Colourful Wraps, Brownies and Straw Bales

Well kids, it has been awhile since I lasted blogged. Nothing splendiferous has been happening, just generally a bit busier and being lazy too! However there is always lots to think and talk about in my little corner of the world!

I started knitting this shawl/wrap back in the summer and I did finish it this past fall. I LOVE it!!!

It is Ojo de Dios, such a beautiful design and an interesting pattern to knit. I knit it with Noro Silk Garden-rainbow- #87. It is so nice to wear and it is so bright and colourful, my kind of project!! I could wear it as I cavort amongst my straw bales! It is seriously a lovely project to knit and not to difficult. It's a great wrap and lovely to wear.

It starts with one mitered triangle you knit on your dps. Then the rest of the triangles are picked up on successive triangle edges. The body of the shawl is picked along the triangle border edge and its just good old garter stitch and some short row shaping and you are done! I love how the garter stitch really highlights all the beautiful colours in the yarn. I do love Noro!!! It is the greatest, most prettiest yarn. Looking at my pictures I am thinking I ought to knit another one, maybe in some blues and greens...hmmmm.

Here are some pictures of my friend Stacie wearing her Ojo de Dios shawl. It is so beautiful! She did an extra row of mitered triangles. The colours in her yarn are stunning. They look quite South Western.

I recently found a new absolutely delicious healthy brownie recipe! It is soo good!! Amazingly enough, they do not contain squash. They are made with black beans, applesauce, dates, eggs, cocoa and chocolate chips.Goodness me, these brownies are fantastic, they taste so good and they are not too sweet at all. They are high fibre, quite low in fat and gluten free. They are quick to make but you do need a food processor to mash everything up. The recipe can be found at
 http://ifoodreal.com/black-bean-recipe/. Sooo good!!

Recently my friend Heather invited me to a meeting of a great gardening group she belongs to. Twist my rubber arm and off we went. The guest speaker, Lesley, spoke of her veggie growing with Straw Bale Gardening. We were both immediately hooked!! It is quite a popular and hugely successful gardening technique used  by our great American neighbours. It is now spreading in popularity in Canada . Basically your composting straw bale becomes a growing medium for your plants. At the end of the season, you will have great vegetables and some lovely compost. I could go into a much more detailed explanation (which I did before Blogger crashed...grrr) but there is tons of info online and many books written about the subject. It is a great for gardeners who have poor or little soil, small spaces, rooftop gardens.. etc. It is also being used a lot in community gardens.

 Our backyard is on a southern facing sandy slope and we have crummy soil. We live in a semi arid desert zone. We have literally hauled tonnes of soil, manure and compost up that hill over the decades but the soil still seems to get quite depleted very quickly. This seemed like a great method of growing our veggies with the additional benefit of producing compost on site.What also really sold me with this technique is there is very little weeding and it is very easy on your back.

Brent caught my enthusiasm and the next day we got a load of straw bales. being a city girl I didn't know the difference between straw and hay-I do now!

this guy was a great sport!

Ta dah!!!!

a certifiable silly person

So my plan is to do regular updates on this new exciting gardening adventure. Hopefully all will go according to plan. It sure has the neighbours talking, they figured we were getting goats or ponies! I could do alpacas though. For some reason I am pretty darned excited about it.

good help is truly hard to find!

The bales are in position now. Next step is the fertilizer/watering regimen.Should be interesting?!?

Keep smiling friends!

Chris

A Hat for a Hipster

 

 

 Before you all collapse on the floor laughing, I am not  the hipster in question!! It is sure hard to get good help as the saying goes.





I knit this hat Dustland for our son who lives in Eastern Canada. It has been very very cold there. He is a hipster. I really enjoyed this pattern, it was designed by Stephen West, a most interesting and innovative knitter. There is a really textural component, with all the patterns using simple knit and purl combinations. I thought of knitted ganseys when I knit this.

 

 

 

 



It was lots of fun to knit. I knit it with Tosh DK in Graphite. The hat is a size large which is a little big for me but will fit my son just fine (I hope!)

 

 

I have also been knitting a few more of the Amaryllis hats, why I ask myself? It is is such a nice pattern and I love playing with different colour combos.

In the first Amaryllis hat picture I used Rowan Haze doubled for the pink flower. It is such a pretty fuschia colour and has a nice soft halo  (fuzzy factor). Enough about knitting!

 Our weather has been unseasonable mild, its either a very early spring or a false spring. We all rejoice with sunshine and warm weather but it really does concern me. We don't want the growing season to start too early and then get nailed by a devastating deep chill.

Crocuses are up and so is my rhubarb. Archie is exhausted from a vigorous game of ball!

I hope everyone enjoyed Valentines this past weekend. As so many of my bloggers have expressed more eloquently than I could ever do, Valentines is about sharing love and fun with friends and family. I decided to haul out some vintage china and make some treats for my knitting buddies. It was great fun!!

Sometimes you just have to ramp up the fun-o-meter!!

Have a great week!

Keep Smiling!!!

Chris

Bray, my daughter's sweater

 

 

Knitting for other people can sometimes be a challenge, a huge challenge. Especially if it is a rather particular daughter! I am known as the eternal optimist in my family. When my daughter actually requested I knit her a sweater and after I picked myself up off the floor, the process began .After looking through lots of knitting patterns, she found Bray, a Brooklyn Tweed pattern. Jared Flood has an incredible and extensive collection of very trendy, hip yet classic knitwear. Love love love his patterns! Back in early November she zeroed in on three, thinking I could "knock them off" before Christmas . I told her she was too funny. I did finish Bray on New Years Day.

 

 

 

 

 

The good news it fits perfectly, secondly she loves it, thirdly it fits perfectly and she loves it. Hallelujah!!

Now down to the knitty gritty! I knit it using Debbie Bliss Luxury Aran Tweed in Forest green. Its the same yarn I used to knit Skiff, my husband's hat. This is a soft woolen spun yarn. Usually knitting a cabled sweater with a worsted weight yarn will yield a heavier sweater. With this yarn the sweater is very lightweight and it can be worn inside. It is super warm without being bulky. I did modify the pattern a bit. In the original pattern the panels between the cables are an open lacy design. Since we live in Canada and it is winter I decided to replace those panels with  reverse stockinette. I really liked knitting this pattern. It is designed with saddle shoulders which fit so nicely! I would definitely  knit it again. Her next project idea is lovely but quite a complex knit, I am sufficiently vague on that score. Hey did I mention it fits and she likes it! I have being knitting more hats but I am having ISSUES with all my communication equipment grrrrrrr!

Next on the queue, Stonecutter. Such a no brainer, bah!

I am about ready to drop kick this laptop off the deck ,so I'd better quit while I am ahead!!

Keep warm and keep well and keep smiling friends!

Chris

Amaryllis-a Plucky winter flower hat

 

 

Many of the blogs I read have featured beautiful blooming amaryllis plants during this past holiday season. They really are such pretty plants and it is fun to watch them grow. I mentally put that on my list for next Christmas, along with don't go shopping at the mall on December 23rd! ( Having a bit of sippy sippy of Tara's homemade Baileys on ice can stay though!). I saw a great hat pattern on the recent zine publication, All Bundled Up, compiled by the Plucky Knitter. This collection of patterns is awesome, I could knit all of them, and her colours are unreal. I bought a pattern, found some great colours and proceeded to knit. It wasn't till I was half way through I actually looked at the pattern name and then those two brain cells of mine clicked. Here is my Amaryllis!!  And here is the pattern. I really really like this hat!!

 

 

I knit it using Madelinetosh Vintage, with colours Nassau Blue, Button Jar, Coquette and Silver Fox. Its pretty bright and snappy but it is a great antidote to all the gloomy weather we have had lately.

It fits really well. I am definitely going to knit another one soon. I will try another colour in the mix. My felted mitts matched too-another bonus!

 

 

 

 

 

The weather here has been really monochromatic. It is hovering above and below freezing. No complaints there!. We get a lot of valley cloud in the winter, so we get really socked in. The plus side is the cloud protects us from very cold temperatures and it also protects our fruit trees and vineyards.  We are all longing to see some sunshine and bright blue skies. It would sure be nice to see the top of our mountains again too!

 

 

 

 

 







 

 

Well there is always a bit of cooking to think about on cold dull days. I made some Focaccia bread and some Cream of Broccoli soup.  The soup recipe is here. You can add some dill and herbs for seasoning. It's really good, good for you and super easy. I am always looking for new recipes or meal ideas. What are you cooking? Please share!

 

Keep smiling!!

 

Chris