Mollie Makes - Issue 2

I know I'm a bit behind on this, most people blogged about the first issue but I couldn't get hold of a copy. As I bought issue 2 yesterday, I thought I'd post my thoughts :)

Firstly, I love the fact that the magazine is a non-standard size, and that the pages (especially the cover) are matt paper rather than shiny... What can I say, I'm a sucker for interesting design ;) I also love that the free gift comes in a little paper pouch, instead of the more usual plastic wrap. It makes the whole thing feel a little more classy than a regular magazine.

Content wise, I like the fact that there is a range of stuff, with tutorials, ideas and spotlights on different shops/websites. I was a little disappointed that there weren't more tutorials, and that the focus was firmly on sewing and crochet. It would be nice to see some knitting content and there are plenty of little projects out there that could easily fit with the style of the magazine.

I'm pretty sure I'll have a go at the strawberry pin-cushions from the front cover, it looks like a fun pattern to use up some fabric scraps. I like that the article has a bit of information about the history of this type of pincushion, that was really interesting.

The article on where to shop in Bath was really cool, highlighting shops that I'd probably never find as a visitor to the city. Of course I now want to go to Bath to find them all! The millions of cool websites featured may also be problematic for my wallet *laughs*

Overall, I think I quite like it. I'll wait for the next couple of issues before I decide whether or not I want to subscribe, or buy regularly, but I do like the fact that it seems to combine a design magazine with a craft magazine.

G is for.... Gastronomy

I was really struggling to come up with a "G" word for this post... I hate gardening, I don't have a giraffe and I'm not called Graham... So, the subject is "gastronomy"

So, gastronomy...  I am an incredibly fussy eater but I love cooking (or maybe I love cooking because it means I know I'll like the food *laughs*). I have a small collection of cookbooks, perhaps a 10th of the selection my mum has, but I'm growing it ;)

One of my favourite recipe books, and one that really earns the "gastronomy" title is this one:

Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck Cookbook. Despite being extremely fussy, I one day will go and have the tasting menu at The Fat Duck. The book is amazing, split into 3 parts, one about the history of the recipes, how they came about and developed, one about the science and the middle section actually contains all of the recipes.

It's so cool to be able to see what goes into making each dish. I mean, there's no way on this earth that I would ever attempt any of them at home - my lack of liquid nitrogen and petri dishes is really holding me back ;) - but it's great to read about them.

My cooking is a lot less fancy of course. I'm definitely a home cook. Last night I made a chicken and leek lasagne:

It's good, even if it doesn't look all that fancy *laughs*

Charlotte's back this week, so head on over to An Accidental Knitter to add your link to the list :)

Organisation

As I've posted before, my stash is now getting a little larger than expected *laughs*

I like having my stash, and I'm very happy with the new storage I have, it's a lot neater than just having the box. But I do seem to keep procuring more yarn and not using up what I have. I'd like to start knitting from my stash a little bit, if only because I bought the yarns in it for a reason! I like them and want to knit with them ;) So I will try and do so.

So, in a fit of organisation (unlike me, I know!) I have assigned projects to most of my stash on ravelry. I now have a nice queue of patterns to make, each allocated to a particular yarn in my stash. Now, I'm not going to say "the plan is..." because every time I say that, I immediately deviate from the plan! But at least I have an idea of what each yarn will end up being.

I have one caveat, I will be buying new yarn at Knit Nation, with no defined pattern plans *grins* There's just no point telling myself otherwise.

Before I can start on my new queue, I do need to finish my current WIPs. The Clapotis is top priority, as it has a deadline. But I still have an unfinished sock, my green cotton top, my mermaid scarf and my cabled bag. Having too many WIPs annoys me, so I don't want to cast anything else on until some of the others are cleared down.

I have decided, with a heavy heart, to frog the mermaid scarf *sad eyes* The mistake in it is confusing - I can't work out where I went wrong in order to fix it. I also don't really need a DK weight silk scarf right now, and would rather work on things that I do want to have.

The cabled bag shouldn't really take too long to finish, nor should the sock (although the jury is out on whether I will start the second sock right away or start on boyfriend's socks instead). The green top is taking forever, it's 4 ply and cotton, and I don't really enjoy knitting it. I haven't done anything on it for a while, so I will see how I get on next time I pick it up. If I still really don't enjoy the process, I will have to consider hibernating it or frogging it. As much as I want the product, life's too short to force myself to knit something I don't want to!

So, organisation of my plans for my stash and my plans for my WIPS complete... Just gotta get through the damn Clapotis now!

Photo Catch-up 2

To save cluttering up my blog with daily picture posts, I think I'll stick with my usual trick of posting a bunch of my photos at the same time, that was it's easy to skip past for people who aren't interested in my crappy photography skills *laughs*

So, I got as far as books, skipped high angle, which takes us to:

June 8: Sunset. It's been so rainy and cloudy lately that I was pleasantly surprised to actually have a sunset of which to take a picture on the appropriate day! I took a whole bunch of shots, and for some reason my favourite was this one from the car. If I was being arty about it, I'd say that I find the juxtaposition between the calm serenity of the sunset and the sense of movement to be unexpected and interesting ;)

June 9: Fresh Fruit. Yeah. So, this is about as close as I get to fresh fruit on a regular basis ;) I do like grapes though, I just didn't have any at the time. But look, 25% fruit juice... that counts right?!

June 10: Animal. I nearly took a picture of my muppet t-shirt with Animal playing the drums, but it was in the wash *sigh* As boyfriend and I don't have any pets, I staged this with a Pilchard cuddly toy I won out of the grabber machines at Lyme Regis; see it's like a real cat photo, only with a bright blue cat *grins*

June 11: Silhouette

June 12: Sun flare - yeah right, no sun to flare!

June 13: Reminds you of childhood. These are Snuggle Bunny. On the left you have Snuggle Bunny #1, a gift from my nanny on the day I was born *fond smile* Many years later my mum found an identical one, Snuggle Bunny #2 on the right there, and of course she had to buy it! One or other of the two has been on my bed from birth until only a few years ago, when they were retired to an airtight box due to the fear of disintegration caused by over-love.

I haven't done any more so far - the greyness of the outside world is sapping my inclination. I'll probably post more next time I have a batch. I quite like having to remind myself to take more pictures, so I'm definitely enjoying the challenge.

Work In Progress Wednesday Number 6

Well, this will probably be a fairly uninspiring WIPW post, as I'm still working exclusively on my Clapotis.

It's about twice as long as it was last week (I think), but the perspective of the pictures makes it look like no progress at all!

See, there is progress, last time I only had 3 drop stitch rows ;) Drop stitch rows that are fantastically difficult to photograph well at this stage...

I'm still loving the yarn, however if you look at the pic above, you will see a strange pale section... This was in the middle of one of the balls (so no blaming dyelots) and is a little bizarre. I've decided I can live with it, there are enough colour changes that I don't think it is too glaring, it seems to look more obvious in pictures than in real life.

One thing I'm not loving is working on one thing only. Especially as I have a deadline (10 days - aaaaargh!). It does take some of the fun out of it, which is not what I want. But if I want the item, then I have to make it, and if I want it in 10 days then I don't have time to play with anything else...

OK, I'm barely even convincing myself here!

Final shot, which was another attempt to demonstrate the dropped stitches.

For many more interesting WIPW posts, head on over here to Tami's.

Summertime Swap

I got home yesterday to find this intriguing parcel waiting for me:

Hmmm... As I hadn't ordered a teapot I was very curious *laughs* The label on top indicated that it had come from Germany, which gave me a bit of a clue. You see, I don't know anyone in Germany, but I had signed up to a Ravelry swap, with participants from across the world.

Open opening the package, my guess was proved correct!

You see, the parameters of the swap are:

• A skein of yarn
• Your favourite cake recipe
• A handmade item
• Various other goodies, on a Summertime theme.

My swap partner sent a fab parcel, with this amazing sock yarn. 

It's called DrachenWolle - check out the awesome dragon on the label (I didn't get it in shot, but the steam from the dragon's nostrils forms the shape of a sheep)!

The colours are so summery, they remind me of pansies... See:

So, very happy with the yarn choice, but that's not all that was in my package. I also had this lovely handmade market bag. It is actually bright red, but my camera doesn't pick that up properly. 

Plus, all these goodies:

Body gloss, lip balm, some sweet treats, a heart shaped stone, a necklace, a floating candle (in the shape of a flip flop!) and cute flip flop shaped stitch markers *grins* How cool. 

My swap sender was quick off the mark, deadline for posting out isn't for a good few weeks - I'd better get on with mailing mine out now!

I'm really loving the fun of shopping for a swap, and finding exciting parcels waiting for me at home, so I've signed up to another one *grins* 

F is For.... Fruity Fun!

This week is F, and as An Accidental Knitter has decided to take a short break from blogging, I have offered to host the ABC meme, so please fill in the Mr Linky below if you want to participate!

So, my F for today is Fruity Fun... Ok, it's a bit of a stretch, but I wanted to talk about my Saturday morning adventure in dyeing yarn with Kool Aid. It's fruity, and I had a lot of fun ;)

I've loved seeing other blogs with people dyeing their own yarn and I love playing with colour, so I thought it was about time I had a go. I ordered some Kool Aid sachets (is anyone else disturbed by the fact that this stuff is so colourful and acidic that you can use it as a dye - it's supposed to be a beverage!) and some undyed yarn and got playing:

It's 50% merino, 50% tencel, from ebay. I know that non-animal fibres aren't good to dye, so I wasn't sure quite how it would go, but it's a lovely silky feeling yarn so I figured I should give it a go anyway! I was planning to take pictures during the process, but I made so very much mess that I couldn't bring myself to share *laughs*

So, here it is, my first hand-dyed yarn, still in loop form...

I took a couple of close up shots, showing the different sections.

Orange and Strawberry:

Grape and Blue Lemonade:

Mixing all of the above, in less concentration, for a pastely section:

And here it is properly, as an actual skein *grins* I love how the blue and orange ended up next to each other at the end, it looks like a real person made it (ok, I know I'm a real person, but you know what I mean!)

It was so much fun, I felt like a kid doing "experiments" in the kitchen ;)

I had also ordered Lemon/Lime, which didn't fit in the colour scheme of the skein I was doing, so I overdyed a partial ball of Debbie Bliss Como that I had.

As you can see, the light green of the original really look up the colour, so I plan to make something stripy with the two now.

My house smelled so fantastically fruity after all of this, and I can't stop sniffing the yarn either. I want all of my yarn to smell this good ;)

So, that's me for this week, but check out the links below for other ABC posts...