1 down, 2 to go

One baby blanket finished, two to go. I'm thinking that I'll give them all as Christmas gifts, as one sister-in-law is inconsiderately not finding out the sex of her baby until the birth. Does she not realise how slow I am at crocheting???

One of the reasons that I am making these blankets is that each of the great-grandchildren so far have been given a baby blanket by my grandmother-in-law, but her arthritis doesn't allow her to pick up a crochet hook these days. The problem with this, though, is that she was great at crocheting, so I fear these new additions to the family are going to feel a little, um, short-changed if they compare theirs with the older cousins' blankets... Ah well. At least these can be used as the functional blankets - you know, the one that you don't worry about when your baby spits up all over it.

Sorry that this is a bit of a scribble and run type post, but I've been struggling to stay on top of things these last few weeks. Little tasks keep eating up great big chunks of my day, leaving me with a never-ending to-do list. Nope, haven't started the Halloween costumes yet*.

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Translation of the day:

UK English: rubbish = trash / garbage in US English. Yep, I know I've mentioned that one already, but it occurred to me that talking rubbish does not mean the same thing as talking trash. From what I understand, talking rubbish is talking nonsense, while talking trash is more along the lines of insulting someone (sometimes good-naturedly), especially those on an opposing team.

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For instance, when my new niece says, "why has my sister got a beautiful blanket, when all I have is this rubbish?", you might consider her to be talking trash about my crocheting ability, but she wouldn't actually be talking rubbish...

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PS. *If those of you with blogs could do me a favour and post less often, that would be a big help. When I actually manage to get on the computer, my blog reader keeps not loading - or won't load pictures if it does load. I'm way behind. That and you're making me look bad...

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PPS. Sorry for the shadow on the pic, both sunlight and my camera battery were running out on me.

Autumn

Well, it's been a week of plastering, feeling ill, plastering while feeling ill, with the usual mum duties thrown in. The bathroom is now ready to be painted, at least. Why my husband was so intent on chivvying me to get to this stage, I don't know, as it doesn't look like any painting will happen for another week or so. Why I couldn't have been left to lie in bed and feel sorry for myself, is beyond me.

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As for the computer, it has only been seen in the form of a blue glow around my husband's head, as his gaming forum has had political turmoil this week, apparently requiring his constant attention. I did offer a solution for him, consisting of explaining to the forum's members that, 'it's JUST A GAME'...

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Hopefully it's all sorted now, as I haven't been able to check my e-mail in days. I'm just letting you all know that I'm still alive, then I'm off to tidy the house (guess who was supposed to have been preventing the kids from trashing the house while I was sanding down the bathroom. And yes, my daughter did give herself a haircut while her father was glued to the PC). Hopefully I'll get to my e-mail tomorrow evening. Someone did suggest that I get my own PC, but maybe a new husband might work out cheaper. Hmm, I'll have to crunch the numbers...

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While I'm sure that you're stopping by purely to read about my computer game addicted spouse, there are a couple of things that I've made. It's been a while since I've shown you some knitted things. Number one is a scarf - the yarn was on sale for 50 cents and bought solely because I liked the grey / green colour. Luckily there was just enough for a scarf for my daughter as I'm not usually a 'fluffy' type and goodness knows what else I could have made with it.

Number two is a baby shrug from Debbie Bliss' book 'Simply Baby', which I made a little while back, but I don't think that I have previously mentioned (edit: you can now download this pattern for free from here). It's a great pattern for a beginner like me: nice and easy and it doesn't take up a lot of yarn or time. I think that the only change that I would make would be to make the sleeves a little narrower next time.

Ok, I had better stop procrastinating and go and clean the house.

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Today's translation of the day:

UK English: Autumn = Fall / Autumn in US English. I don't think that the English ever use the term 'Fall', but I think that some Americans do say 'Autumn'.

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I do know that England doesn't tend to have daft over 100°F weather in Autumn. Thank goodness it's cooling off a bit here. I really ought to move to a place that has a winter...