Baking Time

Over the last two months Husband and I (OK, mainly Husband) have done a lot of work on our little home. The best thing for me is that we now have a lovely functioning cooker! Here are some recent efforts:

Tear-and-share from my standard bread dough;

Chocolate cupcakes from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. Nice and chocolatey, but too sweet. The garnish is a mask from some spiderman sprinkles Sausages insisted upon;

Chocolate cheesecake cupcakes from the same book, probably the best thing I have made from this book so far. These are tasty, probably helped by my leaving off the suggested frosting, which I find too sweet;

Texas Cornbread from Mums Know Best by the Hairy Bikers. This is a much loved classic in  our house with baked beans. If you want to make it and can't get creamed corn, I just whizz cooked sweetcorn in my blender. Highly recommended!

What are you enjoying cooking at the moment? I feel autumn around the corner, and the lure of hotpots, stews, pies and crumbles. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

E

Last minute knitting...again!

I'm trying to knit a shawl to wear for a wedding this weekend. I don't know why I do this to myself!It's pretty unlikely it will be finished in time. There are four pairs of charts and I have worked the first two pairs. Ahem. Sorry for the bad photo, it rained pretty heavily here all day. 

The pattern is Campside by Alicia Plummer. I think it's my first go at one of her patterns and I really like it. I like knitting charted lace, and I like the pattern of this shawl, with eyelets in increasing frequency. The yarn is also gorgeous. A bamboo blend, it's shiny and soft and sooo drapey. It's going to be a perfect summer shawl. When it gets finished!

I'm still reading The Second Deadly Sin and quite enjoying it. For a cheap modern paperback this is really good, and I highly recommend it if you like murder mysteries. Don't forget to head over to the Yarn Along to see what other bloggers are crafting and reading this week.

A Very Woolly Wednesday

Definitely joining in with the Yarn Along this week! I finished Go Set A Watchman, and while I enjoyed the writing style, I didn't really find the story too thrilling. I guess it is the product of its circuitous route to publication. The ending felt like a capitulation. Please let me know how you found it if you read it. I have moved on to this, an author recommended my my mother in law. I know I previously mentioned that my mother and I never like the same books, but my mother in law usually makes good recommendations. It's translated from Swedish, which is obvious but not in an annoying way. I hate it when an author's work suffers in translation, it feels insulting to their talent. I've only just started, but the book is giving a really strong sense of location and environment. I think its going to be good!

My Lady Wren cardi from Jennie at A Lovely Homemade Life is finished and blocked. I think test knitting might be one of my favourite things to do! I do so enjoy the process. (Do you like my trousers? They were my first attempt at galaxy dyeing. They are the comfiest thing on earth, even if they do look a little daft!)

It's still too big for me, despite some creative and enthusiastic attempts to "block it smaller." I know. But the yarn is lovely the cardi itself is lovely, and will be a nice layer when the winter comes around. I really liked the fact that this pattern is so simple and yet so interesting. I found three perfect wooden buttons in my stash, so the project cost me nothing at all and brought me a lot of pleasure to knit. Win.

I have cast on a soaker for Bob, who has dropped nappies in the day time altogether (with the usual mixed results), but still wears one at night. Do you like the anchor I have tried to work into the pattern? A sweet little thing for my sweet little thing. I love wool soakers!

I also cast on a shawl to wear with a dress I have chosen for an upcoming family wedding. The dress is white with little pairs of cherries, and I wanted to pick out the green from the stalks, since I am not a big fan of red and don't think it suits me. The yarn is so lovely to work with. It's a wool/bamboo blend, and is going to make a perfect summer shawl. I was planning on whittling down my works-in-progress over this summer, bu I only seem to have added to their ranks! I usually aim for about 4, but my ravelry projects page is currently showing eight. Oops!

While we're discussing all things yarn, I did some dyeing with a friend this week. Each skein is 100g of aran weight. Any suggestions? The pink and yellow is definitely for me! The bottom one is really a mottled lavender.

I'd love to hear what you have been reading and crafting this week, do stop by!

E

Yarn Along

Wow we are just SO BUSY this summer! No thanks to a crazy July I have finished the test knit cardi for Jennie at A Lovely Homemade Life. It's a bit big, but lovely and warm. In retrospect I should have adjusted the length to suit my short stature, and really yoke shoulders don't work for lades with no shoulders to speak of. It's my first cardi for myself though, and I'm looking forward to layering up in it when the cold weather comes!

This week I am reading the same as everyone else: Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee. Thanks to a printing error we ended up with two copies, and Husband and I were going to read side by side and discuss, but I am well over half way through and he hasn't started yet. I wish I had used the correct copy now! Our mothers are waiting in the wings to read them next, so at least I can discuss it with my mother in law. My mother and I never like the same books!

I hope to be back later in the week to share with you some of the exciting things we have got up to this summer, and some of the work we have managed to do on our little project house. Ok, Husband has done most of the work, I'm just the monkey/childcare.

What are you crafting and reading this week? I'd love to hear from you! Pop over to the Yarn Along at Ginny's to see what everyone else is up to!

E

p.s. yes my hair is very pink! I love it!