Been RAK’ed(!)

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeh! *happy* I’ve been RAK’ed – that is, I’ve been the objet of a Random Act of Kindness. I “signed up” for this at the Knitty Board, it’s a thread where you put your wishes, and if someone can and wants, sends you some thingies. Anyway, I want to thank Amy (sorry, don’t know your site addy, if you have one, and read this, please tell me!) for all the pressies you sent me. And since we know it, here come the pics:

knitpicks yarn! peppermint patties
recipes card

Love. It. All.

Thanks so much again, Amy.

Sade

Cabling!

So, the kilt hose adventure continues. After turning the heel and picking up the stitches, I started with the pretty braid of each side of the sock. You can see a general view:

kilt hose

And a pretty close up of the braid:

kilt hose - close up

Lurve it!

PS: that’s my little camera bag stuffing the sock so it stays up and shows the cables nicely ;)

H is for Home

Home \Home\ (h[=o]m; 110), n. [OE. hom, ham, AS. h[=a]m; akin to OS. h[=e]m, D. & G. heim, Sw. hem, Dan. hiem, Icel. heimr abode, world, heima home, Goth. haims village, Lith. k[“e]mas, and perh. to Gr. kw`mh village, or to E. hind a peasant; cf. Skr. ksh[=e]ma abode, place of rest, security, kshi to dwell. [root]20, 220.

  1. One’s own dwelling place; the house in which one lives; esp., the house in which one lives with his family; the habitual abode of one’s family; also, one’s birthplace.
  2. One’s native land; the place or country in which one dwells; the place where one’s ancestors dwell or dwelt.
  3. The abiding place of the affections, especially of the domestic affections.
our little home

These pics are taken in our (DBF and mine) living / dining / hobby room and office (all in one). It is really a place I call home, for I feel at home when I’m there. It’s peaceful and quiet. It’s nice, it’s decorated like we wanted it. We did a lot of work in this room… Although it was DBF who did most of it, since I wasn’t there most of the time. We chose the colours together and he painted it all (after removing the old wallpaper), my lovely MIL did the stencil edge. We chosed the furniture and the distribution, and assembled most of it together. The red couch is our last acquisition :) It is really our little home.. Until we get our real home.

(Note: DBF took these pics, as I only had the idea once I had already left Belgium. All the credit goes to him. I just selected and made the collage.)

G is for Going home

Brussels Airport

I travel a lot, having my DBF Jan in Belgium (so does he, btw). This is a picture I took while waiting for the flight that would take me back home from Belgium after spending the Easter holidays there. It’s sad having to get back home… The weather was grey and wet, very appropriate too… Going back home… I can’t wait till going back to Belgium…

A Little Dyeing Experiment

This Easter I was in Belgium (see full post on our blog, and all the pics on our gallery). Since we have a big garden and room to work, it was the perfect time and place to dye the fabrics I had bought for making our medieval costumes.

We bought our dye and chemicals from Zijdelings, a workshop on textile design and mailorder service from the Netherlands (part of the site is English, but if you want to order, get ready to browse in Dutch). We got pre-reduced indigo, soda ash and thioureum dioxide. Fast service, and average prices – indigo is expensive, no matter what.

We did a pre-bath mixing 4 tablespoons of indigo, 4 tablespoons of soda ash, and 8 teaspoons of thioureum dioxide in 700 ml of tap water. Mix well and carefully(!), you don’t want to stain anything blue, like your fingers (I did *ahem* skin washed off in two days tho). Remember you are using chemicals, so be careful, work in a ventilated area, don’t touch the chemicals with your barehands etc etc etc . We let it rest a whole day in an airtight closed jar until it turned greenish.

The next day we filled our big bucket from Ikea with about 30 l. of (cold) tap water, and poured the pre-bath in. Mix carefully and let rest a bit. If you are careful and do not introduce much air in the bath, you’ll be able to dye right away. Else you have to wait until it turns greenish away. Now, put your fabric in and let it under the water (the fabric will have air bubbles and you have to push it down constantly) to catch the dye for some 5 to 10 minutes (I really didn’t time this process – the colours are totally non repeatable). Fish the fabric out, wring out well without splashing much using gloves, your hands will thank you ;p and extend your fabric so it gets aired and it turns blue. Keep dipping the fabric in the same fashion until the colour is slightly darker than desired (it will wash off a bit). With this bath and white linen fabric we got a pretty dark blue shade after three dips, that will be Jan’s tunic.

We did let the dyebath rest overnight, and used the nearly exhausted bath to dye the tan linen fabric as well. Two dips later we got a blue-greenish shade that I love and that will become my dress. Want pics? See here a couple:

Dark blue indigo dyed fabric on the drying line Light blue-greenish indigo dyed folded fabric

For the whole set, please visit the photo album in our gallery.

Sade

Recipe: Garlic “Naans”

Garlic “Naans”

Garlic Naan

Yes, that is a hell of a big Naan, I was lazy and made just one. It was eaten fully during dinner anyway ;)

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup strong flour
  • 1/3 cup milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon yeast
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 tablespoon plain yogurt
  • 2 tablespoon vegetable oil or butter (I used olive oil)
  • 1 head of garlic (or more to taste – I used nearly two)

Instructions:

  1. Warm the milk until it’s about 40°C. Mix in the yeast and let rest until foamy and creamy.
  2. Peel and mince the garlic, put in a very small bowl and cover with the oil. Microwave for 20 seconds (this will give the oil a garlic taste).
  3. Mix the salt, sugar and yogurt into the milk
  4. Put the flour in a big bowl, add the milk mix and the oil with garlic. Mix until the dough is soft and not sticky (might have to add more flour). Knead for about five minutes.
  5. Grease a bowl with more oil, form a ball with the dough and turn around in the bowl to cover with the oil. Cover, place in a warm place, and let rise until at least double.
  6. Heat oven to 180°C. Divide dough in two, and shape each one into a very flat ovoidal shape and brush with a bit more oil or ghee. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Until slightly golden, but still soft. Serve warm. Enjoy!

Note: Ghee is clarified butter.

Getting On With My First Sock!

I made it! I casted on for my first sock, that is not actually mine, but for Jan. I’m knitting these lovely cabled kilt hose for his Scottish attire – he plays in a pipe band. We chose a no-brand white aran bluefaced leicester 3/5 Nm (what does 3/5 Nm mean? Lookie here for an explanation on yarn count) and I’m knitting it on 2.5 mm circular needles to obtain a dense and stiff fabric that washes up to a soft but still sturdy fabric. It has a very nice stitch definition that I hope will show the cables pretty well.

On for the pics. First, two of the three 100 grams skeins I’m using for the first pair of kilt hose:

two skeins of white aran yarn

And second, a shot of my first ever short row toes on my first socks ever! (yes, I am proud of myself I’m taming the sock beast):

short row toes

The circular needle you might be able to see there is a Pony, 80 cm long 2.5 mm. Got two of them at a shop here for around 5.50e. They seem sturdy and are very pointy!

Sade

F is for Fate

Fate \Fate\ (f[=a]t), n. [L. fatum a prophetic declaration, oracle, what is ordained by the gods, destiny, fate, fr. fari to speak: cf. OF. fat. See {Fame}, {Fable}, {Ban}, and cf. 1st {Fay}, {Fairy}.]

  1. A fixed decree by which the order of things is prescribed; the immutable law of the universe; inevitable necessity; the force by which all existence is determined and conditioned.
  2. Appointed lot; allotted life; arranged or predetermined event; destiny; especially, the final lot; doom; ruin; death.
  3. The element of chance in the affairs of life; the unforeseen and unestimated conitions considered as a force shaping events; fortune; esp., opposing circumstances against which it is useless to struggle.
  4. pl. [L. Fata, pl. of fatum.] (Myth.) The three goddesses, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, sometimes called the {Destinies}, or {Parc[ae]}who were supposed to determine the course of human life. They are represented, one as holding the distaff, a second as spinning, and the third as cutting off the thread.
F is for Fate

Is Fate really written on the stars? And the Parcae in charge of it? Or can we make our own destiny and way in life? Should a tarot deck trace our decisions?