Tutorial: Dribble Bib (aka Bibble)

It seems that the height of bib fashion (who knew there was such a thing as bib fashion?!) is currently a triangular neckerchief with a popper fastening, and which snuggles beneath the chin to catch the dribble that flows from teething babies/toddlers.


You can find oodles of these dribble catchers in the shops, including some very fancy ones with waterproof innards and velour layers, although they do cost anything up to £8 each! But they are a doddle to make from recycled/upcycled fabrics and here's a short tute to prove it.

You will need:

1. some thin card to make a template
2. some absorbent fabric for the backing (e.g. terry, towelling or fleece)
3. some fabric for the top (e.g. t-shirt material, dress fabric)
4. press stud or fastener
5. scissors/thread/needle

1. Using an old bib as a guide for neck length, make a template for the bib using the card. You will need to draw a right angle triangle with a long edge that corresponds to your old bib (in my case, measuring approx 40cm/15").

 2. Use the template to cut backing material. Here I am using a well used bamboo terry square.

3. Use the template to cut the fabric for the top of the bib. Here I am using a plain (but rather bright!) t-shirt...

4. Next stitch the two layers of fabric together. Because I am not a very accomplished sewer, I simply topstitch about 1/4" from the edge, leaving the edges raw. Alternatively you could zigzag or overlock the raw edges together OR sew together with right sides facing (leaving a short gap) and then turn right sides out and finish by top stitching. If you are making these as a gift, then you might also consider finishing with bias tape to make them really neat.

5. Add your fastener/popper at the appropriate places. Some of the commercial bibs have two poppers so that length can be adjusted.

6. Add bib to baby and smile.

Blood

On Saturday I took myself and my knitting into town. My main purpose was to donate blood and I thought I would take my twisted sock with me to work on while I waited. The weather was dry and bright; a lovely autumn morning. I arrived just after the donating suite opened and only managed one or two rounds of sock knitting before filling out my questionnaire and going through to give up some claret. As usual, the staff were cheery and chatty and nothing short of lovely. As if that weren't enough, the Scottish Blood Service includes Tunnocks tea cakes amongst its offerings for donors.

Baby Elias is still rather poorly, so although we are very far away from his hospital bed, I thought it was a good thing to do with him in mind. Get well little man; we are all thinking of you.

Babies: one, two, three

My old friend has had her baby - Elias arrived in fine style slightly earlier than planned, as he decided not to wait for the scheduled c-section, but started making his way into the world a day early.

Yesterday I heard that little Elias - now two weeks old - is very sick, and now in Great Ormond St Hospital in London. His heart has been affected, and his chances of recovery are not known. We are sending all our love and prayers in his direction, and of course to his parents and brave big sister. I will be sending them some more practical help too, following the advice in indietutes blog. I can send his Freddie too, once I've sewn it all up (I finished the sleeves whilst watching Spooks on i-player).

This morning I heard that my cousin is due to have her identical twins by c-section TODAY! They will be arriving a few weeks early, but we are keeping our fingers crossed that they are a good size and do not need much help once they are born. Once I know their gender/names/size I can whip up something for them too.

ETA: Little Girls arrived! Well done Emma and Paul. We are thrilled for you!!

Because all babies are precious: here is a picture of my two gorgeous babies.

Y O T

DH and I are making a big financial commitment in the next couple of weeks, so we will be doing our best to focus on thrift and the need to avoid spending wherever we can in the coming months. Our mantra is 'Y.O.T' which stands for 'year of thrift' - and which if uttered at the right moment, can help us to make the right decisions about what to do that day; what to cook; and what to eat. Decisions which - when added up - help to turn the saved pennies into saved pounds.

I often use YOT to help me resist yarn. I dont *need* to buy anything where there is soooo much in my stash.

There is something addictive about saving money; it's a bit like going on a diet and seeing the inches/pounds drop off. The success of it is satisfying. To this end, I thought I would write down some of my/our thrifty living tips (not only for your benefit, but for me too - in case I forget!)

• The Thrifty Cookbook by Kate Colquhoun is full of recipes and ideas for making the most of ordinary ingredients and using up leftovers. The banana cake recipe is particularly good...
• Use the library! (good for cookbooks; childrens books and travel/guide books)
• Shampoo - I've discovered recently that I can wash my hair very well with about one quarter of the amount I used to use. Not so much less is more, but less is enough. Not only does it mean we need to buy shampoo less often, but the waste water will be less nasty...
• Washing - with two small (and quite messy) children in the house, our washing basket is never, ever empty. If clothes are fairly presentable, then they go back on the child (or adult!) the next day rather than in the washing basket. Its really easy to whip things off and 'give them a quick wash' but if you think about it changing children's outfits after two days rather than every day will cut the weekly washing pile in half!
• The Green Kitchen (Richard Ehrlich) is another worthwhile read if you are trying to reduce your costs. Top tips from this book include: always cook with a lid on your pan; turn off your oven 5-10 mins before you have finished cooking - the residual heat will finish things off for you; when cooking pasta - add the pasta to the hot water and bring to the boil. Then put on a lid and turn off the heat. The hot water will cook the pasta perfectly.

What's your favourite thrifty tip?

Back to the airwaves...

I'm trying to get back to blogging a lot more. I like it. I like reading blogs, and I like writing too.

I've got an FO to blog, but the camera cable is missing (I suspect it's in DH's work bag) so I can't post any pictures for the moment.

Anyway, what I really wanted to say is this. I'm very sad about the UK Knit Camp situation - I would have like to have gone. As we are in Edinburgh, a short trip to Stirling for a day or two was definitely on my agenda, but our summer holidays got in the way, and I decided in the end that it was not possible to combine the two. However, given all the fallout about the event (and I won't comment on that seeing as I wasnae there), I'm really sad because it effectively puts the kibosh on this becoming a regular UK event. That's a great shame in my view.

FO: Husband socks

The husband socks are finished, finally. They have taken an absolute age. I cast them on in June, and finished them in September. Admittedly one or two other things got in the way (e.g. Sam's birthday socks), and there was the small matter of sock one being rather too small, so sock two was made to the correct dimensions and sock one duly ripped and reknitted to match. And then, there was just life to get in the way. I have to say that with two small children and one almost full-time job, my time for anything other than housework seems to be exceedingly small.... so I take my hat (and socks) off to those women who manage to do it and blog about it too!

Here they are (for what it's worth)

Pattern: Thuja (Knitty)

Yarn: Regia

Mods: only to change no of stitches required

Time taken: June - September 2010

To celebrate the conclusion of the husband socks, I cast on yesterday lunch time for a pair of twisted socks (Knitty) using some Plymouth Co. Happy Feet yarn that I was given a couple of years ago. I'm not wild about the colourway, but it's only a pair of socks...

And, after hearing that an old friend had an elective c-section booked in for the 16 September, I went back to the Freddy (Kim Hargreaves Rowan Junior) that was on the needles and started turning the crank. Last night front and back were both completed, and today I'll get going on the teeny tiny sleeves. It'll be ready in a few days, by which time I hope we'll have had confirmation of the new arrival...

Sock Fest

There are quite a lot of socks in my drawer which have - to date - been unblogged. It's time to put this right.

For Christmas my brother and his girlfriend (now sadly an ex girlfriend , sniff, sniff) gave me two balls of sock yarn. To start with I made these fabulously fraternal socks:

Pattern: generic top down

Yarn: Schoppel Wolle Crazy Zauberball

Another pair followed, this time using a grumperina stripe to vary the effect. These became a 40th birthday gift for our friend Sam - her first handknit socks. She put them on immediately, so we think she liked them! Happy Birthday Sam.

Pattern: generic top down

Yarn: Schoppel Wolle Crazy Zauberball

The good news is that there is still enough yarn left from these two balls to make another pair. I'll get onto this once I've finished the second husband sock, a christmas gift which has been repeatedly put to the side to allow for other more urgent birthday knitting to take place! It's next dear (honest).