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