in pursuit of organised-ness

It's finished! The duffle coat from Debbie Bliss' Ultimate Book of Baby Knits, was finally finished on new year's day. It's a lovely coat and a great fit for Evie. I made the 3-6 month size and it does have a bit of room to grow into. The knitting (all garter stitch) was very straight forward, unfortunately my making up needs a bit of work - but I won't let this put me off. The yarn used - Debbie Bliss Rialto DK - is lovely and soft and I love the colour. Plus I have 1 and a half left over balls of yarn, so may make a hat. I am  so pleased with this. I love the hood and cute little pockets, and will most likely make it in the next size up. (I would love to try and scale it up for me, but I think that's a bit beyond my skillset at the moment.) Now off to Tami's blog to see what everyone else has been up to...

It's been a bit quiet on this blog lately as I try to get myself ready for our first christmas together as a family. I am so excited and really looking forward to it. As ever I have left everything til the last minute so I have been knitting a few last minute christmas presents. Some of them I can't show you til after the big day, but here are a few photos. This is a fair-islse hat I have knitted for Evie. I just need to make a pom pom for the top. It's the first proper fair-isle item I have made, and I am pleased with it. So pleased, in fact, that I am happy to show you the inside of the hat and how tidy it is. Will definitely be doing more in the future. And as it's a baby hat it only took me a day to knit. This is a close up of another christmas present, which I'll have to show you a bit more of after christmas.

I've only been a Mum for 5 weeks, but have really had my eyes opened to the ways of parenting. There are so much choices, and everyone has their own opinion on what is 'right' and how it 'should' be done. Three examples that seem to have very split opinions are: Breast V Bottle Feeding Co-Sleeping Babywearing Apparently you should breast feed as long as you can to enhance the bond and closeness between mum and child, but then you shouldn't co-sleep or babywear too much as they'll get used to being held or close to you. I know I am new to this but if my baby is happy then so am I! If this means she wants to sleep in bed with me (and will sleep well rather than being restless in her moses basket) then that's fine with me. I have tried breastfeeding and we couldn't get on with it, so I am expressing and bottle feeding and looking for ways to get our closeness somewhere else. For me, babywearing is great. Our pram is lovely, but it is bulky and...

I always wondered what happened to people when they had a baby (yes, I am referring to the Dads as well) as they would often discuss things I considered to be private matters. Poo being a fairly popular topic. However, since having a baby I have noticed I am doing the same thing. I have no problems at all now discussing the state of my nipples, for example. So, if you don't want to know me in THAT much detail I suggest you stop reading now. For those of you that have had a baby you know what it's like. You have people pearing in to check your most intimate areas, people manhandling you (by the way, by 'people' I do mean qualified doctors and nurses, not just any old random....), asking you questions - and they don't really care who else is with you. So you get a bit de-sensitised to it all. When Evie was born, she was given to me straight away for our skin-on-skin contact, and we tried breastfeeding where she did have a bit of a go. However that was all we man...