September 2025 – Tractors, toothaches and tote bags

September has been filled with those annoying life-admin tasks that feel both huge and overwhelming, but far too dull to actually talk about here. You know the endless phone calls, the forms, and “could you just pop in for an appointment?” stuff that somehow swallow entire afternoons. Completely necessary to function as a real-life adult. But nourishing they are not. So I’ll spare you the tedium.

Instead, let’s talk about the more charming bits!

It was, mercifully, a slower month overall. Not restful exactly (I do have a toddler, after all), but at least a step down from the chaos of summer. We managed a week off to hit pause and take stock of everything: the balancing act of work, motherhood and a house renovation that still resembles a building site with aspirations.

And in between all that sensible slowing down, we squeezed in the fun kind of busy, like taking our tractor-mad small boy to the local ploughing match, where he experienced what can only be described as toddler nirvana in the form of combines, cows and machinery of every size.

Then came a milestone I didn’t know I’d get sentimental about: our first swimming badge! You better believe I sent off for the little fabric patch – pure 90s nostalgia. My mum has kept all of mine in a binder so it’s a full-circle, slightly teary moment (which I’m blaming entirely on the chlorine).

And knitting wise, there’s been lots going on…so let’s dive in!

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August 2025 – Steam trains, sweating and slow slip-stitch sweaters

This past month slipped by in a haze of suncream, BBQ smoke and the distant choo choo of my son yelling “MALLARD” at full volume. There were paddling pools, knitting needles and pizza. It was, frankly, a lot. But overstuffing our calendars during the summer months is what we do to prepare for the hibernation that is October through to February, right?

We skipped the chaos of a big birthday party this year and took our “newly-minted” two-year-old up to the National Railway Museum in York instead. And I can honestly say, seeing his face when he clocked the “Actual Mallard” (as he calls it) in real life was one of my all-time favourite mum moments. 100% worth the trip, and one we’ll be repeating for sure.

Later in the month, we followed it up with a trip to a local Steam & Country Show, which turned out to be a little boy’s paradise: rows of old-fashioned lorries, gleaming tractors and lumbering traction engines that looked like something straight out of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. He was in his element, completely grime-smudged and wide-eyed, pointing at everything with a breathless urgency. Honestly, I don’t think he’s come back down to earth since.

The heat this month has been, quiet frankly, rude. We’ve been round to friends’ houses for BBQs, children bobbing about in the paddling pool, and me perpetually trying to knit while keeping one eye on whether someone’s about to slip on a wet patio tile.

Mid-August brought blessed relief in the form of a little family trip to Norfolk. It was a chance to flee our house renovations (the kitchen is chaos, we’ve lost our home office and it’s not the best place for a toddler to roam right now). We breathed in the fresh sea air, caught a glorious steam train down at a local station (did I mention my son likes trains?) and watched cheerful holiday-makers crabbing off the Wells-next-the-Sea harbour wall.

And somehow, just like that, all the babies in our little new-mum circle are suddenly two. It’s wild. My own small boy, chattering away about fire engines and Thomas The Tank Engine and demanding “one more story!” at bedtime, feels both brand new and ancient to me. Watching all these little ones shift from babies to brash, muddy-kneed toddlers has been the gentlest (and loudest) reminder that this time is fleeting.

There are days that feel endless, of course. But right now, the pace of it and the way they grow and change and start stringing full sentences together while you’re still trying to finish your toast is enough to make me stop mid-chaos and just breathe it all in.

So quite a lot happened this month, but knitwise – what occurred?

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July 2025 – cake crumbs, combine harvesters & the sweater that finally behaved

July’s been a whirlwind of mini cupcakes and combine harvesters. Because our little one is a summer baby, almost every weekend has involved another child-size birthday bash – balloons, bouncy castle mayhem and enough cake icing to grout a patio. Regular swimming lessons, weekly climbing sessions, getting back into a routine post holiday and busy days at work have meant this month has absolutely flown by.

Meanwhile, harvest season has fully kicked off in our surrounding fields. For a toddler who worships tractors, balers and anything vaguely mechanical, it’s basically Glastonbury. We’ve spent hazy evenings watching the combine roll past our front door and even managed to catch one at work behind my parents’ garden – pure magic seen through wide little eyes and, if I’m honest, mine too.

So what’s been happening knitwise this month? Let’s see shall we?

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June 2025 – trains, tans & tiny stripes

Work came at me like a runaway skein this month, so we did the only sensible thing you can do when you’re stressed and legged it to the south of France for ten days. Travelling by train with a two-year-old might sound like a stress-sweat nightmare, but it actually turned out to be the loveliest exercise in seeing the world through tiny eyes. Crawling down the map from home ➜ London ➜ Paris ➜ Avignon, felt gloriously old-school, and every croissant was treated as culinary high art by the toddler. A win.

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