Catch up

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday! :) I had a lovely time at home, and the new house is gorgeous. I thought I'd do a quick catch up post, as I knitted quite a bit while I was home :)
Here's are my WiPs.
A Rose Red by Ysolda. This still counts as a WiP as it hasn't been blocked :)

A Stockholm scarf (pattern available on Ravelry here). It's actually a cowl, and it will be huge!

And an Ishbel, also by Ysolda.

I was also lucky enough to win a giveaway at the lovely Suzy Sewing blog! I won the knitting bundle and among the goodies were two balls of yarn!

I've had a play around with them already, and I can't wait to knit them up :) I just have to decide what I want to knit.
I also received some lovely craft related gifts for Christmas too!

Books!! I love craft books, just flicking through them is so relaxing. I can't wait to try making a bag, my finishing has always left a lot to be desired so I'm hoping now that I have access to the proper techniques I can make a bag that looks lovely! I also received some stitch markers from my mum, but I forgot to take a photo. I'm sure you'll see them on a WiP at some point :) I also received lots of other bits and bobs too like chocolate, a very pretty dress, a lovely cardigan, some strawberry and cream tea, a couple of fiction books ( the Thursday Next series if you're interested. I highly recommend it!) and many more lovely little things :)
I was also lucky enough to get some spending money too, so I took a trip to Spins and Needles today :)
For the Fiddler's mitts in My Grandmothers knitting:

Some yarn for two pairs of socks (one for me, one for Dom):

And this is an old photo, but I bought three more balls of this too so I can make a matching pair of gloves for the Rose Red hat :) (yes, the colour is completely off in the photo of the hat above):

If you're celebrating the new year, I hope you enjoy your celebrations tonight :) I'll be back with a round up of the Christmas presents I made tomorrow. And probably a hangover too ;)
Ashley x

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas everyone!! I couldn't resist sharing these cute photos of Crunchie cat :)

Ashley x

Stollen and the last one

It was delicious! I even got Dom's approval with 'You can make this again'! The icing was a lovely touch,  the recipe had you make it with lemon juice instead of water. I'd have never thought to do this, but I'll definitely be doing it again. It would also be lovely on cupcakes too. It disappeared pretty quick too!

As for the last one? The last Christmas present of course!

This is for my sister India, it's the same as Ebony's but in India's favourite colour :) Yep, she's a tomboy. Ebony has always wanted to be like me, whereas India has always wanted to be like her brothers. Ebony has also showed more of an interest in sewing. Mum bought them some little sewing kits, you know the kind, bits of felt with the holes already punched through? Well, I expected India to catch on more quickly as she's older. Nope! Ebony caught on quicker and got tangled less than India! India quickly lost interest so I finished it for her. I love the differences in their personalities, so cute :)

We also made gingerbread yesterday :) We don't have a gingerbread man cutter though, so we just did little round biscuits. Yum! It was another of Delia's recipes and worked perfectly.

Oh, and I'm going home tomorrow!! Woohoo!! I haven't been home since September so I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone :)

Ashley x

Christmas Baking

That right there is Stollen. I'm using a Delia Smith recipe from her 'Baking' collection. You can find it online here. That dough took very little effort on my part and came together so easily! It didn't stick to me or the kitchen counter and smells amazing. And my hands smell like lemon zest from kneading it :)

I've got about 2 hours before it finishes rising, so I suppose I should go and wash all the dirty dishes I always manage to amass when I bake ;)

Baked Stollen photos to follow! :)

Are you doing any Christmas baking? Or any other holiday baking for that matter?

Ashley x

Pick your battles

That collar is not going to lay flat no matter what I do. And it's whiter than the background of the strawberries. And the binding peaks out. So instead of fretting about it, I'm going to unpick it and simply bind the neckline with bias binding as per the instructions for the Pendrell blouse. Maybe I'll add a little bow at the neckline like on the Colette Pastille. I should have known it was not meant to be when a black mark mysteriously appeared right on the front of the collar.

So I'm going to spend the evening with my stitch ripper and perhaps some knitting and a mug of hot chocolate. And I'm not going to be grumpy about it, because I am picking my battles! And maybe tomorrow after I've handed those essays in, I'll have another go at the neckline. 

I hope you have all had a lovely weekend :)

Ashley x

Foxgloves

I made these using the leftovers from my cable stitch wristwarmers. The pattern is from the book Brave New Knits, which Dom got me for my birthday :) It's a lovely pattern, not too difficult but with pretty results. I like the yarn, but it's not the best choice for this pattern. I wanted to use up the yarn while using a pattern form the book because Dom thought I didn't like it as I hadn't knit anything from it yet. So if I make them again, I'll choose something a bit more solid, so the pattern stands out more. I'll definitely use them though, as they're perfect for taking to the library while I work. It is cold in there! My Ravelry project page is here :)

Also the yarn made my nose itch. I think I hold my knitting too close to my face so stray fibres got up my nose. Bleugh!!

I have two essays due on Monday. I've had them both finished for about 3 weeks (yay!). I was going to start my essay that's due in January this weekend, but I figure the library will be busy with lots of last minute students doing their essays due in for Monday. So I'm going to wait till Tuesday, and spend the weekend relaxing. I also want to do a bit of work on my dissertation before I go home for Christmas, so there's that to do as well. So a weekend off will be lovely :)

Ashley x

Spun

I bought this yarn at the Lincoln Christmas market on Thursday night :) There was a section of the market called the Medieval market, where everything had a medieval theme to it. The yarn was spun and dyed by the lady selling it! And it was the very first stall we went to :) It made me giggle because Dom saw it before I did, but he didn't say anything as he knew I'd be excited. When I went over to it, the lady's husband saw me looking. All of the vendors were dressed in Medieval style clothing, so it was particularly funny when he smiled and said 'Adding to the hoard?' because he looked like he belonged in the game World of Warcraft! :) (In WoW there are two sides that you can play as, the good side is the Alliance, and the evil side is the Horde). It's 300 yards of DK weight pure wool. It's soft, but also has a nice roughness. And it smells like sheep. But I kind of like that. There's something wonderful about knitting with a sheepy earthy yarn :)

There was also a stall selling jerky, made the traditional way. They had some tofu jerky, which was very tasty (a bit too tasty for my liking). Dom bought some, and it was gone within half an hour when we got home! They also sold something called 'fruit leather'. This was delicious, and we'll definitely be ordering from their website! Nom! I might also have some photos to share soon that Dom took, as I didn't take a digital camera :)

Also, I finished my little sisters Christmas present today! Both of my sisters asked for the same thing, some ear warmers like they had seen in a shop. But in their favourite colours. So here is Ebony's, in her favourite colour!

Yes, I am fully aware she's going to look ridiculous but it's what she asked for! I'm not sure what it's meant to be, but I'm sure Ebony can decide :) It's Cascade 220, and the pattern is simply an inch of ribbing, 2 inches of stockinette, and another inch of ribbing. And of course pom poms. I hate making the damn things, so tedious. I worked out how many stitches to cast on from my gauge and Ebony's head measurement. It's got an inch of negative ease, so should be a nice fit. Especially since her head is the same size as mine, and it fits me fine. No, there is no photographic evidence of this thing on my head ;P

Ashley x

November - Finished Projects

It's December already?! We opened our advent calenders this morning!! (Thanks mum :) And yes, we are 20 and 21 years old and we still have advent calenders) I also finished 4 Christmas presents this month! You can see them here, here and here.

I also made progress on my Pendrell dress :) I've started getting the collar together. Then I hit a slight technical hitch, the collar somehow doesn't reach centre back (I did it two pieces). I'm not sure where my calculations were off, but after thinking about it I'm just going to go ahead with it anyway. I don't have enough fabric to cut another, and it's not that big a gap. Plus I have long hair so it won't be that visible ;)

Also, today is the start of the Lincoln Christmas Market!! :D I've been looking forward to it all year, especially as last year it was cancelled due to the snow. And we're putting the Christmas tree up today!

Happy Thursday!

Ashley x