Tis the season to be merry!

If you are a ex-Lime Bar back-up singer, living in London and working in IT - DONT LOOK NOW!! It's for your own good, I'm telling you as a friend ...

Yip folks - it's feijoa time. And anyone doing a stint overseas knows they are missing out on the quintessential kiwi season.

KM delivered a stack of them off MA's trees on Friday night and whipped up a great cake. Feijoa's are so good - chutney, cakes, muffins, fruit sponge or crumbles. All the feijoa's on KM's cake started off on top of the cake ....

But then fell to the bottom - oh la la - this beauty tasted even better after a days work in the garden!

Of course feijoa is now in the form of decent alcohol thanks to 42 Below. My favourite cocktails are 42 Below Feijoa Vodka and old-fashioned apple juice, followed closely by 42 Below Feijoa Vodka and Chi - with a slice of cucumber. The latter is less sickly sweet and could almost be the kiwi style of a "Jug of Pimms" in the summer!

My First FO - EVER

I was cleaning up the study the other day (well my half anyway as CH's is pretty tidy all the time - I think that says more about workloads than tidiness - so glad you agree as I would hate to think I'm a messy crafter!!) ... and I found my very first FO - a baby jersey knitted in 4th form at high school.

I was quite impressed with the job - all sewn up nicely too! Some sort of baby 4 ply yarn and a basic sweater pattern with a bit of a wing bat arm!



I'm not one to tell tales but I do remember the satisfaction that I had finished this project without mother's help unlike some other pupils .... the moral of the story however is I should have got mother's help because aforementioned other pupil is a way more skilled knitter than I am!

Go Mrs Lazelle's WHS Class of 1993!!! :)

No pictures

Just thought I'd save you the effort of scrolling any further!

Anyone like maths? You should if you like knitting really as it's often all about the maths: number of rows, lace patterns, calculating gauges and row increases, re-calculating patterns, gauges. Check out this link sent by Mat (and no, he's not into knitting/crocheting although might be a closet crocheter... I have no idea how he came upon this!). But just another amazing connection between nature and maths (I like that stuff) with extra whipped cream - crochet!

While you are browsing away from this blog you might as well check out this guy Edward Burtynsky too. An amazing landscape photographer seeing the NEW natural world. I saw the doco "Manufactured Landscapes" on Monday at film club - brill ant depiction of what's going on around the world with industry.

You know what: I say flag climate change camp - I think it's bollox humans are being blamed for a naturally repeating earth cycle. I've seen too much evidence now that I think Mr Gore was w-r-o-n-g. I stood on that side of the fence for ages but there is too much other evidence to ignore now (sorry I'm not going to reference any for you but just take a look sometime). For example: when Al let us know that those markers sitting on some South Pacific atolls were measuring water levels as "depleting drastically from climate change and my hair-dryer" did he add the small fact that the markers ARE ACTUALLY SINKING!! Think about it... The coral forming the base of the atoll is breaking down (naturally). I think for a long time I was just too chicken to look at the facts and go against the trendy bandwagon.

HOWEVER I now firmly believe the climate change actions/solutions are great BUT must be "re-marketed" to the real simple fault of humans: that of depleting our natural resources (fossil fuels, water, clean air etc). You might think it's one in the same thing but I disagree - there's no way we can change the Earth's orbit or when an Ice Age begins (come on folks do we really think we are that big) but we sure as hell can change how much petrol or petroleum by-products we consume. It's not that the planet could collapse from climate change: it won't, it's been through climate change - bought the t-shirt, bought the whole shop in fact. The biggest threat is ourselves. Fact: current civilisation will not survive once our natural resources are gone. We're just not that equipped anymore and if we want to continue any resemblance of our current commodities lifestyle: we need to reserve our natural resources or find alternative resources, or find alternative ways of living.

... Class dismissed?

Gonna get something finished soon ...

I've really been getting some knitting mojo at the moment. Been working on a beret from She Knits with Cleakheaton's Studio Mohair - a mohair/acrylic mix in a yummy green. Hopefully the acrylic will make it less itchy because I love the colour!! I really liked M's green hat that she designed last year and was inspired to knit something green too. It's been a bit slow though as it's not a train knit - far too furry!


The colour reminds me of the salad greens that my vege garden is pumping out at the moment. A weird crop of lettuces has emerged from the non-organic mix I put in a few weeks ago - some mustardy ones, some radishy ones and some prickly ones. One mini-me-radish, some basil and sage make for a good salad with some great olive oil.


Last nights marathon effort in front of the telly meant I finished the beret! Just need to do a bit of sewing up and maybe a nobble on the top.


As usual, my tension is so loose that the headband is pretty weak - so I'm going to look for some flat, green hat elastic to thread through this weekend. Anyone got any ideas for a good supplier of hat elastic??

STUFF

It was a good easter folks with many wintery jobs and STUFF around the house being completed. It means less digging, less gluing, less painting and more knitting! I've actually nearly finished a wee project too - imagine that folks - soon you could read this knitting blog with pictures and text about knitted STUFF, yarn, hell knitting patterns even!

Weird STUFF: flatto peaches

Tasty STUFF: French Market cheese stand

Good STUFF: a legend framer - Steve Bailey - send him your good STUFF!

It's funny how silly a word starts looking once you capitalize it and repeat it often. STUFF!

Missing out on cake :(

Michelle's High Tea Hens

Yeah - I missed out on cake last week because I couldn't read my flights properly! Some damn good cake by the looks of KM's photos. Considering no one knew when I was turning up after a work trip overseas, I ended up having to make a call to KM mid-flight which was pretty funny - never thought anyone actually used those funny controllers in the armrest other than for the movie selection. Quite an amusing conversation to have mid-air which went something like this:

JC: "Hi Kel - really sorry, mucked up my flights and I don't arrive back until midnight - NOT midday. "
KM: "Ok - but where are you now?"
JC: "On the plane."
KM: "Where? In Singapore?"
JC: "No, no flying in the plane - somewhere south of Singapore - flying over Malaysia maybe?"
KM: "OMG!"
JC: "I know - this call is BIZARRE!"

I did contribute my cake stand for the proceedings - KM and Michelle filled it with home-made goodies like lamingtons, melting moments, coconut ice and butterfly cakes. Such good little bakers those lasses!

mmm ... the ultimate high tea sammie - asparagus rolls on white bread!

I love these cups - go the Crown Lynn - a true west auckland style icon!

food inspired knitting

I love beetroot - raw in salads or carpaccio-ed, boiled with chard and sea salt, roasted with balsamic and honey. I think the colour of a dishy, organic beet also draws the fans in and it is the inspiration for my next knitting project. TTP gave me She Knits for Xmas which has these great kimono cardis and I want to make one in beetroot - just need to finish the first cardi (read: self-imposed limitation on new yarn purchasing):

(photo courtesy of Cleckheaton website)

Has any food inspired you to knit?