Knitting madly

Last Saturday at Marta's I fell deeply in love with some luscious dark slubby that reminded me of overipe blackberries. I had to make something... quickly... now. Despite the fact that I'm trying to spend all my knitting time getting Scott's jumper finished, I decided a little quickie on the side was called for.
So last Sunday at Restore, armed with 100g slubby and sparkly 15mm addi circulars, I cast on and finished (instant satisfaction!) this garter stitch collar.

It's simply knitted as a strip, 12 stitches wide, with a section of stocking stitch at the end. The start end is stitched in place over the stocking stitch section to form a double layer at the front.

It looks great with all the black in my wardrobe and has been worn several times this week already, including this morning as I stood on the sidelines of the Run to the G.

Sadly (yeah, right!) I wasn't able to do the run myself: I strained my foot doing a training run on Thursday night, and even walking for more than a few minutes it's really sore. So instead, rugged up to the eyeballs against the cold morning air, I hobbled my way between vantage points, knitting in public (on the front of Scott's jumper) to keep myself occupied as I waited for opportunities to cheer Scott and Robyn on. The sight of a crazy chick with sticks waving madly at them seemed to spur them on, and they both finished in less than 60 minutes. Well done guys!

PS I'm not the only one who succumbed to the charms of the satisfying quickie- Alison tells me she indulged in one this week too!

Enhanced weekend

I've had a fabulous weekend. There is nothing like spending time with good friends sharing ideas, experiences, excitements, and creative passions.

Saturday was an indulgent day long stash enhancement expedition with Alison and our mutual friend Deborah, meandering our way across town to take in the sights and textures at Lulu, AK Traditions, Patchwork on Central, Marta's and Sunspun.

Fortified by breakfast at (the oh so hip and delicious) Las Chicas, and multiple coffees and sweet treats en route, we returned home with an extensive and inspiring booty, and heads full of new ideas.

I have to say that I wasn't the one with the most yarn stash additions at the end of it all, but I came away well pleased on the yarn front with a ball of blackened purple and green slubby (more on that later) and some matching blackened purple 8ply from Martas, destined to become a neck scarf and some gloves respectively. The colour is so deep and dark- it makes me think of overly ripe, juicy blackberries. Yum! (For those of you that haven't been there, I must say that the true deliciousness of Marta's doesn't come through at all on their website. You really need to visit the shop yourself to see why go there often!)


Today was full of knitting (after I survived running 5.25km this morning), including a stitchy gathering at Restore Cafe. Alison and I headed there after another pit stop at Marta's, and were joined by Deborah, Robyn, Kylie, Jacqueline, Nichola and Suzette. (Suzette had also been for a lap of The Tan this morning, in anticipation of the Run to the G next weekend)

Coffees were consumed, stories and patterns swaped, garments displayed, photos taken, yarn wound, and new knitting projects were started and finished. Amongst the knitted creations on display were Alison's Clapotis, Nichola's red Devil Pants (just awaiting the devil tail), Kylie's silk scribble scarf and pink free-formed skirt (the cause of much papparazi like photographing), Jacqueline's finished Salina and Deborah's mittens for her little girl (made with wool she bought yesterday!).

Kylie and Robyn also disappeared to Marta's for an hour or so, emerging with pink and blue (respectively) finds. Some action photos of Robyn, Jacqueline and Kylie:

Adventures on Vanilla Island*, Episode 1

Existing vanilla stash: approx 400ml

Countermeasure: Nichola’s Vanilla Cookies.



Nikki-shell kindly shared with me a secret recipe that she uses (with great success) at her work (She’s a pastry chef) on a daily basis. Go and visit Nikki and be really really nice to her if you want to swap trade secrets too.

This basic cookie dough burns up 1 to 2 tsp of vanilla essence (given the present size of the vanilla stash, I went full throttle and used two) is mixed and then chilled in sausages before being sliced and baked. I’ve never made cookies this way before. It was fun, made heaps of cookies, and is open to many variations with added cocoa, nuts, choc chips and so on. And what’s more, they taste really yummy and are frighteningly addictive.

Resultant vanilla stash: approx 390ml

Required number of batches of Nichola’s Vanilla Cookies to consume remaining vanilla stash: 39 (Mmmm that’s a lot of cookies…)

*Not to be confused with Sleeve Island, this is somewhere I’m happy to be marooned. I recently discovered that whilst I am not ordinarily an extreme stash artist, a vanilla essence collection has coalesced in the pantry. Adventures on Vanilla Island will chronicle my forays into the kitchen to slowly consume it (Scott has put in special request for this to be a low calorie exercise, which will be hard, but I'll do my best... I'm sure my co-workers will help with the consumption side of things too).

Speared fish

LOOK!


I finished! I even managed to finish with about 20 hours to spare, which meant I could relax on Sunday and catch up with a few friends without feeling like I was struggling to fit everything into my weekend.

I am also pleased to report that they went down very well as a gift for Scott's mum, and the fit is perfect. Woo-hooo!!

And for my next socks... Mmmmm, so hard to decide... Which yarn, which pattern?