Blanket madness

I have decided to (maybe) finish one of my many blanket WIPs before I embarked on another blanket adventure. I love the Beekeeper's Quilt or the Hexipuff, as I call it. I envisage that to be a LONG term project - one which will take years and years to complete!

So, in a rare moment of focus, I sewed up tons of small miters into bigger miters and joined up all the miters into strips and then, the 3 strips together. This is what I got. It's a good lap-sized blanket (3x4 squares). Hubby decided that it was too small and it needs to be at least 4x5 squares - so here I am knitting a yet more squares. I haven't even thought about the edging - and that will require more focus.

Kim - my summer tank was a little creation from me. It was knitted in the round from bottom up with no shaping. It would be the perfect top if I could find the right yarn. The bamboo tape is annoying!

Summer tank

I have knitted myself a summer tank in Rowan Bamboo Tape that was on sale few ago. I now know why it was on sale. It grows, and grows, and grows and i think it's still growing some more. And the annoying thing is that I made a swatch and washed it and took into consideration that it would grow. Oh well - you live and learn. Anyway, here it is when it still vaguely fits me!

My baby's all grown up

The one thing I dislike about summer holidays - how little time I have. Blink and suddenly it's mid August. I swear - how did that happen?? There's one important event that happens in August - Zoe's birthday! She turned 4 earlier in the month (again - where does the time go!!) We had a little party for her. I knitted her a cute little sundress. She's happy as a clam. Happy birthday my little darling.

Knit Nation part 2

Knit Nation was amazing. It was fun. I had a great time catching up with old friends, making new friends and honing new skills. I was part of the volunteer crew again this year. But this year, my friend, Kate and I were in charge of the Knit Nation and Socktopus Stand. We were selling Knit Nation merchandise of mugs and projects bags and Sokkusu O yarns. It's the first time where we've had a range of the colourways available to purchase. Everyone seemed to enjoy being able to fondle the yarn - which is amazingly squishy and soft!

This was the selection of colours that we had - most of them proved very popular.
And we had a selection of socks knitted up in the yummy yarns. No - I didn't knit all of them. I knitted 1 pair - the red ones! The socks will be appearing in Alice's new book - Socktopus.
The trouble with manning a yarn stall is that after 3 days of being surrounded by yarn, I didn't have much desire to shop for yarns! Isn't that just awful! Fear not - I did buy some yarns, a project bag and some fun notions. But that's for another post!

Knit nation - Part 1 - all about the shawls!

I've suddenly realised that I haven't updated my blog in ages!!!! So - firstly, I must apologise for not doing that. Secondly - it was because I've been super busy doing mummy things - like attending the children's Summer concerts, end of term parties, birthday parties etc,etc and also getting ready for Knit Nation!

Alice from Socktopus was showcasing the Sokkusu yarn at the show. I had volunteered to knit up some shawl samples for the show. In the period of 4 weeks (give or take a day or two), I transformed myself into a shawl knitting monster and finished (and blocked!) 3 shawls!! Dear readers - if you're surprised, so was I.

The first shawl I finished was a Swallowtail in Sokkusu O in Denim Blue. The only modification I made was to not knit the nupps in the edgings, not because I don't like them, but because I wasn't sure if I'd have enough yardage. Looking at what I have left, I needn't have worried!!

Next up is Gail (aka Nightsongs) in Sokkusu O in Fontainebleu. I made 1 small modification in the pattern - I didn't knit the double YO's in the centre of the shawl, instead I knitted a centre stitch. Looks pretty good!


Last but not least, it's Gingko Shawlette in Sokkusu O in Goldenrod. This shawl nearly didn't get finished on time! I finished it at 12.30 midnight and was blocking by 1 am. By the time I took it to Knit Nation at 7am in the morning, it was still slightly damp! I think the shawlette is a bit on the small side. I think I will undo the edging and make a few more repeats of the leaves.

One final word - it's about the yarn! It is sooo lovely to knit with. It's a high twist, superwash merino - custom milled for Socktopus. It's extremely squishy and soft. The stitch definition is amazing. Anyway, I'll sign off now - as that's more than 1 word. My next post will be about KNIT NATION and the amazing time I had!!!

Strawberry Pimms cupcake

I've been busy on the baking front - cupcake baking, to be exact. The task was set on cupcake challenge to bake up cupcakes using at least 2 of the 6 ingredients as set. This month's ingredients are strawberries, Pimms No 1, lemonade, orange, mint and cucumber. I've gone for the easy combination of strawberry, Pimms and lemonade. I made a Pimms syrup and soaked the strawberries in it (for the adults). For the kids, I soaked the strawberries in a lemonade syrup. I used a basic vanilla cupcake recipe and placed the strawberries in the middle of each cupcake. The icing is some fresh double cream whipped with a small amount of icing sugar.

It turned out really well. I think for the adults, I'll drizzle some Pimms over the cupcakes for an added kick. Yum!

Wollmeise

My BFF had a road trip to to Germany which included a trip to Munich. You know what's just outside of Munich -The Wollmeise Store. I researched into colours which I liked, gave her a list and this is what I got. (Actually, the Turkise Markise and Graf Ratz was from Marja in her destash, and My Old Blue Jeans and petit Poison No5 Light was from Knit Nation last year)


I notice I like certain colours, quite dark colours.