Just keep knitting

Scarf Mk III


One for hubby.
Can't blog now..life is too busy..have a good week!

Knitting....

It's started to get quite chilly here, all the leaves have changed colour, and the heater...which never quite managed to get put away after last winter...has been back in full use.


I've really caught the knitting bug lately and have enjoyed having something to mindlessly do whilst mindlessly watching television...can you tell I'm into things that don't tax this frazzled brain. So I finished my stripy scarf (Paton's Rainbow Yarn) - just need to thread in a few ends. I can't find a wool needle in this house to save myself so will have to go and buy another.
And I thought to increase my knitting skills I'd try something a little harder and made this one for Gorgeous Girl. It's an alpaca and acrylic mix wool from Spotlight and it's lovely and soft.

Next in the cue is one for hubby. I asked him if he would actually wear it and his reply was "if you made me one, I might", so we will wait and see!

Hope you're having a good week.

My scarf knitting continues...

Nearly to the 2 metre mark, so should be finished soon!

Thought I'd share a recipe from one of my SIL's that I made the other night. Everyone ate it except the four year-old but that child would have spaghetti bolognaise 7 nights a week if I let him!

LEMON CHICKEN PARCELS

Ingredients
4 chicken breasts - each cut into two if large
90 g butter
1 tab oil
filo pastry
1 tabs seeded mustard
1 tabs chopped fresh coriander

Sauce
2 tabs lemon juice
2 tabs of chopped fresh coriander
2 tabs of grated fresh ginger (or a tab of ground ginger if you have to)
1 cup thickened cream

1. Heat 30g of butter and oil in heavy pan. Add chicken and cook until browned lightly. Remove breasts from pan and place on absorbent paper. Reserve pan juices for sauce.

2. Place 1 sheet of pastry on bench, brush with leftover butter that has been melted. Fold pastry in half. Place one chicken breast in centre of one end. Spread chicken with mustard and sprinkle with coriander. Roll up to form a parcel.

3. Brush parcels with melted butter. Bake in a moderate oven until golden brown. Approximately 20min.

4. Sauce - add lemon juice to pan juices. Stir in other ingredients. Stir constantly over low heat until it has reduced by 1/2 and slightly thickened.

5. Pour over chicken parcel and enjoy. Serve with salad or cooked vegies...


Well have a great week. I'd better go check on my four-year old as he wandered past 10 minutes with a glue stick, mumbling "and I'll need this..."

The week that was...

Well this week we've been on school holidays and through the generosity of my parents, have been down to two kids for the week. Gorgeous Girl and Little J headed off to Nan and Pop's to ride horses, jump on the hay bales, walk in the mud and eat too many of Nan's famous ginger bickies.

So I decided to spring clean (in Autumn!) the boys rooms, make some new curtains (to replace the ones that I made from teddy bear fabric when expecting our first bub 13 years ago. Alarmingly I found out that I never did quite get to finishing those side seams!) and chase around the two munchkins who were left to enjoy their boring parent's company.


Boo doing some minor mechanics before heading off on a bike ride..

I've also been getting out my knitting needles as I've decided I would like to improve my knitting skills. I have started with a scarf to get me back in the swing of things.(Not that I recommend swinging with knitting needles...down right dangerous...)

Of course the pattern called for a very tricky 10 rows of colourful wool, 10 rows of navy, 10 rows colourful etc etc..and I managed to mess up on the first change so mine will be unique and go 10 rows colourful, then 12 rows navy..sigh...

I have also been making hexagons..

None of these puny 2" affairs for me..these are the mother of all hexagons at 10 1/2" across. see scissors for scale...


Willow, the new addition to the family is proving a delight. She prefers to be carried around like a baby, and purrs crazily every time someone picks her up. Hubby put in a new water feature for me in the garden and she was most interested to try and figure out what this thing was..

I give the water feature about 1 month to live with the amount of soccer (sorry, I mean football) balls that fly around our backyard! I've already had to farewell 3 gnomes, one ceramic lizard and a flower pot... And my brother wonders why I don't use the banana lounge he gave me to relax in our backyard...

Hope you're having a good week!

Friday Funny..

Finish-a-Long - Quarter 2

Well, I managed to finish one of my list of three things for the first quarter..one!!Pathetic effort, really!;-)

So here's my list for the 2nd Quarter...

1. Baby Quilt...still needs borders and to be quilted and bound


2. Spiked Wheel Quilt..still needs borders and to be quilted and bound..


3. Flannel Quilt from Material Obsession. It's currently only cut out but here's a photo of it when finished (as I haven't had a chance to take a picture of my hexagons)


4. My London Calling Quilt. Needs to be quilted and bound


5. This Dragonfly Writing Compendium, which I am going to change into a Quilt Block Keeper.


6. Figure out these blocks and join them together somehow...

So, it's a pretty ambitious list...probably a little unrealistic, but I figure I may as well aim high! *smile*

Baby Quilt...will I get it done in time?

We have two new nieces or nephews due in 2013 so I am making a couple of baby quilts to have on standby..but mind you the first new addition is due in less than a week and I don't have the first one done yet! Hmmmm...

I've attempted to jump on the "low-volume" bandwagon that seems to be happening all around the quilting bloggy world but don't think I've really nailed it with this eye-spy quilt.


Think I might just stick with "bright and in your face"!

I am going to attempt to quilt this one myself..something I'm not terrific at but I figure if I never practice then I never get better, hey?!

Have a great week!