Addictive

I knew that this fibre lark was addictive, really I did, but sometimes it takes a particular project to remind me just how addictive working out how to do something can be. Today I have significant progress on Toad, one sock is done and the other languishes. I've also managed to manipulate littlest cub into knitting a top down raglan for Curley Bear.

Addictive, defined at the FreeDictionary as

ad·dict (-dkt)

tr.v. ad·dict·ed, ad·dict·ing, ad·dicts

1. To cause to become physiologically or psychologically dependent on a habit-forming substance: The thief was addicted to cocaine.

2. To occupy (oneself) with or involve (oneself) in something habitually or compulsively: The child was addicted to video games.

I think that the second meaning is the one that is most applicable here, that I found myself both occupied and involved in something that was compulsive. With the hem of Toad completed I found myself ready to finish the neck edge. Originally I had planned to knit a plain band in 2x rib, then I wondered about a cable worked around the neck ... and then I started to think about a Henley style neck with a zip. That seemed the best for this jersey, a thicker and more robust yarn seemed to be a good match for a zippered and collared finish. I could see this was heading towards a warm outdoorsy sweater. First stop was the local big box craft supply store for a nice zip.I found one, it could have been longer but then again maybe shorter is better.

Then I steeked the front, and considering I had not planned to steek the front that was probably a brave move. But sometimes I'm not the kind of knitter to let a lack of planning get in the way. Having steeked I picked up and worked a short facing either size of the cut edge - this would be the outside facing for the zip. Once I got this far I had to keep going, unable to work on anything else in-case I lost the plot and didn't remember what I was doing (don't laugh - it has happened when I've parked a project and returned to it) .


Then I picked up and knit a collar around the neck edge in 2x2 rib. When the collar seemed long enough to fit the zip I switched to a softer yarn and knit the inside of the collar. I worked a knit transition row at the colour change. For the inside collar I used Vintage Purls Vintage Sock, the left overs from Double+1. I worked a mock i-cord edge at both ends of the collar, slipping the first 3 stitches of each row, and purling the last three.


I Grafted the centre section of the collar down to the neck edge, working from the centre out and using pins to keep the ribs lined up. I was quite pleased with how it turned out.

I left the last inch or so of the collar not grafted, and picked these up and worked a narrow band in rib that could cover the inside of the zip tape. At this stage the project looked very messy and I hoped that my loose plan would turn into something that worked and looked presentable.

Last night was family movie night, mostly as one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies was screening on TV, and we all like Johnny Depp at his most outrageous. So I finished the collar and stitched in the zip. I was secretly quite surprised that something that had looked so messy finished up looking quite planned and almost 'like a bought one' as my Nana would say. She was a child of the early 20th Century and completely converted to making life easier by buying rather than making. If I had five kids and my washing machine had a mangle roller maybe I would love the convenience of modernity as well.

This is where I am at now, with a finished zippered collar, faced with soft sock yarn, and the first sleeve is well on its way to the elbow.


The Bubble socks are now done. All done, and I'm pleased with them. This was my first completed hand spun sock and I was pleasantly surprised at how even it knit up. Next time I would try and make the yarn a little firmer in the twist - this seemed very low twist compared to commercial yarns. Then again unlike commercial yarns the stripe pattern is one that would only occur in a hand dyed skein of pencil roving.

And the littlest cub is working her first seamless garment, a top down raglan for her teddy. She was very good and followed instructions to cast on and work the raglan increases without really understanding how it would all work. Until now she has planed and executed a variety of bags and pillows with seams all on her own but I was keen to get her understanding the advantages of seamless. Once she got to the sleeves she saw how it would all work - and I was quietly impressed that she recognized the need for casting on stitches at the underarm to make the body fit nicely. Right now we have just transferred over to circulars - she has her own, and she is working out if she needs to increase as the body gets longer. Bears have quite cute shapes - this one is pear shaped, a pear shaped bear, so some increases might be judicious.

Take care
stella

Just in time ...

for more snow, the Owl mitts are done, really done, finished, with thumbs and ends woven in and blocked and nearly dry! Can't be any more done that that! There has been other knitting, the greener than green baby blanket grows and I've been playing with books.

Thursday night I finished knitting the third mitten ... for those who have been tagging along, the first mitten was a reject, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it was way to large, a result of my complete beginner-ness at double knitting. As I worked my tension settled and tightened .. and so subsequent mittens were smaller than the first. The second reason to reject it was the motif wasn't quite round enough for me, the bear was a little horizontal - so I decided to try some Owls. I had enough yarn to finish two more mittens, so rather than frog first I left it - and planned to knit two more - hence I now have three double knit mittens.

One of the other changes I made was to use a tubular cast on for mittens two and three. The pattern called for casting on and then increasing to get the stitches for the inside, that is the finish on the underneath mitten. While that looked nice enough I really prefer the seamless quality of the tubular cast on.

So early this morning, before breakfast even I blocked these, fulling them a little to thicken them up. As the 2nd and 3rd mittens were slightly different in size, but not as different at the first mitten - fulling seemed a good solution. Winter mittens need to be thick and warm anyway - and fulling achieves that. For any one wondering - fulling is the textile term for knitting that is felted. And not a moment to soon ... today we have snow again, this is the second or third snow fall of the morning, with more predicted.

The next baby blanket has been growing. Every time I see this out of the corner of my eye ... I can't help think how light this green is. Not light in a pale sense but light is a sense that the green glows a little like the sun is shining on it. I've finished 2 of the 4 repeats for the central section, and I'm feeling brave enough to work the main body without markers. I have 360m - and the pattern calls for much much more than that. My plan is to to work maybe three repeats of the center section, and then move straight to the bee border, then on to the edge ......

Last week I made a book, 100 sheets (200 pages), coptic bound. That book has gone to a new home, but this week I found myself making more. Two more books were assembled yesterday, one with blank pages, and the other using Rhodia 5mm grid paper. that one will be a perfect knitting project book. All the paper I have used is 'fountain pen friendly', which means that the paper is of a good quality and the ink behaves nicely. Nicely - in the fountain pen world means no feathering, and no bleed thru to the other side of the paper. I have plans to make two more books today ... sometimes when the mood strikes, its best not to fight it. I've even headed out and bought HP premium paper as recommended on the Fountain Pen Network and more card to use for the boards. Besides Bear was looking at these with potential for ownership and use. I realized I didn't want to give these ones up, rather I was keen to make some more. So some of today's production may be for him.

New, New and old

Today there are two new things, one on the needles and one in print, and one ongoing - old thing - yup, those mittens are still on the needles. There was also a moment of insight - where I realized that there was a much simpler way to go about things. Obvious in hindsight really.

So first new thing is another article in Entangled, this time looking into how attitudes to repairing have changed. The subtitle for the article is

"The four R's, reduce, recycle, reuse and re-purpose - a brilliant slogan for what was once common sense. But why did the creators forget the fifth 'R', repair?"

I love this issue, Francis Stachl is featured, and I don't know if I am more excited that the feature is about her spindles ... or that there is none of her jewellery featured which means they will follow up with more of her work in another issue - she is amazing. In keeping with an article on Frances and her spindles, there is a new feature "Abby Franquemont who answers your textile production questions". Abby Franquemont! And more, lace knitting, hats, and alpaca fibre (Doe Arnott). I was a little hesitant of the digital format for magazines, but two things won me over, and no not an ipad, sadly I don't have one (yet). First the price, the subs are really really ecomonical which is important to a fibre junkie like me, much better than any print magazine I've come across. Second because I have a computer at home and at work, I can read an article here or there, as I want to. Reading on screen isn't the same as curling up with a print magazine on the sofa, but the images are amazing, full colour an intense, and the articles are not limited by the cost of printing pages, so there is the depth detail that many magazines can't deliver.

The second new thing is a new project, a lace baby blanket in 'outside green' handspun. I've long admired Anne Hanson's lace work, and there is another baby due at work ... so perfect excuse to knit Honey Baby. It was a very difficult toss up between that and Rosebuddie. The choice could still go either way .... or I could just knit Rosebuddie next. I know I don't have enough to knit the whole blanket but I plan to knit the bees and maybe skip the second last lace band ... depending on how the yarn flows.

The old project is of course the seemingly everlasting double knit mittens, tonight I might even finish the mitten tip, and make a start on thumbs ... imagine that ... nearly finished! And during the week had one of those realizations, you know the sort, after coming to a solution, and recognizing that the 'problem' was all of my own making and there was an easier solution? I realized that to create a left and right double knit mitten using the one pattern chart all I had to do was to switch the colours when I knit the second one. As the mittens are the negative on the inside - switching the yarn colours for the chart would result in a matched pair!
Doh!

Oh well .. I at least can learn new things even if it is after I develop an overly complicated work around.

Cheers
Stella

Nearly back to where I was

since Tuesday I have been knitting, and doing a little spinning. Well I have also been working, and doing family things like cooking and ironing and putting cubs to bed. In terms of fibre stuff, I have been knitting the mitten (again) and carefully and so far it goes well. I've also found myself in with another knitter in the house.


I did manage to reverse the mitten chart, I had to print it out, scan it, and then import it into an image program and then flip it and print it again. I just couldn't get a format that would import it directly into an image program. A little fiddly but seems to have done the trick, especially as the chart used capital M's for make one, and the decreases were directionally marked by a diagonal line. When the chart was flipped all the decreases just turned over and the capital M's just did the same and looked like capital M's.

In the original chart there were five Owls, and the left and right mittens were charted the same. With the chart flipped - now I have a left and right that are mirror images of each other!

And this is the 'other' knitter in my house, the one who sat down today and decided to make a purse. She cast on 10 stitches and worked a bit, decided it would be to small, frogged it and cast on again. At this stage she has worked a button hole and is working the body of the purse, counting rows and all. From her description the purse will start out an oblong, and she will fold it up a bit like an envelope and stitch the edges together and attach a button. I'm rather proud of my wee 9 year old knitter - I think she is shaping up well. Littlest cub is still keen on knitting her own colour work Owls, and I have promised her that once her main project is cast off... we will sort two yarns (maybe even buy some specially!) and get her started with charts.

Take care, I've got to go and ruffle in a fibre cupboard.
Tomorrow is spinning night and I've got to go and sort some fibre to spin, I've spun all that I had on the go and its not ready to ply yet. I like to let it sit for a few days especially if I plan to ply from the inside and outside of a center pull ball.

cheers
na Stella

One more time, slowely and carefully

Today's post will be brief, Bear has taken the smallest cub out to her swim lesson, and I have tonight's dinner on the stove (Leek and Potato soup or Vichyssoise if there is cream). Elder cub is charged with watching the pot .. but he is a pre-teen boy and easily distracted so I'd best not be away to long.

First of all - Thank you to all those who left comments or otherwise messaged me to say they felt my pain over the Owls, and that they too had been there. I intellectually know I'm not alone in the knit world, and that others have knit-hiccups, but hearing that I am not alone makes the world a smaller place.

So Monday night I frogged the Owls, it was a slow process as the two colours were intrinsically intertwined. Then I rewound the two colours into neat center pull balls. I didn't have to do that but had I left the balls as they were, center pull balls that were used and had frogged yarn wound around them, I would have been reminded with each tug that this was not my first attempt at knitting these.



Tuesday night I started the mitten ..... carefully with the chart on the right side of me and the first Owl mitten on the left side. I wanted as many reminders as I could not to skip any section of the chart.

and here I am today, with the start of a new mitten, that matches the other mitten!
Wish me luck!

Finally - yes there is something odd about the Owl positions Kathy, there are five Owls around the cuff of the mitten, 3 on the 'front' and 2 on the 'back'. There is only one chart for the mittens so both left and right are shaped exactly the same, so when one becomes the left ... well it has a different number of Owls than the one that becomes the right. I'm now wondering if I can play around with the page in an image program and flip it so I have a right and left mitten.

ok soups smells good, cub has wandered in to see if he could watch the pot from another room - time to go and check things.
take care.

stella

There are two possible titles for this post

one is 'Bother' written in small light pale and quiet letters with a sense of patience and acceptance and the other is 'Arrrgggghhhhhh' in bolder, more strident tones.

Right now I'm not sure which is the better one ...
Some knitting projects fly off the needles, leaving smiles and good warm feeling in their wake, other projects demand more attention and reward with satisfaction when the project is successfully completed. Then there are projects that feel like battle, and with any battle there is a decision to be made, how far is too far, how important is it to win - in the sense that knitting is not really considered a competitive sport?


I'm at that stage.
Current progress on the double knit mitten finished just above thumb gusset last night - here -




which left me feeling quite pleased until I compared the mitten on the needles with the one off the needles .... and found -






See that? the missing dotted band that should be bleow the owls?

Still that kind of feels ok until I remember ... that this is the third mitten ... of a pair, which still is not too bad until ...




I remind myself these are double knit so technically each mitten is two knitted mittens !

Which reminds me, perhaps inside out might be the solution since the inside is the negative of the outside?
Nope! Still the same.


And to top it off my long time Knit buddy Yo-yo deserted me, walking right on by.


Not even stopping to see what I had done.

Denial - ?
or disappointment?

Anyway - today will be about frogging ......and laughing ... how could I be so dumb?

take care
Stella

Another Tour de Fleece is over ...

and I managed my unofficial goals. I was a little wary about aiming to high for this years tour, because I knew I would be away for a good 3 days to Wellington sans wheel, and again overnight to visit my Dad and collect the cubs. I kept my goals somewhere between modestly achievable and slightly beyond doable, then there is the new sock, stitches back on the needles and growing well, a new set of Owls, and even a new completed shawl! Some one has been knitting and its not been me.

This year my tour de fleece goals were to spin 160g fibre on the Pipy Saxonly wheel - a wheel that I have not used much at all since the Majacraft Gem arrived 18 months ago. Those goals I achieved, last night - as the tour came to a close I plied the two 80g bobbins onto one Majacraft Bobbin. Whew! I had a wee moment during the day when I thought about how nice it would be to keep the skein unbroken and wondered about purchasing a Majacraft Plying bobin. Those bobbins hold twice what a standard majacraft bobbin holds. But between the wanting to ply while the tour was on, and thinking about I would want to add to my spinning kit should I be spending money - and browsing the Majacraft price list ... well I decided to order an upgrade for my flier to the Majacraft e-system and just ply with what I had. Good move, as the bobbin filled I found that it did indeed hold 160g of plied fibre, and that as it filled it was perhaps a little top heavy for the Gem. I ended up glad I had not ordered a larger bobbin for the Gem. So this is my Tour de Fleece 2011, 160 g 2ply perendale, dyed pinky mauve rose by moi, and 440 wraps of my longest ninny noddy. I'll calculate the final length after I've soaked and dried the yarn.

This week I have been knitting mostly on the new sock, and after making repairs earlier in the week the sock has grown and is well on its way down the leg. Scrunched up like this the pattern is not very noticeable- but stretched out as it will be when worn the baby cables and twisted stitches are pretty - in a very masculine way. This is a boy sock, for Bear, so has to be masculine

I knew that working on teeny tiny twisted stitches and traveling stitches and baby cables might not be a good thing to attempt in a traveling car - so I opted to work on the second (ah hem third) double knit mitten on the way up to Dads and back again. Look progress, much more of this kind of stuff and I'll have to visit my queue and decide what to knit next.

I've even managed to have one of the owls winking! I'm not sure how that happened - I guess a distracted moment perhaps. Eldest cub is quite keen on movies like Indiana Jones and local tv has been having an Indiana Season. Even though I have seen all of those movies many times ... the high action stunt scenes are still worth watching.

Since Thursday I have been wearing a new shawl, this was gifted to me in the local knitters swap. Pale silver grey (I'm told its Vintage Purls Lace Satinless Steel Rat !) and beautiful. I love this, love it, love it, love it! I had moved this shawl up to the top of my queue every now and again ... but just didn't know the right colour to use ... and this grey is perfect. The shawl is warm, stays put and looks amazing (did you see it had nups?), and a little silver feather broach by Peter McKay just suits the lace and colour perfectly. I have a couple of his pieces, Bear commissioned the 13th Metaphysical heart for a wedding anniversary and the feather was bought to fill the gap while Peter made the heart. Thank you H!



Today is Sunday, the cubs and Bear are on holiday this coming week, whilst I have a standard work week. We woke up to what we thought was a heavy frost - but turned out to be snow and hail and all things cold. So far we have swung from cold weak winter sun with soft flakes of snow to wetter hail and wind. Smallest cub keeps heading out to find enough snow for a snowman. A perfect day to keep warm and fondle knits and knit and spin and bake. Did you notice the cinnamon muffins earlier in the post? Part of me hopes for a snow day tomorrow so I can work from home ..... but snow here is a once a year thing and almost never stays for more than a single day so I expect it will be a typical work week come Monday.



keep warm - that is what knits are for.
na Stella

Today there has been knitting .....

but I can't really show you, there are now two finished projects, and for two very different reasons neither will appear here today. One is my 2011 Take-back-the-knit Secret swap gift - all finished and ready to go, but that must remain a secret until the actual swapping happens. The other finished project was also a gift and is done, and complete and gifted. I even managed to make photos before the gifting ... but then left the photos on the SD card on my desk at work. Still there is knitting content, I've been working on the double knit mittens, and spinning (a lot), and there is a new sock club - and exciting new yarn and patterns. And I've just signed a contract to write a regular column for a magazine ... so now there are new deadlines.

I have finally made it back to the double knit mittens, these have been on the go since, oh the 1st of April this year and so far I have knit one, realized my gauge had changed as I became more familiar with the double knit method and it was way to large. I then started a second one which will become the first of a pair, if I ever finish the third. This pattern ties me to the chart, so it is 'at-home' knitting, and knitting where I need to focus. This has been pushed aside as I focus on other things .. but now it is back and in progress.


This is when I get to introduce you to Max, super sock yarn. I signed up for the VP Winter 2011 sock yarn club. I didn't need much convincing, as the yarn and colours and patterns and treats are always spectacular, but also as I am not sure I could stand the envy if M brought sock club kits to knit night and I didn't get one to go home with. There is a new sock yarn in her stable, Max, a thicker sock yarn, proper sock yarn with nylon and super wash merino, deliciously dyed, and soft. Max is designed for more than socks, but also for hats, mitts, baby wear and blankets and well ... anything that you would want to knit in soft yarn on 4-5mm needles. In New Zealand this weight is called DK short for Double knit, but elsewhere this would be called Worsted.


Vintage Purls is run by a fountain pen user, and I have tempted her across to pens that you can put ink in. Now that might not sound so outrageous, after all all-pens-have-ink don't they? Well no, not ink like you can get for fountain pens. Long story short, for now M is signing her kit letters with a fountain pen, collecting pens and inks, and this time the ink was an amazing colour ... and my envelope had the ink details recorded as she knew I would ask. Deep Magenta, yummy, I just might have to invest in a bottle for myself sometime, Diamine offer 80 colours, and many of the other brands offer an equal number.

This past three weeks I have been teaching every day on the knitting elective, which is run as a block course so short, sharp and intensive. Over three weeks I managed to take 18 non-knitters from casting on, and off, knitting purling, increasing and decreasing, cabling and eyelets. Some even went further to dying their own yarns, or picking up and edging or working lace within a boarder, and almost all played with adding pom-poms or tassels. I can't claim credit as they were a very bright bunch of motivated students who put the work in, and all designed something to hand in at on Friday, the end of the three week block. One casualty was my own knitting, after a day with knitting in my hands I needed another thing to relax with at home of-an-evening. I turned to my spinning and some of the lovely fibre that Kathy left for me last week. I suspect this is the finest singles I have every spun consistently, all due to the amazing fibre. I divided up the fibre into 6 sections, 2 of each colour and spun it into two bobbins with the same shift in colour. My hope is that I will score a almost lace weight yarn that shifts from cream to chocolate over its length, with some mottled transitions between each tone. My long term aim is a shawl that transitions from pale to dark.



My news this week is that I have signed a contract for an ongoing column in Entangled, which means four columns a year if I remember the fine print correctly. The next deadline looms near so I have been planning and writing and putting the next article on paper. Literally on paper as I am choosing to write the roughs and drafts with a fountain pen. Here I am using a c. 1955 Pelikan pen, with a fine nib filled with Pelikan Edelstein Ink in Saphire (the bottle is amazing and the ink pretty nice as well). Bear bought this pen as he is also a 1955 model, but the nib was too dry for him, luckily I had bought a vintage Lamy that wrote too wet and broad for me. We swapped and both are now happy.

Of course this leads to lots of distraction as I have three pens inked at the moment, and it occurred to me that the words might flow better if I use a different pen and ink. In the middle is a 1950's Burnham button filler with a fine nib, and to the right is a green 1950's Onoto with a lovely flex nib. The Onoto was a gift from a local knitter and I sent it away to England to be restored. The Burnham has my current all time favorite ink, Diamine Damson, a dark mystery plum colour, and the Onoto has Pelikan Edelstein Mandarin - which is a lovely bright fun orange. Mandarin sounds odd for a pen ink but it is brilliant for editing and annotating.

So what am I writing about you ask? Well, repairs, mending, fixing, and darning, activities and ideas that seem old fashioned and yet are totally in keeping with today's messages of recycle, reuse and re-purpose. In my next Entangled article I'm looking at the ideas we have about mending and fixing, and perhaps were those ideas came from. I have done a wee bit on this already for Handmade at Te Papa 2011, but this article will be more formal and look not only at the traditions of darning, a specific form of mending of knitwear, but also at how ideas of repairing and mending have shifted over the past few hundred years. The image shows a cute wee 'vintage' honey pot, we inherited it from Bears family. The pot was almost pristine when we took over its ownership, with only a small chip in the base. Unfortunately two small children meant that over the past 12 years the honey bee has lost first one then the other wing. Both incidents resulted in me reaching for the glue to repair it. A new honey pot wouldn't be a as nice (I know, I've looked) nor would it have the same family connection. As I glued the pot I realized that fixing things had been a constant in my own childhood, pot handles were glued, bikes were mended, elbows patched, rips repaired. My Nana took things way to far when she glued and used broken plates, but mending the honey pot made me aware that for many in the western world mending isn't something they do.
So I'd best head off, pick up those lovely pens and ink and sort more thoughts on repairs and mending, and knit some and spin some .....

take care
Stella

Today it looks like this

My 'to knit' pile, which is my 'to-do' pile of knitting things. I realized that usually I gather up my knitting and carry it to wherever I plan to photograph it, usually the front steps, and dump it down. Then I fetch the camera and set about pulling one item at a time from the pile and arranging it as artfully as I can for a progress photo. I thought it might be fun this time to show you the pile, waiting to be photographed. This is it, this is what I have been doing, spinning, knitting, planning, and following charts.

The spinning - or rather plying, the skein is about 160g of Southern Alpaca silk blend in Black Spice, bought way back in 2008! The green is perendale combed top I dyed myself. There is a local spinner and knitter extraordinaire -J- who dyes 'outside green' for her granddaughter to enjoy. Now I was inspired by Outside Green but I have not truly captured the essential essence of Outside Green at all ... I plan to finish the plying tonight or Monday night at spin night. Then I will soak and dry both skeins. Several people have asked what the green is for .. honestly I don't know, possibly a baby blanket unless something else I want to knit really needs to be green. This is a case where my spinning and my knitting are separate hobbies, not feeding each other at all. I have no idea what sort of length of alpaca and silk I have here, as I always measure the skein length after washing and drying it, as skeins can pull up and shorted when they relax.

I spent at least two nights with the double knit mitten. This part is easy, the pattern is predictable and has several rounds with no colour work, between colour work rounds. But mostly this is easy because this is the third time I have knit this section ..... only one more time and I might have a pair!

I also spent a night or two with the heart of glass sock, making progress into the leg section of the chart. I reached the bead section of the chart while away from home, and no where near my beads, so rather than stop knitting I continued and replaced the B's on the chart with purls.

I also made progress on the knitting workshop teaching materials, look two of four are done! Part of the class is on casting on seamlessly and shaping to fit, and part is on 'design' of a more visual nature. I have no idea of what sort of things will appeal to people in the class, or what skills they will have so plan to offer a variety of options, simple stripes and a few more complex colour or textured patterns. I am also working on making each neck closure different, so far I have a button tab, a folded rolled ribbing, and I think this might be a drawstring with pompoms. Of course bits of each of these have been knit and reknit, because that is how design through making goes, and now I am looking at them I wonder if a beanie type hat that is pulled on after the hottie is fulled and sealed might be cute? These yarns are the left overs from my first and second jumbo blankets so I guess as they match they will go-with, making a very oddly proportioned set, huge blanket with matching teeny hot water bottles.

Take care - Eldest cub is making a icecream filled chocolate ring cake, and insists he can do this on his own. But he is also in here asking 'how do I' and 'where is' and 'what does it mean when the books says' questions, so I might just relocate closer to the kitchen with a cup of tea and be there for when he needs me. Youngest cub already made cupcakes, and is waiting for them to cool so she can ice them with enormous amounts of icing and sprinkles .... of course. Seems that my kids have decided to fill the kitchen with the cakes and things I don't get around to making because I am making soup, and pickling beetroot, and baking bread.

enjoy what is left of your weekend
Stella