Thursday, May 28, 2009

I'm still looking....

....for my knitting mojo. Do you think these will encourage him to come home?

The top one is baby chick and the bottom one is minted. I am in love!! They are so beautiful, especially the yellow one.

Thanks Ailsa!

Saturday, May 23, 2009

One!


The Boy had a birthday yesterday.....his first!!
So we had a party today.....also his first!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Quite possibly the best no-knead bread ever!!

I have found the what I think is the best and easiest no-knead bread recipe. If you want to throw the ingredients - all four of them - into a bowl and mix, then this is the one for you.

It does take some time though, you have to allow it to rise for twelve hours, knock it down and let it rise again for another two, but really the whole process takes you about three minutes, the rest is just patience.

This is an American recipe and because their cup is smaller than ours, I had to do a little maths - not scary maths - to work out what the correct measurements were. After some research I came to the conclusion that most people believe an American cup of white flour weighs approximately 150g, their cup is 240mL instead of our 250mL, and there is not much difference between our teaspoon - well not enough for me to worry about it.

Armed with this knowledge I decided I needed:

600g white flour (I am sure you could use a combination of flours)
1/4 teaspoon yeast

1 1/4 teaspoon salt
480 mL tepid water


You basically throw the ingredients into a bowl in the above order, stir,

cover and let rise for twelve hours.

I left mine overnight.


This morning I scraped it out of the bowl, knocked it down, folded it in thirds and dropped it fold side down into a bread pan that I sprayed liberely with oil.


Then leave it to rise for another two hours.

Chuck it in a 220 degree oven for about 35-45 minutes and let it do it's thing.


Cut, slather with butter and enjoy!!

See? I told you it was easy.




Thursday, May 14, 2009

This Week....

This week I have......

  1. turned the heater on, turned the heater off, turned the heater on.....I wish the weather would make up its mind,
  2. waited patiently (not) for the two hour finale of Grey's Anatomy....only one sleep,
  3. decided on a cake for The Boy's birthday, which is only eight days away...eeek,
  4. not been able to work out what to get my Dad for his birthday which is the same day as The Boy's,
  5. found out that Soldier will be allowed to fly home for the weekend of The Boy's birthday,
  6. tried to keep the house tidy, given up and decided to never tidy again until the kids leave home,
  7. celebrated my first Mother's Day as a mother of two,
  8. replaced my Diet Coke habit with a chai tea habit,
  9. realised that Diet Coke is probably better for me, especially since I have my tea with two sugars,
  10. still not found my knitting mojo.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

If found, please return to....

I seems that my Knitting Mojo has up and left home. My May socks - which are now a plain pair, because I can't cable - are in serious danger of never getting finished.

Not even the call of gorgeous yarn from here is enough to entice him home.

Lavender Infusion

Blueberry Crush

If anyone finds him, could you please smack his bum and send him home. I am kind of attached to him.


Thursday, May 7, 2009

This Week....

This week I have.....

  1. enjoyed the slightly warmer weather with the kiddos at the park,
  2. spent many hours working out budgets and balancing the bank accounts,
  3. not knit nearly enough,
  4. worked on something special for my Mother's big birthday in July,
  5. pulled out my sewing machine,
  6. finally got the internet to work on my phone,
  7. discovered that the body shop is selling my favourite scent, vanilla, for a limited time, after discontinuing it a while ago,
  8. bought two bottles of above, and
  9. thought about buying a crock pot for yummy winter food.
What have you done this week??

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

April's Socks

The Polly Jeans are done. I actually finished them a few days ago, but it has been so busy around here with Soldier being away that I haven't had time to get to the computer. I don't know how single parents do it!

Anyway here they are:

Pattern: Polly Jean by MJ Kim
Yarn: Patons Patonyle that I dyed with food colouring, I originally named it Cool as a Cucumber, but when I pulled it out when I had coffee with Donna she exclaimed that it was an Alien Green.
Needles: 2.5mm KP Circular Needle

These were knitted cuff down and the pattern allows you to decide whether you want to make a matching pair or a mirrored pair.

I went with the mirrored, so I knit them one at a time (not my preferred way) so I didn't get the pattern confused. Having actually knit them now, I don't think knitting them at the same time would have been a problem because it was really easy to see what I should be doing by looking at the row before.

One sock is more yellow than green and the other more green than yellow, but I think I can live with that.

I do have issues taking decent photos of my finished socks, but not to fear, it has been remedied as I will have my hands on some sock blockers from across the ditch in a few days.


Friday, May 1, 2009

Personal Sock Club 2009

Well it is the first of the month, and that means it is time for a new 'shipment' for the personal sock club.

And here it is.....


It's a lovely yarn from Kate over at Two Little Banshees. It is one of four skeins that Mum and Dad bought me for my birthday last year. You will have seen one of them before. I hope that it will grow up into a pair of Window Pane Socks. It seems that I am all about the twisted stitch at the moment.

Now I just need to finish the Polly Jeans and I can get started. Nothing like a new shipment to light a fire under me.

 

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