Vicarious Crafting

Well, we are half-way through week two of a seven-week summer holiday. D is four weeks old, K is 4 & 3/4yrs, and it's raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaining. Again. So my happy little dreams of taking the baby down to the park and letting her kick about on a rug in the sunshine whilst big girl climbs and runs to her heart's content have been pretty much shattered. S'what I get for being optimistic. Sigh.

What can you do in such a situation? Only craft, of course, and since D spends her time clamped to my chest one way or another, my hands aren't all that free. I'm working on a couple of long-term projects; one of which is to restock the shop with Mr Suns asap and the other is a granny square shrug adapted from The Crochet Bible which will feature the three squares I received from Izabela last year. Both of those are...well, kinda boring as they're repeated patterns with not much variation and only the finished product is worth photographing. Another two projects I can't show you just yet - a birthday amigurumi is diving into the post today, so that can't be revealed until the recipient has seen it, and I'm not quite finished stitching the new fringe onto my plain black sling. I'll do a proper write-up of 150 Crochet Trims when I get that done.

So much for my own work. I'm very carefully not mentioning the large heaps of yarn I've just ordered to make two items from Cute Crochet for Tiny Tots for K, nor the jacket from Crochet in No Time and cardigan from The Crochet Bible, neither of which I've finished yet for D. Ahem. In the meantime I'm living la vida crafta through the hands of K, who's been very busy this week, bless her.

Thomas The Tank Engine

A cheap and dirty trick to while away a wet Friday afternoon; we picked this kit up in the pound shop last week. K painted the larger areas and I completed the detail simply because the paint was so rubbish it would barely go on. Lesson learned (again) - cheap kid's craft sets are 100% crap. But she's happy with her work!

Black & White Baby Mobile

 I recently bought The Social Baby, having enjoyed the toddler version with K - despite being pretty darn good at understanding baby communication (if I do say so myself - three years of experience teaching baby signing now!), we've found it quite useful and it's been a good refresher for these early weeks. I also got their Baby Shapes books for something for the girls to interact together with before D is really ready for toys - they've proved a real hit and K has made this fantastic mobile of black & white shapes which hangs over the nappy change station. D is certainly appreciating it and I loved K's reply when asked about the wiggly lines: "They're secret messages for D".

Berk, Drut and Boni from Trap Door

Lastly, this morning's creations - thanks to some wonderful salt dough from our friend Kirstine - Berk, Drut and Boni from the TV series Trap Door. One that A and I grew up with and K has loved ever since she was tiny. Long may the Globbits continue in this house!