Sale

I don't usually knit for others, I know, I am selfish. I feel very protective of everything I knit. Even when my kids were little, I would follow them around when they were wearing one of the sweaters that  I knit for them, worried that they would get ketchup, or a similar staining agent on it. I have found now that they are not really interested in hand knit items, and are rarely ever warm enough to want to wear one anyway. So when my husband asked me to make a baby sweater for a work colleague, I had to think for a moment.  My husband doesn't ask for much from me in the way of knitting, so I thought, what the heck. I had seen this in VK last year, and thought it looked interesting. I had always wanted to do the Baby Surprise Jacket, but this seemed nicer.

Its the Baby Suplice jacket by Elizabeth Zimmerman, knit in Socks that Rock, Monsoon. A nice, enjoyable quick knit. I wasn't sure how it worked until right up until the end, but I just trusted in the pattern, and it worked!

On another note, Stash is turning 2 years old next week! I can't believe how time flies. Anyway, we will be doing our usual anniversary sale. We have lots of stuff, so hopefully you can come and check it out! See you there.

Big News

Something new is on the horizon for Stash. We are going internet. I know that its something that we weren't interested in at the beginning, but we have had so many requests, that it had to be done. I have been spending much of my free time photographing yarn, and making sure that it looks as close on screen to the originals. I have had a little bit of help as well..




I know this is not something to complain about, but my house is full of yarn!!








It is hard to resist at times. I was working on the Koigu today, and every skein I picked up, it was as if I had never seen it before. I kept thinking, "this is so beautiful, what can I make with it?". I have to resist temptation at the moment, and get the site up and running.

Even Fluffy is excited!






I'll keep you posted.

Bagels

I love to cook. Not sure if I mentioned this before or not. I also love gadgets. Put those two together, and I love kitchen gadgets as well! I always wanted a bread maker, and got my first one 5 years ago with points earned in Sainsburys Nectar scheme. It was great, and my machine had a great life, but it had to go to the great garbage dump in the sky last week as it stopped working. We had some good times together, and my younger daughter will only eat bread that I make in the bread machine. I have now upgraded to a lovely Panasonic bread machine, which my husband has even learned to love, making pizza dough by the ton the past couple of weeks. Being a New Yorker at heart (I grew up in Connecticut, parents from Da Bronx), I have been homesick for bagels for the past 6 years. I only get good ones when I go back over the summer, and despite what they say here, the Brick Lane Bagel bake is not good at all. They don't even know how to spell bagel, I think they say something like baegel or something. Anyway, I looked for some recipes online, and made these yesterday...







Ta Dah!! They taste mostly like the real thing. Could be a little chewier, but way better than anything I have had this side of the pond. H&H bagels, they are not, but a good substitute. I got the recipe here. The only change I made was to half the sugar, and add 1 tablespoon malt syrup instead. You can get it in the healthfood shop.

On to knitting. I have put aside some other projects, and started the Aleita Shell. Thought it would be nice with the warmer weather coming (hopefully!). The Blue Sky Alpacas Skinny cotton is lovely, and great stitch definition as well.









Also working on the Leafling socks from the Rockin Sock Club






At the shop we got some great new yarns in this week. First of all Shibuiknits sock yarn. Yummy! I bought a couple of skeins a while back to test, and beside the fact that it is super soft, the colors are juicy to say the least.

We had another surprise when we got a big ole box of Koigu!!! As usual, the colors are great, but the big excitement is that we got some of their newest yarn, Mori. It is a mix of Mulberry silk and Merino. The skeins are the same size, and as you would expect with silk, it has a lovely sheen that only silk can provide.

Come in and check it out!