Happy Halloween!

Amazing

A while ago I ordered a few skeins of silk yarn in lace weight. I was amazed when I finally got it. I have never seen anything like it.

It is a very strong 2ply, but at the same time extremely soft. It has a beautiful sheen to it and looks very luxurious.

I have dyed it in this lovely shade of silver and now it has the look of liquid metal. It will look amazing in any lace project especially if you add beads or sequins.

I have named it Quicksilver.

 

Halloween Sugar Cookies

My children were invited to a Halloween party yesterday, where they had to bring a treat to share. So I took out my favourite recipe for sugar cookies and my Spider-and-Web cookie cutters.

I have a weakness for cookie cutters. So when I saw these here a few years ago I could not resist.

This is the recipe:

1 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp nutmeg
pinch salt

Take away about 1/4 of the dough and add 2 Tbsp of cocoa powder to that. Use this for the spiders.

 The dough needs to rest for at least 1 hour in the fridge before rolling it out. Bake at 350 F for about 11 minutes.

For the icing I used Icing Sugar mixed with a bit of milk until smooth and only slightly runny. To draw the spiderweb on the cookie I used a #2 tip.  

Look At These Marigold Socks!

Marigold SocksOriginally uploaded by Lamby Knits

Lamby Knits made these wonderful socks out of Sunnyside Ellen yarn in the colourway Blue Lagoon. It was actually her idea to dye the colourway striped and not variegated.

I love, how these socks turned out. Thank you so much for showing them to me and to allow me to blog about them. I believe the pattern is from here. It is very pretty!

Fair Isle Flower Sock

The Snowflake Sock pattern in the latest Interweave Knits inspired me to come up with my own version of a Fair Isle Sock. What you see here is actually version 4, I believe, because either the design did not work out or the sock did not fit me feet or both.

First I wanted to design something that resembled a rose, but it turned out as an undefinable blob. Then I had issues with the fit. Fair Isle knitting is not very stretchy, so denying the fact, that my ankles are more sturdy than graceful looking resulted in a sock that got stuck. Sigh!

But I must say, I like how it looks so far. I wanted something less geometrical and less structured than the snowflake pattern. The yarn I am using is my own Louet Gems. The white is straight off the cone and will bloom somewhat when washed. The other one is a transitional yarn and I am looking forward to the next colour coming up!

When I knit with two colours I usually carry one in each hand, but I found this too difficult ( and time consuming) with the DPNs. So I ordered this nifty little tool. At first I was a bit disappointed because it seemed quite flimsy. But I have to say, it works very well for me and the clasp closes tightly. It is also quite comfortable on my finger.

I have since learned that you can also wear a large ring on your finger and use that to keep the strands separated.