FO: Shrug!

The shrug is finished! Here are some photo's pre-blocked; I'll get a photo of it on someone soon:

It was a very quick knit (I love using worsted weight on a 5mm needle). It was very easy, with a nice smattering of lace. The only bit I worried about beforehand was picking up the stitches around the body to work in rib, but in the end it was really easy.

I made one change; it's supposed to be knitted flat, but I prefer to knit everything in the round whenever possible, so I knitted the arms in the round.

I love it; perfect for keeping your shoulders warm on a cool summer night (though it's pretty hot here at the moment - for Britain, that is):

Last night DH and I went over to his parents to see his sister who's over from Dubai. My MIL made her yummy oriental chicken salad, and I brought dessert:

Summer Pavlova:

You might not be able to see very well from the photo but it's a very soft pavlova. I've made it lots of times, and it's a perfect summer dish when fruit is at its best. Basically, you turn the oven up to it's hottest setting, make your usual merringue recipe, spread it out into a rectangle on an oven tray, put it in the oven then immediately turn the oven off and leave overnight. Turn the merringue out onto a serving dish, cover with whipped double cream and the fruit of your choice. I used loganberries, blueberries and pomegranate seeds which I sprinkled with rosewater and lavendar sugar.

More roses!

Finally the Peaches & Creme in Ecru that I've been waiting for has arrived, so I can get on with the Rainbow Chain Carriage Blanket. I should have photos for you soon-ish.


By the way, in case anyone's wondering, Hammersmith Stitch N' Bitch is going really well. We meet every week now, which really suits me, and it's such a great group of people. It's great being able to share my hobby with such lovely people; plus I've learned quite a few good tips so far.


Two weeks ago we went to the pub, which we have decided to try to do once a month as it stays open later than the cafe. 12 people came, including a few newbies, each of them great fun and very talented. I think the high turnout may have been due to the promise of wine! Tuesday is now the highlight of my week!

Not Much to Show You...

Just a couple of projects I've started:

The Tall Yarns Socks:

The awesome shrug:

In Giant Peach:

By the way, Amy over at Sassy Does It has just become an auntie for the third time to her sister's third little girl! Check out the beautiful blanket she made.

Sorry for the lack of much knitting; I hope to have made a bit more progress by the next time I post!

It was DH and my 2nd wedding anniversary on Tuesday and my lovely DMIL dropped these beautiful roses off on the doorstep - how kind is she?! The last two years have just flown by. In September we'll be celebrating ten years together!

New Projects!

I started this on Friday night. It's the Rainbow Chain Carriage Blanket by Erika Flory. You can see other examples on Ravelry. It's knit using Peaches & Creme Solids in all the colours of the rainbow (16 to be exact) and alternated with this clever chain stitch in off-white which makes it look like a layer of chains overlaid on the stockinette colours (am I making any sense?). Anyway, it's soooo much easier than it looks, very effective, washable, tough (cotton) and ideal for summer. I'm sure it'll look fantastic when it's finished, but I can't do any more as I'm waiting for the rest of the MC to arrive (Ecru) and I've gone as far as I can, over a quarter of the way through in just one evening. I hope it turns out a bit larger though.

I think I might start this wonderful shrug next (also on Ravelry) as I've just taken delivery of some gorgeous Dream in Colour Classy, naughty me! I originally ordered it for the Tulips Cardigan (for a friend), but when it arrived I couldn't resist some more Giant Peach for the shrug!

Last night, probably too late in the day, I decided to dye some yarn for the first time (DH wasn't too pleased). I got these sock kits from Tall Yarns N Tales at a knitting show, and am planning on doing some blue and natural striped socks for DH, and some red and natural striped ones for me.

It's quite an easy technique that doesn't involve boiling in pans, but a quick 10 minutes in the microwave, woohoo! In order to get stripes I halved the skein in length and dyed one half in tupperware, with the undyed half left outside the tub. This is it just before it goes in the microwave:

Both skeins hung up to dry:

Those of you who know my blog will know that I hate sock-knitting. That doesn't mean that I don't think it's a very skilled task, I do, and I really admire the many of you who do it on a regular basis, but I had a bad experience a couple of years ago and swore I'd never try them again. Now I'm eating my words! The pattern seems like a very simple top-down construction, and as long as I avoid the dpn's, I shouldn't go wrong.... You know I will! I'll let you know how it goes once I've wound these now-dried skins and cast on.

I'll leave you with another magnificent peony; really striking:

Talk soon, Rowan

Rainbow Bear

Another little bear, this one in Koigu:

Hes's multi-coloured and speckled! Can anyone give me some advice: do you think he needs a face? Or would it look too fussy?

Close-up of the colours:

Here's the tie I made DH a couple of weeks ago:

Yes, there's a colour join (blue to grey - I ran out of the blue, but I don't think it matters). I still have to stitch in a sliver of fabric along the neck-band, so I'll show you that another time. It's basically a slightly graduated moss stitch tube with the ends sewn up, and a stockinette neck-band. I'm quite pleased with it, and DH seems to like it, but if he doesn't like the feel of angora I'll just put it on Etsy.

I thought just I'd just show you some legwarmers I made about a year ago. I've been meaning to send them to my Sister in Edinburgh, and I'm making a pair for myself now. They look very long, but they're not when they're on, as you scrunch them up.

Finally, some peonies Alex gave me when she came for lunch last week. Aren't they beautiful? The petals look like paper.

I've got Monday Knit Night at Stash tomorrow and my own group on Tuesday!

Hammersmith S&B Update

Just a quick update to say that Tuesday's First Knit Night was a great success.

Due to popular demand, we are now going to be meeting every week in stead of every other week (and may be fitting in a sneaky glass of wine once a month)!

If you're interested in coming along, we'll be at Caffe Nero, 1-5 King Street, Hammersmith, London from 6-8pm every Tuesday. Everyone's welcome. See you there!

This Weekend

We just had Alex and Harry over for lunch. It was so good to see them, and I just wanted to share a little of today's sunshine:

As it was hot, I made a Summer Tart and some salads, then finished up with Apple Cake.

This is the tart: courgette (zucchini), red onion and goats cheese:

If you fancy making one, they're the easiest thing in the world, and you can do just about any filling; another favourite of mine is tomato layered with blue cheese. I also had a great one at my parents a couple of weeks ago, tomato and mozzarella (although my Mum makes hers slightly differently to mine).

Summer Tart

Ingredients

500g puff pastry

3 courgettes, sliced into discs

1 large red onion, sliced

2 roundels of goats cheese

Fresh thyme (lemon thyme is particularly nice)

A little olive oil

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F, 200 degrees C (180 degrees C Fan Assisted).

Roll out the pastry to fit a largeish oven tray (approx. 12 x 15"). Bake the pastry blind for 18-20 minutes until pale golden.

In the meantime grill or fry the courgettes until cooked through. Do the same with the red onion. Arrange the courgette in three layers, with all the discs overlapping each other (think french patisseries, or scratch that and throw on haphazardly!). Season. Cover with the red onion, then crumble over the goats cheese minus the rind, and sprinkle liberally with thyme.

Put back in the oven for 15 minutes to heat through. Serve and enjoy.

(The photo was taken before I'd heated it through).

By the way, I've been looking for the pattern for this Cabled Mock Capelet from Vogue Knitting Fall 2008:

If anyone has it and doesn't have any need for it, would you mind cutting it out and sending it to me? Alternatively, I can swap you this. Interweave Knits Summer 2008:

Let me know.

By the way, are you getting The Knitter magazine? I subscribed to it when it first came out and am loving it. Saying that, I am yet to find a pattern I would actually knit, but I'm being patient. It's just that I love to read about what's going on in the yarn and knitting community.

In the meantime I've knitted DH a tie, exactly the same size as his purchased ones, at his request. Yes, I know they're not everyone's cup of tea, but my hubby happens to love them, and I think he really suits them. Anyway, it's currently blocking, but I'll be able to show it to you tomorrow or the day after.

I'm just about to cast on for another Big Bad Baby Blanket for a friend, but this time, instead of the Koigu I used before, I'll be using a lovely Shilasdair worsted weight in lambswool. Hopefully the tension will work out ok, but it doesn't really matter as it's essentially a square.

Peace Lily

Sorry, just a quickie: who said I couldn't grow plants!:

Shilasdair

Before we went to Skye, I had come across a snippet about Shilasdair Yarns in The Knitter magazine, so of course I managed to squeeze in a visit once I got to Skye.

It's a small but wonderful hand-dying yarn company that produces some amazing yarn combinations of cashmere, alpaca, cotton etc. in a whole rainbow of colours. Their secret is that they use local natural dyes for most of their colours, which they find on the beach and in the hills around the peninsula where they are based, such as wild-flowers and lichens.

Some recently dyed yarn:

They kindly showed me their dye studio, where some blue socks were bubbling away in one of the vats:

Here's a shot of the shop, where you can see the many hues they produce, in various types of yarn (sorry for the blurred photo):

I couldn't just leave all that yarn there by itself, so of course managed to fill my basket! Here's some luxury DK in a cashmere/angora/lambswool blend that I plan to use for a sweater:

And some lovely greeny Aran lambswool for a blanket. The colour doesn't show up well here; I'll try to take a better photo:

Finally some silk in a lovely raspberry that I'll make into a tie for DH:

If you're ever on the island it's well worth a visit, but they also ship (oh dear, sounds dangerous!).

The One That Got Away

I can now show you the cushion that I submitted to Knitty as it's been rejected (their loss!). Only joking, when I look at the skill and imagination that has gone into the garments on Knitty, I am not at all surprised that this simple cushion wasn't good enough.

The basic pattern is the same as the other items I designed in the Ripple range; simple cabling body bordered in moss stitch, but the effect is quite pretty:

Here's another little umbilical cord hat, for a friend:

And some own-designed booties to match (yes, you're right, there's only one there; the second one is in progress):

Skye

I've finally had a chance to sit down at the computer and tell you about our week away.

DH and I had a week in Skye the week before last. If you've ever been there, then you'll realise that the photos below were taken in very brief breaks in the weather! It mostly rained, was windy and we even got a flat tyre in the middle of a horrendous hail storm! May is meant to be the best month on the island, so I pity the islanders their winter.

Despite the weather, we did manage to get out every day and had a very relaxing, and interesting week. I have wanted to show DH the island since we met (10 years ago) as my family used to holiday there for a week each October when I was much younger.

It can be beautiful, and quite atmospheric. Judge it yourself from the photo's:

A view across the sea to Sconser from our cottage on the Braes:

The sweet little croft that we cuddled up in at night as the winds threatened to lift off the roof!:

The recognisable Old Man of Storr:


A road sign that made me laugh:

Not what you'd expect to find, perched on a farm gate as we walked in the middle of nowhere:

The only "sandy" beach (actually it's coral):

Lambing season; they were everywhere:

Some of the colours and textures of the island. A bush at Armadale:

Seaweed on the beach on the Braes:

Moss on a hillside:

Lichen covering a rock on the beach:

Finally we stopped off at my parents on the way back, where they had miraculously grown this magnificent Himalayan poppy (apparently it's very rare):

Don't worry, there's a knitty post to follow!