Little Cotton Rabbits

Cake helps :)

 

 

The New year hasn't got off to a very healthy start here in our household. We've each had at least 2 colds to date and poor Toby has suffered the most with a nasty bout of flu this week. It's so worrying when he is really ill as it's very hard to gauge exactly what is wrong because he can't tell us anything about how he's feeling. His temperature peaked at 104 F during Monday night and I've been sleeping downstairs with him on the sofa bed since Sunday so I can keep an eye on him and keep him drinking. Happily he wanted to get up and dressed today rather than stay in bed and I have my fingers crossed that he'll be wanting baked potato and chocolate cake for his tea, as that will be proof that he's beginning to feel better again.

January hasn't been all bad though. We've had some beautifully frosty mornings and some amazing sunrises and sunsets. I've been knitting away as usual and have been baking lots too because cake really does help when the mood is a little low, especially if it's as good as these little treats made from Nigel Slater's marzipan berry cakes recipe. It's also good that they have blueberries in because we're clearly in need of their superfood powers - hopefully they'll help us avoid catching more colds this winter but even if they don't manage that they are wonderfully good to eat.

Hope you're keeping well where you are x

 

 

A sprinkling of snow

 

 

 

 

Right now there's quite a lot of snow coming down here in loops and swirls of big, fat flakes but it's unlikely to last long and the snow that fell here yesterday evening has already mostly melted away. Even so it's a good excuse to stay snuggled by the fire today where I'll be making more lists for next week (mostly just transferring all the things that didn't get done this week) and playing around with ideas for the next pattern. I have lovely cosy toes too thanks to the socks that I've just finished from Trin Annelie's lovely and currently appropriate 'Snowy Toes' pattern, knitted in The Uncommon Thread's beautiful Tough Sock yarn.

Hope you're keeping well and warm where you are and that there's a lovely weekend stretching out before you x

 

back to familiar routines

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Christmas and New Year break was a good one here. We spent lots of time together watching family films and eating nice things which makes for the best kind of Christmas holiday in my book, especially as Amy is usually out or cloistered with her computer in her room and it was lovely to have a little more of her company. Toby loved his new lego and has been busy chewing it as usual. He's becoming well practiced in the teenage art of long lie-ins and though he's still up each night playing musical beds he was coaxed back to his own bed in the morning with a tray of toast and ginger biscuits and happily snuggled there with his books 'til almost lunchtime while I got on with household chores. Return to routine is always welcome however, Toby copes so much better when things are as he expects them to be and when he copes better we all do. So today feels good as the school term has started and I'm sitting here enjoying the quiet while making lists and getting organised.

The mornings have been cold and frosty here this week so it seemed a good excuse to start the pair of gloves above. They're from a Kate Davies pattern called Snawpaws and I'm knitting them in the unbelievably soft Tynd yarn from Woolfolk which I bought from Loop. They're knitting up nice and quickly so I'm looking forward to wearing them by the weekend.

Well, I'm off to write some more lists and ease myself back into work mode. As usual there's a rather large number of emails in my inbox awaiting a reply so if you are waiting to hear from me hopefully you'll bear with me while I work my way through to yours.

Thanks for dropping in, I hope you've had a good start to the year where you are x

 

 

Happy New Year!

Just popping in briefly to wish you all a happy and healthy start to the New Year and share some of my favourite moments from 2016 in what has become a little tradition (previous year round-ups are here).

 

 

I hope it's a good year for us all and that your New Year's day is full of joyful anticipation, thoughtful planning and the company of those you love x