Not fooling around

As you might now, I spend a lot of my time working at Espace Tricot, the knitting store extraordinaire in Montreal. Also, I have weekly posts on our blog which are hopefully entertaining and informative to the readers.

Now Lisa, Melissa and I are up to more wonderful things - we are co-operating in publishing patterns for you to enjoy! They are featured on our blog and, best of all, free for you!

I am aware that this blog is my 'personal space' but I do put much work and love into my designs, so I want to share them here, too. Have a look at the first: The Ombre Tank, worked in the absolutely beautiful Habu Tsumugi Silk. This yarn is crunchy, summery and yet very soft once blocked. I very much enjoyed working with it.

 

Watch out for more to come! 

Hearts

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

I tried something new this year for Egg's Valentine's cards. Needle felted hearts! The roving I had (ahem, I haven't spun on any of my spindles in FOREVER, so I won't miss a bit of that stash...) in various pinks and purples available. All you do is stuff some roving into a cookie cutter and start punching it with a felting needle until it is done to your liking. Fun! 

(Of course when we brought them to Daycare to be distributed they stuck out like a sore thumb between the Disney Princess and whatnot offerings of the other kids. I hope in a good way...)

Read more

...here.

While I am working on my comeback.

How to find my way back?

Can you go back? Can  you reconcile with your neglected blog to get where you once where? I'm not sure.

Do or do not. There is not try.

Hah.

Elsewhere

Does everyone know now that I blog once a week here?

New Patterns

If you still follow my blog you know by now that I also blog over here every Monday. Today there are two new patterns available for you, if you feel so inclined.

I seem to feel quite Susie Homemaker at the moment. Here one of my latest baking attempts: Marzipan Muffins.

Still knitting, kind of

Indeed. I am. Not even secretly since all my projects are dutifully entered on the project page on Ravelry.

I finished something on Saturday and, oh my, it is NOT knitting but crochet. A 'Granny Stripe Blanket' for Egg, who had picked the colours and keeps telling me "I just loooove the colours!".



I am also blogging. Here. Every week on Monday about some or other knitting related stuff. This time I did a 'how to' on casting on with beads.

On a totally unrelated note: I had some cabbage leftover and am improvising the veggie part of our dinner tonight. Cabbage with Caraway - a dish we usually only get at Christmas Dinner at a friend's house. I have really no idea how it is actually cooked, but so far it looks and tastes pretty good...

Picking Strawberries

Whoever thought getting four of the 4 litre baskets was a good idea? Oh. Yeah. That would be me. The weather was fantastic and so we filled them, with small, very red and ripe fruit.


Egg had a lot of fun but of course more Strawberries ended up in her mouth than in her basket...


The Quebec Strawberries of this year were ready late and even the reddest ones are still a bit tart. I don't think we mind.

Shopgirl

Well, yes, that would be me. The girl (ahem, rather: woman) working in a yarn store. Making money by selling lovely yarn, advising people with their knitting...and, most of it: Having time for selfish knitting! Over the last six months I have been knitting for myself more than in six years time. It's fantastic. I'd forgotten how that goes.

This year alone I have knit EIGHT sweaters etc. for myself (not all of them a success, but that's another story) and several other smaller things. Then there are some gifts and store samples...I can't believe I've been that productive and didn't have to give most of it away. Also, I've been choosing fun projects, meaning they were quite a digression from what I would have knit three years ago. FUN!

That's why my designing life got put on hold - more or less. I haven't given up designing, but I think I needed a real break. I won't deny it's hard to go back, but there are some ideas that need attending to!

Egg has been going to daycare since last August, she's loving it and I'm loving that. It's easier to have a life on your own when you know your kid is happy, too.

Life is good. (Apart from the trouble with my teeth. But, honestly, WHO wants to know about that?)

Two of my favourite knits:

Drops Design No 108-33 "Jacket in Lin"

Carol Feller's "Adrift" (Ravelry link) in Noro Sekku

October!

So, this is what happens when you don't pay attention. Time just trickles away, one day at a time, and whoosh! it's the middle of October. In the meantime, Egg turned two, I'm working away at Espace Tricot, and I crocheted a sweater (ravelry link) or rather, a shrug thingie that I finished yesterday and yet have to photograph.


We had some glorious fall weather, and my Mom was visiting for two weeks. During that time we went apple picking. Egg just loves it. She would go again any day.


Egg is still not happy when I drop her off at daycare, but I know that she's fine about three minutes after I leave. The payback time of my getting opportunity to work and some hours off mothering is night time. Going to bed usually was an easy thing. Since Egg started daycare it is a nightmare. She screams almost every night in protest. And three days ago she climbed out of her crib for the first time and hasn't stopped. She's also gotten quite good at it - after only five or six tries. I think I'm off to IKEA to get a bed rail to convert her crib into a bed. Somehow this leaves me uneasy, but she's getting out anyways, so I guess it doesn't really make a difference.

September!!

I know. The blog suffered once again. But a lot has happened chez Knit Stricken, and I had to prioritize.

August was very eventful. A new daycare opened at the corner of our street, and at the same time there was talk of me working part time in a yarn store (Espace Tricot) - so off I went and asked if there was a part time spot available, and it was. Egg is going to daycare three days a week now, and what can I say, I'm still not used to it. Today was especially bad, since she anticipated what was coming and was crying all the way there. Apparently she was not alone in being miserable, half of the kids there were crying, too. (I blame this effing heat. Usually they are all quite content.) I definitely have to get over the 'feeling guilty' part, I am well aware that it is futile. We're always told that she had a great time when either of us picks her up and she usually is happily playing when we arrive. And, while I am working, I don't get the time to think about it too much, so that helps!

I am also going to teach a lot of knitting classes - most of which I haven't taught before and that means a lot of preparation. I'm not saying I can't pull it off, but it is a bit scary. Then again, it's knitting, there's hardly anything else I'd rather talk about. So on to new adventures!

Last but not least, I have a design in the upcoming Twistcollective. Yes, I know it is early to talk about a new issue, but I am so excited about it! I mean, sitting here in this heat it is hard to imagine we will be wearing sweaters again soon.

Nooo, I'm not ready for my close up DAYCARE!!

Ricotta, Lemon and a scoop

Ever since I tried these some weeks ago, I wanted to make them myself. But it was too hot to even think about turning on the oven. Not so today. I finally got to make the Lemon Ricotta Cookies and I think they turned out quite well.


Here they are right out of the oven:


Apparently some people had a problem with the dough spreading too much, as you can see, I did not. They are quite big, because I used an ice cream scoop for portioning. Instead of 44 I got 25 cookies.

The finished product with the awesome and very easy to make lemon glaze:


I love that these cookies are very cake-like, they are not crunchy but soft and really melt in your mouth.

Cooking

Lately I don't really feel like cooking. One gets stuck in a rut - it feels like the same over and over again.

I looked through some cook books, and clicked around on the internet. Found this (don't remember how). That sounds easy enough, eh?


I might have overcooked it a smidgen. It doesn't look exactly the same as on the other blog. (I hate when that happens. It makes me feel I did something wrong. No, I don't mean the cheese. I know that's grated finer.)


It was good, though, and I might make it again.

More love

I don't do this very often, actually it's very rare that I do this, but today I have to.

Because we had an earthquake yesterday and Germany advanced to the next round in the Soccer World Cup, it's St Jean Baptiste and because, well, my ego is pleased:

Turns out I love them even more when you follow the pattern. (Who knew?)

Anyways. I just thought you should know and if you want to knit the Embossed Leaves Socks, too - the pattern is available in my sidebar or in my Ravelry shop.

Back to old crap*

*crap: lovingly used for old WIPs

So, last year in October I decided to cast on for the Featherweight Cardigan (rav link) because it would be so nifty to have a light weight cardi when it was getting colder and it would be the perfect layering piece and...well. Not so much. The cardi was begun in some vintage 2ply yarn, that said 'fingering' on the label, but is definitely lace weight at nowadays standards. I had no idea how much yardage there was, but since it was about 280 grams, I guessed I was safe. (I am, BTW.) Winding it into balls from the skeins it came in was a bitch. The single strands clung to each other as if there was no tomorrow and more than once I had to cut and begin anew. Thanks to a patient husband we made it through all of that was there and I was left with about 260 grams.

As always, the first bout of knitting on a new piece went swimmingly. I don't really know what made me stop, I just did once I reached the underarms and had knit the body more than halfway through. Wait a minute, now writing this I remember: I couldn't decide what kind of rib I wanted to use. Definitely not the 1x1, I don't like that much. 2x2, or any other? See, I couldn't decide. So the "Grünes Fliegengewicht" (rav link) lingered.

Two nights ago I was so pissed off with the design I'm working on that I decided to take a break from it. It's not that the design is bad, I just have to figure out some numbers and need to think about that for a while. So back to the green flyweight I went.

The body is done and one of the sleeves almost. I did a broken garter 2x2 rib, to make it lie almost flat and not pull in as 2x2 rib. The photo was taken before I got to the sleeve, but you get the picture.



Expect a FO soon. Maybe.

Currently 26 degrees C, feels like 32

If you know me a little, then you'll know this is almost too hot for me. Though the sun is really nice. Just a bit too hot.

I'm in a pickle. I promised not to haggle my wares here, but all I do at the moment is working on the "Lili & Leo" designs.

So, happy Victoria Day everyone!

This might be too much.

I finished a pair of knee highs for Egg on Sunday. I always try create outfits to show them off, since I think her chubby legs look übercute in them.

Newsboy cap, Allison cardi and Kickers. Darn, I don't have knickerbockers. Well, let's roll up the legs of her jeans, they are a smidgen too short anyways.

She was quite disobliging when I wanted to take pictures. But maybe you get the picture. (And, I do realize that you can't see the knee highs, but I do know they're there!)



Is this too much?

(I'm acutely aware of the fact that I won't ever win a photographer's contest. I suck.)

Long week

I'm sure this week only has 7 days as any other week - but due to some strange time warp thingies (or, maybe, my imagination) it felt and feels a lot longer.

Egg has seemingly a health problem, her temperature was elevated for the last couple of days but she didn't seem to mind at all. No other symptons, just a higher temperature than is normal. Which makes me wonder what's going on, but according to the internet doctors her temperature is well in the limit of 'oh, that's nothing'. As her mother I don't exactly feel that way, but try to stay calm and get her through it.

Now it's Friday evening, I have ordered pizza and am thankful that I don't have to cook dinner.

I do hope that the two remaining days of the week feel exactly as long as the others did - but in a good way. (However, that maybe asked too much.)

But wait, there's more!

The "Lili & Leo" blog with information about the designs for the first booklet can be found here!

A touch of class

Wouldn't you believe it, I'm going to teach a class! About Finishing!

See here. Am I excited? You betcha!

If there's anything you wanted to know about how to professionally finish your project, then you are at the correct address. I'll try my very best and teach it to you. Hurry though, since there are only 6 spaces available...

(I might be convinced to do it again. If there's cake. Just kidding. About the cake, of course.)