Ahhh-choo!

It's a bit dusty around here...!

Life has been pretty hectic over the last few months. Among other things, I've gone back to work two mornings a week, which is long enough to feel like I'm staying in touch with the job I've been trained for, but short enough that I don't feel like I'm missing too much of the girls growing up.

And they are definitely growing up. The smallest turned one a couple of weeks ago! Time really does fly past without being noticed, especially when kids are small and each day can seem like an eternity. There is good sense in taking a moment to STOP, and mark these milestones properly.

Liquorice Allsorts and Raspberry Bullets are rather useful cake decorating luxuries!

And even though I haven't been particularly successful in recording it, I've been making stuff fairly enthusiastically. Recently I've been working on...

...A stripey beanie for a friend's six month old...

...The beginnings of my first knitted lace shawl...

Hopefully I will be back before long with further evidence of my productivity!

Space invaders

Sometime during late summer, our vege patch was consumed by self sown pumpkins.

While it's out-of-control nature is frighteningly reflective of the chaos in our lives at the moment, there have been some up sides to the invasion.

[Yes, that is a pumpkin growing in a Camellia]

42.4 kilograms of pumpkins later, I think we might be set for winter?

my creative space

Early this year, I secretly* decided to set myself the goal of knitting each of us in the family a garment of some description. The smallest is getting a cardigan, the big girl is getting a stripy jumper, I will be getting a vest (gulp - first adult sized knitted garment ever to me made by me - I hope I like it!), and my husband is getting a scarf. I know scarves probably don't technically count as a garment, but for the purposes of this self-imposed goal, it does. He approved it and chose the colour so hopefully that means he'll wear it!

Over the last couple of weeks, I've made some good progress toward that goal.

One purple Garter yoke baby cardi (Ravelry link) 75% done and just waiting for me to find the right sized dpns (I know I have some somewhere!) so I can do the sleeves and finish the buttonhole band...

One well-and-truly underway Wayfarer scarf using Shelter yarn in pumpernickel...

And another pair of socks. Oh, hang on, socks aren't on the list! These are just another piece of evidence to support the theory that when the sock bug bites, it won't let go very easily...

These will be Spring Forward socks in Ms Gusset yarn which I like an awful lot!

Good holidays with lots of car time when you discover that, contrary to belief, you can knit in the car (when someone else is driving) leads to very satisfying knitterly progress.

For lots of making inspiration, visit Kirsty's place.

*It's not so secret any more, is it!?!

A road trip

About three weeks ago, we embarked on the biggest road trip we've done since having kids. Before leaving, there was a suitable amount of angst about how we would entertain a 2 year old and a 6 month old on several days where we'd be driving for up to seven hours, as well as how on earth we'd fit everything we needed in the car! But we did it, and not only did we survive, but we had a really enjoyable holiday.

Here are some of the highlights:

1. I discovered the joys of car knitting!

I've often read about others knitting in the car on long car trips but had decided that it wouldn't work for me because I get car sick if I read, but I can do it! I can knit in the car! Much knitting was done on this trip as a result.

2. Kids can cope quite well travelling long distances in the car. Surprising! Some tips for increased pleasantness:

• Leave as early as you can and plan extended breaks (at least 30 minutes) along the way.
• Pack a picnic lunch so you can stop when you need to.
• Make sure you have a variety of kid's music on hand. Listening to the same 3 albums over and over for thousands of kilometres will drive anyone completely mad, even if you thought they weren't too bad to start with!
• Collect up a pile of small age appropriate goodies and make them up into surprise packages to be handed out throughout the trip. We used stickers and paper, a tub of playdough with a plate or tray, Mr Men and Grug books (slightly less successful for a 2 year old who can't read yet), and crayon rocks.
• Humbly accept the offer of a car DVD player and DVDs from a friend even though you'd sworn black and blue you'd never ever have one. We only used it twice, and watched episodes of Play School, but it was greatly appreciated late in the afternoon of the second day of the Melbourne to Armidale leg, and again late one afternoon as we hit the crazy Sydney traffic.

3. I think Dad liked his mittens. The main reason for the trip was Dad's 80th birthday party, so I made him some fingerless mitts as a present. I still need to ravel them but will do so soon!

4. Our holiday at the beach was brilliant. The water was 26ºC and the weather was magnificent.

The cottage that we stayed in was great, and had a lovely view up the river from the balcony...

...as well as some interesting wildlife!

We'd like to stay at the same place this time next year, but for longer. Five nights was not quite long enough!

It's nice to be back, though, and I'm looking forward to rediscovering the rhythm of life around these parts. And doing more knitting. Of course!

my creative space...

Fingerless mitts for my Dad's 80th birthday(!).

One down, one to go. Pleasantly, they're nice and quick!

My Creative Space here.

Hooray times two

The first Hooray:

My monkey socks are finished (ravelled here)! According to my sister, they look reptilian enough that if I sewed buttons for eyes on the toes I would frighten lots of people. Hmmm. Even so, they're warm and comfortable, and I might even get away with wearing them out and about under my jeans this winter! Maybe?

I have now cast on for a pair of fingerless mitts for my Dad's birthday which is in a couple of weeks. I'm optimistic that I might get them finished in time because the pattern is from Joelle Hoverson's More Last Minute Knitted Gifts. The first one is two-thirds finished so I'm still hopeful!

The second Hooray:

I'm finally back menu planning again! This is rather exciting because I find that menu planning gives me a sense of slightly more control in the highly chaotic world of parenting young children. It will also hopefully mean a reduction in food waste and less takeaway.

In addition to choosing meals using my normal methods, I've implemented Vic's Random Recipe system*. I have far too many recipe books for my own good, so I'm hoping this strategy might result in some of my neglected books getting some use. So far it's been rather successful, and I've found a couple of things I probably never would have cooked otherwise. To eliminate personal bias, I'm using random.org to randomly choose a shelf, then a book from that shelf, a page from the book and if necessary, a recipe from the page. Though this week's Random recipe was originally Fried Bows, a Spanish sweet biscuit. Rather than serve these for dinner, I used my commonsense and generated another random number for a recipe from the same book. I figure if the recipe or book chosen isn't a dinner type of thing, I can take one step back and try again!?! I might start to experiment with non-main-meal type recipes at some stage, but for now I'm working with a single theme!

Another change to my planning at this point is that I'm not allocating particular meals to particular days. Rather, I'm just selecting 7 (or so) meals to be eaten during the week, so that I've got some flexibility if I don't get to the right shop on a given day for particular ingredients. Right now I need a sense of control without rigidity, so hopefully this strategy will deliver.

This week's menu:

Gnocchi with tomato and pancetta sauce

Zucchini, bacon and onion quiche or frittata

Beef stew (from freezer)

Chinese chicken wings

Red Mullet baked with breadcrumbs and Rancio wine (Random Recipe from 1080 Recipes)

Eggplant Parmagiana

Zucchini pasta

*Vic has also started a Meal Plan Monday Linky thing, so if you're interested in joining in or checking out some other meal plans, visit here.

Space junk

When you have small children, lots of STUFF gets all over the place. While there are many disadvantages, like treading on something small when you least expect it (ouch! You'd think I'd learn to look more closely...) and every space in the house being taken over by kid clutter, I've discovered that some of it is actually useful!

Take this rather unattractive ball, for example. It's perfect for neatening up my toe grafting on my socks.

Which are now finished! Comfortably before the end of February, which was my self-imposed deadline, though not without a setback involving a two-year-old and the removal of all four needles that we wont talk about.

I will try to post proof of the completed socks in the next couple of days.