Mmm, chocolate...

On Wednesday I made this. Well, I made a half batch, and messed with the spices, and approximated the liquid quantities. I think I made it a bit less solid than it's meant to be, as it behaves like a very thick syrup when it's in the fridge.

I can confirm that it does make a nice hot chocolate. It is also a good ice cream topping, and the consistency I got is about right for that purpose. On vanilla ice cream it is much nicer than the standard chocolate ripple ice cream you tend to find.

And I've also discovered it makes a pretty good nutella substitute. Obviously it doesn't fulfil any hazelnut cravings, but it has the chocolate part covered pretty well.

I will definitely be making more, although I think the next batch will leave out all the spices, and possibly even the vanilla. I may also try throwing some brown sugar in, but it will depend on how I feel on the day.

Baby's First Blowfish

I have found the perfect baby gift!



Pattern is My Little Blowfish, by Selina S. It is well written, and contains humour (and ferrets). This fish is for a friend's new baby, but I will be making another one for my littlest boy for Christmas too. And possibly more, they are very cute, and strangely addictive. Yarn is Ashford Tekapo, I used about 33g.

The fish itself is felted by going through the washing machine a couple of times, the eyes were my first attempt at needle felting. That was very satisfyingly quick and effective, and definitely worth trying for doing little finishing details.

This pattern is part of the Great Indie Gift-a-long on Ravelry, come and join in and make your own blowfish!
(I suppose you could make any one of the 2000-odd other patterns instead, but the fish is very cute.)

New Chairs!

We have some old dining chairs which used to belong to Grandma-in-law. They are quite comfortable, but the upholstery is seriously in need of replacing.


After getting sick of trying to clean what was left of the pile fabric after the 2 year old has been eating in it, I finally got around to ordering some oilcloth to redo the seats. The stuff I found that I actually liked (aesthetically) turned out to be much lower quality than what I found locally and didn't like, but it will still serve well enough. It was also less than half the price, so I'm not particularly surprised.

Thankfully I didn't have to replace any padding, because the original upholstery I found under the layer I was replacing wasn't too badly beaten up. It had a few holes and was very worn, but not badly damaged enough to require major repairs.

And voila:


(I confess I have only done one so far. The others will be done by the time the baby needs a chair to sit in...)

Indie Design Giftalong

As a result of some whirlwind discussions and planning in the Ravelry Designers group, approximately 170 independent knit/crochet designers have banded together to run a craft-along to make gifts for the upcoming holidays (or for yourself, we're not picky).

All designers involved have selected patterns to discount by 25% (coupon code is 'giftalong'), I have discounted Hemigraphis and Radler.

I have been very tempted by sooooo many patterns, but have limited myself to a few (to start with). The discount will run until the end of November 15th GMT, and the giftalong itself runs until the end of December. There are lots of prizes planned, both throughout the next two months and at the end of the year. It's looking like it will be a lot of fun!

Wedding Sampler

I finished this and got it framed just in time for the wedding we went to a few weeks ago:


The colours are a bit more vibrant than the photo indicates, but this was the best photo I managed to get. I'm just pleased I managed to remember to get one at all, the carpet in the background was on the floor in our motel room...

Pattern is All Because, by Imaginating. I changed most of the colours to match the paua shell theme a bit better. It was a fun pattern to stitch up, and reasonably quick too!

I also made some tidy clothes for two little boys, but failed to get any decent photos of both of them dressed up. This is the larger one, showing what church pews were really designed for...

Doll

I have a few things I've finished in the last month, but I still need to sort out photos of some of them. For a start, I've just finished making this doll for the 2 year old for Christmas:



Pattern is Constance, by Rhiannon McCulloch. I couldn't find a wool in anything particularly resembling a flesh tone, so I resorted to Panda Magnum acrylic, and used a little more than one 100g ball. A few of the finishing details I think I could have done better, but in the end it is for a 2 year old, and I don't think he'll care.

New Pattern: Hemigraphis

I have just realised that in the excitement that is my life (okay, the sleeplessness of having a new baby) I have completely failed to post anything about my newest pattern.

So without further ado, here is Hemigraphis:



This is a floral shawl/shawlette with a triangular centre and wide semi-circular knitted on border. The border shaping uses short rows, and the two colours are carried the length of the edging with a floral band worked using both yarns held together. The floral band sits comfortably around the shoulders.

The large shawl pattern (purple and brown) uses laceweight/2 ply yarn, and the shawlette (blue and variegated) uses fingering/4 ply yarn. The heavier yarn makes the smaller shawl as it is designed to work for two 100g skeins.

Pattern has both written instructions and charts. There is a separate file with enlarged border charts for ease of reading (2 pages per chart). The enlarged charts also have stitch counts on the longer plain stockinette sections.




Available through Ravelry for NZ$7.00



I love how this sits around the shoulders, no bunching up at the back of the neck.

I have some rainbow coloured long repeat lace wool I want to use for another large shawl, once I decide what other colour to put with it. I think I'd also like to try the small one in a heavier yarn sometime, for a big warm version. And a couple of my testers did a single colour version, which had a slightly more delicate look.

Please excuse the rant...

For I-don't-know-how-long-now I have vaguely been keeping an eye on the housing market. Every now and then a house that seems like it might suit us shows up. So far they have all turned out to not be exactly what we'd be looking for in a new house, and we forget about it until the next one appears. There was one a while ago that was quite tempting, but it wasn't quite perfect, and we decided that it was going to be too much stress to try and get everything together to even have a hope of buying it.

And now there is another one that looks nice (at least in the listing). We're still waiting on any sort of payout from EQC, so it's all a bit of a gamble as to what we will get for our current house, but according to their timeframes (last time I checked) then that should have happened by the time this place would be auctioned. I'm not holding my breath.

It's very frustrating watching good-but-not-perfect houses pass us by, knowing that in a few months we may be more actively looking for something and they would have actually been quite acceptable. I hate not having a definite idea of what we could afford to buy. And I really hate trying to ring EQC for updates, because it seems like there's never any change.

I know we are lucky to have a borrowed house to live in, which means no daily financial stress, but I would love to be in our own home again!

Photos from last time

Little cardigan:


Pattern is Cascade, 3 month size, 6 month length. Yarn is Vintage DK by Skeinz, in colour Tapestry. I used 93g. Buttons have elephants on them, they are from Buttons by Benji

And this is cleared patch of garden:

You can see how horribly messy the rest of the garden is! It seems that whenever I reach the point where I feel like I'm starting to get on top of the garden, something happens to ruin that (earthquakes, babies etc)

And the happy little toadstools that I found:

Spring is here!

Which means I now have a 2 year-old. We took him out for a picnic and miniature train ride for his birthday, the best bit of the ride was the ticket...

We are going to a wedding in a month (SIL), so I have been busy making stuff. So far I have one pair of small trousers done apart from the hem, and tiny overalls that just have hand finishing to do. The shirts are both half done, I am taking advantage of my mother's overlocker on those. The overalls and small shirt are actually ones I failed to finish for the wedding we attended 18 months ago.
I am also making a tiny cardigan, just have one sleeve to finish, and I hope to block it tomorrow. There should be photos soon.

Yesterday I cleared a patch of garden to try planting things in for Eric,and in the process found a toadstool ornament which I think I will try to clean up and repaint for him. I have no idea what he'll make of a garden, but I'm sure he will have fun watering it at least. And if he manages to not destroy the plants I intend to put in then he will definitely enjoy eating the cherry tomatoes...