Fancy Pants
At last, I've reached that longed for special moment in a mother' life. Yes! The little boys have been invited to their first fancy dress party. Time to impress, shine and dazzle the local society.
Choosing a costume has caused a lot of head-scratching. Of course it needs to be home made - none of those nylon Spiderman costumes here (at least while they're young enough to be influenced otherwise). There again, it is a party, likely to include a lot of little fairies, princesses and pirates. Books have been borrowed from the library, vintage Jean Greenhowe costumes pored over. Nasty modern TV characters to be avoided. Hobbits? Cowboy and Indian? Robin Hood?
As it happened, No.1 son (just three) made his own choice: "Me Big Cook, J---- Little Cook!". (Big Cook Little Cook is a pre-school TV programme and you can find the detail on CBeebies. Suffice it to say, Big Cook's twinkly smile has brightened up many an after-lunch cuppa for this still-at-home-mum - thanks Steve and Dan).
Now, one of BCLC's many attractions is that they are the premier tank-top wearers of children's TV, as illustrated here. A trip to the local charity and sewing shops, a rummage in the fabric stash and a little help from ebay, has kitted us out with a selection of coloured felt, T-shirts and trousers. Now, have I got time to knit two tank tops by a week on Saturday? Is this taking fancy dress too seriously? Convincing myself that they'll have future dressing up value, I bought a ball of the crunchiest, cheapest, brightest red acrylic yarn I've ever owned and got started today:
I've managed nearly the whole back, so if anyone asks I' can nonchalantly say "Oh, it just took a couple of evenings".
The stripes are Jaeger Matchmaker Merino DK in rust, a nice 50% wool DK in dark red (both from stash), and a very bright red in cheap acrylic. It's reminded me why I'm a yarn snob as the cheap one is like knitting with baler twine, and has zero stitch definition as you can perhaps see. I did start it off in plain red, but it looks much better in stripes, and there's also the accelerating effect of clear progress every eight rows.
So that's me sorted for the next week. I'll post a picture of the finished costumes
