Leafy Greens Blanket

The stork carefully stored the package that Jorth handed to him, carefully wrapped in brown paper and string, and as he flew off into the sunset he had one simple, grateful thought: that delivering presents for soon-to-arrive babies was sure as heck a lot easier than delivering the bubs themselves.

Project Details
Pattern: Leafy Baby Blanket by Leyla Alieva (free pattern!)
Yarn: 7 balls of Zara by Filatura Di Crosa, yarn held double throughout
Needles: 5mm needles

I really, REALLY enjoyed knitting this sweet baby blanket up. Since the yarn was held double, it went by pretty quick, and I would have gotten it finished sooner except I ran one ball short, so had to dash off to the yarn store before I could finish it. D'oh!

The blanket itself isn't huge, but is the perfect size for tucking into a pram or over a car seat to keep their precious occupant snug and warm. This is a definite knitting win to chalk up on the board!

Ravelried here.

Monthly Menu Plan - July/August

Slow braises, pasta bakes, lasagne sheets made from scratch... this is truly not the winter of my discontent. And since it's a dual birthday month at our place, there's plenty of cake as well. Yippee!

Week One
Monday - Salmon, pea and potato cakes with garden salad
Tuesday - Lemon, lentil and spinach soup
Wednesday - Tomato, pea, bacon and spinach risotto with rocket salad
Thursday - Broccoli and pecorino pasta with garden salad
Friday - Lemon pepper pilaf
Saturday - Farro, butternut pumpkin and romesco salad
Sunday - Macaroni with peas, with a green salad

Week Two
Monday - Roasted vegetable 'speltotto' with kale
Tuesday - Tofu and noodle stirfry
Wednesday - Pumpkin and haloumi burgers with coleslaw
Thursday - Spanish tuna pasta bake with salad
Friday - Creamy potato and silverbeet soup with cheese toasties
Saturday - Beef stew with sweet potato mash
Sunday - Roast chicken

Week Three
Monday - Creamy chicken pasta with rocket
Tuesday - Ratatouille pies with garden salad
Wednesday - Roast tomato and basil soup with garlic bread
Thursday - Chicken pesto lasagne with rocket salad
Friday - Birthday dinner!
Saturday - Baked potatoes with all the trimmings
Sunday - Lentil cottage pies with corn cobs

Week Four
Monday - Spaghetti and meatballs with salad
Tuesday - Cauliflower, silverbeet and chickpea wraps with tahini
Wednesday - Minestrone a la Jill Dupleix
Thursday - Ham, tomato and ricotta calzones with salad
Friday - Homemade fish and chips

Party dress!

It's tempting to think that you can't deck yourself in an awesome, home-made party dress when your birthday falls in the middle of winter. Shivering and party poppers don't generally tend to go hand in hand. However, with this incredible pink/red/black brocade, and a little help from Vogue 8902, I have a feeling that I'll be looking pretty snazzy this Saturday night, no matter how darn cold it is outside!

Scrunchie city!

Oftentimes when it is school holidays, I lament that I never seem to get any crafting done, but this thankfully was not the case this time around. In fact, it was scrunchie city! The scrap bag had never seen so much action!
It was also the perfect craft to teach Tyger how to use a proper sewing machine i.e. mine, rather than the semi-toy one she was given a few years ago. She looked rather trepidatious at the beginning, and I began to become somewhat alarmed that something might go wrong and this was a bad idea, but once she got over her initial fears she was soon sewing like a pro. In fact, I had to bark at her to stop treating the machine like a racing car at one stage!

Some may say "Scrunchies? I thought they died with all the other bad early 90s trends!", but let me tell you this: they are hip and happening in this house. Besides, if they are good enough for Hillary Clinton, they are good enough for Tyger!

Knitting ON FIRE!

Somebody call the fire brigade, because I am on FIRE, people, FIRE with my knitting of late!

I'm blitzing through Tyger's Flora Layered Leaf Skirt. I'm going great guns on my own patterns. I even spent a wee while today pawing a ball of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino from my stash and decided to turn it into a supercute pair of baby booties pronto.

And let's not forget this gorgeous leafy blanket that's being made for my besties first child. One and half more pattern repeats and I'll be done. I swear, people are lining up to gawk at me and my super speedy knitting skillz, cos I am like the Usain Bolt of knitting at the moment. Except with Addi Turbos instead of fancy spikes. Although I am tempted to do this awesomely awesome pose after a particularly nice cast on. No wonder people are staring!

I'm also going to be teaching a Learn to Knit class over at Handmaker's Factory this Sat, 12th July, so come along and I'll have you blitzing through the projects in no time.

Now I just need to put the needles down for a while and get my birthday dress sewn. Who needs sleep, eh?