Vogue Knitting....much too many temptations.

Today my latest issue of Vogue Knitting arrived, the early fall issue. I should not have opened the package because I spied this:

My Ishbel was immediately cast aside into a hiding place. I've had this yarn for a few years, it's Alpaca with a Twist Fino in Royal Velvet - I've been looking for a nice pattern for a long time and now I've finally found it!

The issue has quite a few projects that I would really like to make. There are some gorgeous cardigans.








I had exciting news from Belinda (Blendy) that her sock book launch will be at the Dux De Lux in Christchurch on the 21st August, 12.30-2.30. I'm really looking forward to this, I'm currently dyeing new sock yarn skeins for the event and I have some new yarn bases too.

I will be at the Christchurch event but not at the other events in the North Island although I am going to be sending some yarns up to Belinda to take along to the launches.

The book is available for pre-order and the details are on Belinda's website: www.blendy.co.nz.

My yarn that's featured in the book is the colourway that I dyed for the 2nd New Zealand sampler box - Metallic Plum.

Here are the socks that were knit with my yarn, I think they look really great:

What a busy month....

I cannot believe it's been so long since I posted here.... weeks have passed...I have had a rather busy but productive month.

Firstly projects, I've knitted many things recently and I'm trying to knit quick baby items in between my own projects. I have a friend in England who's baby is due in 6 weeks and another friend who has 4 1/2 months to go. I've also been dyeing whenever I can squeeze it in and working full time hours at the day job.

Here are a few recent finished projects:

Ishbel knitted for Clasheen in the recent Color Swap 7. She loved it. I dyed the yarn in her favorite colours.

A pair of Monkey socks for my Sister in Law's birthday next month

BSJ for my friend Amy's baby (a girl). I finished this a while ago but it's been sat waiting for its I-Cord edging adding. It's now finished and ready to mail to England.

Monkey Socks for myself, knitted in Hydrangea, this was the first ever sock yarn I dyed, it's much nicer in real life than it appears in the picture.

A Backyard Leaves scarf for myself, my first Dream In Color Classy- love the yarn.

A Gretel Hat for myself, again knitted in Dream In Color Classy. Love it.










I have started a new Ishbel in Sublime Sock Yarn (merino/silk) which I dyed in Oriental Red. I am thinking that I may end up sending it to my Mother In Law because I know she would really love it.

I dyed up some bulky weight skeins as an experiment in my shop, to see if they sell. I have had many conversations about this with my friends that also dye/sell and we all seem to think that DK, worsted, bulky etc doesn't/won't sell. I had a few skeins of DK weight and worsted in my shop, lovely colours but I only ever sold one of them. I didn't mind because I have knitted them up myself now. So I have 3 skeins to list, we shall see what happens.

On the baking front I made these:

Choux buns filled with chantilly cream and fudgy chocolate topping. Very naughty but nice, I made 16 of them. I ate one then made my Husband take the rest to work!

Patchwork and quilting...resurrected

As soon as I saw this quilt on the cover of the current issue of Down Under Quilts, I knew I had to make it, I love it, the colour and design are really my taste and I haven't made a quilt in a long time. At the back of my mind were thoughts regarding my fabric stash.... I admit it: I have four 1 cubic meter boxes that are full of fabrics I have collected over the years. Surely this would be a great way to use some of it up? Upon closer examination of the fabric requirements I saw that the only fabric I need to purchase is 1.75 mtr of off white plain fabric for the background squares (but I could use some tone on tone white and cream fabrics I already have and make it more scrappy looking) along with some nice quality batting. Some of the fabrics required only need to be 3 inches square and I have bags and bags of scraps to use.

The problem I have is .... should I be starting this when I am halfway through knitting a cobblestone sweater for my Husband, a Coraline AND a twisted cable cardi for myself, I need to knit 2 hats for my boys, another Moch for myself and I wanted to get back into my spinning again.

The leaf motifs are all hand appliqued and I could do this when I feel like a change from knitting, which is hardly ever to be honest, but I think it could be a long term Winter project for me. I know it will take me ages to sort through my fabric stash and pick out suitable shades.

I have postcards to blog about, sat waiting patiently on my desk, but I will keep those for next time.

MORE PROGRESS.....

I finally finished my February Lady Sweater and I love it. I am so looking forward to wearing it when the cooler weather arrives. I found perfect buttons too:

Today I made a Pyramid Project Bag, in a gorgeous teal colour Japanese style fabric. It has a white lining and I made it fairly large so it can hold good sized projects:

Here is my cake of the week, a Blueberry & Apple Muffin Cake. I made up the recipe myself as I was getting weary of following recipes that either didn't work out or were way too sweet. It's a really good cake, made in the food processor but I am sure it would be fine made by another method. It's not very sweet and the fruit makes it nice and moist, it's the kind of thing I like to eat for breakfast when I am rushing off to work at the crack of dawn and cannot bear the thought of toast (I am not a big breakfast eater). I love to use the most sour apples I can find and the blueberries are ones we picked a few weeks ago, we have 5 kg of them in the freezer so keep checking back for more blueberry recipes.

Blueberry & Apple Muffin Loaf

125g Chilled Butter, diced

225g Self Raising Flour

150g Caster Sugar

2 large eggs beaten

1/4 cup of buttermilk (you may need a little more depending on the flour)

1 large eating apple (or 2 small), peeled, cored and very thinly sliced

125g blueberries, fresh or frozen

1. Preheat the oven to 190/170 fan/gas 5. Grease and line a 900g loaf tin (I use a long narrow loaf tin).

2. Sieve the flour into the bowl of a food processor with a pinch of salt. 

3. Add the cubed butter and process until it looks like fine breadcrumbs. 

4. Add the sugar and eggs and whizz again, then add the buttermilk and whizz until you have a nice soft cake batter.

5. Spoon half of the mixture into the tin and spread it out, scatter with 2/3 of the blueberries and apple slices. 

6. Put the rest of the cake mixture on the top and spread gently with a spoon, scatter over the remaining fruits

7. Bake for 45 mins to 1 hour depending on your oven, mine takes exactly 50 mins. The cake is cooked when a skewer inserted into the centre comes put clean.

8. Cool in the tin for 30 mins, then turn out onto a rack. It will keep for a few days in an airtight container (if it lasts that long!) The cake also freezes really well if you wrap it in thick foil.

PROGRESS...

I have made good progress on my February Lady Sweater, I have just inches to do, I must remember to buy buttons for it when I am in town tomorrow.

I have been working on a colourway for the New Zealand Sampler Box which I am taking part in next month...my contribution is still under wraps at the moment but I will post more about this very soon.

It was quite a stressful week for me really, my dog Molly was hit by a car on Monday but she is on the mend thank goodness. It was her 9th birthday the day it happened poor thing, she was chasing rabbits, we are overrun with them at the moment. So I have been fairly housebound since as I didn't want to leave her home alone, good thing that I had a weeks holiday from work. So I did a bit of baking, a bit of dyeing and quite a lot of housework.
Apricot Frangipane Tarts:

Blueberry and Apple Loaf:

Recent hand painted fibre updates in my Etsy store: http://serenknitty.etsy.com

LEMONS AND LIMES.....

I made Lemon Curd today, it is a family favorite. I bought Sunkist Lemons from California yesterday for this reason. I am a great believer in eating local produce yet when it come to lemons I prefer to buy the imported ones, I find the ones grown here lack in juice, they are very dry and often very thick skinned. I remember once having to buy 2 kg of them to get 300 ml of juice! I make lots of different jams and chutneys but this is my most requested. It amazes me how so few ingredients (below+sugar) can make something so wonderful. The recipe I use makes 4 regular sized jars of Curd. I had to make fresh home baked bread to go with it now didn't I?

So the bread maker is on and everyone keeps nipping into the kitchen and checking the countdown display on the machine to see how much longer they have to wait for fresh bread....

My bread machine has been stored away for over 2 years. When I lived in England I used it at least 3 times a week, I had 2 favorite recipes that I continuously used: a basic white loaf and an oatmeal loaf. We emigrated here and waited forever for our shipping container to arrive and I remember the day after getting the bread machine out of the box and putting it on. The loaf was a complete disaster, closely resembling an house brick. I tried again over the following weeks, many times, tried all the different brands of bread flour and the results were awful every time. Then someone told me that the flour in New Zealand does not have a high gluten content and that is why it would not rise the bread. So I went to the Mediterranean food shop and bought some 00 Italian flour. I have used this flour to bake bread by hand and it came out perfect. That is what is in the machine today and I am feeling hopeful of the outcome.

On my travels this morning I made an impulse purchase... yet more wool. I did have a specific project in mind though (so that justifies my purchase!) I bought 12 balls of Cleckheaton Country Silk 8 ply in a gorgeous shade of green which matched my limes perfectly:

The yarn was on sale (I think it was half the normal price) which made it a great bargain purchase plus I had a gift voucher for that store. I have just cast on for the February Lady Sweater (please excuse the shabby garden seat cushions in pic above, they really need a wash!) The only thing I am not sure about are the nobbly bits in the yarn, I am hoping they will grow on me. I usually opt for smooth yarns. It is really nice and soft and I am going to try my best to get this finished before I start my KAL shawl on the 20th March, so that gives me 10 days.

LEMONS

Tomorrow there will be Lemon Curd, maybe Lime too...