A little catching up

April 27, 2017 MindieLeave a comment

Seems I have a little catching up to do around here, as usual.

Spring has sprung and although we have had some gloriously warm weather, this morning dawned frosty and bright and minus 3 degrees C. A bit chilly then. Hard to believe that just last weekend we had a great day out at Wonderwool Wales and sat eating our lunch and sunbathing. We always enjoy Wonderwool, apart from the show which is, I think, getting bigger each year, there is the beautiful countryside to enjoy on the drive there and back.

Although there are so many companies with beautiful yarns that make you want to take out a mortgage and just get them all (or is that just me?), I went this year with the intention of buying some yarns that I don’t always come across.

The main picture on the left is of two skeins of Ullcentrum a Swedish wool being sold by Midwinter Yarns. The colours are Old Rose and Light Grey and these 100g skeins are 300m each. This yarn is soft, not merino soft, but proper sheepy soft. There will definitely be more of this in my future and as you can see, I have already caked it up ready to try it out.

The top right picture is some Tibetan Cloud Worsted 100% Yak that I picked up for an absolute steal. I’ve never worked with Yak before and will be interested to see how it knits and washes up.

The centre right cakes are an unspecified yarn from Namolio. The lovely lady there sold mainly linen yarn but these were in a basket with no label. I would say that they are very like Kauni yarn and again about 300m long judging by the type of yarn and weight.

At the bottom are two skeins of hand dyed sock yarn from Weavers Loft and a ball of Wensleydale. The weavers loft yarn is a 75/25 super wash wool, a standard 400m long and they with become a pair of socks each for DH and myself.

The Wensleydale is from Wensleydale Longwool Sheep Shop. Well, I wish I’d bought more to be honest. I have spun some Wensleydale (when I used to do more spinning) and it is a great lustre fibre with a long staple length. I only bought one ball along with a couple of other goodies from their booth as I wanted to try it out first but as soon as I got it home I regretted not getting a whole load more at the time. This is another yarn that I will be adding to as I already have a great project in mind for this.

I know that as soon as the warmer weather comes people tend to move away from knitting and other crafts but all I seem to want to do in the spring is start loads of different projects. I have at least four recent projects to show but today I’ll start with a cowl I finished back at the beginning of the year.

This started off as a scarf pattern that I wrote to use some Blacker Yarns Tamar Lustre blend that I had stashed away. It originally looked like this.

The Blacker Yarns Tamar blend is a joy to work with, it knitted up beautifully, the scarf has a good weight to it and the stitches have a crispness to them that makes everything stand out.

I enjoyed knitting it so much I wanted to do another but I didn’t want two exactly the same so for the second version I narrowed the pattern and seamed the two ends together to make a cowl.

Again I used some yarn from stash, GGH Wollywasch in silver and metal. This yarn is very soft and blocks really well to give the cowl a good stitch definition and drape. Another yarn that I have come across recently that really surprised me.

The final pattern I ended writing up is narrower as in the version above, not as wide as the original Blacker Yarns scarf. As usual, if you would like to make one, you can find the pattern on Love Knitting, Ravelry and Etsy.

Seamless Felted Mary Janes

February 18, 2017March 30, 2017 Mindie4 Comments

I know that it’s been a while since I last popped by. I have been a little taken up with a design I’ve been working on that took far, far longer than I thought to get done. It is now in the pattern testing stage so I (almost) can breath a sigh of relief and return to normal, maybe.

The design follows on from my previous felted slipper patterns by the way that they are knitted seamlessly from the bottom up and are pretty quick to knit, but these are a little different.

Collective Shot

They are more form fitting than the others, being lower in the front and shaped for the back foot and heel. That said, they are still quick to knit – just a little more going on. I can make a pair in three hours, so not too bad.

Collective Side 2

Here I have put contrasting soles on them but they look just as cute in a single colour.

The pattern went through a few different versions before I got to this one which is why it took me so long to finally put a proper pattern together. I have the most enormous pile of ‘almost, try again’ slippers you have ever seen and have been mulling over what to do with them all. It occurred to me last night that I could cut all the soles off of them and perhaps sew them into some kind of colourful hearth rug! But then I would still be left with all the uppers!

Pink Worn 4

The pattern has now been released. Please go to the pattern page, (link at the top) for more information.

I can’t really say that I’ve been up to that much apart from these slippers the last month. I made a very successful fruit cake GF and DF, picture below, and have also been knitting on some other things when these slippers got too much.

Plain vanilla socks. I think the yarn is Regia with Drops fable heels and toes. I really need some new socks as the ones I have are getting baggy. Hand knitted socks last a long time but as some of mine are perhaps six or seven years old now (at least!) I think it is a little unfair to expect them to last much longer. Although I do still have a pair that is over ten years old but that’s exceptional. A couple of other things this month have been..

The fruit cake was delicious even as I’m not a great fan. I usually find them too sweet but this was just right and I think the addition of some cherry brand helped!

Hopefully I will be back soon. I have written a post with some felting advice but need to finish putting it all together.

Until then..

Knitting · Own designs

Dairy and Egg free wine

January 12, 2016January 15, 2016 Mindie2 Comments

I became a little distracted over the holiday season. It turned out a lot busier that I thought it was going to be and the blog sort of got away from me.

For the first week or so we had visitors, or went visiting, every day. Then my OH had a couple of meetings due early in the new year and thought it would be good to take some time to give the office a bit of a tidy, which turned into a full scale re-decorating and re-organising job. It did need it though; one of us is very untidy…

Finally with everything decorated and sorted, I was looking forward to that new year feeling of ‘a whole new year ahead, I have a blank canvas to work with’ and starting a few new projects, when I inadvertently drank some wine which had been fined with milk proteins and became quite ill, from one glass!

For the lay-people among us, this is a process which clears the wine of suspended solids and also reduces any bitterness and odours from it. Producers can use, amongst other things, milk proteins and egg whites. Generally not a problem for most people unless you are sensitive to these proteins. I did not buy this wine, it was a gift, so did not think about checking the label. I have got out of the habit of checking wine labels as I know which ones I can and cannot drink and which ones I can tolerate even though they do carry an allergy advice warning (I like playing with fire!). It used to be the belief that so little of the proteins were left after filtering that the effect on people with sensitivities or allergies was negligible. This later changed and the wine producers were required to state on their label any such allergens. I’m not sure if this is the case in all countries, but it is here.

As a very quick and dirty list,

if you have any problems with milk or egg proteins you should stay clear of:

Hardys – all their wines contain these two proteins as far as I can tell
Reynella Homestead Cabernet Shiraz
McGuigan, Reserve Cabernet – and probably others
Banrock Station – These wines do contain the proteins but I must say that I have drank them without too much of a problem.

Egg and Milk protein free:

Yellow tail Shiraz
Lindens Bin 50 Shiraz
Baxland Estate
Jacobs Creek
Penfolds Koonunga Hill Shiraz Cabernet

and finally, just as an aside, Sainsbury’s do an egg and milk free but also a low sulphite wine in their SO Organic range that I understand is very good.

This is not by any means a comprehensive list and as they say, ingredients and manufacturing processes are all subject to change. Please do not take my word that these wines will be okay for you and always check labels before buying or drinking any of these wines.

And yes, I do see the irony in the above statement!

It took a full 36 hours for the full nasty gastric effects of this glass of wine to wear off and another 12 hours or so to feel almost back to normal as far as energy levels and general feeling of wellbeing was concerned. It will probably take another day or two for everything as a whole to be back on an even keel. So, if you are feeling particularly unwell after a night out, it may be more than just the alcohol that did it!

Hopefully, with all that behind me, I can at last start to fill in some of the gaps in my blank canvas of a new year (after filing the tax returns!).

I have been knitting, as usual, and have this to show you.

My latest design project which I finished a few days ago. I will have some more details along with some better pictures when it stops raining and I have more light to take them in. I am working on writing up the pattern but it is a few weeks away yet as I have some tax to attend to …

a belated – Happy New Year!

FO's · General ramblings · Knitting · Own designs · Patterns

Legato

November 20, 2015November 21, 2015 MindieLeave a comment

Smooth and connected without breaks in the tones.

We all need something to whip up quickly when we need a gift for someone (especially this time of year), but as a hand knitter I always hesitate when considering my knitting for a gift if I don’t really know how it will be received. It isn’t just whether the item will be liked, I find most people like knitted items, but how it will be looked after. Mention hand-wash to most people and it is enough to make them turn to stone. Mention throwing a beloved hand knitted item into the washing machine to a hand knitter and they will do the same! If knitting for children I usually make an exception and knit with something fairly bomb proof, although to be honest, it’s never completely enjoyable as it could be. I just don’t bond with the yarn in the same way and there’s no getting away from the fact that something knitted in natural fibres just looks and wears so much better.

A good yarn makes your knitting look better. In my experience the majority of natural fibres are very forgiving of slight changes in tension between your knit rows and purl rows and other odd idiosyncrasies of pattern. Once blocked, they even out and bloom. Often something lovely turns into something beautiful in the wash. You can’t say that about any pure acrylic yarn (in my opinion). The only exception to this is very fine Merino yarn, but perhaps that’s a discussion for another day. And yes, I know that there is a misconception that all wool yarns are scratchy and difficult to look after, especially here in the U.K for some reason, but that’s just a lack of experience I think. An unwillingness to try anything that isn’t cloud soft. Sometimes you need something with a bit of grip to it to get the best from your knitting. Try knitting fairisle with something silky and you will see what I mean.

So, when I was recently introduced to Elann’s Pippilongcolors yarn, I was delighted to find that not only is it super wash treated wool but soft – very soft in fact.

The ball band states it is a mix of 24 and 26 micron wool. This information means far more to you if you are a hand spinner, but I love the fact that they put this information on the ball band along with the nm 1.8 (the size, aran weight) and the fact that it is z-spun (the direction of twist). Finally a yarn company that actually gives you some real information about the yarn you are knitting with and not just assumes that you couldn’t possibly be interested.

Just to bore you with the finer detail if you don’t handspin. A micron is one millionth of a meter. In this case 24 microns represents a wool fibre of the type from Merino or a very fine Corridale or Shetland sheep. A good Bluefaced Leicester sheep will have a fleece of around the 26 micron count. All these are classed as next to the skin soft. Just as an interesting piece of information, anything below 3 or 4 microns and you couldn’t see it as our eyesight just is not that good. Emperors new clothes springs to mind!

Anyway, where was I? Yes. Gift knitting. So, over the last week I’ve managed to knit up a couple of quick gifts for some girlfriends of mine. None of them are knitters and really can’t understand at all my love of wool, so this yarn is perfect for us all.

Legato Pair 1

Leg warmers / boot toppers and a matching pair of fingerless mittens. They knit up pretty quickly and the rib pattern is interesting enough to stop me from getting bored but makes pretty good T.V. knitting too.

Legato Mittens 1

Taking really good photos is difficult with our gloomy weather at the moment.

I love this colour-way. It is called ‘pleased as punch’ but there are several equally lovely colours in the range all with interesting names such as ‘Blaze a trail’ and ‘chasing rainbows’. I have bought some more in a lovely colour-way called ‘Storm in a tea cup’ for my more reserved friends!

Legato Leggins 1

This pair of leg-warmers is for my friend who wears leggings and skinny jeans a lot. I have actually colour matched them by reeling off some yarn from the ball until I got to the same place in the sequence that I started with for the first one – but stupidly here one is upside down – if you see what I mean! Of course you don’t need to colour match them at all because they look good anyway.

You can get a pair of leg-warmers and a pair of small or medium fingerless mittens from just two balls of the yarn. The larger mittens paired with the shorter boot toppers also take the same amount.

I tried out the pattern as boot toppers in a plain yarn while waiting for some more to arrive.

legato cream 1.12

These are only 15 cm or 6″ long and will be great for stopping a draught down my boots but I admit that I prefer the Elann yarn.

I have written up the pattern and more information about yarn, yardage etc. is on the pattern page. It is now available to buy from here or through Ravelry and Etsy if you would like to have a go.

If you are in the U.K. the good new is that Elann now sell through Amazon so you can get the yarn (along with their other yarns) here.

The weather here is about to turn much colder so perhaps a little brighter too? Good knitting weather whatever it will be.

Cooking · Gardening · Own designs · Spinning

You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep spring from coming.

March 19, 2014March 19, 2014 Mindie1 Comment

Pablo Neruda

It’s been too long. I’ve been trying to get a post together for weeks but I just haven’t got here until now. I started the month off sort of unwell – again. I have a very tiny lump on my temple, had it for ages, and it was so small that the only time I knew it was there was if I ran a finger across my temple and I could just feel it under the skin. Some time last month it decided to flare up, as apparently they do, and it became very large and angry. To cut a long and rather gruesome story short, after a few weeks of trying to deal with it myself (don’t say anything!) I woke up one Sunday morning to find the whole of one side of my face rather larger than the other. It’s quite interesting being able to see two different people in the mirror at the same time; but perhaps not quite as much fun as you would think! It was another 24 hours before I could see a doctor, (our local drop in centre is to be avoided unless you are in immediate danger of death as far as I’m concerned) who put me straight onto a heavy course of penicillin/antibiotics. We discussed what it may do to my weak digestive system, but in all honesty I had no other choice but to take the course. As my Dr. kindly pointed out, it was either that or be admitted to hospital where they would do the same anyway. I still may have to have the lump removed but at the moment it is all healing nicely and apart from a small mark, has all but disappeared once again. The drugs did make me very ill, as we knew they would, and have upset my system to such an extent that I am now back to where I was six months or more ago as regards to digestive health. I know from tests that I have already lost two types of beneficial bacteria that I should have in my system, ones that aren’t so easy to replace, now I don’t know if I’ve lost any more following this course of treatment. The good thing is that I’m starting from a much stronger point. I heal much better than I did, and at least now I know what I need to do to give everything the best chance of recovery. I’m hoping that, as with a lot of things, experience will make things much easier second time round. It’s frustrating, but it is what it is.

So, that is why I haven’t been around for a bit. Enough of the doom and gloom, since I have recovered some of my energy back I haven’t been sitting around.

Spring has started to, well, spring around here. The blueberry is starting to make moves toward flowering. Last year was a poor year, as far as this plant was concerned, so I fed it well all through the summer and am hoping that it shows its’ appreciation this year by giving us a bumper crop, weather permitting.

I’ve been spinning a little too.

A few years ago now I purchased two of these beautiful Norwegian tops from Wonderwool Wales. A natural humbug mixture. I’ve started with the white and plan to keep the colours separate, hoping to use them in something together, perhaps a pair of socks with different coloured heels, leg and toes.

I love handspun socks and have recently worn out a pair I made about 5 years ago, they lasted well so maybe it’s an ideal time to get back into a bit of spinning and replace them at the same time.

While I was taking the drugs it was all I could do to make it to work and although I wanted to knit, I just couldn’t settle to anything. I started things, ripped and started something else, then ripped again, but over the last week I’ve got back into a couple of projects that I had already on the go but suddenly had no enthusiasm for.

One is a cardigan for myself, started when the weather was very miserable and I felt in need of something big and warm to wrap up in.

Back a month or two ago I started a top down raglan, adding a simple textured pattern to the sleeves. Basically making it up as I went along, I’ve ended up really pleased with how it is turning out. I wanted it oversize so I could put it on over a couple of layers and snuggle up into it. I’ve also knitted it much longer than I normally like my cardigans and have a plan to add big patch pockets to it when I’m done. I wanted to knit it in blue but just couldn’t find a colour that I really liked so I dug out this natural grey from the stash and decided to try it out in this. If I like it enough to knit two, I’ll look for something else next time.

It only has the one, almost finished, sleeve so far. It’s been sitting like this for weeks so I’m hoping if I tell you about it, it will give me the needed push to get it done. While I finish the second sleeve I’ll try to decide whether to put a collar or a simple ribbing around the neck. I think a collar would look best at balancing the chunkiness of it all but, well, I’m not always keen on them as they do add to the bulk around the top. Time to decide yet anyway.

Weather permitting, I’ve been planting seeds. I’ve got some tomato and pepper seeds in and have sewed the first of the carrot seeds up at the allotment along with the onion sets. These little seedlings I’m especially proud of though.

They may not look much but I collected these seeds from plants I grew myself……………… wait for it……….. Five years ago! I picked off the seed heads and put them into an envelope at the end of the season, threw them into an old shoe box in the cupboard where I keep my seed packets and just really never got around to sewing them. This year I went through to box turfing out all the old out of date seed packets to see what I needed to buy this year and came across the collection of envelopes with seeds I have collected myself. On a whim I decided I had nothing to lose and, well here they are. Who says seeds don’t keep well for more that a year or two. I don’t know what the final germination rate of these will be of course, they’ve only just started to pop up, but if I get half I’ll be more than happy.

I have also spent some time cooking, as usual, and have a great recipe that I adapted for a gluten and dairy free Manchester Tart. A Manchester tart is a pastry case spread with jam and covered with a custard filling topped with toasted coconut.

This one also has a little something extra inside!

Recipe to come.

Mindie

Cooking · FO's · Own designs

Scone or scon(e)

January 29, 2014January 29, 2014 Mindie1 Comment

If you don’t know how to pronounce a word, say it loud! … Why compound ignorance with inaudibility.

E.B. White

However you pronounce the word, scone means different things to different people depending where you live. There are scones that are served with jam and clotted cream; drop scones that are more like pancakes; potato scones that you can have with your breakfast; scones made from oats and scones that you have with gravy. Some are fried and some are baked, some are sweet and some are savoury, some are large and cut into triangles and some individual and round, (fluted for sweet, plain for savoury) – the list is endless.

In our house, no particular pronunciation is correct. If someone pronounces it one way, you can be sure that somebody else will pronounce it another – just because. The other week I decided to try to make some allergy friendly scones, also – just because. I’m not a huge fan of scones, the baked with jam variety anyway, never was, but gluten and dairy free ones are particularly difficult to master so ever up for a challenge I decided to give it a go. I found this book,

Serously Good Gluten-Free Cooking by Phil Vickery — seriously Good Gluten-Free Cooking by Phil Vickery

which used to be my Mothers. I haven’t really cooked anything from it to be honest as most of the recipes are for savoury dishes and I long ago (mostly) mastered gluten and dairy free mains. In it Phil Vickery has a recipe for scones (the English jam and cream variety) using polenta which I thought worth a try. As a comparison, I also found a recipe online for scones which had very good reviews and decided to give that one a go as well.

Firstly I made these,

You will find the recipe, from the head chef at the Whitehall Hotel here. The hotel is pleased to cater for special diets, a great idea, and if the scones are anything to go by, well I think you would be in for a treat.

Then I made the ones from the book.

They look quite different but are both very scone like in taste and texture. I made everyone try one of each and then asked for their opinion. The verdict was that they were both equally good – the Whitehall ones being sweeter were nice on their own if you just wanted some with just butter or DF spread, the Phil Vickery ones looked more like traditional English scones and, being less sweet, lent themselves to being smothered with jam. They were all gone within 36 hours anyway, none lasting any longer that the other so I guess that’s a hit for either recipe. Sweet or less sweet, the decisions is yours, as is the pronunciation!

There has been knitting, if you were wondering. After posting about my dilemma with the blanket mistake, my old friend Alison, aka MidlandSpinner on Ravelry, always a mine of information, contacted me about fixing it without ripping back all that work. After a short discussion she advised that perhaps the best way to approach the problem was to snip the yarn at the mistake, unpick and re-do just that section. I admit that I dithered quite a bit before taking the plunge, but, take the plunge I did and after a good deal of swearing (and perhaps wine) I managed to get it all sewn up again and looking not too bad. Thank you Alison, as always you have the best advice and support just when I need it. I still can’t show you the finished article yet, but what I can show you is the blanket I designed after that one.

When I chose the pattern for the baby blanket, I had trouble finding one that was a) pretty enough if the baby was a girl, but b) not too pretty if the baby was a boy, c) was quite quick to knit up but looked as if it wasn’t! and finally d) looked pretty good from both back and front.

So after the hair-raising first blanket, I gave some thought to what I would knit that fulfilled all of the above and came up with this one. Knitted in 4 ply or fingering, it’s light enough that it doesn’t look too heavy on a newborn but if you went up to a DK or light worsted weight yarn it would make a good cot blanket for a bigger baby. This version is just the right size for a basket or small crib or when around and about in a pram or car seat. I made this one in white as I intend for it to be given away with the first, but I think would look great in a semi solid or brighter yarn as the raised pattern catches the light wonderfully. It is so simple to knit, as soon as I get a few hours I plan to write the pattern up as a give away, so stay tuned!

Things have been just mad around here the last few weeks, which is why I haven’t been by, but with the tax out of the way and some ‘must do’s’ under my belt, I hope to be back next week with some more knitting and news of the blanket pattern.

Mindie.

Knitting · Own designs

Trial and Error

November 28, 2013 MindieLeave a comment

It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Recently my knitting has been a lot of trial and error. I’ve been trying to knit three sweaters for the little boys in the family for gifts. I’ve got the girls sorted with Menet cardigans but the boys have been causing me a few problems. It would have been a whole lot easier if I had decided to buy a pattern, but, as usual, I wanted to put one together. I had this idea of a lovely textured sweater in two colours and started to swatch to see which patterns I thought would work well together. After quite a lot of false starts, I came up with these two.

I liked them a lot, but the patterns would not flow into one and other in the way I liked, the symmetry was all off. I spent a couple of days trying to modify them slightly to get the same pattern effects but with more of a flow at the transition point, but could not get anything near as pleasing as they are separately. One of those instances where the whole was not greater than the sum of its’ parts.

So I dropped the textured bit and went for a plain stocking stitch with the same overall design idea. I also had to drop my yarn colours when someone around here didn’t think it suited the intended recipients. I put together a mini ‘quarter’ sweater to try out the idea in some spare yarn I had floating around and came up with this version.

I liked this one almost as much. It’s pretty plain but it meant that I could add a few embellishments that I wanted to use but would have been too much on the textured version. It took me another few days to write-up the pattern as I decided to knit the sweater pieces flat, and then seam them together, not my usual seamless method. It will be much easier to add the extras that I want that way but I’m out of practice writing patterns on the flat. I know it should be much easier, but after thinking three dimensionally for so long it was strange to think on the flat. I also wanted to put in a button opening on the shoulder as two of the boys are quite young, so for this I needed to think very carefully about shoulder width and ultimately the sleeve cap. In the end I have decided to go with a straight drop shoulder. I’ve always stayed away from this design for myself as I am quite small framed and the extra bulk these types of sweaters have just look too big on me, but with children, especially small children, they are so practical. They are easy to get on and off and provide a lot room for movement. So, finally, I think I’ve nailed it. I hope so because I nipped along to my LYS yesterday and bought some yarn and have started knitting.

I’m up to the colour change already so I hope the rest goes as smoothly as I am getting tight for time. One thing about drop shoulder sweaters is there’s no thinking about shaping until you reach the neck so they do go pretty quickly.

I am supposed to have the adult cardigan, Ranger by Jared Flood, ready in time for Christmas but so far all I have done is one and a half sleeves. Another evening on this though and I should have it done and then at least I don’t have to think about sleeves for a bit.

This rib is similar to one of the samples I knitted for the textured pattern.

It’s basically a type of garter slip stitch. There are quite a few different versions, cartridge rib being another. The single version on the cardigan, put together with the wool and alpaca blend yarn makes a very thick and warm fabric. I may have to borrow it from time to time!

Oh, actually it has just occurred to me that on three boys’ sweaters there will be six sleeves to knit. Well, thank goodness two at least will be fairly small.

I think that what you see here is perhaps all the gift knitting I’m going to get done in time this year. I have just been asked to cut back the hedge at the end of my allotment as apparently the council thinks it looks ‘unruly’. I call it a wildlife habitat, but I suppose you win some, you lose some. In all honesty I have been waiting for it to dry up a little before tackling it (my allergies don’t really like the damp at this time of year) but now I have no choice but to get stuck in. Once I get up there though I always enjoy myself so it’s no real hardship. I have also taken on some extra work to help someone out over the next couple of weeks, so I’m going to be pretty busy.

We had visitors at the weekend and one little person found my sample of Menet, the first one that I knitted.

If I have time, I think that another one of these may be on the horizon. At least it has no sleeves!

Cooking · FO's · Knitting · Own designs · Patterns

Menet v2

November 8, 2013November 8, 2013 Mindie1 Comment

Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.

As you know I have been knitting two Menet cardigans for gifts whilst re-working the pattern to give an option for long sleeves. Well I finally finished them a couple of days ago, gave them a wash and then waited for the weather to brighten a little so I could take some photos. This morning, in between showers, there was a few minutes of vague brightness so I took advantage while I could. I would still have preferred it to have been a little brighter but what’s the chance of that here, I could be waiting weeks!

One Great Niece likes her colours bright and girlie. The other is too young to choose, so I chose for her. I love this turquoise. As I never go for particularly bright colours for myself, this gives me chance to knit in some different colours for a change.

Done, dusted and ready to be wrapped up. Must be one of the earliest Christmas presents I’ve ever had ready! Along with adding the instructions for the long sleeves, I have also re-worded the pattern a little and jigged things about a bit which has improved the clarity of the instructions. I will be updating the file on Ravelry this afternoon, so if you have already purchased the pattern you will receive an update. All new purchases will be sent the new updated file.

You would think that after moaning about knitting all those sleeves, I would give it a rest for a bit. Wouldn’t you? Well, my next project is a cardigan from Jared Flood called Ranger. I’ll show you pictures when I have a little progress. Guess what the pattern has you knit first? You guessed it, sleeves. Obviously, I know that you don’t have to start with them just because they are listed first, and I did think about starting with the body. But, then I considered the idea of getting them over to begin with – and ploughed straight in. So, more sleeves then!

I have also been trying out a (new to me) gluten free flour mix from Glebe Farm here in the UK. It’s a very basic mix of just rice flour, potato starch and xanthan gum. I bought some to try because although I love the mixes I use, I make all our baked goods gluten and dairy free now, for everyone in the house, not just the intolerant ones. It’s easier, and honestly, nobody really notices any difference. It’s also healthier but I won’t go into that now. So, I really need a cheaper, easier alternative for everyday baking saving the finer more expensive mixes for special bakes. Doves Farm make a really good mix which I used to use but it has a lot of corn in there, so a no go for me now. I started with a cherry cake.

English Cherry cake. Recipe converted from one of Mary Berry’s. I used a little more flour than the wheat flour equivalent in the recipe but it looked promising when it came out of the oven.

Looked even better when I cut into it, although the cherries had sunk quite a bit. The cake was light and fluffy, a little too light really which was probably why the cherries sunk. It didn’t stay around for long, which was lucky as by the next day it was just a little dry but still good with a cup of tea. There was just a hint of a crunch with the rice flour as this mix isn’t super fine but it wasn’t unpleasant and it certainly didn’t deter anyone. I even gave a piece to someone who has never eaten gluten free before and I think they thought I was having them on about it being free from.

Next up I used it for my new pastry recipe I’m working on. I wasn’t going to show you this today, but I couldn’t resist.

No matter how many different recipes I’ve tried,(and believe me I’ve tried more different recipes for pastry than one person should have to make in a lifetime) I just couldn’t get a good – ‘almost behaves and tastes like gluten’ – gluten and dairy free pastry. So in the end I decided to do some experimenting of my own. I am still perfecting it so you don’t get the full version today I’m afraid but I am so pleased with it I’m going to give you a teaser.

I plan to make some sausage rolls with this over the week-end and get the final recipe written down properly. I’ve made this twice now and both times it has behaved perfectly. It rolls out without breaking, and it bends, so no patching up cracks and NO hard edges. The batch in the photo above was so flaky that it left lots of crumbs on the plate that look like puff pastry crumbs.

Recipe soon.

Mindie

Hats · Own designs

Sunlight

October 15, 2013October 15, 2013 Mindie2 Comments

All the diversity, all the charm, and all the beauty of life are made up of light and shade.”

Tolstoy

The sunlight is beautiful today. The light that we get at our latitude this time of year (when it’s not cloudy) has a beauty that just fills me with wonder. In June on the solstice when the sun is at its maximum elevation, its angle to where I live is 62.54 deg. Today it is 30.62 deg, about half, but by the shortest day of the year, 21 December it will only be 15.8, roughly half again. If only we could have the beauty but it not be cold; can’t have one without the other though so it’s swings and roundabouts I suppose, you can’t have everything.

I am still knitting up another pocket sweater, all be it slowly. As usual I have been sidelined by other things.

I’ve been knitting up some hats. To be precise, I’ve been making up a tam pattern to match the Menet cardigan. It all started with some gift knitting that I needed to do. Mostly, each year I knit for my nieces daughters and other small ones in the family. Last year I wasn’t well enough so this year I thought it best to start early – best intentions and all that. I did knit the test Menet cardigans in handy sizes so that I could pass them along when done and two went to good homes but not where I had originally intended them to go. So, on Thursday I bought some yarn to start knitting a couple more and realised that if they were to be worn before spring they needed sleeves.

If I was going to work out sleeves for two sizes, I thought I may as well do all sizes and add them to the pattern as in the Hathor version. I should have done it in the first place really, but at the time I was only thinking about warmer weather. I have yet to test the pattern but it will be available as soon as it has been edited for any mistakes and I have knitted one up for the pictures. If you have already bought the Menet pattern, the sleeve addition will be available as a free update.

So you ask, how did I get from sleeves to hats. Well, my gift knitting always involves at least a hat or two. This year I will be making one of these minion hats (Ravelry link). Don’t ask – suffice to say it’s not for a child! I thought it would be nice to use up the extra yarn left from the cardigans on a hat and I suppose it went from there. I knitted up a quick trial sample, then another.

The brim is knitted flat, then joined and the rest is knitted seamlessly in the round. The slip stitch pattern must be flat as the colour changes stop the knitting from holding together well enough. The same reason Hathor and Menet are cardigans not sweaters.

The decreases for the crown swirl in a circular motion and the top of the hat ends in a long I-cord and bobble, which I couldn’t help adding purely because I thought it cute.

The hat is a tam shape which could be worn floppy or with some slouch at the back. As you can see, the test knit hats are drying in the autumn sun. When they are mostly dry I’ll bring them in for some gentle blocking. I’ve knitted these in acrylic, as they will go to my niece who needs them to be machine and dryer proof. The pattern is written and is just waiting for some tech editing and photos.

I did have a whole post written up about the benefits of chicken soup but that seemed more appropriate for a wet and gloomy day, something today is definitely not.

Mindie.

FO's · Just life · Knitting · Own designs

What we think…

October 1, 2013October 1, 2013 MindieLeave a comment

we become.

Buddha

I have some shop bought sweaters (I know!). I buy them, but then hardly ever wear them. They are like those cheap earrings I like to buy even though I know they will make my ears swell. I see a sweater I like and think it will be far easier and quicker to buy it rather than make one. It always seems like a good plan to me and I never learn. When I get it home and start to wear it I am never pleased. There is always something wrong, the fibre composition, the fit, the feel – always something. If DH is with me, he stops me in my tracks the moment I head towards the sweater rack in the shop, saying things like “You don’t want to do that. You know you won’t be pleased with it in the end.”

Don’t you just hate it when people are right.

Last year I saw a lovely sweater on-line from a well-known shop. They didn’t have it in the colour-way I liked, so I waited. Then they came up in the sale but of course only in the ‘not so popular’ colour. I bought one anyway. The fact that it was shop bought and in a colour that I wasn’t too happy with seemed to escape me. It actually turned out to be a little tight as well just to add insult to injury. But – I had finally bagged myself one and I had saved 50%! I was pleased. Don’t say a word, you know you have done it too (and if you haven’t, I don’t want to know). Of course, you also know that I was sorely disappointed. The yarn is squeaky, the colour-work doesn’t match up properly and is also a slightly different gauge than the rest of the sweater and for some reason it is far from comfortable in any way, shape or form.

DH has never said anything about this episode. Which is actually more annoying as it turns out.

I still wear it from time to time though in an attempt to prove that I like it. But in all honesty I only manage to wear it once before consigning it back to the wardrobe and I don’t think I’m fooling anyone. Yesterday was one of those days and after not wearing it all summer I had forgotten just how damned uncomfortable it is.

Today I have gone back to this one.

This was what I thought of when I wanted a squishy, comfortable sweater and put it together as I went along. The neck-line needs a little tweaking and will change on the next one, but on the whole I am quite happy with it. Above all it is warm and comfortable.

I put in short rows to shape the neck. I worked this one in the same way as I have done for others and put in short rows to bring the back neck up while working the last few raglan decreases. It worked fine, but just made the neck a little too small and high, which wasn’t quite what I was after. I wanted a slightly wider, deeper neck, so next time I am going to bind off/cast off some neck stitches as I go and pick them up again to work the collar. I also should have used Japanese short rows as these conventional wrap and turn ones still show in this yarn. But, regardless of my ‘picking’ at it, this sweater is far superior than the one I was wearing yesterday. I still won’t learn though!

I love this textured stitch. It is too fiddly to use all over but gives the pocket some interest and firms it up a little so it doesn’t sag too much when you have the weight of your hands inside. I tried the pocket with an I-cord edge so that there was no need to pick-up stitches and add the rib edge, but it didn’t look as ‘finished’ as this one so I dropped that idea.

I put the textured stitch on the fold over collar as well to balance the design and used purl stitches on the raglan decreases so they look similar.

This one is in a wool/alpaca mix yarn but I am trying it out in a pure wool yarn too. At the weekend I was told that it would be nice in grey and blue. When I replied that the one that I am knitting now is in natural grey and dark grey he said,

“Yes, but after that, grey and blue but in a much larger size would be nice.”

I think I get the hint! Lucky Arya is a unisex name then. I will probably be putting a pattern for this together when I have ironed out the neckline issue as it looks like I will get plenty of practice knitting them!

Mindie.

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