World's Best Cookies and a New Knitting Addiction

I made the best cookies last week! The recipe was from 100 Best Cookies magazine that was available for free through Zinio and my local library. The cookies are made up of: (the regular stuff: flour and sugar etc), chocolate, pistachios, dried cranberries and topped off with white chocolate. The original recipe called for dried cherries but I've never been too fond of those so I changed it to cranberries. They really were the best ever, and I am kind of sad we have already eaten them all...

My new knitting addiction, which hasn't quite grown to that proportion yet, but I think it's funny to call it that anyways: washcloths! I never thought I'd knit washcloths but then yesterday I thought why not and took out some leftover yarns and searched Ravelry for fun and free patterns. I found so many great patterns and have now knit two, both by Elaine Fitzpatrick. I'm pretty happy with these cute washcloths and I am quite sure they will not be last I knit. There is something immensely satisfying in starting a project and finishing it during the same hour.

Turtle Love Cloth

Oh, Nuts! Cloth

It's been so hot here for a few days, nothing like Finland normally. It's awful when your hands get all sweaty when you are trying to knit! But I have managed quite well, right now I am knitting Beverly Tee by Jean Chung from Knitscene Summer 2013. It's a lovely peplum sleeveless top. Speaking of Knitscene I can't wait for the Autumn issue! When it comes to knitting magazines, Autumn is almost always the best, don't you agree? Other publications I really look forward to are the Unofficial Harry Potter knits (coming out at the end of July) and Jane Austen Knits 2013 (coming out in October). And the Autumn issue of Novita (Finnish) also looks pretty good. But it's not like I don't have stuff to knit before those all are published. Chinami Horiba has so many great free crochet designs which I just love. Then there is another top from Knitscene Summer 2013 I want to knit, the Sundial Tee by Jennifer Dassau. And another knit from Jean Chung, Lost Garden Tee from Knitscene Spring 2013. Of course there are some socks to knits for KALs, especially Milfoil and Paignton by Rachel Coopey. And hats, there are so many hats I want to knit. In this weather! Oh well, it will get cold soon enough...

My final words: everyone should watch The Rocky Horror Picture Show!

More New Socks

Ok, so today I finished Willowherb and Saltburn, both by Rachel Coopey. Willowherbs are going to my boyfriend's sister, she saw me knitting them and I offered them to her as I really have so many pairs already. Now seeing them finished I really love the pattern much more than I thought I would so I kind of want to keep them for myself! But I can always knit a new pair, right? Saltburns are for me, and really needed to be photographed by the sea so that's where I went.

Willowherb in Novita Pikkusisko 049

Saltburn in Hjertegarn sock wool 6999 and Knitlob's Lair Väinämöinen in Muste

Now I can't decide whether to start knitting some lovely summer tops I have lined up or start a new pair of socks, that is Sleeping Beauty, also by Rachel Coopey. Decisions, decisions...

New Socks

My summer vacation has officially started and will last a little longer than really necessary as I didn't get a summer job. Oh well, one just has to make most out of what we get, right? I don't really hate being on holiday either, you know. I have recently finished two pairs and have two more on the needles. Here are the finished socks, Jane Bennet socks by Rachel Coopey and Monkey by Cookie A. Jane Bennets are for June SKA sockdown, Monkeys for May.

Jane Bennet socks knit in Novita Pikkusisko 664

Monkey knit in Hjertegarn sock wool 1415

I am currently (still) working on Saltburn which is almost done and Willowherb which I just started a few days ago. Both patterns are from Rachel Coopey's new book. I am giving Willowherb to my boyfriend's sister. I really love the pattern but even when knitting the smaller size, the socks are a bit too big. Maybe an even thinner yarn next time, if I feel like I must have them for myself. Although I really have so many socks that that day may never come...

My Awesome Dyeing Day

I spend another day dyeing yarn as I scored some really cheap white sock yarn at a local yarn store. This time, I wanted to try my hand at natural colors, namely onion skins! I got them for free from my grocery store (score!) so this is the cheapest dye I've ever done. I had about 85 g of onion skins and I dyed 300 g of yarn. (But they are not all the same color!) Now, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Here is what it looked like in the beginning. Below is my 6 liter kettle with all the onion skins in.

I poured four and half liters water on top:

And then boiled for 45 minutes. Looks pretty different!

After taking out all the onion skins, this is what I was left with. Notice how you cannot see the white ladle at all, it fully disappears in the dye. And that's not just the picture, it really was like that!

Ok, now while I left the dye cool down a bit (my yarn was superwash but still, I didn't want to take any chances) I had soaked my yarn in vinegar water. I also added vinegar and salt to the dye, to get a nice even color and to make the dye sink in better. Then I put my 100 g of yarn in, heated and let it simmer for about an hour.

At the half hour mark I actually put another 100 g of yarn in. When I took the first patch in, I let the other one stay and after half an hour, put yet another 100 g in. But this last patch was not white, it was yellow from my previous dye with yellow food coloring (it's in this post). In the long run the light yellow just wasn't to my liking so I decided to try to dye it again.

Well, after that I hung the yarn to dry (yes, I'm keeping you in suspense little longer). The already yellow yarn became actually the exact color of the second white patch. I liked that color very much, but I didn't want to have 200 g of the same color, as I don't want to knit more than one pair of socks from the same color. So, it had to go back in the dye pot and this time I used blue food coloring. But alas, of course I put in two much and the yarn had a very artificial, yucky look to it. I didn't have any other color laying around anymore so I turned to my spice cabinet and put in turmeric! And the result, well, it's just beautiful! Below you can see all the lovely yarn that I am so happy with.

First patch onion skin dying - Spiced Pumpkin Pie

Second patch onion skin dyeing - Sunflowers

Yellow food coloring, onion skins, blue food coloring, turmeric dyeing - Green! Green!

The first patch, that lovely orange-brown really was a bitch bleeding but after letting it soak in vinegar for a whole night and then bringing it to simmer and letting cool I was finally able to get it dry. But I was going crazy with it, that's the truth. Luckily, the color is definitely worth it, at least now that all that pain is behind. The others weren't bad bleeders at all. Onion skin dyeing was fun and cheap, although I did use quite a bit of vinegar! Try it! Here is finally a group photo: