10 days until the due date

Pelmeni

Yesterday a very good friend came over and all of us made (and afterward ate) pelmeni. Katya decided to "teach" us how to make all sorts of alternative shapes.

Finishing

Two weeks left until the due date, so I'm trying to finish few things before all the free time is eaten up by taking care of a newborn.

Last night I finished knitting my first item with the armholes and look it fits!

Pattern: Milo by Georgie Hallam
Yarn: Rowan RYC Cashcotton DK
Details on Ravelry

And today I attached the final layer of hair to my first Waldorf limbed doll. Now I just need to make some cloths (preferably of the cute variety) for her as my daughter strictly highlighted that she wants a doll with LOTS of cloths.

While attaching the hair I kept on thinking that it was very similar in colour to my sister's and when my husband saw the finished doll his first words were "Now we can pretend that you sister is still here". How I wish that she was here instead of on the other side of the planet.

It's like a holiday, but better

My mum arrived on Tuesday the previous week, the renovations finished on Friday and this week felt like a very chilled out holiday. Last few days I felt more relaxed than during most of the holidays I had since I became a mother – it is so nice to know that I have an option of sitting on the couch all day doing nothing. I suspect if I choose that option I would be bored in the space of 10 minutes, so with all the extra free time available to me I’m trying to finish few crochet and knitting projects and make a Waldorf-style doll for my daughter for the birth of the baby. To me having time to make things is even more precious and more energizing than having time to laze about.

I don’t seem to be able to resist the urge of making toys despite knowing that I’ll get frustrated by fiddly sewing bits. At the moment my daughter doesn’t even play with the dolls, but maybe it will change when there is a baby in the house, otherwise I'll have to play with that doll myself.

To practice making heads I finally got around to replacing a head for the doll I made two years ago. The original head had two newbie mistakes: the neck wasn’t thick enough resulting in ugly folds on the face and the head was also too long. This one has a proper neck, but is still slightly too long.

I did few more practice heads before making the big one for the 16 inch doll and now I have to make the decision on which body pattern to use from the ones in the Maricristin Sealey's book "Making Waldorf Dolls".

These are the two of the best heads together with the big one.

P.S. The photos of the new new bathrooms can be found on Flickr, but I think only the people, who saw the original bathrooms in the last few weeks, will appreciate the improvements to their full extent. I regret not taking the pre-renovation photos, though at the time it felt embarrassing to photograph something so ugly and falling apart.

Light-switch cord

This is the cord from the top bathroom, which one is supposed to pull to turn on the light. (English bathroom are often strange: separate taps for cold & hot water, carpets, pull-cords. The most impractical one I saw was at B&B - not only it had carpet on the floor, but also wallpaper on the walls.) Anyway, the cord broke off last Sunday. Therefore for one week we had to use a little torch. Its blueish light made me feel like I'm in a teenage horror flick or a cheap sci-fi movie. Luckily the renovations of the main bathroom are now finished. It is such a pleasure to walk into a bathroom and use it without worrying about something coming off in one’s hands; without discovering afterwards that something else sprouted a leak and the water is dripping off the ceiling onto the recently painted walls or our beautiful bookshelf; without spending ages trying to get the toilet to flash. Tomorrow I’m planning to have a long soak in the bathtub, as I believe that lazing in a bath for a silly period of time should be one of the privileges of being pregnant.

P.S. And yes, now we have a normal light switch and mixer water tap.