Post-holiday FOs: Meet the Beanie Boys

I've not been entirely idle this holiday. In fact, while we were away I was downright busy. It felt like a regular beanie conveyor belt for a while!

The start was a beanie for boy #2. He'd been asking me for a beanie and scarf combo for a while now, and I thought this was as good a time as any to finally cast on for it. 

The colours he had picked were red and green. I wasn't took keen on buying lots of new wool, so I rooted around in my vast stash and found some dark green wool. I'm pretty sure it's Cascade, and I'm also pretty sure that I've had it since D's and my honeymoon, which is something like 10 years ago now. We spent it travelling New England on a Harley Davidson. I'm not your typical biker chick (or a biker chick at all, really!), and the trade-off for riding on that Harley was that we were also touring the Yarn Shops of New England. We visited many, always drawing surprised looks when we entered some little LYS in our full motorbike gear. It was a great holiday, and I brought back a whole lot of yarn - as much as would fit in the saddle bags on the bike, really. I also learned to spin on  that holiday, but that is another story.

Anyway, I still had this dark green yarn and I thought I'd use it. To accommodate boy #2's wishes I then bought some dark red Alpaca-mix yarn and I was set to go. Boy#2 told me later that he had envisioned brighter and lighter colours (something like bright red and a glowing neon- green... I should have guessed that I suppose!), but he is nevertheless thrilled with the beanie. So thrilled, in fact, that he's been wearing it most days, both during the day and often in the evening, in bed. :D

I used a very simple pattern for this. The inspiration came from Haven Ashley's Man Hat, but I amended the pattern a bit by using thinner yarn. I also went with a k1 p1 pattern on every row for this hat, which gae it quite clearly pronounced stripes. 

As soon as I had finished it, I saw boy #1's eyes light up - 'Mummy, that's cool, can you make me one!?'

Sure I can, darling, I'm glad you asked!

He chose a combination of the dark green yarn and the light green one that I still have left over from the Eyelet Yoke sweater. I love it when I find small projects for left-over yarn! 

I can tell you now, though, that one does not tolerate any procrastinating when he is waiting for something to be finished. At one point I was sitting down on the sofa for 5 minutes and he spotted me without my knitting, so he went and fetched it for me and threw it to me with a 'come-on mummy, you need to knit.'. Ha! 

That hat was finished in record time.

The next one was obviously boy #3's beanie. Since we now had three colours in the mix for these beanies I thought I'd go with the combination that hadn't been used before - the dark red Alpaca and the light green. 

I went with a k1 p1 row followed with a knit row for these two, which gave a slightly different look and shape. They are less stretchy and wider, overall, and for boy#3's beanie I altered the stripes by knitting 3 rows with red and two with green, which, together with the pattern, produced an interesting effect of one solid green stripe and one sort of dotted stripe... I quite like it. :) 

I obviously didn't want to leave out D, and in fact, this is the hat that started it all. I knitted it with a ball of Noro that I have had for ages. The pattern for this one is made up, and as you can see I ran out of yarn right before the end so I finished it with that dark green Cascade. 

So you see, I wasn't that idle on holiday, not at all!

4 boys - 4 hats! :)

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A Year of Projects

WIP Wednesday

It's been a long time since I've last done a WIP Wednesday / Year of Projects update, with the holiday and the work madness there just hasn't been time!

I have been knitting, but since we've come back from holiday progress has been slow. Every so often I pull my knitting out and knit a few rows, but with all three boys at home quite a lot things have been more focussed on keeping them entertained than on sneaking in knitting time. I do miss it, though, much as I am also enjoying spending some fun time with the kids. 

My most recent project, and the one that is currently the only one to get a look in, is the Boneyard Shawl. When we were on holiday I discovered a tiny little but very well stocked yarn shop. I tell you, I could have spent our entire holiday budget there! Thankfully D was with me, or we wouldn't even have had money left to buy ice creams at the beach... 

As it was I didn't buy much, although I did spend a good long time admiring and petting yarn. Fortunately the shop owner was very understanding and kept on bringing more yarn to stroke and cuddle. :) 

I finally walked away with two balls of Regia sock yarn in bright red - I'd been wanting to buy some solid colour sock yarn for ages, and the red looked so very tempting!

I also bought two skeins of fawn-coloured Seidenstrasse, which is a dk weight 65% Merino, 35% silk yarn and so soft that I just couldn't resist. I immediately knew that this yarn wanted to be a shawl and on the journey back from Borkum I cast on for the Boneyard shawl. 

Progress might be slow, but it's a fun project with an easy-to-memorise pattern that is kept intersting by the continuous shaping. I do have a long way to go though!

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C.H.A.O.S

... or, as the Flylady calls it, Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrom, which is pretty appropriate, really, since one follows the other.

We've been suffering from a bit of that around here, recently.

Well, to be perfectly honest, we always suffer from it a bit, but these past few weeks, with all three boys at home so much, it's been far worse than it normally is. 

We are not a tidy household. With kids, and cats and chickens, and an allotment and a big garden, and two parents who go out to work it's never all that tidy around here, and I don't mind that. I don't need or want a show home, and with all our hobbies and the limited time we have the cleaning and tidying isn't all that high on the agenda most days.

It does get me down, though, if it gets too bad, and occasionally we reach the point where I just want to get a bunch of big black binliners out and stuff all the rubbish (aka all the toys and clothes and general house 'debris' that accumulates day to day) in there and bring it to the tip. 

Such a point was reached on Saturday evening. I had a busy week at work last week, because the A-level results were out and we've had to man the phones all day every day since then to take calls from applicants ringing around to see if they could still get into the university course they wanted. With that, and the school holidays, the housework dropped off the radar for a bit, and it really doesn't take long for it to get out of hand. Coming back from work on the saturday and surveying the chaos all around us I reached a bit of a low point.

D and I spent some time on the Sunday getting things under control again, but I am hoping to come up with a more sustainable plan, because this 'binge-cleaning' isn't much fun and is also not a real solution because in the long-term you can't carry on like that. 

I used to follow the Flylady programme for a while before I fell of the bandwagon, and I think I might try to do that again. I like the idea of just doing a little bit of cleaning every day, and of focussing on deep-cleaning one room per week. The idea is to work at it, slowly but steadily, and because you are not supposed to get it all done in one day there is less chance of getting discouraged. 

So that's what I'm going to do, and to keep myself motivated I'll also force myself to post about it once a week, on a Tuesday. So here is my first room - the lounge, all tidy and clean again after the weekend - sorry, I didn't take any 'before' pictures, it was far too depressing! :) 

Fingers crossed that this will be how things continue! 

Car-boot Treasure Hunting

Do you like car boot sales? Flea markets?

I do.

We are lucky enough to have a local car boot that opens its gates every Sunday morning. In winter it’s pretty quiet – there are a couple of large sheds / barns, where a few people have stalls, but it’s cold, you know? And when it’s cold you don’t really feel like strolling leisurely across a car boot sale.

In summer, though, when the weather is good, the car boot comes alive. People come from miles away, both to sell and to buy, and it’s such a fun thing to do at the weekend.

This morning, after our traditional coffee and biscuits (hot chocolate for the boys) in bed, D asked me if I wanted to go and offered to hold the fort while I was gone. Well, he didn’t have to ask twice!

We bought lots of stuff for the boys there over the years – from clothes, which were often barely worn and sold off for pennies, to toys (why pay £20 when you can buy it for £1 in almost new condition?), we’ve even bought buggies there. I know that some people don’t like second hand things, and that’s obviously fine, but we’ve always recycled and re-used. While I’m not saying that money plays no role in this, our attitude to pre-loved things at least as much to do with it. A lot of the things we live with are heirlooms and hand-me-downs and old things surround us everywhere – from things that have been passed on within the family or through friends, to antiques, to second hand books, most of our stuff has history, and when it comes to buying, I’d much rather buy something old than something new. Our rule with kids stuff has always been – if it can be washed and it’s not damaged it’s good to go and should serve its purpose for a while longer before it goes to landfill.

More recently, though, I’ve found that the boys are outgrowing the car boot with their ever more specific desires and requirements. When they used to be happy with a Spiderman figurine or some Hotwheels cars, now it’s intricate Lego Technic or, even worse, electronic kit, and while it’s not impossible to pick up such things at the car boot you can’t really rely on finding anything (especially if you are expecting it to be complete and in working order!).

Today was such a day when I was hoping to find some little stocking fillers for the many upcoming birthdays (all the boys have autumn and winter birthdays), but there wasn’t really anything. I bought a knitted jumper and a waterproof jacket for boy #1 who is constantly outgrowing his clothes, but other than that there wasn’t much.

Instead I indulged in some treasure hunting for myself. For ages now I’ve loved Hornsea Pottery, and I was so sad to find that it closed its doors for good a few years ago. Whenever I happen across any of it at a reasonable price I’ve tried to buy some.

As I was walking through the sheds today – my last stop before returning to the car – I spotted one of my favourite stalls at the car boot. It’s a stall full of mismatched china, run by a sweet old couple. It was there that I spotted today’s treasure:

It’s a huge Hornsey Pottery storage jar and a set of sugar bowl and saucer. I’m so thrilled!

The plate was a find at another stall, as was the retro-style alarm clock and the tray. 

PS: Yes, I’m back from holiday but have been so so busy so haven't had time to post at all. A proper re-cap and knitting update will follow in the next few days!

Of Beach Baskets and Beach Tents...

In response to my last blog post I had a number of questions about the colourful little squares that appear to litter the beach on one of the pictures of the seafront on Borkum - those are beach baskets and beach tents, or, as they are actually called, Strandkoerbe und Strandzelte. As far as I know there is no equivalent for them in the UK or other English-speaking countries, so there is no actual translation either. The term beach basket is a literal translation of the German word, but it does sound more than a little bit odd. 

Although I think they are also occasionally used in Denmark for example, Strandkoerbe are predominantly used in Germany as their country of origin, and are a very common sight on German beaches, both at the North Sea and at the Baltic Sea. There are a few minor stylistic differences depending on  the coast (curves rather than edges on the handles, that type of thing...), but nothing major, and they are very recognisable. 

They were invented in Germany towards the end of the 19th century and quickly became very popular as a way of enjoying the seaside on the often very windy North Sea and Baltic Sea beaches. (if you want more info you can find it HERE) The baskets can be moved to position them to protect people sitting in them from the wind, and to either catch the sun or to provide shade. They are also cushioned, and can also be tipped backwards so people can lie in them, and footrests can be pulled out from underneath. Often, little tables are attached for drinks or a book. All in all they are a pretty nifty thing, and provide a lot of comfort from the elements and a generally cozy place to sit on the beach. You generally rent them for either the day or for the duration of your stay at the seaside from one of the many rental places dotted around the beaches. As they can be locked overnight they are also a useful place to stash sand toys, wind breaks and the like so you don't have to carry them back and forth every day.

Beach tents are something quite similar in look and function, but while the beach baskets are common on all the beaches around Germany the beach tents are specific to the island of Borkum, where they were invented around the same time as the baskets. Unlike the beach baskets they never took off outside Borkum, but until very recently they were the only type of beach shelter available on the island - it's only the recent years that the beach baskets have also been introduced. They look fairly similar in that they are little boxes with a bench in them but they are a lot more simple, with a fairly light but sturdy wooden frame and fixed bench and canvas roof and sides. Rental also includes a deckchair or two, provided with the beach tent. 

After contemplating for a few days we've decided to rent a beach tent for the remainder of our stay and so far it's been great - the boys love having a place to return to and have already started building a series of holes in the sand all around the tent, and it's so much more comortable to sit in the tent or in one of the deckchairs than to crouch in the sand, especially on more windy days. The position is great too - we are only 10 metres or so from a beach playground with its own saltwater water pump so the boys have been back and forth to play and get buckets of water for their intricate sand constructions.

So there you go, a little history of the German beach basket and the Borkum beach tent! :)

Really loving our holiday so far. 

Borkum is a simple place, and just right for us I think. The kids love the beach, there are bicycles everywhere and no cars are allowed in the centre of the town, so it's safe for them to cycle everywhere. 

Grandma was looking after them a bit in the evening, so D and I got to go out on our own for a little while. :) 

Introducing Roly, and A Year of Projects - the list to end all lists...

Two things on the agenda today. 

First I would like to introduce the newest addition to the family...

Meet Roly, the pill bug, or, as we would say in the UK, the woodlouse. 

He is already quite at home here, and he likes to crawl up the back of the sofa when it is least expected, scaring and tickling unsuspecting family members and visitors alike.

He took a good long time to finish, but that wasn't his fault - I got side-tracked by various other projects, and because he consists mainly of short rows (oh, all the short rows, I will never forget how to do those now) he wasn't a very good project to pick up for a few distracted minutes with busy family life going on around me.

That said, this was a fun pattern to knit, and the constant shaping, together with the gradual colour changes of the Noro, kept it interesting throughout. I really like how Roly has turned out, and I'm so glad that I held on to that Noro afterall or I wouldn't have had such an fantastic yarn to use for this. Everything about this Noro Silk Garden was ideal - the weird mushroom-y, 'buggy' colours, the texture of the silk, the way the colours seemed to change at just the right moments...

~ * ~

The other 'little' thing  I have been working on is that pesky Year of Projects list, and oh, there are so many projects I'd like to get round to this year! I've decided to post two lists - an ideal list of projects, and a list of essentials. 

Needless to say, my 'ideal' list is pretty monumental (well, at least for me, I'm not *that* prolific!):

IDEAL LIST

• Hitofude - carried over from last year I have a ton of ivory sock yarn that is earmarked for this. 
• Dietrich hat  - this has been brought over from last year's list. Really hoping to get it done this year!
• Marian - I really fancy a big bad cowl to keep me warm. I may knit another one as a Christmas present...
• Audrey in Unst - I really like my cardigans slightly retro and fitted, because I wear them with dresses and skirts. I love the red version of this. I am planning on frogging an unloved sweater, so perhaps the wool could be repurposed for this.
• Sideways Grande Cloche - I love the construction of this.
• Campus Jacket - I was planning on knitting this anyway, and a friendly Ravelry member sent me a copy of the pattern for my birthday. Isn't that lovely?
• Color Affection - I am hoping to knit a few more wraps and shawls this year and this elegant pattern has been on my list for some time.
• Prolix Mitts - so cool!
• Bellflower - Klokkeblomst
• Lady February - so cute, and I love that style in a cardigan
• Balls Up! - Christmas baubles
• Little Red Riding Hood Hooded Scarf - so cute!
• Quay - cardigan
• Honey Cardigan - so pretty!
• Idlewood - I really like this one. It was on my list towards the end of last year so perhaps it will actually get done this time round. 
• Chandail - cable cardi
• Boneyard Shawl - lovely simple pattern. 
• Raw Honey - fingerless mitts. I want to knit these with some leftover aran yarn. If I get on OK with the pattern I may knit a few as Christmas presents.
• Stripey Tube Hat - probably for boy #2. He wants a stripey hat in green and red (he was very specific about the colours...).
• Moriarty: Two Colour Crochet Beanie - this one might be fore me. :) 
• Age of Brass and Steam Kerchief 
• Kids' Stripey Beanie - perhaps as a newborn gift for my new niece or nephew (due in December)
• Lori Shawl - I like the simplicity of this one...
• Kuni Shawl - again, a simple but effective pattern. 
• Mohair Cowl Pullover - I still have a huge hank of blue handdyed Mountain Fleece mohair lying around. This pattern seems perfect for it!
• Classic Cowl - potential Christmas Present?
• Hitchhiker - a popular pattern and I can see why. Possible Christmas knitting?
• Little Cable Knee Highs - these look so cool! I'd love some knee-high socks. 

In addition I'm planning a few mystery sock KALs to reduce my sock yarn stash, and of course there are all those projects that tend to sneak onto the list later on...

There are also a few ongoing projects:

• Ripple - there is no rush for this one, it's an ongoing project that I occasionally pick up.
• The Weekender Blanket - same for this one. It's a good one to add to whenever I fancy crocheting a few hexies. 
• The Sock Experiment - I'm sort of making this one up as I go along...
• Experimental Hat - knitting this one with a ball of what I assume is Noro. I lost the label years ago so can't be sure, though. Again I'm sort of making this one up.
• Black Acer - still ongoing. It's coming on holiday with me, so hopefully there will be some more progress soon.

A friend and work colleague has also asked me if I could be persuaded to knit her a fox stole. She has no pattern for it but showed me a picture. I quite fancy trying this!

THE 'ESSENTIAL' LIST

• Hitofude 
• Dietrich
• Audrey in Unst
• Campus Jacket 
• Prolix Mitts 
• Idlewood 
• Chandail or Honey Cardigan
• Boneyard Shawl 
• Raw Honey 
• Stripey Tube Hat
• Moriarty: Two Colour Crochet Beanie
• Kids' Stripey Beanie 
• Mohair Cowl Pullover 
• Classic Cowl or Marian
• Hitchhiker

Is this achievable, do you think? I'd really REALLY like to get all these done, but then again, with the sneaky queue-jumpers that I tend to get throughout the year it's really not a certainty!

So there you go! My bags are packed, my knitting projects are chosen, and I'm now ready to go on holiday!

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Keep Calm Craft On

Summer crafting...

... can be pretty slow. 

It's been hot out there these past few days. I'm not complaining, mind (I really shouldn't, after whinging for weeks about the unseasonably cold weather), especially since it already seems to be over again (far too soon!), but it did make me slow and unwilling to engage too much with warm wool. I have been doing some gentle crochet, and I've also worked on a test knit which, for a while, took most of my knitting time , but other than that there isn't much to report. I do have plans, though! This year, I am telling myself, is the year when I will knit some Christmas presents. Nothing large - no cardigans or blankets - but some hats and scarves and mitts are in order I think.

I also need to make another baby quilt, because my oldest and dearest friend just had a baby girl (her third little girl, to match our three boys!!). I sewed quilts for her older two, so will obviously have to do the same for the new arrival. :)  Add to that a sudden desire to finally learn embroidery (I purchased the materials for this years ago, but never got round to it) after seeing the beautiful bags that Stefanie over at Woolythyme made, and I am pretty much set for the summer and autumn.

I'm also contemplating what to take on holiday with me. It dawned on me the other day that we will be getting ready to board the ferry to Rotterdam in two weeks time. I have dragged the suitcase down from the attic and have been putting kids clothes aside so there won't be a mad dash to get all sorts of clothes washed and dried on the last day! 

But what really occupies my thoughts is of course not the packing of clothes - it's the packing of crafts projects. I always overestimate the amount of making time that I have on holiday, but hey, I can dream, right?  Right now I am thinking some portable small projects such as hats and scarves, and perhaps that embroidery stuff - after all it's also fairly small and portable... What do you think? What are you taking on holiday with you?

Other than that it's a mad dash to get organised. There is work stuff to be done of course, but in between I have to find time for all the holiday planning too. I have things to get for the journey, and the beach, and food to plan and buy (we are going in the car and we  will have a flat, so we may as well plan ahead - since we are going to a small island food is bound to be pricey there). 

On top of that I am trying to think up an easy irigation system for my greenhouse. The tomatoes are coming on so well in there, and  I really don't want to come back to some kind of desert... The allotment will hopefully look after itself for the fortnight that we are away, although as fate may have it we could be heading for a freak heatwave (a rarity in Yorkshire, but not unheard of...). Not much to be done about that, though, so I can only hope for a) rain, and b) wel-established plants that can weather a dry spell. 

Anyway, look what arrived yesterday!

My mum-in-law was kind enough to give me a subscription to Taproot for my birthday. I'm so looking forward to reading it, but perhaps I should wait until the holiday?

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What do you do when you have too many strawberries to eat?

... you make strawberry jam! 

Allotmenting...

Just feast your eyes on this...

This time of year the allotment doesn't look like much (it starts to look more impressive in August, when the cut flowers are in full swing), but it's already productive.

When I went a few days ago I harvested a bucket-full of sweet and juicy strawberries, some rhubarb, a bowl of mangetout and the first batch of broad beans. Delicious! 

Looks drab, doesn't it?

Yet, when you look closer:

And lastly, the strawberry plants - doesn't look like they are hiding all those ripe strawbs, does it? 

If you have any productive garden news to share I'd love to hear from you. Just leave a comment below. :)