Tali – treasures & teeth

Not a very good photo- just a quick snap of Tali who is 5 months old today.  5 months old and 15 kilos . . . a lot of growing (and learning) still to come, but we’re getting there!

Tali is still prone to want to chew on hands/shoes/trouser bottoms/sleeve cuffs, but that’s because she’s still teething.  Adult incisors are all through. Molars are through too.  Baby premolars are falling out so she’s a bit gappy in places.

And still waiting patiently for those needle-like baby canines to be replaced.

In true Flat-coated retriever style, Tali needs to have something in her mouth most of the time.  At home, indoors, it’s a soft toy.  On walks she keeps her eyes open for all sorts of  “treasures”.  Sometimes it’s a stick, but she also seems to have started a pebble/stone collection.  I don’t let her keep her bounty – she gets a doggie treat in exchange for her sticks & stones,

The above represent just 2 and a half days of Tali’s treasures.

I never thought she’d get this larger stone home, but Flats can be very stubborn once their mind is set.  332g . . . she dropped it several times on the way, but bring it home she did!

Lastly . . . I know I’d said I wasn’t going to compare Tali to (our late) Gibbs, but I couldn’t help looking through my archives and found this: posted on Gibbs’ 5 month birthday.

scraphappy # March

Linking up with a lovely group of inspirational Scrapsters

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, 
Jill, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Jon, Dawn, Jule, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, Edith
Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Debbierose, Nóilin, Viv, Karrin,
Amo and Alissa

who post together on 15th of the month to share scrappy projects.

Last month I was sewing with chopped off legs of old jeans, making dog bed covers thus

For this month, I used up two back pockets, and some more leftover leg.

I made a little zippy pouch back for the Husband to sling over his shoulder when we go to the park every day with Tali.  Dog treats in the inside pouch, and doggy poop bags in one of the pockets.  It’s a bit rough & ready, but it does the job.

And last photo of the bag (well back view of the strap) the puppy and the Husband at the park.

knitting – still in baby-mode

I’m still in baby-mode where knitting is concerned.  After the recent knits using DK, I bought in a couple of balls of “baby” soft 4ply and have cast on a new project.

Something simple, but with a little bit of texture on the bottom.

A free pattern by WYS – there will be more button bands to knit – both sides of neck I think – but in the meantime, it’s all fairly easy.  Back is done, front is underway.  What I will say . . . after knitting several sweaters for myself in aran, then some more knitting for baby in DK . . . when I cast on and was knitting the ribbing with 4ply on 2.5mm needles, it felt like knitting with toothpicks!  I love how fine the yarn is, and how it’s working up, but even working on 3mm needles for the stocking stitch, it’s growing very slowly.

having a bib-fest

I’ve been having something of a bib-fest!  It all started, when “Going Batty in Wales” left a comment on the recent baby cardie knitting that’s been going on, about how baby’s can be messy eaters and need frequent change of clothes.  Which made me suddenly think: bibs!

A quick search on google and I came across a very easy pattern by NanaCompany.   Pattern is a free pdf download and prints to actual size.  Instructions are clear, and it’s a great stash-buster project, or even for using up those scraps.

I used batting in the centre of my sandwich – not sure if it’ll be super absorbant, and I’ve used the softest cottons I had in my stash – several are brush cotton.

Even zigzagged bands of scrap batting together so that I used up as many scraps as possible.  Then,  to make life easier when sewing curves, I drew around the pattern outline onto my fabric and sewed along the line once I’d made my “sandwich”.

Cut around with pinking shears and did the turning right sides out., with the help of my trusty chop stick.

A quick press and top stitching, which closes the gap at the bottom, needed for turning.

Above are two, almost finished . . . Amy of NanaCompany suggests different methods to do the fastening: snap fasteners, velcro etc . . . I decided to make button holes and have a button fastening.  My button box is full, so this really was an excellent stash-busting project.

In the title I mention having a bib-fest . . . and two bibs do not a bib-fest make!  How does thirteen sound?  A baker’s dozen lol.

Might only look like 10 in the above photo but there are, in fact, 13 (the blue graffiti one in the centre isn’t alone – I made 4 using that fabric). Some of the bibs are same-sided, while others have different fabrics on the back.

Here they are again, same placement, but flipped over.  Several of the fabrics used were pieces gifted to me in the past by blogging friend.  The Tialys might recognise those white kitty cats on bright pink. And I think the cute birds on teal and large/bright florals were a gift from Sabine.

Anyway, I had lots of fun making these and hope they’ll meet with Tattoo parents approval.

new toy

I do love a crafty gadget lol.  And what with all the recent knitting I’ve been doing, resulting in floppy leftover balls of yarn, that was the only excuse I needed to buy myself a new toy.

I went to my usual go-to shopping place: @m@zon. Ummed and ahhed for a while because there were several models available, but I finally opted for this one.  After reading feedback for all, and watching a few videos, I chose this red & cream one – paid 19€.

Some people leaving feedback commented negatively on the colour of this little winder.  Call me odd, but I rather like the somewhat “vintage” colouring of the plastic. For those who don’t like red & cream, there are other models in blue & white . . . but they were all more expensive.    Anyhoot . . . I’d watched enough videos to know how to set up and get started without having to read the instructions.

And ta da!  One dinky yarn cake!  As you can imagine, one cake simply wasn’t enough!

I made even more since the above photo, but you get the idea.  Where I still had them, I chopped original labels down.   I weighed cakes and wrote the weight of each on their new labels.

Verdict:  I am very pleased with my retro-looking yarn winder.  Have to say, when I had less than 10g of yarn, the cake finished up very small and probably won’t keep very well (winding by hand is probably still best when there’s only a small amount). But with the above, cakes varying from approx 13g – 29g the results were very satisfactory.  This winder can (from what I’ve seen on-line) be used to wind 100g skeins, but I imagine a swift would also be required to do that successfully.

 

 

crafting for baby Inkling

If you stopped by the other day and saw the no progress with my cross stitch for the SAL, you’ll see now, that I haven’t been idle . . . just not cross stitching.

Knitting has been my go-to craft these past weeks, happily knitting in bright colours to make a few things for future baby Inkling.

I finished the third little cardigan, following the Little Avery pattern. Each one is slightly different, and each one is a different size.

I had to frog the teal one a couple of times and started to get bored with the pattern, hence it ended up with short sleeves.

I then turned my attention to another free pattern, and made a sunny yellow sweater.

Made a couple of changes to the pattern, knitting sleeves and the top part in plain stocking stitch (because I wasn’t sure I’d be able to keep my raglan decreases neat if I stayed “in pattern”) and rather like how that turned out. This was my first attempt at knitting a button band onto the sleeve, for a neck opening. Not my neatest knitting there, but it’ll pass muster.

I’ve also been playing with stretch fabrics, following a couple of patterns in a book I bought in Lidl a while back.

Fabric for the Tshirt dress is an cast off Tshirt that belonged to Mrs Tattoo (mother-to-be).  She had intended for the Tshirt to go in the Red Cross recycle bin, but I rescued and repurposed it.  The colours of print on leggings is what inspired my choice of colours when knitting the cardies; shocking pink, orange and a tealy green.

The plan is to make a few more garments for baby Inkling, and after that, I will be turning my attention to making a few things for Miss Viking, who is now 4 and a half.

 

SAL update – no show

I’m ashamed to say, that I haven’t touched my cross stitch project since last time.  So things haven’t progressed since the last photo.

There’s been too much going on here, and when I do have time for crafting, I’d rather knit.

I do hope other SAL members have had more time/motivation.

Avis, Claire, Gun, Christina, Kathy, Margaret,

Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy,

AJ, Cathie, Linda, Helen, Connie, Cindy, MaryMargaret

I also expect to do better for next time.  The diary is (sadly) filling up with quite a few medical appointments for March, and I’ll therefore be spending quite a few hours sitting around in waiting rooms.  I’ll make sure to take “My Day Off” with me, and put a few stitches in here & there so that this project doesn’t stall completely.

On a different subject . . . Tali is doing well and growing fast.

At 4 and a half months, she weighed in at 13.9kg. That surprised us, because she’s still quite small, but we reckon the extra weight must be pure muscle.  We’ve started taking her out everyday to the local dog park where she can charge around, meet other dogs, and have fun on the smaller obstacles of the agility course.

She particularly enjoys going through the tunnels . . . but still expects a treat at each end.

February done & dusted!

Well, that’s February done & dusted, eh?  Two months gone in a flash!  I haven’t taken any recent photos of the hens, but they’re all well.  Still being a bit lazy with the egg laying but we did collect 46 eggs this month.  That was more than enough for us, and a few boxes for the neighbours.

It’s been rather busy, and noisey here over the last few weeks.  We’ve got a some work going on . . . having our veranda/conservatory renovated.  Things are coming along nicely.  We also had a couple of vet visits with Tali who appears to have something of a sensitive tummy, the poor thing.  Not helped by the fact she keeps on eating whatever she can gobble down before we tell her “No!”,  including dog poop.  Yes, sadly, Flat-coated retrievers have a thing for eating poop and it’s not easy trying to break her of the habit.

Anyhoot . . . a few pretty pictures to liven up this post, and remind me of what was going on in February.

For starts, I grew one year older . . . and treated myself to a couple of pretty cloth dolls.  These are by a French manufacturer – Moulin Roty, and are two of the “Les Rosalies” collection.

On the left, a 32cm doll called Vanille. And on the right her 45cm big sister, called Violette.  I plan on trying my hand at making a cloth doll (or several) this year, and these two will be my muses.  I also received the box set of the series “Fallen Skies” (just love Noah Wylie) from Lindashee . . . so many hours of viewing in store there, and a plant & secateurs from the Husband.

My 5-year old friend, Mona, did a drawing for me.  That’s her house and our house with some birds flying in the sky and the sun just sneaking in too.  Please note, she can now write her name in joined up writing!!!

I’ve also been busy sewing, with stretch fabrics . . . in an attempt to make some clothes for Baby Inkling (due in April) . . . thing is, shop-bought clothes are so cheap these days, and babies grow so fast, I’m not sure if it’s worth my while sewing for a baby. Not when I can nab bargains like this in Lidl.

Still, I am having fun getting to grips with stretch fabric on my Juki, so I’ll show you some photos soon of my efforts.  I’ve also cast on and begun knitting a tiny sweater (even though I haven’t finished sewing up armholes and putting buttons on 3 baby cardigans yet.

The teal cardigan is much farther along now than in the photo, but not quite finished. Because I got side-tracked with a sweater project.

As you can see, I’m having fun with bright colours for baby.  And it’s an excuse to try out a few new things.

 

 

 

another diamond painting finish

I know diamond painting isn’t to everyone’s taste, but I’ve found it very relaxing and quite addictive since I discovered this hobby in 2021.  I’ve just finished a floral design – no idea what flower it’s meant to be but

I  love all the greys, pinks, and swirly bits.  I’m about to begin one of the cheap kits bought in Noz last month.

This one is not full coverage – it’ll be interesting to see if it makes the pandas look more 3-dimensional or not.

Tali – 4 months

Tali is 4 months old today – yay!  She came into the world on 17th October 2022 and into our lives on 12th December 2022, so she’s been with us for just over 2 months.  She’s a right live-wire and has her very own special sense of humour.   She’s still very dainty, and weighs in at 12.2kg

 

but she’s losing her puppy looks and looking more like a Flat-coated retriever.

Still has a mouth full of very sharp milk teeth . . . and I don’t dare wear any of my handknit garments at the moment because she’s forever trying to chew on my arm.  We’ll be signing up for K9 education classes very soon.  We are able to do all the basic obedience training ourselves, because Tali is very biddable (when she wants to be) but she needs to mingle more with other dogs too.