One Order Complete

Let's see if I got this right.

The order was for "pink jumper, round neck, long sleeves"...

Check!

"One button at the back" (this got changed to "three small buttons" but at the last minute when I was sewing in the ends and about to crochet around the neck opening to make a button loop - more about that in a bit - it got changed back to "one bigger button" and one was selected from my button tin).

 Check!

(I hope you appreciate DD2 pointing out the various design elements!!)

The pattern is Bulle by Karen Borrel.

Yarn used:  Garnstudio Drops Lima in Cerise.  I used nearly all of the nine balls I bought.  I did buy an extra two balls in a different dye lot, but didn't need to use them in the end as DD2 decided it was long enough when I tried it on her the other day, so they might get made into a neck-warmer/cowl.

Needles:  KnitPro Harmony 4.5mm circular.  The pattern said to use 5mm but I knew that a 4.5mm would give me the correct tension.

Modifications to the pattern:  I made the sleeves long, omitted the pockets, didn't decrease before the bottom band and didn't put the button on the hem (she didn't want it).  I also sewed over the buttonhole I'd originally made and did a line of double crochets (sc US terms) along the back neck opening, incorporating a button loop as I went as it straightened out the opening and neatened it up a bit.

Overall, I'm very pleased with this.  It's only had a steam block so far.  I'll probably wet block it next week while Madam is at school, but she wanted it and seems quite excited.  It's currently on a jacket hanger on the hook where I put things once they've been ironed.

Onto more finishing off now.  I've got some alpaca yarn on my wheel that I'm currently navajo plying.  I've got a pair of socks that just need ends darning in and I've got my Reine cardigan to finish off (ends to be sewn in, buttons to be sewn on and blocking).  Then I'll be casting on something(s) new.

I might also admit to you soon the results of my quick visit to Franklins, the local haberdashery/yarn store this morning.

Leftover Stripey Scarf

Several weeks ago now, Anne turned up at our Monday morning knitting group and got out her new project, which we hadn't seen before.  At first glance, it looked like a big sock.  But it wasn't.

It was a scarf.  Several of us had a look and asked her how she was making it.  Very simply it would seem.  Cast on around 80 sts on 2.75mm needles (circular, two circulars, dpns, whatever's your preferred method for knitting in the round) and start knitting round and round, striping two balls of yarn (two rounds per stripe) and changing colour whenever you feel like it.  Knowing that I had some small balls of Colinette Jitterbug (I'd bought two of their Creative packs a while back) and I decided that I'd stripe them with some cream yarn.  I went to the Wool Warehouse website, had a look and bought four x 50g balls of Drops Baby Merino (I think that's what it's called) in cream.

I decided to have pointy ends on my scarf, so I cast on 4 stitches and then increased every other row.  For the first increase, I picked up one stitch in the middle of each side to make 5 stitches and after that, increased one stitch at either edge of the scarf (so, k1, kfb, knit until 3 stitches remain, kfb, k2 - repeat on the other side*) every other round until I had 45 sts on each side of the scarf.

*use whatever increase you like best; I like the little bumps I get with kfb.

After that, it was a case of knitting round and round, striping up and changing yarn as and when I felt like it.

These are the Colinette Jitterbug yarns I'm using:

There's also a magenta shade, but that's the coloured yarn I'm using at the moment.  I'm not sure about the pastel pink/lilac yarn, but I'll see how it goes; I can always rip back if I decide I don't like it.

Progress:

Sorry the photos are slightly out of focus; my camera doesn't seem to be able to cope with so much colour, or stripes.  The colours aren't quite so brash in real life (but it's dull outside so I've got the lights on); they're a bit richer and blend a bit better to the naked eye.

Once I decide it's long enough, I'll do decreases every other round to get back to 4 stitches and then cast off (or Kitchener stitch/graft the end).  If I was leaving the ends flat (and there's a good chance I'll make a similar scarf again in the future), then I'd probably cast on provisionally and do a three-needle cast-off at either end.

I wondered about putting a pom-pom at each end but I've never been good at making them, even with a pom-pom maker, so I'll probably make a multi-coloured tassel of some sort to put at either end.

Some links for you.

I Googled left-over sock yarn stripey scarf (or something similar) and came across this one on the Cozy Things blog (which I've added to my blog reading list).

There's also the Killimanjaro pattern Ravelry (it costs US$ 3.00) which is more similar to the one that Anne made.

There are many possibilities for making a similar scarf.  One of my other knitting friends, Nadia, just knitted an inch or two in one yarn and then changed it for another one.  You could make a magic ball of left-over yarn and just knit a long tube, or you could make two magic balls and stripe them.

PS.  Here's a link to Anne's scarf (I hadn't noticed that she'd added a photo on her Ravelry project page).

I'm off to do a bit more spinning before I start to get dinner ready.  One of my aims for this year is to average 30 mins of spinning a day.  I hardly made a dent in my fibre stash last year and, in fact, it might be bigger than it was 12 months ago.

Bread-Making made easy!

I've had two bread-makers over the course of the last ten years.  The first was a Breville, which I used a lot and always gave me good results.  When that went to kitchen appliance heaven, I replaced it with a Cookworks model (Argos own-brand).  That was ok, but wasn't as good as the Breville (but was much cheaper, it has to be said in its defence).  With both models, the bread they made was nice, but there was something about it that didn't make me think 'home-made' - I think the fact that the bread dough was mixed a lot meant it had a very close texture, more like a supermarket or bakery tinned loaf.

Yesterday, while I was looking about on Facebook, I spotted a post by Lucy at Attic24 where she'd linked to a no-knead bread recipe.  Ooh, thought I; that looks simple enough to do and I've got all the ingredients (although I had to take out most of the contents of my dry-goods cupboard to get the yeast, which was at the back; of course).

I measured the ingredients (all four of them) and mixed them in my glass bowl and left it to rise for 8-18 hours as the recipe said.  It rose.  In fact, it rose quite considerably and I thought that I'd make the bread last night.  That was slightly optimistic as once dinner's been cooked and the kitchen cleaned up, the last thing I generally want to do is more cooking or baking.  So, I put the bowl of dough into the fridge overnight and hoped for the best (even though I know that bread dough can be put into the fridge and will still rise, albeit more slowly than at room temperature).  This morning, it looked like this:

I put (too much as it turned out) flour on the worktop and flopped the dough onto it, then shaped it into a ball.  It wouldn't stay in a ball, so it ended up being a flattish disc.

The recipe said to cook the loaf in a Dutch oven, which is, I think, the US version of a casserole dish and is usually made of cast iron (like a Le Creuset casserole).  I don't have either of those, so used my large glass Pyrex dish.  The cooking pot is pre-heated in a hot oven for 30 mins while the dough rests.

An extra thing I did (because I was using a glass pot) was to very lightly oil the pan and I also used a strip of baking parchment long enough to go down, across and up the dish, with a bit of overhang.  I put the dough ball on this strip of paper and it made it a lot easier to put the dough into the hot dish and remove it after cooking.

After 30 mins of cooking with the lid on and 15 mins with it off (I reduced the temperature by 10C for the uncovered cooking as the loaf was already starting to brown after 30 mins) I'd got this:

You can see the paper under the loaf (with hindsight, because I used the baking parchment, I didn't need to oil the pot and the paper could have been a thinner strip).

It was very difficult leaving it to cool down enough to try it, but when I did it was very good bread.  A nice crispy crust and soft inside.  I had one piece with just butter and a second slice with some marmalade spread on it.

Next time, I think I'll make the job even easier by doing the mixing in my Magimix with the dough blade fitted (it all goes in the dishwasher!).

So, thanks to Lucy for posting the link on Facebook and if you want an easy, tasty loaf that has very few ingredients, give this a go; it's very good.  As it doesn't have the preservatives and additives that shop-bought loaves have (especially supermarket ones), don't expect it to last more than a day or so, but it should be fine for toast on the second day and could be sliced and frozen for future toastings.

I'd planned on fitting in one more crafting post before the year's end, but that's not going to happen because there's really very little to show.  I have got something new to show you, but that's upstairs and to be honest, I've been up and down the stairs so many times today that I'm staired-out for now so I'll talk about that soon!  My first New Year's Resolution for 2014 is to finish off the projects that just need a bit of work before they become completed.  Sewing in ends, sewing on buttons, blocking, that sort of thing.  I'm hoping to finish DD2's pink sweater in the next few days, so hopefully my first 2014 blog entry will be of the 'ta-da' showing off variety.

Happy New Year and may 2014 bring health and happiness to you and yours.

Christine

Last minute Christmas presents.....

You've got to love a teenager, haven't you.

Last Saturday, a voice wafted across the landing from DD1's bedroom to mine.

DD1: "Mummy?"

Me: "Yes?"

DD1: "We've decided that we will exchange presents this year after all".

Me:  "Who's 'we'?"

It turned out that 'we' is five of DD1's friends.  Oh, and she needed a present for her class Secret Santa.

Monday I was busy, so Tuesday, I went first thing to the hair appointment I'd got booked and then drove the 12 miles up to Colchester.

First stop was to Williams & Griffin, the department store in the town.  There, I quickly purchased six bars of some very nice Italian soap by a company called Nesti Dante.  These are heavily perfumed soaps and I've been using them myself for a year or so now and I keep them in my clothing drawers before they get put into use, where they keep everything smelling nice.

Second stop was to Franklins haberdashery store to buy some cotton yarn.

Can you see where this is heading?

I spent the next two days crocheting as fast as I could.  Yesterday, the Secret Santa present was taken in to school so they could do the unwrapping today (the last day or term).  I've been told that the recipient was very happy with her gift.

This is what I came up with:

A bar of soap and a wash-cloth in a colour to match the packaging.

Very simple cloths which I've done many times before.  Just rows of trebles, going between the stitches rather than through the V-chain along the top, or half-trebles, or a mixture of the two.  It makes a more open fabric and aids drying the cloths.  The light pink one is King Cole Cotton Soft DK.  The blue one and the lemon yellow ones are Sirdar Calico (a 60/40 cotton/acrylic blend).  The dark pink is some cotton that I bought in Lidl and the orange/cream one is Sirdar Baby Speckle, which is, again, a 60/40 cotton/acrylic blend.  After a quick wash, dry and iron yesterday, they were wrapped up and tied with some gauzy ribbon.

Except I should have bought more ribbon as I ran out, so I had a rummage through my sewing box and found some wide-ish white satin ribbon, so cut a narrow strip from that and tied it around the pink cloth.

The soaps cost £4.50 each and the cloths were probably no more than £1 - £1.50 each to make (I can get three cloths from a 100g ball of the Cotton Soft).

I hope the young ladies who've been given them like them.  We tried to match up each fragrance to the intended recipient as two of the girls are more sporty than girlie!

That's it - I'm not making anything else this year.  I'm going to be concentrating on DD2's pink Bulle sweater now.  I'm nearing the cuff on the first sleeve (I've had to order more yarn but could only get a different dye lot so I'm hoping that if I alternate balls the difference won't be too noticeable).

Before I go, I must show you the card that DD2 made for me at school.  It's to Mummy -- no mention of Daddy and she refused to add his name to it - oops!

Isn't it cute?  The reindeer heads are finger- or thumb-prints and then the antlers are drawn on and googly eyes and noses are added (the noses are little foam circles which have been coloured in).  I know that some of you have young children in your lives, so this might be an idea for next year :)

I'm hoping to get one more blog post in before Christmas, but in case things don't work to plan (do they ever at this time of year?), I hope you all have a wonderful festive time.

Photography Challenge 2

Yesterday I mentioned that I'd taken part in two photography challenges this year amongst a group of friends.  The first, that I blogged about yesterday, was to take a photograph to represent each word on a list of 50.  The second challenge was to choose a view and take a photo each month so we could see how it changed throughout the year.  Some people chose a view from a window in their home, one chap who lives just outside Reykjavik chose a stunning rural view of a mountain a shortish walk from his house.

I chose a view of our local church, taken across the fields from the common area on our housing development where I walk Jess.  I'm sure I've mentioned during snowy weather posts that we live halfway up a hill.  The hill is really the southern side of the valley of the River Stour (which forms a border between Essex and Suffolk counties), so the countryside is sloping (and I always forget how high up we are until I'm walking up the path from the train station which is on a level with the river).  I'm not sure if I've mentioned before but the little town we live in is an hour by train from London and few miles from the village of Dedham where the artist John Constable lived and went to school and the area where he painted several of his famous landscapes.  My photographed view will never in a million years be comparable to the works of Constable, but I'm quite pleased with the results.

January is top left, December is bottom right.

Here's a link to the photo set on Flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/45245939@N07/sets/72157632404266276/

I think we're going to do this challenge again this year.  I might do two views.  The field behind our house has had planning permission passed for new houses to be built so it will be interesting to see what happens on there over the coming 12 months and, if the building's delayed, then it's a field that usually has a crop of wheat or beans grown on it, so it would be representative of a farming year.  I might drive to a spot a couple of miles away and take photos of a view across Dedham vale to Dedham church.  Otherwise, I can go up onto the bank by the local supermarket and take a view down-river towards Harwich and Felixstowe ports and take a shot of that.  Choices, choices!

I did also do a reading challenge, but that's been a bit of a failure as I've found it very difficult to get into a book in recent months, but I think I've managed to read 18 or so books this year (there were several others that got started, but then were abandoned).

Today is going to be a day of sewing in ends and then washing and ironing some gift items.  I'll take photographs and show you tomorrow (or possibly a couple of days after that - DD2 is unwell at the moment, so won't be going to school for the last couple of days of the term).

50 Words Photo Challenge - Completed

Last year on a web forum I've belonged to for, ooh, ten years now, we decided to have a few challenges - just for fun.  You might remember that one of those was a '50 words' photo challenge.  I blogged about in this post.

The list of words this year was:

It was a fun challenge and I think my photography has improved by doing it.  Like I did with the 2012 challenge, I made two 25-photo mosaics of my shots.

Here's 1-15:

And here are photos 26-50:

As with last year's photo's, the categories are listed in the mosaics to 'read' top to left to right, top to bottom (so photo 1 is top left, photo 25 is bottom right, etc).

Some of the photos you'll have seen before following my post about the mini-jaunt DD1 and I made to London (I don't think I told you about the second mini-jaunt to London, did I - I must tell you about that one as well!).

There was another photography challenge as well, but I'll tell you about that one tomorrow (it's also been completed).

Until then....

Bulle Sweater - Progress

I haven't been knitting as much as I should have been in recent days due to everyday life getting in the way, but I have made some progress on DD2's bright pink sweater.

I got near the end of the fifth 50g ball of yarn from the nine I bought, so decided to put the stitches on waste yarn (dental floss, actually as that was what I had to hand), then picked up the stitches of one sleeve that I'd put on waste yarn, picked up stitches at the armpit area and have now started knitting down.  As the pattern's written with short, sleeves (I think they're a bit puffed now I come to think about it), I'm winging it a bit, although I've made several top-down seamless sweaters in the past, so it's not a big deal).  I'm decreasing two stitches every eighth round at what would be the seam if I was knitting flat to taper it down a bit and am using one of DD2's school cardigans to gauge the length I'll need.  I'm planning on putting a garter stitch cuff of 1.5 - 2 inches at the bottom so it matches the hem and neck of the sweater.

By doing the sleeves now, I'll know how much yarn I've got for the rest of the body.  Hopefully it'll be enough (the sweater's already nearly as long as one of her school cardigans, but I'd prefer it to be several inches longer than that to make it more tunic-like) as when I checked on the Wool Warehouse website the other day, they'd sold out of the yarn. Fingers crossed.

Getting my camera out to take the photo above prompted me to show you a little something I bought at the weekend.  I popped to our local supermarket and saw there were a few tables outside selling things on behalf of the local troop of Brownies.  With the help of parents and Brown Owl, they'd been making things to sell.  There was one table of cakes and another had home-made crafty bits, including some sewn things such as peg bags and what they were selling as glasses cases.  To be honest, some of the glasses cases looked a bit on the short side, but I though that one of them would probably make a nice camera case/bag, which it does (it's got padding inside for protection).  So, for the princely sum of £3, here you are:

As they were trying to raise money to subsidise their summer camp next year, I didn't begrudge them a single penny and would have happily donated the money without taking anything home with me, but that's not the point of making things to sell, is it.

As it's getting closer to Christmas, I'm getting to that stage where I'm having to stay in waiting for things to be delivered.  I've already had the postman deliver a box from Amazon this morning and I'm also waiting for a carpet cleaner (bought at a huge reduction in price because it has defective packaging, apparently) to arrive via UPS.  Yesterday, our new internet hub was delivered from BT (our internet speed improved as soon as it was up and running) and I also received by courier a case of 12 bottles of wine from Naked wines.  I'd received a voucher for £40 off a spend of £80, so with Christmas coming up, it would have been silly to not use it!!!

I'm also expecting a 'little something' I've bought for myself (I might call it a Christmas present to myself), but I'll share that with you after it's arrived.