Finished

This is A’s sweater finally done! I used this pattern to figure out the shaping. I have had a sweater returned to me before, because it would not fit over my friend’s son’s head. So fearing the sister would be equally bigheaded I used EZ cast-off method, where you weave the thread in and out of the stitches using a sewing needle. This results in a very stretchy and pretty edge. I hope it will work!The swirls on the front are done with a crochet hook. I kept the yarn on the back of the fabric and pulled it up through a loop on the crochet hook.

The yarn is Cottonlicious from Sweaterkits in the colours: Spring Green, Hot Pink, Soft Pink and Soft Yellow. Because of the slight nubbly texture the yarn is not easy to knit with, especially when it is patterned. I like the feel of the knitted fabric. It is nice and soft. The other thing that I have noticed is a strange chemical smell of the yarn. I am very sensitive to smells and it is very faint, so somebody else might not notice it at all.

Oh, and I also bought a cooking set for the little girl. My husband pointed out, that it will work well for throwing it at one of her 3 older brothers. It is not made of plastic, you see.

I have noticed that my Spam-Eater swallowed 12 comments before I had a chance to check them. I am very sorry, if your comment ended there. I’ll be more careful in the future!

On the drying rack: Superhero, the colours of polished steel, aluminum and spandex.

On Schedule

When I started out having a real household, I asked one of my best friends for advice, how to keep up with everything. She has a large house, three boys who like to get dirty and does a lot of volunteer work. What she told me is, to have a weekly schedule and to plan a chore ( uh, several chores) for each day.

I have kept that up almost religiously, because it makes it possible, to have time for something else, but still keep things in order. Let’s face is, there is always something, that needs to be done. If I do my laundry on Mondays, on Thursday I might give the laundry basket a hard stare, but then I will turn away and do something else.

I like to give things a rythm, a schedule. When it comes to dyeing yarn or baking bread, there is always this change between a lot to do and then just wait. The waiting is often crucial, but then you have to be there for the action. When is the best time to start? Am I going to be home, to give the bread the folding it needs every hour? Will there be enough light to take a nice picture of the yarn? All this needs to be planned.

Keeping everything calm and steady, I hope, I can post 2 skeins every weekday in the upcoming weeks. We’ll see!

The picture on top shows “French Toast”, which I dyed yesterday.

Gone Sour

 I have dyed 2 skeins of yarn today. They are drying right now. One is  a striped yarn in gold and black, the other is the colourway Rhodo as a special request. I am very happy, that I can dye again. I enjoy it so much!

While I cooked dinner last night, I also made a Cheesecake. It is a recipe whith a bottom made of breadcrumbs, butter and sugar. The filling has cream cheese, sour cream and eggs. This cake has to go into the oven.

When P. “cleaned” the spoon, she pulled a face. I was a bit surprised and went over the recipe again. Sure enough there was no sugar in the filling. The recipe is from a well-known German cookbook and I am quite surprised about this mistake. I googled similar recipes and added 120g of sugar. There, much better! 

Oh, and do you know, what can go wrong, when you try to start a sourdough culture?

• You forget to feed it. ( It wants breakfast and dinner, thank you)
• You accidentally turn off the oven light, which results in an oven that is too cold for the little buggers
• You forget, that you have a tender sourdough culture in your windowless oven and turn on the heat to bake a cake

I managed to make all three of these mistakes!

I Got It

Some of the yarn, that I have ordered, arrived today! Yeah! I have many plans for new colourways. I better get moving!

A Little Notebook

I had this leftover Cardstock and I made a little notebook out of it, using these instructions. It is 6 1/2 by 4 1/2 inches large and contains 20 sheets of paper. The paper has a 5 by 5mm graph on one side and is plain on the other. I will use it to write down my knitting notes. The graph paper is neat for making a little chart.

I think, the Cardstock is really pretty. I got it in White Rock at Country Lane Crafts. I will probably add a protective sleeve out of clear plastic and maybe a penholder. It  fits nicely in my knitting bag.