It’s fun trying to photograph FB in his new hat, mainly because it’s impossible to get him to slow down when he’s indoors. So I just go with the flow, and get slightly blurry action  shots instead. :)

This is the Master Charles Cabled Ear Flap Cap by Tottoppers, and it was a quick, thoroughly enjoyable knit.

I used the texera aran that I bought at the Ravelry day, (which is lovely stuff.) I’ve got enough left to make a scarf for FB too, which is handy.

Added bonus – so far he’s been willing to wear it.

Result!

(Ravelry link.)

(The gentle start to a seasonal corner.)

Over the weekend FB had a fever. He’s fine – he doesn’t get ill much (thank goodness) but when he does he turns into a little busy oven. His sleep goes all over the place, and he wants to be everwhere at once.

Add in british summertime ending (so we’re having to coax those were-5am, now-4am get ups back to at least 5am again), and a couple of work deadlines for me, and you have a mama who needs to take extra care of herself.

So here are a few things I’m enjoying right now:

• Dara O’Briain’s Tickling the English which I’ve borrowed from the library and which is proving to be great fun. For the last two nights I’ve gone to bed as soon as all the jobs for the day were done so that I could read this and think of nothing else for a little bit before sleep. I’m really looking forward to the audio version, which I think its going to be great for car journeys.

• Nigel Slater’s Simple Suppers (which is still online) and Tender volume 1 (which is going to help make sure all of our allotment produce gets to the table). I’m very excited about volume 2, which is all about fruit and is out next May.

• Organizing Your Way to a Simple Christmas by Organizing Your Way. Not that I’ve done much towards christmas in the past couple of months but it’s got me thinking, and I know that the printouts are going to prove useful.

• The Natural Parenting Center Blog, which is giving me a huge amount of comfort, and In the Fishbowl, which is giving me lots of thinks to think about (even if things have ended up being more hectic around here than I might have liked, which has meant I’ve been very quiet on the fishes comment boards.)

• Making Waldorf Dolls, which I treated myself to last month. Given that I started crafting when I was about 6 or 7 making toys for myself, it’s been a long time since I made much of anything like that. I’m using the tiny start of a seasonal corner on our sideboard as a way of learning the ropes.

Hope you’re having a good week too. What are you enjoying?

My granny – Granny Doris – made this quilt in the 80’s. It got passed on to me earlier this year, and has covered FB’s bed since he moved into his own room.

I really love it.

My granny was a big influence on my crafting – she was the sewer in the family (my other granny – Nannan – was the knitter, though sadly she doesn’t knit any more.) When she started to loose her eyesight she gave her sewing stash – fabric, notions, sewing machine etc – to me. It remains one of the best presents I have ever received.

She has been a champion of the crafting my sister and I have done – a very vocal fan of our creations.

Sadly she died on the 10th October at age of 91.

She crammed a gargantuan amount of living into her later years – this is a woman who kept on travelling, who lived independantly even after she went blind in her 70s, who went white water rafting in her 80s.

She kept going to her craft group even though she couldn’t craft anymore, because she could still talk to people about what they were making.

I really love that.

It makes sense to me.

The world feels just a little be less – something – now that she’s gone.

Four years ago today I sat down at Typepad and told you about buying yarn while on my honeymoon.

I didn’t know what I was doing really.

I’d just left my career in the games industry and was really hoping I wouldn’t have to go back. At the same time I didn’t really know what I wanted to do next, apart from build a website for my friend (which led to my setting up ‘Cat Like a Dog Productions‘ building bespoke websites for Authors), and making things.

Since then lots of things we wanted to happen have happened – W got a job in Oxford and stopped doing a huge commute to work, I start Oxford Kitchen Yarns, which has been making me very happy for two years now (amazing but true!), we’ve become parents to a wonderful little boy*, we’ve slowed the pace of our lives down and made looking after ourselves a real priority (which is why – with said little boy being the early bird that he is, you’ll find us heading to bed at 9pm most nights at the moment.)

And in and amongst that I’m still busy making things. Making them for the love of making them. Making them because my head is clearer when I’m creative. Because I have all these ideas. Because I have to – like I have to breathe.

I love this place because I can show my creative working and know that you understand.

And I really apreciate that.

–

(Yes – that is a Lickety Split bag – my current autumn bag of choice, and my lovely Baktus scarf [ravelry link].)

*THANK YOU so much for the lovely birthday messages!

These last twelve months have been an amazing adventure.

Happy 1st Birthday.