Baking

Where have I been?

Well. I had another baby on new years eve so I've been very busy before and after with preparing the way and dealing with being pregnant and havng a toddler which is a harder slog than people let on :)

But I'm back and int he time I've been away I've been doing a lot of baking projects so I'll get through all of those soon enough!

Sourdough

So my husband recently became interested in making sourdough so we started a sourdough 'starter'.

Basically Eric, as it's been named, is one tablespoon of plain flour and one tablespoon of water left out in the room temperature air (with his lid on but not screwed on). We feed it once every 8 hours-ish (another tablespoon of flour and water and mix) for the first week.

We've had Eric for almost a week now and so we went to make our first loaf.

So we tipped him in and added another cup of water and a cup of flour, then we mixed him up and left him to sit in a slightly warm environment for a good few hours so that the live cultures of the yeast and the lactobacillus (the bacteria that gives the sour taste) can proliferate.

After that you put a decent chunk back into the jar to live for another loaf and add more flour tot he rest to turn it into a bread dough. At this point i guess you could add flavours and special ingredients but since this one was just a practice run for us we left it completely plain.

Again you leave the dough ball to double in size in a warm environment before shaping it into a loaf and baking it.

Now, our Eric-loaf didn't exactly grow in size during the dough stage. I reckon this is because we didn't wait the full week and the two cultures are still young and learning to live together. However the loaf had a good flavour even though it was rather dense and heavey. Also we made some in a silicone loaf mould to try that out and it didn't quite cook through properly however the one we made on the normal baking tray came out perfectly cooked through.

so Eric's back in his jamjar bubbling away until the next loaf. After a week old we only need to feed him once a week i believe but as the husband did all the research and knows the details (and is the one feeding it) i couldn't say for sure.

So anyways!

Apart from that getting on with completing some flowerpot amigurumi for myself. I tell ya, it's rather tough to crochet 7st circles with a tiny gauge, I feel like I should have a magnifying glass or a pointier headed hook to get right in there. Despite that it's going decently quick.

One flower down and 2 to go.

A long Hiatus

So it's been a while since an update. Not entirely wasted time either, I got a part time job in the past month cleaning at a local school, it's been my little boy's 1 year old birthday and, worst of all, we unpacked our XBox 360 from our shipment from Aussie.

So there you go, I have been away chasing around my little boy and playing xbox.. but most importantly I've been working on the spiral baby blanket too.

My first one failed, it was a wonderful mossy green colour but I had forgotten that the US and the UK had different stitches under the same name. So I was using a UK stitch pattern with the US| stitches. It came out oddly dome shaped however it's now a little shopping bag for messages that sits at the door :)

So attempt number two, I used a lovely cream aran wool i had laying around from my mum's jumper knitting. I frogged out the little granny square my mum showed me how to start and started the spiral again.. with the correct stitch this time.

After a while I admit i was getting a bit impatient for the spiral to be big enough. probably after all that time on the first spiral didn't help. So I made it a good size and then switched to a baby blue colour to try to make it into a rectangle. It turned out really well considering I'd never done anything like it. sure one end is thinner than the other and there's a couple mistakes and it's certainly not got any proper counting in it once I went to blue. However! It's home made, hand made and I'm rather proud of the blanket. Hopefully my sister-in-law will like it and it'll get loved.

Will post a picture shortly. Just need to write some washing instructions for it :)

Spiralling

Well I started my Baby Blanket before I did my stitch markers and had a bit of a stall reading the pattern. However due to the wonderful deciphering by my knitting mother I finally got past the initial part (which looks a bit off but i forgive myself this time, it's just a tiny bit in the middle that should straighten out with an ironing.

Since then I've been round and round the pattern with very little hassle - it's an extremely simple one when you get going as long as you remember not to be over zealous on the Double crochet stitches hehe.. I had to frog a round already because I noticed I was missing one of the chain parts. I think that, though, is a credit to how easy the pattern is to get into ^_-

My bubs isn't too impressed though that I've been doing it when he's fallen asleep on me (all I need is a free right hand huzzah!) and he gets jiggled occasionally as I try to unravel more of the skein. Poor guy.

Anyhoo, i've done a good 8 rounds by now and although it seems a bit dome shaped now I'm assured that it's nothing a steam iron can't fix in this thing called 'blocking'. I'm pretty sure I can make a really funky hat from it as it is next time. I'm going to keep that in mind.

Told the sister in law I'm making a blanket so now I'm totally committed to the project and can't shirk out of it haha, not that I thought I might.

Now to develop my ability to watch House and crochet at the same time...

Stichmarkers - The craftening

So today I went to the local haberdashery store and bought myself a little bag of beads, some necklace clasps and some.. whatever-they-ares.

There's needlenose pliars somewhere but not to hand at the time :) so I used ordinary ones.

So first off I found 4 beads i liked that fit on straight (there were a bunch of wonky ones) and threaded them onto one of my wires.After adding the necklace clasp half way down the remaining space I twisted the wire around itself to complete my stitch marker.

And Here it is in action! I'm pretty pleased with it to be honest!

Stitchmarkers

So I've been looking into 'stuff what i will have to get' if I plan on doing more complicated things like joining new colours into stuff later on etc.

First thing I'll be wanting is a finer hook for the finer Appliqués I'll plan on doing. Also I know my mum has a circular knitting needle thingy that I might steal, i'm pretty certain I heard her say she never uses it, if I liberate it at least she can have it back if she ever changed her mind :D

Second thing are Stitch Markers, there's many pretty ones on Etsy.com but a friend has pointed me to This Post which details how to make my own! I think I might have a go at this before i break down and cry and decide just to order some from someone who knows what they're doing ^_-

Wish me Luck!

A New Hope

Well here we are!

Hi, I'm Quilla and I'm a newbie to crochet but man I'm hooked already (pun not intended).

I started with a granny square, which was rubbish, then moved on to a hat... sort of. I got bored with it and then used it to practice a round of the Double Crochet stitch. Right now that piece is in the fruit bowl acting as a tangerine bag thingy... that's right - my hat turned into a bag somehow.

But then i found This Pattern for little butterflies and knocked up from a lilac body with red wings and you know what? It's dead cute!

So next up I want to practice more insects and flowers for my big project in the new year.

Wish me luck!