Mitts, handspun and cupcakes!

Whew - you can't half tell that it's semester time again! Between my lack of regular posting and my comparative lack of knitting progress, it probably goes without saying that life is busy. I'm keeping on top of it rather well though - I've even stopped leaving my assignments until the last minute. Wonders will never cease.

But let's forget about the I'm-so-busy whinge and cut straight to the knitting I have been doing. Behold! I finally finished my long-suffering New Orleans Mitts:




(it only occurred to me after uploading this picture to Ravelry that I'm doing the stereotypical pregnant woman pose with my hands - I assure you all that I am most definitely not pregnant!)

The basic info: Used Classic Elite Inca Alpaca (100% alpaca) yarn knitted on 4mm dpns. Didn't really use a pattern. Cast on 30 stitches and basically just worked a tube, adding a hole for the thumb (I used the thumb hole method from this pattern, since it works a treat). There's ribbing at the start, end and on the thumb, and there's a few increases here and there to improve the fit (I have narrow wrists but comparatively wide hands), but there really wasn't much to these. The stripes are 2 rows long, and I made them jogless by slipping the first stitch of each round on the second row of each colour.

Commentary: These aren't really anything exciting, but I'm happy with them. I love the way that the subdued colours look when striped. I love stripey things, but sometimes they can be a little bit loud - these are much more low key. They're also beautifully warm thanks to the alpaca.

Still, the thing that I like the best about these mitts is the fact that I had to restart them, odd though that sounds. Originally I cast on too many stitches, and was about three inches in by the time I realised that the mitts I was knitting were going to be much looser than I was after. However, the reason why I restarted is inconsequential. The main point is that I was willing to do a little bit of work and restart rather than just push on and ultimately end up with a project I wasn't entirely happy with. I honestly think that I would have taken the latter route a year or so ago, and it makes me pleased that I'm now willing to do what it takes to get something right. Makes me feel as if I've matured as a crafter, as incredibly pretentious as such a sentiment sounds.

In other news, I plied some of the handspun from last post.




If we're being honest, I really have no idea what I'm going to do with this yarn. It's not really my thing. That said, I love it fiercely, so I suppose I'll have to think of something!

And alas, there hasn't been all that much else going on as far as craft goes. I've been working away in fits and starts on my tweedy cardigan, and although it's not coming out exactly how I'd planned, I'm still happy enough with it. Only one sleeve to go, so hopefully you'll be seeing it soon. I've been doing a fair bit of cooking; lots of delicious winter soups, and one day when I was feeling inventive I tried my hand at making chai-flavoured cupcakes. They were lovely!

I'd like to say that I've been doing more knitting than just mentioned, but the truth is that I haven't. Don't get me wrong, I still love the craft - life has just been getting in the way. Partly it's been due to me falling down into the Designer's Void, where I drag my feet because I have to actually - gasp - think to finish my half-completed projects, instead of just looking at someone else's pattern notes. I've also been on a massive creative writing kick the last week or so, and while this is awesome, it does take away from my knitting time. Still, I suspect that once I finally get this cardigan off of the needles I'll be back into knitting with a vengeance! In the mean time, kindly admire my handspun yarn and homemade cupcake:




(Not to be confused with handspun cupcakes. That would be odd.)

Learning by Doing is a Grand Thing

Okay, fine, no completed set of hand-warmers just yet, but one thing that I neglected to mention last post is that I have been renewing my assault on the pile of fibre that lives in my craft pile. I did make a few attempts at learning how to spin last year (or was it the year before... jeez, I don't even know), but I then, cleverly, managed to lose my drop spindle. And it was the most frustrating variety of losing something though; the kind where you know that it has to be in your house somewhere, so you refrain from buying a new one because you are quite convinced that the moment that you do, the old one will reappear. So my pretty fibre languished. But then the drop spindle did, in fact, reappear (it had fallen down behind some books on one of my shelves... because this makes perfect sense, right), and recently I finally found the time to use it.



These are the first three results of the renewed attempt to learn how to hand-spin. Three guesses which is the first try. What's that, you say? They're all sad looking skeins of noob yarn? Okay, fine, the blue was the first attempt, the green the second, and the variegated was the third.

Perhaps you can't really see in the photo, but the improvement from the first to the most recent is amazing. This is one of the things that I love the most about knitting, and crafty things in general - you can actually see yourself improve in quite a short time if you only take the time to practice. The above were spun over a period of about a week, and every day that I picked up the spindle, I was better at it. Don't get me wrong, I'm still very much a clumsy, beginner. But seeing yourself make progress is fantastic. I really do think that it's the little things in life that make you happy, and this is definitely one of the little things in my arsenal.

Next time, hand-warmers! Now it's back to what I was doing: drinking tea, eating freshly baked lavender, honey and lemon shortbread, watching the Arcade Fire concert being streamed on You Tube, and knitting with my divinely imperfect hand-spun. It is good to be Anna this afternoon.

Food and Hats: Both Good Things!

Life is going on, and alas, I am no less busy. But it's a good kind of busy - the kind where you feel like you're getting somewhere, where none of the tasks are loathsome, and where at least you have time to stop and pause once in a while, even if it's not for very long (just long enough to read a few chapters or eat some cake or knit a few rows).


Anyway, to business! First off, here's the hat I knitted for my brother:



Specifics: Pattern is Turn a Square, by Jared Flood. Yarn used was Bendigo Woollen Mills Rustic 12ply in 'Redcurrant' and Cleckheaton Merino Supreme (black). I used 5.5mm double pointed needles.

Comments? This is a great pattern. Followed unaltered it makes a rather nifty, very wearable hat, and it also provides a useful template to work from when you want to do something a little bit different. This is the second time I've made it, and both times I actually ended up using a different weight of yarn, but it's a great starting point, and very easy to adapt. This time around I decided to do some colourwork instead of stripes (my brother already has a stripey hat), so I just made up a very, very basic red/black chequered pattern (didn't bother drawing up a chart or anything - it's not like you really need to with something this basic!).

I managed to make the entire thing in a day without having to stress about it too much - the heavier yarn makes it a very fast knit, and the colour stranding doesn't slow you down too much since you don't have to be forever consulting a chart. Brother seemed quite happy with it, so I'm calling it a successful project!

My other knitting is coming along well. I have high hopes of finally finishing the Tea Leaves cardigan today, so stay tuned for that one in the next few days. I also started a cute little mini-neckwarmer in the lovely Louisa Harding yarn that I found squirreled away in a bedside table drawer.

Still, the last few days have really belonged to essays, work, and kitchen!



On Saturday night I made baked felafel, and then proceeded to eat nearly the entire batch, dipping them in Greek yoghurt and hummus as I shovelled them down. Even though the ingredients are pretty humble, they are really, really good, and I foresee many more batches in my future! Possibly starting tonight... And for all those omnivores out there who never know what to cook when they have to entertain vegetarian/vegan friends, I strong suggest these - they're very easy.

I also made the cupcakes to end all cupcakes. It was a coworker's last shift on Sunday, and she had requested something chocolatey. So, I complied... and then some.



The base was Nigella Lawson's chocolate cupcake recipe from How to Be a Domestic Goddess (amazing book - I have made so many wonderful things from her recipes). Some are iced with basic chocolate butter-cream and topped with a Malteaser, and the others have a cookies and cream icing (made by folding roughly chopped Oreos into vanilla butter-cream) and are decorated with an Oreo quarter. They were actually very easy to make, despite the fact that they look pleasingly fancy. I got out my piping bag. I love my piping bag.

More knitting and less food next post, I promise!

Episode Eighty-Four: In Which Anna Emerges from her Book Pile

Whew! (Comparatively) Long time, no post! The strange thing is, I'm not really sure what's been holding it up. I would like to pin it on assignments, but I haven't really been grappling with any more of those than usual. I'm not working a larger number of shifts than usual. My social calendar has not been filled to bursting point with glamorous social events, leaving me too time-short to post. Nope, this is the scary kind of 'life going fast' - the kind where you don't even know where all of the time has gotten to!

All of that said, life is going well enough. I got the results from my first round of assignments, and for the most part they were all very pleasant surprises. I have been busily planning my holiday - a good thing too, seeing as I'm off in a little over a month. I acquired a brand new fish tank. I will be retiring my old, too-small one (because I really don't need three tanks to maintain) and hopefully making a valiant attempt to turn it into a terrarium (for some reason the urge to make one has been circling in my head like for the last few months). My fish seem very happy in their new home, and this pleases me to an extent that is probably quite silly. And finally, people on Ravelry have been making my pattern, and this fills me with excitement.

As for the knitting, I have been working feverishly away on my Tea Leaves cardigan, and it's not too far off of being finished. The body, including the Yoke That Just Wouldn't End, is all done, and I am about halfway through the first sleeve and progressing at a good speed.




Despite at least one friend concluding that the yarn is 'poo-coloured', I've decided that I quite like the colour. I can't say that there's a lot of brown in my wardrobe, and I wouldn't have the first clue as to what kinds of colours go well with brown, but I look forward to finding out! Besides, jeans go with everything, right? Even poo-brown.




Besides, Dream in Colour yarn is gorgeous. Just plain gorgeous.

Now, because I'm sure you're all sick of looking at the poo brown (see, now I'm saying it), I have been working on other things too. The sock yarn shrug that I was playing around with a month ago is coming along, though it's been on hold the last week or so, just because magic-looping the sleeve was grating a little. I've finished one sleeve though, so now there's just the other and a bit more of the back to go. I edged the sleeve with a picot bind-off in a contrasting colour and I quite like the way it looks, though I'm not sure how well the bind-off worked with the loose gauge. Oh well, you live and learn.

In other news, I finally caught up with The Boy and was able to apply my lovingly knitted scarf to his Melbourne-autumn chilled neck. See!




(note: he does not actually have a Man-Bob. It just looks that way because the rest of his hair is covered by the scarf, I swear. And yes, my desk is apparently covered in fish food and limes. Want to make something of it?)

And that's about all I have for the moment. Stay tuned for the conclusion of the Tea Leaf cardigan saga (okay, perhaps saga is a strong word), and also for cupcakes. I've been conscripted by my work to bake a huge batch for a cancer fundraiser in a couple of weeks, and I'll be sure to take pictures...

Out the other side...

Well, I officially survived exams! Actually, they finished nearly two weeks ago, but unfortunately even once they were done my schedule didn't really include a lot of free time. I spent a lot of time working, and a lot of time catching up with all of the poor people I neglected while I was sitting exams and writing essays. So unfortunately I'm still tired, but at least the things that have been eating my brain have been more enjoyable than exam revision (and involved a lot more beer).

At any rate, I've at least found time for various new creative projects - though don't I always? Especially when I should be doing more constructive things...




I taught myself to needle-felt - it really wasn't very difficult. Basically you stab things with a barbed needle until they stick to the surface (felt/felted wool) that you've placed them on. I probably don't need to explain how this can be a useful stress relieving activity... I used the technique to decorate the felted bag that I'd made ages and ages ago. I liked the finished product well enough - it's not really structurally suited to daily out-and-about use, but I'm currently using it as a very pleasing and colourful laundry bag, a purpose which suits it very well as it holds a lot.




I also taught myself the bare bones of beading/wire jewellery, and made some basic earrings and stitch markers - I had gotten tired of all of the cool knitting kids having nice stitch markers while I continued using the dodgy plastic ones from Spotlight. I already had the bits and pieces for this lying around the house, as I'd been meaning to get into it for a while, so the gratification that comes with learning something new was pleasingly quick to arrive. I suspect that this might turn into yet another addictive hobby, so watch this space for more beading adventures.

I also started knitting another shawl as part of the continuing stash-bust - a red, lace-edged triangular number. Started and finished, to be more precise - I knitted the last few rows and bound it off this morning, and it's blocking as I write this. I'm very much looking forward to tomorrow when it's dry - it already looks rather lovely, if I do say so myself, so expect an enthusiastic post about that in the next few days.

Other than that, it's been business as usual around here. My mind is boggling at the amount that I've baked over the last week. I took some things into work on the weekend, and it was my father's 60th birthday yesterday, so in under a week I have produced three batches of brownies, a batch of cupcakes, a fruitcake, and as of tonight, a batch of almond biscuits. Not bad for a girl whose oven is on the brink of collapse.

I've also been dutifully cat watching. The poor old man is still around, but probably not for much longer. He's persisted for much longer than the vet was expecting, but now he's getting a bit dazed looking, and when you pick him up he hardly weighs a thing. So we're keeping a close eye on him, and when he doesn't seem happy any more, it's off to the vet for the last time. I will miss him horribly when he's gone.

Oh, and I've been playing around with the idea of a zombie-themed colourwork hat. Because that is what mature adults do, right?

Food related diversions

See, this is the part where I feel torn. On the one hand, last post I (foolishly) promised that I'd be showing off my newly completed Sylvi coat in the next update. But on the other, it's been quite a while since I updated!

Behold, my compromise! I shall indeed post, but it will be food related! I've been languishing, sad and baked-goods-less, for quite a while now due to oven related technical difficulties. But then my delightful engineer father returned from overseas and managed to convince the cranky old contraption to work again, so I have been making the most of it.

As shown above, I made Spinach and Feta Pie (under the guise of being Very Sensible, as I froze a goodly portion of it for my upcoming exam period and all those nights when I want to eat breakfast cereal for dinner because I'm just too burnt out to cook).

I made an absolutely delicious Honey Chocolate Cake as dessert for some visiting friends (see, this is why I need a functional oven - baked goods are my social currency and without them I feel woefully inadequate!).




And in a fit of silliness, myself and a gentleman caller (haha, yes indeed...) made Triceratops Pie. Kindly note the delightful dinosaur shaped pastry decoration. I should probably note at this point that the pie did not contain any actual triceratops - and my most sincere apologies to anyone who is disappointed on that front. The pie did however contain pumpkin, leeks, onion, ricotta, garlic, parsley and other such tasty things, so none of the parties involved felt shortchanged by the lack of actual dinosaur product.




These culinary achievements aside, there is no reprieve in sight for the poor hardworking oven. A good friend of mine is getting married on the weekend, and I have been conscripted to provide some delightful nibbly baked goods for us to graze upon while we prepare and make merry. I shall do my very best not to suffer from any kind of performance anxiety at the prospect of cooking for such an auspicious occasion!

In other, less pleasant news: it was confirmed week before last that my poor old man cat does indeed have cancer. This was obviously not good what we were hoping for, and I'm sad that my family are all away and are therefore unable to spend more time with the poor old fellow while he's still around. However, the fact that he's had such a good run of it is somewhat of a comfort - if only all cats were lucky enough to live to his age, after all. The good news is that despite all of this, he's perfectly chipper and is acting his usual nuisance self (i.e. stealing my computer chair every time I get up to get more tea). He's not thrilled about the various pills I have to wrestle into him twice a day, but you can't have everything, can you?

Oh, and many thanks to all those who sent good wishes his way via the blog, Ravelry etc - much love and gratitude to you all! The senile old man says thank-you too!

(well, actually in this photo I think he's just irked because I'm bothering him, but I'm sure he would have put on an obligingly grateful face if he knew the purpose of the photo!)




In closing, back to the details of the compromise. The next knitting related post shall remain reserved for my Sylvi (which is anyway so close to being finished that I could knock it off this afternoon if I put my mind to it, so hopefully the wait won't be long!). So I'm not waffling! Not even a little! Most definitely not!

Help - My Life is Being Devoured! Oh, and I Made Stuff Too...

Wow - I have no idea where the last few weeks have gone. Devoured by the great twin time-sinkholes of university and the internet, I suppose. Such is life.

So what have I been up to? Ummm, lots of things! I have been playing nicely with the other children. I have been blazing trails, picking battles wisely, and doing my best to eat enough vegetables. I have been working away busily on my Sylvi. I have been cultivating a dreadful addiction to Etsy. All the usual things, really.


On the craft front: I finished Richard's Canada scarf. No brother of mine shall have a cold neck, if I have anything to say about it! He's already worn in, and given it the thumbs up:



Vital statistics: Pattern: Noro Striped Scarf by Jared Flood. Yarn: Rowan Pure Wool Aran, one skein each of 'Charcoal' and 'Noir'. Needles: 4.5mm bamboo straights.

That stuff wot I thought about it: This pattern is awesome. I mean, obviously it would have been awesome-er if I'd actually used Noro yarn, but this was for Richard and I couldn't really see him being willing to wear a rainbow striped scarf, so sombre shades it was. That said, this pattern is still great even in comparatively boring and tasteful colours - the way that the slipped stitches hide the yarn being carried up the side for the colour changes makes me very happy indeed. I may make another one of these at some stage - the small stripes are surprisingly addictive.

And now I just need to furnish the brother-thing with a hat and gloves before he leaves. In three weeks time. Hmmm, better get cracking on that...


In other crafty news, I did some more natural dyeing. I made a second attempt with eucalyptus, trying a few different things this time (using rain water, soaking the leaves first, cooking the yarn for longer, etc), and subsequently got a gratifyingly different shade from last time. This batch still came out brown, but it was a yellow tinged brown (on the left in the photo below) that was a distinctively warm colour, as opposed to the cool purplish brown I got with the last lot (centre front below). I'm quite happy with it - it's a lovely colour in a subtle way.

I also tried dyeing with rhododendron leaves, since I'd read that they could be used for such things, and I had some readily available in the garden. I wasn't expecting too much from them, since I didn't have any proper mordants to use and had to make do with vinegar. I am pleased to report that rhododendron leaves smell thoroughly revolting when they're being simmered. But I did get some colour. Not much - just the faintest tinge of light green (you can see below - it's the small ball in the middle), but it was still colour, so I was pleased.




Also, I baked the best garlic bread ever. Seriously, it is all downhill from here. The recipe was from Nigella Lawson's How To Be A Domestic Goddess, and it contains four heads (yes, that's heads, not cloves) of garlic. Indeed. Before anyone keels over and dies at the prospect, it's not actually that scary. The garlic is roasted for nearly an hour, so that it gets nice and mellow. Then you puree it with parsley and olive oil and merrily slather it all over a basic focaccia dough. It was ridiculously tasty. I will admit that you suffer from pretty killer garlic breath for a good three hours after eating it, but hey, there have to be up-sides to tragic singlehood, right? This is definitely one of them! I love Nigella Lawson so much - she rarely steers you wrong...




Yumbo. And now I'm wondering if it's feasible to make this again this evening. Preferably with a big vat of fresh vegetable soup. Hmmm... If anyone wants me, I will be rummaging frantically through my cupboard, or possibly raiding the supermarket with rabid enthusiasm...

Busy, busy, busy...

Well, things have been weird around here - a strange blend of busy, yet not busy. More specifically, there has been lots of me making valiant attempts to be constructive, but getting thwarted at every turn. Curse you, foolish reality! Why won't you work the way I want you to?

Anyway, one thing that I have found time to do in between running-around-like-a-crazy-person-to-no-avail is work on my Sylvi. I will make this coat if it kills me. Which it probably will, for the record, provided it is indeed possible to die of convoluted chart poisoning. Anyway, I realised that it was about time to get my arse into gear if I actually wanted to have a chance to wear it this year. I know that it's only mid July, which gives me a good month and a half of winter left, but it takes time to knit a full length coat, you know? And the fickle Melbourne weather does love to thwart me... So I started last weekend and went about it rather vigourously all week. As a result, I am now in possession of two sleeves, and the start of the back:




Doesn't look like much now, but hopefully it will be cool. Or rather, the pattern is definitely rather awesome - I just need to deploy higher/equal levels of awesomeness in order to live up to it. Hopefully this shall occur!

And this is all that has really taken place on the knitting front. There has also been a lot of reading, and a lot of baking - more birthdays and other cake-requiring-occasions than I've been able to shake the proverbial stick at. There was also lemon meringue pie, because I was having a sorry-for-myself day. And whenever I'm down and really don't know what to do with myself, I make lemon meringue pie. You can generally tell how good a year has been by the number of pies I make. For the record, it's now mid July and I've only clocked in at two - this is good!




Mmmm... medicinal pie. I cheated and used a bought base, which is normally the very antithesis of how I go about these things, but on Monday I needed to busy myself with therapy pie more than I needed to buggerise around making pastry. So there. Surely my otherwise exemplary levels of baked-goods production compensate for this little hiccup, yes?



And these little blighters are biscuits for Bendigo (oooh, what delightful aliteration!). Tomorrow, complete with Ravelry buddy and train munchies, I am heading off to the Bendigo Sheep Show like the fibre nerd that I am. It sounds like it's going to be far, far too much fun. I am embarrassingly excited... Full report and hopefully some photos next time.

(disclaimer: photos may or may not contain graphic footage of my biscuit riddled corpse, depending on how hungry I get on the train on the way up there...)

Feeling the procrastinatory pinch...

Well, more of the same around here. It's exam time again, so that of course means that I'm now feeling the wonderful burst of creative energy that I always get when I don't actually have time to capitalize on it... Figures. Not to mention the other things that have been leeching my time and mental/emotional energy. Just for the record - I really, really hate having to go to the police station. And paranoia and anxiety are really not conducive to study. But anyway, on to more pleasant topics...

Knitting front has been slow, since I haven't had as much time as I would have liked. I've started making another Terra - figured that it was a good investment since it's a fairly quick and mindless knit, and I wear the one that I have just as much as I possibly can. I'm using the same yarn (hurrah for Bendigo Woollen Mills), except this time I'm using red, and making a smaller size, as my existing Terra has actually grown quite a bit as I've worn it. So far I've knitted the front and part of the back, and it's all coming along swimmingly.


And, well, aside from my new Terra and a lot of baking, there isn't a great deal going on around here. Spending a lot of time with friends, trying to restrain myself from buying every single last piece of yarn on the Sanguine Gryphon website (and Aussie dollar, you are not helping my resolve by doing so well!), and pretty much just trying to get through exam period with my sanity intact - that about sums it up. I guess I could insert some pseudo-humorous remark about not having swine flu, but it's getting old already...

Cold-ridden but constructive...

Well, I've been silent again for a little while, but life has been busy around here. The kind of ridiculously busy that only May brings. Come May the exam timetable is handed out (mine is officially irksome, of course), the weather gets colder so you begin to lose your energy, and virtually everyone has a birthday (well, it feels like virtually everyone). So I've been running around like a headless chicken the last few weeks. Probably why I came down with a cold... At least it's mostly cleared now.

Anyway, behold: proof that I have not been idle in my absence:

Here is my younger brother's birthday cake. Epic, right? It was his 21st, so I told him he could pick any cake he wanted from our not-insubstantial library of cookbooks, and dutiful sister that I am, I would make it for him. So he picked a black forest cake. And not just any black forest cake, but one with crazy elaborate construction. It's made by making two flat rectangular cakes, cutting them into strips and then rolling them up so that you get a tree-trunk rings effect when you cut into it. See:


I am so proud of this cake that it isn't even funny. Amusingly though, I haven't actually tried any of it - I'm not a fan of black forest cake. I've been assured that it tastes good though. Brother had a good birthday too, for the record.

And then four days later it was my birthday as well. Yesterday I celebrated a quarter of a century on this earth, so now I'm officially no longer able to use "I'm young and stupid" as an excuse for doing moronic things. Or that's the plan anyway... I didn't get up to much during the day, as I had to work, but in the evening the family and I went out for Thai food, and they plied me with a substantial amount of champagne and rum (substantial enough that I was somewhat remorseful when I had to scrape myself out of bed for lectures this morning...). Oh, and the blog will benefit from this birthday too, as my present was a new digital camera - one that is markedly better than the thing that I've been using for the last year or so. So better photos from this post onwards, hopefully!

I've been knitting busily too. Because of my cold I missed some classes this week, so I had a lot of lecture recordings to listen to, and therefore a lot of time with my ears occupied and my hands free. So I finished up the things that I was knitting for my coworker's new baby.



The red one is a Presto Chango in a nylon/acrylic blend, and the eye searing one below it is just a basic top down raglan in an 8ply wool. Cute eh? The red one especially - it's such a gorgeous pattern that I now want all of my friends to procreate so that I can make more of them. Quick, and required a very modest amount of yarn as well (two paltry balls!). A very pleasant diversion all in all, and definitely a change from knitting things for my not-so-baby-sized self. That said, I am looking forward to getting back into some new projects. I only wish that I had enough time to get even half of my ideas going...

Hmmm... Sore throat has regrouped and returned to wreak havoc - time for another cup of tea, I think. More frequent posting from now on, I swear! Just don't expect me to always have elaborate cake to show off...

Not so much with the knitting content...

Well, it's been crazy in Anna-land the last week. Assignments struck, rendering me insanely busy up until Thursday, and then comatose for a few days afterwards. So not that much knitting has taken place. I know - tsk, tsk...

However, I did bake hot cross buns! On Good Friday specifically, because even though I'm not a particularly religious person, the cultural history student in me loves the idea of this kind of tradition - making something on a particular day of the year. It's like Nigella Lawson points out in Feast - there are so few examples of this kind of thing (i.e. truly seasonal/occasional cooking) left, and I think that that's a shame. I find it more than a little weird and off-putting that you can buy hot cross buns in the shops for months before and after Easter, so I suppose that this is my small way of rebelling against that kind of thing, especially since I'm making them myself and all.

(on a less pretentious note, I worked in a bakery for years and am now officially sick of bought hot cross buns...)


There's the dough, looking all... erm... doughy!



Cute little buns, pre-crossing, on the tray. I hadn't realised how experienced I'd gotten with handling dough (what with having spent the better part of the last five years working in either a bakery or a pizza shop) until I started kneading and shaping these little guys - it just came back all of a sudden, and I could do it on auto pilot!



Piping the crosses on is definitely my favourite part. Even though I always make a chronic mess of the kitchen/my clothing in the process...



This isn't a great photo - for some reason I neglected to take a decent picture of the finished product (I was probably in too much of a hurry to insert them into my mouth - I'd polished three of them off within ten minutes of them coming out of the oven), but they definitely came out well. I was particularly pleased with the texture - much lighter and fluffier than any homemade bread I'd made before. I used proper bread flour this time, which probably explains it.

So there you have it: hot cross buns from start to finish. Nom nom nom... I think everyone should make their own actually - it's fun, easy, and really not as time consuming as you'd think, since you can do other things with yourself while the dough is proving/rising.


In knitting news, I acquired more yarn on Thursday. Or rather, my yarn from the States got here on Thursday. Tsk - I am definitely not allowed to buy more until I've used up some of what I have... Ah well, at least I never feel too much guilt over the yarn habit - I rarely eat/go anywhere expensive with friends, the clothes I own that aren't home-made usually come from either the op-shop or Target, and even my books mostly come from the library, so yarn is basically my only extravagance. Well, yarn and tea, but it takes so long to go through tea that it hardly feels like it counts...

I've started knitting not one but two new things: a Snow White in dark green, and a Kaleidoscope in, um, green (yes yes, I have a problem, I know - but it is a totally different shade!).

I've been wanting to make the former for a very long time, but never quite got around to it. And even though I bought the pattern a few months back, it's taken me a while to get around to finding some suitable yarn. And then for a while I was scared of the required cast-on. I am not well versed in cast-ons, not by any stretch of the imagination. And this pattern called for a long-tailed-tubular cast-on. Gulp.

It took me all afternoon (and several cramps in my fingers) to get it right, but get it right I did. I'm rather proud actually - definitely glad I persevered. And it counts towards my LSG Mistress of Knitting challenge (where learning new things and challenging yourself is kind of, um, the whole point of the exercise) for April, so there was some added incentive there too.

As for the Kaleidoscope cardigan... What can I say, other than that I think I've officially become one of those masochists who makes garments in fingering weight yarn... Let's see just how much of my sanity it consumes before it's finished. On the up-side, I finally got my mitts on some 'Happy Forest' Dream in Colour Smooshy (a shade that I'd been trying to get a hold of for a while) with which to make said sanity-devouring piece of knitwear. It's a very beautiful mid-green - a little lighter than I was hoping, given some of the pictures I'd seen online, but I'm still happy with it. Dad said that he thinks that it's ugly, but he isn't the one who has to knit a whole bloody cardigan out of it, so somehow I just don't think that his evaluation is the one that matters here...

Raspberries, Cupcakes and Terra

I really would have preferred it if I were able to title this post "Cupcakes and Terror", but that wouldn't be entirely accurate. Oh well, perhaps next time...

So, I started something new to cure this neither here nor there feeling I've been having on the constructive front the last few days. I'm making Terra from some lovely Bendigo Woollen Mills 12ply wool (highly appropriate for the middle of summer, I'm quite sure).

And also reading a lot - sticking to the whole 52 Books challenge thing (for all those playing along at home, reviews/results from January are here). And as for the third item in the photo... Well, you might not realise it, but this week is a somewhat of a special occasion. Every year in late January/early February, there comes a week when I can buy raspberries from the market for less than $3 a punnet (tight-arse Anna says "Yay!"). And this special week gets celebrated by gratuitous raspberry ingestion. How gratuitous you ask?

Answer: gratuitous enough to involve cupcakes (why yes, I am one of those irritating smug people who bake a lot and feel the need to tell people about it)!

Mmm.... passionfruit and raspberry iced cupcakes... In the sun, with tea and book...

Hate my guts - you know you want to...

Slow going and retail therapy.

Still beavering away on the Mrs Darcy cardigan - all the knitting is done now, and I should finish seaming it tomorrow. Then I'll just need to procure some suitable buttons, and we'll be in business. So expect a finished cardigan soon...


Things have been a little slow on the knitting front - between working a lot and hurting my hand the other day, there hasn't been a lot going on. A bit of swatching, and a few false starts at experimental projects. I'll get back on the horse soon enough. Or at least I'd better, given the amount of yarn I've bought over the last week.


Still, there's been progress on the, erm, materialistic end of things. This was the result of my little jaunt over to Malvern. I should not be allowed to go to Wondoflex again for quite a while...




(clockwise from top: some Silk Garden in a colourway that I just couldn't resist, some Noro sock yarn, and some more of the Montage 8ply handpainted yarn that I'm so hopelessly addicted to)

Yes, yes, I have a serious Noro problem. I know. At least I can afford it now.

It was the first time I'd been to Wondoflex - the shop was great. I liked the fact that it was a bit more spacious than other places in Melbourne - sometimes I feel a little claustrophobic in the smaller shops. Definitely worth the train trip, anyway.

Anyway, while there hasn't been a great deal going on as far as knitting goes, I've been doing lots of cooking. Seems I've finally gotten my sourdough to work, so I am now officially one of those hippies who bakes their own bread. Behold:

This one was a white/rye mix, and I was very pleased with the way that it turned out. The crust was perfect, and it actually had the texture of bread (as opposed to the scone like/damper texture that some homemade breads often have). Last week I went around to visit some friends and we had a cook up - I instructed them in the ancient art of guacamole, and we all ate so much that we couldn't move afterwards. And tonight I made white chocolate, pecan and cranberry biscuits (from one of my beloved Nigella Lawson cookbooks). They turned out beautifully (the mixture tasted pretty bloody good uncooked as well!). Oh, and I've now tried goat's butter. As in, butter made out of goat's milk. It was really nice actually - snow white in colour and with a very slight savoury taste.

Anyway, that's enough about food... I'll conclude with photographic proof that not only is my venus fly trap still alive and well - it's thriving. Haven't given it a name yet though... must do so.

My knit blog has carnivorous plant life. Does yours?

Birthday, and other happenings...

Well, I've been really getting on with knitting things the last week or so, which is good (and probably due in no small part to the fact that assessment is creeping up on me, and I have a chronic need to procrastinate):

I finished the Hedera socks:

Behold, my whacking great manly feet posing on my freezer (yeah, there's not much natural light in most rooms of my place) in socks that actually fit. Yeah! Go Hedera! After I posted the FO on Ravelry with the comment that I got it to fit my hulking feet with no mods to the pattern, people started messaging me about it, wanting to know my gauge, etc, so I guess there's a fair few other big-footed people out there curious. For anyone who still wants to know, I give this pattern a hearty tick of approval on the giant footed front. Also, now I understand why people like Patonyle so much. Lovely soft, stretchy yarn, that probably also helped with the fit.

I started a Woodland Shawl:

Here's the blurry photographic proof. I figured that now my assignments are looming, I needed the diverting power of lace (ie. something I can concentrate on and use to not think about essays for a few precious minutes) without tackling anything scary. I tried this pattern a while back with some sock yarn, but the varigation totally masked the pattern, so I used it for something else. So, this time around, I decided that I wanted to try something with very subtle vargiation. Now, a normal person would just buy some yarn, but because I'm me and I'm overambitious/impractical/a bit of a mad scientist at heart, I had to try and dye myself some. So the above shawl is being knitted in Naturally Haven 4ply Merino, dyed green by yours truly. I was actually quite pleased with how it turned out; there are noticeable differences in the colours, but they're not too glaring.

Unfortunately, it turns out my camera is a man, or more specifically, my camera has what my husband refers to as the 'man's' way of seeing colour (and by 'man's', he means his): it simply can't pick up subtleties in colour. So, you can't really see the proper effect in the photo. Oh well, I can see it. The yarn is lovely by the way, very soft and smooshy. And I love green; especially since we're heading rapidly into winter. The shawl doesn't look like much yet, but I'm only one repeat in, and lace always takes a while to get going...

Also, I had a birthday (my 24th, if we're getting technical):

My mother in law procured for me (amoung other things) a pattern book, some new bamboo needles, and some of the above yarn (the chunky blue stuff to be specific). It's acrylic, but I actually quite like the colours (sort of blue and teal shot through with metallic streaks), so I'm thinking I'll do as she suggested and make a scarf out of it.

Incidentely, the other yarn in the picture is stuff that I've dyed myself (yeah, I'm hooked, for better or worse). The green is the stuff I was talking about earlier, and the other ball was an experiment that didn't quite turn out how I planned, but it has a certain festy charm that I can't quite resist. Blue/orange/grey brown is not a colour scheme I would have picked, but meh. Actually, when I was winding back into a ball, I was thinking (nerd that I am) that if chaos could be embodied in sock yarn, it would be this colour. So watch out for some Chaos socks in the future.

And then there's cake :D Since we took over the shop, I haven't been baking nearly as much as I used to do (I used to bake a lot). So it was very nice to get back into it, and make myself a birthday cake of sorts (chocolate of course). The recipe is from Nigella Lawson's Feast - it's the 'Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake' and it's mighty tasty. Very rich though; the recipe made a fair bit more icing than the cake really needed (though I'm not entirely sure that's a bad thing).

So now I have the wherewithal to have tea and cake, two of the finest things in the universe. Yay!

In other news, I also celebrated my birthday by diving headfirst back into my writing project (it's been languishing a little lately... not being neglected, just progressing slowly) and cracking 50k words on the second part. This pleases me.

In other knitting news, I also started a pair of garter mitts for my brother as part of his birthday present (just in boring black though, since I doubt he'd wear a pair that were in colour's like mine) and started and promptly frogged a plain sock (they were too short, and the heel flap wasn't big enough). Also, I finished the first sleeve on my Honeymoon Cardigan. It's nearly there!

Now, off to enjoy tea and cake...