Thursday 29 September 2011

Rasberry lemon and yoghurt loaf

This recipe is from Sunflower Days and is a moist, healthy loaf/bread.  
It is a very easy recipe with only a 1/4 cup of olive oil (no butter), yoghurt, eggs, flour, lemon zest,
 and brown sugar - its pretty healthy, and tastes delicious.  
Meet Me at Mikes blog got me onto this recipe.  
It's now one of my standard bakes.

Did you notice my latest op shop find?
With an orange apple on it - it's a salt container (or is it salt cellar?!) - ceramic with a wooden lid.
I'm completely in love with it.
What do you think?  Hubby hasn't noticed it yet, am sure he'll
roll his eyes when he does.

Sunday 25 September 2011

Retro reads - James and the Giant Peach

Pip at Meet Me at Mikes has organised a retro readers club where we all read for the month of September a retro read.  This month it is James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl. Thank you Pip for suggesting/organising this. I just loved it as it's a novel way for our children to be involved in our blogging and we get to introduce them to our favourite books.

Now Roald Dahl was never a favourite of mine - as while I was an avid reader as a child - I never did read any Dahl. Having searched at my local op shop - I was successful in finding a pre-loved copy for $1. I was also successful in finding some other lovely things - a retro orange baking dish (this is the third one I've found, and they bake a pie beautifully), and some 1970s Australian craft books.  They provide some great inspiration and ideas for projects - and include sewing, knitting, crochet, needlework, macrame etc.

I've started reading James and the Giant Peach to Miss 4 year old - and am up to the part where James has met his insect friends.  It's a fantastic book and I suspect I'm enjoying it more than my daughter!  Oh well.

If you want to join in, go to the the link above to Pip's website and add your name to the list.  Pip also has a Retro Readers button you can add to your blog. 

Cheerio.

Saturday 24 September 2011

Shrug WIP

The Shrug I am knitting is coming along nicely.  Made of Sirdar snuggly bamboo yarn in pale pink - it has a nice, heavy drape to it.  My plan is to have it finished by the end of October - which is when we are all flying to Perth for my father's 60th birthday party.  The plan is to buy a nice frock for Miss 4years, and dress her in the pink shrug.

I have to say - the word shrug is awlful.  'Shrug' sounds clumsy and heavy.  Where as the actual piece of clothing is quite cute and romantic. I must find another word for it.  I've sort of been calling it a 
small cardigan when explaining it to Miss 4years, 'cause she looks blankly at me when I've used 'shrug'.
The pattern is from this lovely book - Easy Kids Knits by Claire Montgomery.  It's a perfect book for a beginner knitter as it includes all the basic info on how to knit - stiches, increasing stitches, casting off etc - but it also shows a variety of ways of doing things - like how to cast on in the continential methods, which is done with only one needle and this sort of cats cradle wrapping of the yarn technique.  Once I got the hang of it -it's much easier than casting on with two needles which is the only method I ever knew and used.

And what the final project will look like - just in case you didn't know what a shrug was 
(just like me until I saw the picture!). Pretty cute hey?
So I've almost completed the back and one sleeve.  All that's left is the other sleeve 
and doing the section around it to form the collar - its done with a circular needle, 
which will be a good learning experience. 
What sort of projects are you working on?  Are you like me and have a few going at the same time?  I have a crocheted African flower motifs project and my first ever amigurumi  project.  More on those to come.

I've got to finish up here - I'm meant to be working on a Uni assignment, but got distracted by the internet and blogging - and I have to run to go buy a birthday present for a little boy's birthday party that's today.  Off I go.  

Cheerio!

Wednesday 21 September 2011

Inspiration

My current project - the pale pink shrug for my daughter - is travelling along nicely.  
I will show you some progress photos soon.  Today I'm wanting to write about 
my next crochet project.  I don't yet know exactly what it is....but I do 
want it to be a blanket again.  Some of my inspiration is coming from little woolie 
 and from Meet Me At Mikes and from Crochet with Raymond
The big question is whether to crochet stripes or granny squares?

Friday 16 September 2011

September WIP

I've been home from work all week sick with 'flu.  Am only just feeling better today.  But two things happened to brighten my week - some new yarn and the latest edition of molliemakes arrived in the post.

The most I've been able to do all week is knit a bit, watch TV and entertain/care for my 4 year old daughter (yes - she had the 'flu too!).

The yarn are 4 lovely balls of Sirdar Snuggly baby bamboo in pale pink - to make a shrug for my daughter. A shrug (apparently) is a  little short sleeve cardigan. Something to wear over dresses.

This is my first attempt at a real knitting project - having only ever done scarves and hats. So I've done up my first ever gauge swatch and have now started on the actual project. Doing the gauge swatch was interesting.  I always thought I was a tight knitter - but the gauge swatch indicated I was slightly loose, just a bit.  So I dropped my needle size by a half - from size 4 to 3.5 - and it was the perfect tension. The yarn is lovely and soft to knit. Its certainly a real treat knitting with such lovely yarn.

Sunday 4 September 2011

Crafty photo scavenger hunt

I've had a post-it note stuck on my fridge of the 5 items I needed to photograph for Leopard Anchor's crafty photo scavenger hunt.  And while I'm a couple of days late for my post for August - oops!- here it is.

Thanks to Kirsty for suggesting this idea, as I've enjoyed pulling this photo list together.  It gets me to look at things differently and encourages me to get the camera out and work on those skills.

So here we go....

1. Inspiration...my daughter.  She loves putting bandaids on every sore she can find.















2. Something I made...Sissy the hand puppet. 


3. Motifs - birds....my rustic (more rusty) bird garden decoration











4. Supplies...my yarn basket!  Love those colours.  Please note those crocheted african flower hexagons tucked in the left hand corner.  My current crochet WIP.








And lastly,

5. Holiday/Vacation....well, no vacation to be had in mid-winter August, so instead we have a lovely photo of some romanesco broccoli (which is really more a cauliflower than a broccoli).

Because gardening in some sunshine is sort of like a holiday.

 Don't you think?

Sissy

Sissy puppet by lorimakes
Sissy puppet, a photo by lorimakes on Flickr.
Say hello to Sissy, a hand puppet knitted for my daughter. The pattern is from the book, Jil Eaton's Knitting School, with variations in the length and types of yarn. I used worsted weight yarn for the body and 8ply yarn for the mane and tongue. 

I'm stuck in between knitting projects.  Having been unable to source the yarn I'm wanting - a Sirdar 80% bamboo yarn - I decided to knit up the hand puppet as a quick and easy project that uses up some of my left over yarns.  The grey worsted yarn - while not the most ideal colour for a kids hand puppet - was a half finished crocheted beanie I found in my stash of yarn.  I am trying to be more economical in my yarn purchases - using what i have where I can, instead of buying more and more and more yarn.

I will most likely source the bamboo yarn from an online yarn shop.  Any suggestions of a good one?