Making Flop

Yikes – it’s been quite a couple of weeks here. The whole household has been more ill than I think I can remember, and inconveniently it’s all happened at once. Master C’s been off nursery, Little Miss C’s been off school and even Mr C has been off work for a while. There have been trips to the Dr for all three of them (including one to the out of hours GP at Watford hospital) and antibiotics for two of them. And in the middle of all that we had a quick 36 hour trip up north to visit my mum and celebrate her birthday and late Mothers’ Day with her, my sister and brother in law.

I’ve been ill too though and also learnt that it’s pretty tough trying to get better when you’re also looking after poorly people. I’m hoping that I’m on the road to recovery now and the fact that last night the first thing I did once the kids went to bed wasn’t rush to do the same myself hopefully is a step in the right direction.

Our days have taken on  totally difference pace recently though which much less rushing, simply as we’ve not had anywhere to rush to! Breakfast has become a drawn out affair and it’s been wonderful setting the alarm for an hour or so later as we’ve known the night before that someone’s not been well enough for work or school. Sleep has been something I’ve not had much of and that extra hour has actually made a huge difference.

Another thing that I’ve been able to do whilst stuck at home all day is indulge myself a bit more in crafting. Admittedly I’ve not felt completely up to it all the time, but five minutes peace and quiet with something in my hands has felt like bliss after lots of running round after others. I started off last week’s making with plans for Flop – the sidekick of Master C’s current TV obsession – Bing Bunny.

Bing is the adorable bunny that has his own show on CBeebies. He lives with this, slightly strange, but adorable, knitted creature called Flop. No one seems sure what the relationship between the two of them is and whether Flop is a foster carer or adopted parents or something else, but all mums I speak to seem to be united in their praise of him. Voiced by Mark Rylance he is the calmest parent/carer you could ever encounter. No matter what pre-schooler Bing does he never raises his voice and seems to have endless patience. Honestly, if he were to write a parenting book it would be a best seller in minutes!

As I’ve said, Master C is obsessed by Bing, but as yet there are no Bing toys available to buy (I understand that may change by Christmas this year) so parents, grandparents and other carers are instead dusting off their craft supplies and making their own. When I spotted a Flop knitting pattern over on the Cbeebies website I just knew I needed to have a go.

The pattern is not that complicated in terms of technical know-how, but at the same time it’s also quite brief in places, especially the instructions for when it comes to making him up. (Also, if you’re making it, row 73 should be a knit row, otherwise you end up with a strange ring round Flop’s head!) The pattern calls for DK yarn, but seeing as I had the perfect colour 4-ply yarn in my stash I just used that on 3 1/4 mm needles and then used a bit of black DK on the same needles for his arms, feet and ears.

I did a bit of a search for Flop pictures on line before stitching on his facial features, but I’m quite pleased with how they turned out in the end.

Master C seems pleased with his new friend, and I have to admit to feeling rather relieved when he instantly knew who he was supposed to be – after all, I’ve seen all the other finished pictures on the internet and with some of them I’m not too sure they’re really Flop!

It’s been a while since I’ve done a small knitting project like this, but after spending so long on my huge crochet blanket lately there was a really feeling of satisfaction in completing something so quickly. After my brief stay at Mum’s I’ve also ben inspired by some lovely new sewing magazines that her and my sister have picked up and my sewing machine has been out more in the last week than it has been in the last two years. Now I just need to ignore that rule I made myself about not taking on any new projects in 2015!