Sade’s Blog

Marr from Smelly Chick’s Online, a soapmakers’ resources website, tagged me for this six things about you me-me.

Da rulez:

1. Link to the person who tagged you (see above).
2. Post the rules on your blog (this is what you are now reading).
3. Write 6 random things about yourself (see below).
4. Tag 6 people at the end of your post and link to them (This is only a game)
5. Let each person know they have been tagged and leave a comment on their blog
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up

Six Things About Me (that you couldn’t care less about)

1. I’m a Scorpio, and it does show, sometimes, when I’m pissed.
2. I love Linux. I loathe Windows.
3. I’m dabbing in too many hobbies at the moment, but loving it.
4. Paracetamol gives me trippy dreams.
5. I lurve chocolate.
6. I only started liking plush toys (teddies, stuffed animals and so) in my laaaate teens.

There, that’s it, Six random things about me, that you most likely don’t care about. Know me better? I doubt it :p

Da taggin’

Uhm, yes, I’m supposed to tag six people who haven’t done this lately. Lets see…Smartash, CJ, Zanne, Asa, KnittingKitty and Purlpower.

And for those who are wondering, I’m not dead or falleth off the internet, I’m just very busy. Last weekend (8th-10th August) we were on a city break to London. This week (11th-14th August), we’ll be renovating the bathroom. First stage done (everything removed and ready to tile and paint), more to come. And next weekend (15th-17th August) we’re on another city trip, this time to Düsseldorf. We have booked a weekend special at Relexa Rattingen City (10 minutes away from Düsseldorf), with a candle-light dinner, use of spa, breakfast buffet, and more things for a nice price. So yeah, I’m not much online at the moment. More about the London and Düsseldorf trips when I have time to write all the stuff down!

On knitting news, I “joined” the Ravelympics (Ravelry inside link, if you want to read you have to be a member. I joined cause they made me join). I’m knitting the Anastasia Socks, in Opal Neon 1934.

Nope, not a contest, or a raffle, or a give-away. I never win on those. But I had this hank of Seacell Lace yarn from HipKnits, that is actually more of a cobweb weight. You tell me at 1600 yards (1463 meters) per 100 grams. Anyway, I want to use it to knit Seascape from Knitty. The hank looks pretty for selling, but unless you have a lot of patience, not good to knit for. So I had to wind the beast of a hank into a ball. OK, in hank form it didn’t look that big. But the yarn is just thicker than a sewing thread!

Now, I don’t have a ballwinder, because most yarn sold here comes in balls or any other wound shape that requires no work to start knitting from it. So I took out my skein winder (that is different than an umbrella swift). I attached the skein winder to our salon table. In front of the couch. So I could watch tv while winding. And then placed the skein on the skein winder. Untied the skein, found the ends, tucked the bottom one and started winding away. Three hours later (half the time before dinner and the other half afterwards) I got a nice cute ball of yarn. It is not a center pull ball, but I do not care. I’ll just put it in a ziplock and knit from the outside of the ball. Look:

It’s so cute on it’s pedestal made of a mokka cup.

And I have survived.

Today we went to the nunnery in Dendermonde, where two aunts of my mother in law live. We had cake (did I mention they do load the whipped cream with sugar in the bakeries here? My tea tasted sour after eating it), we talked, we had sandwiches, and talked some more. I knitted a bit on Jan’s scarf, and I guess that was the thing that broke the ice in the end, cause by the end of the evening, they gave me a cute present:

This doily was hand knitted by one of the nuns in the cloister. It looks like it’s made out of cotton thread, on about 2mm needles, and it’s perfectly starched. I will treasure it, since they offered me a gift, even knowing me for so little.

Edit: Do you happen to know of a pattern that is very similar or exactly the same as the doily on the pics? Please let me know!

Remember I said I’d show you all of my pressies? (it’s on the previous post, in case you don’t). Ok, so I’ll show you today:

(psss, if you click on the pics, it’ll lead you to each pic on the gallery, and you can click for an even bigger version)

The Hairy Bikers’ Cookbook, by Dave Myers and Si King. It’s a cookbook, a travel guide (the book is divided by countries), and a history book all in one. You won’t get everything from all three categories, but you’ll get nice recipes with loads of pictures, some tips on traveling (mainly by bike), and some history tidbits about each country.Oh, and lots of humour! It’s the kind of cookbook you can read from the first page to the last, it’s that good.

Amarantine, by Enya, and Come Away With Me, by Norah Jones. Both are very good! These two CDs will become part of my “quiet music” collection, as opposed to my “not so quiet music” collection. In any case, I can fall asleep listening to either ;)

A wooden tray with four small pots with four matching small spoons, that will most likely be used to serve sauces, spices, salt, etc at the table. Given to me by SIL. She knows I like to cook.

Sexy Sheepie, as already introduced on the previous post. Back then, it was New Years, and she was being geeky at my laptop. Today, I got sexy sheepie to pose for the camera, and the result is two more pics: this and this other. She totally seduces the camera, doesn’t she?

Bonus pictures:

`appy `ippo.

Fierce `ippo.

Family Pic: `appy `ippo, sexy sheepie, and fluffy doggy.

We’ve also gone eat out once during these past 10 days. We found a new italian place in Aalst, it’s called La Locanda, and sadly, they don’t have their own website. I snapped a couple pics at our main dishes:

That’s one Asparragus Rissotto that melts on your tongue. And one dish of Pappardelle with Seafruit that sent Jan to heaven. The servings are huge, too. We had a nice evening dinning there, but we know for next time (because we sure as hell are going back) to order less. One starter, two mains and two desserts was too much for us two!

Also, some knitting, just for kicks. Seems I haven’t talked knitting in ages, doesn’t it? Anyway, I’m designing and knitting this scarf for Jan. The first I made for him, he loves it, but it’s very warm. So he wanted another, and I said I make him one (hopefully) completely original. The result so far is this:

And a close-up of the texture.

The scarf is fully reversible, and fun to knit. The pattern is not complicated, and is easy to memorize. But it’s not so boring you’ll want to tear your hair before you’re half done with it. For those interested, I’ll be writing up the pattern in a nifty pdf, and putting it up for download, whenever the scarf is finished and I have modeled shots.

I only had this little yarn left from what I bought last summer to make a cardigan for Lumi (a friend’s baby).

Read more »

Never ever *cough* errm well, maybe yes, I am.

So Jan showed me his results, and i had to take the test too. Want the result? Yes? Ok, here it is:

Yes, it’s true.

And, on a knitting related note, yes, I gave in to peer pressure again (*sigh*) and joined Ravelry. I’m Sade there as well, who’d guess my nick was still free after so many people joined?

This recipe was requested by YarnTalk, and since one has to eat, one can as well take a picture and post the recipe, making someone happy at the same time. Good karma this way, please!

Bon Appétit!

P.S.: Yes, I’m knitting, it still looks the same as in the previous post, only a bit taller. I’m not going to bore you to death with the progress of cables and calf shaping. Wait till I start knitting the fold over, that will be fun :) I promise!

It’s picture day. Because I feel like it!

First, food pic:

Courgette Soup (recipe)

Then, knitting pic:

Kilt Hose for Jan (pattern). It fits me, it better fit him!

We went to Germany a couple weeks back. Read all the story on our shared blog. See all the pics on our gallery.

Bounty!

PS: Oh, yeah, I changed the theme of the blog, same style, same colours, but now in wide screen.

The clapotis is done! Yay! It took only a couple weeks more than I wanted, but it’s finished, and it’s lovely. It even got a nice bath with shampoo and a lay down on a towel.

Clapotis
(click pictures for bigger)

• Pattern: Clapotis by Kate Gilbert, free pattern on Knitty.
• Yarn: KnitPick’s Gossamer (100% Merino Wool, 2/16 NM, 440 yards / 50 grams per hank), two hanks in Rose Garden (dyelot: 60455).
• Needles: 4.5 mm Bamboo Addi Circulars, 100 cm long.
• Gauge: 25 stitches and 25 rows to 10 cm / 4 inches in stockinette stitch.
• Size: 60 cm wide and 176 cm long (24 in wide, 70 in long)

Notes:

1. First of all, I always thought that the yarn used on the original pattern was too thick for my taste, so I chose a laceweight to make a lighter version.
2. I also prefered using a looser gauge than the right for the yarn, so it’d be more airy. I wanted the clapotis to become more of a summer night / spring evening shawl.
3. The math involved! I did 9 whole repeats of section 2 - increases (and of section 4 - decreases), and 16 repeats of section 3 - straight rows. How I got to this amount of repeats? I used 1/5 of my total yarn, that is, 20 grams, for sections 1 and 2, another fifth for sections 4 and 5, and the remaining 3/5 (60 grams) for section 3. Thanks to Suemoon for this tip.
4. I slipped the first stitch of every row knitwise, instead of knitting or purling, as directed by the pattern.