Bread-maker, bread-schmaker

In between starting some charity knitting (Sarah inspired me to do something for the prem unit too) the best thing over the weekend was the fact I made bread! Reeeaaaaal bread.

Wholemeal, tasty bread that even a cat would eat!


Two massive loaves to be demolished by the house occupants!


The recipe is for "Wholemeal Bread" from the Edmonds Cookbook and works out to be half the price of a Vogel loaf. It was quite sweet (1/4 cup of honey thank you very much) but still great with fresh leek and potato soup last night and apricot jam the night before. My ma, bless her, used to make bread when I was a kid but it was always like a BRICK (appearance and texture). Apparently you need to make sure your yeast is still live - this was perhaps ma's downfall! I'm really keen to experiment with other breads - imagine if I could make fresh ciabatta or foccacia! It really was so quick and I highly recommend scrapping the bread-maker and doing it all by hand ...

Hong Kong

Someone at Knit Rangers the other day was talking about tripping to Hong Kong - Jussie? Edwina? Whoever it was FYI I found on Louise's blog - aka twentycentmixture - a popular crafting area called Sham Shui Po. Sounds brillant and worth a visit.

I found her blog through Agnes Coy in case you've never read it. I love her stuff and weirdly always envisage crafting in similar colourways to her work (linens, soft blues, husky pinks and greens) but my hands seem to follow a completely different colour scheme to my head's desires.

BTW I think Agnes Coy has the BEST list of NZ crafters.

Just another random thought for today - I'm going to join the Refashionistas - found from Helen's blog. It looks CHOICE - with a capital K!

Hail all Westies ...

... Mascoes are in Lynmall once again with a yarn sale - just thought I'd let you know in case you needed another excuse to increase your 'Brad & Angela' sized yarn family!

My projects are fast becoming FOs to the point I said to CH last night that I didn't have any knitting projects! I fear the great abyss of an adult knitting project is rapidly getting closer - a cardi for me - eeek hold on tight! Just waiting on clasps and inners to finish my cushions - and a decent day to photograph them. I sprayed the chunky ones with an essential oil and alcohol mix like Edwina suggested - hope it works because the whole spare room smells like a shearing shed! I finished the ribbed bands to lengthen JoeJoe's tanks over the weekend and stitched them on loosely so the join would stretch with the original waistband. I'm quite pleased with the results as even the felted blue tank looks good. Both are being blocked right now.CH and I went to Pauanui on the weekend with friends. It was horrid weather at the beach with lightening and stormy rains all weekend.

So there was plenty of time for the girls to clean up in the poker, enjoy cheesy fondue and a little vino!

Actually knitting content...

but wine first! KM and I have been attending the Vine Culture at The Grange but they ended that last month so we have resorted to our own wine tasting - here is our "Central Otago" selection on Friday night - I enjoyed the unoaked chad the most but the riesling was promising and I wish I could have flown home instead of driven.

I am really proud to say I am sticking to my NY resolution of not having a ton of WIPs lazing about the place. And the fact this weekend's crafting time was solely committed to knitting meant I am staying on the straight and narrow.

WIP #1: Extension of JoeJoe's tank tops. The first one was in advertantly shrunk in a warm wash by his Dad; the second was obviously knitted too slow and JoeJoe grew past my earlier measurements - how inconsiderate of him! I'm knitted up a ribbed band to stitch onto the bottom of each tank. I'm about 50% through this WIP.

WIP # 2: Draft stopper. Good way of using up all those odd 1/2 balls lying around (I am so into the whole reuse/recycle mantra). Just need to fill it with sand or rice now.

WIP # 3: Spare room cushions - I've hand-sewn both sets up and they look great. I did forget to reverse the 2nd chunky one but was too lazy to unstitch it! I ended up just using some calico lying around home to back each cushion. About 90% complete - just need to add some snaps onto the opening, buy some fillers and put some stylie buttons on. The chunky white yarn is REALLY smelling like sheep though so I'm going to follow Edwina's idea of mixing some essential oil and vodka together to spray away the smell.

WIP # 4: jersery for CH. I GIVE UP! The yarn I bought does not match the Rowan pattern so instead of trying over and over to swatch the correct gauge with different needles I will just have to find another pattern - one day.

FO! Even a finished project this weekend - 3 crocheted bibs for Karin in Sweden who went through a heinous pregnancy to get a gorgeous little girl. I don't have any newborns to try these out on but Bear did a good job. There's more pictures on flickr - I used single crochet with Katia cotton and then chain stitched around to edge to keep it's shape. It basically follows the Mason-Dixon knitted bib idea.

A few Knit Rangers met up in De Post last week for a bit of knitting and drinking - which I enjoy and wish we did more of really. Is there too much wine (whine) in this blog today? Anyhow Edwina is tripping via Singapore later this year and I promised to write up my list of yarn shops for her:

• Golden Dragon Store - 101 Upper Cross St, #25-51 Peoples Park Centre - opp Chinatown Point - big store with lots of gadgets and yarn.
• Hobby Arts & Craft - Chinatown Point, Handicraft Centre Level 2.
• Knitting Shop Enterprise - Golden Landmark Hotel near Bugis Junction, I didn't get to this one but I guess it's close if you are already shopping that area.
• Yarn Shop in Tanglin Mall - apparently a small yarn shop.
• Daisio - Vivo City Mall, IMM Mall, Plaza Sinapura Mall - $2 shops with bargins for craft supplies.
• Yon Hearn, 2-12 Holland Village, 211 Holland Road - apparently a smaller yarn shop.
• Yarn Store - 2-20 Thomsan Plaza, 301 Upper Thomsan Road - apparently a bigger yarn shop.
• Spotlight - Plaza Singapura - I scored some bargin Rowan books here last time.
• Kinokuniya - 3 stores (391 Orchard Road, Liang Court mall & Bugis Junction mall) - full of Japanese craft books.

(Beware - most stores don't open until at least 10am in Singas but they do close later.) There is also a monthly craft market - I think the first Sat of each month - where a local knitter Betsy Toh sells her wares. My friend KL has seen them several times promoting the knitting religion!

awwww.....

My niece: snug as a bug, in her quilted rug!

Or being a propa Christchurch hoodie!

Singapore is warmer than Auckland

Yeah... A LOT WARMER. Nothing is as depressing as hearing "Ladies and gentleman we are starting our descent into Auckland. We will touch down around 10.38am and hope to have you by the terminal before 10.43am. It's raining at the moment in Auckland with patches of hail and the ground temperature is 7 degrees". In Singapore - the magic number was 33!!!!!!

I went to Singapore last week for work and didn't have much time for anything else. I had a list of yarn and craft shops to visits but only got a quick 2 in. (I'll add my list whenever I find it in my suitcase). The Hobbies & Craft store in the Singapore Handicraft Centre and Golden Dragon had loads of gadets from the Clover brand and a wide variety of yarn. I'm steadily reducing my stash so am off indiscriminate yarn purchasing. Some of the gadgets looked cool but I had no idea what they were for plus price wise it was all pretty standard - no bargins for me!

The biggest bonus of my job as a reinsurance broker is eating and drinking. Entertaining is a large part of the role so restuarants are my favourite haunt but I do get away with some lovely bars, cafes and pubs. The posh Chinese restuarant "Si Chuan Dou Hua" in the UOB building was a good this time with a long, multiple course lunch (although it did include REAL shark fin soup which I struggle with on an ethical basis) and dinner at a steak house "Ulura" one evening in Duxton Hill was lovely too. I also caught up with a friend, KL, and she took me to a fab Myanmar restuarant. To top this foodie heaven off, through sheer good luck, I managed to get a free upgrade to first class - so Dom Perignon and Krug bubbles all the way! I nearly peed myself with excitment and kept asking them to check it was ok before I ordered another glass of Dom. I'm sure this was karma's way of easing the pain earlier in the week when I spent $1,400 on a crown for molar #26.

A quick trip to Singapore always provides me weird and wonderful eating expereinces and the top 10 this trip were:

1. Eating cold jellyfish head with chilli sauce

2. Drinking $14 bottles of Heinken @ the Highlander whiskey bar

3. Eating cold, giant mushroom slices the size of luncheon sausage

4. Eating pickled tealeaf salad with raw garlic & chilli, lentils, peanuts and dried prawns (pictured below)

5. Closely followed by the Pennywort leaf salad and duck curry

6. The Clinic Bar in Boat & Clarke Quay - complete with operating theatre lamps, booze drip chairs and gold wheelchairs for seats

7. Sipping hot green tea served by tea-boys from copper pots with 1m+ long spouts - scary as hell but they are so precise! The length of the pour the better the tea-boy and the cooler your cup of tea is. Pretty similar to the Indian method of drawing a cup from very high.

9. Drinking Dom Perignon 2000, Krug and The Gaffer Shiraz 2005 in First Class with the man next to me reading his bible the whole way, frowning at me through his diet coke

10. Drinking not-so-sweet tamarind juice

Hey, did anyone see the knitting weekly magazine that's started up this week - $3.99 or $9.99 normally - looks good for beginners. Oh and has anyone read a copy of World Sweet World - new NZ creative mag out now - I've ordered the first 2 copies?