ask a busy woman

The two girls went to stay with my parents for a night last week. And lo, the stars aligned and the baby slept for nearly three hours.

So I did this to a wall in the kitchen:

Before: grubby

After: none more black

I also got out the drill and did this:

These little handles had been sat staring at me for the best part of a year since I bought them in a flea market. They make me feel (marginally) better about the oversized filing cabinets that are our wardrobes.

Then, clearly on some kind of craft Stakhanovite high, I did a little sprucing up of some corners of my home. In our bedroom I put up a mobile for the baby and rearranged a mix of my old work, my Granddad's painting and a flea market buy:

I also added to this wall that I have previously featured here:

The print is from a collage by Martin O'Neill, the poster from the London Transport museum shop, the rest are handmade, heirlooms or charity shop booty.

And I thought, all the while, of the wise words of Caitlin Moran:

Give a new mother a sleeping child for an hour...and 'multi-tasking' does not come near to the quantum productivity of someone putting in an online grocery order, writing a report, cooking the tea, counselling a weeping friend on the phone, mending a broken hoover - all within the space of a 3 pm nap.  

-From How To Be A Woman, Caitlin Moran, Ebury Press 2011

Word.

some days

Some days there is no time to make things.

Some days your fridge packs up in a heatwave. 

A gas leak apparently. Do I save the hummus or the orange juice?

Some days you take a hot teething baby to the surgery for his immunisations. And you have to wait over an hour.

A work-in-progress sits tantalisingly over a chair.

So nearly finished. If only I had some time.

On these days I try to find comfort in what I can do.

I can rearrange my scissors. This is pleasing.

I can make a good luck card for someone important.

And that is about it. Sigh. Maybe it's ok. 

It will have to be.

tank girl

Ah the English climate. 

As I write: a cool, sticky day. The sky a greyish shade of rainy sports day. What to wear? Not too hot, not too cold. Layers layers layers.

Why, a tank top of course!

A couple of years ago I taught myself to read Japanese crochet symbols and made this tank top in Alpaca wool for my older daughter Eva. 

Reader, I am sorry to report that that top is no more. Unless you are a doll. Yes, it was put on a hot wash. And not by me. I will say no more.

The thing is, it was a really quick pattern, and had enough going on not to get too boring. So, I made it again in a kind of deep space blue with intergalactic silver threads I bought in the sales:

I made another, this time more a sleeveless cardigan than a tank top: 

The wool was a lovely merino wool mix also bought in the sales. I found this pattern on Ravelry to base the shape on. Such a great pattern for a cardigan on there: you just start with the circumference of a neck then do a simple formula to work out the rest.

It's the same author as  this cardigan, with my own amendments.

The weatherman says it will be barbecue weather this weekend. Can I, dare I, believe?

You can now follow me on Instagram if you like. Click my new widget: look, it's up there on your right.

whitsun week

Bluebells and boot fairs. 

Pinafore dress

My amazing aunt found me an old Cloth Kits pinafore dress kit. 

Burgundy needlecord, size 6-7. Perfect for Eva. I finished it off in the Welsh snow over Easter. 

For me, there is always a bit of teeth-gritting involved in dressmaking, even with a kit where the instructions are so beautifully explained.

Gratifyingly, it has been a hit. She calls it her pinaform dress and has rarely been seen without it.

On reflection I prefer pinaform to pinafore. It works much better don't you think?