Tag: knitting

  • Amish Memory Shawls

    Amish Memory Shawls. Now that is a lovely idea. (Link courtesy of Lara, who is a thoughtful and well-meaning person herself, no matter what she thinks right now. Buck up, babe.)

  • Perfect Sweater

    I’ve rather lost my knitting mojo of late, but this made me perk up right away: the Perfect Sweater is finished! Hmm, and I was looking for a pattern suitable for that lovely Jo Sharp 8ply cotton…

  • Stitch and Bitch

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    Me and Mary-Helen at SSK. Lots of people venturing out to knit in the sunshine!

  • I Made This

    I was at last able to pick up the Snook’s super-secret birthday surprise tonight – two beer mugs that I made him in my Ceramics class! (He didn’t mind that they were late; I couldn’t get them out of the kiln any sooner.) I had a lot of help from my tutor Peter. They have extruded handles and I finished them with a hand-painted pewter glaze. They turned out pretty much exactly as I’d hoped. They’re pleasantly heavy without being too chunky; they’re slightly wonky and obviously handmade; they look rather medieval and masculine. The photo makes the one on the left look chipped, but that’s actually water from where I’d just rinsed them out. Snookums only had them out of the wrapper for about two seconds before he’d filled the big one with beer!

    And yes, that is a football-sized ball of Silk Garden. I pulled my cardigan apart. It’s a long story.

    That last picture is my dinner creation for tonight – Chicken Pot Pie. Yes, I decorated it with a bird made from puff pastry. It was delicious!

    Recipe:

    Okay, this is just a slightly-modified version of the Chicken Pot Pie recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens New American Cookbook, which is my all-time number-one go-to cookbook for just about everything.

    First, you’re gonna need some cooked chicken. (The recipe calls for three cups.) You can either pull it off a roast chicken, or you can poach your own. Poaching’s pretty easy so I go with that. Just whack a couple breasts in a skillet and fill it with water. Cover and simmer until they’re cooked through. Sometimes if they’re really thick I cut them in half so they cook faster in the middle. Once they’re done, fish out the chicken and set it aside to cool.

    Now get out a pot and fry up a chopped onion in a quarter-cup of butter. (Mmmm.) When the onion is soft, you’re going to dump in one-third of a cup of all-purpose flour, half a teaspoon of salt, half a teaspoon of dried thyme, and a good grind of pepper. Stir it around a bit so the flour soaks up the butter and cooks a little. (This is what makes the sauce thick.) Now you’re going to dump in two cups of chicken stock and three-quarters of a cup of milk. Stir it around and cook until thickened and bubbly. Now throw in your vegetables. Tonight I felt like using a lot so I put in carrots, potatoes, peas, broccoli, and green beans. While that’s cooking, go back to your now-cool chicken and tear it up into chunks. Add that to the pot. You’re nearly done!

    All you have to do now is pour your mixture (basically a thick chicken stew) into a big Pyrex baking dish (or you can be fancy and put it in little individual dishes). Cover it up with some puff pastry (buy it frozen but let it thaw first) and cut a few slits to let the steam escape. If you’ve got some left over, you can go nuts with the decoration (a la my bird). Pop the whole thing in the oven on a fairly high heat (at least 180C if not more) and let it bake for 15 minutes or so, basically until the pastry goes flaky and golden. Pull out and eat!

  • ABC Knit-In 2006

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    Here’s me and Amy kickin’ it at this year’s ABC Knit-In. There were hundreds of people there knitting squares and sewing together blankets for Wraps With Love. Several members of the Knitters’ Guild Inner City group turned up, and we even got our picture taken with Adam Spencer! I’ll post more pictures as soon as Amy gets home and e-mails them to me…

  • WWKIP Day!

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    Knitting in Public Day has been a great success! Here’s me, Mel, and Miss Fee enjoying the lack of rain. We’ve had about 20 people and even a couple random tourists joined in! Photos are coming.

  • Long-Sleeved Cotton Polo

    Long-Sleeved Cotton PoloAt last, a Finished Object to report! I’ve been working on this jumper for the Snook for well over six months. It’s based on a Wendy pattern (#5101) which I converted to be knit in the round. To tell you the truth, it was pretty boring through most of the body and the sleeves and only really got exciting once I finally got everything together on one needle. The raglan shaping and vee neck took a little brainpower; I ended up using an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of all the decreases. The collar was supposed to be knitted separately and sewn on. As if. I just picked up around the neck and knitted it on. I have to say, I’m really, really pleased with how this turned out. The yarn (Jo Sharp’s Soho Summer DK Cotton) was an absolute beeyotch to knit with, but the finished garment is so soft and warm that I’m already planning one for myself. All that’s left is to get some appropriate buttons for the placket neck and she’s finished!

  • Insufferable Know-It-Alls I Have Dealt With Today

    • The woman who interrupted me while helping a customer select a pattern size and then blatantly contradicted my advice. The customer then turned to her as the authority, and I’m like, “SHE DOESN’T EVEN WORK HERE.” I finally had to actually shoo her away from the counter.
    • The woman who interrupted while Michelle and I were discussing with another customer about former employee Mel and whether she’d had her baby yet. The Know-It-All was actually claiming that she remembered the baby’s due date better than the people who worked with Mel.
    • The old biddy who actually chastised another woman’s children in the shop. I KNOW! Granted, the little brats were running all over the place and it was during the lunchtime rush, so patience was low all around. But she suddenly bursts out in her loud, bossy voice: “Children, I need you to be quiet and stop running around!” I was like, “Oh noooo she DI’INT!” It’s pretty much a cardinal rule that you don’t chastise somebody else’s kids, right? Especially when the mother is there? Because what you’re really saying is, “You’re a bad mom and you can’t control your rugrats.” I was so hoping she’d get a punch in the nose.
    • The woman who interrupted me while telling the Knitting Clinic ladies about the prizes we’re going to sponsor at next year’s Easter Show, interjecting that she could tell me all the deadlines and who to get in contact with. I’m like, “I’m already in contact with them. From months ago. You know-it-all cow.”
    • The woman who watched me doing an expense on our point-of-sale system and told me I was doing it wrong, that I needed to staple a bunch of receipts to the report slip. I love it when non-employees lecture me on store procedure! “Well, I’m the one that does the banking,” I retorted, “and I DON’T CARE if they’re on there, SO I’M NOT PUTTING THEM THERE.” And then I tore them up and put them in the trash. Yeah, I’d reached the end of my tether at that point.

    And you know the best part? IT WAS ALL THE SAME WOMAN. (I’m sure some of you can guess. She’s my nemesis. But do not speak her name, for I fear her minions…)

  • Tank Cozy

    A Knitted Tank Cozy. Sheesh. That’s a lot of knitting. I need to get some Finished Objects happening myself!

  • Rogue

    Rogue sleeves are off the needles! I repeat, they are off the needles! Now I just need to block the damn things, supposedly.