Viking Tea Party

Oh!-Dessa

My days of knitting and crocheting non-stop are coming to an end but at least it's for a great reason: my parents are coming to visit for the last two weeks of March and there are so many things we'd like to do around here before then.  For now, though, I knit.  A lot.

This week I knitted up another incredibly popular pattern, Odessa. 

I used a fantastic yarn by Colinette called Cadenza that I picked up several skeins of in both this shade, Summer Berries, and an beautiful blue called Adonis Blue at Burford Needlecraft on Monday.  It's incredibly soft and knits up wonderfully - plus it has a sweet price tag of only £4.50 (with 15% off while we were there - hooray for surprise sales).

I loved the pattern, too.  Without using beads, it's delightfully monotonous although I have to say I fell asleep a bit during the decrease rows and had to back up quite a few rows to fix my mistake. 

As much as I love the yarn and the pattern, I'm not really sure how much I like the hat on my head.  It doesn't flatter my chipmunk cheeks at all.  I blame all the butter, cheese and bread I've consumed over the last four months.  Regardless, I've already worn it quite a bit - it's really comfy.  

I'm going to add a new segment to Viking Tea Party in the next couple of days that I hope will be amusing to those on both sides of the pond.  :)

Oxford & Owls

I've been here since the end of September and, until Monday, we'd hadn't been to Oxford to see Matt's dad and stepmom.  I also finally got to meet one of my sisters-in-law on that side of the family - the other is in Spain for a year.  After breakfast and a little catching up, Matt's dad dropped us off in town where we wandered around for a little while.  The Ashmolean was closed and Matt wasn't feeling well so we just did a little shopping - we'll save the museum and touristy things for another day.

 

We also stopped at The Jericho Cafe where Matt's dad recently ran into Mark Haddon who wrote The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time and Thom Yorke from Radiohead [not on the same day, of course]). 

I am so topping my next batch of flapjacks with chocolate ganache.

One of my favorite places was the Blackwell bookshop - three floors full of books.  There's a knit group that meets up there for lunch on Wednesdays, too, so I might tag along with Matt to work one Wednesday soon and check it out. 

I had crocheted this little guy the night before but until we got home he was nameless. 

I think Blackwell is perfect for a bird with a bookish reputation. 

 

Percy the Owl pattern crocheted with an E hook and random yarn.

A Colorful Crochet Cure

I have lots of things on my restless needles at the moment but not one finished project in sight.  This need to finish something, I think, makes the restlessness that much worse so I spent some time the other night looking around for something I could work up quickly.  Little did I know the inspiration I was looking for was hanging put in my blogroll in the form of Kate's hooky fingerless mitts.  I dug out the Noro Striped Scarf I knew I was never going to finish (I didn't realize you needed two skeins of each color when I purchased the yarn), frogged it and started a pair of crocheted mitts of my own.  

I didn't photograph it but the flip side of a fabric crocheted through the back loops is really pretty so I had a little trouble deciding which side to use.  In the end I did use the front side, though.

Noro Silk Garden 255 crocheted with a G hook

I dug through my button box and pulled out three random-yet-vaguely-matching buttons for each mitt, thinking I would decorate the wrists a bit but once I sewed the first and started on the second I decided I liked them colorfully plain. 

So that was a slight cure for the restlessness - tomorrow I've got a bit more cure to post!

Not For Those With a Weak Disposition

I have a lot of things to post but haven't been able to take photos yet so instead you get this...

STRANGE THINGS MY DAD ATE

WHILE IN CHINA LAST WEEK

Let's start simple.  Calamari may not be strange with a capital S but the presentation is kinda gross and I have no idea what that white stuff is it's, um, swimming in.

More calamari.  This time in gelatin with sea worms.  Yuck.

Conch.  I think this is actually very visually appealing.

Snails.  No, thanks.

This is my favorite - fried baby sea snakes! 

Now I know someone is going to tell me that they either love baby sea snakes or that calamari in gelatin is deeeee-licious....

Restlessly Seeking Inspiration

I've been feeling creatively restless recently which means I'm not sure when I'll ever finish a project.  Until I can, here are a couple that are unfinished....

 

Fetching because I thought, after 14,172 projects, is was time for me to hop on the bandwagon.  I've had a skein of Malabrigo Silky Merino in my stash for awhile now and I wanted a pair of short arm warmers.  I've knitted the thumb once but it looked horrible.  Like lots of other people, I have trouble with thumbs.  I haven't quite felt like giving it a second try but I'd better do it soon and cast on the second one or it'll might be a long time before I ever get to wear them.

 

And a little pink and orange project that I'll reveal when it's finished.  Lots of color, though, right?

I picked up some Rowan Cocoon the other day...

 

...and have cast on two different hats but my allergies were so bad that night that I was messing up left and right so I frogged both of them and haven't given them much thought since. 

Nothing really makes me want to knit.  I need inspiration before I watch so many reruns of Buffy, Angel, Veronica Mars, House, Gilmore Girls, and NCIS that my eyeballs just fall out of my head.

What are you working on these days?

Have It Your Way

Can I have a number one, large, with cheese and everything but onion and tomato with a diet Coke, please?

I was kind of picky when it came to fast food restaurants even when I lived in the states - Wendy's, Burger King and the occasional Taco Bell - but hadn't had any since I moved to Salisbury.  Out of the corner of my eye, I would peer into the windows of Burger King as we walked by, wondering if it would be as different as, say, the Doritos I keep harping on about (odd but edible).  I was afraid to try it - searching for something familiar, only to be disappointed.  Recently, though, I'd started thinking a little more seriously about giving it a try and when we woke up late on Monday and had a huge list of things to do in town, I suggested that we have a BK burger and fries for lunch.

It's pretty much the same except that mayonnaise is a little different here and there was a lot of it so I'll hold the mayo next time.  Ketchup is sweeter, too, but I'm used to that.  It felt really good to eat something that was almost familiar and, strangely, I loved the feel of that universal wax cup in my hand.  I love fountain diet Cokes and missed them since also hadn't had one of those since I got here.  All in all I think it was the best trip to BK ever.  Also, though, the most expensive as the cost converts to about eleven dollars for my meal alone.  Hard to think of BK as a treat but it's not eleven-dollar-once-a- week good, that's for sure.  

After lunch Matt and I walked over to Waterstone's because I wanted to see if they had a copy of Virginia Woolfe's Selected Diaries in stock (they didn't).  As we were browsing I heard an older gentleman at the counter asking about Patrick O'Brian - author of the Master and Commander series and Matt's favorite - which I thought was really funny since we had just had a long conversation about his books over lunch.  I wondered if Matt had heard and, sure enough, when I wandered over that way, there was the gentleman, a bookseller and Matt.  It turns out the man had recently lost his wife and a friend and recommended the series to him as a way to way to occupy his mind and deal with the grief.  I stayed out of the way but as the man walked to the cash register with the first book I heard him exclaim, "How amazing!  That chap knew all about them!"  It was really touching and I hope he's enjoying the book.

Short, Simple & Generous

I've been wondering whether or not to mention the earthquake in Haiti here.  After a lot of thought, I decided not to for very personal reasons that I won't go into now because this isn't that kind of blog.  I just discovered something simple, though, that has made me change my mind.  While browsing the pattern page on Ravelry, I found a link to a list of patterns created by designers who are contributing some or all of their proceeds to a range of charities involved in earthquake relief.  Forty-one pages of patterns which I'm pointing out not in a "look at all the choices!" kind of way but in a "look at all the generous people" kind of way.  You can even sort them by items in your queue or that you have in your favorites. 

Can I Come Out of Hibernation Now?

I'm hoping I'm a couple weeks too late to make this project really worthwhile.  After all of the recent snow, the 45°F/8°C temperatures we had today and the trip to the beach (more on that later) we took this afternoon left me longing for spring.  I'm ready to be done with winter and things like ear warmers - even if they do have cute little bear ears stitched on them.

  

Bear Headband - G hook and some mystery yarn that's probably Lion Brand.

This a sweet little one night project.  The most difficult part is getting the ears in the right place - three tries and a helpful husband later, I was finally satisfied.  My only adjustments: I added a few stitches to the headband to make it an ear warmer and I made the ears a wee bit bigger. 

Sadly, I see only one thing when I look at this photo and that's the unruly gray hair there in the middle.  It doesn't even want to hang out with the others and sweep to the left.  Nope, it hangs straight down and waves its little arms, "Look at me! I'm different!"  Not that I'm complaining - I am 35, after all - I just wanted kids to give me gray hair - not life in general.  

I think my niece and nephew could use a pair of these, too - they'd be perfect for kids.  

Ce n'est pas un macaron.

I made macaroons for the first time today. Or rather, I attempted to make macaroons for the first time today.  First, though, check this out - even grocery store eggs are chicken feather fresh around here. 

Anyway, back to the macaroons.  These do not look like your average macaroons, that's for sure.  After piping them onto the baking parchment you're supposed to smooth them with a little water and your fingertips and I think I didn't use quite enough water.  I can see spots that are smooth and macaroon-like on a few of them and I'll bet that was due to freshly wet fingers so, next time, more water.   My chocolate macaroons look more like Hobnobs (which I tried for the first time yesterday and love).

(The above tea cup is my favorite of all the thrifted cups and saucers we used for my wedding reception)

Honestly, I've never had a macaroon so I really can't say whether or not these taste right - are macaroons supposed to taste like a chewy almond?  I used a recipe from the most recent issue of Good Food but also found an identical recipe (sans cocoa) online so I'm assuming they do.  I like the idea of more sugar, less almond left by the first commenter on that article and might give that a go next time.  My ground almonds were also a bit coarse so I'll take the suggestion of "whizzing" them down as well. 

I also think lots of filling is the key to a good chocolate macaroon because everything is better with more chocolate.  This recipe is from a section on low fat chocolate treats (ahem, isn't that an oxymoron?) so they skimped on the amount of chocolate filling - 50 grams of chocolate makes about enough to fill five cookies (especially if if you're going to make them look like the macaroons in their photo), not a dozen.  I liked the strange chewy texture of them, though, so I'm looking forward to making another batch maybe with strawberry jam and some red food coloring this time...mmmmm....  

2010: Color

January 1, 2009: I'm not going to say what my future is going to be like or make any resolutions this year - instead I'm going to take the advice of a few blogs I read and focus on a word.  My word is simple, "Forward".  Everything in 2009 is about moving forward.  Moving forward to things that I've been waiting years, maybe all my life, to do.  Big things, teeny tiny things, but all very meaningful - and this is the year I'll, hopefully, get to accomplish some of them.

The above is from my first blog entry of 2009 and I have to say that, even though I may not have consciously focused on the word "forward" as much as I could have, I certainly moved forward.  I'm not sure what teeny tiny things I was thinking of but I know I accomplished the big things.  Getting married and moving to England were really beyond big and we have our fingers crossed that this year will bring even more big things forward. For now, though, it's time to pick out a new word for this new year.

My word is a few days late this year because I've really been feeling a bit indecisive. The word I finally settled on, though, is the one that came to mind when I first started thinking about it. 

I've been working on this post for two days now because it's incredibly hard to think about color in the dead of winter when everything is some shade of white, gray, brown or black.  That said, there are two blogs - do you mind if i knit and Attic24 - that I've been following for a few months now that are a daily dose of colorful inspiration and also part of the reason I chose the word 'color' this year.  When I scroll through Google Reader I almost always look first to see if they have new posts.  Not only do they post beautiful (and well lit, I have to add) photos but their writing is so positive that it's hard not to feel good once you've finished reading.  These two women also make me want to cover my couches in colorful granny squares.

For Matt's sake, though, I think maybe I'll just start with a cushion cover or two.  

Adding color to my knitting will be a little hard since one of my new year's resolutions is to save money by using yarn from my stash as much as possible and, as Chris said, learning to "work from the yarn end, and not the pattern end of knitting."  I already have a lot of green yarn because I Love Green so when I do buy yarn I'm going to go for colors I don't normally use - blues, pinks, reds, yellows and oranges...pretty much any color of the rainbow that isn't green.  I'm going to do the same thing with my wardrobe - no more black and brown and maybe a little less green there, too.  I was trying a bunch of things on a month or so ago and even the woman who showed me to my dressing room commented on the fact that everything I had was green.  

I also want to make color a state of mind, too, and channel some of the positivity that color inspires.  That's the kind of color I could really use right now while there's snow on the ground and the temperatures are in single digits.  That and a handful of crocheted flowers....

In closing, a colorful palette of talented inspiration! 

1. finished hexagon baby blanket, 2. Stack of happy crochet, 3. Crochet flowers, 4. ♥ colors, 5. Untitled, 6. petals, 7. Flower Power, 8. Flower Brooches (Bloemenbroches), 9. Granny squares, 10. Untitled, 11. Crochet Flowers, 12. That potholder., 13. prize winning rosettes, 14. rainbow acorn color wheel, 15. grannylicious, 16. Colourful cotton bag.., 17. granny garland, 18. All 5 Potholders Together, 19. Pastora, 20. Scrapghan - Progress Photo #2, 21. Granny squares, 22. Winter Project, 23. Mum's cushions, 24. Festa do Divino, 25. Babette Progress