Yarn along

Joining Ginny in sharing what we are reading and knitting/crocheting


After finishing my socks on Sunday I have started b my handbag kit I got from my parents for Christmas, I have already made one of these bags, in purple and I use it as my every day bag.

It works up surprisingly quickly. I am also reading Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind by Hayo Miyazaki. The film was based on the book of the same name. It has to be one of my favourite films and the manga follow the same story but goes into much more depth.

Finished another pair of socks!

Yay! These have taken me just over a month to finish and here they are in all their rainbow-y noro goodness!

Yarn along

Sharing what I am reading and knitting at the moment with Ginny from the small things.

It has taken me nearly a month to get these socks knitted! My my, but I did make decent progress since yesterday. I knitted the gusset and started work on the final length of the sock (the bit what holds your foot? Not sure what it's called)

At the moment I am reading the spring issue of landscape. As much as I love the magazine. It has me waiting for spring even more now. It has some great pictures of the obligatory baby animals and daffodils, some great desserty custardy recipes. Baked custard slices if definitely one I shall try. And also a super cute pattern for knitted lambs I shall have a go at once I have finished my socks. 

Another thing I took five minutes out to do was jazz up some hair ties. As a child of the 90s scrunchies were the thing, but they are impossible to find now! So I saw some really cute fuzzy ones on Pinterest but they were from Japan and it would have cost me a fortune to make, I saw a tutorial, (I would link it but I couldn't find it again) that uses snowflake wool, wrapped around plastic cross stich canvas. 

My creative brain started buzzing and I thought "I wonder what would happen if I crocheted some of it around a hair elastic?" So the end result is this:

The weather

As many of you know the UK has been battered by storms and rain and wind. It's all starting to feel much like normal life and spring will never come. I also think the lack of sunshine is making me feel well a bit ugh I guess. There is so many things I should be doing (like writing my New Years Resolution update), but instead I have been snuggling up on the sofa watching tv and knitting. Nearly completed my noro socks now. 

I love the colours, lovely and cheery on these terrible winter storms. I just turned the heel yesterday so I am hoping I can get it done today, fueled by copious amounts if tea. 

This is the view from the living room window, with added rain too! Those eagle eyed of you may notice the neighbours are having their windows changed. What a time to have that done!

Just a quick note at the end; to all those living in the South West, my heart goes out to you. I spent my younger years growing up there, and whilst it flooded regularly, it was never to that scale. I hope for your sake, it will end soon. 

Yarn along

Today I am joining Ginny in the yarn along and share what I am knitting and reading.

Another pair of socks. These ones are for me! Again in Noro wool. The photo doesn't do the wool justice. It's a fantastic colour way and I can't wait to finish them. 

As for what I am reading. The Complete Father Brown Mysteries by GK Chesterton. I am a total sucker for the tv series on BBC one during the day so I thought I would give the book ago, so far enjoying it!

I am looking for more sock wool suggestions too. I currently have a ball of crazy zauerball sock wool ready and waiting after this pair is complete. What's your favourite sock wool?

Woodland Knits Book Reivew

I have been meaning to talk to you about this book for a while. But with being sick and the weather being terrible (I didn't have any decent light to take photos) it's taken me a long time. So here goes!

Woodland Knits by the wonderful Stephanie Dosen, aka Tiny Owl Knits. I have admired her work from a distance and loved the whimsical theme of her patterns, but never took the chance to buy one. When I learned she was going to be publishing a book I jumped straight on it. 

Inside it looks so beautiful. The layout and the photos are all imcredible. There is a little story to go with each pattern which is fantastic. Everything is clear and consise (although I haven't had the opportunity to work on any of them yet. 

Here I have picked out my favourite pattern; The Free Rapunzel hat to look at in bit more detail.

On the right page we have a lovely picture of it and on the left we have the title, description/story, difficulty level, requirements and stitch definitions. I love the the typography and style, it just screams Stephanie so much!

Moving on to the next few pages are next section of instructions, some notes and another picture.

Overall I love this book, the patterns are great, the photography is great although some of the patterns are a little to whimsical, even for me, I still totally recommend it to add to your collection!

What are your favourite recent craft book(s) additions?

Been a bit poorly and Kale Crisps.

The past two weeks I have suffered a really heavy cold so that was no fun. The weather has been pretty dire too.

The rabbit house kept flooding so we bought them inside to be warm and dry.

Although the chickens managed to endure it ok.

Some very soggy chickens and a very muddy garden. Thankfully the weather has set to improve. The weather man said Wednesday was the first day; since the first of December where there wasn't a singleweather warning out. And my, what a beautiful day that was. Although I did spend most of the afternoon asleep, I felt poorly so I had an excuse.

Also on Wednesday I decided to make some kale crisps. I have seen these appearing in shops recently but I have made them in the past so I know just how yummy they are so I can strongly advise you to make some because they are not only tasty, they are very easy to make.

Kale Crisps

Preheat the oven to 170C.

Firstly you need to wash and dry your kale as it can be a little gritty.

Next you need to chop the tough stems out. I found the easiest way to do this is to fold the leaf in half and run a knife down it.

Next you want to tear it into bite sized chunks and add to a big bowl. 

Next add in around a tea spoon of olive oil per handful of leaves and a pinch or two of salt and shake it up! When everything in nicely coated lay it all out on a baking tray and try desperately hard to not over lap anything.

Bake for around 10-15 minutes until the edges are brown, yes even with purple kale!

And they should look something like this:

Yummy!