Stash Avalanche

Chunky cardi/dressing gown

Good grief - it took me a week to take that photo...

This is kind of based on the Prima cardi I made before Stashlet was born (I'm sure I posted about it but I can't find it now), excpet that I made it up as I went along, knitting the sleeves by picking up stitches off the shoulders, and increasing back to my original number of stitches at the front.

So perhaps not much like the Prima cardi at all.

It's made with Sidar Big Softie which looks a lot like Rowan Polar (which seems to have been discontinued), although I haven't yet looked to see if they have similar guages. I knitted the body on 10mm needles and the rib on 8mm, although I think I could have gone down a mm or two and it would have still come out ok - my general knitting tension is pretty lose anyway`. The colours are Meringue 330 and Moose 326 (and anything with a moose in it gets my vote).

To be honest, I'm not that happy with it, but pulling out and reknitting single ply yarn is never a good idea in my experience, it just ruins it, so I kept going and hoped it would turn out semi-reasonable. My fault for not doing a guage square first, but it's too big, especially in the sleeves, and the shawl collar does more of a mandarin thing than shawl. But to put a positive spin on it, Stashlet will be able to wear this for several years.

The thing I'm most unhappy about is the hem. I turned back a couple of rows and stitched them into the body of the cardi but it's ended up flaring out and looking rather horrid. So I will unstitch it, pick up the stitches (er... is this confusing...?) and knit a few more rows on 8mm needles then reattach it. I hope that will do the job and it will look less like a 1970s flamenco dress.

I'm also tempted to say that it may well be too warm for Ireland but given the last couple of winters we've had, that might be a bit rash.

I do like a nice chunky yarn though, so I suspect that I'll be knitting with this again. With his dark hair, Stashlet could carry off a red cardi or chunky jumper much better than I ever could, but I'll be using a proper pattern or drafting something sensible before I put needles to yarn next time!

 

Snap happy

The postman brought me a parcel this morning. All the way from China. Plastic snaps. Lots of them to use with my Kam snap pliers which I got about a month ago and completely forgot to blog about.

Perhaps I've been living on another planet but I'd never (consiously) come across this type of popper/snap until I started buying reusable nappies, and I think they're great, especially for baby clothes.

The advantage over metal poppers (at least for me here in Ireland) is that they come in loads of different colours, whereas metal poppers come in metal, and black and white if you're lucky trawling eBay. I've seen them in different colours on some US sites but none that ship to Europe.

Ah well, their loss, because I am now sorted for poppers, probably for life!

I've already poppered Stashlet's blue trousers, which I had temporarily sewn normal snap fasteners on to, (and then  resewn them on where the thread had broken), and I plan to use them for tops and shirt fronts as well as trouser seams. You can pretty much use them for anything so I quite possibly will.

Talk to anyone who deals with eBay or PayPal or the like, and they will tell you that purchasing from China is high risk, but I must say that the two parcels I've had from this shop, Assunta Store, (who I initially found through their eBay shop) have been posted quickly, with tracking, and have arrived in Ireland within two to three weeks of me making the order. So if anyone is looking for plastic snaps (or metal in the same style) or snap pliers I would recommend them.

And if anyone wants a colour chart, let me know because I got one in this order too and so now I have a duplicate. First person who emails me (eyes left for email!) and sends me their address, gets them.

Happy Thursday!

Baby baking

Not sure I've mentioned it, but I'm doing baby led weaning with the wee Stashlet. I find the auguments for it so convincing that I can barely walk down the baby food aisle of a supermarket without getting somewhat outraged... but that's probably just me.

Anyway, since the Stashlet appeared, my diet has gone rather haywire so I thought I'd try out some recipies from the Baby Led Weaning Cookbook to get me back on track. Baking seemed the easiest option to fit in during naps so I went a bit crazy, as you can see.

This Baked Oat Cake is made with oatmeal rather than wheat flour and has no added sugar, and despite spending three times longer in the oven than the recipe suggested, it turned out rather well. The sweetness is provided by apples and sultanas. Stashlet's opinion: ooh, I can squish this and eat it.

I love savory muffins so I was very happy to make these Spinach and Cheese Muffins. I added a bit of ham too although I think it got lost in the general cheeseyness. Mr G's opinion: am I really only allowed one? Stashlet's opinion: yum! He couldn't get it in his mouth fast enough.

My only grumble, which happens with all savory muffins not just these, is that they stick horribly to the tin or to paper cases, which is a total pain in the arse. I think it might be the cheese, but if anyone has suggestions for improving the situation, do please let me know!

Flapjacks. But suprise flapjacks, because they're cheese flavoured (yes, we now have no cheddar left in the house). Sounds weird, tastes suprisingly good. Next time I think I'll try them wth onions in. Good for taking out on trips and pretty substantial in the wave-it-about-and-bang-it-on-the-table department. Stashlet's opinion: Nice, but the crackly paper bag it came in is much more interesting right now.

I'll definitely be making more from this book and if I have enough time, I'll stick a few of the recipies up on here too.

added 28-09-11 Bummer time: turned out that every subsequent time I gave Stashlet a muffin or flapjack, he projectile vomited all over the place shortly afterwards, with the clear conclusion that he's allergic to cheddar if not all cheeses. So cheese is off the menu for the time being. The doctor said that babies with eczema often display more food alergies so we will have to curb our enthusiasm for a while...

I might end up tearing my hair out but...

... I've signed up for the Kids Clothes Week Challenge over at Elsie Marley, which I found via A life in lists.

The deal is that I/you commit to spending one hour every day for 7 days making kids clothing. It's set for the second week in October (the 10th to the 17th), so plenty of time to mull over what to make. Then you post your creations on the Flickr site and feel the warm glow of achievement, which, believe me, is a bit rare round here these days.

I'm definitely going to make a Charlie tunic (ohmygod! I can't tell you enough how much I love this top!), and if there's time for more, some trousers for next summer (inspired by Ashley's trousers for Max). Knitting and crocheting is also allowed, so there might be some of that going on too, seeing as I've got a bit of a thing going on with my knitting needles at the moment.

Things beginning with C

Cable...

Chunky...

Stashlet's Bookshop

I'm trying an experiment.

To have this blog on Typepad I have to pay a small subscription and small as it is, it's still money that needs to be found from somewhere. I don't really want to go down the route of having sponsors' adverts but I thought a bookshop might work. I got the idea from Jo at  A Life in Lists so I thought I'd give it a try.

It's going to be Stashlet's Bookshop really because at the moment it's only going to feature books that he has, but if it works out and/or I have the time, I might expand it to include books I like too.

The shop if set up using an Amazon Associates account and the  idea is that if you buy a book through Stashlet's Bookshop, I will earn a teeny amount from the sale (but at no extra cost to you).

I  think I'm supposed to say this somewhere, so I'll say it here:

Stash Avalanche is a participant in the Amazon Europe S.à r.l. Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk

Anyway, if anyone has any comments or suggestions, I'd be happy to hear them. And in the meantime, you can access the bookshop by clicking on the tab at the top of the page.