Hard Lace and it's Kerrie's fault!

First the hard lace, (btw that's Soo's fault)- it's Niebling. There's a yahoo group here trying to get the patterns published. In the meantime raid eBay and keep a check on your wallet - I've already spent a fortune and am yet to knit a stitch. The raineysisters are bitten by the bug too, so I'm in good company.

Talking of good company, it's all Kerrie's fault that I have just ordered the Tulip Kit from Socktopus. This will be for the new baby due to arrive any day now :o) Hope it really is a girl! Not sure about this 'knowing the sex before It's born' thing, seems a bit like unwrapping your presents before Christmas to me, but I guess I am showing my age here :o) I was buying up Mothercare last week and this led me to pondering, as you do, on the strangeness of the world where a yet unborn bub is due to come to me rather than stay with it's mum.

Anyway, such ponderings helped me decide to buy the expensive Moses basket rather than the cheap one! After all fostered babies should be able to have nice things too! I don't buy the best easily (apart from Yarn) after years of scarping by and making do. I even find bargains for car seats etc. now, though I don't have to. In fact all my fostered babies have had better and newer things than my own children did, when I had them I had no money. Seems a life time ago now. I worried about where to find the money for basics and my kids had no moses baskets, cheap or otherwise.

It's one of the really nice things about being a foster mum that I don't have to worry about the money to buy equipment. In some ways it is doing the parenting I would have liked to have been able to do when my big ones were little. All clothing food and everyday expenses - nappies, etc.- come out of the allowance I get paid each week for the baby whilst she is in my care. Big items like a new buggy, moses basket, etc. are paid for by the fostering service, I buy them and then claim it back on expenses. These items will stay with me and not move on with the baby and will be used for subsequent children and replaced as necessary. Fostered babies benefit from experience gained by making mistakes with your own children too ;o)

I can't give bub a 'normal' family (whatever that is) but I can make sure she doesn't miss out on the material things other children have, and I know she will get plenty of cuddles ... and cardigans :o) Not sure when I'll get a chance to knit lace though. VBG