The boiler man cometh...

Well - the man is here doing noisy things in the kitchen. It has been 23 days since the boiler first broke down, and we have learned to cope with being cold. I have unearthed my old satin quilt and bought a new fleecy, furry throw to go over the top. I have a pile of bedding about a foot thick. I've also gone back to wearing slippers, instead of my more usual flip-flops for indoors.


I have been making knitted squares for ages, and had intended to end up with a throw for my bed, but at the weekend I realised I had enough squares to make a baby blanket for Tori. The pictures show a single square, four squares joined to make a motif , the crochet edging I invented myself, and the final blanket (draped over the piano, in case you were wondering what sort of weird furniture I have).

The blanket is a beautiful rich cream colour, which doesn't really come across in the photographs (one of the perils of photography under indoor lighting). I have really enjoyed knitting this, and stopping at this point means I have an actual finished piece, which should keep the new baby warm when he is born.

I still think it is very strange to know the sex of an unborn baby - when I had my own babies, we didn't even have ultrasound scans unless there was a suspected problem. Now scans are a matter of fact part of normal procedure, and many young women (including Tori) have three-dimensional scans too, which are loaded onto a DVD for them to keep.

The boiler is fixed! And the engineer showed me how to use the thermostat as well, which will be a useful skill. The house is starting to warm up at last, and I can take off my Bob Cratchit mittens.