Yes, I am still here - I was just gone for a while because I first went to Germany to see my family for a couple of weeks, then, two days after returning to the UK, we went to the Lake District for another 10 days or so.
We had a fabulous time and, despite the consistently pessimistic weather forecasts, fantastic weather! We had rented a little cottage in a valley behind the Old Man of Coniston (a local mountain) but in the end also added another two days at a B&B we passed on the shore of Coniston Water. It was a magical place - I'm so thankful my pregancy-bladder demanded an immediate stop and we decided to have some tea at the same time. The place was called Bank Ground Farm and is actually the farm that Ransome's Swallows and Amazons' Holly Howe is based on. Fortunately they had a room available and we were able to add another two wonderful days to our holiday. This is D and The Bean by the shore of Coniston Water, throwing stones into the water.
Upon coming back from holiday, as if that had all been nothing, we had Bean's Christening and a house full of people. After that I was at work what feels like 24/7 because of Clearing (when here in the UK the A-level results come out and prospective students start ringing around because they didn't get the results they were expecting and are hoping to secure a place anyway). And this weekend we had friends staying with us and we did quite a bit of driving around (Spurn Point on Saturday and then the Yorkshire Moors on Sunday).
It's all been great fun, but I AM EXHAUSTED! I think I may also have a pregnancy-related iron deficiency going on, because even with all this going on, I don't think I should feel quite this tired... Better check this with the midwife at my next appointment on Thursday. Other than that, though, Tick is doing well, and this pregnancy is progressing so fast... can't believe I'm 28 weeks already. CRAP, when am I going to get all the things done that I was going to do before this little one gets here?
Despite all this, there has been some knitting - not for me, because I don't really want to start anything that I can't try on right now, but there has been quite a bit of baby knitting.
First of all, I finished the double-breasted baby cardigan that I mentioned last time:
As I suspected, the sizing is... a bit off. To my eyes the cardi looks HUGE. It might fit me!! (Well, maybe not right now, but without the baby belly it might) That said, at least the length is exactly what it is supposed to be, so maybe the sizing is just this odd?! There are also no buttons yet, because I haven't got round to digging any out. I have two big biscuit tins full of old buttons that I inherited from D's grandma, so I am hoping I'll find something in there.
The second thing is also from the Debbie Bliss baby knits book, this time something for Tick:
It's the garter stitch baby cardigan, again, minus buttons. The yarn is from Wolle Roedel in Germany - a superwash merino which was great to knit with. Again, the sizing is odd, because with a bit of stretching this cardi would also quite comfortably fit the Bean - is this really supposed to be the newborn size?
I'm now knitting another baby raglan sweater from the Debbie Bliss book. This has become one of my favourite pattersn because the cardis turn out so cute and are so easy to wear for babies an toddlers (the sizing doesn't go up to 2-3 years, but it's easy enough to adapt the sizing to Bean's requirements).
