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!

Look - regularity!

Wow, look at me go on this whole posting thing! I've always found that things ebb and flow a little bit with hobbies - sometimes you're big into something, other times you let it go for weeks or even months. Perhaps this is sign that making stuff is moving back to the forefront of my brain, after it's little sojourn into (comparative) obscurity. Let's hope so.

I took a sickie from uni today - my back was acting up, and when this happens, it's usually a good idea to play it very, very safe. So instead of scraping myself out of bed stupidly early and going to my lecture, I scraped myself out of bed stupidly early (hey, I didn't know that my back was dodgy until I actually got up!) and spent the day studying, playing Age of Empires II and finishing the body of the garment I'm designing at the moment.




Please excuse the bright pink waste yarn holding the sleeve stitches.

I had to do a bit of soul searching about this one today. The body has come out exactly as I was hoping it would, which is rather good. Yes, the neckline is supposed to be low - that wasn't a mathematical lapse on my part. So all was well, but once confronted with the prospect of sleeves, I realised that I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do. Originally the plan had been to do longer sleeves - probably around the 3/4 mark. The only thing keeping this up in the air had been whether or not I'd have enough yarn left. Well, I had yarn galore remaining after the body, but once I tried the body on, I realised that I actually kind of liked it sleeveless. So, I had a good squiz at it for a while, interrogated various Ravelry peoples, and then proceeded to 'ummm 'and 'ahhh' a great deal.

The story isn't finished yet, because the sleeves haven't been knitted. But I think that I've definitely decided to go short. With the variegation already makings its presence felt (Does it still reek of camouflage gear? Or am I going to be able to pull off 'woodsy'? I'm not sure yet...), I'm worried that with sleeves thrown into the mix, there might be just too much going on. Also, since we're hurtling headlong into spring, I'll likely get more immediate wear out of a short sleeved thing. So short sleeves it shall be. But what kind? Hmm...

And that is more than enough rambling about something that isn't even finished yet. Here, have a picture of something else:




I've been wanting to take a picture of these for ages. They're Russian chocolates given to me by a good friend - I'm not sure whether she got them when she was over there most recently, or if someone else in her family acquired them, but aren't they so cute! Look at the squirrel one! I almost don't want to eat them, because that would mean disturbing the wrappers (I say almost - why do you think that I took this picture..). My friend's mother told me that when she was young (in Russia), they used to save and collect the wrappers, then fold them into a shape like you see on the bottom right, making sure that the design showed on top. Then they would swap them and play games with them. I was far, far too enchanted by this story. I love hearing about childhood games that were different from mine.

Anyway, it's dinner time now, and I have a cooking adventure planned, so that's it for this installment. However, I shall like as not be tackling those sleeves this evening, so stay tuned for the next thrilling episode!

Survival!

Well, exams are over for another year. Thank heavens for that. So now I have nine sweet, sweet days to procrastinate before I skip the country. I'm seeing a lot of knitting in my future. Not to mention I need to pick a project or two to take with me on holiday - I guess it will have to be something fairly lightweight, and probably in a small gauge, as I need something that'll occupy me for as long as possible without being too bulky... *muses idly* Socks or lace, I guess.


There hasn't really been a great deal going on around here as far as knitting goes - exams sort of ate my brain, and when I was knitting, a lot of it was just random swatches of stuff - it was just pure knitting for stress relief. However, I have started a summery top - I was sort of in between projects and needed something to take to the Melbourne Ravelry meet up (which incidentally was about eighteen different kinds of fun, and I met buckets of awesome and talented people), so I figured I'd finally try out the design I'd concocted a while back.

(please ignore the immensely unflattering around-the-house pants - that's an order)

I started from the waist and am working upwards in an openwork rib stitch pattern. I wanted something airy and light, but also something that wouldn't be totally shapeless (I'm not a fan of the whole empire waist thing that everyone seems to be so enamoured with at the moment - the fact that I don't think that they do anyone any favours aside, I have a waist, and I'd like to make the most of it instead of hiding it, thank you very much), so a lace ribbing seemed like a good compromise. I'm also adding some shaping by decreasing in the purl sections. I quite like how it's coming along - it's quite loose, so should be good in the warmer weather. It's in a pretty cheap cotton acrylic blend, but if I end up liking how it comes out, I might end up trying another version in a nicer yarn.

Speaking of nice yarn: I got my post-exam reward in the mail this morning. It soothed my one-beer-too-many-the-night-before headache quite nicely too.

Yum. They're from Live 2 Knit and they are quite, quite lovely. And one of them is yellow! I never thought that I'd ever buy yellow yarn - normally, yellow is most definitely not a colour that I go in for. But I couldn't resist this, and it's so beautiful that I'm glad that I didn't - it's like summer time in skein form. They're going to be socks. I'm thinking I'll try my hand at toe-ups for a change. I just invested in a new sock knitting book, and I'm itching to try some of the techniques in it. I'm also idly considering some colourwork, because these two yarns do look beautiful together.

Oh, and again, speaking of yarn (but not quite as impressively gorgeous, to say the least):

My other post exam present to myself (hey, I need all of the bribery that I can muster) was a drop spindle. See this yarn? I made it! And I made it that colour as well! Yeah, yeah, I know it leaves a little to be desired - this was my second attempt at spinning (second to a five minute spree when I first got the spindle), and because I have a short attention span when it comes to following instructions, my technique still leaves a lot to be desired. Still, I'm very pleased with it. I do love doing things myself, even when the result is a little bit half arsed. The way that I see it is that when you make something yourself, you can either sit there and be dissatisfied with it because it isn't perfect, or you can make the choice to love it anyway because you made it and you enjoyed making it. I opt for the latter. I'm going to use it to make a pouch for my poor long-suffering laptop mouse...

Anyway, I'm off to have a quiet moment with a strawberry Freddo Frog, and then I'm off to bed.