52 Craft Projects // daybreak shawl

Pattern: Daybreak Shawl by Stephen West
Yarn Used: Drops Alpaca (100% Alpaca) {2 skeins gray, 3 skeins red}
Needles: 4mm circular needles
Modifications: I skipped the first garter ridge on the edge because I wanted a more subtle change from the striped section to the edge. I only did five garter ridges (+ four rows of stockinette since I skipped the first ridge) instead of seven, as suggested by the pattern.

Thoughts:
Yay, there was finally enough light to photograph my daybreak shawl!
I love this shawl! It's big and soft and the colors are awesome. I've only worn it for three days but so far it has served me well (I even used it as a pillow to sleep in between classes - so versatile!). Knitting it was quite boring - I'm usually not a fan of stockinette-only shawls because they always take forever to knit, but I've had my eyes on this design for years.
I'm so happy with the colors! This is my first red shawl (it was about time... a blue one is next!) and I love stripes but I don't own many striped clothes, so adding striped accessories to my closet is perfect :)

Lina seems to like the shawl too, because she sleeps on it whenever I take it off. I guess she figured out that alpaca is super soft and comfy to sleep on - she's such a spoiled cat.

More information on my ravelry project page.

This is project #1 of 52 craft projects I'm attempting to complete in 2013.
You can see all the other projects I've complete so far here.

Anticipation

I'm not a very patient person. Whenever I start a project, I wanna finish it within a reasonable time frame. That's also the reason why I don't knit many 'big' projects like sweaters, blankets, etc. If I can't finish a project rather quickly, I put it in a corner and usually forget about it, until I find it months later and decide to frog it. But what's even worse than those month-long projects is blocking!

Just imagine you finally finished a project after days of intensive knitting and then you're supposed to wait a day or two while the thing is on the blocking mat? And you don't even get to take pictures because a) it's huuuge and you live in a small apartment and you have a prime lens, thus it's literally impossible to take a picture and b) as soon as you give it any kind of attention (e.g. marvel at how great it turned out, try to block it more symmetrically, ...) the cat follows you and gives your project some attention as well (as in sleep on it, chew on the pins, walk across it several times, ...).

I'm in that unbearable situation of anticipation right now. I hooope to share my new shawl with you tomorrow (if it's dry by then and I manage to take some decent pictures tomorrow). In the meantime, I have started a new 'in class project': a new pair of warm and soft and bright mittens! We've had some snow in the past days and it's freezing cold outside. YAY. I love winter! I love winter even more when my hands stay toasty warm when I ride my bike to campus early in the morning.
I almost finished the first mitten in class today, so I'm confident that I can share them on here by the end of the week. So until I have something crafty to share, some pictures of my latest yarn purchase (malabrigo knits up like a dream! It's likely to become my favorite yarn company), my lazy kitty and a homemade chai tea latte.

Happy Monday!

Baking Days // Rocher-chocolate muffins

It's the beginning of January and most people still try to keep up with their resolutions on eating helathier etc. Well, I have to admit that I have no such resolutions, thus I don't feel bad for making delicious Rocher-chocolate muffins and sharing them with my friends in class (while several people watch us enviously...). On Tuesdays, I only have classes until 3pm and we have our weekly stitch n' bitch so it's the perfect baking day.

This week, I was convinced I'd make a blueberry cake until I saw that Ferrero Rocher were on sale.  Buttermilk was sold out so I had to kind of improvise on these but they turned out really good anyway, so I'm sharing my recipe with you:

Ingredients for 16 muffins:

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup yoghurt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup oil (I used sunflower oil)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 3 tsp baking powder
• if necessary, some milk
• 16 Ferrero Rocher

Preheat oven to 300°F (150°C).
Add all the ingredients (except the Rocher) and mix until you have a creamy batter. Depending on the type of flour and the amount of cocoa powder I use, I sometimes add a little milk to get a creamy batter.

Pour the batter into the muffin pan (I like to use silicon liners because they don't need extra grease and they're reusable). I usually do this by filling each cup with ~2 tbsp in each cup. Don't fill the cups to the top because we still have to add the Rocher!
Next, put one Rocher into each cup and gently push it inside the batter until only the top half is visible.

Bake for 20 minutes(I use a convection oven. you might have to adjust the baking time if you're using a conventional oven) or until your muffins pass the toothpick test. Enjoy!

around here

I love starting the year with a new planner. I've had the moleskine daily pocket planner for the past four years and I'm super happy with it. I love having an entire page per day, it's small enough to always stay in my purse and the quality is awesome. I got the Le Petit Prince limited edition this year.

I'm getting back into work mode. Of course Lina is trying actively to prevent me from getting any work done by either laying on my laptop or my notepad. Sigh... At least she doesn't like my new yogi tea chai classic. It takes about 20 minutes to prepare but it's really worth it.

My friend B. gave the the cutest hello kitty kleenex box ever. For now it's in the bathroom as a sort of decoration because the tissues are too cute to use. My roomie Felix didn't complain about them (yet...?) so they're staying there for now.

Other than that, I've gone back to eating (somewhat) healthier after weeks of regular baking and eating waaay too much. I ordered some yarn on Christmas Eve and it finally got here. It's GORGEOUS! Two skeins of malabrigo chunky and one skein worsted merino. Now I just have to decide on what I wanna knit next...

My homespun yarn is far from perfect but I'm getting to the point where the yarn starts to become usable. I'll dye it and probably ply it with a thin industrial yarn to give it more strength.

I won't be able to post much in the following weeks because I have my finals in February so I better start studying. I need a certain amount of adrenaline before I have enough motivation to start studying productively. I guess four exams, one 15-page paper and a full schedule that doesn't leave much time/energy to study after class is enough pressure to make me panic even though my first exam is in four weeks...

spinning // first attempts

Remember how I told you I bought a spinning wheel in December? Well, I was busy in December with the holidays and finishing my 52 Knits project but today I finally got a chance to start spinning. I'm sooo excited about the endless possibilities spinning has to offer. Just think about a soft cardigan made out of homespun (and handdyed?) yarn...

My mom got me a combed mountain sheep top (it's white... for now. Expect some dying experiments in the near future!) that's super soft and fluffy yet is a rather long fiber - perfect for beginners! :)

My mom showed me some basics but I'm mainly referring to youtube and the book "start spinning" by Maggie Casey (thanks for the recommendation, Julie) to learn. It's been fun so far although my yarn is far from usable - but at least I passed the phase where the yarn breaks every 20 seconds. I'm still working on my tension and the thickness of the yarn. But hey, I have like 800 more grams of fiber to practice :)

ps: I got the green rug from ikea today. My spinning wheel always moved on the hardwood floor so I bought a bath mat to stop it from moving. It's wonderful soft and fluffy and although it's pretty cold in my bedroom I've been spinning with bare feet for the last two hours. Plus it's great for taking pictures of   white fibers!

On Project Life 2012

Remember how I once mentioned Project Life? Well, 2012 is over and I hardly ever posted about it on the blog. My excuse for not sharing it here is that I posted about 80% of the pictures that made it into my album on here anyway. But since it's a new year it's time to get rid off some bad habits, right?
This year I'm gonna try to share some of my PL spreads here. Maybe like once a month?

If you're not familiar with Project Life, check out this homepage. There are tons of pricy products you can buy but all you really need is a couple of transparencies, a D-ring binder and some pictures + a variety of patterned papers. I only purchased some Design A transparencies, 3x4 journalling cards and a cheap American Crafts album that I got at Michaels on sale.

What I love most about PL is that it encourages you to scrapbook regularly. Ideally every week but I only had my pictures printed every other week. I feel like I took at least twice as many pictures as I did before I started PL. It's a neat way to document the everyday life :)

Here are some spreads from 2012. I can't wait for my supplies to arrive(I ordered more transparencies and the seafoam kit. Excited!!) to really get started on 2013!

52 Craft Projects

I'm happy to announce that this year I set myself the goal to accomplish 52 craft projects. I loved the 52 Knits project from last year but I feel bad because I've neglected my sewing machine. Also, I'm taking up a new hobby: spinning! So expect some spinning and yarn dying adventures on the blog this year.

I've been thinking about 'rules' that I should stick to but for now I'm just hoping to create 52 things this year. I still need a bunch of home decor stuff for my apartment and I've been wanting to sew a dress for years. So I'm (hopefully) gonna tackle that this year. And have I mentioned that I have a cute jelly roll that I've been wanting to use for a quilt?

Of course I'll still knit a bunch this year (I already started my first project of the year... a daybreak shawl!). But having a broader goal gives me sooo many possibilities. I'm excited!

So hello 2013, let's hope for a fun and productive year. Let's roll!