glittyknittykitty

Spring slippers

French Press Felted Slippers by Melynda Bernardi

I just felted these on to the polysytrene foam foot lasts which arrived this morning. THey have been waiting for them for a good while, and as soon as the felting was done, I dried on the radiator. After trimming the extra pieces over the foot to a nice shape, and adding some lovely buttons given to me by Liane, they are done.

I love them.

They are a great pair of slippers.

The colour is superb, the buttons match perfectly, they are snuggly warm.
The details are over at Ravelry.

But.

They are too big.

I suspect they will become a gift.

Gutted.

I may make them again - smaller.....

Spring, more BAMS7, kitty and a national treasure

Bulbs are starting to spring. This is the rest of my BAMS7 parcel - Dutch smellies. Nice!
Greebo looking happy with yarn, and Patrick Moore on the telly. Why? trying out taking pictures of the telly with my camera..... And he is a national treasure.

Yarnbombing happened today in Newcastle

Guerilla knitters hit Newcastle today in advance of Maker faire hitting town for the second time as part of ScienceFest. Co-incidently it coincides with AV2010.

I have too much on at the moment to have takne part in today's knitting shenanigans, but I am pleased that many local knitters took part :). Well done!

BAMS7 - thank you sparkleannemieke!

I love the Books and More Swaps on Ravelry. My swap parcel arrived this week from the Netherlands. I love everything in it! As well as all the yarny goodness you can see here, there was a huge bar of milk chocolate, and some nice bathroomy soapy things which I don't yet have pics of, as they are still in the box.I just had to take the yarny things to Cnturion Knitters this morning.

WIPs

Deep V Argyle Vest, Lace Cardie, Fireside Cardie, Ritzy:

Normal service will resume soon

Work is manic. Little time to do much apart from keep the flat clean and tidy, and try to keep myself healthy.

And then a camera failure.

So no pics.

Replacement camera - pics soon. Of knitting.

Give me a couple of days and I will post again with more arresting content.

Of course Scumkitten may treat you before then, but as we work for the same organisation, she is just as manic as me. But she has a working camera..... And is much more erudite then I when she applies herself to fiction. But we are both busy with earning pennies right now....

New specs

It's only on seeing this pic that I realise how much the red has faded on my hair. I shall book an appointment to be enreddened immediately!

Anyway these are new new specs - my eyes are slowly getting worse and I needed new lenses and the frames were half price so why not? They are Vivienne Westwood, and very nice too. Narrow enough to peer threateningly over the top of.

Citron

The only pic that was usable from today's photo shoot. The rest just didn't capture the colour. I shall try again tomorrow for a shot of the whole thing. This is it after blocking today. It's lovely! I would highly recommend this yarn. Details at Ravelry.

I'm in the groove

Sundays are cooking days at the moment. The weather is rubbish, and so soup making is high on the agenda. If I make a couple of batches on a Sunday and freeze in portions, they keep me going for lunches all week at work. Stewed fruit with porridge contributes to the minimum 5 a day, and dinners only add to it with a side salad, cooked veg and a main.

It feels good to be this organised about how I am eating, and whatever happens, I know I am eating healthily, which means I should be able to fend off seasonal viruses. Seems to be working. I keep waking up feeling coldy, but it soon seems to disappear.I think I have fended it off 4 times now....

I finished my Citron shawl, with 2 extra sections added, meaning my cast off edge had nearly 70o stitches. It took me three attempts, but it is done. I am knitting a lacy top in kid silk night from Rowan Studio 12 and am going to start Eunny Jang's Deep V Argyle Vest next as a(nother) companion project.

Pics soon. Post Citron blocking.

Who wants a muffin?

Breakfast banana muffins, recipe from the Moosewood Low Fat Cookbook.

NYOM!

January knitting

I thought I might finish some WIPs which have been hanging around a while. Trouble is, none of them are suitable for knitting on the bus to work, or taking to my two knitting groups. They are too complicated for social knitting, requiring concentration and splendid isolation to work on comfortably: my streming leaves linen yoga blanket, my Japanese Feather shawl, my Tapestry Cowl and my Apres Surf Hoodie are all sofa-at-home projects. This left me with a dilemma, as I wanted to spend January finishing off so I could cast on a whole set of new and exciting things. But out of necessity I have been forced to cast on a new and easy project (yay!) after finishing my French Press Slippers this weekend. I shall be working on Citron next time you see me out and about with my knitting. And a nice easy relatively brainless project it is, just what I needed. But its also really pretty ad practical!

Sweet potato, smoked paprika and peanut soup

This is SO yummy.

2 tablespoons vegetable oil (peanut oil is great for this recipe)
1 large onion, finely chopped
2/3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
4 oz mushrooms finely chopped
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika - either sweet or hot. You may want to use less chilli if you go for hot. I use hot and keep the same amount of chilli. I like mine spicy.
1/2 inch fresh ginger root, peeled and finely grated
1 1/2 pints vegetable stock
2 large sweet potatoes, 1 peeled and chopped into cubes, the other one should be pre-cooked and mashed.
1 can tomatoes
Half a jar smooth peanut butter - not the sweetened US variety, it needs to be unsweetened.

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan and add the onion, garlic and mushrooms. Cook gently until soft.
2. Add the chilli, paprika and ginger and cook for a couple of minutes.
3. Add the stock, tomatoes, raw sweet potato and simmer until tender.
4. Liquidize until smooth.
5. Add the cooked sweet potato and the peanut butter and stir gently until thoroughly mixed.

This looks like its going to be a thin soup, but the addition of the cooked sweet potato and peanut butter makes it thicken up a lot.

Mixed martial arts and crafts

Thank you very much for my Ninja knitters t-shirt! It was a birthday present - you know who you are :) I love the description on the fashionably geek website:

The master ninja strikes quickly, kicks your ass, knits you an ugly sweater and fades away without a trace.

I would (it goes without saying) delete the 'an ugly' and replace it with 'a stupendous'.

Rowan free gift 2009 - Lace Scarf by Sarah Hatton

Details at Ravelry. I love this piece in Pure Wool 4ply, eau-de-nil colourway, though it is actually more of a duck egg blue. Warm, and gorgeous to wear wrapped round my neck three times. It is knitted in a long scarf shape with a provisional cast on which becomes a graft to form a circular shape - which is such a great idea!

Tallulah is modelling with it wrapped twice around her neck; it's more cosy wrapped three times in the current weather.

Selbu modern

Details at Ravelry. Finished after several false starts trying to decide on colourways. I like how this has turned out.