lately

Slow­ly work­ing on a few lazy sum­mer project. I bought this Bernat Hand­i­crafter Cot­ton to make a dish cloth but I had a lot left. I tried mak­ing a cou­ple more dish cloths but I still had a lot left. So I won­dered whether there was enough to make a sum­mer top with the rest. Because it’s a var­ie­gat­ed yarn I thought a sim­ple geo­met­ric pat­tern, like a dia­mond lace pat­tern, would work with­out obscur­ing the lace pat­tern too much.

It was just going to a sim­ple boxy sweater, I fig­ured I would knit in the round until under­arm, then knit front and back sep­a­rate­ly by knit­ting flat, then sew the shoul­der seams, and final­ly knit sev­er­al rounds of 1x1 rib around the sleeves and collar. 

So I start­ed with knit­ting in the round, first in stock­inette, then in garter stitch, but the pool­ing just turned out real­ly weird when I switched from knit­ting in the round to knit­ting flat when I sep­a­rat­ed front and back. I guess I should’ve known that the yarn would do that. So any­way, the above pic­ture shows that I’m back to knit­ting it flat in two pieces, then knit­ting the rib­bing on the sleeves and col­lar in the round. Will keep you post­ed on how it goes! I do like the colour com­bi­na­tion of the yarn, and knit­ting it flat is cre­at­ing more of a strip­ing rather than a pool­ing pat­tern, which I like bet­ter, so I’m real­ly hop­ing it will work. Will keep you post­ed and share the pat­tern if it works out!

Before the sum­mer sweater I was work­ing on a pat­tern from the 5th anniver­sary issue of Pom Pom mag­a­zine. It’s being hiber­nat­ed at the moment because it’s too warm to knit this. But I’m look­ing for­ward to fin­ish­ing it. I love side­ways sweaters. It just needs sleeves, which I will knit in the round after sewing up the side seams. Using Caron Cakes! :D I do love var­ie­gat­ed yarn.

And because a sweater is too large to knit on pub­lic tran­sit, I start­ed a portable project for going to and from work. I’m mak­ing some drag­on hand pup­pets for my niece and nephew for Christ­mas (shh… and no, it’s nev­er too ear­ly to start hol­i­day craft­ing). I bought a kit from my local yarn store and learned to make bob­bles (a row of bob­bles runs down the back of the pup­pet). Also, short colour repeat rain­bow yarn is so much fun to work with! Spot the tiny heart!

Looks like I have a few WIPs but I actu­al­ly did fin­ish a cus­tom order recent­ly. Ani­mal friends to be part of a com­mem­o­ra­tive project, so glad I could con­tribute to it. 

Wish­ing you much joy and cre­ativ­i­ty for the weekend!

 

TTC knitalong adventure :D

Last week I helped out with the TTC Kni­ta­long and yarn-hopped with a won­der­ful group of peo­ple around the city yarn-craft­ing and shar­ing laughs! Thought I’d share some highlights!

Oh and if you aren’t famil­iar, the TTC Kni­ta­long is a char­i­ty event that ben­e­fits Sis­ter­ing, a trans-inclu­sive sup­port and drop-in cen­tre for women in down­town Toron­to. Live around TO and missed it this year? You can read all about how it works here so you can be all ready next year! :D

Our route start­ed at my local yarn store, the very cozy and friend­ly Porch Swing Yarn­som­ni­acs. Mike is such a troop­er, he had a wed­ding to attend in the after­noon but joined us for the morn­ing, work­ing on a Huf­flepuff scarf :) Also, note the bril­liant Star Wars sweater that the own­er of Yarn­som­ni­acs cre­at­ed!! (It’s on the back of the wood­en rock­ing chair — you can see it in all its glo­ry here :D)

We then hopped over to the bright and sun­ny Knit-O-Mat­ic. Must remem­ber that they car­ry Lily Sug­ar ‘n Cream cot­ton. I love sum­mer knit­ting with cotton.

Eweknit not only has yarn, it also has WATG kits (heart-eyes) and tons and tons of gor­geous fabric!

Then we took a break for lunch. We went to Lit­tle Sito for Lebanese brunch, which I’ve nev­er had before. The per­fect­ly poached eyes on rich fried cheese, avo­ca­do, herbed home fries, oh my. High­ly rec­om­mend it!

After lunch we went over to Yarns Untan­gled in vibrant Kens­ing­ton Mar­ket. It has the per­fect knit­ting spot for knitting/napping under the tree :) Also love that this shop always car­ries prod­ucts from local arti­sans like greet­ing cards, soaps and but­tons, in addi­tion to unique hand-dyed yarns.

Final­ly, we spent the rest of the after­noon at Rom­ni Wools in the isles and isles, floor to ceil­ing full of wool­ly good­ness. (every­one quick­ly dis­ap­peared behind the yarn before I could take a pic­ture :S)

Knit­ting along on the TTC! Knit­ting while stand­ing in a crowd­ed, mov­ing street­car is a Toron­ton­ian superpower. 

I’m actu­al­ly quite direc­tion­al­ly chal­lenged (had to con­sult with my com­pass a cou­ple of times through­out the trip!), so thank­ful for par­tic­i­pants who super knew where they were going, and for a rel­a­tive­ly easy, relax­ing route :) Though because I’ve nev­er led a team before I was quite ner­vous about remem­ber the route and keep­ing time, so I did­n’t try to buy any­thing until our last stops. But I did bring home sweater quan­ti­ties of Brig­gs & Lit­tle wool (Canada’s old­est woolen mill!) in these beau­ti­ful shades of green, a back issue of Pom Pom mag­a­zine with love­ly sum­mer sweater pat­terns, and a beeswax food wrap with piles of cats on it to reduce the use of Saran wrap! 

We’re so for­tu­nate­ly to have so many local inde­pen­dent yarn stores in Toron­to! I’ve always just known they are there but don’t real­ly vis­it, because going to Michaels is eas­i­er, and I’ve start­ed to take them for grant­ed. Will have to make a point to vis­it them more often! 

Wish­ing every­one a won­der­ful week!

 

central park florals by diana

Film from NYC devel­oped :D

The best ones were from Cen­tral Park. I also have had to find a dif­fer­ent pho­to devel­op­ing place this time because the trusty ser­vice at Shop­pers Drug Mart has closed down :’( This new place charges 5 times the price of Shop­pers, but the images did turn out much more vibrant. I guess I’ll have to use film more spar­ing­ly from now on, it’s real­ly becom­ing more and more expensive. 

Any­way, here are the Cen­tral Park flo­rals :D

I also loved the weath­ered wood rail­ings all over the park. 

Not sure why I haven’t learned this over the past few years I’ve been using the Diana Mini, but final­ly real­ized that it is best for cap­tur­ing more inti­mate moments rather than land­scapes in the distance.

Land­scapes just turn out super fuzzy most of the time and so lack focus. I do like this one with the boats though.

And this one with the light leaks around lady Lib­er­ty. And some street scenes.

 

Wish­ing you a great week­end with new adven­tures, big or small :)

this week’s awesome finds

A won­der­ful project of knit­ting feath­ers of birds rep­re­sent­ing each ter­ri­to­ry and province of Cana­da. Paid pat­tern from Erin Black on Rav­el­ry. (and thank-you to Amy who always shares the most awe­some yarn craft­ing projects with me! :D)

A rope coiled and sewn togeth­er with sewing machine to make these cute bowls. From Lia Grif­fith.

I love that it’s not a square-form. I bet it’s very hug-able. From Hob­by Craft.

Also hug-able is this oni­giri pil­low! Real­ly want to make a cro­chet ver­sion of it for my friend who loves every­thing Japan­ese :D From Kit­ten­hood.

This stitch would make a nice sum­mer top I think. From We Are Knit­ters.

I saw the scrub­ber yarn at Michaels and have been won­der­ing about try­ing it. This makes a nice cute gift! From Fiber Flux.

This is so awe­some, and so well made! :D Gude­ta­ma pat­tern by Stuff Susie Made.

I’ve nev­er had pan­na cot­ta, but they remind me of the almond tofu dessert that I like, and look easy enough to make, so maybe I’ll try mak­ing it one day in the sum­mer! From Oh Hap­py Day.

And final­ly, this chart spot­ted on Pin­ter­est! This will be my win­ter project, in a cor­ner-to-cor­ner cro­chet throw :)

 

Have a great week, everyone!

 

countdown to the TTC knitalong!

I spent yes­ter­day morn­ing stuff­ing awe­some swag bags with awe­some peo­ple for every­one com­ing to the TTC Kni­ta­long (heart-eyes, heart-eyes, heart-eyes). Check this out!

So excit­ed!! It’s only one week away! It’s not too late to sign up, but hur­ry, there are only a few tick­ets left!

So grate­ful for the spon­sors this year!! <3 we’ve got very nice mer­cer­ized cot­ton, large but­tons, nee­dles, hooks and knooks (new craft to learn btw!), gauge ruler, and knit­ting patterns!

There are ALSO lots and lots of YARN raf­fle prizes, which you can check out on the TTC Kni­ta­long Insta­gram feed :) And you can get a free raf­fle tick­et for every yarn or fin­ished item dona­tion! The yarn dona­tions go to orga­ni­za­tions like Street Knit, Knit­ted Knock­ers and hos­pi­tals. Pro­ceeds from the event goes to Sis­ter­ing, a drop-in and sup­port cen­tre for women in Toronto.

Come join us this Sat­ur­day if you’re in the Toron­to area! :D You’ll see me with team Mag­ic Loop!

Have a good week everyone!

 

the travelling pineapple purse

I start­ed the pineap­ple purse on the trip to New York. Here’s me par­tic­i­pat­ing in Inter­na­tion­al Knit in Pub­lic Day in Brook­lyn! (We had checked out of the place we were stay­ing at and had a free morn­ing before our flight in late after­noon, hence lug­ging around all our bags)

Made the straps when we got home. I think I made them too long, it was a bit hard to gauge… it works ok for now, but if they con­tin­ue to stretch as I use it I will have to replace them.

Here it is in action, at the Dev­il’s Punch Bowl in Hamil­ton, Ontario!

Much fruiti­ness at the Punch Bowl :D Here’s anoth­er look at this beau­ti­ful dis­play of rock strata.

I wish we had the time to fig­ure out the trail to the base of the cliff. The view up on the face of the escarp­ment must have been mag­nif­i­cent. But we were head­ing out to vis­it fam­i­ly and there was a thun­der­storm was com­ing, so we did­n’t want to get stuck on a trail in the woods in the rain.

Accord­ing to the Water­falls of Hamil­ton brochure that I picked up in the near­by Punch Bowl Mar­ket (more on that in a minute!), Dev­il’s Punch­bowl Falls was cre­at­ed at the end of the last ice age 450 mil­lion years ago, carved by huge amount of melt­wa­ter rivers that plunged over the escarp­ment. The Punch­bowl is the only area where one can view such a large ver­ti­cal dis­play of Ordovi­cian and Sil­uri­an strat­i­fied rocks. My phone cam­era did­n’t cap­ture it super well but you can see a bril­liant teal band of rocks in the mid­dle of the cliff. We will have to go back one day and see it better.

And the Punch Bowl Mar­ket is a treat in itself! We had a lunch of very fresh, very deli­cious pies (chick­en, straw­ber­ry rhubarb, beef) under lush hang­ing plants in the patio out­side :) They also sell a lot of home­made pre­serves and sauces, and the decor is delight­ful­ly retro :D

If you ever find your­self in the area, be sure to vis­it, along with the many many beau­ti­ful water­falls in Hamil­ton area. I’ve only vis­it­ed one oth­er water­falls in the area, so maybe a sum­mer road trip is in order :) 

Have a good rest of the week, everyone!

 

the laziest cheesecake

If Gude­ta­ma were ever made into a cheese­cake, this would be it…

… because I made it in a rice cook­er :D

I lit­er­al­ly just mixed all the ingre­di­ents togeth­er and pressed the “cook” but­ton. Found the recipe from this Japan­ese cook­ing web­site, I chose it because it was the eas­i­est (no sep­a­rat­ing egg whites and egg yokes kind of stuff). I con­vert­ed some mea­sure­ments and sub­sti­tut­ed some ingre­di­ents, and it turned out quite beau­ti­ful­ly if I do say so myself :D so I’m record­ing the mod­i­fi­ca­tions here in case I have to come back to it again, or if any­one is inter­est­ed in try­ing it. Note: I have a 5‑cup rice cook­er; for a small­er rice cook­er, you might have to halve the recipe as sug­gest­ed on the orig­i­nal recipe, so it will cook through.

  1. Warm 200g of cream cheese to room tem­per­a­ture (I eye-balled 1/5 of the 250g brick and cut it off), fluff with fork.
  2. Mix in 2 eggs (beat­en), 1/3 cup sug­ar, and 1 tbsp lemon juice.
  3. Grad­u­al­ly mix in 1/3 cup pan­cake mix (I bought the kind that you have to add milk and egg, not the just add water kind) and 1/3 cup half-and-half cream. Mix very well to elim­i­nate lumps (I used a hand mixer).
  4. Grease inner pot of rice cook­er with margarine/butter. Pour mix­ture into pot. Cook on reg­u­lar rice setting.
  5. When done, test with tooth­pick to see if the cen­tre is still run­ny. If so, cook on same set­ting again. (Tooth­pick will not come out clean, but as long as the inside is not run­ny it should be ok)
  6. Take out inner pot and cov­er with plas­tic wrap, cool to room tem­per­a­ture, then refrig­er­ate for a few hours (I want­ed to min­i­mize the chance of it crum­bling when I flip it out).
  7. Flip the cake out of the pot care­ful­ly with my hand (or a plate that fits inside the pot) press­ing gen­tly on the cake (as demon­strat­ed with pic­tures in the orig­i­nal recipe).

Ta-da!

It tast­ed like a cross between Japan­ese cheese cake (light, fluffy, not too sweet) and New York style cheese cake (dense and rich). I sus­pect the dense­ness is due to me cook­ing the cake 3 times. The tooth­pick did­n’t come out com­plete­ly clean the sec­ond time and I thought it had to be, so I think I over­cooked it. Next time I’ll just cook it twice. 

I made it for Mike’s birth­day :D I’ll prob­a­bly make it again for my par­ents, Mike’s par­ents, my co-work­ers, my friends, church potluck… it’s so easy!!

Wish­ing every­one a sweet Sun­day afternoon!

 

p.s. Gude­ta­ma is a San­rio char­ac­ter in the shape of an egg who is very lazy. It also morphs into dif­fer­ent kinds of egg-based foods. His short ani­me are hilar­i­ous, and a bit bizarre… but fun for a short break in the day :)