shades of grey

I cast on for a Stripe Study shawl. I’ve been wanting to knit one for so long! I bought the yarn for it at the tail end of last year but for some reason I’ve been putting off casting on. I’m still working on the twisty socks, but I just couldn’t wait any longer for a Stripe Study!

I’ve worked about three inches further along the foot with the sock since I took this photo. I always find working on the foot the most enjoyable part of a sock. I love doing the heel flap and picking up the gusset stitches, but once you’re onto the foot it feels like the home stretch. Of course it doesn’t hurt that by the time you’ve made it this far you’re already pretty familiar with the pattern, and being able to knit plain stocking stitch for half of the round feels like a lovely welcome treat!

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bread and cookies

Confession time: I am a bargain hunter, and never more so than in the supermarkets, where my eyes are always on the lookout for those little brightly coloured reduced stickers. So when the Boy and I were wondering through the supermarket aisles yesterday afternoon and I spied a bottle of beautiful creamy Jersey milk reduced to just 24p, I couldn’t help myself. My mind instantly filled with thoughts of freshly baked warm cookies and a glass of cool creamy milk, and into the trolley the Jersey milk went.

Minutes later, the same thing happened down the fruit aisle with a bag of equally bargainous bananas, only this time it was thoughts of banana bread that grabbed me. I went through an obsession with banana bread a few years ago, where I would stop by the market in town on my way home from university and buy ridiculously large bags of bananas that I had no hope of finishing, just so that there would be plenty of overripe ones leftover that I could mash into banana bread. I’ve managed to curb my obsession since, but that still doesn’t stop me from passing over an opportunity for banana bread when one presents itself!

Banana Bread Recipe
adapted from Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Baking

3 mashed bananas
7.5oz / 230g plain flour
2.5oz / 75g wholemeal flour
2tsp baking powder
0.5tsp bicarbonate of soda
0.25tsp salt
0.25tsp cinnamon
1oz /30g chopped chocolate
1oz / 30g oats
2 eggs
2.5oz / 75g brown sugar (I used white sugar without any problems)
3oz / 90g melted butter
4fl oz / 125ml milk

Preheat oven to Gas Mark 4 and butter a loaf tin.

Mix together the dry ingredients (plain flour, wholemeal flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt, cinnamon, chopped chocolate and oats) and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and stir in the sugar, melted butter and milk. Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture in 3 batches, alternating with the mashed bananas. Mix until just combined but be careful not to overmix.

Pour the batter into the buttered tin and bake for about 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the bread comes out clean.

Leave to cool in the tin for about 5 minutes, and then turn out onto a cooling rack to cool completely. If you can wait that long…. I couldn’t, and the Boy and I only managed to wait about 20 minutes before helping ourselves to a couple of lovely warm slices!

This bread is delicious warm, cold, or lightly toasted and spread with a bit of butter. It’s also delicious with chopped toasted nuts added instead of the chocolate, or as well as if you’re feeling particularly indulgent.

But these cookies. Oh, these cookies.

They are all kinds of amazing. I am a sucker for oatmeal raisin cookies. Every time I dig in to a tub of Ben & Jerry’s I lament the fact that it isn’t my beloved and sadly discontinued Oatmeal Cookie Dough flavour, and I’m constantly craving the big chewy ones that the supermarkets sell in those waxed paper bags with the little plastic window. But they can be a little hit and miss, and sometimes they’re disappointingly crisp and dry. For years I’ve been searching for the perfect oatmeal raisin cookie recipe, because let’s face it, homemade is always better, but they’ve never been quite right. I think I might have finally cracked it though.

I adapted smitten kitchen’s thick, chewy oatmeal raisin cookies recipe (always with the adapting, but to be honest I very rarely follow a recipe exactly! I tend to use them more as springboards to something else, but that does sometimes make repeat results a little tricky) but added more raisins, a dash more vanilla and about twice as much cinnamon because I love the stuff. I was running low on brown sugar so I used white only, and I also chilled the dough for about 45 minutes. I then scooped it out into golf ball sized balls and then flattened them slightly before baking. I did a little experiment and flattened some of them out while leaving a few in a ball shape, and while they did all spread out I preferred the flattened cookies. The balled ones retained a bit of a dome shape and were a little bit too thick in the centre for my liking.

Strangely enough, I tried this recipe a few years ago and wasn’t overly thrilled with the results, but I think back then I made the cookies smaller and didn’t chill the dough.

Chilling certainly seemed to give this batch the edge that I was after. Warm from the oven last night, they were heavenly with crisp edges and lovely chewy centres, and they were just as good this morning at breakfast!

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done, done, done at last!

I finally did it! After finishing my Galileo socks I felt bad that I still hadn’t gotten around to sewing in all those ends for the Boy’s socks, so I grit my teeth, stuck some Lewis on and hunkered down with my tapestry needle. By the end of it I was thoroughly fed up with ends and finishing, but I’m glad it’s all done now. And the Boy is glad that he’s got another pair of socks to keep his toes toasty. Happy campers all around.

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twisted stitches

This sock is full of them. It’s taking a while, partly because I keep getting too engrossed in Catching Fire, and this isn’t exactly the best reading knit out there! More than once I’ve missed a mini cable out and had to drop down a few rows to fix it. I’m definitely getting some cable fixing practice in with this sock.

Still, I love how crisp the twisted stitches look, and I am absolutely loving how this yarn is knitting up. I was really unsure of how it would look after I’d dyed it, but I’m finding the little flecks of orange that pop up against the grey so much fun!

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nothing quite like…

… a freshly caked skein of yarn.

Now that I’ve finally finished the Galileo mystery socks I can finally cast on for the March mystery socks in the UK Sock Knitters group!

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i see a little silhouetto of a man

My Galileo socks are done!

Pattern: Solid Socks February Mystery KAL by Laura Jenkins

Yarn: Zettl Valbella

Ravelled here.

This pattern called for beads, but not being a bead-y type person I left them out and just did purl stitches in their place. I did see a few projects which used nupps or bobbles in place of the beads, and for a long time I wished I’d seen that idea earlier so that I could have incorporated it. In hindsight, I’m glad that I didn’t. It’s a nice idea in theory, but it wouldn’t have worked for me. The beads/nupps/bobbles are supposed to be placed on the front and back of the leg, and since my whole wardrobe is made up of leggings/jeggings/skinny jeans and boots, bobbley things on the leg would probably a) be rather uncomfortable, and b) give a rather strange silhouette!

Two pattern repeats along the foot was almost but not quite enough length for me. I didn’t want to break into another pattern repeat just to leave it half finished, so in the end I knit the first row of the toe section followed by five rows of plain stocking stitch, and then carried on with the toe decreases.

I was really unsure about these socks at first. The colour seemed too dark, the fit seemed too large, but I’m glad I carried on with them because I love them now. The first sock of the pair took me almost a month to complete because of all my dithering, but the second only took a week, which I think is a pretty good indicator of how much I enjoyed knitting them!

It’s an easy pattern to follow, just a little fiddly at times because of all the twisted stitches which form the “moons” along the sides. There’s enough repetition in the pattern to make it easy to read your knitting and not feel tied to the pattern the whole time, but it’s interesting and varied enough to not feel boring.

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oh no, she’s not a secret now

Last night my new found love, my bamboo 9inch Hiya Hiyas, snapped.

There it is, the crime scene photo, all it’s gory detail captured on my phone. And ever since, this song has been stuck in my head.

It’s the first pair of needles I’ve ever broken, and in true sod’s law fashion the breakage didn’t occur where the swathes of stocking stitch were, but right where my column of yarn overs lay... Thankfully I only lost a couple of stitches, and it wasn’t too difficult pick them up, but I still swore enough to make a sailor blush. Dark yarn + bad lighting does not make for a particularly easy stitch rescue. Still, at least they didn’t break over the cables!

More cursing followed my frantic search for the steel tipped needles I’d bought in the same order as the bamboo (so that I could see which tips I preferred. Pack rat mentality comes in handy sometimes!) but the crisis was eventually averted, and I’m now 1.5 pattern repeats and a toe away from the finish time.

If I’d had these needles for a few months longer and if they’d been well used I would have just sucked it up and forked out the cash for a new (steel!) pair, but I’ve only had these since the end of January/beginning of February and this is only the second time I’ve used them, so I emailed the vendor I bought them from straight away at about 9pm, certainly not expecting to get a reply until at least the next day. A little over 2 and a half hours later at almost midnight(!) a reply landed in my inbox apologising for the breakage and offering a replacement. How’s that for customer service?! So thank you Linda at Tall Yarns ‘n Tales for such wonderful customer service!

She did say that this is only the second time she’s been informed about a broken needle, so I certainly don’t want to put anyone off buying the bamboo Hiya Hiyas. They’re fabulous little needles, and bamboo will always remain my first love in terms of needle material. However, the steel ones do feel a little sturdier, so when I stock up (and I will be stocking up on a few more of these 9inchers, I’m head over heels with them!) I’ll probably stick with the steel.

In other news, the Boy and I are off to see Doug Stanhope tonight. I don’t find him quite as amusing as the Boy does, so my plans for this afternoon include sorting out a sock project to bring along so that I can clickety click the night away…

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if the sock fits

It’s been a hectic week round these parts. I had a volunteer job interview, my Mum booked a very last minute trip back to Singapore, there was baby sitting, and there was a long overdue catch up with friends, but at long last sock 1 of my mystery socks is finally off the needles! It turns out that all that fretting was for nothing. Although I think I could probably have gotten away with making the medium size, the large still fits nicely, and the cables really pop along the foot. I did have a bit of a toe issue – the two pattern repeats I did of the foot pattern didn’t quite give me the length I needed, and as I just wanted to get them off the needles I thought I could just work an extra few decrease rows. Er, not quite. Three extra decrease rows did give me a sock that fit, but it came at the cost of  a ridiculously pointy toe. I decided that there was no way I could live with a toe that stupid looking so I unpicked the kitchener, ripped back the toe and knit five plain rows before starting the decreases. Perfect.

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lazy days

I’m having a super lazy Saturday. I spent some time catching up on some Playful Day podcasts whilst I painted my nails, and I LOVE how my nails turned out! They’re gold scribbles on a baby blue base.

I have a heel for my mystery sock.

And I’m thinking of casting on for another mystery sock, despite being so woefully behind in the other one, in some of my hand dyed yarn. This skein is a complete experiment. I was dyeing a semi solid grey when I accidently tipped a whole pot of grey dye stock all over the yarn. Luckily the darker section doesn’t look too bad, I dunked it in water immediately so it’s blended out somewhat.

I did then decide to dot some orange dye around to see what it would look like, but I’m not entirely convinced that it’s going to knit up too well! I’ve a feeling this would have looked better with yellow instead of orange, but I won’t know until I try. The pattern I have in mind for this has quite a few cables and travelling stitches, but now I’m in two minds about whether to knit this up as plain vanilla sock instead. I probably shouldn’t because I’ve already got a vanilla sock on the go, but I’m just so indecisive!

And just because I love my nails so much right now, and I really like the way the gold looks in the sunlight!

Hope you’re all having a great weekend!

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more lovelies

I’ve already bombarded you with a couple of posts on my dyeing exploits, but I’m far from done.

Beautiful purples and blues, bright sunshine yellow with splashes of orange, a multitude of browns, and a seafoamy, vintage inspired duck egg blue dotted with pale grey.

This is my favourite. Multi tonal purple with flashes blue and and even hints of green. Love.

I absolutely hated these browns when I first pulled it out of the dye pot, but I kind of love it now. It has wonderful depth.

This one is another favourite of mine. The colours are so soft and lovely, it’s definite spring colour. The hints of grey are much more apparent in this photograph. I inadvertently contaminated this skein with a few dots of red and yellow dye, but I should be able to use my notes to recreate it.

And a slightly better picture of the grey that I posted the other day. The blue and the grey are the superwash 2ply BFL that I’ve already mentioned, but the other are a lovely soft superwash wool blend.

There was also an organic merino that I dyed, but it almost ended in disaster as I forgot it wasn’t superwash and almost felted it!

Thankfully it reskeined beautifully so it wasn’t too disastrous. I must remember to be more careful with non superwash yarns in the future!

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versatility

The lovely MissHSoo contacted me to pass this award on to me a few months back, and more recently it’s been passed to me by KiwiPurler so it’s high time that I blogged about it!

I’m so so sorry to MissHSoo for not blogging about this earlier, but the thing is, I’m rather a shy person. Anyone who knows me in real life will know how ridiculously shy I am around people I don’t know. I open up to people after a while, but I’m really very introverted, and I’m usually unbearably quiet around people I don’t really know. KiwiPurler articulated my feelings towards blog awards so well in her post, and I’m so glad to see that I’m not alone in how I feel about them.

Being given recognition for my little home on the internet is a wonderful thing, it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling and makes me feel as though people do like what I’m putting out there and I’m very appreciative that these two people have passed this on to me. I understand that to accept this, the rules are thus - I must share 7 things about myself and then pass the award onto 15 other blogs. I think the reason that I shied away from blogging this award was the passing it on part. I subscribe to so many blogs that choosing just 15 to pass it onto was a big task in itself (not only am I shy, I’m indecisive), and then when I did decide on my 15, would they think me silly for passing it on to them? Which is a completely ridiculous thought, because I certainly don’t think that MissHSoo or KiwiPurler are silly for passing this onto me.

So I’ve decided this: if KiwiPurler can break the rules then so can I. Therefore I’m tagging all of you. Share 7 things about yourself, either in the comments below, or on your blog and post the link in the comments so that I can read all about it, because not only am I shy and indecisive, I’m nosy too :)

So without further ado, here are my 7.

1. I’m left handed, or as my other half the Boy likes to call it, cack handed/a southpaw. Isn’t he nice to me?! I very much like being left handed, it makes me feel a little bit special (apparently, only 10% of the world population is left handed!).
   
2. I was taught to knit at a fairly young age (I’m not sure how old exactly, but I think around 5 or 6). My Mum asked her friend to teach me because she was also left handed and for some reason my Mum thought it’d be easier for me to learn from a fellow leftie. I’m not sure why she thought that because I knit the same as a right handed person. I remember that back then I used to think that “purl” stitches sounded wonderfully exotic, and I still have the orange plastic needles that I used to play around with back in the day, although I’m glad to say that the hideous acrylic tangles that I used to make are long gone.
   
3. I’m an English style thrower, and the idea of backwards mirror knitting gives me a headache. I have tried Continental knitting, but my stitches end up too sloppy and I get frustrated with how slow my knitting is going so I never make it though a full row. I’d like to master it one day, but I’ll have to overcome my impatience first!
   
4. I’m half Chinese, my Mum is from Singapore and my Dad was English with a tinge of Scot. It’s an endless bugbear of mine that I barely look Asian at all, and I’m always envious of other hapas who looks far more Asian than I. Alexa Chung, Maggie Q, Kelly Hu, I’m looking at you girls.
   
5. When I talk to my Mum my English usually end up descending into Singlish. This is not something that is consciously done, and it can get a bit embarrassing when I’m in public on the phone to her and hear myself drifting into it! I can’t speak Chinese though, although I did have Mandarin lessons last year but I haven’t been practicing (naughty!) so need to get back into that. I can speak a teensy bit of Hokkien, which is my Mother’s dialect. Incidentally, the first Hokkien words that my Mum taught me were swear words (classy family!), but I pretty much only know enough to know when my Mum is speaking about me.
   
6. I was obsessed with Sweet Valley High and Nancy Drew books when I was younger, and spent much of my childhood with my imaginary twin solving ridiculous imaginary mysteries. (As an aside, in linking to the Wikipedia entry for Nancy Drew I've only just discovered that Carolyn Keene isn’t a real person! The books were ghost-written! I’m in shock.)
   
7. At school I was an army cadet and I almost joined the Royal Navy. I was considering being sponsored through university to study engineering and then going on to train as a naval officer after graduating, but I chickened out. There’s a part of me that hugely regrets not following through with it. Other childhood regrets: not following through in a career in either astrophysics, marine biology or archaeology. These were all dream careers of mine, and if money and time were no object I’d still love to study any or all of them. It’s never too late for a career change, right?!
   

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