Mainly because of LR’s birth last year (a week after her brother’s 2nd birthday when Tu came into his life), I never managed to finished my series of posts about how I got on making a Waldorf doll. I’ll try to do something about that.

I can give you my conclusion though – it was easier than I had thought it would be, and was very satisfying. If you’re thinking of having a go yourself I can recommend it.

Today it was announced that Tu was tired and needed a sleep. So we made him a bed, which was turned into a pram, and then they went shopping for books. (From real life comes play and all that.)

(SHOP news – tons of dyeing done this week, so loads of new sock yarn and some DK and Aran to go into the shop in the next few days. My latest yarn order has arrived – 80% Bluefaced Leicester 20% Bamboo sock yarn, more DK and Aran, and some BFL tops to be dyed up in the coming weeks! Spinning! All very exciting! The pots are bubbling away!)

I love the inner workings of a 2 1/2 year old brain.

In the lead up to Easter we have eaten a lot of hot cross buns, which means we have to sing ‘Hot Cross Buns‘ and I keep asking FB who we give them to if we don’t have any daughters?

Turns out: If you have no daughters, give them to your tortoise!

Can’t argue with that. ;)

So easter…

(LR got a goose. Knit in OxfordKitchenYarns Aran in white and marmalade. Nice.)

This year I made some knitted animals from Knitted Animals – I’ve been wanting to knit things from this book for ages. And now I have.

They are great simple knits, which work up really well – though I will say that they Goose pattern was missing information about how to knit the beak, and they tried to explain that they wanted you to use yarn overs, without using the words ‘yarn over’ which was unnecessarily confusing. But to be honest if you’re a knitter with a reasonable amount of confidence you’re going to work things out without any real problem. Or you’re going to wing it and be fine. :)

(LOOOOM!)

The goose is lovely though, and was a very quick knit. It’s just the right size for an inquisitive 6 month old.

FB got chickens! In erm… something from my stash. But equally nice. Certainly the chicks are part proper angora – which is a bit mad really since it was expensive and then I didn’t know what to do with it once I’d bought it. But I still have lots left, and anyway it gives them (there are three more waiting in the wings to be sew up) a really fluffy chick halo.

The buttons are a superb idea and actually come from The Children’s Year.

The chickens were just the right size that their ‘eggs’ could be small chocolate ones. Very pleasing. :)

(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?

(I promise there will be knitted FOs too, very soon! Once they are blocked, and photographed.)

I really love Simple Sewing for Baby by Lotta Jansdotter – it’s full of useful things that you can make with a limited amount of time. Perfect for my foreseeable crafting life. ;)

So far I have made:

A drool neckchief (perfect for my teething boy) – the first of many!

And (finally!) a mini tag blanket (which has been on my to-do list for months.

(Mods – I made FB’s smaller than suggested, and added a button hole to one of the corners so that it can be attached to his pram or triptrap via a toy tie. You can’t see it in the picture but the other side is fleece. Very cozy.)

And now I’m going to gush… I think I’m a little in love with Rebecca Danger‘s toy patterns. They’re so full of life (and the patterns are so well written, imho.) I’m pondering which one to knit next…

FB’s easter basket turned into the easter basket that never was, due to a bad throat infection and raging temperature that had him in hospital over night on Good Friday. (Though – bless him – he managed to still grin at everyone and want to play with a temperature of 39.8)

After clearing him of the scary illnesses that could have been, and sending him home for cool baths, calpol, and ibruprofen, Easter was a wash out and I never managed to put together all the elements of him easter basket for Sunday morning. (Of course he wasn’t the wiser, and I was just relieved that his temperature didn’t spike again overnight.)

However I had already finished his monster, who proved to be the perfect buddy for a little unwell boy.