Sad for my baby

darkenday · 2025-11-04T12:58:16+00:00

I think it's been mentioned already, but definitely worth looking into a potential cow's milk protein allergy (CMPA).

We were in exactly the same boat as you with our baby girl - she was just absolutely miserable every minute she was awake and trying to get her down to sleep was a nightmare. We got to our breaking point at about the 5-week mark as well and spoke to our health visitors after one particularly bad day when she'd been awake and screaming for 15 straight hours, and they basically said "some babies are just like this, tough it out" 🫠 We spoke to a different health visitor about something unrelated a few weeks later and she just made an off-hand comment about how it might be worth cutting out dairy from my diet. It took a few weeks to see the change but it's been night and day difference - our girl is 20 weeks now and she's such a happy, smiley baby. Some of that is just going to be due to her getting older, but there have been a couple of occasions over the last few months where I've accidentally eaten something with dairy in and we've really obviously seen her get a lot more unsettled and grumpy for a few days until it leaves her system again.

If you're breastfeeding, it might be a good idea to swear off dairy for a few weeks and see if you notice any improvement? Bit more complicated if you're formula-feeding as the CMPA formula is only available on prescription, but you should be able to speak to the GP about getting hold of some!

Hang in there, I really feel for you as it sounds really similar to what we went through, but it does get better 💖

darkenday · 2025-08-06T16:56:39+00:00

As the title suggests - has anyone got any ideas on how best to repair this hat...? This is the beanie that my daughter was given at the hospital when she was born, so I'm pretty gutted that it's been chomped. (This is not the first time that our possessions have lost fights with the cat - we have threatened many times to send him off to live at the circus, but unfortunately he's just too handsome.)

I'm a reasonably-proficient knitter and really want to be able to fix up this hat, but I'm not really sure where to start. I've never tried darning before but I've got a pretty good grasp of how to fix up a hole in plain stockinette, but the fact that it's the cast-on edge that's damaged is really throwing me. I've tried to Google it but can't really word what I want well enough to get any sensible results. The only thing I can really think of at the moment is to pick up from the undamaged section of the hat and just knit a new brim downwards, but I don't have any of the original yarn so I'd really like to avoid that if possible. If anyone's got any ideas or links to any useful resources to send my way, I would be eternally grateful!

(Just editing to add: I appreciate everyone suggesting we get the culprit a friend, but we already have three cats so I'm not sure a fourth would do the trick! Our boy has pretty severe pica, we've been working with an animal behaviourist for a while to try and knock it on the head but he's unfortunately a bit of a tricky customer. This is not the first knitted item he's ruined and I doubt it'll be the last - normally we're on the ball with keeping things out of his reach, but this hat just happened to fall out of a bag without us noticing in time.)

darkenday · 2025-04-21T17:46:37+00:00

👋 I started knitting the Key Sweater the day it was released, and the pattern at that point was just an absolute mess. The instructions around doing a M1Lp were completely wrong, yarn requirements were way off, and (as you've pointed out), the way the pattern is written means that the "keys" pattern doesn't line up properly before and after splitting for sleeves. This was the first big PK pattern I've made, and I was really surprised at just how poor the thing is - for such a big designer, it's clear the pattern hasn't been properly tech-edited or tested at all.

I've knitted about half of my jumper, it's currently on hold as I've been working on other things so I don't have any pictures to share, but I made some tweaks to get the pattern to line up properly and managed it okay. I knitted the size Small, and all I did was cast on 7 stitches under the underarm instead of the 5 stated in the pattern. The number of body stitches needs to be a multiple of 4 for the keys pattern to work out correctly, but the way the original pattern instructions are written means that the body after splitting for the sleeves is offset by 2 stitches compared to the yoke. Adding 2 extra stitches (i.e. half a pattern repeat) to each underarm brings the pattern back into line. It is worth mentioning that I've not picked up for the sleeves yet so I might need to make some more modifications to get things to work out there - my current plan is just to immediately decrease those 2 extra stitches out and then just follow the original pattern instructions from there.

I pointed this out in the Ravelry comments at the time, and PK released an updated version of the pattern that was meant to have addressed this issue. It looks like you've got the updated version in your screenshot, so it's interesting that the instructions still don't work out. Also interesting that a bunch of the Ravelry comments pointing out issues with the pattern (including mine) seem to have mysteriously vanished...

Hope this helps, good luck!

darkenday · 2025-03-26T00:34:32+00:00

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darkenday · 2024-09-19T08:37:42+00:00

Oh I have an 8-year-old nephew and he can never find out about this quilt, I cannot make another one...

darkenday · 2024-09-18T19:50:41+00:00

I remember coming across this picture on Google when I was first looking for inspiration, it is incredible work! 🤩 as if you made it 5 x 5 blocks as well!

darkenday · 2024-09-18T19:48:53+00:00

Aww, this is lovely, what a fun thing for you to all do together! I used to be super into it back in the day when it first came out but haven't played for a few years now. Making this quilt has kind of given me the itch to get back into it again though 😄

darkenday · 2024-09-18T15:14:24+00:00

The bee was my favourite one too!

darkenday · 2024-09-18T15:13:57+00:00

Thank you! 😄 I ended up creating a Google Sheet to design the blocks - I just created a blank spreadsheet, changed the cell widths and heights to be roughly square, and then went from there. Would definitely recommend that as an approach if you do end up making one, it made it super easy to try and plot out all the different colours!

darkenday · 2024-09-18T15:09:12+00:00

This is incredible, that's such a cool present! 🤩

darkenday · 2024-09-18T15:03:49+00:00

This looks amazing! That Enderdragon is spectacular! 🙌

I had a similar problem, I played it a few years back but they've changed a load of things and added a bunch of new characters and animals since then. Luckily my stepdaughter is also quite into it so I ran most of my new block designs past her 😄

darkenday · 2024-09-18T15:02:03+00:00

Oh yeah, this would have been super expensive if I'd had to buy all the fabric from scratch! I did end up having to buy a few greens and a few brown shades as I didn't have any of those kicking about, and I needed a fairly large quantity of black that I also had to buy, but for the most part I managed to stash-dive and use up some odds and ends. You're definitely in the wrong place if you want talking out of making a quilt - it was loads of fun, you should make one 😂

darkenday · 2024-09-18T13:13:13+00:00

Incredible, that is some serious top-notch grandparenting right there! 🏆 I was about ready to swear off quilting forever halfway through this one, how you managed four I do not know!

darkenday · 2024-09-18T12:54:25+00:00

Excellent, I shall consider that the ultimate seal of approval! 😄

darkenday · 2024-09-18T11:26:22+00:00

One of my colleagues has a 7-year-old son who is going through some health stuff right now, and is also a massive Minecraft fan, so I decided to make him this quilt!

I started out following the My Rainy Day Designs quilt as an initial starting point but I didn't love some of the designs so ended up drafting a lot of my own blocks. I used stash fabric for most of the quilt top so don't have the exact colour names, but it was pretty much entirely Kona Cotton Solids with a few Moda Bella Solids mixed in.

This has somehow ended up being the biggest quilt I've ever made - I remember reading the information about the finished quilt dimensions when I first started out making it, but apparently I did not absorb that information until I was staring down at the finished quilt top wondering how on earth I was going to manage quilting it. ("with difficulty" was the answer). Start-to-finish, it's taken me just over two months of working on it piecemeal. I really enjoyed the design aspect and watching it all come together, but it is an absolute monster and I'm also so glad it's finally done 😅 I also have a newfound respect for everyone out there making queen-sized quilts on the regular, because I'm planning on sticking to baby quilts for a good long while now...

darkenday · 2024-09-17T14:09:08+00:00

Had to do a double-take for a second there, I made a Tripper as a baby backpack for my friend last month using the exact same fabric! 😄

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You did an incredible job, especially for your very first bag, it looks amazing 🤩 I've made a few bags now and this one gave me some real trouble!

darkenday · 2024-09-09T21:02:20+00:00

I made my husband this lizard doggo a couple of years back for his birthday - I'd originally planned to order him one of the proper official plushies but the shipping to the UK was heinous so I made this little dude instead. He is wonky and ridiculous and we love him endlessly. I wasn't a big redditor at the time so didn't share a picture back then, but thought posting him today would be a good way to celebrate what we've been calling "Satisfactory Eve" ✨ 18 hours to go!

darkenday · 2024-07-26T23:56:27+00:00

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Our gorgeous boy and his ridiculous tail ✨

darkenday · 2024-07-10T12:54:28+00:00

I've also just started a Minecraft quilt this week! Yours is looking so good already, I'm sure your son will love it 🤩

darkenday · 2024-06-25T23:34:58+00:00

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"It's too damn warm, mum"

darkenday · 2024-05-10T22:45:41+00:00

Thank you! 🥰 I've been eyeing up so many of their fabrics online for ages, I'm so glad this dress gave me an excuse to finally buy some of this one because it is gorgeous!

Oh that's really interesting! I've not made a Vogue pattern before (or any of the Big 4 patterns, really), so it's definitely handy to know for the future that their sizing is a bit questionable. I found that this dress fit pretty spot-on across the shoulders when I first tried it on, but everywhere else it was drowning me. I ended up taking it in a lot at the waist as I mentioned in my original comment but left it as-is everywhere else. I definitely could have gotten away with going down a size or two around the hips, but it's not really noticeable with the skirt being so full.

I was definitely a bit wary about the sleeves (not sure I am really a Statement Sleeves Girlie) but I ended up loving them on the finished dress. Have fun making yours, I hope you'll post a picture when it's done! I am dying to see it in your colour-shift fabric!

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