The Scottish Lass: 2011

31.12.11

2011 In Pictures

Jan

Feb

March

April

May

June

July

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

WISHING EVERYONE A HAPPY

HOGMANAY

AND A WONDERFUL

2012

Valerie

xxx

30.12.11

Making, Baking & Utility Sewing

We have had a fair bit of 'making' around here lately. The Christmas Crafting almost reached fever pitch at one point, but we really enjoyed ourselves in the process. At the moment we are enjoying some of the Christmas makes, for example, hats

And leftovers cooked up with some stock and barley into a lovely soup.

New wool arrived though and I have began a new knitting project, (its a gift, so not too many details at the moment).

The point is though, I really want to carry on with a fairly high level of making things. It has helped bring some structure into our daily lives, and especially for Oscar who wont be starting nursery until April (unless I change my mind AGAIN *ahem*).

One of the nice parenting blogs I read is HOBO MAMA and a few days ago (and a few weeks ago), she was asking for people to sign up to The January Carnival of Natural Parenting (POST HERE). The basic premise is to take the challenge to go 'greener' in one aspect of your life. I had a look at the examples and some of them were too easy, go vegi for a week (we do that often), use only natural cleaners (vinegar and bicarb, we do that anyway), and some were not suitable or too difficult, use cloth nappies, (Oscar is nappy free, or don't buy anything for a week, (no chance, lol). The upshot was, I didn't sign up for anything, but I was thinking about it a lot. Then I remembered a sewing project I had seen on Jeanette's Blog, and decided this was the perfect time to get on with it.

The next bit of this post is about sanitary wear so please feel free to move on swiftly.

For the past few years I have been using a MOONCUP when its that time of the month, and on the whole I am fairly happy with it. The only thing which has been bothering me is that I still need to use a pad(s) as well as the cup for the first couple of days (due to heavy flow) and a pad only on the last day (due to light flow). So although I have significantly reduced the amount of pads I use, they are not eliminated completely. Jeanette has a tutorial for home made washable pads in her side bar and every time I see it I consider having a go and then forget all about it. Yesterday I was pondering what to make next, and thinking about the Parenting Carnival and it occurred to me than now was the perfect time to get the tutorial and give it a go. TUTORIAL FROM JEANETTE.

If you read the tutorial you will see mine are a slightly different shape because I drew them up freehand (my printer is playing up), and because I couldn't serge the edges mine were sewn with the inside out method and then I zig-zag stitched around the outside. Considering I am pretty rubbish at sewing, I am pleased with the results. Pretty they are not, but if they are functional, that really is the whole point. I used cotton for the outer fabric and fleece for a bottom layer (between the cotton and the soaker fabric), and terry toweling as the soaker fabric. I haven't sewn the snaps on yet, I will do that today (the pattern will explain where they go, if you are interested). Although I haven't signed up for the Carnival I am pretty pleased I have done something anyway, it certainly leads on to other thoughts. What else can we make instead of buying?

While I was sewing away, Duncan and Oscar were playing with Oscar's castle and at the same time

Baking bread instead of buying some. Isn't he good.

Valerie

xxx

29.12.11

Cheeky Gnome

Since Christmas, Oscar has been missing the excitement of opening his advent every day. It's not so much the chocolate (which he often left on the table for hours anyway), but the surprise of finding what was inside. With this in mind I decided a little game of hide and seek would excite him in the mornings. Having heard of these silly travelling gnomes who appear all over the world in people's photos, I decided a cheeky Gnome who hides around the house when we are asleep would maybe do the trick. This morning Oscar sped downstairs to find him. Here he is sitting on the mast of the pirate ship.

Oscar is already wondering where he will be tomorrow, so my plan has worked.

Here is the Pattern For The Traveling Gnome

Materials
• Set of 3.25mm needles (UK size 10, US size 3)
• Yarn needle
• Toy stuffing

Yarn colours

Orange

Blue
Skin
Green

Yarn weight: Double knitting/ worsted weight

Gauge: not important but make it tight so stuffing doesn’t show through

Finished measurements: approx 3.5" tall and 2.5" wide

Gnome Body:
CO 6 in blue yarn
1. purl
2. *kfb, k1 * along (9 sts)
3. purl
4. *kfb, k2 * along (12 sts)
5. purl
6. *kfb, k3* along(15 sts)
7. purl
8. *kfb, k4* along (18 sts)
9. purl
10. *kfb, k5* along (21 sts)
11. purl
12. * kfb, k6* along (24 sts).
Change to skin yarn.
13. purl
14. *kfb, k7* along (27 sts)
15. purl
16. *kfb, k8* along (30 sts).
Change to green yarn.
17. purl
18. *kfb, k9* along (33 sts)
19. purl
20. *kfb, k10* along (36 sts)
21. purl
22. *kfb, k11* (39 sts)
23. purl
24. BO

Cut yarn, leaving a long tail. Use tail to mattress stitch row ends closed up to the top and secure any loose yarn ends. At this point you may want to embroider on eyes to the face of the gnome.

Gnome Bottom:
CO 6 with green yarn
1. purl
2. *kfb* along(12 sts)
3. *pfb,p1* along (18 sts)
4. *kfb,k2* along (24 sts)
5. *pfb,p3* along (30 sts)
6. *kfb, k4* along (36 sts)
7. *pfb,p11* along(39 sts)
BO

Cut yarn, leaving a long tail. Use tail to mattress stitch row ends closed secure any loose yarn ends. You should be left with a flat disc like shape.

Beard
co 3 in orange
1. purl
2. *kfb* along (6sts)
3. purl
4. *kfb,k1* along (9sts)
5. purl
6. knit
7. purl
8.BO (Leaving a long yarn tail)

Finishing
Attach the base of the gnome to the body stitching together the bind off edges, stop once you get 3/4 way round to stuff the gnome and then continue to close the remaining stitches. Weave in any loose ends.
Use the long tail of the beard and attach it to the part of the body where the skin yarn meets the green yarn

------------------------------------------

Oh yes and talking of knitting, here is one of my favorite Christmas makes. A mitt and scarf set for Duncan, which I obviously couldn't show you until after Christmas.

The yarn is a wool and alpaca mix in mid grey and the buttons are antique household livery button (so cool).

Here is the pattern for them should you like a pair MITTS

Valerie

xxx

28.12.11

New Year Cleaning I

It is traditional here in Scotland to go into a complete cleaning frenzy just before the New Year starts. It was shameful to start off the year with a 'dirty' house. I am at least thinking about it, if not actually getting off my bum and actually doing it, so I thought it might be a good time to look at some eco cleaning tips.

I am trying very hard to eliminate chemicals from our home, but of course its impossible to do it completely. What I can do though is eliminate it as much as possible. It gives me a sense of achievement to make something for use instead of buying something for use (it often works out less expensive too), and this applies to all levels, from food to knitting and sewing right down to washing powder. So here we have it.

The ingredients are as follows
1 cup of bicarbonate of soda
1 cup of soap flakes or grated soap bar
2 cups of soda crystals
a sprinkle of your favorite essential oil
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and decant into jars. I use 3 tablespoons (heaped-ish) per wash of this, so it lasts ages.
I have found it can be a little clumpy in the jar, but a quick mash with the end of the spoon does the trick.
If you find your clothes are too hard try adding half a cup of white vinegar (in the softener dispenser), this helps to soften the clothes, and does not leave a vinegar smell. If linens are softened they actually last longer, because hard fibers rub together and wear away faster.

I hope you have found that helpful? If any of you lovely Mama's have your own recipes, please feel free to leave them in the comments or leave a link to your own blogs.

PS take a look at this, if you are interested in old Scottish traditions THE STEAMIE

Valerie

xxx

27.12.11

Peace

Merry Christmas All, I hope you have had a wonderful time. We have had a very relaxed Christmas and I for one am very pleased about it.

On Christmas Eve we had a lovely dinner together, a tradition I started when the 2 older children were small and had Christmas lunch with their Dad every alternate year. It was a way for us to make sure we had a celebratory feast as a family. Then Duncan, Oscar and I went to the Christmas Eve service at church, which was quite lovely and Oscar really enjoyed. When we came home it was after 8pm, so it was time for bed (for Oscar), so we put out our carrot and milk and mince pie for Santa and the reindeer. Daddy still thinks Santa should get a brandy or a whiskey, but Mama thinks we shouldn't encourage drink driving, I can see this debate coming up every year again ;)

Oscar slept until 8.15am on Christmas morning, which I doubt will happen every year, so we took full advantage of it. When we came downstairs he was a bit afraid to come into the lounge and asked me to go first in case Santa was still there, he is a bit afraid of the big guy. I have to say he was fairly chilled about the presents, handing them around one at a time and having me help him open his (manic and frenzied paper ripping may come when he is older, I am not sure though). The unsurprising hit was the ELC wooden tower which we bought him (opting for this instead of a large Noddy Car, although we did get him a small Noddy car).

My eldest son came to see us at 10.30am and we opened more gifts and Oscar enjoyed having his big brother around (we don't see Christopher all that often, much to my regret).

Christmas dinner was at 3pm and ran very smoothly. There were 8 of us in total and everyone said it was very tasty. Even my Mum noticed how chilled I was and commented on how amazingly relaxed I was considering I had just served a feast for 8 people by myself.

As is customary, we all spent the rest of day trying to get our food to digest, sipping champagne and watching the children play.

I can only hope that every Christmas will be as peaceful as this one.