African Twilight

Here's my African Twilight finished and being used by me. I loved the pattern, and it was super easy to memorize. I'm definitely making this one again. I had about 50g left over of the blue and about 10g of the purple. The colors really came out well, despite having doubts at the beginning.

Brioche Knitting

Brioche Knitting is a knitting stitch, and one I have yet to try out, but after seeing two of my friends knitting their pieces makes me want to try it out as well.

Filomena is knitting the Bebeb scarf by Nancy Marchant and Fernanda is also giving it a go. Both of them are doing great jobs. I'll be giving it a try soon, but first I have to finish some of my projects that are going to be gifts. Speaking of gifts, Fernanda gave me this mug-mat she made. I love the fabrics and it's such a handy gift. Thank you Fernanda I really love it.

Pumpkin and Courgette Soup

It's been a while since I last shared a recipe, so I decided it was time to do so again. This time I'm sharing a recipe for a healthy vegetable soup that's super easy to make, just make sure you have fresh ingredients for a better taste. So for the ingredients you need: 500g of pumpkin chopped in cubes 500g of courgettes chopped in cubes 200g of chick peas (optional) 200g of kidney beans (optional) one chicken or beef stock cube Add all the pumpking and the courgettes to your pot and add water until everything is covered. Add the stock cube of your choice (I always prefer the chicken one, but you can add either beef or a vegetable stock cube, whatever your preference) and let the whole thing boil until both the pumpkin and courgettes are soft. You can check this by using your stirring utensil (I use a wooden spoon) and digging into a pumpkin and courgettes piece, if it breaks easy it's done. Take the whole pot of the heat source and use your handheld blender to blend the pumpkin and the courgettes until you have small pieces or until smooth, add the beans and the chickpeas. Put the pot back on the heatsource for another 5 minutes on a low heat and you're ready to serve it up. Add seasoning to taste. You can add a dollop of sour cream when you serve this or just as is. Well enjoy.

New Mystery Knit-A-Long

Daybreak by Stephen West

I received the above yarn as part of Fibres d'Art's yarn club, and I immediately thought about Stephen West's Daybreak, but I didn't know if I had enough yarn to complete the project, so I decided to try it out with Malabrigo Sock in African Violet and Cote d'Azur first as that has the same yardage as the two Fibres d'Art yarns.

Result: African Twilight almost complete (I'm making the large version), although the photos below only show the beginning. I have about 25g left over of the Cote d'Azur and I don't know how much I'll have left over of the African Violet as I'm on the border right now. In other words, I should be able to squeeze another one out of the Fibres d'Art yarns easy enough, I'm calling that one Chocolate Sampler (as you can see above).

Baking Cakes

Baking cakes .........

Yarn Cakes that is, I borrowed a yarn winder from a friend and spent a couple of hours winding several skeins of yarn I had lying around and that I plan on using in the near future for several projects I have in mind.

I wound some Malabrigo Sock (African Violet and Cote d'Azur), Malabrigo Lace (Charrua and Ibiza), Fibres d'Art (BFL, Merino, Bamboo) and Yarn Adventures (Menta and Lusco-Fusco).

Yarn Adventures is hand-dyed by my friend Filomena, she's very good at it. She'll also take orders, I have yet to knit with this yarn, but with 570m per skein I'd say I can choose from a multitude of projects

Leça da Palmeira

Enjoying a lazy sunny afternoon, need I say more......

Hare Brained: Mad March Hare

Just finished this hare from issue 77 of Simply Knitting. I received it on Friday last week, and by wednesday evening this little guy was finished. I just need to make the jacket, but I need to find the right color for it first.

The only changes I made to the pattern was to knit everything in the round instead of flat, it wasn't too hard and it sure made the end process of sewing all the bits together that much easier. I'll be making some more of the daffodils in different colors as it was super fast and easy (also knit in the round and joined, so only one cast on and one cast off.

Latvian Inspired Cowl: Finished and being used

Here's the finished Latvian Inspired Cowl being used by myself and my four dogs, they all come to try things out when I'm modeling them, so here they are:

Rusty

Dakota

Jojo

Zara

Fair Isle Workshop results

So this is the end result of my Fair Isle workshop earlier this year. I ended up, with the help of my mum, making it into a little purse that I can use to put my knitting notions in. I'm really pleased with it.

BUSTED!!!! I'm innocent I swear

" It wasn't me I swear, I didn't gut the cat, it was Dakota", this is what Rusty is saying I'm sure of it. Let's just say that the cat is no longer alive (don't worry it's a toy), seeing as all the stuffing is outside instead of in, this is no longer a toy they're allowed to play with, but I must admit that it's had a really long life (just about 2 years) which is amazing considering the dogs I've got.

A Latvian Inspired Cowl

After my Fair Isle workshop on the 15th of January, I couldn't just put it aside and I had to start a project straight away, so I choose some Lopo Xavier yarn I had lying around in a petrol blue and light grey and having found a baby blanket that inspired me to design this cowl. I used the charts used in the blanket, but modified them to fit the cowl and changed this a bit. This is the result so far. I've used 100g of the petrol blue yarn already and almost through 100g of the light grey, and I still haven't finished yet. I'll be starting a new ball of petrol blue, but I think I can manage with the remaining light grey yarn I have left over.

A morning at the Park

A couple of weekends ago, I woke up on Saturday morning to a beautiful sunny (but cold) day, so I decided to walk all the way to the Parque da Cidade in Porto, which took me about 30 minutes on foot (it would have taken about 5-8 by car) and I walked around with the dogs for a bit. That is until we noticed the lake and the ducks, swans and geese, not to mention all the seagulls on the grass. Of course Dakota and Rusty weren't interested in anything else after that and we walked over to get a closer look.

Dogs aren't allowed off the lead in the park for everyone's protection. There are plenty of strays though, we didn't come across any that morning but I've come across them before.

Fair Isle Workshop

To start this year off learning something new I decided to go to Ovelha Negra this past Saturday and join in on the Fair Isle workshop given by Fernanda. I even knit Portuguese style, which I'd been practicing all over the Christmas break. Fernanda explained things fantastically, I really learned a lot, and I personally believe that knitting Fair Isle in Portuguese style is a lot easier than knitting in continental style, that's not to say that I won't even knit in continental style again, because there are some things that are just easier that way. But anytime I'm knitting Fair Isle from now on, it will be in Portuguese style for sure.

So below I leave you with some photos from the workshop.