Swatches, Gifts and Muesli

It's been a week of variety, of experiments, of dashing from one idea to the next, finishing none. But that's ok because progress has been made and I'm happy with the things I've dabbled in. Allow me to elaborate...


I finally plucked up the courage to knit a swatch using the first skein of yarn that I spun from fleece. It's a bit fuzzy but looks ok I think. I've taken the bull by the horns and decided to try and knit Steve a spiffy jumper that has cable panels down the front and the rest of the jumper is seed stitch or stockingette. It's going to take me a while. I have read Elizabeth Zimmerman's wise words about you MUST MUST MUST do a gauge swatch, and I figured that
a) I am a loose knitter
b) I am using a totally different yarn to the pattern
c) my spun yarn has glaring inconstencies regarding thickness and
d) I have no idea what I am doing
that I best heed EZ's wise words and get my gauge right! Do you think that will give me a fighting chance? :-)



My mum and dad have just returned from a holiday to the Barossa Valley and look what mum bought me for a giftie. It's a pack of yummy wine related fabric, isn't she a sweetie. She may find herself getting a quilted wine cooler for Xmas, who knows! And how do you like my thrifted crocheted doily, I think it's very pretty. Edit: And to the eagle eyed Knittingand who thought this actually looks like a knitted doily with a crocheted edge - on closer inspection, yes you are right! Thanks Knittingand!


Now THIS is what I made this morning. It's home made toasted muesli ala Shula who adapted her recipe from here. Holy toasted coconut Batman, it's deeeeelicious! I followed Shula's recipe fairly closely, but I also added chopped walnuts and pepitos. I love toasted pepitos, they swell up and go very crunchy. I was a bit weirded out by the idea of adding cardamom though and chickened out! And when it came to added the dried fruit, I used the standard sultanas and currants, along with dried cranberries which I love, but also the piece de resistance - dried strawberries! I'd never seen them before and spotted them at the supermarket quite by chance - they are very good! The other delight was that I splurged on was a little bottle of REAL maple syrup. God it's expensive which is why we've only ever had crappy fake stuff before now. We all lined up with a teaspoon and had a sampling - YUMMY YUMMY YUMMY - I think I want to live in Canada. Anyway, we now have a big container full of yummy, crunchy muesli - thanks for posting the recipe Shula! :-)