I got such a wonderful package this week and it came at the perfect time. I’ve been suffering with a horrible cold bug for over a week which has progressed into a hacking cough which keeps me awake all night.  The day the package arrived I was curled up on the sofa under a blanket in my pyjamas watching daytime tv and feeling generally miserable. The arrival of this bumper haul was just the pick-me-up I needed so HUGE thanks to my wonderful Swap partner, Lisa.

 The Mystery Theme Swap was a wonderful idea - no set requirements just let your swap partner have three themes and they send a package based around one of those themes. I think I gave my themes as purple, gardening and chickens….Lisa took the chicken theme and (in her own words) ran with it as you can see -

Here we have - a gorgeous oven mitt decorated with chickens, 3 “Chick-o-Stick” peanut candy bars and the yarn and pattern to knit rooster! Also (you can’t really see him in the pic) a “Posable Magnetic Rooster” - I’ll take some action pics of him on the fridge door later!

As you can see my own chickens came over to take a look at the pressies.

As well as all the chicken goodies she sent -

Alaskan goodies - blueberry jam, honey soap and Rasberry Earl Grey tea - yummy and just the soothing thing my throat needs at the moment. The card is hilarious - a chicken (think it might be a white leghorn like my Morwenna) with a strap-on peacock tale, the caption inside reads “I got it on eBay”

But it didn’t stop there, Lisa also sent some purple themed goodies -

The yarn is baby llama and is the most wonderfully soft yarn I’ve felt…Brittany Birch needles (I love, love, love these - I just love the feel of wood anyway, it’s so tactile), some beautiful red glass stitch markers, the pattern for Odessa, lavender flavour chocolate with a little purple glass stitch marker attached and lavender bath fizzers. Oh…and also (not in the pics) a bar of Lindt 85% cocoa chocolate (yummy!)

Here’s the whole parcel - Jonathan took a look when he got in and declared it a deluge not a swap parcel!

….oh, and I’ve already started on the rooster (I couldn’t resist!)

Being at home nursing my cold means I’ve completed a whole load of knitting - firstly Jonathan’s Gryffindor scarf which I finished just in time for the start of the cold weather. This is his “first day back at school”  photo !

The scarf was knit in King Cole Merino Blend DK which is very soft and squishy and the finished scarf is very thick. The pattern is by Lauren Kent and is from Charmed Knits. Took forever and was VERY boring but it’s provided my hubby with a lovely warm scarf for his early morning wait for the train so was worth it.

Next up, I decided to do something with the packet of Noro Silk Garden I bought whilst we were on holiday in Whitby earlier in the year. It’s been stored on the top shelf of my stash cupboard and has been calling to me every time I open the door. The colours are just so autumn that I had to do something with it whilst the leaves were still showing their wonderful colours in my garden. As I have quite a few little girls to give presents to this Christmas (and a few more I’m going to be responsible for clothing next year!) I decided on the Child’s Cable Jumper by Anne Hanson. This is a downloadable pattern - I should point out that in England “Jumper” means something completely different and I was a little confused by this pattern - “that’s not a jumper” I thought “it’s a pinafore dress”….before I realised that’s what you call them in the US. Here in England a “jumper” is a sweater/pullover.

Anyway, whatever you call it - it’s very sweet and knits up perfectly in the Noro Silk Garden

I love the pleats which are formed by bands of knit and purl like a very wide ribbing and the pleats then flow up into cables on the bodice. I knit the largest size for age 3/4 years and will decide if this is a Christmas gift later on.

This only used 4 full balls and about a quarter of another so I had nearly 6 balls left. I looked around on Ravelry for another suitable pattern and came across Wendy Bernards Girlfriend Swing Coat Sweater pattern. This is actually a pattern I’d seen before as I read her blog on and off (she’s another Wendy who knits I have to show faith). Wasn’t sure if the Noro would work but decided to give it a try - and it worked like a dream

This is the front

…and back, showing the lovely big collar and the swingy shape. This is so nice I want to knit one in my size…I wonder if I could scale it up…hmmmm

I just need to weave in the ends and fix some sort of closure…..actually I went to a Couture exhibition at the V&A museum in London on Thursday with my mum and I bought a whole load of buttons in the shop afterwards including some gold flowers which would look really good on this.

I’ve also knit a couple of Wooly Wormhead baby hats but don’t have photos yet so will share those next time.
 

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Tags: knitting, noro, chicken, swapI’v

All’s fair in love and Sock Wars…

What a week, it started with my assassination of a dear friend, Roo. I killed her with a pair of socks in blue alpaca so at least her feet will be warm and cosy in the afterlife. The weapons struck her on Tuesday and by Thursday she had sent me her partly assembled weapon in lavender Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino and the assassination dossier for her target, Donna. I completed the mission and by 10pm Thursday another package was in the post box at the end of our road.

My second target fell early Saturday morning and Donna emailed me news from beyond the grave of the my next mission. Unfortunately the partly assembled weapon for this target had not been particularly well constructed and the materials were not really suited to their purpose so, after discussion with Donna and her original target from whom the weapon would be coming we decided the best thing to do was for me to begin assembly of a totally new weapon from materials in my storage facility.  I will wait until I receive the original weapon before I post the new one and then wait however long it took me to knit from wherever they had got to so as to make it fair.

but I’m not dead yet…. and I have the t-shirt to prove it….

We’ve also been rearranging more furniture in preparation for (1) by friend Tracey and her children who are visiting next weekend and (2) the future arrival of adoptees….it’s progressing…slowly

We now have one room which is quite tidy and has two single beds and another room which at the moment has a single bed and a sofa bed in it…rather cramped but hopefully by the end of tomorrow we will have disposed of the sofa and armchair in the playroom and the sofa bed can move down there….

I also managed to knit this -

…his name’s Herbert and he’s a Snowme (I’m taking part in a Christmas themed swap and need to send something for the tree…)

There are no more finished objects but I have made progress on Mad Weave socks, but no photo I’m afraid.

In other news, I won a competition on Krafty1′s blog - can’t wait to receive my prize…some yummy yarn and chocs and a bag.

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Tags: sockwars snowme competition

I am not a completer, I am an innovator, a pioneer. I love new challenges, trying new things, learning a new technique. It’s being an Aries.

This does mean that I have a worrying collection of unfinished objects lurking in bags/boxes/cupboards all across my house. We’ve been clearing out our spare rooms and loft recently in preparation for the hoped for arrival of small people to share our home and this has lead to me having a tidy up of my knitting projects and stash. This, coupled with my new obsession with Ravelry has led me to face up to my problem. Having entered all my completed projects into Ravelry, and my stash I had to put in all those UFO’s and suddenly they were no longer lurking but were out there in the full glare of daylight…and there were lots…like more than 20…actually more like 30…..

The worst thing is that a good proportion, around 50%, were only unfinished because they hadn’t been sewn up. The knitting was all done they just needed the pieces to be fit together and I had a completed garment. So I have set about completing some of them. I tried to do this at the beginning of this year by listing them all here on my blog but they could hide away there too easily - I needed to have them shouting and waving at me….”Wendy, here we are, finish us!!!”

So in the past week I have completed (ie sewn up) these items -

Child’s Aran Cardigan

Age - 1 year; started Oct/Nov 2006
Pattern is from a Sirdar Booklet - Sirdar 299 Toddler Aran Knits
Yarn is Sirdar Snuggly Aran
Size is 5-6 years

I knit this last winter when I was making loads of things for my sale to raise money for Breakthrough and never got around to sewing it up. After a couple of evenings of CSI here it is, ready for either a Christmas present for one of the little people currently in my life or to wait for one of the little people soon to come into my life.

Orchid Sweater

Age - 2 1/2 years; started une 2005
Pattern - Orchid by Kim Hargreaves from Rowan 31
Yarn - Rowan Linen Drape colour 847 Splash
Size - S

This was part of my Linen Drape obsession in the summer of 2005. After getting Rowan 31 I fell in love with Linen Drape, bought up a ton of it on eBay, finished the Flame vest in Watermelon which I wear all the time. I knit this as I thought it would be a great wear for evenings on holiday but never got it completed for holiday 2005 (Tunisia) or 2006 (Turkey).

I’m pretty happy with it except that the sleeves are rather long, they are supposed to be long and come over the hand but they may be a little tooooo long. I do have to buy a backless bra ……

The stash still contains 14 balls of Watermelon and 1 of Splash!

Stripey Hat & Mittens

Sorry, don’t have a photo of both mittens completed but they are done (honest!)

Age - 1 year; started Winter 2006
Pattern - Patons PBN C 4847
Yarn - DK Acrylic
Size - Child

These were another item intended for my sale last year. My mum bought the DK Acrylic to knit a sweater for my nephew but it didn’t knit up correctly for the pattern she had so she donated it to me for my sale. I made a whole load of mittens and hats but these were never finished.
The Patons pattern leaflet is one I’ve had for years and is brilliant, it has gloves, fingerless gloves, mittens and hats in 4 sizes for toddler, child, woman and man. I’ve made so many gloves and mittens from this over the years in all the sizes. I’ve spent more than one Christmas Eve finishing up gloves as last minute presents from this pattern!

These are in the child size so could well end up being a Christmas present this year.

Little Girl’s Bolero Jacket

Age - 1 year; started Sept 2006
Pattern - Alpaca Bolero from Baby Style by Debbie Bliss
Yarn - Bab Softspun 4 ply in lavender
Size - 24-36 months

This was started last winter as a possible christmas present. Finished all the knitting then it stalled. This photo doesn’t do it justice the colour is a lovely shade of lilac.

I still have the following to be sewn up

1. Baby striped cotton sweater (started summer 2006)
2. Echo striped sweater from Rowan 38 (Feb 2006)
3. Toddler duffel jacket from Debbie Bliss Baby Style (Jan 2006)
4. Checked jacket in Sirdar Snowflake (umm, not sure - 1999??)
5. Polly Pocket dress from Miss Bea’s Seaside (summer 2006)
6. Snowflake Bunny sweater from Sirdar (winter 2004 …probably…)

and these to be completed

1. Rose Dangle Crochet scarf from The Natural Dye Studio (June 2007)
2. Nell from Rowan 28 (Aug 2005)
3. Rose Bud Cardigan from Debbie Bliss Nursery Knits (Feb 2006)
4. Chrissy sweater from Rowan 31 (July 2006)
5. Friday Harbor Socks from Knitting on the Road (July 2007)
6. Mad for Fairisle Socks by Tina Lorin (May 2007)
7. Bayerische Sock by Eunny Jang (Jan 2007)
8. Cherry Leaf Shawl from Victorian Lace Today - this only needs the edging and it’s done (July 2007)
9. Miranda Pattern Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks - suffering from SSS! as I don’t like the fit, may frog (July 2007)
10. Mad Weave socks from Sock Madness (April 2007)
11. Binary Scarf by Christine Dumoulin from Knitty 2006 (Jan 2007)
12. Everlasting Bagstopper by Amy R Singer from Knitty Summer 2007, ok for this I just need to find the right ribbon for the straps but haven’t been anywhere that sells ribbon. (July 2007)
13. Snicket Sock by Sabine Riefler from Magknits Sept 2006 (March 2007)

as well as the “current’ projects which I am actively working on (I can’t work on just one as I get bored)

1. Gryffindor Scarf for Jon from Charmed Knits (Sept 2007)
2. Amigurumi Monkey from Super Happy Crochet Cute (Sept 2007)
3. Child’s French Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks (Oct 2007)
4. Cardigan for Arwen by Kate Gilbert (Sept 2007)
5. Prickly Girl by Cristiana Brenna from Knitty Summer 2007 (Sept 2007)
6. Weasley Sweater from Charmed Knits (Aug 2007)

So my aim by the end of the year is to get at least half of these finished - so please lend me your support!

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Tags: finished

…and here they are. My finished weapon in the all out fight that is Sock Wars II

Yarn - Artesano Alpaca Inca Cloud shade 37 Royal Blue
Needles - 3.25mm Brittany 5″ birch dpn’s
Pattern - Scar

The pattern was really nice to knit - it’s a ribbed pattern with a stranded pattern stitch which is caught every four rows on either side. Here’s a close up

Now, for anyone who doesn’t know what Sock Wars is - it’s an assassination game in which the weapon is a pair of socks. Yesterday (well actually I got mine late Friday night) all the combatants were sent a secret dossier containing the name and address of our target and the pattern we have to follow for the socks. Everyone starts knitting, we all knit the same pattern, and as soon as you’re done you mail them off to your target, once received they’re dead. They then mail their dossier and  the socks they are knitting back to you and this then becomes your new target. You keep doing this until you receive your own bullet from your assassin.

Now, I have no idea who my assassin is, where they are or how much progress they have made so I’m just hoping my socks hit their target and I get my new target before I get hit myself!

When I received my dossier it was a bit of a surprise as the name of my target was not unfamiliar to me, in fact I know that it’s someone who reads this blog. So, if you’re reading this and you are in Sock Wars then these lovely Royal Blue Alpaca socks were dropped into the post box on the corner of my road at 10am this morning and should have been collected by the post man at noon so they are on their way…..be afraid, be very afraid!

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Tags: sockwars scar alpaca

My partner, Adele,  has received her parcel today (after a little confusion with postcodes, DHL and a small detour to collect…) so I can now post some finished pictures of some more secret knitting to which I’ve alluded and posted some hints over the past couple of weeks - the Hufflepuff Felted Bag -

Ta da!

I am really pleased with the way this turned out, it was knit with some Latvian wool purchased on eBay which felted beautifully. I only put it through the washing machine once, on a 60% wash, so the fabric remained fairly soft although the stitch definition was pretty well gone. I wanted it to be a “squashy” bag not a stiff case…and it came out perfectly.

I added some little touches - a magnetic catch with the fixings neatly covered up on the flap with this wonderful Hufflepuff sew on patch

It was accompanied on it’s journey with lots of goodies picked with Adele in mind and, from her email of thanks, I think I nailed her pretty well! They were mainly picked to be black and yellow to keep the Hufflepuff theme going . I have to admit I really wanted to keep this parcel…

Adele is prefect of Hufflepuff so I have to give her congratulations on her the performance of her House so far in the Quidditch - well done Hufflepuffs.

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Tags: hsks3hufflepuff hogwarts bag felted

I can finally reveal some of the Secret Knitting I’ve been doing over the past few months as one of the parcels I sent off has arrived at it’s destination.

In a few earlier posts I’ve mentioned that I was taking part in a Prayer Shawl Swap and my partner was Karen who has just received her shawl. This swap was a wonderful experience, not just a knitting challenge but a real opportunity to find quiet time to knit and meditate on something for a partner. Sending “good vibes” across the world to help another knitter with a problem.. I feel as though each stitch was somehow imbibed with love and I hope the shawl will provide comfort and warmth in the coming winter months. The idea of Prayer Shawls is explained a little more here.

I started the shawl in Cornwall at my in-laws, sitting in the swing seat looking out over the sea -

I spent quite a lot of time knitting in the “orchard” ie the end of our garden where the apple tree grows and I’ve planted a plum, a cherry and another apple all very small at the moment. I like sitting up at that end as it’s away from the house and temptations to switch on the tv or do chores…

and this is the finished shawl, I love it and hope that Karen does as well. I may have to knit myself one of these… Pattern is Tri-aran-angle by Lizzi Jennings and can be found at Knitty.com

Today I’ve been working on the new sock for the Vintage Socks KAL I moderate, we’re knitting the Child’s French Sock during October & November. I’ve picked some Yarn Yard sock yarn in “Pink Ribbon” for this sock. It seemed particularly appropriate yarn as it is sold in aid of Breast Cancer charities and October is Breast Cancer Awareness month.

So far I’ve knit the cuff and 5 and a half repeats of the leg, the pattern calls for 11 repeats but I don’t know that I shall do that many. I don’t like the legs of my socks to be very long and it’s already 5″.

I’ve just signed up for Sock Wars, and the 1st rule of Sock Wars is….you must talk about Sock Wars so here goes.

The
original and bloodiest extreme knitting tournament has returned! If you
are brave enough sign up to do battle and you will be emailed a top
secret file on 13th October. This dossier contains the details of your
target and a pattern with which to assasinate them.

To
kill your target you must knit them the pair of socks in the pattern
and mail it to them.Once your target receives your parcel they are dead
and must post their death on the “fallen comrades” section of the
sockwars site.

They
must also immediately send you details of their intended target (who
becomes your next person to assassinate) along with their unfinished
knitting (which becomes your new weapon).

All the while this is going on, someone has been assigned you as their target…

Prepare to live in fear… Kill or be killed!

THE RULES OF SOCK WARS

1. The first rule of Sock Wars is: You must talk about Sock Wars.
2. The second rule of Sock Wars is: You MUST talk about Sock Wars. (no really, for this to be a success we need as many combatants as possible)
3. Two socks to a fight.
4. One fight at a time.
5. No shirts, no shoes, just socks
6. Fights will go on as long as they have to.

THE NITTY GRITTY Sign ups close by 23:59 on 1st October 2007. To sign up as a participant go here now!

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Tags: sockwars knitting

Whew, just realised it was over a week ago I posted last and it’s not for lack of things to say…quite the opposite really.

So, when I spoke last we were getting ready for our Annual Barbecue, this has become a fixture in our social calender since we invited people round for a barbecue on our 1st wedding anniversary…actually before that I used to have an annual summer barbecue for my work colleagues years ago when I was single and then a second one for my friends. Since Jon and I got married we’ve carried on inviting our friends and family over at least once during the summer for a big get together.

We have smaller gatherings with just a few friends all through the year but twice a year we invite everyone. One of these events is a pre-Christmas Mince Pie and Mulled Wine party for just our friends, not family. We have this on the last Friday before Christmas as a chance to spend time with our friends before Christmas as we are all focussed on our families over the Christmas period. This event is always very relaxed with maybe 20-30 people, we have parlour games and everyone gets a present from Santa’s Sack - it’s a bit like a bran-tub affair with lots of very silly, cheap presents.

During the summer we have our barbecue which seems to get bigger every year, all our friends and family are invited and we provide meat and veggies for the barbecue with everyone else bringing salads, desserts and drinks. It’s a wonderful day every year, a lot of our friends have children so they are running around the garden playing swingball, quoits, climbing our trees or playing on the swing. It’s open house all day from about 2pm so people come and go depending on the age of chidren who have to be taken home to bed, people working and coming over later in the evening…this year over the course of about 12 hours from 2pm to 2am we had around 30 adults and a dozen children aged 10 months to 9 years old passing through our garden.

Here are some of our photos - click to see them larger or to go to Flickr to see the rest -

As you can see from the pictures the weather was VERY good to us, probably one of the hottest sunniest days we’ve had all year…very similar to the weather 7 years ago

As the sun went down on our barbecue it stayed fairly warm and there were people out in the garden till pretty late, we lit the candles and torches and one of our friends put on a show for us with his “Fire Poi”

As usual, a lovely day and not enough time to talk properly to all our friends.

Since then the weather has turned and it’s been cold and today it’s wet and windy so I think we picked the best day!

I’ve been doing plenty of knitting this week but most of it is secret so I can’t show you much - I’m in several Swaps at the moment and I know my partners are checking blogs so can only tell you this much.

This is a project for the HSKS3 swap

As you can probably guess, my swap partner is in Hufflepuff House!

I’m also working on this for my hubby

ok- so that’s just a bag of yarn I know! From the colours the observant amongst you might see the Harry Potter theme here as well, bought this about a year ago for the Gryffindor colours and it’s been lurking ever since. This is being knit into a top secret project for J (no peeking….)

Non secret knitting has been started -

I finally decided between the three projects I’ve been wanting to start - Rogue, Eris and Arwen - and went for Arwen from Interweave Knits Winter 2006. The yarn was purchased specifically for this project (or whichever of the three I decided on) with an Angel Yarns voucher I received in Secret Pal 3. I’ve made a couple of adjustments to the pattern.

As I’m substituting Jaeger Extra Fine Merino DK for the Debbie Bliss specified and this has a lower yardage on the ball band I wasn’t totally sure I would have enough yarn. It was going to be tight anyway so I decided to knit the hem facings with a different yarn, this i an airforce blue Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK I’ve had in the stash for a while. Contrasts well with the baby blue Jaeger.

Also, rather than sew the hem facing up and have to do invisible stitches (and I hate sewing stuff anyway) I used a crochet provisional cast on with waste yarn -

and then when the body was the same length as the hem facing I took out the waste yarn, put the stitches on another needle and then knit together one hem stitch with one body stitch across the row. I think it looks very neat -

I’m knitting this on my Brittany Birch Needles (birthday present from hubby) which I really love using, they are so smooth and so light!

I’ve completed the back of the cardigan and reached the sleeve on the left piece of the cardigan. For anyone not familiar with the pattern it is an unusual construction in just 3 pieces. The back is knit as one piece, then the left front is knit, when the armhole is reached stitches are cast on to form the sleeve, the shaping is done with short rows and the sleeve is then knit along with the body thus knitting up and over the arm. The sleeve stitches are then cast off and the left side of the hood is then knit in one continuous piece with the body. The right side is knit the same.

I’ve knit the left front to the sleeve and currently working my way over the shoulder… I’d forgotten how much I love cables…

More swap news, I recently hosted a swap on swap-bot for Knitting Accessories - send at least 2 knitting accessories (stitch markers, row counters etc) to your partner. My partner was Marie Sierra and she sent me this wonderful parcel

 - includes a skein of Plymouth Encore DK, a box of green tea, a hand-knit wash-cloth, some lavender sachets in this beautiful pink organza bag

and best of all (I actually squealed when I opened it) the book Amigurumi: Super Happy Crochet Cute by Beth Doherty. I have wanted this book for so long, it isn’t sold in this country - I could get it on Amazon but I’d have to pay huge amounts of postage so this was so lovely to receive as a gift

J has already requested the monkey on the left of the picture!!!

That’s about it for now - I’ve just sent off two swap parcels so will write about them when they’ve been received.

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Tags: SP3, HSKS3, barbecue, amigurumi, arwen,

This evening we let the chickens out in the garden for the first time. They’ve been with us a few weeks now but they’ve been living in their ark. We didn’t plan to let them out this evening, I was going to wait a week or so more and get the fences & gate checked out properly..however, Demelza had different ideas.
I was home early today as DH and I both had to go for medicals (for the adoption application) and when I got back I went out to check the chickens had water and give them a few handfuls of grain. As I was changing the water Demelza made a bid for freedom and  bolted past me and out of the ark, as she was out I decided I may as well leave the door off and let the other two out.

We had hours of amusement watching the three of them investigating the garden. DH spent the whole time panicking that (a)  the cat would get them (b) they would jump over the fence or (c) they wouldn’t go back into their house.
As far as (a) went, Simpson did have one go at them - they squawked a lot and fluttered away. He then spent the evening sat with us on the patio watching them VERY closely!
(b) Well, they didn’t jump the fences but Morwenna became very determined to jump on the pation chairs and then the table.

She did this several times before making her final intent clear and making a bid for the roof of our single storey extension! Luckily she didn’t make it or goodness knows where she would have ended up! She then wandered off down the garden a bit and promptly “flew” up into a bush at which point I decided I had better clip her wings. As she was perched in a bush it was quite easy to pick her off her branch, DH got the scissors and we clipped her feathers on her left wing. Hopefully that will stop her!

And as it started getting dark they wandered back towards their ark (with just a little encouragement from us)

So, all very exciting but I’m very happy that they made it through their first outing safely. I’m planning to let them out every evening when we’re home then all day at weekends to start with and then I may just leave them out all the time just shutting them up at night.

As this is supposed to be a knitting blog here is some knitting content -

This is the finished Ms Marigold. I actually finished her about a week ago as she was very fast to knit taking about 3 days to knit. I love the finished tank-top, it’s just what I wanted for work on those slightly colder autumn days - smart but with slightly querky features such as the ruffles on the shoulders.

The pattern was not the best pattern I’ve ever followed, there are no stitch counts after increases - it simply says “increase until the piece measures x inches” so you are not sure how many stitches you should end up with. I increased as much as I wanted, worked the body and then did some extra increases at the side to fit over my hips…then realised  I had an even number of stitches but not one that was divisible by 4…except I didn’t realise this until I worked the first round of 2×2 rib and got back round to the beginning to find I’d just worked 2 knit and needed to work another 2 knit for the beginning of the second round!!!!

However, I do like the idea of knitting the shoulders and back altogether and then joining in the round so there are NO seams to sew….I love this idea as I hate seaming and also you get such a smooth outline with no seams.

I wore this to work today and got lots of compliments.

I’ve also made a start on some Christmas knitting - as two people told me in the past 4 days how many weeks it is till Christmas!

This will be a “Weasley Sweater” from Charmed Knits by Alison Hansel although it is also available for free on her blog here. It’s based on the sweater Mrs Weasley knits for Harry Potter for Christmas in the first book, this one has a “T” as it’s for my friends son, Thomas.

The yarn is an aran weight tweedy wool in a dark navy and a bright green. I bought this in a little craft shop in Dingle, Southern Ireland a few weeks after Thomas was born, I’ve tried knitting it up about 4 times since then but always been disappointed and frogged. This sweater seems perfect for it - being a big believer in fate etc I am convinced I was drawn to buy it in order to knit a sweater for Thomas when he was older. I bought him a pottery mug in the same shop as a Christening present.

I am still working on the Genome Socks from Interweave Knits Fall 2007 for a swap partner and have just about half the leg to complete.

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Tags: chickens, leghorns, knitting, weasley, genome, marigold

This week I got a huge package of goodies from a “swap buddy” in New Zealand. We were partners in a swap-bot swap sometime ago when I sent her a yarn ball wrapped in a rose patterned tea towel. She loved the tea towel so much she asked if I could get more items in the same pattern and we organised a little private swap. I sent her some more rose patterned goodies, some English delicacies (Jaffa Cakes and Batchelors Cup-A-Soup) and some other goodies and in return she sent me all of this -

A tea-towel with New Zealand flowers on it, a squeezy tomato ketchup bottle, “Tiki” salad servers, a copy of “The Listener” a NZ magazine, 2 balls of The Wool Company Utiku Merino Possum Yarn (yes yarn made from possums!), a bath tea-bag, a NZ fridge magnet, button badge, NZ magnetic poetry (lots of NZ expressions I had to have explained), the cutest little brooch with two tiny needles and a piece of knitting, “Twisters” (NZ cheesy corn snack - bit like Wotsits), 2 bars of dark NZ chocolate and a jar of NZ marmite.

Phew! a real slice of New Zealand here in my own back garden in England. The magnetic poetry had to have some translation so here are some New Zealand phrases -

“jandals” = flip-flops in UK, thongs in US/Australia and most of world
“pack a sad” = to react negatively rather than get on with things. You might say “don’t pack a sad” meaning lighten up.
“smoko” = morning or afternoon tea (even if you don’t smoke). Someone will say “lets have a smoko” meaning lets take a break
“piker” = a kill-joy or someone who won’t join in
“rattle your dags” = hurry up
“puckeroo” = refers to something that has broken

I was interested to receive the marmite as I had assumed marmite was peculiar to England, although I was aware that in Australia they have vegemite (a poor imitation). To those of you in the US who have no idea what marmite is, it is a yeast extract which you spread on toast or sandwiches, it’s very salty and has a taste which you either love or hate. This love/hate is used as the advertising for marmite in the UK. Marmite is also used to flavour Twiglets which are baked corn snacks which look remarkably like twigs (hence the name)

Whilst I was putting the NZ Marmite away in the cupboard I realised that I had 4 different jars of yeast extract in my kitchen cupboards. I immediately wondered whether they all tasted the same or if each different variety had its own distinct taste….an experiment followed.

I gathered the 4 jars of yeast extract as follows -

From l-r, Vegemite from Australia, original Marmite from England in the new squeezy bottle, Marmite from New Zealand and limited edition Guinness Marmite (made with Guinness yeast extract apparantly)

Next I got two volunteer tasters (me and J) and armed them with pitta bread with which to tast the yeast extract.

We began with the Vegemite, the texture was much more solid than the other three spreads and the colour is the lightest brown of the four. The taste was quite subtle and not as salty as British marmite

Next was the Guinnes Marmite, I was interested to know if this tasted any different to normal marmite or whether this was a marketing ploy. The texture of the Guinness Marmite was the “runniest” of the four and the colour very dark brown. The taste was different to ordinary marmite but still very strong and salty. I love it!

Third was original Marmite, still the best in my opinion. The new squeezy bottle is an inspired innovation IMHO, I use marmite quite a lot in cooking. I’m vegetarian and when I make bolognaise sauce or chilli with soya mince I often add a spoon of marmite for colour and taste - squeezing it in from the plastic bottle is much easier than scraping marmite from a spoon into the saucepan. Still, I digress - original marmite slighty firmer texture than Guinnes Marmite but still runnier than the vegemite, colour very dark brown. Taste, very strong salty taste - delicious.

Finally, the New Zealand Marmite - of the four this was the darkest in colour being almost black and was only slightly less solid than the Vegemite. The taste was very different to the other three - whilst they were all clearly salty with the Vegemite being just more subtle, the New Zealand Marmite tasted completely different and was almost sweet. I like it but not as much as British Marmite. I will have to try it on hot toast which is always the best way to eat marmite.

So the results are that they all taste, and indeed look, very different.

Earlier in the day we attended the wedding of our friends Ceri & Mick at All Saints Church, Marlow. This is Ceri in her beautiful dress

I wore MS3 for the first time to the wedding and here I am in my outfit including the Mystery Stole 3 (btw that’s a feathered head-dress on top of my head, my hair is not quite that wild or bright pink)

I’m really pleased with the way MS3 turned out and it went perfectly with my wedding outfit. The yarn was Patons Fairytale 2ply and I knit on 4mm circulars. Here are some more photos of it taken in the garden when we got home from the wedding this evening.

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Tags: marmite, vegemite, yeast extract, wedding, ms3