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week 22:  project updates and plans for the weekend

Hi! Season 3 of Ted Lasso ended this week and I’m still dreaming of those biscuits. I saw that @sweetish.co was making them – pink boxes and all! I’d love to try them. I thought this season was a little all over the place, but I couldn’t help watching every episode.

photo credit and recipe via food52/AppleTV

What did you think of the show? (That Cat Stevens song always makes me cry.)

knitting

My APRIL BLOUSE is slowly coming along after a few setbacks, but I rediscovered lifelines and now I’m ready for any mistake.

(By the way, I’m adding project notes to my Ravelry notebook in case you are interested.)

If you don’t know what a lifeline is in knitting, it’s a way to hold one row of stitches with a piece of yarn or thread. This allows you to unravel your work safely to that point if you make a mistake, and not have to start over.

All I can tell you is that when you have 276 stitches on your needles, lifelines aren’t optional!

This video shows how to add lifelines to your knitting


a small project

To take a break from the blouse I started another project which is knit almost 100% in stockinette, super easy, a small shirt for my newest baby friend – I hope it fits her!

I finally met my niece in person last weekend at a family gathering and she and I got along great. She smiled at me and didn’t cry when her mother asked if I wanted to hold her. (You never want to be that person that makes the babies cry!) 

She is my great-niece — and I have a great-nephew, too. 

It’s a bit weird to go from being a regular aunt to being a great aunt so early in life, but I’m okay with it; I’m cool with being a great aunt – just not a grandma, please! I’m still recuperating from being called ma’am! 

rhubarb

In food news, I made a cake last Sunday – an improvised Swedish rabarberkaka. Basically, I made fyriskaka, another Swedish cake I love, which is typically made with apples, and swapped rhubarb slices (that I dusted with sugar and cinnamon) for the apples. I followed the fyriskaka recipe in one of my old Swedish cookbooks called Hemmets Kokbok


I had bought a few stalks of rhubarb because I was dying to make this crisp recipe, but I was missing some ingredients and decided to make the cake instead. 

photo credit: nytimes cooking

Doesn’t it look amazing? The recipe is by Mark Bittman and I need to make it before rhubarb season ends, which is soon! 


I think making the cake was probably a good idea because I got Patrick to see how tasty rhubarb can be. (Don’t tell him, but I saw him taking extra bits of the cake when he thought I wasn’t looking.) Now I can safely make the crisp knowing at least he will help me eat it. 

The kids didn’t touch the cake. I asked Nick if he was scared of rhubarb. He’s always been wary of “new” foods. (It took me 10 years to convince him that grilled cheese sandwiches were amazing. Of course, now he can’t stop eating them.) And, well, Sarah apparently doesn’t like rhubarb or cake these days.

So my plans for the weekend are making the crisp and serving it with ice cream or perhaps a little vaniljsås (as recommended by my Swedish sister); continuing to work on my knitting projects; swimming some laps at the pool, and maybe watching the new Spiderman movie, which has very good reviews! (95% on Rotten Tomatoes)

cute movie

That reminds me… I never told you about this other movie:

“Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.” 

Have you seen it? Sarah and I went to see it together and we loved it. This is definitely a movie for girls. We laughed a lot. You should see it with your girlfriends, sisters, daughters, and mothers. It is funny! 

camp along pattern

Lastly, remember how I was saying that the cute fish cutlery pouches from my last cool stitches post could be great on your next camping trip? Look what showed up in my IG feed this morning. I can’t help imagining myself wrapped in this blanket roasting marshmallows by the fire. Maybe someday I’ll make more blankets.

photo © Margaret Holzmann

If you are a blanket maker, you can find the project details here.

Let me know what you’ll be up to this weekend!

-G.

introducing “cool stitches” + super cute embroidered cutlery pouches

Hello lovely friends! Today, I’m excited to introduce “cool stitches” posts on the blog. These will be posts focusing on cool knitters, crocheters, embroiderers, weavers, textile arts people, clothing – you know, stuff made – or to be made – with needles, yarn or thread.

The goal is to highlight and share the work of other makers that inspire me, or that simply brighten up my days, while bringing you a little joy and inspiration weekly.

cool stitches posts might highlight new knitting patterns or give you a peek into a maker’s studio. cool stitches may also include links to ready-made clothes and textiles that I’d love to have in my closet or my home (and when possible, ideas of how to make something similar, if you are 100% into slow-fashion).

So enough explaining, here’s my first cool stitches post to give you an idea of what to expect:

Meet @momshoo

You may already be familiar with the work of Shu Ning, @momshoo on Instagram. I love her traveling tuna cutlery pouches, which you can buy on her Etsy shop.

@momshoo‘s work is simple and playful — I love how she creates unique pieces using a mix of linen and other colorful fabrics, adding Sashiko-like stitches to complete each design. These pouches remind me of things my grandmother would make; probably the reason they bring a big smile to my face, and why I thought I would share them with you.

I would have loved to have these fish cutlery pouches to send in my kids’ lunches when they were little, and I think they would also be great to take on a family picnic or camping trip, even now that they are not so little anymore!

@momshoo‘s work inspires me to try playing with thread. Check out her account for some more stitch inspiration!

And if you’re in need of a present, now you know where you can get these.

Liked this post? Let me know in the comments.