What next?

This is a post I have been putting off writing.

I don't really want to type in black and white that there's another food group I have problems with eating, and this is a bit more ubiquitous than cheese and cheese by products.

I seem to be having a problem with wheat. Whether this is a gluten thing or a wheat thing I don't know yet. I'm hoping it's just a wheat thing and that it will magically get better by not eating wheat things for a while (even though I know it's not really very likely to work).

I'm just... fed up I suppose. I have spent nearly 20 years with no cheese in my life which was a fairly painless change (despite my occasional moans over no pizza) apart from the last year when cheese by products got introduced as a cheaper way of making milk chocolate milky. Somehow I think givnig up wheat (or gluten) products is not going to be that easy. Firstly so many things have wheat or gluten in. Secondly the alternative products are even more unpleasant and unlike the real thing than fake cheese is... and that doesn't melt!

I did buy a loaf of gluten free bread yesterday, which looks like a brick, smelt foul and tasted worse. It has rice flour in and the slices need to be toasted or microwaved before you can eat it. Mmmmm, call me fussy but I think I'll skip that.

I know that CatieCat is on a gluten free diet so I suspect I shall be checking her blog for tasty things to eat.

I do need to get a medical opinion on this, and probably tests. Personally I think a day without wheat products making me feel soooo much better is good enough for me, but I'm sure there are proper tests that will tell me "wheat" or "gluten", and it might be important to find out.

However I fully expect to be celebrating my 100th birthday with nothing but a leaf of lettice and a glass of water, that being the only things I can eat by then. (assuming I have a 100th birthday, that is)

Ulp!

How far away is Christmas? Eeep!

My parents are also having a very early Christmas lunch for my brother and his girlfriend and my sister and her husband and daughter as they will not be around over Christmas... so suddenly I have to organise Christmas things for the beginning of December (no knitted goods for them, then).

I'm knitting my godmother some socks. That's my sole knitted goods this year.

I might end up making a doll from Clothkits for my niece, which will be interesting as I've never made one before. I have ordered one for Kathryn, and it was so beautifully wrapped that I found it difficult to bring myself to open. She wanted this one, with orange hair and the green dress. Hopefully soon I will get a chance to make this, and the dresses I've got for Kathryn from them previously. Unfortunately sewing time is limited at the moment, not to mention the fact that I do my sewing in our bedroom which currently has no main light as the old lightbulb (which blew about 2 months ago) will not come out of the fitting without a fight. Himself thinks we'll need to break the bulb, and use some pliers to pull it out. Funnily enough we've been putting it off.

So, is anyone actually organised for Christmas?

Deconstruction

I've spent most of this evening deconstructing a very bad pair of shorts. Unfortunately I forgot to take a "before" picture, so you'll have to take my word for it - they really were very bad. The fabric however is lovely. It's flowery, and with a large band across the bottom.


Because it was so very very gathered at the waist (one of the reasons it was a bad pair of shorts to wear), once I've finished the deconstruction job, there will be enough fabric to make a dress for Kathryn out of them.

I might need to find a bit of matching fabric to make a separate bodice, as it's just not long enough, by a few cms. I think if I can find some plain fabric the same colour as the background on the border it will look really good.

What was the world's most unfortunate item of some poor woman's wardrobe will become a lovely dress for a 4 year old.

Halloween

Well, one little girl (finally) tucked up in bed. My word, what a sugar rush she's had today!

Halloween is supposed to be about scary spooky things, but I think when you're only 4 it's mostly about the sugar, and being dressed up and face painted.

We, as parents, tell our children not to take sweets from strangers. Except on Halloween, when we demand that they do - me and another mum were talking about the dichotomy of this while we took Kathryn and her daughter trick or treating.

I think in the US Halloween is very different, but here it is mostly the spook factor, and the incursion of the darkly fantastical into daily life, much closer to the (as I understand it) original pagan roots of the night, rather than what I understand it is in the US.

Kathryn had a real blast, got loads of sweeties, and I think she ate most of it before we got home again, which probably explains her meltdown about half an hour after we got home.

All this is to try and distract from the fibre free quality of my postings recently - I'm feeling a bit uninspired right now what with an endless lace knitted edging, a present I'm waiting on something before I can go further with, and a selection of started-but-I'm-not-happy-with things.

Beyond tired

I had a very bad night last night, so I am beyond tired and probably incoherent too. Still, tomorrow is Halloween, and look at this:

Its a cheapy costume from Tescos (well, the besom is actually mine and I've had it for years. It's a bit the worse for wear since I had Kathryn!) Kathryn can get into it herself. I bought it with her last Thursday, and warned Himself on Friday that she might suddenly appear in it once they got home, and he said he turned around and she was in school clothes. Ran into her bedroom, ran back as in wearing her costume!

I might even manage to do a post about knitting something soon - I'm giving up on the too small top and started some two colour stranded socks. Himself and Kathryn are going to be doing pumpkins.

Have a spooky Saturday, everyone.

Pondering wool

I've been thinking about wool, and yarn.

I've started a nice short sleeved jumper in what I previously referred to as "baby wool, so probably not actually wool". I need to apologise to Patons. Their Dreamtime 4ply is actually 100% merino. Not to mention soft and a bit squishy. However I'm not sure it's a good substitution for RYC Cashsoft 4ply - pulling the front across my front it seems a little narrow... And I have enough yarn to make this Sun Ray Ribbing (rav link) or Thermal, and not both. I like them both, but think that the Thermal should be made in something closer to the original yarn. Maybe. Possibly. I'll think about that.

I've also been browsing Ravelry looking for "the perfect pattern" (Bells was just posting about how this never works today) for my Some Assembly Required sweater - that would be the one I'm spindling from shetland wool.

I think I may have started spinning too soon, because I've very recently come across woollen spun yarn and I think this is more what I want - light, fluffy, airy rather than dense, strong and smooth.

However I've tried following some only half understood spinning wheel instructions and created: a mess:( I did find an online video for spindle spinning this way, but unfortunately Himself has swiped my speakers and it makes no sense when I can't hear what they're saying!

If I waited until everything was perfect though I'd never have started. And I'm also starting to narrow down the ideal pattern too for the grey, dense and heavy yarn (still unplyed. Not sure if I'll go 2 ply or 3 ply yet.)

And as I was checking out patterns, I pondered whether people have a standard yarn they go to for different weights - for example for a DK I use emu superwash... I think after my experience with Patons Dreamtime 4ply they'll become my standard 4ply-that-is-not-a-sock yarn - what's your standard go-to yarn?

Baby Engineer at Work

Well, ok, she's not a baby anymore. But yesterday Kathryn said she was going to change her middle name to Engineer (which is reasonably close to what it actually is - Elizabeth - compared to what it could be) after Himself and I explained what an engineer is to her.

And we looked at meccano and thought about getting her some, but didn't make a decision.

Today Himself took Kathryn past a toyshop and stopped inside it for some reason - they had meccano out, and the eyes went round and the mouth went "ooooh" and she walked over like she couldn't help herself.

So... lets see what she builds next:)