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.