dottyspots

Lazy blogging

Because I don't really have the energy to write much, so instead I'm posting some pics of a visit to Sandall Beat Woods (last week).

 

We went on the bus whilst Erk cycled (the daftness of this trip is that Sandall Beat Woods is only around 5 miles away, but the easiest way to get there, if you're not driving or cycling, is on 2 buses.  I wish I had one of those lovely Dutch/Danish trikes that carry children, I'd save quite a bit on bus fare *sigh*)

We walked into the woods, seeing lots of squirrels as we went, usually too fast for me to catch on camera, but I did manage to take a photo of this little chap:

We met up with Erk and played on the wind pipes (you have to stand on the wooden beams in different places to make sound):

And then we discovered a roly wheely thingy which for some reason we'd never noticed before (which is a bit bizarre as it's only just down from the playground, etc.)

 

It was a bit of a challenge for Nin to get up onto.

 

Feeling confident now...

 

And off!  And straight back on again.

You can make little bells inside the wheels ring when you moved your feet, Nin thought this was fabulous and spent quite some time on it.

What you can't see on the ground beyond it is the wonderful daffodils and irises.

And on the way out, just as the weather was beginning to turn, we saw a peacock in less-than-auspicious circumstances (next to rusty old baths in a farmyard):

Quite a bit else happening atm, so will hopefully have some time to blog it tommorrow (also trying to get some knitting done as I've had a lace scarf *for me* on my needles for a while which keeps getting cast aside for knitted easter eggs and making clothes for dolls).

Knitted Waldorf Doll

I finished my first entirely Knitted Waldorf Doll (well, ok, he does need some clothes, I'm working on that).

 

He is predominantly knitted in Riihivilla Aarni (a naturally-dyed Finnish rare-breed yarn) from Ecoknits and his hair is from Spectraspun.

March Circle Time

Please note this photo isn't one of mine - far too good ;)

Now I have a spare minute (before I go off to bed), I thought I'd type up the Circle Time we are currently using.  I know it would probably help to have the melodies, so I might have a fiddle with the PC and see if I can record the melodies I've now started adding some recordings - erm, I have to lean over my PC to sing (I don't have a separate microphone) so they sound a bit strained ;) You'll need to save the file to your PC and then open to hear it (sorry, at some point I'll try and work out a player for on here, there must be some way of doing it).

Come to the circle where dreams are found,
Take my hand and we'll dance around,
Round and round and round we go,
Hello, hello, hello and hello.

Come the the circle, we'll dance in a ring,
Jumping like lambs to welcome the Spring,
Round and round and round we go,
Hello, hello, hello and hello.

come-to-the-circle

There piped a piper in the wood
Strange music - soft and sweet
And all the little wild things
Came hurrying to his feet.
They sat around him on the grass,
Enchanted, unafraid,
And listened, as with shining eyes,
Sweet melodies he made.
The wood grew green and flowers sprang up
The birds began to to sing;
For the music it was magic
the piper's name was Spring!

the-piper

Five little mice, fast asleep
One by one, out they creep
Five little mice, wide awake now
One-by-one they take a bow

(to the melody of "Frere Jacques")

Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping?
Little bulbs. Little bulbs.
Springtime is a-coming. Springtime is a-coming.
Time to wake. Time to wake.

("Flowers Growing" by Jean Warren - sung to melody of "Here we go round the mulberry bush")

This is the way we sprout our roots,
Sprout our roots, sprout our roots.
This is the way we sprout our roots,
When spring time is here.

This is the way we stretch and grow. [etc]
This is the way we open our buds. [etc]
This is the way we bend in the breeze. [etc]
This is the way we smile at the sun. [etc]

Two little feet go tap, tap, tap.
Two little hands go clap, clap, clap.
One little body, twirls around.
One quiet body sits back down.

I then tell the story of The Three Billikin Whiskers (or Three Billy Goats Gruff)

Splurge!

Because it's been a while since I last blogged.  I don't know what's happened recently, but life seems to have gotten a little bonkers on the busy front and by the time I have a minute to blog I'm too tired to actually do it.

So, a short recap of what's been going on: Nin has been back to hospital.  She has been having some blood tests which have shown anaemia, but also high allergy antibodies.  She will be having further allergy tests to try to pinpoint what's causing this.

We've been attending the Steiner Initiative in Sheffield once a week, but things are rather up-in-the-air atm (regarding location, number of children attending, etc.) Myself and a couple of others in the local area are working towards a Woodland Parent and Child Group and Steiner-inspired co-op. We are looking to gather a minimum of 6 6-8 year olds for this, at which point we might be able to bring in a teacher to lead a Class 1. 

At present I'm going to be leading the simple co-op (unless any other parent would also like to be involved, which would be more ideal), but my preference would be for it to be teacher-led to enable me to have more input into a Kindy/Parent & Child thing.

I do have quite a bit more to say on this, but need to have a think about it. I attended an interesting talk by Dot Male about Setting Up a Steiner Initiative last night in Sheffield, although it covered more, the setting up of a Steiner Kindergarten, but it was lovely to finally meet her (I've been trying to get to her "First Three Years" course for around 3 years now ;) and to also meet other people involved in the Steiner Initiative in Sheffield (or just interested in Steiner Ed.)

Erm, aside from that the days have sort've blurred into one and we've been doing the 'usual stuff', including some felting of hearts and Ted finding a tiny, tiny snail in the playhouse (which he went on to carry around the house for the majority of the day - the snail survived and was later released back into the garden ;) ):

 

Long time, no blog...

I've had a dead laptop which has refused all attempts to switch on or charge.  It's back now and working and I have alot to catch up with!

In the meantime we've been up to:

Ice carving - including what happens when you pour water on and then chip away at ice.

Ted helped Rik in the shed:

 

It snowed (whilst it might seem rather pitiful to some, we've not seen this much snow for a while):

 

Gilbert was very far from impressed:

Monty, on the other hand, loved it.  We let him off the lead on the playing fields and pelted him with snowballs which he thought was fabulous, but sorry, no pics, the snow was really coming down and I was worried about the camera getting wet.

Something you might miss if you were at school. A lorry had come to clean the drains, needless to say the children were fascinated.

And Nin made an apple and blackberry pie (English Bramleys from the market, blackberries from home-made blackberry jelly in the autumn, stirred into the apple mixture).  She decorated the top herself and was very pleased with it:

I ordered some Riihivilla Aarni from Ecoknits:

I'm currently knitting up the flesh tones, working on a pattern for a knitted Waldorf Doll.  I've finished one large doll's head (photo to follow soon) and have started on a second, smaller head. I also received this lovely sketch from Creative Mother:

 

Thank you so much Creative Mother!  I'm so pleased with it!

CPSIA - Save Handmade Toys in the USA

 

Just resurfacing briefly to post regarding the Consumer Product Safety Inspection Act (CPSIA) in the USA that will affect items made for children under the age of 12 in the USA (and items imported into and then sold in the USA) and will put many small, cottage industries out of business :( Allsorts has made a pretty comprehensive post about this and is far more knowledgeable than I, so please visit her blog to find out more. Just wanted to pop my head over the parapet because it will affect so many people whose work I admire.

Doll socks and stockings pattern

Is now online here: http://ninnynoodlenoo.com/content.php?content_id=1021 (Articles section of Ninny Noodle Noo). I hope it's helpful :)

Teddy is 3!

Yes, my little man has turned 3 today.

No trousers, because he hasn't always quite got the no-nappy thing down yet and would he put on a pair of trousers? No, of course he didn't want to, he wanted to see his cake.

 

Happy Birthday Ted!

Dh was taking the photos, so this time I can claim exhonouration from the blurriness (I really have to have another look at the manual for this thing though *sigh*).  Cake made by Nin and me (she does a much better job than me - that's a snake on the top).

Time flies...

Such a flurry of activity!  It's almost 10 days into the New Year (so nearly Ted's birthday) and it seems to have gone by so fast! There's been quite a lot of things like this:

 

And finishing off things like this (R, my 14yr old son, made the cake):

 

And I started this (must be mad):

The playmat is 1x1.2m.  I'm chain-stitching the water (as you can see), with embroidered then needle-felted pebbles in the stream (with scrap bits of Noro left from the hobby horse which I'm *still* to get a decent pic of to post).  Once I've finished the base colour of water I will chainstitch or embroider a variegated (blue/green/purple) yarn on top for some added 'movement'.

I plan to crochet the lane (coloured in beeswax crayon as a guide for the time being) and will then knit various fields, latch-hooking verges and bits around the pond for a bit of height (I can't face latch-hooking 'grass' into an entire field).

I'm also knitting a cardi for Rosie (Nin's doll) in matching yarn to the stockings I've recently made for her and am *still* crocheting the blue and purple knitted dress for Nin (which is likely to be a long top at this point).  I've also got the hem to add to the stripy dressing gown I've been making for Nin, but had to wash it (due to a cat wee incident, of which I will probably post more later - had one of those awful, but comical, days yesterday *sigh*)

I'm still here!

Been a bit busy, y'know how it is :D

We've had a lovely quiet festive season with quite a lot of biscuits and some marzipan dipped in chocolate (made by the children - yes they were covered head to toe in chocolate, I couldn't take photos as I was too ;) ).

Here are a couple of bits and pieces I've made, although I still need to take a picture of the hobby horse, coat and hat and scarf set.  I'm not a confident photographer and I just couldn't get half decent photos of them this morning. I have, however, finished Ted's doll's cardigan, some dungarees (couldn't get a decent close photo of them) and socks to match the cardigan.  For Nin's doll I finished a pair of stockings:

 

Aside from that it's been brisk cold walks with the dog (and some extra teens, I seem to collect them in this house...)

 

The last photo is where we do most of our blackberry picking in the autumn, it looks so cold and bare now.  The camera ran out of batteries at this point (which was a shame as we went to the playground and Erk took off his hat and put it on the ground next to the swing and the dog grabbed it and made off with Erk in hot pursuit, much to everyone's amusement - the dog was really, really pleased with himself).  Oh and guess what?  Ted did the whole walk with NO NAPPY!  Yes, my little boy is now wearing pants in the day :)

Anyway, hopefully I'll get some photos of the hobby horse and other bits and pieces I've made soon (I'd also like to also get them posted up on Ravelry).