She knit a blueberry beret

  with the yarn she found at the knitting store, blueberry beret..........

This is one of my favourite knits. One more time, the Churchmouse Koigu Beaded Beret . What can I say,  I love this hat, love knitting it and love wearing it. And yes it does look good on everybody. It is not a slouchy hat nor a beanie. It is just right in the middle.

I knit it with a skein of Shibui Sock Yarn in the Midnight colourway. Now this particular yarn has been discontinued. There are a lot of knitters who are really really unhappy about this. It is a real nice yarn and great to knit with and it has the greatest colours. Shibui people help us out! I stranded the Shibui with Kidsilk Haze Eclipse yarn in the Pisces colourway. The Kidsilk gives the hat a nice halo, not too fuzzy. I don't know if you can see it in my pictures but there is a bit of a blingy blue bit in the yarn too. It gives the hat a little bit of sparkle but not too much. I didn't want to be looking like I was wearing a bunch of tinsel on my head or have it look like a Christmas hat, if you know what I mean. My hair is bright enough, no need to up that ante!

I was in the grocery store last week buying some cartons of blueberries for the freezer. I freeze a lot of berries in the summer. So easy, so good to eat. Anyways an elderly dapper little man walked up to me,  looked me straight in the face and said;

 ' I am buying 6 boxes of blueberries just like you !'
  OK I am thinking, now where is this going..
  And he said ' I am going to eat them until I am blue in the face!'

 And with a wink and a nod off he went. My husband spoke first," how cute is that'. Wow, wonderful to see such a happy positive soul. He reminded me of my dad. He always had a smile and a happy thought for everybody he met. That's pretty special.

I decided to use up the remainder of last years blueberries recently and what better way than making a cake. This is an old recipe, it is super easy, tastes good and uses one bowl. It is a no fuss recipe with ingredients we usually have on hand.

Two Egg Plain Cake

Mix in a bowl

2 cups flour
1.5 cups of sugar
2.5 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt

add
1/2 butter
2/3 cup milk- I use buttermilk or sour sour cream or yogurt
1 tsp vanilla

 mix that all up

then add
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk

I pour it into a 13x9 inch glass pan
At this point I distribute any frozen or fresh fruit on top, then a sprinkle of sugar

Bake at 350 for 30 plus minutes. depends on if your fruit is fresh or frozen
You can serve it with ice cream, frozen yogurt or even better cream cheese icing!

Yum!!

The weather has cooled a bit so I can do some painting again. It was so hot and dry the paint was drying before I could paint out the brush strokes. I have my eye on this

I did start a new knitting project too

I will keep you posted!

Happy knitting friends!

Keep smiling

Chris

Mailbox Makeover

I can't believe it is the middle of July already. We always have tons of projects around the house to do and we mistakenly figure we will get everything done during the summer I love doing small projects as quite possibly I might even get them done. I was looking at our old mailbox, which would be about 43 years old (!!!) and I thought this needs to go. Being a thrifty girl and a fan of up cycling, I had the brilliant idea it could be painted.

Here it is in its old glory. There was a cool star on the front that fell off years ago, maybe it got swept up with some leaves. I really liked it but its long gone.

Bought a can of spray paint, pshhht pshhht and there it is done! Now there are two holes where the star was attached. These holes bothered me, it was like a sweater missing a few buttons.

I found a few cute decorative knobs and Bob's your uncle!

Earlier in the year I bought this and put it on the front of the house. It's happy, its cheerful , it's fun. Our front garden is full of bright cheerful plants so it all works.

I was thinking with the mailbox you could change the knobs anytime.  Maybe I can become a mailbox artiste!!  hahaha

On the knitting front, not much is happening. It is too hot to knit.I started this wrap/shawl  a few weeks ago It is the Ojo de Dios Shawl. I started knitting it with some Noro Silk Garden, but I don't have enough yarn. I am waiting for a back order to come in. Hmmm....

Such a beautiful moon this past  week

Hope everyone is able to keep cool this week. Poor Archie is so bored as we have to keep him inside during the day. There is much sighing and rolling of eyes!

Happy Knitting Friends

Keep Smiling!

Chris

Put some pep in your step!

Its been hot here, looks like my toes are melting!

What can I say, I love me a pair of bright colourful hand knit socks! No matter what kind of a day you have had or what you are waking up to, for the most part, a pair of happy warm feet can't help to make you feel a bit better.

I just finished these this past week. It has been hot here, really hot, mid thirties centigrade which translates to the high nineties farenheit. These socks still felt awesome but I must confess I didn't have a burning urge to wear them for very long.My husband will wear his all through the year, don't quite get that one. In all fairness I have heard some people enjoy wearing wool socks in the summer as they breathe and they say it helps keep their feet cool.One thing I do like about the fall is I can haul out my socks and start wearing them again. I love knitting socks in the summer, they are small portable projects.

 Here's the skinny on the socks,  the pattern -fruit stripe gum socks using Jawoll Magic Degrade in the colour 0051. Its a bright and snappy colourway. Love it! The big thing in doing this pattern is to find a self striping yarn. Some yarns have long colour blocks, some have short and some are just in the middle (sounds Goldilockian). I think anything would work and look great. If you want to have your sock look more entrelacky maybe go for something that has a colour that repeats every several rows.Come to think of it these would look great in a tonal or a jacquard pattern too. In any event, it is a fun pattern to knit, not the least bit complicated and looks like you are extremely clever and talented, well really even more so than usual! If that is truly possible heh heh!!

Colour 52611- super colourful!

I started this one using Sockittome Bold. It has a bit longer colour changes but I am really liking it. This yarn has oodles of possibilities. I always think of Laugh in when I see Sockittome,was it Arty Johnson or Henry Gibson who always had a gag about it!Oops I just remembered I did my conventional heel flap and not the one in the pattern, force of habit that's all.

On the reading front I just finished The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd. It was a good read and I did enjoy it. I learned a little more about American history and the abolitionist movement. I picked up some books at the library today, one being the J.K. Rowlings Casual Vacancy. I have heard lots of reviews about it and one by Hakan Nesser. I love my Nordic Noire. I am still a bit put out both Wallander (Henning Mankell) and Erlunder (Arnaldur Indridason) have ridden into the sunset.  I am sure the authors have told all their stories for their characters and they are ready to move on. Sigh. Big Sigh.

My neighbour Jennifer's Lilies

Here are a few pictures of both our neighbours and our lilies. They smell so divine. With the onset of the hot dry heat flowers and blossoms don't last too long.

 Archie has the right idea, park it in the shade!

Happy knitting friends!

Keep smiling, Chris