I made this dishcloth for Dad for father's day. I managed to finish it in time! lol
It's been so long since I received a yarn package.
This is what came today from Kel @ Dyelicious.
Some tight twist sock yarn, and some laceweight alpaca.
More details will be on my Ravelry stash page when I get around to putting them up. haha.
We had such a busy day on Monday that I didn't get a chance to do it.
Happy 4th Birthday Beautiful Girl!
I made these for leelee to thank her for helping us move into the new house, and for the child entertaining, lol.
I can't believe I have waited so long to knit with Malabrigo yarn!
It really is so lovely, I love the subtle changes in stitch definition, and the strength and length of the fibres, almost like you're knitting straight off the sheep lol. And the softness! The few people that I have showed them to didn't believe me at first that they were wool.
Must remind her not to put them in the washing machine... eek.
Pattern: Irish Hiking Wristwarmers
Yarn: Malabrigo worsted, about 75g. Pink Frost
Mods: I added a stitch either side of each cable to make them slightly larger than the last ones that I made, plus one at the start and the end, I think...lol (so 8 extra stitches), and I also made them longer than the pattern suggests.
Ravelry Link: here
Despite my dodgy seaming, I really do love this pattern, it's so quick and gratifying, and pretty and girly.
I am back from the land of no internet access. I can't believe I wasn't online for over 2 weeks!
I have been making good progress with my FLS, and I am happy with how it is turning out, though I'm still not very impressed with the different shades of the yarn I'm using.
Of course its raining and dark and miserable today so I couldn't get any decent photos.
I'm also trying to decide which buttons I should use. I picked up 2 sets on the weekend, and while I like them both a lot, I'm not sure if they are really the right ones for this sweater.
That first set are a green shell style button, and almost match perfectly to the green in the yarn. So I like those because of the simplicity that they offer. They don't compete with the business of the lace. But are they too boring?
This set are really pretty metal buttons, and I love the design, but maybe they compete too much with the pattern in the sweater? They are so different and interesting that I had to buy them.
There's also the fact that the button holes ended up being a bit bigger than I wanted them to be, so I may need to buy bigger buttons... it should be alright though.
I am really enjoying knitting this. It has just enough in it to keep me interested without becoming frustratingly slow.... it will probably be summer by the time I've finished it though lol.
You might remember my previous post about the dye session that I did one afternoon a few weeks ago.
The yarn was intended for the February Lady Sweater.
I swatched and cast on, and despite stuffing up the first raglan increase, I kept going. From then on it was all pretty cruisy until I came to change to the second ball of yarn. (we won't mention the ugliness of the button holes lol)
I continued on until I realised, with plenty of swear words and angry glares at the knitting, that the second ball was a very different shade of green.
For some reason some of the balls that I dyed didn't take the dye as well as the others. They're about 2 shades lighter and not as variegated in colour. I have no idea how I didn't notice this before. I did a few more rows and hoped that it wouldn't be too noticeable, but it really was :(
So I frogged it back to where I joined the new ball, but the ugliness of the button holes was really getting to me, so I thumbed my nose at it and ripppped it all out. Yes, it did kind of feel good ;)
So now I'm back to square one, with 4 lighter balls, and 8 darker balls. That'll teach me for not balling all of them up at the beginning, I guess.
I'm thinking that I will do the yoke in the darker colours (which are smoother and feel softer, I'm thinking that the lighter balls didn't have as much superwash coating on them, which is why they didn't dye as well and fluffed/slightly felted during the dye process)... and then alternate balls from the lace down.
Oh and I am considering doing YOs as the button holes and using smaller buttons, so putting maybe 5 in instead of 3... then I don't have to worry about my dodgy button hole technique.
What do you think?
I don't think I could stand the stress of doing this again anytime soon lol. But you have to love my huge (as Lucretia put it) "Pot of Doom"....
Lucky I'm tall enough to see into it LOL.
Anyway I decided that I would follow the trend setting crazy people converging on the February Lady Sweater
But I didn't think I had any yarn that was really suitable that I actually liked for the pattern. I think it needs a more smooth, plied yarn than a single ply smooshy yarn like malabrigo or similar single plied yarns that some people are using.... to bring out the stitch pattern. So I actually gave up and just sat back to watch the action. (2280 queued as of this minute!)
Then I remembered that I had a pack of Dashing yarn buried in one of my boxes that I was saving for something. Better now than never, right? It was a poo pale, yucko green. So I wacked it in the dye pot of doom, and set myself up for an afternoon of dyeing 600g of yarn.
I didn't foresee it taking all afternoon, but it took forever and a day for this pot to boil, even though it was only a third full. Here's another progress pic:
And finally the finished green....
It's still drying, so I haven't cast on yet...
Lachie was more interested in the bottle of wine than the car...haha.yanked from Kris :)
1. Not available, 2. extra cheesy salami and mushroom pizza:), 3. Leave me alone, 4. A Splash Of Lime, 5. Another For The Ladies!!!, 6. The best ever mocha coffee, 7. Why is a drop of water clear but the lake is blue?, 8. Japanese cheesecake, 9. Happy Flowers -International Horti Fair 2006, 10. At wallyworld with my kid, 11. Too many Rabbits......in China, 12. turn me off.
tortilla pizzas for lunch .... shh, don't tell Kev lol.
(he's eating left over GF pasta and sausage bake from the freezer for lunch, before he heads off to work)
First was this dinner I made the other night, I need to post it here so I don't forget, so I can make it again!
We're on a gluten free diet at the moment (the kids and I aren't officially, but mealtimes need to be)
I made meatballs out of lamb mince, a couple of tablespoons of rice flour, and some tomato sauce (plus some herbs and spices and salt and pepper). I then rolled them in rice flour... and it worked really well! I recommend it, even if you don't have to.... rice flour works much better as a binding agent than wheat flour. And they browned up really nicely in the pan.
Then I just added sliced up carrots, zucchini, onions and broccoli, and a jar of sweet and sour sauce (probably would have added a can of pineapple if we had one)
I could have made the sweet and sour sauce, but I was lazy :P
Served it with thick rice noodles, yum! (rinse them in hot water after cooking and they don't stick together)
Today we made some savoury muffins. These aren't gluten free, though I think it would work with GF flour, because they have so many other ingredients in them, they aren't exactly light and fluffy lol.
I used this recipe, but changed it a fair bit.
I used bacon instead of mortadella (yuck).. and I added spring onions instead of fresh chives.
We also substituted some of the tasty cheese for parmesan. And I used some of my Dad's port chutney (I think it was mango and port chutney?... can't remember)
They would have been nice with some olives, and even nicer if you left some of the cheese out and sprinkled it on top instead. But they taste good. Oh and also note to self, grease or omit papers next time:P (although it did keep the kids happy for 20mins picking the cheese off them *grin*)
Yes, he is wearing his sister's t-shirt over the top of his lol.
My So Called Scarf
I needed a break from the current things I'm working on, and needed to do something that didn't require following along a pattern at every line, or reading a chart. This pattern is so addictive, and I only had to look at it once to remember it.
I'm a bit concerned that the colours are pooling to look like camo :/
But hopefully it will look ok once it's finished ;)
Rav Link
Lachie is being a clingy grumper today so I have been sitting half the morning with him on my lap. I had a mess around with a few photos cause I was bored lol.
I got some really cute ones of the kids yesterday and this morning, cause I borrowed Dad's digital SLR camera (ohh droool. If only I had $1500 lol). It takes beautiful skin tones... unlike my POS. heh.
I love my new shoes!
Last weekend we went camping near the beach. It was sooo beautiful.
I will tempt you with a few photos here and then send you over to Caitlyn and Lachie's blog to see the rest ;)
We were literally just over a sand dune from the beach. My parents go camping there quite often, and now I know why!
I haven't done much baking lately. Last night since we were having leftover minestrone soup for dinner, I thought I'd make some garlic bread to go along with it.
I cheated and used the breadmaker to mix the dough.
I mashed up some garlic and butter and salt in the mortar and pestle, and cut the bread dough into three pieces. I rolled them out into 3 long sausage shapes and sliced them down the middle, spread the garlic mixture in the middle and then sealed them up again.
Then I plaited them together and presto!
Here it is after sprinkling some parmesan on the top and baking it. And it was yum!
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