Cheese and cashew nuts = good. Cheese made from cashew nuts = ???

As we have a couple of people who are lactose intolerant, I spotted this and thought "why, we really ought to try it".
http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2008/11/raw_cashew_cheese.php

Anyone game to give it a shot?
Princess Eleri

THE Sweater

I have about a zillion other things I should be doing and there have been lots of fun things going on in our various kingdoms, so I think it is time for a post about The Sweater I knit for Brian. Please note, this garment isn't a regular sweater, it is a Sweater. In fact, it is THE Sweater. V important!

Well, I promised Prince Brian a sweater for our first anniversary (the pattern was on paper, so that counts) and bought yarn for it only a few days after we'd arrived in Melbourne! Ah yes, it seemed as if my fingers were itching to knit the sweater, but then I started working on the cabled lower band. That was very complicated!

Anyway, the yarn went into my stash until just before our second anniversary, when I realized how rotten I'd been! I pulled out the cabled band and tried to settle my differences with it. Turns out I'd been misreading the pattern! Oops! I figured that out just before Prince Brian and I went on an anniversary ski trip to Lake Mountain. When we weren't skiing, I was huddled under the covers for warmth and knitting frantically:

I know it looks like I'm sick in bed, but actually it was just really cold in our little cabin!

With the cabled band done, I could start with the "real" knitting, which was just lots (and I mean LOTS) of boring back and forth knitting. Luckily, the Olympics had just started, and I could knit while watching volleyball and swimming and what not, so it didn't seem so bad.

As with every sweater, The Sweater only got super annoying when I was doing the sleeves. Who knew I married a man with abnormally long arms? And THEN when I was done with one, I had to do a whole new one! Luckily, by this point, I was watching lots of Buffy to make the hours (and hours, and hours) of knitting fly by.

The really challenging part for me came when I had to attach the sleeves to the body. I had to spend about a week just thinking about how I'd do it, and then I had to consult Princess Kate. As usual, Princess Kate was able to decipher everything and make it much more understandable!

At long last, I had finished the bulk of the knitting and moved on to weaving in the ends. It is a pretty big sweater, so it had a lot of loose ends to weave in. Boring! I actually neglected The Sweater for a few weeks while I avoided the ends, but eventually sat down, wove them in, and even blocked it!

Finally, The Sweater traveled with me to Princess Kate's castle where I carefully pinned it (again and again...and then again. Thank goodness for Princess Kate, or the zipper would have been upside down!)See how happy I look in this picture? That's because this was only the first time I was pinning it. I then screwed up ANOTHER time! Third time's the charm!

Following the pinning fiasco, I had to face one of my biggest fears: a sewing machine! Eek! It is so fast, and efficient, and full of needles! I took a page from my aunt's book in dealing with the sewing machine. My aunt believes that if you scream really loudly while you jump into a pool (or, more often, a lake) for a swim, it makes cold water easier to deal with. Ergo, I figured if I just said "AHHHHHHHHHHH!" the whole time I used the sewing machine, it would make things easier. I'm sure every princess loved that! ;)


See how I'm not actually using the sewing machine in this picture? That is because I am in the other room breathing into a paper bag to prepare myself.

However, much screaming later, The Sweater was finished! Prince Brian even came in to P. Kate's castle to wait for its completion and to model the final product!

Here I am making some quick finishing touches. I'm also sternly lecturing Prince Brian about how I will have my guards throw him in the dungeon, or tie him to the rack, or torture him in other ways if he ever puts The Sweater in the drier. Off with his head!:)

And here we are--Prince Brian obviously happy his Sweater is finally finished (just in time for Australian summer!) and I am clearly thrilled that I don't have to work on it anymore. Yay! I'm actually really proud of The Sweater, because it came out really well. We'll be going back to the states in less than a week and I'm looking forward to Brian acting as kind of a billboard for my knitting prowess. Considering as the first knitted thing I made was a relatively (ok, REALLY) ugly scarf for his sister's Christmas present, I'm glad that I have something a little more presentable to show off this year. Here endeth The Sweater's epic tale. Who knows what adventures are in store for it in the future?

Stitch and Bitching at Emily's Palace

For once I'm being well behaved and actually blogging.

We had a grand total of nine princesses at my place on December 2nd, including two honourary princessi. Unfortunately we were missing Princess Bek and Princess Joce. We had the usual meal of lentil burgers with the lot (depending on the eating requirements of everyone).

Princess Eleri was industrially working on her starry quilt present, while Princess 2C's was working on tiaras.

Princess Viv was happily felting away, while Princess Alana continued on the epic jumper and Princess-elect Catherine enjoyed stabbing mushrooms.

Princess Kate was working away on kid's clothes and Princess elect Michelle (I hope I got that right - having a mental blank) was reading a book about Princess Kate.

Princess Rosie was very busy making arm warmers for someone...

Recent activities in Gondwanaland

I hosted another small group last week, with just Princessi Rosie, Eleri, Viv and myself in attendance. I think we ate just about enough for the entire group, what with all the yummy pasta salad (mmm, avocadoes and cherry tomatoes) and apple crumble we consumed.

After rolling into the lounge room to stitch, Princess Viv "show-and-tell"ed her recent creations:
The Christmas tree with corny advent jokes.

Christmas stockings for Princess Viv's mini prince and princesses, with hand felted designs on them

And a lovely shimmery set of wings, modelled here by the Eleri-fairy (couldn't help it!! Sorry).

Then Princess Viv studiously worked on her Christmas wall hanging, cutting out the backing and laying out the applique stars for ironing on.

Princess Eleri unfortunately had to come straight from work, so was without stitching for the evening. Luckily Princess Rosie had a job for her and set her to work starting to knit stripy triangles to make into a scarf for her brother.

Meanwhile brave Princess Rosie overcame her fears and sewed in the zipper on Prince Brian's sweater. I've sent her some photos for a blog entry all of its own.

I'd hurt my back that morning so I wasn't really up for much stitching, so I just sat around and helped Princess Rosie use my ancient sewing machine. I did show off the dresses I'd made for my girls to wear to their grandfather's 70th birthday party.

Round Robin Border 1

I seem to be the only one posting here... oh well :(

I thought I'd post a picture of the Round Robin block I've been working on. I brought it along a couple of weeks ago to get some inspiration for what to do with it - I was really struggling with its lack of contrast and excessive pink-ness. Anyway, here's what I did:


I aimed to frame and feature the pink centre without dominating it with my darker fabrics (I also wanted to use something from my stash rather than go out and purchase yet more fabric!).

Little dresses for little girls

Last night I finished the last of the dresses for my former neighbour's kids, and this afternoon I took them to kinder to give them to her. The Mum was completely blown away, and when Middle saw her dress she hugged it and wouldn't give it back! The Mum also loved the colour of blue I used for Big's dress - matches her eyes wonderfully well.

Size 7 dress for Big:

Size 5 dress for Middle:

Size 1 dress for Little:

Here is also the dress I made for Princess-in-Training Zoe's birthday. Unfortunately it's a little too short on her, so I'll add an extra ruffle at the bottom like on Middle's dress. That hasn't stopped the dress being rather popular - I think it's been slept in twice!

All this dress sewing, and my own girls have decided they deserve new dresses to wear to their Grandfather's 70th birthday party in December. Back to work!

Quilting Round Robin

I'm currently involved in a quilting round robin, and so I thought I should blog about it, and show off my centre block.

Tada!

The round robin works like this: there is a group of five of us, and each of us creates a centre block. Then it's posted to the next person in the group, who adds a border. And so on, until each centre has four borders added to it, and it's returned to the original quilter for finishing off. It's a very exciting adventure! I'm looking forward to seeing all the work the others do.

I also brought along beautiful yarn hand-dyed by my friend (Em) in Adelaide, so I thought I should post the details of her Etsy store (though I see she currently has nothing listed) and her blog. She's actually having a sale at the moment - on her blog - to get rid of a whole lot of yarns, so they're both beautiful and incredibly cheap! Also, you can see all the colourways she's dyed, and perhaps order a custom dyed job. She's injured at the moment (going to have surgery in a few weeks), so her turn-around may be a little slow, however you'd be helping her support herself when she's struggling to work... not begging for her, just trying to help a friend who's having a pretty rough time at the moment...

Bitchin' Stitchin' on the Trams!

Although I was crowned in March, other affairs of state have distracted me from the important duty of blogging about royal stitching and bitching. A fabulous art project undertaken by the Melbourne Fringe Festival and Yarra trams has roused me from my silence. It combines culture, class, environmentally friendly transport, and fabulous stitching! GOOD CHOICE!

Over the past few months, I've collected a number of photos but haven't posted them. I'll work on correcting this oversight, starting with the most recent:
Princess Viv looks like she's making a hat out of some fabulous fuzzy yarn! She demonstrates flawless form with circular knitting on circular needles.
Newly ascended Princess Jocelyn shows off her newest skill--knitting on double pointed needles! Kudos to her for her bravery, as she narrowly missed having an eye poked out by a DPN a few weeks earlier. Sorry Princess Joce!
Princess Kate fastidiously knits some truly gorgeous socks. They're done now and have turned out to be both fetching and warm!
Princessi Eleri and Bek show off their projects. Princess Eleri had been struggling with several mostly-but-not-entirely finished knitting projects, but didn't let that stop her from knitting a really clever wrap. Meanwhile, Princess Bek mends a duvet cover an combines her love of scrap fabric with her love of not throwing out a perfectly good duvey cover in which someone (ahem, Prince Hugo, we're looking at you) chewed a hole.
Princess Em stretches her legs after some vigorous stitching. Stretching is very important, or the unwary princess could pull a muscle!

Will attempt to post more pictures soon!

The Librarian and the Quilter

I finished the quilt top last night, so here is the photo of the finished top:


I also called the quilter yesterday morning: she's going away for three weeks as of Friday (tomorrow), and then is fully booked until Christmas! Crap! But then, because I'm a valued customer and it's only a small quilt, she decided she could fit me in. Thank goodness! So there was no rush to get it done after all, but it is nice to almost have it completed by my goal of end-of-September (yesterday was 1 Oct).

On to other projects tonight!

Finished!

This is it, all folded up so you can see the cute edging!

The front!

A close up of some of the front!

And the back, with lovely yellow fabric donated by Princess Kate (who also has the world's best iron!)

\As everyone knows, it's a bit of a miracle when I finish a project. My modus operandi is normally to get somewhere less than half-way through then put in cupboard and ignore for 10+ years.





This time, however, I have no only started and finished a project in exactly two weeks (with many thanks for excellent assistance/advice from Princessi Eleri and Kate) but I have finished it *before* the birth of the baby it's meant for. First time ever.





Luckily, the baby won't be able to tell (at least not initially) that I can't sew a straight line to save my life (at least not with bloody enormous thick wadding in the middle) that I swore my head off and threw things because (a) I broke FOUR needles, (b) the red cotton ran out with two seams left to sew, (c) the spool ran out with one seam left to sew, (d) my stupid sewing machine keeps unthreading itself mid-seam and (e) other random badness.





I stitched the back of the edging by hand yesterday while watching eleventy-three episodes of Battlestar Galactica.

And next time, I am (a) using much, much thinner wadding and/or (b) getting someone to quilt it professionally, like Princess Kate so sensibly does.

On another note, I'd really like to do this to my couch!

Stitching at the House on the Hill

Right, no extra-fancy formatting this time! (stoopid formatting - gah!)

Stitchery was held at my place last week, and we were a full contingent bar Princess Eleri, who was sadly missed :( Hopefully she will be in attendance next week.

For the regal supper we consumed quiche, pasta salad, and pasta-salad-minus-the-pasta for the non-wheaten-types. Princess Rosie provided a bottle of wine at Prince Brian's insistence (we don't mind, thanks Prince Brian!), and at Princess Viv's request, Princess Kate had baked a Lumberjack cake for dessert. It was served with fresh ripe yummy strawberries.

Prince Bron arrived home unexpectedly early from choir rehearsal, and the well trained lad proceeded to make hot drinks for us all. Much hilarity ensued when he asked Princess Rebecca "And how do you like your chai?"...

We're all going well on our projects:

Honorary Feline Princess Lillian finished pinning her quilt sandwich together and decided that it was time to curl up and relax for the rest of the evening.

I think it passed the comfort test :)

Princess Bek started reading the Quilting Bible to decide how to proceed with the cat cot quilt she's making for her colleague's soon-to-arrive baby. It's made donated from scraps, including cat hair generously donated by HFP Lill.

Princessi 2Cs and Rosie worked hard on their knitting projects: Princess Rosie has very nearly finished the simian jumper with the extra-long sleeves and a (metric) bazillion stitches per row. It is so heavy and warm!

Princess 2Cs was knitting a wrap from snuggly soft warm wool. It starts at a point at the back and then separates into two parts to go over the shoulders.

Princess Emily continued working on her sheepie quilt - I don't think this square is a zombie though! Princess Jocelyn supervised ;)

Princess Alana industriously worked away at her jumper for Prince Ed. The back is complete and she is now about half-way through the front. Yay! It should be ready for next winter at this rate!

Poor Princess Viv the injured sat enthroned in the arm chair and continued knitting her jumper. It's for herself! A lovely soft and thick wool, great for getting through faster. She's also finished the back and is a good way through the front - ready to wear next winter as well.

Princess Kate decided that using her sewing machine was way too noisy for the number of people in her cosy lounge room, so kept working on her knitting instead. Her yarn was coming close to running out, so she started on the ribbing - but then did as much ribbing as was needed and still had plenty of yarn left. So after the Princessi had departed that night, she pulled out all the ribbing she'd knitted that evening and continued knitting the sock in the pattern.

This afternoon I finished the socks!! I completed the ribbing with what yarn I had left (with about 6cm of yarn left after casting off - perfect!), and when I compared it to the first sock, I saw that the second sock is only about three rows shorter.


Everyone, make sure you're seated...

I'm leaving it like that, with one sock three rows longer than the other. Shocking, I know :P

Glittens!

It's about time I posted photos of my finished glittens here.

This first pair is the first pair I was knitting, where I tried to match the wool and failed. The glitten on the right is the one I started with - note its gentle mottled colours? The second one on the left is the wool that I had to buy - it's got a much more stripy effect (not as nice), so the gloves really don't match. My sister-in-law's partner, Nick, loved them however, so he scored himself a nice new pair of glittens. Glad they went to a home that appreciates them!

The front, with flaps off,

and the back with the flaps over the fingers and thumb.

Here are the other two pairs I made this winter: the blue pair for my brother for his birthday, while the green pair was for Dad for Fathers' Day.

Front and back, flaps on and off. I liked these wooden buttons better than the ones I used for Nick's - darker colour, and the holes are larger so were much easier to sew on.

I hope the button loops don't get in the way!

CWA, anyone?

There's an article in today's Age about young people and crafty groups: A Stitch through Time.

I'm going to catch up on a few posts that I'm behind on, promise :) Hope you're all having a lovely weekend in the beautiful weather.

All amigurumi great and small

I made a couple of more amigurumis last weekend for Ed's cousin's new little bub Thomas so I thought it would be a good time to display a collection of my amigurumis to date. Here is the duck that I made for Thomas. The pattern was for an egg cosy but I just continued the pattern to close it up at the base and stuffed him to fill him out.

Here is the bunny along with the ducky I made for Thomas.

Here is the monkey that I made ages ago. I added a tail to the pattern as what monkey is complete without a tail? I got the tail to sit up using a pipecleaner. Unfortunately this cannot be seen in the pic I chose.

And here is the owl I made from Amigurumi World: Seriously Cute Crochet by Ana Paula Rimoli. All her patterns a way cute!

And here are all the amigurumis living in harmony on my couch.