Warm fuzzies

One finished item today, very pleased with this, it's not fussy but still soft and warm.  I've called it Cinnamon Surprise.  It's not for me, but I did get to model it.

and then there's these guys

On the left we have Ray and on the right Star.  They're from the same litter and although they look black they're not solid black.  Ray has a jaguar pattern of darker and lighter black, while Star is more of a cheetah print.  They're gorgeous, but having some adapting to do to our house as they were in a small room at the Cats Protection League; there's a lot more space here.  They're staying in the laundry at night with their food and litterbox.  During the day they have the living area to roam in and in a day or so they'll get to meet the rest of the house.   No going outside for them for a bit, not vaccinated yet and CPL want us to keep them inside till they're fixed which won't be for another month or so.
There were 2 other cats we really wanted, but we could only have 2 and we though siblings would be a good idea for eachother and our children too.   There was a Mummy cat called Asher who was lovely and another kitten called Honey, but she might have FIV and there's no way of knowing till she's 6 months old.  I really loved Asher, Thomas really loved Honey but there's no way we could keep a kitten inside till she's 6 months old or even till she dies if she was infected.

Swimsuit for me

is finished.   The fabric was from my stash, I've lined it with a cotton lycra that was also from my stash.  I know the cotton won't last that well, but I swim infrequently so that shouldn't really be an issue.  I've used Lastin for the elastic and added a shelf bra to the top.  I graded up a boy-leg pattern I had and used a singlet pattern for the top.  I think I'll test it in the bath before I wear it for the first time in the pool, this is important as its first outing will be at George's end of year school trip, going down the hydroslide.  Not really looking forward to it, I don't overly like swimming, but it wouldn't be fair if he didn't get to go down the slide.

What do you think of it?

I had to make it, wasn't prepared to fork out over $80 for a shop-bought one and my current one is 2 sizes too small.   I do need to do something about that and will be once I'm feeling well enough again, still a wee bit chesty atm.

My next sewing thing is to hem the most hideous jacket in the world for a friend of Mikes' (BIL).  Someone had hacked the original hem off, not evenly either so that needs some work and I think I'll have to see if I've got any black bias binding to make the hem as shallow as I can.
Then Thomas's business trousers as one of his current pairs is really past its best.

In the meantime I'm still knitting the shawlette and will be working on my Fratello for George as soon as that's finished.  I'm over halfway through the shawlette.

ADHD?

Had an appointment for George to see a child psychiatrist this morning at Whakatata House after the various assessments that have been done so far.  School think he's Aspergers/ASD, the psychiatrist says he definitely has some indicators, but he's leaning in the ADHD direction.  Ritalin was mentioned, but will be relooked at next year by them to see if a different teacher makes a difference in George's concentration issues.   His current teacher, while a lovely lady is not a good mesh with George.  He needs someone who will put their foot down in the right way for him.
Thomas and I don't think Ritalin is the way to go, George isn't overactive, just a bit silly.  He also needs to learn how to concentrate on stuff he doesn't like without drugs, drugs just mask the problem, they don't teach how to deal with it.  The silly thing is if he's interested in something he's got fantastic concentration!
I'm going to have to do some research on all this, but at the end of the day we're not putting drugs into a developing body.  We are reducing junk food, there are no more oven fries in this house, no more coco puffs for breakfast.  Eventually I'd like to work towards a more natural way of life, but that will take some time and some work as Ian in particular is a fussy eater.
More baking though, problem with that is I tend to eat it.

Oh, and our swimming pool (plastic with metal frame) is dying, seams are splitting and the frame is not well either.  Keeping an eye open for something similar that's cheap.  Wish me luck!

A quick kitty post

We've been and looked at kittens.  2 wee lovelies will be coming home with us in 3 weeks once they're old enough to leave their mum.  1 black girl, she has a white star on her chest so Thomas has named her "Star".  The other is a wee ginger tabby girl; we're not sure on name yet but the options we've thought of so far are Honey, Spice or Toffee.   A little foody perhaps, but her colouring is a soft ginger.  She though Thomas was great!  Really hoping they fit in well with our family.
There were 5 litters at the foster house.  1 very young with a mum who obviously hadn't been looked after; she was very thin and they were being very careful with her.  2 others with litters about the same age and then in purpose built cages out back the slightly older litters.  1 lot was all spoken for, and we chose 2 from the second one.
We still have to get the cat food, I'll probably do that tomorrow; although we have some Science Diet kitten food left over they're used to Royal Canin so we'll get some of that and mix the Science Diet in slowly to get them used to it.  We already have some cat litter and a tray so that just leaves us with a bed to make for them in the laundry until they're old enough to sleep on our bed without accidents.  The cat door will remain locked until they're old enough to be outside sometimes.
We dropped off at The Warehouse afterwards and picked up a new cat carrier using a voucher I had, also a couple of other things for the boys and an Xbox game for Thomas and myself.
Thomas has now come down with George's cold, so while George is mostly better, Thomas and I are feeling less than our best.  

Canterbury A&P Show

For those of you who are not New Zealanders "A&P" stands for Agricultural and Pastoral; basically it's a huge farming show which has grown to include lots of other stuff.   It's held on show week in Christchurch and typically the public holiday on the Friday is fine and hot.
Today was no exception, it hit 26 degrees with no cloud cover at all.  We went to the show as early as we thought we could; we arrived at 8.05am and there were already about 5 double banks of cars parked up!  We joined in and headed into the show.   We already had our tickets ($52.00) so just trotted on in.

The first section was a home show sort of thing, I picked up a set of wrist bracelets that are one-use which you pop on your child's wrists with your cellphone number.  It cost $5 for the set and with Ian sometimes disappearing without warning we thought it was a good idea; they provided a complimentary set for both boys for the day.  We also entered a competition there for a jar of jelly beans.  Ian made a guess which Thomas then added a little to (Ian chose 22, Thomas added a 5 in front), they got the closest guess so Ian won the big jar of jellybeans!   I didn't get a photo of him receiving his prize when they dropped it off for him tonight, but I got one of it on the table at dinnertime (no he didn't eat them for dinner).

It's a really big jar, but I think I might hide it tonight and just get it out occasionally.

We saw lots of sheep, horses, chooks, vintage machines etc and happy boys, with occasional meltdowns when we wouldn't let them go on expensive rides, most of which had huge queues.
Here are some of what we saw

 George on a harvester

Corriedale fleece still on the ram

 Border Leicester

 Happy boys

 Perendale

 Ian on tractor

 Corriedale fleece

The Corriedale sheep

Vintage machinery

Now that the day is over we're exhausted.  I did a little work, just enough to get my 20 hours for the week.   Finished part 2 of the Fratello knit for George, can't post a photo atm as part of the conditions of the KAL.  It's being knit in a taupe shade and is looking really nice.
One knit I can show you is the shawl I've just cast on; Pimpelliese is a gift for someone, won't say who as they may read this

Doesn't look like much yet, but it's going to be very pretty; better get back to knitting it!.

Did finish some spinning earlier in the week, but can't post a photo of that yet as it's part of our fleece study at the guild; will try to post a photo tomorrow of that.

English Leicester

It's what I'm currently spinning, I need to have it finished by Saturday next week as it's our "focus on fleece" for this month.   I've done one single using the fleece we were sold and will be doing another in the other direction.   This may seem odd, but I'm planning a boucle yarn with the boucle part being a dyed English Leicester.
So I'll be plying the coloured single with the original one and then using the single spun the other way as a binder; I'll be overplying the first ones.

This is the fibre I'm using, I'm flick carding it before spinning fairly fine.   It could probably spin finer, but this is the first time I've spun English Leicester like this and I don't want rope.
I'll be working on this tomorrow hopefully as well as the Fratello mystery KAL for George.  Work as well of course.

I did get one thing finished today though, a WWII Watch Cap.  It's knitted in one of my earlier handspun yarns, a superwash Merino and it's rather nice.   It fits my big noggin, but is meant for a smaller one.   I only have a photo of it on me though, so here it is.  Not the best photo of me, so please just look at the hat.

I'm not really that colour, but late night flash is not flattering, especially when self photographing.

In other news....
George is at Judo camp with his Dad and it sounds like it's going well, he was dry last night which was great!  He's also not been overly silly which is also good; I'm looking forward to hearing all about it when they get home tomorrow.

Ian went to a birthday party today; Grandma dropped him off and I picked him up 2 hours later.  He behaved himself well, no meltdowns or anything and had a fantastic time; he was on a sugar high afterwards.   Wasn't as bad as I expected to get to bed though; he'll get some Xbox tomorrow as a reward, he's earned it!

1st November already!

Christmas has suddenly started galloping up, rather scary that.  Luckily thanks to Joanne I now know what we're getting the 2 younger nephews, Bradley is easy as DH already knows what he wants to get him.  I'll be ringing the SPCA on Wednesday to see if our boys presents have arrived yet, which just leaves getting something for eachother and also something for my Mum (she's given me her wishlist) and my brother (also have a wishlist).  Just got to get around to getting what we need to.  I'd rather do it sooner than later simply to avoid the Christmas rush.

Today, hmmm.  Felt grumpy for a fair part of it cos I had an appointment in the middle of the day which meant that there wasn't time to settle to anything before or after.  I went into town to visit Kutwell fabrics, but they don't open till 10am.  While I was waiting I visited Whitcoulls and spent some of my money on a maths book for George, Bernina to get an invisible zip and then Kutwells were open so I went in and got 2m of polycotton drill for $6 and 3m of 80% wool twill for $27.  The wool is already washed; I got it to make a skirt for me.  They're closing down and will be gone by Christmas so this is probably my last chance.  It's a lovely weight for a straight or A-line skirt and I can embellish too.
Had my appointment with a lady from "Socially Speaking" about Ian and his socialization issues.  I've emailed GSE (Ministry of Ed team that work with Ian) to ask for certain reports, which it looks like they haven't done yet.  Once those are done then we can decide what to do, Ian needs work on this, but Socially Speaking is expensive and I'm not sure if we can afford it; especially as his carer support isn't supposed to be used for most of it, just the group sessions.  I think we'll have to come up with some strategies of our own to work this out.
After the appointment I decided to drop into Mainland Uniforms to see how much school tops and shorts were, unfortunately our school doesn't let them make their logo, so I couldn't get anything.  I did however get a thing of socks as the ones they had are the same as a lot I had a couple of years ago that are still going strong on the boys.
Tonight I got one row done on the hat and nothing on anything else.  Planning on cleaning out the sewing room tomorrow, so probably not much knitting then either.  However once that's done then I can get some sewing done.