Sunday, March 10, 2013

Matilde

I just received these pictures a few days ago and wanted to share with you.

I would like to introduce you to baby Matilde . She is the cute owner of the little sweater Maile that I made and posted about on January 17. This was a baby gift that I sent to Portugal for my cousin's daughter's baby that was due in February.
What is so extra special about these pictures is that I also get to see the baby's grandma and she is modelling  one of the  6 shawls that I sent over to the family in Portugal  iin the summer of 2012.    I had been told by the family that they would send me a picture of everyone modeling the shawls but that never happened, so I was excited to see this one. 

looks like the sweater will last a couple of months


nothing sweeter than a sleeping baby.

Proud Grandma, happy Mom and sweet daughter.

I`m so happy I decided to make this little sweater and send off to Portugal, as I would have missed seeing these wonderful pictures.  
Alice 

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Sitting On The Dock By The Bay





This picture was taken over a month ago and as I seen it again, reminded that I had intentions of sharing it here.

It was a glorious sunny winters day so Jim and I had gone for ride. We went searching fora spot by the water. All bundled up in our winter coats, it didn't matter the temperature as long as we could feel sun on our faces and see the water with our eyes.

This moment reminds of the song of long ago " Sitting On The Dock By the Bay" . Perfect.

Alice

Monday, February 25, 2013

When Things Come Together

Not long ago I decided to make another beret for  Jim's mom.  She really enjoyed the first beret I made her a couple of years ago and wears it constantly.   I had in my mind what I wanted, and being that this time of year there are lots of toques, slouches to be found, but that wasn't her style.


Once I started reading the Ravelry notes from other knitters who made this (this is the part that can confuse me)  it appeared that this hat might be big.    So I followed one persons suggestion to knit the brim in the small size and increase to adults size later.  So glad I did as I can see it would have been too big for my mother-in-law.  To be honest I feel I could have gotten away with making this all in the smaller size.



Yarn:  Jamieson & Smith together with Rowan Kidsilk Haze

I was so happy to get such a great photo of Lillian with her new Beret it looks so great on her !   Very soft and feminine.  Lillian is very happy with it, bonus ! 

  
Alice

p.s. it just happened the day she received her beret..she was wearing the exact shade of lilac as her hat. Perfect photo.

Friday, January 18, 2013

Pink Beret


Beret for Baby it`s a free pattern on Ravelry.

This is the baby beret that I made to go with the baby cardigan I posted about yesterday.  This was not the design I had in mind originally.   I had thought of finding a toque that I could use some of the lace pattern from the sweater and incorporate it.   But at that time I thought I was on a time restraint and decided on this instead   I also wasn`t sure if I had enough yarn leftover from the sweater.   But I  did.    It`s amazing how much yardage are in the Madelinetosh skeins.   

I`m very happy how this turned out.  Glad I didn`t try to get to matchie with the set.   It`s a bit bigger size that the sweater so it may fit up to 6 months.   I`m going to request that I get some pictures sent with the baby wearing her gifts from me and then I can show you.

Just need to wrap everything up and just wait for the birth announcement and sent it off to Europe. 

All the best to you today.

Alice

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Waiting for Baby

Waiting for Baby is what is happening now that I finished the gift I started a couple of months ago for a relative's daughter.  I found out she was having a girl and got promptly into making something girlie like.  I was initially told that the due date was in January but after completing  the gift I'm told that it's  February, thus the waiting.

This sweater i chose was done as a store sample at the local yarn store except it was done in a dark green and it looked fabulous.   I did not have yarn so I knew that I'd better use something machine washable and decided on Madelintetosh.



  Pattern:  Maile Sweater by Nikki Van Der Car
Yarn:  Madelinetosh Sock
Needles:  3.5 mm - extra notes

The pattern is Maile Sweater by Nikki Van Der Car.   I decided to work with the Madelinetosh Sock Yarn as I knew it was wise to select a machine wash yarn for the baby.   There was a lot of frustrations around this pattern on the instructions.  It definitely is not a beginners baby sweater, with the lace pattern and all.  It's a knit bottom up in one piece and you knit the sleeves flat and then join to begin the yoke.  This is another area people had issues with in the joining the sleeves.  It was so tight to join the stitches of sleeves that you  thought you were stretching things out of shape.  After much perseverance and 3 - 4 rows later you were back on easy knitting. 
The sweater looked so tiny to me at that I lengthened the body by 1 " and also the sleeve.  I could now see that you could have gotten away with going all the away to 2" to get more wear of the sweater.  It's probably only going to fit for a couple of months.


I
An adorable newborn sweater.


I also made a tiny little tam that a fellow knitter Cathy Wong had suggested.   I used the left over yarn I had from the sweater and  just finished with a couple of yards left over.  I'll share the picture on another day. 

I have been itching to find a cardigan/pullover n to knit in January with 10 balls of Rowan Felted Aran that I purchased from a sale a couple of years.  That is my knitting mission right now, besides finishing a couple of little things I have on the go, that are not giving me any excitement.

Happy Day to you.

Alice






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Thursday, December 13, 2012

Look Who's Coming to Town

I bet you thought I was talking about Santa !  Well, for some of you who have little ones this is important news, but I do believe Santa has been in town  and in full action for several weeks now, but I'm not talking about him.   I'm talking about The Minimalist.   I've been reading their blog off and on for the last 6 months and really enjoy their writing and insights.    I found out they had been in Vancouver in the summer and was disappointed in the not getting to see them, but now I found out in  plenty of notice they will be on tour in December in Vancouver.    I thought it would be fun to go and listen to them speak and share in their journey.   Passing this along to any of you who may live in the area and may be interested in having an interesting, inspirational evening out. 

Alice xox

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Creamy Totato Soup

I had been looking at the very large bowl in the fridge of the leftover tomatoe juice that I did not  use when canning the tomatoes on the weekend.   I had removed all the tomatoes and now I had all this liquid.    I had told myself I  would do something with it.   So I decided I would make tomato soup.  A first for me on that too.   I make lots of soup  just not tomatoe.  Not sure why, must be something about having the canned stuff when I was younger.

Today I searched for a recipe and found a Martha Stewart Creamy Tomato Soup and then checked Joy the Baker and found she  used the same recipe. So I knew this was the one I wanted.  Plus I didn't want to go shopping for any ingredients.   


Here is Creamy Tomato Soup, from Joy the Baker

Creamy Tomato Soup
adapted from Martha Stewart
serves 6

4 Tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium carrot, finely diced
course sea salt and fresh black pepper
splash of red wine vinegar (just over 1 Tablespoon)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 Tablespoons tomato paste
1 dried bay leaf
2 cans (14 1/2-ounces each) low sodium chicken broth
2 cans (28-ounces each) whole peeled tomatoes in juice (with basil if available)
1/2- 3/4 cup whole milk or cream

In a large saucepan or Dutch oven melt butter over medium heat. Add oil, carrot and onion and season with salt and pepper. Cook until the onion is translucent and the carrots are well on their way to softening, about 7 to 8 minutes. Add the splash of vinegar at stir until cooked off.

Turn flame to low and add flour. Incorporate into the onion and carrots. Add tomato paste and cook for 1 minute to distribute the paste and cook off the flour taste.

Add chicken broth and bay leaf.  With clean hands add the tomatoes to the pot, breaking the whole tomatoes up with your hands as you add the tomatoes and the juice. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove from heat. Using an emulsion blender, puree soup in pot until you’ve reached the desired consistency. Maybe you like more chunks than some folks! If you don’t have an emulsion blender, let the soup cool for about 30 minutes and, working in two or three batches, puree some of the soup in a conventional blender until smooth. Place pureed soup in a bowl and puree the remainder in the pot.

Return pureed soup to the pot and stir in milk or cream. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Let cool to room temperature before dividing among airtight containers or jars (leaving 1 inch of space at the top) and freeze.



I have to say that my recipe is also adapted.   I probably had 6 cups of the liquid from the tomatoes, so I did not add canned tomatoes or the broth as the recipe called for. I also added my own tomatoe paste I made from here.    Somehow I felt it need some rice.  So I added about 1/2 cup of brown rice (uncooked).   I  let the soup cook for at least 1 hour to make sure the rice well cooked.

You can adapt this recipe to whatever you have around in your kitchen that you want to use up.make it yours.


Delicous !!!  


I`m very proud of how many home grown ingredients went into this soup.  There was the onions, carrots, tomatoes, and the thyme.  Now how can the soup possibly go wrong.

Alice