Original Pattern: Emmaline

Knitter Extraordinaire: Jessica (Rav Id, blog)

Mods: Changed the gauge completely by making the bulky-weight pattern into a lovely and summery sport weight tee.
What Makes this Awesome: The Emmaline design is really lovely, but I think a lot of people (and I'll confess, myself included) hesitate at the idea of a bulky-weight tee for summer. I know that a huge part of the pattern is that it's so unexpected, but when I saw Jessica's take on it, it just looked so right. I love how changing the gauge gave this tee a light, summery look that is classic and perfect with anything. This top looks like it's equally at home with a great pair of jeans or a pretty, dressy skirt. That's versatility!  Just look at the final result- so gorgeous. so flattering. so wearable!! Details on how she did it all are on her project page.

Brooklyn General Store is both a bricks-and-mortar store as well as a great online shop that sells yarn, books & patterns, buttons, fabric, and all sorts of crafty goodness. They are having a handmade squirrel contest, which is just about the sweetest sounding contest ever.

Pattern: Destroyed Cowl

Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in Grapes colourway

Needles: US 8/ 5 mm

Mods: In order to keep this a one skein project, I shortened the length slightly- it's only about 38 inches in circumference.

Notes: What can I say about Malabrigo that hasn't already been said? I'm a fan of knitting cowls (and anything else that is meant to be worn against the delicate area of the neck and chest) in the softest yarn you can get your hands on, and Malabrigo is definitely high on that list.

This pattern was a lot of fun, and definitely could be churned out as a last minute gift, as long as you don't mind stockinette and have some good wrist stamina. I knit this within 24 hours, and just loved the magic of unravelling the stitches on either side for the 'destroyed' effect. For those of you who have made the Clapotis, you'll understand how oddly satisfying it is to unravel portions of your knitting!

I love cowls, they are such a great accessory. leave them loose and unlooped for a fashionable accessory, or loop them around to keep the chill away. Here is what it looks like when it's wrapped around your neck twice:

So snuggly and warm!! And wrapped twice around the neck is just right- not too loose, not to tight. I love it!! This is likely to be one of my future Christmas gifts. That is, unless I can't bear to part with it come December!

 Original Pattern: Heathered Hoodie Vest

Knitter Extraordinaire: Diane (Rav Id, Blog)

Mods:  Short-rowed the shoulder and neck shaping, bound of 4 stitches under each underarm and short-rowed cap sleeves; made a much smaller hood by reducing the width by approximately 20 stitches. 
What Makes This Awesome:  Sleeves can be a very problematic area of a sweater for many people, but picking up stitches from the armhole and short rowing sleeves is a great way to customize sleeve fit at the shoulders. Diane's mods to the hood are perfect! She had to rip back the original hood in order to redo it to the perfect size, so the lesson here is that you can definitely customize your hoods- don't be afraid to rip back and re-think what you really need. Diane's final result is inspiring- truly customized fit, and it looks gorgeous. More details on her mods can be found on her project page.

She also made a pair of great fingerless mitts based off of this pattern. The mitts look fantastic with the hoodie! Seems like a wonderful way to use up an extra couple of skeins that might be leftover from a sweater.

Our local grocery store had an amazing sale on all-purpose flour recently, and G graciously went to the store to get flour for me (since I complain if I have to carry anything heavy for more than 3 minutes).

But we had a slight miscommunication on the quantity of flour to get. And my wonderful husband came home with 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of flour.

My darlings, this is a lot of flour for a household of two people.Those two bags are stacked in front of the washing machine. Note how you can no longer see the washing machine.

Which makes me wonder... did he do it on purpose?

You know, I think he did.
clockwise from top left: wheat bran bread, peanut butter cookies, earl grey shortbread cookies, vegan chocolate layer cake, the vegan chocolate layer cake before it was sliced, cinnamon swirl wheat bran bread.


I've been on a huge bread baking kick since this flour showed up. I have baked bread before, but only recently found the perfect loaf that meets all my needs- the wheat bran recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. They have a website with some recipes, (although sadly not this one) and honestly I can't recommend the book enough. It lays out their system for making fresh bread easily with very little hands-on work. It's brilliant. I haven't had any failures, and the bread is AMAZING- full of flavour, great texture. I'm never going back to store bought bread again!!

I also recently experimented with a Creme de Cassis sugar cookie. I started off with the Martha Stewart recipe, but made the cookies thicker, for better texture. The recipe is the same, but my dough technique is below, if anyone wants to try it out:

I loved these cookies, and so did everyone else who ate them. You can't taste the crème de cassis really, but it gives these cookies a little something, a je ne sai quoi.

After all of the above (and there have been several more plain bread loaves that never got photographed), I'm still not even 2/3 through one of the bags.... which makes G so, so happy. He knows there's plenty more fresh baked goodness to come.

Original Pattern: Harriet

Knitter Extraordinaire: Elspeth (Rav id, Blog)

Mods: Oh So Many! Elspeth turned the Harriet cardigan into a pullover knit in the round. She added waist shaping, changed the neckline to a flattering scoop neck, eliminated the first 5 inches of the original pattern, and adjusted the gauge. For even more details on her mods (and there are plenty more!) see her project page, here.

What Makes This Awesome: It's hard to believe that this mod and the original are even related!Elspeth took the elements of the original that she liked the best- the diamond pattern and the garter edging- and used it as the foundation for a highly personalized take on the pattern, that suits her to a T. The resulting pullover is modern, very wearable, and oh so gorgeous. Just look at the amazing sleeve detail:

I get the rss feed for Craftzine, and this week there has been a rash of yarn projects!


Check out the Yarn Cubbies here:

And a very cool idea for yarn wall art can be found here:


And they also posted a link to this fabulous etsy shop:


All Yarn-related craft projects they have listed can be found here. Enjoy!!

Original Pattern: Treeline Striped Cardigan

Knitter Extraordinaire: Anna (Rav Id, Blog)

Mods: Anna had been using grey sock yarn held double, but started to run out as she got  near the armholes. So she started blending in a  darker charcoal yarn for the stripe instead. She also used the charcoal yarn for the sleeves. She changed the button band, by eliminating the edging and  adding more short rows, to make the collar stand up a bit more, and be closer to the neck.

What Makes This Awesome: The subtle changes from the medium grey to the charcoal line in the stripes turned out amazingly well. Hard to believe it was a yarn crisis that prompted the change, it looks so deliberate! Also, the edging and collar just work. It gives the sweater a real classic, boyfriend-sweater styling that looks so flattering. I love this mod!