Let me eat cake!

Thank you all so much for your comments and emails, I'm still working on returning them!
In order to not spend too much time knitting, I've spent more time baking. I've always loved baking because it lets me create something from scratch in a relatively short amount of time which others get to enjoy as well (I am a bit selfish when it comes to sharing other crafty output, bf socks excluded). I tend to stick to my favorite cakes from my childhood, but with all the wonderful recipes available on the internet, I've been trying to expand the repetoire (and hopefully not the waistline, tehee. How I love a bad pun.). Here are some old stand-by's, and a new recipe that's so good, I've made it twice already:

hmm, rhubarb crumble cake from my favourite food blog, delicious days. I love Nicky and Oliver's blog so much, they always post recipes I've been craving (lots of them good old Bavarian fare) and can never seem to find. It's getting a bit strange actually, I'll be intently thinking about something and visit their blog and they'll have posted about it! If you think German food is all about heavy, stomach cramps inducing dishes, you should go and take a look through their archive, if just for the amazing photography! Anyway, this recipe is just perfect. Tart, moist rhubarb and sweet crumbles are a match made in heaven. It's become bf's favorite. You can find it here.
Next, my grammy's sunken apple cake, or in German "versunkener Apfelkuchen", because the apples sink into the dough as it bakes. This is a very easy recipe that requires the apples to be coated in lemon juice. The result is a very light and fresh tasting cake that I can't get enough of.

The grooves are made by running a fork down the back of the quartered apples. It looks pretty and soaks up the lemon juice well.
When I get the craving for a little bit of chocolate, I make this recipe from an old roommate's cooking light cookbook (which I'd lost, then found again on their website). Marbled Chocolate Banana Bread:

Don't let that picture fool you, I usually mix the cocoa powder in the whole dough, so that there's chocolatey goodness everywhere, instead of it looking 'marbled'. What I love about this recipe is that it uses just half a stick of butter instead of oil. Most 'breads' you get in stores or coffee shops are too greasy for my taste, this version is not greasy at all, and may seem a bit dry to some palates. Just add a little bit of milk to the dough, or get a big cup of coffee or tea with your slice. I've made a few changes to their recipe: Instead of egg substitute, I use one real egg, instead of chocolate chips I use organic cocoa powder, plus a bit of milk to keep the dough moist enough. I mix my dough really well instead of "just combining it", because I don't like to bite down on bits and pieces of banana.
Ok, now back to knitting..or maybe I should go the gym...

Look who's back!

Wow, it's mid May, I can't believe how fast time went by. I had to take a break from crafting and blogging for awhile as I was sick through most of March and then had to recover from some whiplash I got in a small car accident. It all turned out to be a blessing in disguise though; at the beginning of the year I had felt a bit uninspired and uncreative, butI'm now pretty excited again about knitting and sewing, and rested enough to have the energy for it. To ease my body gently back into slouch position, I've finished a pair of socks in the loveliest yarn:

Sundara Yarn sock yarn in 'charcoal over rose'. The colors are so beautiful, and I wanted a simple but interesting pattern to show it off.

Specs:
Yarn: Sundara Yarn sock yarn in 'charcoal over rose'
Pattern: Snicket Socks from MagKnits
Needles: Us 1
Mods: I used the short row heel I always knit, instead of the one in the pattern. I also knit these socks a little shorter than all my other socks, as they will stretch out a bit over time from washing and wearing.

I'll have another pair of socks to show you very soon!
During the last few months my computer time has been limited as well, so I would like to apologize to everyone who has commented or asked me for a pattern or anything else without getting a response. Since it's not possible for me right now to wade through all the past emails, if there's anything you still need answered, please email me and I will get back to you as promptly as possible.
It's good to be back :-)

Not so Deep V Argyle Vest

Mental blocks are a curious thing. Why can I breeze through a pattern in a matter of weeks only to be waylaid for a month by something so simple as picking up stitches for the armbands and sewing down the neckband ends? The very thought sent shivers down my spine. A couple of weeks ago I had enough, sat down to my Eighties! playlist in i-tunes and finished that baby. Nothing like a good dose of Morrissey to get the hands moving.



Pattern: Deep V Argyle Vest by Eunny Jang
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas melange, 4 skeins of pesto and 3 skeins of relish (though I prefer to call those colors olive and green)
Needles: US 4
Mods: Plenty. I knit a big gauge swatch in the round, it made all the difference. My row gauge was off, instead of getting Eunny's 7.5 rows, I got 6 rows. Having to knit less rows is great, though I had to do a fair amount of adjustments to get a perfect fit. I divided the chart into three areas (beginning to waist, waist to bust, bust to end) and converted the actual number of pattern rows in each area to my gauge. I also wanted a little less plunge on my vest and moved the start of the neckband further up, and used tubular cast-on for better looks and more stretch. I'm very happy with my changes, my vest fits perfectly. It wasn't all beer and roses though. The steeking was easy, yet I didn't really trust the whole idea and ended up running a few seams with my sewing my machine along each crocheted edge, just to be safe. Blue Sky Alpaca is supposed to felt well (at least the scarf I saw at my lys made of BSA sportweight felted really well), but melange seemed a little slippery. It's beautiful yarn though, so soft, and really made me look forward to knitting.
Opinion: This is a great pattern, especially if you're new to fair-isle. Make sure you pick the right yarn and take the time to swatch and adjust the pattern to your stitch and row gauge. I put my vest on scrap yarn and tried it on multiple times to make sure it was ok. BSA is usually not within my budget, and I didn't want to mess it up. I love the warmth of the vest, worn with a thin silk blouse underneath it's perfect for SF climate.
The next couple of weeks will be devoted to my secret knit, but after that, I'll be working on the lovely Flicca coat by Anna. I've also been itching to sew again, thinking about quilt patterns.

Where did you get that yarn??

Just a couple of quick notes on the last post: The Malabrigo (hmmm-ahhh) is called pink frost, number 17. I got it at my LYS, but you can probably find it somewhere on the internet. The Yarntini sock yarn can be purchased
here. It sells out super fast so you may want to get on the mailing list.
Stay tuned for more socks, a polar bear and a 2006 review. Oh, and a vest. Soon :-)

Knits for others

I hope everyone had lovely holidays! Mine were relaxing and definitely not long enough. I made a few presents, socks for my boyfriend which you'll see in another post (of course they're in Lana Grossa, what else?), jewelry and cards. I forgot to take a picture of the cards, but here are the two gift knits I managed to do:

A pair of 2x2 rib socks in the lovely 'vintage' colorway from Yarntini, knit on US 2's. The tablecloth my feet are resting on inspired this colorway, I wanted something cute and stripey, but lacked the energy to take up dyeing as yet another hobby. But there are fabulous people on the internet who help make your ideas come true, and soon enough I had a skein of sockyarn in my hands that I didn't want to unwind, it was so pretty. Initially I meant to make socks for myself, but a sweet girl at work was going through some rough times, and since she had admired the colors when I was knitting during lunch, I decided to gift them to her. Good thing she has the same shoe size.
I also made a simple garter stitch scarf for my niece with one skein of Malabrigo.

My hands start to twitch whenever I think of its softness. I definitely see a Malabrigo sweater or cardi in my future. Maybe a Malabrigo blanket, or wait, even better, a sleeping bag...or a head to toe body suit! Ahhhh, soooft.

The sweetest words

A girl could her from her squeeze:
"Will you teach me how to knit (omg, is he really asking me to teach him to knit, that is so awesome, I never thought he would ask!!) a pair of socks (what??? Oh no. Not socks, way to complicated, lets see if I can divert)
"That's great, but how about we start you on a scarf first?"
"No, I want to make a pair of socks for you"
Aaahhhh. So sweet. How can I squash his ambitions now? And why not socks, he's good at figuring stuff out quickly. So what will bf find under the ficus on Christmas Eve? His very own yarn! I haven't quite figured out what to pick, though trust me, it'll be aran weight or bigger. Any suggestions?
I've been busy with knitting. Bf's Christmas socks are finished and I started his birthday pair. The argyle vest is still waiting for its collar and armbands. After having breezed through the pattern, I'm experiencing a strange stiffling fear about these last few things that need to be done. Here's a picture how the vest looked a few weeks ago.

Lovely Blue Sky Alpaca melange, you make me swoon! And then more swooning over this.
I already starting swatching for this lovely coat, with Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Chunky, but I'm having a hard time getting the regular k1p1 ribbing to look neat and even. I've tried to k1tbl, p1 on one row and p1tbl,k1 on the next, and that gets me better results. Are there any other tricks I could try?

Buttercup, at last.

I blame winter time. Plus bf has got all kinds of funny shifts at work, so it's hard to get some pictures taken. I had also run into serious finishing issues, but more on that later.
With buttons closed:

Sideview:

Buttons open:

Pattern: Buttercup by Kim Hargreaves, available from her website as a kit.
Yarn: 5 balls of Rowan Cotton 4ply in Ripple, knit with US 2 and US 1 needles.
Mods: Plenty.
This knit was an exercise in emotional detachement. So much went wrong, I won't bore you with the details, but I'll share a few things. Cotton lace patterns are stretchy! I'm glad I realized that early on, frogged, and cast on for the small size. The explanations for how to keep the lace pattern intact while doing armhole decreases are non-existent. I tried many times and resorted to sending Kim an email. Her mom replied the very next day (nice) with an explanation that was about 75% helpful. Once I got the gist of it, I was able to figure out the rest on my own. If you're making this and are having problems with the decreases, send me an email and I'll be happy to forward you my version. Trying to seam this was a nightmare. If I had listened to my inner knitter, I would have used two edge stitches before starting the lace pattern, instead of one. The seams looked terrible with either matress or backstitch because the lace pattern would never line up. I ended up using my sewing machine and the seams came out perfect. I did frog the sleeves and reknit them in the round (but they're tiny so it took me only an evening). Instead of knitting a separate tie, I picked up stitches on the bottom, knit a few rows garter stitch, then crocheted little loops for the buttons. Now it looks good whether I wear it open or closed with no funny ties dangling around. I'm happy with it, but I don't think I'll order another kit any time soon. Her designs are lovely, but it was a lot of money for a little shrug that could have been made a lot easier by adding a few more explanations to the pattern. The good side is that I learned a few lessons about what to put into a pattern and what to think of before I start a project.
There is so much stuff I've been working on these past weeks, bookbinding projects, jewelry, and more knitting. My Argyle vest is almost finished and hopefully I'll get some pictures of it next weekend! Bf is getting socks for Christmas again; I'm making a few sewn presents, but more on that next post. No, it's not going to be another month until then ;-)