Sunday Simon and I escaped the noise and heat and headed for Dalby Forest. Me armed with my knitting, he armed with his mountain bike. After whiling away a mere hour or so knitting by a lake in dappled shade, we headed off to find a quiet picnic spot and this is where we spent a few hours whiling away the time:

Something else I’ve been meaning to write about for a while is Lidls sour dough bread mix. The bags are basically just flour with the sourdough mix already in it. Monday’s I dump the whole bag in a big bowl, add several handfuls of seeds/nuts and add 700ml of warm water. Stir it with a big wooden spoon until all the flour is encorporated. Cover it with a damp teatowel and leave to rise for the rest of the day.  When risen/I have the time, I empty the risen dough mix onto a well floured surface and kneed with more flour until it’s not longer sticky. Divide into two roughly 450g loaves and let rise in the tins before baking at 200 C (fan assisted) for 50 minutes. It’s like being back in Germany. Very very yummy easy bread. Yesterday it was ready in time for supper! Strawberries in balsamic vinegar vinaigrette are lovely anyway, add a mini gem lettuce and avo and some feta… We could’ve eaten it twice over.

spent this morning just pottering. wound wool (read: took a skein of wool, ended up in knots, needed sy’s assistance to wind it into a ball ready to knit up into socks) and finished with a rare fry up. Alas, HP bakedbeans are still proving elusive. Finished off the potato scone I made Thursday.

Thanks to tv pause, I watched the rugby after a “nap” (oh how that makes me think of my sister!!) and swatched (non knitters: knitted a test square). JOY Scotland won

Then this evening was spent eating bread rolls which Sy baked while I was asleep and listening to our three newly purchased CDs, whilst knitting the socks.

Jack Johnson; I cannot say enough good about this guy. Erik Mongrain; I’m not sure if it would inspire you to play guitar or put you off forever as he is such a genius! It’s a shame I wasn’t up to seeing him live here the other week. Laura Marling; speaking of seeing live, we went to see her, but she had a poorly throat, so her entourage of Marcus Mumford, Noah and the Whale and King Charles entertained us for the evening. I’d be interested to know more about Laura, as her lyrics and voice belie her age (only just 18)

That’s what sums up this weekend. We’re a household of many DIY tape measures-4 in fact and I have about 3 knitting tape measures, but they keep mysteriously disappearing this weekend. Luckily my knitting ones have not been used for the tiling/plaster-boarding in the bathroom!

My new needle tips arrived yesterday, but yesterday was the day of baking. I had tried a new chocolate brownie recipe the night before-what a gooey greasy mess they were! So I went back to the tried and tested version that I’ve been baking since childhood (usborne’s first cookbook recipe). I had to make 2 batches though, as the first batch were being posted off to my sis’s boyfriend’s for his birthday and one batch fitted perfectly in the box… Today though I abandoned the 20mm dowels and 80% acrylic to knit on 3.5mm needles with 100% wool again. Interspersed with sessions of maths, my hoodie is now beyond the armhole stage (top-down). If I do 15 rows a day on the dowels though, that should be ready to block in 10 days!
Next weekend is a mini ravelry meet-up. I should really cast-on some birthday socks to take to that as the hoodie in a coffee shop is asking for trouble. That and the socks need to be done by the 9th. I’m going to be boring and repeat the jaywalker pattern. Socks would also mean I could take them along to the theatre afterwards-knitting in the interval sounds like a good idea!

Now for the bust-darts maths-oh and protecting my tape measure!

Well, I don’t normally do round ups of years etc, as I am not one for making a big deal of traditional time markers, but this Christmas/New Year does mark one year of knitting, so…

In my first year of knitting, I have knitted:

• a fun fur scarf for Emma/her sister
• a sweater for my grandmother, as I didn’t like the colour for myself-oops. It turned out waaaaay too big as I was having to estimate her size! The sweater is loved and worn despite it’s size…
• my first pair of socks-toe up short row heel.
• 7 pairs of socks thereafter including 1 pair of baby socks though! all top down, one with intarsia.
• a blanket for my sis (part way through one for myself)
• Snowwhite (which started life as tubey, but got as far as 1 sleeve) and now has 16 hearts on ravelry =)
• 1 golf club cover
• 1 sweater for Sy (as yet unblocked) started life as Apocalypse for me, got as far as “just” neeeding sleeves.

just a couple of hats crocheted in between… apart from the sweater disaster, I am pretty chuffed with my first year!  Here’s to more!!

The christmas presents went down pretty well I think.

I got 2 knitting books for Christmas, as well as an item I’m not going to advertise as the guy doesn’t want to sell too many to the uk as he’s a busy busy man- *cough* an item to keep my DPNs safe whilst on the go. Also got a funky tripod to stop my camera wobble on the macro photo.

Other presents, included some measuring spoons and cups as mine are a non-complete set at the moment. Mini muffin tins and BIG ones too. Some skewers, mixing bowls and a pasta machine.

Cinderella had major problems getting a carriage to the ball! We’d anticipated issues getting a wheelchair accessible taxi and planned in advance, but not even that helped! Instead we spent 50 minutes travelling by bus and walking. (would’ve been a 3 mile tripe by taxi!) York taxi licensing got another email from me and although they’ve replied, it doesn’t look like the situation will be resolved any time soon.

Cinderella then also had the indignity of having to be piggy backed (thanks to the bus issue, I’d decided to dress up my new pair of black jeans instead of wearing a VERY short dress) as the lift wasn’t working.  Now I’d had problems with the Castle museum’s lift when we’d been there for the “how to look good naked” filming and again had anticipated the problem. Sy had visited the museum with a colleague that day… alas someone had taken it upon themselves to do “maintenance”  and not switch it back on. I only allowed myself to be carried once they’d assured me that it would be working again by the end of the evening, as being carried by sober guys is different to inebriated ones. Hindsight I shouldn’t have let Sy do the lifting, “in case”… Got a bottle of champagne out of it, but…

So erm I was pretty knackered Saturday and didn’t get much knitting done. Sunday as I wasn’t feeling soooo bad, I decided to forgo knitting time for a nice winter walk along the river and a panini to warm up with. It did the soul wonders.

So, Christmas knitting was finished 10 am Tuesday instead of the planned Sunday night/Monday morning.

I made a start on Sy’s sweater last night, as I felt the need to bake ginger bread (of the cake variety, not ginger bread men sort!) read for the early Christmas at my grandmother’s Friday. They were baked in bread tins as I didn’t have a big square one and they’re brown, so I haven’t photograped them, but they DO taste good. Will taste even better come the weekend as they improve with time. I also haven’t photographed the socks as I like socks photographed on feet. I have a sunny day here, but odd sized feet and a self timer… they may need to wait until Christmas. Below is the pic of our mantelpiece. I have some more candles on the coffee table and some fairy lights hung from the curtain pole, but this is about as Christmassy as it’s got!

Just realised that in fact it has felt more Christmassy  because of the parcels that arrived. Mum had given me an IOU as part of my birthday present. A scarf turned into the knitpicks harmony interchangeable needle set!! They’re sooo pretty. Can’t photograph them well enough to do them justice. Also I got some wool that I ordered at the Knitting and Stitching show.  A ravelry link or if you’re not on ravelry and can speak german, click on Strickwolle and it’s the merino wool in dark grey.

Sy’s been hinting at knitting related Christmas presents =) have you got any idea what you’re getting??

Having just left a rambly message at Ysolda’s, I thought I would blog my thoughts on colour here too. (need to find a word for blog though too…)

I’m currently waiting for Simon to get home before I can continue on a sweater that is being made out of wool for that was originally meant to be a hoodie for me. I decided the colour really wasn’t going to magically grow on me (for me-i love the colour, it just doesn’t suit ME!). I have VERY strong tastes when it comes to colour.

My mother-in-law once gave me a colour consultaion for my birthday (by far the most generous, best present from her). The colour consultant was suprised that all the colours I was wearing really suited me*. For years mum and I have been walking round shops saying things like “no, it’s a yellow red” “is this a blue, red?” etc. *On the colour consultation I came out as a winter-suits clean colours and is lucky to suit white and black too.

Venturing into the fibre world, I have had to tame my love of certain colours somewhat. Variegated wool, in my opinion, looks sensuous and gorgeous in a ball/skein but when worked up has a tendency to granny-itis.

I learnt the hard way that computer monitors and photography lie. A colour named “salmon” really isn’t going to be a pretty pink colour like I saw it, but is going to resemble cooked salmon more. (hence my first sweater became one for my grandmother)

So, picking up the phone on internet orders and discussing colours would seem appropriate. Yet, whether it’s phoning a yarn store or chatting to friends, no one other than my mum and I use the yellow/blue based colour analogy. I suit blue based, don’t suit yellow based colours.

What did I find myself buying at the knitting show though? Grey. Haha. I have such a love hate relationship with grey. I have a hoody that is now in holes that kept me so cosy warm. Recently brought myself to charity shop a slouchy cowl neck mohair sweater and a polo-neck too. I feel so boring wearing grey, yet it’s something that come winter I can pull on and wear with anything.

Anyway, I shall go add extra lengths to my Denise set up, to allow Simon to try on his sweater. This evening I think I shall continue with that and not the second hat I promised to crochet for my sister (to give as presents).

On the muffin front: I made sweet ones (apple, currants) for mum’s arrival. Day 2 I prefer the savoury ones, so in future will have to eat all of the sweet ones on day one (NOT!). Yesterday evening I made some “oops, we have no oats left-use cornflakes, oats and flour” with carrot and mustard muffins to keep Simon on the happy boat this week (he gets down in winter, so extra carbs can only be a good thing!). Ha I didn’t take them out of the oven so I didn’t even see them, but I had a text saying “they are really nice”. Ooh I made both the above with orange juice instead of water-off to adjust recipe.

PS: OOh Simon made chocolate crispies (with cornflakes+70% min cocoa solids) yesterday-he better hurry back from work so we can eat some!!

Instead of waiting around until I have a site that I like the look of, or I’ve purchased a domain name (undecided about whether to do that or not) I thought I should just get my act together and start keeping my creative journal at last!

Today I bring you pictures of comfort food that did wonders for stress in the cooking as much as the eating!

Cheese and walnut muffins with Carrot and Potato soup

Recipes:

Muffins:

1/2 cup oats
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup oil
1 egg slightly beaten
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bicarb
1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup water (may be replaced by orange juice for sweet/other savoury combinations)

original recipe: 1/2 cup sugar 8 oz summerfruits
MY version: 2 oz strong flavoured cheese (grated) 1/2 cup walnut halves (chopped after measuring) approx 1/4 cup milk (until it has a texture which is not sloppy or stiff…)

mix all together and spoon into greased and floured tins.

Fan oven 190 C

mini muffin tin size=18 mins

yorkshire pud tin size (what I did) about 20 mins

skewer comes out clean when done.

Leave in tin for 10 mins before putting on cooling rack.

Soup:

2 potatoes, 5 carrots 2 sticks of celery 1/2 litre stock-pressure cooker for 8 mins, blend.