I have started to write this progress update a few days ago, before the shocking  attacks in Paris and initially I found it inappropriate to post about silly things like crafts as if nothing has happened. But I guess it is the opposite, we can’t stop doing the things that we like doing. A lot did happen and it doesn’t only concern people in Paris or France. It concerns all of us and the European idea of humanity, no borders, freedom and tolerance has been threatened once again (in addition to the inability of the political system to deal with the refugee crisis with dignity and as a unity).

So my thoughts are with those who have lost innocent family members or friends who were enjoying a nice time out. I really hope together we will manage to ensure a future for our children in a world of freedom and tolerance.

Following the progress post as I had initially written it – happiness and sadness so close together.

Once again, I have missed one or two posts on Sunday, but I have been rather busy lately and I guess, it is time to update you a bit.

So, as you might remember, the extended family has been waiting for a couple of babies to arrive and I am pleased to say that they finally did. One more finally than the other.

Whilst I was busy waiting and my mum – who had come over to be on stand by for childcare – was busy rescheduling and rescheduling her flight back home, I made a few little things to keep my mind off the waiting game.

So, I have started to use up the left overs from the baby blankets – I still haven’t written a proper post about them, have I? But you might remember this progress picture:

Anyway, I have started to knit cardigans, using a wrongly ordered blue merino (the colour was too close to the dark blue one I had already bought) as a base colour, adding some stripes in the blanket left overs. A third one with green stripes is still in the making.

I also made a few more hats for my nephew and nieces using up some jersey. They requested beanies and as I am obsessed with the idea of reversible hats (no ugly seams inside plus getting to use two lovely fabrics instead of just one), I went for the version with ribbing at the bottom. I am not entirely convinced about the ribbing but I haven’t seen them on the heads in question. The pattern is the same klimperklein e-book as before.

The stripy one is for my oldest nephew, both fabrics are left overs from shirts that I had actually made for him, somehow I did not photograph the red and blue version

Then we have the girly one, left over from my daughters clown leggings and one future left over from a lovely fabric that I bought for myself.

And last but definitely not least the hat for the 4 year old. Left overs from shirt and leggings for my son and future left over of many little boy and baby boy things.

My husband loves the fireman one. He said he wants one for himself. I laughed politely. He said, he is serious. The man who never wears the boring stripy shirt I made for him. Clearly I do completely misjudged his taste 🙂 And I guess, we are a perfect match.

I also made a corduroy dress for my daughter using a Burda pattern.

Again a fabric that I kind of bought for myself. I actually want to have that dress (Told you, perfect match 🙂 ), well maybe a slightly more grown up version (basically without the rig rag and the buttons. But definitely with the pockets). But I don’t quite see the corduroy working as a breastfeeding dress plus I am planning to be covered in milk and vomit for the next few months, so I decided to make a dress for my daughter to be able to enjoy the fabric.

Maybe one word to the pattern: The front is not put on fold but two pieces sewn together which makes sense for one of the proposed fabric mix versions but not for this one. I really wonder why I am still not confident enough to see that right from the beginning and alter the pattern according to my needs.

Oh, and before all of that I had also made two more bags as birthday presents. One for the lovely mother of the little girl I had made the very first one. As she kept using her daughters bag, I thought it was about time to make her her own.

and one for my daughter’s birthday. She has basically asked for it since May, when I had made the very first one of the series. It only took me about 6 months. Not bad. And I think I have now more or less ticked all the things of my to do list I had posted a couple of weeks or months ago.

As you can see, going 10 days past due date made me finish quite a few things. When everything was done, all I could do, was going to my knitting class, listening to a few horror induction stories, which seemed to scare the young man so much that a couple of hours later I had to rush (and I mean to rush) to hospital to quickly (and I mean quickly) give birth to a beautiful baby. 10 days after his due date and 2 days after the appearance of my equally beautiful new nephew who – much better behaved – was only a couple of days late.

And obviously it is now time for a new to do list, especially as I am unable to remember anything at all.