How To Make My Nephew Stop Sending Us Cards?

[NotQuiteCockney]

We got another card from our nephew today, thanking us for the little board book we gave him, at his recent 21-day party. He is not yet 6 weeks old. Shouldn't he have better things to do than write us cards?

Seriously, how do I get my SIL and BIL to stop writing letters "from" a tiny baby? I could cope if the note was from a child old enough to speak, but this is ridiculous.

It freaks me out, frankly. We get thank you cards for coming to see them and having lunch. They send cards all the freaking time. I can see the point to postcards, and to be fair, they try for pictures of things they think DS1 will be interested in. But cards to him suggesting he visit soon are a bit odd. (He's 4, can't read.)

JessicaandRebeccasmummy - maybe - is yours a bit of a bloater, with a bent nose, slightly squiff eye, waers baggy old grubby looking knickers and doesn't change her kids nappies often enough?
Does she blank you for no reason that you think of other than she's a jealous twisted miserable ***?

ohhhhhh that felt lovely

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

SPOT ON TC!!!

PMSL at this, but yeah, thats my SIL alright!!!

A basic thank-you, I could understand. This is quite a long note for a 5-week-old! He's eating lots, and trying to catch up with his cousins, apparently. He's looking forward to seeing us over the holidays, apparently.

I could cope with this from a three-year-old, I guess. Someone old enough to express some opinions ...

Dear NQC,

Tamum has finally knitted us up into a rather lovely scarf; she now wears us all the time. We miss you though.

Love from the skeins of yarn
xxx

Your SILs certainly sound worse than mine, in an entirely different way. Mine is actually pretty nice and very helpful and pleasant, just a bit weird.

Agree with Soupdragon on this though, they probably are besotted and think that you are too.

Think yourself lucky that it is only a card or two - my mil keeps giving us photos of my sil and family - we have never even asked for them!

Oh, I'm glad they're working out for you, tamum.

How'd they learn to type?

Oh, and one of the mumsnetters who came over for the blanket-a-thon on the weekend, asked me for the pattern for one of my hats (bamboo, butterflies made out of slip-stitch). Interesting to try to write out a pattern for something like that ... well, actually really really hard. It didn't come out looking like a pattern, really.

It took them ages actually, I was a bit disappointed in them. They had to learn to tense up a bit I guess, they were a bit floppy.

(The scarf is lovely though, and very warm )

Yes, I can imagine that- I've never had to write something so anyone else could follow it. Could be the start of a new career mind- are you tempted to send it to Debbie whatshername who does the SnB books? Or Knitty?

at the sew-a-thon, there was a discussion re: your name, tamum. so - is it ta-mum (as in ta for thank you) or tay-mum?

What is alpaca like to knit with? I've knitted with some blends, and found them a bit itchy, but I'm not sure if that was the alpaca or the wool?

And does it "give" like wool? Or not, like cotton?

NQC, do they do fabtastic round robins at Christmas too, perhaps written from the perspective of a family pet for a chuckle-some twist?

Lovely to knit with, very soft and flowing without being too slippery. More like wool than cotton.

Bundle it's actually ta with a short "a" sound, because it's my children's initials. I never thought of tay-mum even. Weird

I'm tempted to try writing stuff out and trying to share them. The thing is, though, I'm always using textures from the Barbara Walker books. Now, I know I can't use her giant gingerbread castle on something without credit, fine. But the textures in the first few books are (I think) not hers, originally, they're folk things, you know? So can I make a hat design with them, and then share that design?

That makes sense, tamum. It's an animal fibre, it should be like other animal fibres. (What are cashmere and angora like? I've used cashmerino, which is lovely.)

Bamboo is a bit of a pig. Very slippy. Very inclined to split into constituent threads. No give at all. Really smooth and lovely, though. Bit heavy.

Oh, tamum, I thought it was like "ta, mum". Short-a, but for a different reason.

I'm sure you can. I've seen quite a few scarves and things, especially on Knitty, that say that the actual pattern/motif came from Barbara Walker. I'm sure you're right that a lot of them are folk patterns anyway- I have a blanket book that has lots of patterns for squares that I've seen in other places.

I've got the Ann Budd jumper book at last with every size combination known to man because I don't find it very relaxing having to work out every last measurement, hurrah.

See how I subtly and cunningly hijacked this thread into a knitting discussion?

tamum, is that for any jumper? ie the basic stitch counts for certain measurements?

What sort of measurements does it have?

I haven't yet braved sweaters, I always have too many hats to make.

The funny thing is, only DH, in our family, has a hat! So I still have a few to make.

Also ties.

I'm not sure when I'll have time for sweaters, truth be told.

Yes, it's fab. Has 6 basic sweater patterns (raglans, v neck, that sort of thing) and then gives the patterns for every possible size and gauge within reason. I've had her other book for a while that does the same thing for gloves and hats and one type of jumper, but I think this one is going to be really useful. It's here . There's another one that NQC and I both have called 1000 Sweaters which is really good and varied, but only DK, and only up to 38" chest.

I don't think it really counts as a hijack, per se, if the OP participates in the hijack.

I don't mind working things out, so I figure the 1000 sweaters book will be ok.

The hats book, though, what sorts of shapes does it have? I want to try something more sculptured, or possibly something with bits sticking out ...

i did this for my first, put things into babyspeak and at the time thought it was quite sweet
one more child later and I cringe when I see it ( I get them now from other babies) and can't believe I did it .......but a thank you is still a thank you and they are taking the time to do it