Knitting With Love

I have recently finished these socks for my niece with my leftover Poprocks yarn. As something special I have added small hearts into the heel. The heels are knit with slipped stitches, but the hearts are knit with regular stockinette stitch, which makes them slightly raised. I think they are very cute.

I have also tried a new cast-on recommended in The Handknitter’s Handbook. You cast-on using the tubular cast-on and on the first row you knit and purl almost like you normally would, you just twist the purl stitches. I think it works well.

Here is the chart, if you want to add hearts to your heels:

And here you can find it in a pdf document for easy printing.

What is growing here?

Last week it rained a lot and then the temperature fell below freezing. Now there are tiny ice-sculptures shooting out of the ground like mushrooms. And when I say ground I should say mole-hills ; )

The Queen of Treats

Look, what was delivered to my door:

I am so excited about my first, very own spinning wheel! The decision to buy one was not easy. I had been thinking about it for 2 years. First of all they are not cheap and then I am very busy as it is. How much time will I have to actually spin? Will it end up gathering dust in a corner while I feel bad about it?

The reason why I decided to buy it is that I enjoy spinning immensely and I almost love knitting with handspun yarns even more. So I treated myself to something fun even though I might not find a lot of time for spinning or I might never quite get the hang of it. Not everything in life has to be sensible, right?

So here I am already planning my first project, immersed in my spinning books whenever I have a moment:

• Intertwined by Lexi Boeger
• Start Spinning by Maggie Casey
• Creative Spinning by Alison Daykin and Jane Deane

Oh, the possibilities!

Solar Powered Art

Back in the good old days, when there was still some sunshine to be had, my son made these with a magnifying glass:

Munchings and Crunchings

The one crop that did really well this year are my beloved apples! They grow in our front yard and we know that it is time to harvest them when we catch a squirrel stealing one. This year I not only found a completely ( except for the core) eaten apple still hanging on the tree ( It looked somewhat comical), but  my husband caught a newspaper carrier climbing over the shrubs and taking an apple! Which is proof that my apples are irresistible and apparently better than store bought ; )

 

I have made apple pie, apple cake and these:

 

I LOVE Caramel Apples. I used the recipe for soft caramels from here. ( Tip: Half the recipe. It is plenty) I was very surprised how long it took for the caramel to reach its final temperature. I would guess you need about 1 hour from start to finish.

I did not have any light corn syrup, but a golden one so that my caramel is a bit darker. The sticks are from Michael’s.

Hmmm, they were delicious. I want more!

No, I did not eat them all by myself. I shared… generously … Oh, alright there was a little bit of fighting!