Mods: Changed the textured stitch pattern to a colourwork design using navy and white triangles reminiscent of sailing flags (also used adorable red anchor buttons to carry on the nautical feel!). Details can be found on her project page, here.
What Makes This Awesome: It's not often I see a modification that changes a textured knit into a colourwork knit, and this cardigan is so perfect- I love the thoughtful little details of the thin white stripe trimming the cuffs and hem, keeping the sleeves solid navy, and the fantastic red buttons for contrast. Using the colour palette of navy and white keeps the cardigan totally classic, and the result is fun and really stylish.
Feeling like you need a catchy little tune? I love this song, and the video is too cute:
Asa- "Be My Man"
And this is really making the rounds lately, but I can't resist- It's a great little love anthem:
Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros- "Home"
I Also I have a serious girl crush on Oh Land. I love everything she does!! Listen to this, you'll love it:
Oh Land : "Sun of a Gun"
The new Radiohead album dropped on Friday, and this video of Thom Yorke's dance moves is pretty awesome:
Radiohead- "Lotus FLower"
I'm addicted to this conconction I created. I know it sounds gross, but honestly- everyone I've had try this loves it. The orange juice does a good job of covering the veggie taste, but it does turn green. The spinach blends in more thoroughly than the kale, so if you aren't into kale (I'm truly, madly in love with kale, I put it in everything) then just use the spinach. As an added bonus, consuming vitmain c and iron together helps your body absorb both better, so this is really a powerful juice!
1.5 cups of orange juice
1 cup kale leaves (destemmed, with veins removed)
1 cup spinach leaves
Directions:
In a blender (or magic bullet, like I have)blend the orange juice and kale together first, for about 60 seconds. Then add spinach, blend for another 60 seconds. Drink and enjoy the fact that you are getting a tonne of healthy stuff in a tasty drink!
Before anyone asks, no, you don't strain it. Get the fibre! The texture is similar to that of a smoothie- sort of thick. I recommend drinking it within 20 minutes of making it, otherwise the veggie bits start to sink to the bottom. And whatever you do, don't use a food processor-
I tried this in a food processor once, it totally didn't work. Too chunky, and didn't get that smoothie texture.
I know I usually post sweet treats on here, so ta-da! Drink your veggies, my lovelies.
Yarns: Tanis Fiber Arts Cashmere Sock (in Chestnut), and Dyed by Design Solo (which I picked up in York, UK last year)
Mods: Only did 11 repeats of the stripe pattern, I underestimated my contrasting colour yardage. But I'm sort of on the small side, so a smaller shawl is perfect for me.
Notes: I don't think it's a big secret that I'm a sucker for Veera's gorgeous, uncluttered patterns, and test knitting this pattern was a dream. This kind of pattern is perfect for some really special yarn, something you love working with; because this is a heck of a lot of garter stitch and short rows. It's a perfect multitasking knit- something you can do while reading, or watching something really interesting (I watched a heck of a lot of MadMen while knitting this).
This is really a cozy, soft, luxurious sort of shawl. it feels amazing. I mean, cashmere sock yarn- how can you go wrong?!
Some of you asked about my pin the last time I wore it, so I made sure to wear it again, and get some good shots of it this time. It is the Crawford clan crest, a wonderful treasure that my parents-in-law gave me for Christmas two years ago. The motto translates to "I will give you safety through my strength". I wear this pin a lot- it's so meaningful to me. And it looks damn good with just about everything.
Mods: A gorgeous mashup of two beautiful shawl patterns, as Laila was on a quest to make a really amazing striped scarf that had the half moon shape of Citron, and the style of Andrea's Shawl. Omitted the ruffled sections of Citron, and thicker stripes throughout. One of them even had a different, customized lace trim. Fantastic details on how she made them can be found here and here, and even more here!
What Makes This Awesome: First of all, I'm blown away by how thorough and awesome her notes are, on all the links above. Both the red and navy striped shawls look drop dead gorgeous,and I love that she used another lace trim on the red striped one- it gives it a totally different look. Both of these shawls would be incredible to knit, and stunning wardrobe additions.
I'm recently back from the cottage (have I mentioned before it's media-free? no TV, no cell service, no internet!), where we had a lovely time with G's parents, and did lots of my favourite winter activity- snowshoeing. I love snowshoeing out in the woods around the cabin, following the tracks of the deer, until we find shapes like these:
That, my lovelies, is a deer bed. Deer tend to sleep on higher ground, and they never sleep in the same area twice to avoid detection by predators. I adore how they soundlessly journey all around the cottage and the woods, leaving their lovely little tracks in the snow. When I go snowshoeing, I try to follow the track until I find a lovely deer bed. The one above is particularly detailed- you can actually see the shape of how the deer lay it's head down. See where the ears were? It feels so magical to come across such a perfect deer bed.
And while at the cottage, we also got around to doing this:
Notes: I'm a sucker for caplets. I find them really wearable- I just plunk them on anytime I'm wearing a long sleeved t-shirt, and they just work. I feel like I look really tired in these photos but I think it's just because I'm really, really cold and should have worn more eye make up, even if I was in 'cottage mode'. We were snowshoeing, and I just quickly stripped down so we could grab the photos, and I was shivering the whole time. Off the the right, beyond the frame of the photos, my jacket, sweater, hat, and mitts are resting on a tree branch.
I wish I could have made the collar a bit longer so it would have folded over a bit better, but I was running out of yarn- one more skein would have done the trick. Regardless, I love this cozy caplet- it's super soft, super warm, and lots of fun to wear.
Mods: Changed the mitten chart to have the heart design, the words, and the adorable sheep. Let's take a closer look at the palm of the right mitt, shall we?
Such a cute sheep!
What Makes This Awesome: I love the red and white, the hearts, and the way she used these lovely mitts as a blueprint for playing with new charted designs. And hey, I love yarn a heck of a lot, I'd defitiely want a pair of mittens that proclaims the fact. Not to mention I think that may be the cutest little sheep ever. These are beautiful mitts! Project page can be found here.
Mods: None, except possibly made it a bit shorter. I didn't measure.
Notes: This was really such a fun knit. Knitting the scarf in the round means it's doubled up and extra cozy, and the colourwork was easy to memorize. Plus, this was pretty much a 1 skein sort of project- it only takes one skein of each colour to make this great little cowl.Watching the little triangles develop was so addictive!
Afterwards I thought how pretty this pattern would be with one skein of a variegated yarn and another solid colour yarn. Next time I'm going to try that, a lot of people who saw me knitting this were interested in having one of their own. We'll see if they are that lucky!
UPDATE: The sweater I'm wearing is indeed from Mango, and the pin is my absolute favourite- I'll get a close up show of it very soon and post a little story about it next week. It has a lot of meaning for me.
I'm off to the cottage for a few days, enjoying the winter. Just what I need after a week-long bout with the flu. Not fun at all. Good thing I had all that hot chocolate to keep me going.
This is the last recipe on the Seven Days of Hot Chocolate! I honestly could have come up with another seven very easily, so I'm thinking I'll do this again next winter. But this season, if you love chai, then this is really, really for you.
Ingredients:
3 cups of milk (26 fl. ounces)
100 g white chocolate
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
Directions:
melt the white chocolate into a saucepan of milk on
medium-low heat. Stir in sugar and vanilla extract. Stir in the spicesand let simmer very gently for a few minutes, stirring constantly.
Then pour into cups and enjoy!
Substitutions:
use vanilla flavoured soy milk instead of regular milk; omit additional vanilla and sugar
you could make do with just the cinnamon and the cardamom, but the nutmeg and allspice really round out the flavour
Bananas AND chocolate? Monkeys everywhere just lost their minds.
Ingredients:
3 cups of milk (26 fl. ounces)
60 g dark chocolate
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 cup sugar
1 banana, ripe
Directions: Blend the banana and half of the milk in a blender, adding the vanilla to the blended mixture. Seperately,melt the dark chocolate into a saucepan of milk on
medium-low heat. Stir in sugar, vanilla extract, and then fold in thed blended banana mixture. Simmer on low heat for a few minutes, stirring constantly.
Then pour into cups and enjoy!
Substitutions:
use vanilla flavoured soy milk instead of regular milk; omit additional vanilla and reduce added sugar
use 1/3 cup cocoa powder instead of dark chocolate. Not as smooth, but still good!
use 1/4 cup of agave nectar if you are avoiding refined sugar
This one is my favourite, but I'm obsessed with chocolate and orange as a flavour combo. If you feel the same way I do, then you'll want to drink this every day.
Ingredients:
3 cups of milk (26 fl. ounces)
60 g dark chocolate
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp grated orange zest
Directions: melt the dark chocolate into a saucepan of milk on
medium-low heat. Stir in sugar, vanilla extract, and then add the orange zest and let simmer on low heat for a few minutes, stirring constantly. Then pour into cups and enjoy!
Notes: I recommend using organic oranges, if you can find them. Otherwise really scrub it down well before zesting to avoid a lot of 'food grade' wax in your hot chocolate.
Substitutions:
use vanilla flavoured soy milk instead of regular milk; omit additional vanilla and reduce added sugar
use 1/3 cup cocoa powder instead of dark chocolate. Not as smooth, but still good!
use 1/3 cup of agave nectar if you are avoiding refined sugar
Have you ever had pink hot chocolate? It's pretty awesome.
Ingredients:
3 cups of milk (26 fl. ounces)
100 g white chocolate
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup strawberry jam
Directions: Blend the jam and half the milk in a blender until smooth. Melt the white chocolate into a saucepan with the remaining milk on
medium-low heat. Stir in vanilla extract and the blended jam/milk. Pour into mugs and enjoy the light pink-y goodness!
Substitutions:
Use an immersion blender and blend the jam into the milk after the white chocolate has been melted in
Use vanilla flavoured soy milk instead of regular milk; omit additional vanilla
2 cups of milk (26 fl. ounces)
60 g dark chocolate
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup raspberry juice (recipe to follow, or see substitutions for using jam)
Raspberry Juice:
if using frozen raspberries (and I recommend, they give up the juice more easily), set raspberries aside in a bowl at room temperature. After a few hours, mash with a fork or blender and strain mash through a sieve. The liquid below the sieve is what we'll use for the recipe. I used my leftover raspberry chunks for a smoothie, if you want to do the same.
If using fresh raspberries, wash well and mash with a fork or blender. strain mash through a sieve. The liquid below the sieve is what we'll use for the recipe.
Directions: Melt the dark chocolate into a saucepan of milk on
medium-low heat. Stir in sugar and vanilla extract. Stir in the raspberry juice; then pour into cups and enjoy!
Substitutions:
try using seedless raspberry jam instead of fresh/frozen raspberries, omit sugar
use vanilla flavoured soy milk instead of regular milk; omit additional vanilla
use 1/3 cup cocoa powder instead of dark chocolate. Not as smooth, but still good!
use 1/3 cup of agave nectar if you are avoiding refined sugar
My charming British husband adores Thornton's chocolates (which you can only get in the UK), particularly the Sicilian Lemon ones. I have to agree, they are pretty awesome- yet you seldom see lemon and chocolate together in anything but a box of chocolates. Well, no more!
Ingredients:
3 cups of milk (26 fl. ounces)
60 g dark chocolate
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp grated lemon zest
Directions: melt the dark chocolate into a saucepan of milk on
medium-low heat. Stir in sugar and vanilla extract. Stir in the lemon zest and let simmer very gently for a few minutes, stirring constantly. Then pour into cups and enjoy!
Notes:
I recommend organic lemons if you are grating zest for anything. Otherwise you're mostly adding a lot of 'food grade' wax to your zest as well. But hey, if organic lemons aren't handy where you are, you certainly will be just fine with normal lemons. Also, whoever is having the mug that was poured last may find a fair bit of zest in the bottom of their mug.
Substitutions:
use vanilla flavoured soy milk instead of regular milk; omit additional vanilla, reduce the added sugar to about 1/4 cup
use 1/3 cup cocoa powder instead of dark chocolate. Not as smooth, but still good!
use 1/3 cup of agave nectar if you are avoiding refined sugar
If you love peanut butter and chocolate, then this is the one for you.
Ingredients:
3 cups of milk (26 fl. ounces)
60 g dark chocolate
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup peanut butter
Directions: melt the dark chocolate into a saucepan of milk on medium-low heat. Stir in sugar and vanilla extract. Stir in the peanut butter really well; then pour into cups and enjoy!
Substitutions:
use vanilla flavoured soy milk instead of regular milk; omit additional vanilla
use 1/3 cup cocoa powder instead of dark chocolate. Not as smooth, but still good!
use 1/3 cup of agave nectar if you are avoiding refined sugar
Notes: it's hard to take pictures of hot chocolate in the evening, which is when I made most of these recipes. I totally need a light box which G built out of a recycled cardboard box and I got whipped cream and hot chocolate all over it. A machine washable lightbox.
EDIT: Some have asked about the mugs. I got them from an etsy seller that doesn't seem to have a shop any more! Her blog can be found here, perhaps you can convo her if you are really interested.
