Jenerally Speaking,

Mummy and Son socks

 I have SO enjoyed this little project. Having enjoyed making my drops delight socks (despite the disappointing poop-colour!), I got straight onto making Little R some socks, from the same yarn that I made my very first pair of socks many years ago. 

I loved this project for many reasons. Firstly, because knitting socks is fun, but takes quite a while. My Mum has adapted Winwick Mum's basic sock pattern to make socks to fit Little R, so it was all the fun of knitting socks, only faster! Secondly, I adore this colourway, so I was excited by each colour change from bright blue, to lime, to pale blue to bottle green. Scrummy! And thirdly, I was excited to finish up so we could enjoy wearing matching Mummy and son socks!

I finished them the other evening, and I have to confess that I had a little posing session sans feet. Just socks on their own! 

Yup, they looked cute that way!

Mm-hmm - still cute with the tops folded down!

Oh! Mega-cute together!

Yes, yes, yes!

Wow - I really had too much fun with that! The cuteness what too much!

Imagine my glee then, when we were both wearing our socks today!

There's something about toddler feet, isn't there? Something totally nummy.

And my goodness, those wrinkly, dimply knees. I could eat them all up! (Although I'm now a bit gutted that I didn't know how to do Kitchener stitch when I made my socks - his toes are SO much lovelier and neater than mine!)

Little R himself was quite pleased with his socks. He liked that we were "bofe dame!" (both same) and happily wore them all afternoon. I like to think that they kept his feet warm while he experienced his first snowball fight in the garden this afternoon. 

I might have to go rooting through my yarn container to see if I have any other sock yarns that need using up! 

Socks in Drops Delight!

 Way back in September, I purchased this rather lovely yarn at the rather lovely Yarndale 2014, with the intention of making myself a pair of cosy winter socks that would match my red and blue pyjamas. I get hot, sticky feet if I wear woolly socks during the day - they're an evening treat for me, and it bothers me that my two woolly pairs of socks don't quite match, beautiful though they are. 

I think I started them in November, but I first remembered to take a photo of my progress as we drove up to Norfolk for our pre-Christmas stay. Little bump and I, happily knitting in the car. I was very happy with how the colours were shaping up, even if the colour changes were VERY slow and gradual.

I worked hard on them during our stay and soon I was ready to attempt my first ever Kitchener stitch. I normally just fudge the toes with a dodgy bit of casting off, but this time, having followed Winwick Mum's excellent pattern very carefully, I was determined not to let her down with a rubbishy toe. 

So I called up a YouTube video and soon I was stitching away, muttering "knit-slip, purl, purl-slip, knit" under my breath. Piece of cake.

Ta-daaaaa!!! So neat! I was properly proud of moiself!

At Christmas, I got distracted by the delicious, scrumptious bag of Cosy Stylecraft yarn which I'd got from my Mum. Enthusiastically, I threw myself, slightly late, into the crochet-along led by Lucy, and my one finished sock sat quietly in my knitting bag waiting for me. But when I went along to knit and natter at the library a couple of weeks ago I didn't fancy heaving my huge sack of yarn with me to continue my blanket, so I started my second sock instead. 

I was really careful - I examined the ball of yarn to see where the purple colour appeared and wound the first bit of yarn off so the socks would begin with the purple-red-blue sequence of colours.

Epic. Fail.

The further I got into my second sock, the more despondent I felt. Instead of a pleasant, rainbow effect, I was creating a soil-coloured monstrosity. It was just brown, then more brown, then slightly greeny-brown, then somewhat purpley-brown. Waaaah! Not the effect I was going for at all!

Yes, there are lovely, neat Kitchener stitch toes...

... but they certainly don't look like a matching pair. I know, I know. I never wear matching socks. UNLESS they are hand-knitted socks. Those, I prefer to match.

And the second sock is NOT going to match my red and blue pyjamas. Hurrumph. It's irritating, because I worked so hard on the knitting. My conclusion is that this yarn is not ideal for sock knitting, if you care about the socks complimenting each other. It's lovely part-real wool yarn, but it's quite fluffy and splitty and the tempting colours on the outside of the ball disguised the mud-fest inside.

You know what else is irritating? That I was in such a rush to photograph these babies before the sun set this evening that I didn't pull them up to the same level! Ha ha!

First Snow

365/365 ... nearly

I was hoping for a profound or at least interesting shot for Little R's final 365 and I got it - on this morning, while we were setting up the toys for Baby and Toddler group it started snowing. PROPERLY snowing. The biggest flakes I've seen for years, and the first proper snow Little R has seen (since he's understood the concept of snow - it snowed a lot in the first few weeks of his life, but I don't think he noticed - he was more interested in milk and sleep!). He was thrilled. "Nowing! Nowing!" he kept saying, padding round in the giant snowflakes and brushing them from his hair. 

By the way - I'm not a terrible mother - I only let him out for a few minutes without a coat, hat, scarf and mittens on. We just wanted to let them dash out for a moment to revel in the magical weather. Then we bundled them back inside to the semi-warm (village halls are never PROPERLY warm, even in the summer!). 

So... nearly a complete 365 project. I went back to the very first 365 blog post to check that the dates match up. And they don't. They're out by a whole ten days. I knew if I was going to be a mistake it'd be in my numbering the photo files. I looked carefully through the folder and noticed that back in June 2014, I jumped from 133 to 143. Rats. Thus, this 365 project is ten days short. But it's too late - I've already relaxed and not taken any photos of Little R for a couple of days. So it's staying an oh-so-nearly 365 project. It seems appropriate really - I never get anything 100% right!!

I have really enjoyed this project. It's made me think much more about photography, and about the moments of Little R's life I choose to record. Because I've been holding onto the idea of getting Little R's 365 photo each day, I've been looking out for interesting, beautiful or quirky moments which say something about the day. I've thought about taking photos from different angles and in different lighting to make sure I had the best shot for the day. And yes, there was the day I forgot completely, and a couple of days that I had to get a photo late on in the evening, but most days I've ended up with several lovely photos of our little boy. Even on difficult days, it's made me focus on the good, or at least giggle about the challenging of looking after a toddler. 

Little R has changed, in developmental terms, beyond recognition in this year. This time last year he could do about three or four signs to communicate. He couldn't say any words at all. He was a wobbly walker. He was happy, playful and beginning to show his sense of humour, but he was still a baby. Now he chats away to us in practically full sentences (today's new sentence: "I like this!" - he admired many items in IKEA). He is imaginative, affectionate, sociable and able to do so much. He runs, climbs ladders, throws balls and he NEARLY jumps. He can recognise six or seven letters, he can use his counting numbers to 11 (usually in the right order, and often with one-to-one correspondence!). He does squiggly lines for writing, and loves drawing faces and fireworks. He sings simplified versions of several songs ("Let It Go" comes with dramatic hand gestures!). He even lies creatively (the other morning, while walking down the stairs, he pointed to my crocheted mandalas and told Rachel "I make dese! I knit them!" What a FIBBER!) He is no longer our baby. He is our little boy. 

And I am so grateful that I've been able to record some of these changes and achievements through photos. But I am NOT doing another year! Heck no. I'm really looking forward to claiming back some of my precious free time in the evening (for a few months, until little baby arrives) to do more crafting and relaxing and blogging about crafting and blogging about relaxing. And as for little baby, I do plan to do a 365 project for him/her. But I'm considering doing it during the same time - between the ages of 1 and 2, when children change and learn so much. 

Little R, when you are grown up, I hope you'll enjoy looking back at your early days. 

Fine motor skills

364/365

This is possibly Little R's favourite birthday present. Hand-crafted by Grandpa, with various handles, buttons, knobs, levers and catches to enjoy, and a noisy bike bell and doorbell to ring. Today he demonstrated that he understands the concepts "top" and "bottom", as he was hanging the butcher hooks on the upright handle, telling me whether he was putting them "on top" or "on bottom". It was my idea to hang up his wellies and it prooved quite a challenge!

P.S. Waistcoat crocheted by Grandma, and co-ordinating trousers by her too!

Measuring his foot

363/365

No - you are quite mistaken. It's not a DS case. It's a foot measuring device. He enjoyed measuring his own feet, then my foot (disappointingly it was so big it stuck out the end) and then sat calling for Honey. "'oney! Come 'ere. Measure foot!" Unsurprisingly, she did not oblige by offering a paw.

Fed elphant!

362/365

Yup - he fed this lady elephant a piece of carrot. He hasn't yet stopped talking about it whenever elephants or carrots come up in conversation. Or just when it pops into his head. He was VERY proud.

Contemplative

361/365

Colouring the dinosaurs, before our lunch out. I wonder what you were mulling over so pensively.

Funny boy

360/365

While I was at work, Little R was styling it up in my slippers. He does hilarious voices and face now. His squeaky guinea-pig and deep voiced Father Christmas voice are some of my particular favourites. Oh - and his whale voice. That's a classic.

Gloves!

359/365

Little R has worked out how to remove his Gruffalo bedsocks and put them onto his hands. But then he found his alphabet toy was a bit hard to use with gloves on! Still, it's a cute trick!

Affectionate

358/365

If I had to pick just one adjective to describe Little R, it'd be affectionate.

(or imaginative... but based on this photo - affectionate!)