A small diversion to the sewing machine

There's no denying I love fabric, just as most of the bloggers I follow and love.  However my downfall is that I have so many fabrics I can't bear to use yet, they're still too beautiful to cut up.  Therefore some of the untouched fabrics I own are nearly 20 years old.

Sad, scarey or just plain bonkers, I can't help it.  I can still pull out these fabrics and hold onto them, remembering when and where I bought most of them and at what stage I was in my own life.  I guess they've become keepsakes, but I've always believed that the right purpose for them would present itself.  Which in most cases is true (and I still hold out hope for the pure linen knit fabric that I only have 2 metres of..... too beautiful and too expensive not to use!).

So to prove myself right I came across a pattern on Pinterest the other day for a wool bunny.  Then digging around my old stash of wool blanket off-cuts I discovered a piece that would fit my pattern perfectly, with little to spare, and enough fringe to make a cotton tail as well.

The girl was stoked.

Giving in to my whims.....

Even though the weather has cooled favourably the outside 'to do' list is somewhat overwhelming.  Add to this a nearly four year old who sticks to me like glue and wants to know about everything I pick up.  Although thankfully I seemed to have avoided the "why.... why..... why....." phase as I mostly try to answer questions with a question.

So what do I do?

I knit....

...and come up with this -

for my boy (Ravelry link here)

Plus this -

because my girl asked for yellow socks.

Then something for my sister which I dare not show yet because her birthday is next week.

And now this -

for a friends little girl.

Even the sewing machine has taken a back seat.  Every time I approach it I loose all enthusiasm (except for the family mending - for some reason I still enjoy this...), so I figured "why push myself?"  Why struggle through a project only to make mistakes and burst into tears when I'm not happy with the end result.  I'm happy knitting at the moment, it means I can be with the children with needles in hand, ready to put aside when I'm needed.  The outside 'to do' jobs are still there, but my children are only young once and I need to make the most of that while I can.