Another 24 hours

So the four days of solo parenting has turned into five. Rather stumped for things to do given we were all devastated by the consequences of a fifty-minutes-late flight from Auckland to Christchurch, the children and I went out for dinner. I ran up the stairs first to check with the lovely Nell as to whether she would let us in given the children were barefoot and I was in gumboots. All okay. We bumped into friends with children at the restaurant so I got adult company and the children got to play.

I have started a new knitting project when I haven't finished the last one. This is a bad thing to do. But I didn't know how to pick up stitches to make armbands on Fionn's sleeveless hoodie. Since I gave up, a friend who has made the same pattern has advised that she left the armbands off completely with no ill effects. Which means that I can sew the rest up. Perhaps even tonight. But in the interim, I have started something for Brighid. I think it will be a dress and I have moved from the slavish following of a pattern which I was taught as a child and feared to deviate from, to making it all up. A drum roll would be appropriate. It is the home spun and dyed wool I bought at Granity last month and I am knitting 120 stitches in the round (in the round being a first for me also) which is going to be the hem of the dress. Something about the wool invites improvisation. I have the idea that I will knit up and along the way I wil learn how to decrease in the round and then I will probably split into two sides on straight needles and make a pinafore style. I chose 120 stitches because I had this idea that the numerical proportions would lend themselves to decreasing evenly around the skirt.

The garden is growing nicely given the good weather. Only the good weather has subsided as of today and the forecast is wet for most of the coming week. I think Favourite Handyman went away the wrong week. We ate potatoes from the garden yesterday. They tasted great to me. The tiny people were sniffy.

I've been hatching more plans for raised beds, this time using corrugated iron which we have in storage ready to be recycled. Favourite Handyman suggested it for the bed which is 1 x 2 metres, but for the work involved, I think raising the bed which is 1.5 x 2+ metres is a better idea. We would have to buy in some soil or extra compost as we would raise it about 0.6 metres. It would deal with the waterlogging problem quite well though, and provide quite a warm plot.