Dinner Party Food and Knit Knit Knitting

Howdy Y'all!!

It's Wednesay, Another 3 days until the weekend! So what did you get up to on the weekend just gone by?

I hosted a dinner party for some friends! You can see the menu below! I displayed it on the TV through the PS3 media server! My guests were very impressed and said it was better than anything they have seen on Come Dine With Me! =D I will post a link at some stage for my recipes..I need to type them up..I made them up as I went along so I just have scribbles on a sheet of paper at the moment. unfortunately I didn't cook the orange and almond cake =( so I can't give you that one. When I eventually add the recipes...If anyone tries them out let me know how you get on! They are scrumptious if the chef may say so herself! And I hope you guys will enjoy them just as much

For those of you not up to date on Irish slang, Cuppa Tay refers to: a cup of tea

As well as hosting a dinner party, I took a break from my knitting sabbatical! YAY! I was exhausted on Sunday after all my weekly housework, cooking and hosting so decided to have a pyjama day! An actual pyjama day..I never ever ever do that! I actually sat around all day in my pyjamas, dressing gown and slippers! It was brilliant! I read over half the book I am reading at the moment - pieces of my heart by Sinead Moriarty - Although I mentioned in my last post that I was not really getting into it..I have since gotten very into it and find it much much better than the previous books of hers I mentioned. I can't leave it down!

After my morning of drinking copious cups of tea and reading..I took out Young Sweetie and set to work! I knitted, knitted, knitted and sewed, sewed, sewed (as much as I detest sewing).

I sewed on young sweeties hat band and neck band. And I knitted the little pink sweets for her shoes, stuffed them, sewed them up and sewed them to her shoes! See all the pictures below! They were knitted in three parts and then brought together top form the final pieces. A white horizontal stitch was sewn on each stitch to make them appear to have a shiny wrapper!

Before I sewed everything, hatband, neckband, sweets. check out Fred yawning!!

All sewn on

The sweets up close

Young Sweetie..My other half and Fred! So cute!

Next I knitted the skirt of her dress, the pockets, the bib and the straps. The picot edge of the skirt was made by knitting a row as follows: Knit 2 stitches together, wrap yarn around the needle, and repeat to the end. On the following row, purl into the yarn around the needle stitch from the previous row..so you always have the same number of stitches. It is the same as making a button hole. You end up with a row of holes and when folded along this row..it forms the picot edge. The skirt took the longest to knit as there was 160 stitches an the needle! It was very repetitive but I kept going! All the. pieces were then sewn together and placed on Young Sweetie

All the pieces before they were sewn together

Young Sweetie so far!

 When the skirt was finished I found it a little too big when placed around young sweeties body! I was a little disappointed at first but I think I am just being a perfectionist as nobody else notices or thinks that it is too big! I am thinking it may be dues to using so many different brands of double knitting wool. I am just using scraps of wool I have left over from other projects (hence why my young sweetie is not the exact same colour as Jean Greenhowe's Young Sweetie in the pattern book). I am really happy with how she is turning out so far and I am really spurred on to keep going with my knitting to finish her! I am so excited to see the overall finished product at the end and for her to fulfill her very special job!


I have decided I should change the description of this blog to: a knitting, crafting, cooking and baking blog, as I seem to do a lot of the latter two as well as knitting and crafting! =D What do ye guys think?

Until Again!

Happy Knitting and Crafting


Helena =D

A knitting sabbatical!

Dia Dhuit!  How are you today?

As the title of this blog suggests..I have taken a knitting sabbatical. I would like to say it is by choice BUT it's not. I have not been very successful in reorganizing my schedule. I am finding housework and social commitments to be consuming my life and leaving me so utterly exhausted that I am unable to concentrate on anything knitting related! So instead I have been concentrating on a few other things in my spare time, such as, aiming to spend more quality time with my hubby to be and our little doggie Fred. So far it has been going well.

The weekend before last I finally roped him into doing wedding stuff. It was a notable achievement on my behalf. We sussed out places to get the wedding flowers, what suit he and the groomsmen would wear and where to rent them from and... THE REAL REASON he was happy to take the day off work to do wedding stuff... We booked the honeymoon! We are really looking forward to it! So you want to know where we are off to don't you?!

We are jetting off to Florida where we will stay in Orlando for 5nights. On the 6th day we will board Royal Carribean's Freedom of the Seas cruise ship for a 14 night cruise of the Caribbean where the first port of call is Haiti, then on to Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Mexico,the Bahamas, St.Maarten and St.Thomas. We are very excited!

We were on a roll with spending time together after our day of wedding prep. So the following day we had a walk/picnic date (We brought Fred along too). We drove to be Spiddal in Co.Galway and went for a nice long walk hand in hand along the beach before stopping off at a picnic bench with our packed lunch. It was such a lovely day. I think Fred enjoyed it too. He got treated to doggie wet food instead of his normal dry food!

Here he is at the picnic bench waiting eagerly for his food!

Although it was a very enjoyable day, I did miss getting a little knitting done and even contemplated that on our next car journey I will bring my knitting along! It may spoil the romance... but... he needs to know what he is getting into in advance! Right?! Heehee =D

Last weekend was a normal weekend again. Gar was working on Saturday so I went back to my Saturday routine of washing and ironing..only there was two weeks load as we were not at home the week before to get it done. When Gar came home we decided to go baking as 'Our something to do together'. There was another reason behind this as well. It was Mother's day here in Ireland on Sunday. Gar baked his mammy some chocolate castles (madeira bun covered in chocolate - as an extra special treat he made marbled madeira). and I made my mammy some Brandy and Baileys truffles. 

My handmade brandy and baileys truffles

Gareth's Marble Cupcakes

Gareth's marble cupcakes covered in chocolate and sprinkles

As well as visiting our mammy's on Mothers Day and giving them their gifts we had a cinema date. The Eye Cinema in Galway had a 'treat of the week'. Last weekend it was The Lincoln Lawyer playing.

I really quite enjoyed this movie. Although I didn't see him conduct much business from his Lincoln so I didn't really get that part. I understand that in the book it makes more sense. Maybe if I had read the book first. I usually like to read the book and then watch the movie but when we decided to go to see the movie I did not realise it was based on a novel. I wonder would it be silly now to read the book seeing as I know what happens in the end?!

And speaking of movies based on novels..I recently read Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol and am eagerly awaiting the movie..which unfortunately is not even in production yet..BUT it is scheduled for release in 2012! It will be a definite on my list of movies to see next year!                                                                                                                                  

I am an avid reader and am happy to announce that although I had to take a small knitting sabbatical due to exhaustion..I did not have to give up on reading. I use my time travelling to and from Galway on the train to catch up with a book! 

As well as reading The Lost Symbol this year, I have also read Kathryn Stockett's The Help, another book which has been made into a movie..it is due for release in August 2011. This is another definite when it arrives in the cinema. The book was probably one of my favorite reads this year so far. I really enjoyed it and wanted it to go on forever! And just in case ye all start to think that I only read books that are subsequently made into movies..this is not the case.I pretty much read anything. Two of my favorite authors are Sophie Kinsella (author of the shopaholic series..actually these were made into a movie haha) and Kathy Reichs (oh wait...isn't there a TV show which I adore based on her books..haha).  

For Christmas I got a gift of a book by an Irish author, Sinead Moriarty called Pieces of my heart. It is her most recent book so I decided I would like to read a trilogy she had released previous to this which I had been meaning to read for quite a while. I picked all three up (second hand and therefore not an extortionate price) in Charlie Byrne's in Galway city.

Book 1

Book 3

Book 2

I found the storyline to these books to be interesting..woman in mid thirties tries to have baby and can't (book 1) so goes down the route of adoption (Book 2) and after a successful adoption finds out that she has gotten pregnant after all (Book 3). These books were funny. My only issue with them was at times I found my mind wandering. They just didn't keep my attention. I also found the English grammar to be a bit basic. In general I think maybe I found them to be too light a read. I am a fan of chick lit although I don't like to admit it as such. I like to relax with an easy read after a long days work..something that does not tax my brain too much. These books were exactly that but perhaps a little too chick lit for my taste! 

This week I have started the book I received as a Christmas gift 'Pieces of my heart'

What I am reading now

So far the storyline is good and it holds my attention..but again..I find the way it is written to be very basic. I feel  I am not learning anything from it! But perhaps that is what happens when you read two taxing books prior to some girly trash...you see it for what it really is..a light easy breezy read!

Well that's it from me for now! Hoping to start back knitting again this week and have a young sweetie update for you all by the end of the weekend!

Happy Knitting and Crafting

Helena =D


P.S. If anyone knows why my font changes and why I can't subsequently fix it (although the font is the same when I write the blog...it is only when I publish the post that the font varies throughout) please let me know!!