There's something really special about receiving a handmade gift. Here's Isla jumping on the trampoline with her best friend "Miffy Bunny" - a handmade crochet bunny she received while on holiday from someone very special (thank you Althea!). I love this bunny because I know how much love and effort and time goes into something like this, and I love that Isla loves this bunny more than anything else. It's her special friend. As a maker, it fills my heart with happiness and pride that she loves Miffy Bunny so much and that she totally understands that someone MADE it especially for her.

I think a lot of people are enjoying this kind of handmade happiness. Not just makers, but people who appreciate the love and effort that goes into these makes. Christmas time is our busiest time at markets with Bean & Boy, our handmade soap business. Every weekend we find ourselves standing shoulder to shoulder with other makers from around the country as we tell people about handmade soap, helping them choose a bar of soap for a specific "difficult to buy for" relative, and explaining the soapmaking process over and over again. I think it's amazing that everyone is interested in hearing about the making process, and that we get to meet so many other enthusiastic crafters who make everything from "raw pizza" to giant hair bows. We've seen ceramic santas, handmade jams and chutneys, cake decorations and (a first for me) neon budgie tree angels. The markets this year are bigger and better than they were last year, and everyone is opting to buy handmade instead of commercially produced. It is a magical time and I'm really excited to be involved. It's even more exciting when someone buys from you and truly appreciates the amount of work that went into something.

I've always loved making things, all sorts of things, so it's wonderful that there's a huge interest developing in things that are made from scratch. From scratch, what a strange phrase. Apparently it has something to do with competitive sports and it denotes the starting point of a race or event. Anyway, the only kind of competitive sporting event around here is how fast you can knit a pair of socks. I'm losing, by the way. One pair a year does not seem like it is record breaking!

So, a big thank you to everyone who has supported us at markets and online. An even bigger thank you to everyone who supports the kind of crazy that comes along with made-by-handers (the accumulation of materials just-in-case-I-get-a-chance-to-make-that-thing-I-once-dreamt-up, the insistence on taking crochet in the car whenever I become a passenger, the persistent glitter that I can't seem to get out of the carpet, all those late nights making soap). And of course, the biggest thank you of all for everyone who has decided to go handmade this year instead of shop-bought. You're all magic.

It's been go-go-go since we got back from holidays. We've been attending festive Christmas markets with our soap, making up lots of gift sets between events, fighting off colds en masse, and celebrating a third birthday! I didn't think I'd find the time to put together the party but we did - thank goodness - and I think it all went down fairly well.


Isla was delighted with the party food. She snacked for about an hour before her friends arrived, taste testing everything and making sure it was all just right.


This cake! It was brilliant! A pink ombre cake iced in buttercream, with four chocolate layers inside sandwiched with caramel treat. The ice cream cone is filled with a cupcake, and then iced to look like an actual ice cream. Delicious.


I took a chance making cupcakes inside flat-bottomed ice cream cones and they were brilliant. Really pleased with how these turned out, and will make them again. I filled them about half way with cupcake batter and then baked for about 15 minutes. Perfect.


We even had ice cream themed goodies to take away (thank goodness for Pinterest!). These are pinata ice cream cones! They're filled with sweets, topped with a meringue, and sealed with icing dipped in sprinkles. SUCH A WINNER.

I'm so pleased that we survived another year as parents, and got to celebrate this magnificent and marvelous little girl. As I sit typing, she's sitting on the carpet playing with blocks and building a tower. "Daddy, I like your yarn socks," I can hear her say. "Did you make them daddy?"

I love that we live in a house where our children totally think that everything is - and can - be made by hand. I love that they prefer things that have been handmade too, which is something I'm sure that they'll outgrow so I'll just enjoy it as much as I can right now. And I especially love that daddy does in fact have "yarn socks" on (his favourite ones) and I made them for him last year about this time. Knitting, it's my winter sport.

We've been away on holiday. Beautiful, marvelous, magnificent holiday. I was very spoilt. We went to visit our family in Cape Town, South Africa. We ate too much, laughed a lot, bought too much yarn, ate far too much cake, enjoyed every minute of our time there, and cried a little when we left. The children adored spending time with all of their relatives - it can be so hard growing up far away from "home," and being surrounded by all that love must have been simply wonderful to my two littles. I'm so pleased that they had an opportunity to get to know everyone.


We also had a birthday! Isla turned 3 and we celebrated with cake cake cake cake cake and a bit of trampolining, running around, swimming, hugs and squeals of delight.


I learnt a lot there too. There's a severe water crisis in South Africa, and you have to be hyper aware of every drop of water. Washing and cleaning take on a whole new significance, and small things that we take for granted - flushing the toilet, brushing our teeth, washing out dishes after every use - become big things. Water used for washing is then used for flushing the toilet or watering the garden. Every drop is accounted for.  I have become so aware (and so ashamed) of how much water we waste every day, and we are making such an effort to continue to preserve water even though we left the crisis behind when we returned to the UK.

And so, we've come back to winter. It''s freezing cold here! The temperature has been dropping very low this week and we've had thermals on and the radiators turned up. I had to dig out socks from my winter clothes stash, and put blankets on the beds. Brrr. It's really very cold outside.

It's starting to look a lot like Christmas with the festive songs playing in all the shops and the lights twinkling on store displays. We've already started selling soaps at Christmas Markets (another excuse to get the tinsel out) so it's jingle all the way here. There's also a lot of festivity at our house as we prepare for a family visit, a packed festive season of local markets to attend, and lots of DIY - this weekend we're lifting up the carpets in the lounge to see if the floorboards can be sanded down and used as flooring. It's all very exciting.

I have this rule. It's a silly little rule, but here it is anyway:

I'm not allowed to buy a craft magazine unless I make something from it 

I think it's partially because I don't want to end up with a pile of magazines I've never read, and partially because craft magazines are really quite expensive and I feel that I must justify it to myself when I want to buy one.

Anyway.

So every now and then I see something in a magazine that I love, and I get to make a no-pressure project that has no deadlines and no real purpose other than sheer loveliness. It's a bit like old William Morris. What did he say?

"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." William Morris

And so this is my latest make: a crochet summer dress that's decidedly watermelon-esque. It's from Simply Crochet, issue 46. Raveled here.


I made it in age 3-4 for little Isla (hoping it would last until Summer because it is definitely not dress weather at the moment!). It has a really charming little yoke construction with a swing skirt and added black watermelon pips/seeds for detailing. It closes at the back with a button or a ribbon.

We sort of fell into this soapmaking thing. I knew I needed to make totally natural soap - something safe to use on Isla's skin which was covered in teeny tiny little eczema bumps - and started experimenting with melt-and-pour soaps. That was - maybe - two years ago? Quite so.

Then, I went on a cold-process course earlier this year (and wrote this post about it). Since then, I've learnt so much about soap - and so much more than I ever thought I'd need to know after attending that course. The most important thing I took away from the workshop was that you can't be afraid of soap or the soapmaking process (although the whole lye thing still gives me the heebiejeebies).


The rest we've sort of figured out along the way thanks to a magnificent resource section at the library, online and through other soapers who have posted their findings on their blogs, in books and in person. We tried different formulations and recipes, researched to the nth degree about the various soapmaking ingredients and their properties, and came up with something really special.

Our soap is different. It's marvellous. It's soft and lathering and moisturising and more (read more here). Of course I'm delightfully biased but it's true: it's really the nicest soap I've had the pleasure of using. It's also named after our kids: Bean and Boy. Isla, our beautiful Bean. And Finnlay, the Boy.


And then came the business side of things: trade-approved scales, certificates, chemist certifications, insurance, all proper like. We did it all. So much paperwork. So much reading. So many regulations. Exhausting work.

I'm glad we did it, because our little soaps have taken on a life of their own in the last little while. We did our first Farmer's Market last week and it was extremely well-received. People loved the packaging (ha! If only they knew how many hours I'd spent researching, experimenting, researching some more, ordering samples, cutting, stringing, and more... just to get that packaging "just right" - just like it was in my mind), they loved the bars, they loved the "flavours".


And then we launched our online shop at Etsy and made our first sale not long afterwards. Charcoal soap - who would have thought? And then all-of-a-suddenly we were featured as an Etsy Editor's Top Pick. Beer Soap has become a top favourite and a recommend gift for him. Yes, I thought so too.

I'm chuffed. Tired, but chuffed.

Meanwhile, real life has been happening. Isla has turned two. TWO. Was it really two years ago that everything changed? Our amazing little girl has grown up so much - she has opinions, an increasingly surprising vocabulary range, and so many talents. She tells us fantastic stories about piggies and frogs and worms daddy!, imagines all sorts of magical adventures with her toys, and has the most excellent sense of humour. Clever girl.

And so: I haven't disappeared. Not entirely, I've just become that truly crazy person who had a baby, started a business and moved into a house that needs complete renovation from top to bottom all at once. You know, all in a day's work and all that.

Another stash-busting project done! This time, a rainbow Olivia Cardigan from the pattern by Nikki Van De Car. I'm making good progress on my yarn stash, one by one picking out the yarns that have been saved for a rainy day and turning them into something else more practical.


This yarn was another find from Thimbles on my last holiday to Cape Town. It lost its yarn label on the way home but I suspect it has a high acrylic content so I steam-blocked the bejeebers out of it and that worked brilliantly. It took 100 grams for the entire cardigan (with a tiny amount left to spare). I love it that baby and toddler garments take so little, and that they finish so quickly. Such a great sense of triumph at the end.


So. This pattern. I think the yoke/sleeve construction is sheer genius (although why you don't pick up the stitches for the underarm as you knit I have no idea - definitely going to do that next time instead of sewing up afterwards!). Easy, quick, simple. Stands up to baby antics as she clambers over toys and under tables to test the cardigan's mettle.


The lace, well that's another story entirely. I've knit a lot of lace and used a lot of charts. I've done lace scarves, cardigans, jumpers, and blankets. So why oh why couldn't I get Van Der Car's lace pattern to work?! Each time I progressed to the next row, my stitch count was out. I counted and recounted my stitches before and after each row. I marked off each lace repeat with stitch markers. Maybe I'm just a visual person and I need a chart. Maybe it just wasn't meant to be. Either way, after my third (third!) attempt at the lace pattern, I ripped it right back, chucked it out, and replaced the entire body with the lace repeat from the Hey, Teach! cardigan which I love. Done, and done.


With this size (18-24m), I had to do a band of five plain stitches on either side of the button band to get the lace repeat to fit neatly. I quite like the way it looks.

The Olivia Cardigan pattern comes from the book What to Knit: The Toddler Years which I got out of the library. Of course, as luck would have it, someone requested the book so I had to get the whole cardigan done and cast off before returning it in two weeks. I knit the 18-24 month size so it worked up really quickly and I made it just in time, casting off the night before the book was due back.


This cardigan's neckline is much too big for Isla, but that's not surprising as it is the next size up for her. I didn't want to knit her actual size in case I didn't get it finished in time; there's nothing more disappointing than making something that ends up taking longer than expected and being far too small to be any good. I speak from experience.


She likes the buttons. Priorities.

It's freezing here. Like, right down into your bones kind of cold. In the mornings, the windows are frosted up and there is a thick sheet of ice on the cars outside. Even the grass is frozen.

It's days like these that make me want to hibernate indoors, drinking mugs of hot tea and knit-knit-knitting along to make socks, mittens and other warm things. It's so tempting to just ignore responsibilities like work and cleaning in favour of things like the clickety-clack of your needles. Still, an hour of knitting in the evenings is such a lovely thing to look forward to.


I've finished Isla's Milo Vest which is a marvellous thing (ravelled here). It is snugly warm, easy to make, and uses up a surprisingly little amount of yarn. This was a stash-busting project and I used up some leftover yarn from this project. I had 100g of yarn to get through and now have about 40g leftover which I was really surprised about (I was convinced it would use all of it), so will need to use this up somewhere else.


I like that the vest is easy and comfortable, and doesn't restrict a toddler's movements at all because the arms are free. I also like that it is warm and cosy, and moves easily through daily movements: climbing on furniture, crawling into small spaces, swinging in the park and snuggling on the couch.


I chose to do the heart cable on the front, but I'm sorry I didn't do a chunkier cable or a stranded knitted pattern. It's far too delicate for this vest in the tweed-like yarn I've chosen... although I think it would look lovely in a contrasting colour or with some kind of felt applique.

It has started to warm up today... but I think we are all going to need an army of vests to make it through the next few months!

Happy New Year! Did you have a magical farewell to 2015, and a cheerful wave hello to 2016? Oh I do hope so.
Here's Isla, waving at Granny on skype while wearing her festive headgear and pyjamas. As you do. "Christmas" was a wonderful week in our house: we were off work, all together. We stayed in bed late every day, we ate breakfast in pyjamas, we indulged in mince pies and went on walks to the park. We ignored the email alerts on our phones and didn't think about work. We ventured out to family and friends and ate many, many helpings of roast potatoes.

This is the first year we didn't go away to a country cottage or an escape from the city. Because this year, we also had other things happening.

My baba turned one last week. That's quite something. I can't believe how quickly the time has flown by, and how much life has changed (positively) since she arrived.

I love that she is the happiest, most cheerful and enthusiastic little girl I've ever met. I love that she has so much personality, and that she just wants to share it with you all the time. She makes me smile every single day.

We took some time off work, abandoned computers, spent time together with family.

Baby is messy. That's why I love that our high chair is plastic and wipe-able. The only downside? It's plain and boring in white, and must be freeeeezing cold to sit on when Messy Baby has lunch in only a nappy. This happens frequently.

And so, I turned to pinterest and happened upon this pattern for the IKEA Antilop High Chair Cover. Hurray!

This time I made the basic dress with a gathered skirt and flutter sleeve and one enormous pink bow.

It's been a while since I've blogged - and it seems like even longer since I've been sewing/crafting/making. I got a bit carried away in deadlines and other unfun things.

Spring is here. The sun is shining, and we've been walking to the park every day for picnic lunches and playing on the grass. Isla loves the grass.



She has become very wiggly and mobile, and shuffles about even though she's not yet sitting up properly. Sweet girl. There's not a lot of stillness.


Every sunshiney baby need a big floppy sun hat, don't you think?


She has a sun hat, but it has a very modest one-inch brim that doesn't offer much coverage. I finished sewing this one up this morning, based on her existing hat with added panels so it should fit her a bit longer. I also extended the brim to five inches so it would provide cover for her neck and shoulders, and added interfacing to the brim for added floppiness.

The strap was a last-minute addition! We tried it on, and she was so delighted with the hat that she insisted on pulling it down and lifting it up... so in an attempt to keep the hat in place, I added a buttonhole to each side of the hat and threaded through an oversized ribbon that ties under her chin.

Baby approves.