TaDa..

At 6:30pm last night we had mittens!! Want proof? Here it is...

Currently eyeing off the Central Park Hoodie. There's a Knit A Long starting in September..Hmm what yarn to use? Do I go all out and get some Rowan Yorkshire Tweed before it all disappears and if so what colour, and what if the colour is different when it actually gets here? I can't decide.

Mitten update

Last night I finally sat down to knit, I now have this much more of the mittens done:


See Andy's paw in the bottom left corner? Just before he pounced on them!
I hope to have them mostly complete tonight...then I can decide on the next item to work on.
I really want to make Fetching with the yarn I bought yesterday, so I think they will be next. Plus it's a good introduction to cabling.

Happy knitting ;)

Yo Ho, Yo Ho or I want to be a pirate!

Because it's the holidays we have a list of things that Miss A wants to do. One of them was to go to the pictures. It was either Over The Hedge or Pirates 2, and after Piglet's Big Movie I will not let her pick the movie ever again! - I haven't fallen asleep at the cinemas since. So I had to talk her into seeing Pirates 2 - which wasn't as difficult as I thought it would have been, we've been watching Pirates of the Caribbean heaps these holidays and I don't mind watching it over and over, really ;) Aah, Captain Jack Sparrow.

Ice skating was another activity that I promised her these holidays so yesterday we forked over $27, donned ice skates, and for 2 and a half freezing hours I saved Miss A from breaking her neck/arms/legs/fingers etc, on the ice. I hadn't skated in, ooh about 17 years (used to go ice skating regularly in high school) She of course, has never strapped on a pair of ice skates in her life. Last time I went I'm sure you had to tie them on, now there is a ratchet/lever system to secure the blades to your feet.

If you were lucky you could snaffle a chair to push on the ice which helped with stability. So once she was able to get her hands on a chair whe was off. After about an hour with the chair she was ready to try it by herself. Not too bad for a beginner. At least I can say I didn't fall over or cause anyone else to fall either, it was quite fun and I reckon we'll go again.

Now a knitting update:
I am not knitting very much at all and really should get stuck into it while I have the time.
I have only this much done on my mittens:

At least they won't take much longer to finish.

Unless....Jess and I are off to the LYS's this afternoon! We did plan to go last week but Miss A was hit by a virus that makes you ralph a lot and lay there like a limp ragdoll who can't tolerate light of any kind. That was scarey cos it came on so suddenly but luckily only lasted for a day and was recovering the day after. Thankfully she didn't pass it to me, normally she shares her bugs.

Just don't know what to buy yet, maybe some sock yarn cos we all know I really need more of that.
I want something to dye, something for Fetching and Coronet perhaps.

So buying yarn and knitting said yarn will be taking place today, better go and get ready.

Red sky in the morning...

This was the sky that greeted me this morning, (yes, it was that red) I remember this old saying whenever I see a wicked sunrise/sunset:

Red sky at night shepherd's delight.
Red sky at morning shepherd's warning.





Shepherd's warning was that he should get the sheep in quickly as it was going to be a stormy day. Well it was quite windy here overnight, settled now and the sun has started to come out, it's supposed to be an okay sort of day, a top of 18, but tomorrow's forecast is rain.

Yesterday afternoon was spent at knitting group, and I've come home with an 'I want to make that' attitude. Although I have my mittens to finish, Coronet and Fetching are now on my to do list.
Now as to the yarn, I don't think there is anything in my stash that will do so perhaps a trip to the yarn stores should happen these holidays.
I should put a 'To Do' list in the side bar but I fear it will grow waay too big, then I'd have to add all of my UFOs and that means a hunt through all my knitting stuff but now I am happily in denial and don't have to admit that the mermaid toy has not been finished or the blanket that was going to keep me warm during winter is just a really long scarf right now. Perhaps confrontation would be good and make me finish them off.

I do have some finished items I haven't been completely slack:
Last week I completed Miss A's grey/pink mittens - well they were supposed to be mine but they are a bit small so she can have those and I started another pair. A work colleague admired them and I sold them to her :( Now I have to knit another pair for myself. Next time I will knit to a price as what I sold them for barely covered the yarn. Lesson learnt.



Pattern Specs
Yarn: Piuma from Spotlight - 2 balls
Pattern: From Ann Budd's Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns
Needle size: 5.5mm (US 9) - 2 circs.

School Holidays are here now and there are two whole weeks of prime knitting time.
Miss A should be suitably occupied as she now has one of those sets of knitting ring/looms from Spotlight and thanks to Miss B we can now make Scoobies. What do you do with them once they've been made?...we are yet to find out. But Miss A is loving them, so I can see another packet will be purchased when we come across them next.

The scarf is done!

The black alpaca scarf is complete and is now blocking on Miss A's bed and will probably be there for the next few days. It is in her room with the door shut so no puddy cats can mess it up. It's cold in there with the door shut so I am disappointed to find it is going to take a few days to dry.

I have cast on for some mittens with Spotlights Piuma yarn (very soft). Knitting them one at a time with 2 circulars. Unfortunately I mucked up the first two increases and had 2 little holes where the thumb gusset stars so I ripped it back to the ribbing this morning. Luckily I was able to rip back successfully, and ended up with the right amount of stitches on each side, and the correct amount of rows worked as well. So It's ready to go later on today. It is more of a grey and then a pinky purple not the nice blue/purple it looks like on my monitor.


I am just starting to take risks with my knitting, like ripping back a bit and not restarting the whole project from scratch. Also considering deliberately dropping a stitch on something just to see if I can pick it up without panicking.
Oh also considering lace! Evolution of a knitter??

Today I finished the last assignment for one of my Cert 4 courses. Yay. Hopefully not much will come back with more work needed to be done on any part of it.

It is a beautiful day outside here it's a bummer I can't move the scarf and put it somewhere warmer to dry. I dare not move it.

Yesterday Miss A and I baked. She made Gingerbread Biscuits and I made my favourite, Lemon Slice.
Gingerbread Biscuits are from the book: Women's Weekly Kids Cooking.

Lemon Slice is an old family favourite. I remember it being called Marie Biscuit Slice because it uses Marie biscuits.

Recipe as follows: I double it cos otherwise you have half a tin of condensed milk leftover.

Lemon slice
1 tin condensed milk
250g butter
grated rind of 4 lemons
500g crushed plain biscuits
6 tablespoons coconut

Lemon icing
Icing sugar mixed with lemon juice

Melt butter and condensed milk over a low heat, do not boil.
Add crushed biscuits, coconut and lemon rind.
Mix well.
Press into a shallow tin, set in the fridge.
Ice with lemon icing cut into fingers (or big huffing chunks) to serve.
Really healthy.....yeah, right.

Oops, when doubling this to write out I just realised I only used 125g of butter and only 3 tablespoons of coconut and it still tastes good. Hmm ,well there you go, I just halved the amount of fat in it perhaps now it's a bit healthier? Better go and have another piece just to check.

Have a good weekend.