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!