn and adorable Mum-and-baby matching Express Lane socks from Diane, knitted in The Knittery Cashmere. All have been worn and loved already since they were unwrapped and greatly appreciated, especially since it’s apparently going to get even colder here in the next week…

A Christmas round-up and resolutions post in one.

We had a relatively quiet Christmas. I tried very hard not to overdo it and try to make a million different things to eat, but somehow it ended up being seven people for dinner and me producing a mountain of food. Then Rose proceeded to cry throughout the meal, meaning we ended up eating in shifts, Mr B and I. Though I find that I never eat much Christmas dinner anyway as I’m half-sick of the sight of food after cooking all morning! Next year, she’ll be 15 months old and able to tuck in with us all, at least.

I got some gorgeous knitted gifts from Kai and Diane which I will photograph for the next post (currently have a baby attached to me!) and Mr B loved his annual Christmas socks, of course. Other than that, it wasn’t a very yarny sort of Christmas this year.

So onward to 2010. I resolved this time last year to be very selfish, which didn’t exactly pan out the way I’d planned, did it? Though it started well with my Deep-V Argyle Sweater, pretty much as soon as that was off the needles, morning sickness arrived and I made nothing for myself afterwards.

This coming year, I don’t know whether I can plan to achieve anything as it can be days between me putting down and picking up the needles again. But that hasn’t stopped me plotting. I’ve got ideas and charts and notes for new designs and all I need is a 40 hour day and I might just get them done!

Hoping you all have a very peaceful and happy 2010 and the new year brings you whatever you want it to.

Not surprisingly, things are a bit disorganised here at the moment, and I missed posting on Saturday, which was the day that Rose became exactly three months old.

Looking back over the previous photos, I can see how much she’s changed. She’s now incredibly alert and interested in what’s going on, although obviously in the above photo she looks a bit perplexed. She normally smiles a lot, but not at a bunny in a carrot-shaped car, apparently. She is also starting to make little cooing noises which is adorable. Her big brothers think she’s much more interesting now, as she will smile at them and wave her arms about in an encouraging manner and isn’t just obsessed with when her next meal is coming . I’m really looking forward to what changes will happen over the coming month.

* * * * *

The snow has almost disappeared this morning. There was a brief snowfall yesterday afternoon, but it didn’t settle and now there’s just a few icy bits left on the garden from last week. Though there’s still a chance we could get a white Christmas here, I’m not holding my breath!

Two – two!! – snow posts in the same year! Admittedly, it’s nothing like the snow we had here in February, but it still counts. The boys are disgusted that we have so little, as today is the last day of school for the year, and they were hoping that their holiday would start half a day early. Yes, they only have to go in for a couple of hours and play games and they still complain.

I’m hoping that it won’t all melt or, if it does, it comes back this time next week. A white Christmas would be something really special.

Especially when it comes to manly socks. When I read on Rubbishknitter’s blog that Kemp’s had Regia sock yarn reduced to £1.20 a ball, I snapped up enough for a couple of pairs. This should keep me going for manly sock knitting for the next year, based on my current production rate.

The multicoloured yarn is self-striping, so will be nice mindless sock knitting for a bit. The other yarn, however, will need a pattern of some sort and I’m hoping inspiration will strike…

Pattern: Evangeline by Michelle Szeghalmi-Shirley
Yarn: Cascade Yarns 220 Wool, ½ x 100g skein in colour: #9404 Ruby
Needles: 4mm Brittany Birch dpns of loveliness

Nothing like a bit of bright red to cheer a person up on a grotty December morning! I “promised” myself these armwarmers if I managed to get the Christmas socks finished. I’d been finding wearing my mittens and gloves awkward when I had to keep taking them off every five seconds to adjust baby hats or wipe baby drool and so on, and I was getting cold hands each the time. So armwarmers were the perfect solution.

The pattern was nicely simple and it was easy to fit in a pattern repeat or two during baby naps. I made mine shorter than the elbow length given in the pattern, but there were no other modifications. There seem to be zillions of cabled wristwarmer patterns out there, but I chose these just because I liked the cable and it wasn’t too complicated (but not boring, either!).

The yarn I bought back in the summer for another baby project that never materialised, and it’s perfect; very snug but not overly soft so it should wear well. The colour is a complete change for me with my purple obsession, but I rather like it.

The sun is gone, it’s cold and miserable outside, so to be completely unseasonal, my summery Clover sock pattern is now available as a free Ravelry download.

At least, that’s the conclusion I’ve reached after my poor baby has twice been assumed to be a boy. She was wearing purple both times; the second time it was a purple and pink striped top which looks completely girly to me, but apparently the stripes confused matters. Are stripes only for a boy as well, then? *rolls eyes* Heh. I should be used to it, as I now remember DS2 being called a girl, despite wearing head-to-toe blue. Maybe my conclusion should be that people just don’t look properly.

But whether it’s boyish or not, I couldn’t resist this pattern. It’s the Baby’s First Fair Isle sweater pattern, which is knitted on tiny needles and steeked and I am probably never going to finish it before Rose outgrows it. I blame the hours I spend surfing one-handed. I’m full of plans and ideas for knitting projects, but can’t actually make any of them.

The yarn is the exact same as used in the original pattern, which is something I almost never achieve. Being Trekking and Opal, though, means it’s easy to find, relatively speaking. The Opal was no problem, but the Trekking eluded me til I thought to check people’s stashes on Ravelry. When, thanks to Lesley, I finally got hold of some.

I’m saving this as a post-Christmas project. Once all the visits and cooking and being sociable is over, I intend to hibernate in my pyjamas and knit as long as I can while I have both hands free.

Pattern: Basic sock pattern, used millions of times
Yarn: Crystal Palace Yarns Mini Mochi, 2 x 50g in colour: Neptune Rainbow
Needles: 2.25mm dpns

Christmas knitting all done. I can’t really feel smug when there wasn’t actually that much to do compared to previous years, but during the times when I’d pick up the sock to only have to put in down a few stitches later I did wonder if I’d ever get them done.

There’s nothing to say about the “pattern”, so I’ll just mention the yarn. As I said previously, it’s slightly splitty and a bit hairy, but the colours are gorgeous. It washes nicely with no colour run and they’ve blocked really well.

The colour sequence on the foot of the sock at the top of the photo went completely loopy, though. There’s a huge wodge of turquoise for half of the foot, then it settles down and then a chunk of dark blue to the toe. And this was without there being knots in the yarn, which of course can make colour runs go screwy. If it wasn’t for the fact that I don’t have the time to fiddle, I’d have frogged the foot, cut and rejoined the yarn. But on the positive side, it’ll be hidden by shoes for much of the time.

I’ve never had that happen with any commercial sock yarn before and it’s pretty disappointing, but perhaps it was bound to happen just because I *had* always had such good experiences. Will be sticking to Trekking and Opal from now on, though, for my manly sock requirements. If Opal would make another thickly striped yarn like the “Feelings” range a couple of years ago, that would be just perfect, thankyouverymuch.

Purple, bunny-shaped buttons. How could I resist? Available from Delish Beads on Etsy, just in case anyone else has the urge for cute buttonage. Now I just have to knit something for them to be sewn on to…

BTW, speaking of irresistible things, the Drops Christmas Calendar is back again with a new free pattern every day ’til the big event. I love today’s pattern.

My Jules sock pattern, from Issue 1 of The Inside Loop, is now available as a free Ravelry download. It features Mr B’s feet in a starring role on the front page; what more could you want?!

Normally at this time of year, I’d be deeply embroiled in gift knitting. Of course, this year things are very different and the normal half dozen gifts are being pared down to just one at the moment, given that I have no idea whether I’ll even get this one done in time. My heartfelt thanks go out to online shopping with free delivery which means I’ve bought most of my relatives’ gifts with just a few clicks and not even having to venture out into the rain.

But I couldn’t not make Mr B’s annual Christmas Socks. This will be the fourth year that he’s had them and it’s becoming a bit of a tradition now and given that it’s hard enough to buy presents for him as it is, this is at least one thing that I can give him that he can’t just go and buy himself.

I’m using the Mini Mochi I bought earlier in the year for these. So far it’s knitting up nicely. It does have a slight fuzzy halo and is a bit loosely/tightly spun in places, but the colours are gorgeous and it’s producing a very jaunty pair of socks.

Rose is two months old today. She’s started smiling a little bit, but only when the mood takes her, and smiling at her doesn’t always get one in return; most often she just looks surprised or faintly disgusted.

On Monday she was weighed for the first time in several weeks and is now 10lbs 5oz – almost 4lbs heavier than her birth weight. I’m not surprised, really, as I’ve noticed that she’s not swimming in her clothes so much, though still fits into the newborn size. And she has lovely little rolls of chub on her wrists and knees. Though I am probably the only woman in the world who puts on weight when breastfeeding, so the fact she’s eating like a horse isn’t having a positive effect on me.

ETA: Anna asked about Rose’s cardigan. It’s Helena from Knitty and one of the many baby things I knitted this year. I think if I made it again, I’d make the sleeves longer and roll them up as there’s still plenty of room in the body, but already the sleeves are beginning to skim her wrists (could possibly undo the hem to make these longer, though). Perhaps she’s part orang-utan…

My Pablo socks are now available to download directly from Ravelry as a free pattern. One down… several to go!

Just a quick message inbetween feeds.

You may have read on Ravelry that The Inside Loop website is closing down. Diane and I have decided that with us both having other commitments that take up a huge amount of our time that we won’t be producing any more issues and to therefore take the site down.

What this means is that the patterns and articles will still be available until the end of January, so there’s plenty of time to download any you want. Yesterday we contacted all of the contributors to let them know so that they could start looking into making their work available from alternate sources. We did want to leave it a few days before announcing the site closure to everyone else until we had heard back from all the contributors, so I wanted to reassure everyone that the site isn’t going to “do a Magknits” and just disappear.

It was a lot of fun and hard work producing the magazine for a year. I ate far too much cake, gossiped a huge amount and other than the mad last minute panics that we seemed to have with every issue, it hardly felt like work at all.

My patterns will be reformatted and then put up for download again, hopefully before the site goes down depending on how much free time I get. I would like to rejig a couple of the designs and remake them, but will post here with any updates. The articles I wrote will also end up on here.

And now it’s time for milk again and by the sound of it, another nappy change!

Rose is one month old today already. It’s a cliché, but I don’t know where the time has gone. Admittedly, most of it has been spent sitting on the sofa feeding and the days have tended to blur around the edges, but things are getting slightly more organised and I can actually get dressed and go outside without it taking all day.

Thank you all so much for the lovely comments on my last post. I’d love to be able to reply to them all individually, but my two-handed typing time is very rare and as I spend most of my time surfing one-handed it would take forever to reply. But to answer the most frequent comments, of course she is gorgeous.

I am even trying to get a bit of knitting done while Rose sleeps and of course wishing I had knitted even more during my pregnancy because there’s so much I want to make.

I don’t know when I’ll be blogging again more regularly. I think I can at least promise to blog when I have some knitting to share. Til then, there’s baby photos to look at and marvel how podgy she’s starting to become. I was worried that she’d never fit into any of the knits I’d made, but she seems to get bigger every day and is already more interested in looking around and not just eating and sleeping. Won’t be long before she starts school…

Rose Erica Lise Blackburn arrived at 16.29 on 19th Spetember, weighing 6lbs 12ozs and 4 weeks early. After all my worrying about having a giant baby, she’s a wee thing who doesn’t fit into any of the clothes or knitwear I have for her, but she is a sweetheart.

I should have known something was up last Friday when I got the urge to clean out the fridge! The following morning, I started having mild contractions but because I was convinced that she would be late like her brothers, I ignored them til lunchtime when it became clear that it was probably the real thing. Because the acceptable range for a homebirth is 37 to 42 weeks, I called my wee sister to come over and look after the boys so that Mr B and I could go to hospital. Wasn’t happy about this at all, but I was getting past caring.

Unfortunately, or fortunately perhaps, by the time my sister arrived and I managed to get dressed to go to the hospital, it became obvious to me that she wasn’t going to hang around and so Mr B called the hospital to get the midwives to come out which they did, with the advice to call 999 if the baby started arriving before them. Which she did! *gory bit coming up which you might want to skip over* My waters broke at that point, so Mr B called 999 and then had to get down the business end to see if he could see the head. Which he couldn’t, but he could see feet..! Everything went a bit mad at that point as the midwives and paramedics all arrived and seeing that she was breech, it became a bit hairy. I was fortunate because I couldn’t see what was going on as I wason all fours concentrating on pushing, whereas Mr B could see that she was coming out all blue.

After what seemed like forever, she slipped out and after another age, she started crying. She was whisked away in one ambulance and I was taken away in another one. I had to be wheeled onto the ambulance on a stretcher which I felt was a bit unnecessary, but I think made the best entertainment the street had seen for ages, baased on the large group of children watching from across the street!

Despite her unconventional arrival, Rose was fine and after staying overnight on the maternity ward (where I got not a wink of sleep thanks to various comings and goings and the women on my right snoring like a warthog) we went home on Sunday morning.

Now I just plan to spend the next couple of weeks being waited on hand and foot.

I’ve been having a non-knitting few days due to feeling like a whale. I suspect that bump has also decided to settle into position and this basically means I can’t walk far without feeling as if my insides are going to fall out of my bottom. I have spent a lot of time arranging baby clothes instead, which I can do sitting down!

I’ve dabbled with a couple of baby things, but am now being a faithful knitter and concentrating on the outstanding projects which really need to be done. So I’ve been working exclusively on the grey Having Hope socks and have just four pattern repeats left of the cuff. Not that exciting to photograph so imagine this:

almost doubled. I don’t want unfinished sock guilt when I go into labour, after all.