I Heart

Nearly finished things;

1) Charlie's Christmas Jumper. All knitted, steamed, and about a third of the way there with the sewing up. At which point I may block it to ease some of the stitches.




2) Jonathan's Christmas Socks. As you can see I went with the Camouflage colourway. The yarn was a gift from Jayne for being her 200th customer (Thanks Jayne!). I won't tell if you promise not to that the actual colourway is Girly Cammo. I have to say I love how the yarn knitted up. Worsted weight socks are the way forward in terms of cranking those puppies out!

3) Baby Kimono II. All done knitting, just got to sew up. I think it is going to be big enough for Baby Lyne to grow in to. In fact Baby Lyne may be 3 or 4 before this fits. It is a little large given it is meant for a new born, but will be fabulous come the spring!... The bonus is that there is enough yarn left to make a little matching hat.

My plan is to sit down on Saturday and actually turn these into proper FOs. I shall be good. I shall spend a day sewing up. I really, really shall. The biggest incentive isn't to have the finished article. No, no! It is to remove the articles from the WIP list to our right!

I also heart my new fabric cube from Schrodinger. I had a hard time choosing between the Chocqua cube (which is still listed) and this little Matroishka cube. The little mamas won. They often do.

It arrived in the post this morning (another thing to heart, actually - good post days), and I have already filled it with an illegal WIP. As mentioned my RPMs and Fawkes are waiting to be frogged, but I had a train journey to London to make yesterday, and nothing the right size to take with me, so I have started a new pair of Monkeys with some STR in Space Dust.

The photo isn't doing the colours justice. To be fair, none of them are, but being in such a heart-shaped mood it was more important to work with speed than accuracy.

I hope you heart something today.

I had a lovely knitterly weekend. Problem is that I can't share much of it with you. For 2 reasons; 1) I haven't managed to take any pictures of any of it yet, and 2) it could spoil the surprise for someone.

So a written update on what I got up to at the weekend.

A parcel arrived with books. Books really top the list of things that make me dizzy with happiness. The books included the new Terry Pratchett, because I am a geek and I love him - well I love the stories. The books also included Last Minute Knitted Gifts and One Skein. The first because I have seen soooo many chevron scarves and needed my own. The 2nd because I could.

Baby Kimono 2. The back is done, so is 1 half of the front. I just have the other arm to do, and whizz down the front, and we are done. I think I have decided to use a kilt pin as the closure mechanism, but we shall see. I also think that there is going to be enough yarn left over to make a matching hat, which is pleasing me.

Denim Jumper for Charlie. Back done. Front done. Sleeve 1 started. Yay! I am getting really excited about this, and probably need to put a good couple of evenings in this week to really get it moving.

Surprise Gifts I and II. Surprise Gift I comes from LMKG, and I adore it. More I will not say. SG II is being made without a pattern, and is coming together really well, as far as I can judge. I am quite excited about it, as I haven't really made anything from just my imagination, even if it is based on inspiration I have seen elsewhere. Full credits when I can.

On top of that I ordered yarn for 5 more projects all for Christmas. And it is all the fault of the first part of the knitterly loveliness of the weekend. All the projects-in-potentia are divine, and all are coming out of either LMKG or 1Skein. I obviously don't have enough to do in the, what, 8 weeks left to us! But, hey, who can't use a little stress around the holidays?! I am however looking forward to a proper post-Christmas chronicling of everything.

Happy Turkey Day Canada.

Cake & not knowing when to stop...

I needed brownies on Saturday. Home made ones. Like you would not believe.

So I went into the kitchen, got Nigella out, and discovered that I didn't have the kilo of chocolate that I needed for her fab brownies. I had to improvise with the resources I had, which fortunately included 4 precious squares of the Chocolate Alchemist's Spicy Chocolate. mmmm. sigh. I ended up making a grown up chocolate cake. Even though it has marshmallows in it, it is far to good to share with children. If any had been around they would have been made to stare at it but banned from eating any. I did, however, share it with friends who came to dinner last night. We ate it with Greek yoghurt, and despite the groaning and a general loosening of waistbands, seconds were required. I count that as a success.

This is all that is left...




But before that it looked a bit like this;




Feel free to make your own version.

Grown Up Chocolate Cake;

2 large eggs
4 oz soft butter
4 oz soft brown sugar
2 oz best cocoa
2 oz self raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
a GOOD tsp (didn't actually measure it, it may have been 2, use your judgement) vanilla essence
scant 1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt
dash of milk to slacken, if needed
as much good quality choc as you want chopped up small but still worth eating-sized. I used 4 squares of the Chocolate Alchemist's Spicy Chocolate, which is probably a 60% dark choc because that is all I had. I would have used more if I had it.
8-10 marshmallow, but really to taste. Chopped into roughly 8ths if proper size ones. If minis just leave 'em be

Cream butter & sugar. Add egg & vanilla and whisk til creamy. Add cocoa, flour, salt & baking powder and mix by hand, a bit like you would for brownies, don't worry too much if it isn't silky smooth. Add milk if needed to make a nice soft batter. Throw in the choc & marshmallows, and anything else you have forgotten or want to add (macadamias, pecans, dried mango, splash of brandy). Stir. Slap into a greased cake tin. I didn't bother to even it out, and let the cake self level.

Pop into 160 deg.c. oven for 25 mins. Check. I turned the oven down to 150 after 25 mins and let it have another 10, which was about what it needed without burning the top of the cake, cover if it is getting a bit dark though.

Make cup of tea and lick out bowl while waiting for cake to cook. Transfer to wire rack. Put in a tin once cool.

Now on to the 2nd part of the title. Is casting on new projects when you already have a ton of UFOs a known illness? Is there a cure? I got a bit bored this afternoon and rather than work on Charlie's Christmas present, or the one for my Ma, or either of the pairs of socks that are underway I cast on Baby Kimono II. I had to. Quite apart from the fact that this is a gift for my friend Andy's soon to be son or daughter, I just needed to use the yarn, which is Blue Sky Alpaca's Dyed Cotton in colourway Tomato. It is so soft I have checked at least 300 times that it isn't merino. The kimono is based on the same MDK pattern. This time I am doing a little Moss Stitch edging rather than garter.



Happy Days!