Before casting anything else on I must finish:

Simon’s Koolhaas - need to get a set of 5mm dpns.
Jasper’s Tomten - need one more ball of Silver Thaw
My Juno Regina - need to overdye dark purple.

I can finish all of them before my birthday - then I’m knitting a Pi shawl and will finish Entangled.

Brianne Leary with To Conceal One’s Ability (Francois de La Rochefoucauld “It is a great ability to be able to conceal one’s ability”) flickrgrit did the cover art

Breathless-girl-with-guitar I think

(there’s a horrible smear on the camera lens)

I could go on about this one for hours - it’s a classic Elizabeth Zimmermann, the Modular Tomten from Knitting Without Tears (and Knitting Workshop) (a Tomten is a Swedish elf ). This one is knitted with the standard instructions (112 stitches CO) in Twilley’s Freedom Spirit at a gauge of 6 stitches per inch. It would fit a baby around 6-12 months I think - because it is garter stitch it stretches brilliantly & fits Jasper snugly.

The design is just fantastic, very, very clever - the only seam is under the arm, I love the deep armholes & the way the sleeves are picked up & knitted in the other direction to the body. I knitted a few short rows across the back so it would fit over a nappy without being stretched and this was the first time I’ve put a zip in or grafted (no seams in the hood!!!). I’m ridiculously proud of it

Saartje’s Booties - in DK Lorna’s Laces Swirl (it’s a silk/merino mix IIRC) rather than 4ply. Very quick to knit, I think they’d fit a baby around about 6-9 months (much smaller than Jasper anyway )

Had a great week - I’ll do the pictures & a blog about CP at some point. We spent hours in the pool, Claudia did JumpZone & wall climbing (thanks A she loved it ), we saw Shrek the III & I did some knitting saw Helen & Chris & Jax & Tim which was lovely and Claudia was very pleased to have extra playmates.

We stayed with my brother & SIL at the weekend (his 30th birthday) and had a rather good time - trying to get a good portrait picture with four kids who want to be somewhere else & a Jasper is not easy. This isn’t the best one but I like it

Onwards to the new laundry mountain!

Mostly packed, and tidied and washed laundry mountain.

For once we will come back to a tidy house

We had a really good week & I’m determined to blog it before I forget. Simon is crazy busy at work so hasn’t been around much, the children & I have been extremely productive - I’m finally feeling up to full speed for the first time in ages. We’ve tided the front and back gardens, got rid of loads of rubbish, planted some lovely pansies (and all the narcissi are coming up too ), blitzed the toys & books & rearranged our bedroom. Claudia has begun re-watching The Blue Planet and has a seemingly endless supply of obscure facts. She’s nearly finished her piano book, it has become more difficult over the last couple of lessons but she’s still enjoying it, I haven’t had to nag her to practise Simon & I have been watching The Wire again - if you’re a fan of colourful obscenity it’s a must (’rat fuckers’).

Monday - did the usual maths & English etc & Claudia decided she wanted to try Latin, after much searching I found Minimus and we did the first half of Chapter 1 & she thought it was pretty interesting (at one point you have to introduce yourself with a Latin name which, of course, Claudia already has ), I remembered most of it as well! Claudie read herself the Usborne Beginners Romans and later read a Red Banana book, she’s enjoying reading so much We both did some knitting, Jasper has started dancing which is highly entertaining, & we’ve been encouraging him by listening to loads of music. Had a serious conversation about medical research, C has been thinking of ways to isolate various strains of viruses & wants to write to some real scientists to tell them about it. She want to find a cure for AIDS; I was exactly her age when I decided I was going to be a doctor so who knows They went swimming in the evening, Claudia goes into the changing room on her own now (Si & Jasper use the men’s) & is lightening fast. Jasper was exhausted when they got back and actually slept (!); I’m pretty sure the double cream diet I have him on is working since he is sleeping better & looking chubby again Started reading C Little Plum by Rumer Godden.

Tuesday - was riding, I pretty much dumped C and ran because Jasper had missed his nap and was miserable and very noisy. He fell asleep in the car about 2 minutes after leaving so instead of disturbing him I sat and listened to the Radio 4 afternoon play & knitted. Claudia had a fab time (she rode Socks instead of Monty this time & he kept trying to sniff Violet’s horse’s bum lol) but wants to join the Pony Club now, it’s no surprise me but she’ll be disappointed by insurmountable financial & time constraints She did lots of maths & I realised I’m going to have to get new books soon (I was expecting them to last until Easter but she’s going but faster than that). We were going to do some history (she & Gwenny talked about SOTW apparently which has renewed her interest) but didn’t get around to it I must make more of an effort when we get back from holiday. She’s also decided she wants to do a little project about Van Gogh (we did one on Monet before Christmas & both really enjoyed it) and learn cursive writing (we’re only about 8 pages from the end of Getty-Dubay B). Tried and failed to explain the purpose of the Bank of England to her, managed interest rates but not much more than that.

Wednesday - ballet in the evening, had a nice quite day apart from that. We both read lots - Jasper is an absolute demon with books, I must read ‘Peepo Baby’ (the current obsession) 50 times a day Claudia did some crosswords (she helped Simon’s mum with one when we last visited and has been really interested in them since), some maths (division, fractions & time - stuff she did in Miquon last year so we whizzed through it). We’ve been dipping into First Language Lessons when it suits us, I was dubious at first but C loves the poem memorizations, I’ve been looking for some slightly less twee substitutions though. I’m not sure I want ‘Hearts are like doors …’ embedded in her memory forever. I managed to fall over the Dyson cable & have a huge bruise & graze on my leg, I limped around feeling sorry for myself then bravely finished the laundry

Thursday - piano lesson in the morning - Jasper & I went to the supermarket and bough chocolate filled crepes as a post lesson snack. We still have to decide what to do when K has her maternity leave, I think we’ll have to find another teacher to use temporarily. C did some reading, wrote a book report on The Firweork Maker’s Daughter & Brainpop’d before we walked down to Jelly Legs (in the rain, we saw two beautiful rainbows). Jasper fell asleep on the way down so I sent C in on her own while I watched at the window from the road (I called her to remind her to take her coat & gloves off - see that’s a good enough reason for a 7 year old to have a mobile phone & she’s far better than me at texting already ). Determined not to spend any money, I went to the library with J while we waited; he slept & I read so it was a success all round (apart from when a woman chose to sit opposite me rather than in any of the other 20 empty seats - it isn’t at all English - she had slight look of loon about her, eventually I realised she was one of the librarians on a break. I eavesdropped on her conversation with a colleague about an online carpentry course she was doing!!!). We walked home (in the rain) C was nearly run over by a cyclist (adult, on the pavement, no lights of course, obviously no apology because he’s a cyclist & they can do what the fuck they like), managed to suppress the urge to swear loudly & ram him with the pushchair. Made fish & chips for dinner, Simon was Very Late so I’d started drinking by the time he got home. Jasper ate lots of chocolate & went completely loopy on a sugar high - was hilarious but he didn’t sleep until nearly 11pm ooops.

Friday - overslept & decided not to go to ERAPA, so we went over to visit my mum. Chatted about the news on the way there - flooding I think (many of the fields was pass are flooded at this time of year), flood plains, the housing shortage & consequences of building or not building new homes, roads, amenities, pollution etc then why robots aren’t usually built with human form. Claudia took a book over and watched a programme on CBBC about Lapland, then something about science. Jasper slept for about 50 seconds on the way back (with Claudia tickling his toes so he didn’t fall asleep), that was enough to mean he didn’t nap again. We had a quick turnaround then went over to Alison’s house. Jasper unloaded the dishwasher & rearranged the cupboards, the other children played doctors I think (they play fantastic games - doctors, the Blitz, slaves, hunter-gatherers ). We walked them down to GB/BB - Claudia has mislaid her uniform *roll* - Simon met us there and we went to Lidl on the way home. The CP excitement is already reaching fever pitch & that and very sore gums (more new teeth) fuelled an emotional breakdown from C when we got her home. I tucked her up with a calpol, a hot water bottle & a story & she actually slept well.

Today I haven’t packed, tomorrow I must

I’m feeling so good about HE at the moment, Claudia is happy, engaged, inquisitive, enthusiastic & constantly learning. She’s busy with activities she loves, she’s got a great circle of friends & acquaintances and it all seems to be working how I’d hoped it would six and a half years ago

Does anyone now where I can get plain old fashioned (not MPAH or US Edition) Siingapore maths? I want 2a & b workbooks & textbooks & need them asap?

Tick Tock by Louisa Harding in Twilley’s Freedom Spirit.

The shaping for the neck is terrible, it was really sloppy designing, I love the Fair Isle pattern though & will knit it again with better shaping.