FO: Elijah

I finished the elephant!

Pattern: Elijah by Ysolda Teague

Yarn: Katia Cotton 100%

Notes:
All in all a pretty fun knit. I like that it was totally seamless. Picking up stitches from already-stuffed body parts is fiddly, but worth it in the end. Baby Bean isn't really interested in it yet, but I hope he'll find it fun once he is.

The yarn is soft yet sturdy, and washable, so I think it would be great for other baby knits. I will keep it in mind once I run through my current colourful cotton stash, which is mostly made up of Rico Design Essentials Cotton DK. (Also a nice soft cotton, but quite shiny, so it would be nice to have some matte cotton in the arsenal.)

Level up

So this happened the other day. Achievement unlocked!

I made a thing

I managed to make a thing! It feels good to finish something.

Pattern: Just Hatched Baby Leggings by Rae Hoekstra of Made by Rae

I made these out of an old polo shirt of my husband's, so they aren't a super fun exciting print. Rae suggests using old tshirts for the fabric, and this is brilliant because if you line it up correctly you don't have to hem the bottoms. Win! They took me several naptimes to complete, though they would be a quick project if you have half an hour of uninterrupted time. The elastic casing is a bit wonky due to rushing and also not being super experienced at sewing knits. I've bought a few large stretchy tops from a charity shop to make a few more pairs, since stretchy trousers / leggings are turning out to be super useful for us. You can see they fit over his giant cloth nappy, which is awesome. I am going to try to adapt the pattern to make them a bit bigger so he'll have some to grow into.

Interesting times ; queueing as coping mechanism

The last week here in the UK has exemplified that old chestnut "cursed to live in interesting times." It is like watching a car crash - can't look away but watch in horror as normality implodes. I am angered and saddened by the way racism and xenophobia have been legitimised. I fear for my friends and neighbours who come from around the world. I fear for my friends and neighbours who were born here but still find themselves open to abuse due to colour or religion.

Attacks on immigrants hit close to home. I am an immigrant. I am a foreigner here, but I enjoy privilege being white, Western and with English as my first language. I am a so-called "good immigrant," so I don't fear for my safety. The fact that people make this distinction makes me sick.

I would normally try to do something crafty to regain control of my world even in a superficial way, but productivity is limited at present since all I do is feed, change, and jiggle the baby, spending far too long watching the world burn via social media on my phone during feeding sessions.

My ravelry favourites list grows ever longer, though, as I dream of all the beautiful new projects I wish I could start. That's my version of escapism these days.

If you want to escape into some particularly beautiful things, I urge you to check out the designs of Lucy Hague. I swear that each design she produces is even more stunning than the last. At the moment I am obsessed with Uncia and Iona. One day, maybe!