Hanorah

My newest design is now available for purchase!  HANORAH is a girls coat, sized from 9months - 10 years and is designed to be worn as an outer layer, while being soft and comfy and perfect for wearing inside too.

Knit with a moss st edging and a moss waist band, and a lovely wide collar, you can add some special buttons, or an eclectic mix. Knit in an Aran or bulky yarn, this coat knits up super fast. The double button band gives the appearance of double-breasted, without all the extra knitting!

My test knitters did a lovely job with their Hanorahs, how sweet are they (and the models!)

It may seem odd to some of you, that I am releasing a winter coat, but I am in the Southern Hemisphere, and so are a lot of my test knitters, so I decided to just go for it! Feel free to pop over to Ravelry and have a look at some more photos/projects and details!

A Finished Object!

It seems like a long time since I have been able to share a FO with you. Its not that I haven't been knitting, but its been busy and there has been a wee bit of secret knitting.

I decided to cast on a new pair of my Scott Base socks this month. I love the originals, but I always feel like I shouldn't really wear all my pattern socks too much, in case I ever need them for something... what I'm not sure.


My favourite Sock KAL group had the theme of 'beach' this month and/or using the sponsors yarn, which I just happened to have in the perfect beach colour. To be honest, its not my usual colour, but I really like them.

The yarn is NOM in Pumpkin Pie from Gritty Knits.


In case you are looking for a project to knit in June, the Knitting for Boys Group have chosen Alec as their KAL pattern. They are a lovely KAL group as well, with no overly strict rules, and I have added a code to grab a discount on this pattern for the next month or so. Also if you add a photo of your finished Alec to the thread in June, I'll send you another discount so you can try out another of my patterns if you wish (not limited to boy patterns).

Are you a Knit-A-Longer? I love joining in, but not all the time, I like to be left to my own devices and deadlines too!

What a week!

It has been a crazy week around here, with grazed faces (5yr old), scaffolding and roofers removing the roof before realising the new roofing iron hasn't arrived, wisdom teeth trying to grow sideways into my jaw bone, on top of the usual busy and full life we lead!

It hasn't all been bad though, I feel like we have actually had a good week, its just been hectic! But there is time on the horizon, with my daughter being moved into Morning Kindy come next week (from 7 hours a week, to 20 hours a week AND less of a logistical nightmare as it lines up with School drop off) which is exciting, as I start to think about what my design goals are for the next few months!

Amongst the mayhem of the week, I took my daughter to see the new Disney Princesses and Heroes on Ice show. It was as much for me as it was for her, awesome!! I took, um, just a few.... (hundred) photos.

 

Snow White

Aladdin

Sleeping Beauty - complete with Fire breathing dragon!

Cinderella - loved the silly step sisters in this one!

Beauty and the Beast - No beast though.

Little Mermaid - this was the biggest/longest show

Rapunzel and the hosts, Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Tinkerbell

Tinkerbell and the Finale

It was a wonderful show, and if you get the chance to take someone small(ish) I recommend it. It was a lovely morning out and a great end to a hectic week!

I hope you have a lovely, non-hectic weekend!

Circular Needles

Most of you probably have a wee stash of these metal circulars around the place. When I first dove back into knitting about 6 years ago, these seemed to fit the bill, were inexpensive and easy to get. And so I bought them for all my projects. My sister talked about interchangeables and I remember thinking they seemed incredibly expensive, and really, whats the difference.

Well I have seen the error of my ways, well and truly, and I really do not like knitting with these metal needles. Although I have some interchangeables (cough cough, quite a few) I actually prefer the fixed needles, and the Chiaogoo red lace are my favourite. I am slowly working on building up to a full set of all the ones I use.I love the way they feel in my hands, I even like the short length ones which with other brands hurt my hands, and I LOVE the bend in them.

Pictured - Fixed circs - Chiaogoo Red Lace (favourite!) look at that needle! LOVE.
Knitpro wooden circ and nickel - I do like both of these fixed needles, just not as much as the reds!

However that is not to say that my old metal needles are not well used. I use them often, just not quite for their intended purpose. Mostly I use them to hold live stitches. You know, when the pattern says, 'slip these stitches to waste yarn', I slip them to a circular. It can mean having quite a few circular needles hanging off a project, in fact the item I just completed, had at one point, 6 needles. But they are bendy and you can easily poke the ends into your knitting to keep them out of the way. And best of all, it is SO easy to return to those live stitches. I always found putting live stitches on waste yarn a bit of a time suck when I went to get them back off again!

Zita with Circular needles holding the sleeve stitches

Do you use some of your knitting (or non knitting) tools for things other than their pure intended purpose?? Which circular needles do you prefer??

ps this post is not sponsered in any way, its purely my own opinion and preference.

What am I reading?

I can't show you what I am knitting at the moment, but I thought I would share with you my favourite reading choices at the moment instead.

I finished reading  A Different Blue, by Amy Harmon last week and I really loved this book, the character Blue was just so lovable. I shed quite a few tears while reading this, but not all of them sad. Its quite different from anything I have read recently, which is always a bonus!

I am loving reading Michelle's blog, she is so creative and clever and is taking part in the Me Made May - I love seeing her outfits!

Fresh Stitches is getting a lot of reading from me at the moment, I am desperate to make the time to make some wee amigurumis, this will probably not be till June, but I will be learning! I can crochet, and have made a wee granny square blanket before, but the whole rows thing in crochet has stumped me in the past.

My Crochet Blanket, it appears I finished this nearly 2 years ago, don't think I have picked up a crochet hook since.....

Stacey has a great free resources on her site though, and I will be making use of those. Do you have a favourite Amigurumi (small crocheted softie) pattern? I haven't settled on what I will try first, and would love your suggestions.

Scott Base socks are LIVE

I wasn't intending to release these socks today, possibly tonight, but probably tomorrow. But I just received some gorgeous yarn that HAS to be knit up NOW. So, you know, why not release a pattern....  (yeah my brain is odd!)

 

I designed these socks to be unisex, and again, my kind of knitting. Easy to remember textured stitch, which looks great, is fun to knit while not being tricky and SO COMFORTABLE. Honestly you will have to knit a pair to see, but these socks are lovely to wear! 

 

The sample is knit in medium, with an extra long foot - this is totally adjustable as the socks are knit from the cuff down. I have included 3 adult sizes, including a big size for those with larger feet, even those big men in your life. The socks really stretch, so they are really easy to put on and comfortable to wear.

I have knit these socks with a semi-solid, because that helps you to see the stitch, however I think this sock pattern could totally cope with whatever yarn you throw at it! If you would like to see more about it, and even check out my tester projects (you should they are GORGEOUS!) then click over to Ravelry HERE. (you don't have to be a raveler to do this, or to buy from there, but I do recommend you signing up)

Scott Base Socks

I have a new sock pattern which is nearing release and I was actually surprised, looking back through my blog that I don't appear to have shared a photo of it with you yet - thats not like me!

So here is a sneak peek of my sample socks

I really love them, they are incredibly comfortable to wear, and snug without being tight. Some socks are difficult to actually get on, but these are not, the pattern has great stretch!

Which is why for the May Solid Sock Knit a Long, which I was determined to sneak into the month, I decided to cast on another pair. 

Pumpkin Pie in Gritty Knits NOM. This is not a colour I would usually pick but I am totally loving knitting it up!  As well as having my sock-requisite Nylon, it also has 10% cashmere. YUM. (or nom...)

I started these on Thursday evening and sock 1 is nearly done. Helps that this afternoon has been spent watching Toy Story 1 and 3 with Lego on the go, plenty of knitting time!

I hope you are having a lovely weekend and sneaking in some knitting time too.

Yarn

Who doesn't love a delicious woolly package delivered to their door (well besides my Husband, he isn't such a fan...)

I thought I should show you the delicious Color Adventures yarn I got recently via a Co-op. The main reason to Co-op this yarn on this side of the world is the Canadian postage, its really not Southern Hemisphere friendly. And getting the bulk sent to USA and then sent on from their individually actually works out much cheaper - crazy! However if you live on that side of the world,  you should try some. The colors are amazing, Elena manages to get amazing saturation.

Sweet Merino DK in Sour Cherry. Incredibly soft and a touch redder than in this photo(see below). I ordered this with the intention of knitting myself a short sleeved, sweater length, Winifred. 

Sock in Sour Cherry (this color is more accurate), Sunlit and Pirate's Treasure. How gorgeous are these socks going to be?! I'm not sure what they will become yet, but that 'golden' yarn will be the first to be cast on I think!

How understanding are your partners to yarny packages?? Mine has come to understand this is life now, but the less he sees the better for sure ;)

Yarnalong

Seems like it has been an incredibly quick week, and somehow we are back to Wednesday again! We are still in school holidays here, and we have had a busy week, and still enjoying a lazy holiday at the same time.

I have whipped up a new design this week, in the same series as last weeks Yarnalong project, in fact I am on #4 of the series now. Accessories are so much fun to knit, I do love the speed of them.

I'm reading the first book in a Michael Connelly series - The Lincoln Lawyer. And I am really enjoying it. I have read some of his other series based on a policeman, and I really enjoyed them too, they aren't the typical detective story and this doesn't appear to be  a typical lawyer story. I haven't got as far as I would have liked with either of these today though, I was too busy hand washing a woolen duvet ....

A cute book

Books are a big feature of our house, they were when I was a child myself. In fact I remember my Mum cataloguing every book in our, very bookshelf heavy, house at one point of my childhood (in the days of typewriters), its probably no surprise she became a children's librarian. And books continue to feature heavily in our family. We all read a lot. I read a LOT. And my kids are book lovers too. We have more books than is probably necessary, and we visit the public library 1-2 times every week, and yet I am still always on the lookout for lovely books to buy for my children.

Which is why, when I saw this book, I had to bring it home with me! 

All the pretty purple knitting is soft and raised, so cute!

And the mouse goes on an adventure, knitting all the way.

 Too much knitting? Is this a problem?

No, its perfect!!!

Its a really sweet book, and I love it so much. To be honest, its more for me than it is for the kids, but they enjoy it too!

Little Winifred revisited

As I do going into a new season, I was looking at the knits my daughter has and decided that she really could do with a new Little Winifred. The original prototype still fits her, but is more sweater than tunic on her now.

I received some delicious Red Riding Hood 8ply in a recent co-op and when it arrived I knew what it wanted to be. It wasn't going to be as long as a dress version, but I figured I would get it as long as I could and it would be perfect.

It wasn't until I was taking photos of it today on my daughter that I realised the yarn is the exact shade of her glasses. It really was meant for her!

The Little Winifred has been my best selling pattern so far (although Shelley Bay is fast catching up!) and I released it in May 2012. My pattern skills have come quite far since then, especially in terms of editing. So while I was knitting it, I decided was the perfect time to update the pattern too. If you have already purchased it, you should have received and email/Ravelry Message with the link to download the new version, and of course you will be able to find it in your Ravelry Library.

If you want to see more information about the pattern, then check out the Ravelry page here or the Craftsy page here (new version is there too of course!).

Hello Wednesday!

Its my favourite day of the week again, although being school holidays, I'm not sure I actually remember what day it is!

We are taking it easy these holidays, not going too far from home and just relaxing, we might do some Wellington touristy things next week. It does mean I am getting a little knitting done, although not nearly as much as I would like. I have been reading again.....

I'm waiting on some yarn for some designs, so the lovely purpley project there has jumped the queue a little, its a new cowl design I am working on. This is the 4ply version, but I intend to write it for multiple yarn weights. 

The wee purple thing at the top is sock 2 of my 'take everywhere socks' they haven't been out much lately...

And I have been reading lots of books on the tablet lately. Its not a fancy tablet but its perfect for book reading! I'm currently reading the latest (and last??) book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. Its not exactly what I was expecting, but its a good read.

I hope you are having a wonderful week, holiday or not!

 

Random Recipe - Chocolate Raisin Cake

This months Random Recipe Challenge with Belleau Kitchen - was to get random baby! Using a random number generator to choose cookbook and recipe!

This month the randomator chose for me a cookbook I have had for about 6months and have ogled over, and read and bookmarked, but not yet cooked from.

Bake Essential Companion, by Alison Thompson

It is a lovely book, with lots of lovely photos, which are essential for me in a cookbook! The recipe chosen was Chocolate Raisin Cake with Tokay Mascarpone - YUM! But not an everyday cake recipe.

And Tokay?? according to google, its a fortified wine, otherwise known as Muscat.



So I made the cake today, and its rather delicious. Quite rich, but yummy. Incredibly crumbly and perfectly finished off with the mascarpone!  I liked it, but it wasn't an easy cake and probably not my choice of a celebration cake, so not sure I will make it again. BUT it was yum!

Serves 8 (easily! its huge and rich)
Serve with a glass of Tokay for a simple dinner-party dessert.

100g raisins
1 1/2 T of Tokay/Muscat
350g dark chocolate
150g unsalted butter, diced
110g caster sugar
3 T strongly brewed coffee
50g self raising flour
30g cocoa
4 eggs, separated
80g caster sugar, extra

TOKAY MASCARPONE
350g mascarpone cheese
3 T Tokay/Muscat
30g icing sugar


Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees C. Line a 25cm round springform cake tin with baking paper.
2. Soak the raisins in the tokay for 1 hour.
3. Heat the chocolate, butter, sugar, and coffee over a double boiler or in the microwave until melted and smooth. Sift in the flour and cocoa, and whisk well to combine. Add the egg yolks and the raisins with the tokay. Mix well.
4. In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with a whisk attachement, whip the egg whites on medium speed until soft peaks form. Add the extra sugar and whisk on high speed until firm peaks form. Fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture.
5. Pour batter into the prepared tin. Bake for 45 mins, or until skewer inserted comes out clean. Allow to cool completely in the tin.
6. TOKAY MASCARPONE - whisk together ingredients until smooth.
7. Serve slices of the cake with a dollop of mascarpone.

Can store for up to 3 days in an airtight container.

Another day late

Once again, I am a day late for the Wednesday - alongs, but I'm still joining in!

After my yarn chicken loss with my Man Sweater, I have moved onto a fairly easy knit, in that I am just following the pattern! However I just can't help myself, so I am updating this pattern at the same time, it was one of my earlier ones, so the layout and general editing isn't as well done as my most recent patterns, it will be soon!

I have cast on Little Winifred using Ginny Weasley colored yarn by Red Riding Hood Yarns and its knitting up pretty quickly.

I have also just finished reading the Snow Child after recommendations from quite a few bloggers, so I thought I would let you know I really really enjoyed it! Quite different from what I normally read, but I would totally recommend it too!

I hope you are having a good week, most of New Zealand is in celebration mode as the law for marriage equality passed in parliament last night - very proud to be a New Zealander, we do like to be progressive! ;) 

Finito!

Thank you so much for your support with my 'game' of yardage chicken. Its always reassuring to hear that its not just me!

I have just finished the man sweater, and I am very pleased with it, but today was not enjoyable. To ensure I could finish it, I had to undo all the edgings and take out a couple of rows (which I am pleased with as I like it better), and my leftover yarn scraps is NIL. Not a thing. I actually had to hunt the sweater for the longest tails to cut and use for my final bind off.

 This is the final sleeve cast off. See all those ends.... I am pleased I finished it today, it occurred to me over the weekend that today is our Wedding Anniversary, and I could gift it to my husband for his present. We don't really do presents for our wedding anniversary, but I figured I could just time it well.

Now he just has to wait for me to sew in ends, block it, sew on buttons, and oh yes, model it for me! 

Edited to Add - I tried it on DH and its really a tad short! Going to attempt to block it longer, but think I am going to have to order more hand-dyed yarn, undo half the body and reknit alternating skeins so it doesn't look stripey! bugger.

He obviously also remembered it was our wedding anniversary as he surprised me with beautiful flowers, totally unexpected, but appreciated of course!

 

I hope your current yarny project is less in danger of such a close game of yardage chicken - I'm going to cast on a Little Winifred now, which hopefully I have enough yarn for ;)

Yardage Chicken

I believe the term Yardage Chicken was coined by Georgie of Tikki Knits, she at least was the one to introduce it to me, and a lot of other knitters! I am currently on the journey of yardage chicken, and I have to admit a mixture of enjoyment (oh the adrenaline!) and fear.

In case you aren't sure yardage chicken is when you don't think you are going to have enough yarn to finish a project. Will you win or will you lose!

The project I am working on is my Alec XL - the man sized version of my Alec pattern. I am knitting it for my husband in a Large size (not XL thankfully, no way would I win that game!)  and when I had the yarn custom dyed by the lovely Jo of Jodulbug, I was sure I had ordered enough....

Yes custom, hand dyed. That might add another element to the game.

I have finished a sleeve and have nearly finished the body. So assuming the small ball below finishes off the body and edging (EEP this is the bit I'm not sure about), and the second sleeves takes the same amount as the first sleeve, that leaves approximately 40g for the collar. Which I'm hoping will be enough! I could do it without a collar, but my husband WANTS the collar.

This yardage chicken event, I am knitting furiously. But in the past I have been known to put a knit down and not knit it out of fear of running out completely. How do you handle yardage chicken? Do you race or slow down?

I'm also reading Edge of Black, great for the circular stocking stitch portion knitting of this sweater, and a good read.

5 Random Things

Lisa of Wicked Artsy tagged me into a 5 things about me Meme. I don't often join in with these, but I like the idea of telling you some more about ME!

1) Before I had children I was a teacher. I studied Psychology and Education and went on to do a Post Grad Diploma in Primary teaching, and taught 6-7 year olds. I loved it, and will return to it one day, hopefully only part-time.

2) I have 3 sisters and 1 brother. 2 of my sisters were also teachers pre-kids! I come 4th in the family, and 4th girl. All of the girls are knitters, and one of my sisters is also a knit-designer - Julia of Just one WIP.

3) I really want to learn to crochet properly. I can do granny squares but I really want to try amigurumi, I just can't give up some time to do it right now, but SOON, really soon I am going to force myself to make the time.

4) I love to bake, I really love it, and I think I am pretty good at it. But I am not a very good cook, I find meal making incredibly boring and not nearly as much fun as baking. I do it because I have to, I bake because I like to. I take cookbooks to bed with me and read them like novels.

5) When I was 7 our family went on a trip around the South Island of New Zealand, including multiple family reunions and occasions. In every photo, I am sticking my tongue out.

Hows that for random! Now you know a little more about me.

I'm tagging
Libby of Truly Myrtle
Flying Jen
Anke
and Julia of Just One WIP (yip my sister!)

No pressure to participate ladies, but I'd love to know some randoms about you!

Seasons

Day Light Savings are now finished here in New Zealand, and we are well and truly into Autumn. Although the country is still an official drought zone after the hottest and driest Summer in 70 years (and as a non-farmer, it was an awesome summer!)  in the Wellington region, the wind and the rain and the cold has arrived. And I LOVE it.

I'm sure in a few months I will whinging about how cold my toes are, and wondering why I signed my son up for early morning winter Rugby games, but through it all I love the excuse to lounge around in my pyjamas for longer than I really should, with the fire going, and my knitting on my lap. Hand knits come into their own in Autumn and Winter here, every day seems like the perfect day for a knitted component of everyones outfits. Woolen socks? yes please!

9am from my Lounge Window

A lot of people don't like this part of the country, too windy, too cold, too unpredictable weather wise (its not really, you just need layers) but I think Wellington was made for me. Or at least that I was made for Wellington.

Just 5mins later from the same window

We have a wonderful view from our house, and as I write this I can see out across the Wellington Harbour, although its a tad cloud covered at the moment, and its a great weather predictor. We can usually see the rain coming in plenty of time to get washing off the line. My husband had to teach me to read the weather, for the first few years we lived here, I jsut didn't get it. But now I think I must have just been too busy with a new baby and a toddler and I just didn't care, its impossible to miss the rain sweeping in. We get to see rainbows (a double one yesterday) often rising out of the sea and mist and the view is ever changing as the rain comes and clears and arrives again.

10am

Wherever you are in the world, its a great time for a visible change in seasons, I hope you are looking forward to your coming season. I think I will go and make a pot of soup to celebrate mine.

Thursday

I know the WIP and yarnalong posts are Wednesday posts, but I just didn't get there this week, between the long Easter weekend, and just life in general, so I thought I would share with you today instead.

We had a lovely Easter weekend. I read 2 entire books, and half of a 3rd which is a very good sign of relaxing for me. I didn't get a huge amount of knitting done, but have made good progress on the sleeve of my man Alec. Not as much as I could have done if I hadn't spent so much time reading. I like to do the sleeves (or at least one!) before the body on an adult garment, it just seems easier! I have tried this on my husband a few times and so far I'm very happy with the fit, and so is he.

I read Nora Roberts - Dance Upon the Air, which is the first in another of her romantic trilogies. They are fairly light reading, but not too fluffy.

And also J. T. Ellison - Deeper Darkness, This was really good, and I have the next one ready and waiting after I have read a couple in between first.

Now I am reading Private Berlin, by James Patterson. I always love a James Patterson book, but this one is probably one of the better ones I have read recently (and I think I have read almost all of his recent ones...) its just a little bit different, a bit darker, and hard to put down!

I released Alec yesterday and I have had such a wonderful response to it, I am a bit gobsmacked. Thank You! If you haven't already checked it out  - please do! It is currently sitting at # 13 on the Ravelry Hot Right Now list and has been steadily climbing, so feel free to click on over and help it along ;) And it is discounted for another 24 hours too.

I am also going to participate in the Random Recipes again this month, I got my recipe last night 'Chocolate Raisin Cake with Tokay Marscapone', so now I'm on the hunt for Tokay (or muscat apparently according to the recipe, not something I usually have!) you can join in too, just pop over to Belleau Kitchen and look at the instructions for this month.

Now I have some yarn to wind, and some knitting to do - have a lovely day!

Alec

Alec was the name of my Poppa, my Dad's Dad. Because he died well before I was born, in fact before Mum met my Dad, I have always thought of him as Alec, as that's how I heard him talked about. So when I was looking for a male name recently for my new design, it just seemed right.

 

Alec is designed to be the sweater for any occasion, wearing this, your young man will be ready for anything! With a subtle, and easy to knit, texture on the front and a buttoned placket.

 The collar is optional, and the pattern also includes instructions for short sleeves too. 

Knit with traditional raglan shaping, and using your favourite DK weight yarn (22st gauge), this pattern includes sizes from 6months - 10 years. 

Although this sweater was designed with boys in mind, it is equally suitable for girls! 

Some of my wonderful Test Knitters Alecs.

You can check out this pattern on Raverly HERE. And to launch it, I will be offering a discount for the first 48 hours, just click to find out more.

The adult of version of this is currently being developed, I am finally knitting my husband a sweater!

ALSO - signups for the Red Riding Hood Yarn club open today 10pm NZT so if you are keen, pop over here to read more.