Learning Crochet

So, despite telling myself repeatedly that I would get good at one hobby before starting the next, I have once again jumped into something new. It's crochet this time and I am really enjoying it, although it's taking a bit of getting used to. Above are my first three attempts. The yellow is double knit yarn, my first attempt. It was supposed to be a square swatch. I have no idea what went wrong there. It seems to have rectified itself of the next two attempts though, when things seemed to sort of  'click' and I got the hang of it a bit. The blue is aran/worsted weight yarn and I found that easier to work with than the DK. Now I feel ready to start an actual project, which is going to be a mei tai carrier for my daughter to wear her dolls and teddies in.

In other news, I've added tassels to one end of my knitted scarf project and I'm quite happy with them.

Building Water Confidence: Week 1

My two-year-old daughter, E, loves water. She would happily spend all day in the bath, playing with her toys, making cups of 'tea', until it comes to hair-washing time. She hates, and I mean screaming-the-house-down-as-if-she's-being-tortured hates, having water on her head. It's not just on her face, but anywhere near. As soon as I begin tipping water at the nape of her neck she's going crazy. I've tried using the (really weak) shower, pouring it gently with a jug, and even cradling her over the bath so none of the water can't get to her face. She screams, always.

I hate putting her through it, and I realise that the more this happens, the worse it will get. She doesn't even like to be near the shower when it's on any more. I've stopped washing her hair. Sometimes I smooth some conditioner over it and wipe it off with a flannel, but it's not really good enough. So my goal now is to build her confidence in the water, slowly but surely.

This week I am bringing her in the shower when I or her sister are in there. She'll stand in the bath and wash herself at the opposite end to the shower spray, so I'm sticking with that for now. I ask her if she wants to touch the spray with her hands, meaning that she has to get that little bit closer, and sometimes she likes to. If she doesn't, I let it go. I hope that eventually the presence of the shower will be no big deal, and gradually she will become less and less bothered by the water on her head.

Fingers crossed.

Mixed Race Hair Care Guide

I've had a lot of trouble working out how best to take care of my girls' lovely mixed race hair. I've tried so many products and methods over the years and have finally found a routine that works for us. I haven't found many guides on the internet that are UK-based, so I thought I would write my own.

First I'd like to recommend visiting the British Curlies Curl Forum. I learnt so much about hair products, what's in them, and what is best for curly hair by reading through the threads there. However, I find that a lot of the good curl-specific products are really very pricey, so I've been in search of cheaper options. We use:

• Tresemme Naturals 'Nourishing Moisture' shampoo and conditioner. These are good as they don't contain such harsh chemicals as your average products. Sulphates (a key ingredient in most shampoos) can cause curls to become really dry and silicone conditioners can cause trouble as the silicone builds up on the hair. The Naturals range has low sulphates and no silicone at all, and since using it my daughters' hair has been so much more manageable. As a bonus, it's often on special offer in Superdrug. You can also get it in Boots and some supermarkets.
• Coconut Oil. We get the one from Superdrug, which is £1.99 a tub and lasts a decent amount of time. It's also great to use on skin.
• Tangle Teezer Hairbrush. This is the thing to splash out on. It minimises hair breakage and makes hair brushing time much less stressful for everybody as it doesn't pull the hair as it goes through. It is an absolute godsend and I would recommend one for anybody, curly or not. They are available in Boots and some hair salons, as well as online.

We wash hair once a week. Doing it more often can be really drying for curly hair. We wash with the Naturals shampoo, then condition. We leave the conditioner on for about five minutes so it gets a good chance to work, then rinse. We then run a small amount of conditioner through the hair and leave in. After that, we brush the hair using a Tangle Teezer while still wet and put a good amount of coconut oil on to seal in the moisture of the conditioner.

Day-to-day, I wet the hair using a spray bottle (about 80p from Wilkinson) with water and a few drops of tea tree oil. The tea tree is not essential for conditioning the hair, but it help in repelling headlice, which is a big bonus if you have a school-age child. I run a little bit of Naturals conditioner through the hair, brush with the Tangle Teezer, smooth in some coconut oil and then it is ready for styling.

I'm certainly no hair stylist, and we don't like to spend too much time on hair so we stick to simple styles. Sometimes we let the hair fly loose in a 'fro with a stretchy headband to keep it off the face, or have it in one or two pompoms which look very cute. My favourite style is two-strand twists, which is great as it only needs to be done every other day, it stops the hair from becoming tangled, and it's also great for keeping headlice away. Last term there were two bouts of headlice at school, and my daughter came through both nit-free. It's really simple to do. There are many videos on youtube that show how to do it, and I intend to write my own little 'how-to' on it soon.

At bedtime we take any accessories from the hair, and put on a hair net (really cheap from Wilkinson) to protect the hair and prevent tangling. 

Current Knitting Project: Scarf

Have a poorly-taken photo (someday soon I will learn to take some better shots!) of my current knitting project. Also in the picture, my gorgeous bamboo needles which are so delicious to knit with.

This scarf will be for me come winter. I saw the colours in my local yarn shop and couldn't resist. The yarn (King Cole Big Value Chunky) is lovely and soft too. It was something like £2 per ball. £4 for a one-off scarf isn't bad, I think, and I also get the joy of making it. Looking at this picture now, I see how far I have come from my attempts at knitting a few months ago, which were horribly uneven and holey.

I also plan on making a scarf each for my children and husband-to-be in colours of their choice.

Getting there...

Two months post-partum and I feel like I'm starting to get into my groove being a mum of three. Everything takes a lot longer than I expect, and I'm usually running even later than usual because I've forgotten to pack something, or had to change a poo-splosion, or had to stop and feed (I look forward to the day I get the hang of feeding in the wrap!) but I'm feeling less and less frazzled as the days go on, and thinking more and more that I can do this. It's just taking a little bit of adjustment.

I think it will be easier still now that school is back on as I have a bit more structure to my days, plus my eldest gets to let off stream with her friends so there is less excess energy to be used fighting with her sister or ploughing into door frames. That said, getting all of us up and dressed, fed and with hair done on time isn't easy, but they say practice makes perfect. We were only a little while late today and the hair looked fabulous.