Happy Blogiversary to me!

Firstly, a big THANK YOU to everyone who has been reading my blog over the past year. My Blogiversary was actually on Saturday (29th May) but yesterday a parcel arrived in the mail that gave me a real cause to celebrate. My Malabrigo order arrived from Eat.Sleep.Knit in the US after just 8 days! Talk about speedy service - just the way I like it. I am so happy with my choice of colours in the Worsted Merino: I went with Frost Grey (at the front of the box in the picture above) and SFO Sky (the variegated grey at the back is so much better than I had expected!).

The box also included the urgently required skein of Silky Merino in Lettuce needed to finish my Cedar Leaf Shawlette, which I'm happy to say is finished and currently blocking on my yoga mat in the middle of the living room. I'll fill you in on all the details after I take some FO photos.

Knitted Gifts for Friends Old and New

So some of you might remember that back in March I ran a giveaway on my blog, the prize being that I would knit the winner something. It was a blatant attempt to draw in a few extra comments on my blog. Desperate? Maybe, but it worked; although most of the comments were from people who are friends or relatives. To keep things fair I decided to have two drawings, one from the friends/family category and one from my unknown blog followers. Nina literally drew the names out of a hat (ok, it was a bowl) and the winners were my good friend and former work colleague Kate, and Ravelry knitter and blogger Sarah from North Carolina.

Now that both winners have received their prizes I can finally post pictures of what I made for them.

Kate had requested something for her head in the colour of the ocean, so I knit her the Slouched Tuva Hat by Turvid in Malabrigo Silky Merino Yarn in Teal Feather. I didn't love the pattern and it's not as slouchy as I would have liked but I did love knitting with this yarn and think that it looks great on Kate.






This is a little gift tag I whipped up to go with these gifts

Sarah requested something for her hands in the sunburst orange so for her I knitted Susie's Reading Mitts in Malabrigo Worsted in the Rhodesian colourway. I was so happy with how there turned out, even after the small hitch of making the first mitten a size too big and having to knit it a second time.




A big thank you to Sarah for sending me the picture below. I'm so glad you like them.

Blog Week Round Up

4 days have past since my last post and after blogging everyday for a week it feels like an eternity. I even feel a little guilty - like I haven't been doing my home work. I have, however, been trying to read as many of the other Knit & Crochet Blog Week posts as I can, I have been finishing up and photographing a few projects, starting new knitting projects and even trying my hand at continental knitting (not a raging success unfortunately, but more on that later).

I am so glad that I took part in blog week as it was a real challenge for me and I think it has made me a better blogger. It has also opened up even further for me the amazing online knitting community. A big thank you to my followers old and new and to any visitors who have stopped by my blog over the past week.

Here are a few of the other great blogs that I have discovered during blog week:
A Girl in Winter
Fridica
Little Sparrow Knits
The Student Knitter



Oh, I'm so excited (can you tell?) to have the new Hipstamatic app for my iPhone - LOVE!

Blog Plans and Meal Plans

Today I found out just in time that next with is Knit & Crochet Blog Week. The brainchild of Eskimimi Knits, Knit & Crochet Blog Week will bring knit and crochet bloggers together as they blog about a common topic each day for 7 days. For more info visit this post.

I love this concept! I have to admit that at times I am hard pressed to come up with things to blog about, or else I feel that I should dedicate my time to actually knitting rather than blogging. The fact that I am really quite a slow knitter is in many ways responsible for this. Anyway, having a week of predesignated topics is just what I need to get the blogging juices pumping and who know where it will lead me.

I have recently gotten into the idea of meal planning too. As the wife of a chef you would expect me to be full of ideas and inspiration when it comes to cooking but unfortunately the opposite is true. I don't know when exactly it happened but I lost my cooking mojo around the same time as I met my chef. It could have a lot to do with the fact that he has always either worked nights (and I would often settle for an egg on toast for dinner) or cooked for me on his nights off. Now that we have a toddler in the picture I can not get away with eggs on toast anymore - plus my husband would love it if I actually cooked something for him once in a while. Oh, and did I mention that the other thing I detest is grocery shopping? This one might have something to do with fluorescent lighting or the toddler tantrums...not sure!

So anyway, a few weeks back I came across the Mealopedia website, where you can browse and select menus for each night of the week or even choose them at random. Then you can print off a shopping list and list of recipes and voila! - you are set for the week. I have to warn you that the recipes are pretty basic, but I have been using them as a starting point and then adding spices and ingredients to enrich the flavour. Already I have found myself looking forward to preparing the evening meal and thinking about which meals I want to make in the weeks to come. Progress!

Find me on Ravelry

In answer to my own question I found the following information about blog widgets on Ravelry. I am a bit too tired tonight to figure out the progress bar widget (plus it is get awfully busy on my sidebar) but I did install the find me on Ravelry button. I downloaded the glossy icon from the very informative Laylock blog and then used the step by step tutorial for bloggers on this page. And hey presto!

You might also like...

I've been wanting to install this widget for a while but couldn't figure out where to get my hands on it. If you are a blogger like me and interested in installing it too here is the link to Link Within.

If there are any Ravelry addicts out there who know how to install the Ravelry project progress widget please leave a comment and point me in the right direction.