Bill's Basics

I went to a Bill Granger instore book signing today, and got his latest cookbook, Bill's Basics, autographed. I love how he writes a message in the books he signs as well :) He is such a smiley, friendly and down-to-earth guy - on top of being tall and handsome, of course! I think I was in so much awe in his presence (always happens when I'm meeting a celeb) that I couldn't think of much to say. Only when I left the place did I come up with questions I would have liked to ask, for eg., "What's your favourite recipe out of all your books?" and "When are you going to open a Bills in this city?".

I am encouraged by his message to work through every recipe in this book, as well as his other ones. I've already picked out his scones recipe from the latest book to make for breakfast tomorrow morning. Or would scones with strawberry preserve and double thick cream be too indulgent for breakfast? Perhaps I should save it for afternoon tea? hmm I guess I'll have to wake up early tomorrow morning to decide!

My WIP

I finished knitting the back of the cardy night before last, and am now working on one of the front pieces (pictured). I'm not sure I like the yellow in the colour mix, and would've liked more pink. I guess it doesn't look too bad. I'm actually a bit concerned about the size of the garment, because the bodice part of the back piece looks rather narrow... I chose to knit the smallest size, because I'm usually an XS, but looking at the actual measurements listed for the size now, I'm not sure it will be big enough for a comfortable fit, especially if I wear something underneath..... oh well, I've gone too far to go back now. Fingers crossed that it will stretch to fit.

hmm I wonder if I should start a Spring/Summer knit now, since I probably won't get any use out of this cardy until next Autumn :P It's going to get sooo much hotter by the time I finish knitting it. See, I told you I get easily distracted. What should I do???

I'm really excited that I'll be seeing Bill Granger for the first time in person tomorrow :D I have already accepted the fact that there is no way I can carry ALL my copies of his books to the book signing, but I still haven't quite figured out which ones I should take along. It seems like such a shame to not get them all autographed when I have this opportunity, which doesn't always come. Maybe I should take the newest book and one of my older favourites? Sigh. What a dilemma.

Maybe I should just get back to my knitting - busy hands keep the mind from idle thoughts; that's why girls back in the day were made to do needlework and knitting in their spare time, right? :P

What? Mid-Spring already?!

As meaningful as Spring is - beginning of new life, etc etc - I can never cease to find things to complain about it: the large amount of weed springing up everywhere (however pretty the blooms may be); all the insects coming out of hibernation *shudder*; the dry, hot weather (if you close the windows at night, it's stuffy and hot; if you open them, the insects come in and bite you - so you can't sleep well either way.. and it's way to early in the warmer part of the year to turn on the aircon 24/7)...

I am usually only an Autumn-Winter knitter, but after having copious amounts of free time this past year to discover and become addicted to knitting magazines that the Newsagencies import from the UK, I have become more serious about this hobby of mine, such that I have decided to try to become an all-seasons knitter :D How could I not, with so many Spring/Summer knitting patterns to inspire me?

When I saw a catalogue advertising a yarn sale at one of the only few yarn stockists in my area, I had to go. Although the shop doesn't stock most of the yarn brands used in the patterns (as ever is the case), I figured I could find some substitutes. So there I was walking through each and every aisle, with my list of yarn types and tension details in hand, and I could hardly find any close matches. Summer yarns? The only 2 types of cotton/bamboo yarns available (yes, only TWO brands!) weren't even on sale! Thank goodness the yarn substitute that is recommended for 2 of the knitting patterns - Patons Smoothie DK - was available. A closer look at the labels, however, indicated that for one of the only 2 colours available that weren't ugly, the dye lots were all different, save for 2 balls. Someone walking past the yarn section says to her friend, "This place has WAY too much yarn". Oh, really now?

Still, I managed to return home with a bagful of yarn, enough to knit 3 garments that will be perfect for the warm months ahead. I'm using all my willpower to control myself from exercising my common practice of abandoning old projects to start new ones. I am easily distracted like that, hence my many UFOs. Some say "better one completed project than several on the needles" and others say "it's good to have several projects on the go, so you won't get bored". Both sound reasonable, but, no, this time I have to finish the project at hand first. My current project is a cute, feminine cardy from Noro Flowers by Jenny Watson.



It's so hard to tell with Noro yarns what the colour mix will end up like, even with the sample strips. The yarn that I bought for this project is Noro Silk Garden Lite, shade 2026. The grey/black features more heavily that I had thought it would, so I'm not sure if it will overshadow the young, light, flirty, girlyness of the style. We shall see.

Meanwhile, my goal of the week is to make atleast one recipe from each of Bill Granger's cookbooks (I've got them all, bar one, which should be arriving at my doorstep any day now). Sadly, I haven't made much progress. I did, however, make his famous scrambled eggs for breakfast and his coconut bread for lunch today (both from Bill's Sydney Food)! While I can't say I've mastered his egg-cooking technique (it still doesn't taste like his eggs at Bills), the coconut bread turned out surprisingly moist and delish, especially with a generous dusting of vanilla icing sugar! If there's any left by tomorrow (there's less than half a loaf left now), I'll try it toasted and smeared with unsalted butter, on top of dusting with icing sugar, as recommended in the book.

Tension, tension, tension.

Ok, so it seems that I will postpone my plan of intensive baking and continue with my knitting (just had another flip through my knitting magazines and was struck anew by the attractive and (supposedly) simple Spring knits!). I'm about to start knitting Laura Cruickshank's Paige top - tabard-style top - from issue 29 of Let's Knit, and this time, I decided I will knit a tension square :P I've always been under the impression that my tension is a bit on the loose side, but it seems, from this tension square, that it's the other way round. The dimensions I get, when flattening the square out as much as I can, is about 9.5cm x 9.5cm, instead of the requisite 10 x 10! There are perceivable gaps between the stitches as is - though I guess it could be because the yarn is a bit slubby - so I don't know how holey the fabric will be with an even looser tension! Oh well, we'll see I guess! I wonder if the wrong horizontal dimensions to my Bergere de France knit is due to too-tight-a tension...

I am resisting the urge to purchase more yarn to knit Sian Brown's Spring cropped top from issue 46 of Knit Today. I love the lemon colour of the modelled top, so I think I will stick with that colour when I order the yarn. It's so sunshiney and looks like the perfect Spring top! In Summer, one could wear this without layering too. The leaf lace pattern neckline in Sian Brown's Leaf Lace Top looks very pretty too, but I'm not sure about the shape of it or the cropped length. I think it would look nice with a normal-to-slightly long length, worn with a fashion belt. If cinching at the waist was intended, I'd emphasise that more, or else it would look like an edge pattern that's travelled too far up. I'll have to think about this one.

I'm off to find yarn sources!

I think it's cake timeee

I just ordered 3 books - and yes, all 3 are cookbooks! I've pre-ordered 'Jamie's 30-minute Meals' by Jamie Oliver (bless him and his wonderful food revolution work) and 'Kitchen: Recipes from the heart of the home' by Nigella Lawson. I had fully intended the third purchase to be for 'Knit Fix', which was recommended by a Knitting Daily newsletter, but I ended up getting side-tracked with the cookbooks and getting Rose Levy Beranbaum's second cake book, 'Heavenly Cakes', instead. Incidentally, this book was also voted 'Best Cookbook of the Year 2010' by the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) (her first cake book, 'The Cake Bible', which I also have, won the award in 1988).

I remember seeing her new cookbook at an interstate bookshop last year some time, but figuring it would probably just be an updated version of The Cake Bible, and keeping in mind my already over-stuffed suitcase, I decided to leave it, as I was sure it would become available at my local bookshops. I found out tonight though, upon reading about the book, that although it does feature an occasional repeat of a previously published recipe, all in all it is supposedly a book of modern cake recipes. Another reservation I had in getting another of her books is my extreme dislike for imperial measurements and temperatures in fahrenheit, which most, if not all, books published in the USA tend to use. I am a metric measures girl. Cup and spoon measurements is tolerable, but American measures just tick me off, because I have to whip out the calculator to convert measurements for every ingredient (and oven temp); not to mention, I can't remember the equivalent measures for the life of me!

But anyway, I found out about Ms Beranbaum's blog and how she has video clips showing techniques and things, as well as 2 blogs that do a Rose version of a 'Julia and Julia' thing (ie working through the whole cookbook, and posting results and pictures along the way), and I thought, hey, with these websites to help me along and gauge/compare the success of my attempts, this could potentially work out! hm I should probably start by digging out my copy of The Cake Bible and working through those first. Converting everything is going to be a beast of a job, but I guess since I spent the money, I'm going to make this work. Maybe it's not so bad to start a cookalong type blog either - that way, I'll be forcing myself to try and learn new things, which will surely benefit me. I guess my knitting will have to be given a rest for now! (I have, by the way, finished knitting the back piece of the aforementioned Bergere de France top, and am currently knitting the sleeves.)

Thursday musings

I'm knitting an AIS in ruby red Patons Zhivago right now. When I'm in need of an 'anything' yarn - a random yarn that I pick to try out a pattern - I almost always turn to Zhivago. I really like how it's so soft and the tencel in it gives it a nice lustre. I do feel though that because of it's squishiness, my tension sometimes goes a bit funny. Looking at what I've knitted so far, the stitches don't look very even. hmm am I just not controlling the tension well enough? I do use the wrap-around-pinky technique to help control tension. Where am I going wrong? Instead of undoing the whole thing and knitting it up again (which I have done, let's see, at least twice now :( ) I'm just going to leave it and try to turn a blind eye to it. What else can I do? I started knitting my leg warmers as well this morning, but I've put that to the side, because I got bored knitting double rib, and looking at my uneven stitches magnified, as the yarn is quite a chunky one. I'll post pics up of this problem of mine, when I get a chance. When will things go my way?

I'd really like to learn how to knit with circular needles and dpns, since most patterns for jumpers and socks use these needles. I've bought both types of needles in a few different sizes already, but fear of the unknown holds me back. Since a few of the patterns in my Bergere de France Origin pattern book only requires straight needles though, I will stick with the familiar straight needles until Spring comes.

The revenge of the tension square...

I've finally gotten around to uploading a photo of the Anthro-inspired scarflet I knitted for mum in Katia Dulce yarn (50% wool/50% acrylic). As the scarf made with the 10 ply BFL ply yarn just fits around the neck, I decided to increase the length of the second scarf by a few centimetres, because the Katia yarn is chunkier. You can probably tell by the photo that it's quite a snug fit. Mum loves it.

A current work in progress is the Bergere de France Origin' Collection #1 Bambou 03 pattern - a 3/4 sleeve V-neck top with a pretty bow and pleat feature. As the name suggests, the pattern was designed to be made with Origin' Bambou yarn. Instead, however, I've decided to substitute this with Sublime's Bamboo and Pearls DK yarn, as I really, really wanted to try out this yarn. Being quite lazy and used to not having to knit tension squares for smaller projects, I didn't bother with the tension square. As a result, measuring what I've knitted of the back piece now, the vertical dimensions are correct, but the horizontal dimensions are out by about...5cm (I know, I know, I totally should have seen it coming). Judging from the picture in the pattern though, it's not meant to be tight-fitting; in fact, on the model, it's quite loose around the arms and shoulders. I am hoping this means that by reducing the horizontal dimensions, I'll actually achieve a well-fitting garment *fingers crossed*. This is also the first large-sized project I'm attempting, (normally I choose small projects like beanies, shrugs, scarves..) so if this works out, maybe I'll have a new knitting direction.

I've recently added more yarn to my stash. I bought the Debbie Bliss Luxury Donegal Tweed online to knit a tabard-style top that I saw in a knitting magazine. The rest of the yarn was bought at a yarn sale at a local homewares/craft store. The plan is to use the red Patons Zhivago to knit another Anthro scarflet; ditto for the mint Moda Vera Chantilly (yes, I like it that much); the Cleckheaton Studio Mohair is for Louisa Harding's Juliet Scarf (it's 8 ply, but hopefully it will still be ok!); and the Cleckheaton Nautico is going to be used to knit leg warmers from the pattern book of the same name, by Jo Sharp. With only one month left of Winter, I've got to knit fast!