 July 30, 2005
Kiri progress
I love you all! Thanks for all the nice comments, I'm so excited to begin my HipKnits adventure. There will be plenty more about that next week.. In the meantime here is my progress on Kiri. I had an unexpected night to myself last night (all to do with me going into automatic pilot and getting on the train home instead of to Wayne's parents to meet him and the kids. Doh!) so I decided to treat myself to a night in front of Big Brother knitting. I finished the first chart and 2 repeats of the 2nd chart, its a great pattern and I'm enjoying knitting it. I'm planning to keep knitting until I've used up my 100g of cashmere which is about 500 yards or until I think it is big enough.
Posted by Kerrie at 09:15 AM
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July 29, 2005
Are you a Hip Knitter?
Are you a Hip Knitter? I am. Even more so now. Trudie says it much better than I could. I feel honoured that she considered me the right person to buy the business from her when she had to sell. I feel excited about all the possibilities and options that HipKnits has. I feel confident that I can grow the business and continue to provide the same excellent service that Trudie has over the last few months. I feel lucky to have been given the opportunity to do something that has been a dream for so long. I feel happy to have a friend like Trudie who will guide me through the next few weeks. From Monday 1st August it will be down to me although Trudie will still be answering questions and pointing me back on track if I get lost for the first few days. All orders will be processed as normal and the shop will be updated with new silk on Tuesday. MagKnits will continue as normal as will Sew Pretty (you should see some of the submissions I have had so far, its going to be fab!) HipKnits is not replacing anything that I am currently working on, its just another fun piece of the puzzle. I will still be updating here all the time but will be getting a bit more organised. (ha! yeah right!) For now I will still be carrying on with my day job as well with lots of help from family and friends to keep juggling those balls. I hope you will all support me in this as much as you have with everything else I have done recently. HipKnits is a great endeavour and one that I hope will become lots of fun for me and continue to be a source of unique, gorgeous yarns for you.
Posted by Kerrie at 06:57 AM
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July 28, 2005
Kiri plans
I swatched some of the hand dyed cashmere sock yarn that I was lucky enough to get last week before it was all snapped up. Looks pretty, no? I think I'm going to use it for Polly's Kiri. I've been thinking about Birch a lot and not sure if I have enough yarn. Kiri is knit the other way, from the narrow point up so you can stop when it is wide enough or you run out of yarn. Imagine if I cast on for Birch, ran out of yarn near the end and couldn't get any more. It doesn't bear thinking about does it? It's Cameron's christening in a few weeks. I like the idea of wearing a long dress and handmade Kiri. Now I have a deadline I just need to find the right size circs and we're off..
Posted by Kerrie at 06:22 AM
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July 27, 2005
Schtuff....
Some of the MagKnits designers kindly agreed that their patterns could be used by the Children's Society for their charity knit in to celebrate National Knitting week in October this year. They are just starting to update their website, there will be more links and lots of patterns published their over the next few weeks. What are you doing for National Knitting week? I keep thinking that we should arrange some kind of KnitBlog thing but that's as far as I've got at the moment. I'll let you know if I get a proper brainwave any time soon. A few links : Have you seen Shannon's new look site? Go check it out, the book details are on there and some of the patterns look really cool. I am in love with the flower headband (keep clicking the photo at the top of the page and it will change) I have a pattern in her book 2 which is out next year. 3 peas. Beautiful sewing projects... I've neglected my machine recently but with the deadline for SewPretty submissions coming up soon I'll be bringing it back out in the next couple of weeks... MenKnit. A new knitting zine all for men. Now that has to be a good thing, right? Just for Lixie, the wheel is over here. I still don't get on as well with it as I do the drop spindle but I'm getting there.. We went to Southend last night when Wayne got home from work for no apparant reason other than we had a fancy for fish and chips on the beach. We met up with some friends there and the kids all had a great time, playing in the penny arcades, picking up stones on the beach. Cameron loved all the lights and noised in the penny arcades. At one point Brooke started to look a bit tired and I looked at my watch to find it was past 10pm! Good job its the school holidays otherwise we would have been in all sorts of trouble today. Its almost 8 and she still hasn't surfaced which is not like her!
Posted by Kerrie at 07:42 AM
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July 26, 2005
A day in the life of some handspun yarn
I am the luckiest person in the world. Really. Cameron woke up at the very respectable time of 6.15 this morning and I took him down to the lounge with me. I put the news on, sat on the sofa with a blanket and cuddled him on my knee for about 5 minutes before I noticed he'd fallen asleep. I lay back on the sofa and dozed with him and woke up about 20 minutes later to find that Brooke had come downstairs and cuddled up with us under the blanket. We all stayed sleeping in a big pile together until Wayne came downstairs around 7.30. What a gorgeous, gorgeous start to the day.. Remember I said yesterday how I spun some yarn to send over to Trudi for her to sell in her new handspun section at the end of the month? Well, not all of the yarn that I spun for her made it there safely. On the final skein that I was spinning for her, I decided that I wanted to try and make yarn that consisted of 5 main sections. I wanted it to go a little something like this : pinks and purples, natural, pinks and reds, natural, pinks and purples. I had lots of little pieces of different coloured fibre that I planned to spin into the sections as nice big fat slubs. So I sat and spun away and tried to judge how much yarn I had spun in each section so that I could get them kind of similar in length. I added in all the odd bits of fibre, made some slubbies and some sections that were spun from 2 different colours of yarn and ended up with this. That is where the problems started. I loved it. Too much to sell? Yes, I think so. So I kept it. See how pretty it looked rolled up into a ball? See how pretty it looks knitted up into a funky chunky scarf? See how I judged the colours just right so that the 2 end pink / purple sections and white sections. See why I couldn't give it away? Sigh. I'm never going to make money at this if I keep stuff for myself am I? Time to get tough I think...
Posted by Kerrie at 08:01 AM
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July 25, 2005
Week Off
If any of you are feeling tired, stressed out, sick, in need of a break I can recommend spending the weekend with my mum and dad. I'm sure they wouldn't mind.... I got home from work on Friday at 7.30pm, rushed around packing bags and kids into the car and at 9pm arrived at mum and dad's house with a car full of sleeping kids and an almost asleep husband. We walked in, dumped bags in the hall and got the kids to bed as quick as we could. Mum had offered dinner and we were expecting something left over in the oven for us. Never expected it would be a whole roast chicken dinner! Gorgeous.... We had the laziest weekend in the history of the world, I think I actually spent more time asleep than I did awake and even Wayne had a couple of naps.. We both feel re-energised and ready for the real world again. Until next time! So, what did I do with my week off from blogging? All kinds of fun stuff, that's what : - I finished up some more designs for Simply Knitting - thanks for all the nice comments about the cropped cardigan. I'd love Brooke to model one of my designs some time, its just the logistics that are hard to work out with the magazine being based 3 hours away from us. Maybe next time... See, I was nice and busy even though it felt quite relaxing at the time. I fully recommend taking a blog break when the world gets too much for you. Almost as soon as I told myself it was OK not to post here every day I felt more at peace. You can expect more mini silences from me over the next few months, but not for a while! I was also pleased to hear that 8 out of the 9 parcels I posted over the last week or so have arrived safe and sound. That makes me feel slightly better as I've had a couple go astray recently which is never nice.
Posted by Kerrie at 07:29 AM
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July 22, 2005
Remember this?
If you go and buy the current issue of Simply Knitting (which looks like this) and turn to page 35 you will see this. How exciting is that? My name in print for the first time! I'm thrilled. The magazine is worth buying for lots of other reasons as well - Bonne Marie and Chicknits get a mention in the web section, there is a photo of Jen wearing Annie's highland fling and holding Julie's Sophie bag in an article promoting the Children's Society Knit It! campaign which MagKnits have donated a number of patterns to, a few words about WoolFest with some sheepy photos, as well as a cute knitted bird mobile that I want to make with all of my stash odd balls. What are you waiting for, go and buy it now!
Posted by Kerrie at 08:11 AM
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July 21, 2005
No end...
Coming out of hiding to say is there no end to it? Although at first glance this doesn't seem to be as serious in terms of impact as the explosions of the 7th I'm glad to be home safe and sound. I hope everyone else in London makes it home safely tonight. Just when we were all beginning to feel almost normal about travelling on the tubes again...
Posted by Kerrie at 03:03 PM
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July 19, 2005
Too much
Too tired, too sicky and too busy. I'm going to take a break for a few days. SP kids matches will be done in the next day or so. I'm waiting for one person to get back to me with some info and if I dont hear from them today I'm going ahead without them. Otherwise, have a good week and I'll catch up with you at the weekend...
Posted by Kerrie at 07:13 AM
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July 17, 2005
Loop
I took a trip to Islington on Saturday afternoon to visit the new yarn store, Loop that opened yesterday. It was everything that I hoped it was going to be and then some. Beautifully designed and layed out with unusual yarns that you don't often see in stores. Not a skein of Rowan, Sirdar or Patons to be seen! It was lovely to be able to see all of the different yarns, and buy just a few! I was very restrained and came away with 2 skeins of Colinette Giotto, 2 skeins of Colinette Graffiti and 4 buttons. I could have bought a whole lot more though! The shop is a fascinating mix of beautiful yarns and gorgeous ready made knits. Amazing broaches, tea cosies, blankets, cushions and toys. I loved it. The owner, Susan, is lovely and I'll definitely be going back again and again. I forgot to take my camera but Nic was there and she was far more organised than me. Go and check out her lovely photos and please ignore me in the bottom corner of the first one, desperately leaning back and trying not to be seen in the photo! We had a great time shopping, sipping champagne and then sitting on the decking area outside and knitting / gossiping until Wayne and Brooke had finished at the cinema and came to collect Cameron and I.
Posted by Kerrie at 09:15 AM
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July 15, 2005
Not as much fun as I hoped it would be...
The Entry otherwise known as "My Spinning Wheel is Not My Friend" or "Why did I ever think it was a good idea to spend almost GBP 300 on this thing" or "Bring back my drop spindle, who needs more than 50 metres of yarn at a time anyway!" I hate to say it because accepting that I find things hard goes totally against my nature but I'm not getting on too well with my spinning wheel at the moment. Poo. I've been hassling Adrian for help and after a few emails from her I think I may be getting it. If only I could stop the flyer from falling off every 5 minutes I'd be right. To be honest, I haven't had more than 30 minutes to play with it but I tend to expect to pick things up quickly. Its not happening this time and I think I need to find some patience from somewhere and persevere. Patience. That's an interesting concept. Anyone have any spare they could lend me? Or want to come over and teach me to spin? I'll make you some cheescake in return!
Posted by Kerrie at 08:36 AM
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July 14, 2005
Mini cheesecakes
For some reason last night as I was cooking dinner, I had a taste for cheesecake. There is nothing unusual in this in itself, who doesn't love cheesecake, but last night I wanted to make cheesecake - not just run to Tescos and buy one. So I enlisted the help of my chef assistant, Brooke (she has now decided that when she grows up she is going to be a chef and a mummy instead of a hairdresser and a mummy so she is always happy to help out in the kitchen!) and we made mini cheesecakes. I thought I'd share my Kerrie way to make cheesecakes with you all. If you want an organised recipe that gets you weighing everything correctly then you need to go and buy a book. You'll notice that I approach cooking in the same experimental "throw lots of things together and see what they turn into" fashion as I do lots of other areas of my life. I'll try and be as specific as I can for you though. Important Note - leaving the cheesecakes in the fridge for longer than 20 mins will ensure that they don't fall apart as much as these ones did! Mini cheesecakes. 1 muffin tin. Makes 12 mini cheesecakes or 1 large if you prefer. Lightly grease your muffin tin or whatever you are using. Hand the butter, muffin tin and some paper towels to your small child helper and show them what to do before leaving them to it. Brooke usually ends up with more butter on her and the table than in the muffin tin but it keeps her quiet while I get on with the next step so I don't worry too much. Make your biscuit base first. Remove one biscuit from the packet and place to one side. Put the remainder of your packet of biscuits in a freezer bag or similar and tie the top. Melt your butter over a low heat until totally melted. Take the buttery muffin tin away from your small child helper and pass them the bag of biscuits and a rolling pin. Instruct them to bash the bag until all of the biscuits have been crushed. Depending on the strength of your small child helper you may want to roughly break up the biscuits first. If you don't have a small child helper a food processer works just as well for this step or wield the rolling pin yourself, it may make you feel less tense!! Note - you really can use any biscuits here. Last night I used some custard creams, previously I've used digestives, chocolate chip cookies, hob nobs - whatever you have available is good. How can it not taste delicious whatever biscuits you use? Pour the crushed biscuits into your melted butter and stir. Add a small amount of this biscuit mixture to each of the mini muffin spaces and place into the fridge while you mix the filling. I also don't worry too much about bigger pieces of biscuit in the base mixture, it all tastes good! Place the cream cheese and caster sugar in a bowl and mix until soft. Taste it at this point and see if you think its OK. Add more sugar here if needed or if you've made it too sweet for your taste rush out and buy some more cream cheese to add to it! If you are not afraid of cream cheese and sugar mix all over your kitchen you can ask your small child helper to do this. Otherwise distract them with the biscuit that you removed from the packet before bashing them. When the filling mixture is soft you can add whatever flavouring you like or leave it plain, this is Brooke's preference. Last night I split the mixture into 2 very unequal amounts and made 3 mini cheesecakes with this basic filling for Brooke and added 3 teaspoons of Baileys to the remainder for Wayne and I. Spoon the mix on top of your biscuit base quickly before your small child helper finishes their biscuit and demands to help and place in the fridge for as long as you can leave them. If you can manage a couple of hours this is best, if not the cheesecakes still taste good 30 minutes later.. (The ones in the photo above only lasted about 20 minutes in the fridge so they slightly fell apart when put on the plate. Still tasted good though!) Serve on a plate with sprinkles of chocolate on top, a healthy dollup of whipped cream to the side and a glass of Baileys poured over ice. Eat in front of the TV with your husband after the kids have gone to bed. Ensure that there are NO mini cheesecakes remaining in the fridge before you go to bed, this just wouldn't be right!! Other Kerrie tested serving methods include slicing strawberries / raspberries and placing on the top. Squashing lots of fruit into a thick sauce and pouring over the top. Making a chocolate sauce and pouring onto the top. The options are endless, go and make some this weekend and tell me how you ate them!
Posted by Kerrie at 07:47 AM
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July 13, 2005
Silky goodness
I've been working on some new designs using HipKnits silk as it seems to be so popular at the moment and totally gorgeous and affordable at the same time. I ordered a HUGE amount of silk from Trudie so that I could make up some kits to sell at Ally Pally, what a lovely box of goodness arrived here yesterday... I spent last night winding some of the hanks up into balls so that I could get it knitted up and lovingly stroking the rest of it. I had to keep reminding myself that the 3 kilos of yarn are not for me. They are not for me. They are not for me. If they were for me, the pink would be snapped up straight away. I love the colours, they look so pretty. I can't wait to see what the look like knitted up..
Posted by Kerrie at 06:36 AM
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July 12, 2005
Shop....
I'm working on getting my shop up and running. There are still a number of design type things to do over there but go and have a look. There are patterns, kits and ready made stuff over there as well I just added a HUGE amount of stash yarn to the stash page, Koigu, Rowan, Colinette, Noro and lots more. Fabric and books to join it in the next couple of days...
Posted by Kerrie at 11:58 AM
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11 months
Just where does the time go, that's what I want to know? Cameron turned 11 months old yesterday, he is growing up so quickly. We went to a BBQ at the weekend and I can remember being at the same place last year, heavilly pregnant with everyone expecting me to have the baby at any minute. Brooke was 2 weeks early and because I was so GIGANTIC with Cameron no-one expected me to last until his due date, but I did. He was born the day after Brooke's birthday, right on schedule. I was desperate to make it through her party on the Saturday before and then her actual birthday without giving birth and must have relaxed so much that when I'd made it past those deadlines that he was born the very next day. Although he was anything but small at 9 pounds 3, look how little he looked! 11 months on and he is doing so well. He is walking everywhere and climbing on everything. Brooke never climbed this much, it must be a boy thing. He can scale the stairs with no effort at all and is always climbing onto and off the sofa. We've taught him to get off the bed / sofa feet first and he does this with a big smile on his face, stands up and gives himself a clap before walking off to the next place he can go and cause mischief! He talks constantly. A steady stream of dadadadada, bababababa and mamamama are his favourites. He also says Br Br when he wants his sister, NO when he shakes his head and DAT while pointing to something that he wants. He is very opinionated and while I was feeding him dinner last night (mashed potato and fish in breadcrumbs) he kept shaking his head, and saying NO, DAT and pointing to Brooke's pizza. He knows what he wants and as soon as we gave him a corner to chew on he was happy! We're planning birthday parties and christenings here at the moment. we'll probably just have a family birthday party for Cameron as he is really too young to have proper friends. Brooke thinks that he would like to have all of his friends from nursery around but I'm really not so sure about that! Plenty of time for that when he gets older. Brooke on the other hand would have about 50 kids coming to her party if she could choose, I need to sit down and negotiate with her on that one! Edited to add - Jen, doh has been pretty much replaced with DAT. He does still say doh but not as much as he was that weekend when you were here!!
Posted by Kerrie at 07:13 AM
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July 11, 2005
Elspeth, finished and worn all weekend
If I'd have made it to the Get Knitted day out on Saturday I would have been wearing Elspeth. As it was, I wore her all weekend anyway - I'm really happy with the way she came out. I had worried at one point that having made so many changes to the pattern I'd end up with something that I didn't like but fortunately that didn't happen. (excuse the dodgy tan lines!) Here's the details, and a shot of the back : - I made the whole garment in stocking stitch instead of using the lace pattern. At the time I started I was working on a few other more complex items and wanted something simple that I could knit in front of the TV without too much effort. - I added a picot edge to every cast on by knitting the first 3 rows in stocking stitch, working a row of eyelets and then beginning the row count for the pattern. At the end I turned the hem up so that the eyelets were folder in half and formed a picot edge. - I picked up stitches around the front and worked the same kind of picot edge. This meant that I didn't have to crochet anything! - I made shorter than called for twisted cords for the tie. - I made a size smaller than usual so that I would get the fit I wanted. I'd seen the one Jen made and also photos of a couple of others who seemed to be unhappy with the final size and fit (Laura and Heather), and decided that I didn't want a loose fitting top, I wanted one that would be more snug. As luck would have it, making the size smaller than usual gave me just that.. Thanks to everyone else for making one first so that I could decide how to customise mine!! Now I'm knitting Elspeth number 2, in cream for mum... My journey into the city this morning was almost exactly the same as every other day. No fewer people than usual, no less traffic than normal. The only difference I noticed was that Liverpool tube station was still closed off and that the journey took an extra 5 minutes or so as I stopped off to buy flowers to leave with the others at the entrance to the tube. It's amazing how quickly everything seems to get back to normal while underneath, so much is still being done to try and get over what happened last week.
Posted by Kerrie at 08:32 AM
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July 08, 2005
The day after Thursday
I'm staying home with the children today but I'll be back at work on Monday, glad that I only use the overground trains but slightly nervous all the same. Yesterday was horrible, too close for comfort. I work at Liverpool st but started at 7am yesterday so the first I heard of the explosions was when people were coming into work late talking about something that had happened. At first we thought it was a power surge on the tubes but then it became apparant that it was a terorist attack. The road just outside our building was blocked off after the bomb went off at Liverpool St underground, only a couple of hundred yards away. There was lots of chaos outside in the street and then after a while it was spookily quiet out there. I managed to get on the first train out of Liverpool St station when it reopened after trying Fenchurch St but not being able to get any where near a train. Everyone that I met when trying to get to the trains were amazing. No stress, no panic just thousands of people trying desperately to get out of Central London and home to their families. I was going to walk East until I was a few miles out of the centre and then either get a taxi or find another way home. I overheard one of the many capable policemen saying that Liverpool St was due to reopen shortly, walked over and was one of the first people into the station, onto a train and sitting down waiting to get home. I never want to see sights like that again, all the people, chaos, confusion and police everywhere. No traffic, just sirens. Not good. I'm planning to spend the day at home with the children today and may not even leave the house depending on how bored they get. I'll be back next week... Thank you so much for all the kind comments and emails, they made me shed a few happy tears to go along with all of the sad ones. Its amazing to think how many people who I've never met, never spoken to and wouldn't know if I saw them in the street were thinking of me. That's fantastic. I only wish that everyone else had been as lucky as me and managed to miss the tragedy and get home safely.. Have a good weekend....
Posted by Kerrie at 06:40 AM
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July 07, 2005
Update
Its all a bit chaotic in central London at the moment with the explosions at the train stations and reports of explosions on buses. We've got no mobile phone signals and have been told not to leave the building so if you're trying to get hold of me (mum!!) I'm OK, just waiting to hear when its safe to leave. Update - we're still being told not to leave the building, our company are looking into arranging transport out of London for us this evening if it is safe to do so otherwise they're looking into temporary hotel accomodation. So I'm stuck here for the time being and isn't it typical that today is the day that I left my knitting AND my book at home!! Thanks for all the emails and texts, I'll keep you as up to date as I can without any scare stories. We've stopped watching the news and looking out the window now, it's causing too much panic. Our phone network is up and down but I can still email so that seems to be the best way to get hold of me at the moment.. Update - 3pm. Heading home. I'll let you know when I get there. Planning to walk East and get in a cab as soon as I can. Update - almost 6pm. I'm home. Have hugged everyone, had a big sob and now I'm about to eat dinner and not think/ talk about today again until the kids are asleep.
Posted by Kerrie at 11:07 AM
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Elsepth, the story continues
I'm so close to finishing Elspeth, I actually finished the border last night and now all I have to do is sew in the million and ten ends and press her. I will do that tonight, if I can stay awake past the kid's bedtime that is. Here's Elspeth before I knit the border. I've made some HUGE changes to the pattern as you'll notice from the lack of lace in these photos. I am working on a few complicatedish lace patterns at the moment and needed something that I could just knit without too much effort or thinking. So I decided to make the whole of Elspeth in stocking stitch and I'm pretty pleased with the way it came out. I also don't do crochet (as you know) so instead of a crochet edge I worked my favourite ever picot edging around all the cast on edges and then picked up what felt like a million stitches around the front and worked the same picot edging. I think I like it! I'm planning on making twisted ties to add to the front as well. The fit is good. It is more fitted than others I've seen but I like it this way. I intentionally made a size too small as I didn't want there to be any slipping off the shoulders and from the way it looks now, I don't think that there will be... I'm on track to wear this on Saturday on my Get Knitted expedition. Woo Hoo!
Posted by Kerrie at 07:40 AM
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July 06, 2005
Pretty things....
Beautiful bag from Amanda! Yummy roving from Spunky Eclectic. More handspun yarn. Liberty sales stash, 10 skeins of R2 braid, 4 skeins of Cotton braid and a 50 metre reel of grosgain ribbon. My wonderful bag of odds and ends of cotton glace, 4 ply cotton and similar...
Posted by Kerrie at 08:21 AM
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July 05, 2005
Joseph, revisited
My Joseph revisited pattern is up on National Knitting week's website as a free pattern. Don't worry too much about the errors with the pattern credits, we all know it was first published in Knitty and not MagKnits, I've asked them to amend... Here you can see Cameron wearing it but the pattern shows a mannequin. This meant I could be more flexible with showing the jacket in different stages, with sleeves or without, with hood or without. Cam would not have been happy with all the taking off and putting back on again bless him. I used Rowan Plaid instead of the discontinued Colinette Columbo which worked really nicely. Its a great yarn to knit with and goes a long way in this design. I've since made one for Brooke as well just to test the sizes out and I'm happy that they are both a little big so will fit them in the autumn when a woolly jacket will be just the thing.. Elspeth update - she is seamed and I'm about to start the edging. I've made so many changes to the pattern that I'm not sure I'm actually going to like the finished garment but keep your fingers crossed for me, OK?
Posted by Kerrie at 08:06 AM
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July 04, 2005
Fruitful weekend
I know I said on Friday that I'd finished Elspeth and that I'd show you photos today. Well, I lied. I still haven't seamed and blocked but I will. I quite fancy wearing her on Saturday when a crowd of London knitters led by Mary are going to be on the train to Bristol for Get Knitted's open day. So that doesn't give me long to get on with it, does it? I love a deadline that I can procrastinate over, any guesses what I'll be doing at midnight on Friday? So, what did we do this weekend? Mum and dad bought me Nigella Lawson's book, How to be a domestic goddess for my birthday and I have been trying very hard to be just that. So Brooke and I went fruit picking this weekend and came home with 3 kilos of strawberries and 1 kilo of raspberries. After a couple of hours in the kitchen this is what we have : Some raspberry jam. When I took this picture it was cooling on top of the fridge, it has since been placed into the fridge where it stands a good chance of being eaten very soon. I used a recipe in How to be a Domestic Goddess which is so so simple. I wasn't going to share the details with you here (copyright and all that) but a quick google search pointed me to the blog of someone else who made this jam and did share the process so go check it out if you want to know how to make some. You should also buy the book, it is fabulous and has millions of mouthwatering baking recipies in it. So, raspberry jam took up all of our raspberries and filled all of the jars that I had saved. Its odd, I thought I had more big jars but could only find the lids. Wayne swears he hasn't been throwing away empty jars with no lids but I'm not totally sure I believe him. Anyway, we had just enough jam to fill the 1 big and 4 small jars that I had saved. Yummy. Then we made strawberry cheesecake. Simple vanilla cheescake with cut up strawberries on the top. I also blitzed a few strawberries in the blender to make a sauce to pour on top. Gorgeous, we all love cheesecake in this house! What else to do with all the strawberries? An empty ice cream tub was soon filled with chopped strawberries and placed in the freezer. That took up some of them. I still have a big bowl in the fridge that we will pick at and eat with ice cream or on their own over the next few days. The last handful was a bit of an experiment, I decided to make strawberry vodka. The recipe was in June's Country Living Magazine (if you don't get this then you should, I subscribe and love it love it love it!!) and sounded deceptively simple. You do have to leave the vodka for a month before it is ready so I'll give you an update early August. We happened to have about 1/4 bottle of vodka left over from some BBQ / party in the past. Neither Wayne nor I really drink vodka but if its strawberry flavoured, who knows? I just hope Brooke remembers helping me make the jam and cheesecake and forgets the vodka when her teacher asks what she spent the weekend doing. She had loads of fun squashing the strawberries up and dropping them into the vodka bottle. Knowing my luck that will be all she remembers and tells all the kids in the playground about tomorrow! Then after all the baking and playing in the kitchen it was hair plaiting time. For some reason I've been thinking about trying out one big spiral plait that starts at the front of her head and goes round and round in a circular fashion until it gets to the very top of her head. I think it came out pretty well for a first try!
Posted by Kerrie at 05:52 AM
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July 03, 2005
Secret Pal - Kids edition, update
If anyone still wants to get in on the secret pal kids action I'm not going to be making the matches until next Sunday / Monday so you have until then to get your emails in to me. Here are all the details again..
Posted by Kerrie at 05:05 PM
Posted by Kerrie
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July 01, 2005
To Dye For
I've never really tried to dye yarn properly but for some reason, I'm a little obsessed with the idea at the moment. Hence this purchase from Texere the other day. We have some chunky wool, some cotton tape and some silk. Oh, and a gorgeous chunky bobbin just because I wanted it! Maybe I'll spend the weekend playing with this and my new wheel. What else is new? Well, I've been sicker than a sick thing for the last couple of days so not much going on really. I finished knitting the pieces of Elspeth on Tuesday so you can expect a FO post on Monday. Also I spun another couple of skeins of wool this week on my drop spindle. Ummm, oh yes. If you've ever submitted a design to MagKnits that has either been published already or has been accepted for one of our future issues you should have received an email from me yesterday. If you didn't receive anything please let me know as soon as possible, I'd hate for you to miss the opportunity to submit something to the MagKnits book proposal that I'm working on... Its all good!
Posted by Kerrie at 06:33 AM
Posted by Kerrie
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