Episode 42: So.... How Are You?

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Show notes:

I experiment with a short podcast this time just to see how I'll work things around my hectic working life and child care. Hold onto your hats for further offerings....

I review Coopknits new publication 'Coopknits Socks'. Details can be found on her website or on Ravelry. 

Off the Needles

Perfected Fume my own hat pattern using scraps of fingering and sport weight yarns. Pattern to follow.

Charade Socks by Sandra Park in Nerd Girl Yarns 'Shimma' in the 'sexy' colourway.

Plume by Lisa Mutch in The Uncommon Thread in The Uncommon Thread Posh Fingering in the 'Nimbostratus' Colourway and Silky Merino Fingering in 'Cerulean' Colourway.

Frogged Dryad and instead cast on Setzer using The Uncommon Thread Lush Worsted in 'Bois' colourway.

Sock Yarn Sweater by Hannah Fettig in September Yarns Merino Silk Fingering, Amber colourway.

Munch, Burp, Schlurp

I make a call to ice cream makers to lead me into sin.

Songs:

Fly, Fly, Fly by Adrina Thorpe, available on Noise Trade
Water Landing by Amy Speace, available via Noise Trade

Contact me at: aplayfulday@gmail.com

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Scrappy Challenge For a Fabulous Cause

We'd all like to do more to help out others whether it's fundraising, donating hours of our time or making something that helps to make someone else's life that little bit better. I received an invite to a group recently that I thought was so thoughtful and ideal for time poor knitters that I wanted to share it here. 

The ever so talented Dani from Lioness Arts is leading the charge on creating a Handdyed Beekeepers Quilt to raise money for Great Ormond Street and MSF. Some of you will recognise MSF as the charity supported strongly by the knitting community for years thanks to strong advocate, the Yarn Harlot. Meanwhile, over 150,000 children are treated at Great Ormond Street Hospital every year and it does fantastic research into groundbreaking medical treatment that transforms lives of children around the world who present with complicated medical needs. I've seen the support they give families first hand and believe me, they are everyday heroes each and every person who works there (and attends). 

The plan is to create a double bed sized Hand-dyed Beekeepers quilt. The entire quilt will measure approximately 7ft x 6ft and will be made up of about 750 hexipuffs! Once enough hexipuffs have been collected Dani will join them all together and there will be a Live Prize Draw (at a venue to be confirmed). In the meantime you can donate to the challenge and at the same time enter the raffle for the quilt by donating to the dedicated Virgin Giving page!

For more information and to lend your support, please visit the group page here and get involved! Blog and tweet about it too- let's get this fundraiser heard about because knitters are amazing and have achieved wonderful things to help people in the past. I know we can do it again. 

Bach to Baby Beats Rainy Day Blues

It's been a while since I posted some music on here which is a shame as our house is always filled with music. Since birth, the Playful Baby has shown a strong response to music. She stilled to listen at first then would sit in deep concentration as she got older and now throws her hands in the air or asks an inquisitive 'do?' to a new instrument.

It's hard to find things suited to our needs when you have a feisty little one who does not appreciate sitting still in a circle or having to give back musical instruments she's barely began to explore. We've found one class which is pitched just right and often go to listen to piano playing at our local train station but on Friday we attended our first Bach to Baby. It was, in a word, perfect.

The idea is to provide classical concerts for babies, toddlers AND adults. I love this. As a mum I find myself in the land of farm animals and astronauts on an almost daily basis but something as stimulating as Mozart is a rare treat. The performance is broken up into different sections, with a little vignette about what to expect in between. It was helpful in keeping the babies amused by changing the pace but also a delight to be learning something. 

We attended a concert locally, there's different venues and a regular turn over of musicians so its worth keeping an eye on their calendar. On this occasion we saw Andrew Brownell on piano and he was typical of the high caliber of musicians that perform. While prestigious and engaging, what I loved was that he remained completely calm and relaxed despite babies crawling round the piano and possibly the rowdiest audience he's ever played for. Watching a world class classical performer play twinkle twinkle was really quite sweet and utterly refreshing that it wasn't deemed beneath him. 

It's not often you get to watch someone play with such passion and skill in such an intimate setting either. I took the Playful Baby right up to the grand piano to gaze in to its cavernous insides and watch the strings go to work. While she learned about sound and pitch, I mused that I could see every micro expression on Andrew's face: all his passion and commitment to his years of studying music. It made it all the more special. 

There will be more mornings like this as it's a great way to bring music into both our lives and there's lots to choose from on the website. I especially like the fact that there's delicious cookies and Monmouth coffee for mummies to start off and plenty of time to explore and move round the venue both during and around the performance times, I could nurse and change little one easily and had I brought the pram, parked it with ease. I really approve of the loyalty card which means you get a free concert after enough attendance- that's a very nice touch.

A definite thumbs up from both of us. 

Best Laid Plans

While writing a new blog post, I realised that I never hit publish on this one! So today I will, despite being out of date because I took pictures and everything! 

It's been that kind of month where I keep making silly mistakes like this.

So I wrote a little while about my knitting intentions. I queued, I read up on notes, I organised stash and needles. Did I cast on anything I'd originally intended?

Well....

In my obsession with using up stash (and thus getting the count down on Ravelry entries- one of my favourite games), I cast on some mini socks with the Trailing Clouds leftovers. Stripy mini socks are just so cute. I have NO idea if I will have enough but I figure with this colourway I could just add some scrap and it would just add to the big colour adventure right?

The pattern I'm using is from 'Tiny Treads' by Joeli. This book is chock full of mini people patterns for mini feet that I just think are great. What I particularly like is that you base your knitting on the gauge you're getting but the maths isn't confusing unlike lots of other similarly written patterns. If you're in the habit of swatching you could even check if you were going to run out of sock yarn or not. Did I swatch? Ahem......

I also cast on Knit Night which I DID intend to do. Ha! This is part of the KAL I'm helping to host in the Fyberspates group and I'm really enjoying. I haven't joined in or participated in a KAL in ages and I doubt I'll get this finished but the knitting is soothing enough that I'm not stressed by it and the yarn?

Twizzle Silk by Fyberspates

Yum.

I've never worked with singles before and I wasn't sure if I would enjoy them. It does slightly take away the autopilot nature of the knitting as the finer feel to the yarn means I have to look at my knitting more often than I normally would in garter stitch but when you're looking at something this lovely, who cares right?

I have new baby knitting plans but I'll talk about those when I actually cast on or figure out which direction they're going in- I'm designing on the fly again. Oh and this?

I'll talk more about this soon....

Soup By Request

Chilly? Tired? Feeling like you need something to fill you tummy with veggie goodness? I can heartily recommend this soup. We devoured this soup all week and even Playful Baby, who is currently teething, could be persuaded to partake is some bread dipping and soup devouring. 

When I popped a picture onto Instagram, I started a small soup related frenzy. It seems we're all currently feeling the cold. So, as promised, here is the recipe. 

'Request a Soup', Soup:

Ingredients
2 onions, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, smashed
2 sticks of celery, chopped
5-6 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
500 ml low salt stock (low salt for baby friendly, go wild for adult friendly)
75g red lentils
Handful of coriander, chopped

Method

1.Chop onions and celery, smash cloves of garlic, and peel and chop carrots.
2. Sauté for about 10 mins in good oil (we use cold pressed rapeseed)
3. Add 500 ml stock and 75g lentils and leave to bubble gently for about 15 mins
4. Add fresh coriander and buzz with food processor or hand blender till its consistency you like (I like the Coriander to be broken up into the soup, you can sprinkle it on top)

Notes:
~ Season as you wish for adults
~ Chilli, cumin and dried coriander are good additions
~ Serving this with cheese straws might be a new baby favourite round here.