Zahara - new pattern

I'd like you to meet Zahara. She's a sweet knitted camel, complete with underbite, knobby knees and a gentle disposition.



This pattern is suitable for someone who can knit in the round on double pointed needles. Other skills required are increasing and decreasing, knitting short rows, picking up stitches, grafting and seaming.

To make your very own Zahara, you’ll need less than 100 grams of worsted weight wool. I used Patons Classic Wool in "Sesame".

As usual, the pattern is available through my Etsy shop and as a Ravelry download.



This link will redirect you to Paypal through Ravelry's shopping basket.

Somebunny special...

Excuse the seriously silly title, but someone I love asked me to make them a bunny after seeing this one that I made for my nephew for Christmas. How could I resist?



This one is made with handspun: 2oz of oatmeal colored Corriedale, 3 ply worsted weight, and a little bit of teal merino/silk, 3 ply heavy fingering weight for the dress.



I changed things for the body on this one as I wasn't entirely happy with the way I'd improvised the body for my nephew's bunny. I like this much better. I knit from the neck down. Once I got to the legs, I slipped half the sts plus 3 to a holder and knit the others in the round for one leg. The 6 sts (3 from the front, 3 from the back) were placed on a holder, while I knit the second leg. Then 6 sts were grafted together and all ends woven in.

The skirt was improvised too: cast on 50 sts, made a little picot hem, and knit up to where the bunny's waist is, did some decreases, bound off half the sts and knit the bib back and forth. Tiny 3 sts I-cords make the dress straps.

The pompom tail used up the very last bit of handspun that I'd made for this project. All that's left are the trimmings from the pompom as I used all my snipped off yarn ends and the last few yards of yarn to make it!

Coming Soon to a desert near you...

I'm almost finished tweeking a new pattern. B has been bugging me for a while to make a camel. She's named it Zahara...



And since we're on the topic of camels, maybe you can help me? Do you know the song "Alice the Camel"? It's one of those count down songs that goes like this:

Alice the camel has 5 humps,
Alice the camel has 5 humps,
Alice the camel has 5 humps,
Go, Alice, Go,
Boom, Boom, Boom...

Alice the camel has 4 humps,
Alice the camel has 4 humps...
etc,

until the end...

... Alice the camel has no hump,
Alice is a horse.

Now B says the song is supposed to be about Sally the Camel. Which way did you learn it?

Being Good has it's rewards...

Last summer I let you all know of my resistance to the temptation to steal my favorite picture book. Well, today, my goodness has been rewarded. The public library in my little town is selling books from its collection that are rarely signed out and "Sarah's Bear" was on the table!



If you ever have the chance to read this adorable book, take 5 minutes. The darling water color illustrations and sweet text won't disappoint you!

Soft, Fluffy Clouds

I started carding the East Friesian last night and it is oh so soft and bouncy.


The little bowls show approximately equal amount of fiber: one washed and dried, the other also carded!


And here's all 80g carded and ready to spin. It really fills up the same blue basket the raw fiber was sitting in in the previous post.

Sushi Club - East Friesian Lamb

My July installment of Natchwoolie's Sushi Club arrived today. Absolutely gorgeous bouncy, soft, creamy white East Friesian lamb's fleece!



As usual, dog and cats had to have a sniff of the sheepy goodness enclosed in the ziploc bag! And again as usual, the kids groaned at the farm fresh scent!



It looked like so much fun, I gave it its bath immediatly! And it has already fluffed up so much. I can't wait until its dry and ready to spin.

Can't show you the knitting I'm doing...

I'm working on a new pattern, but don't have enough of it done to post it. So I'll show you supper!


Grilled chicken pizza done on the BBQ!


Grilled Pizza with Chicken, Grilled Veggies and Pesto
Ingredients
pizza dough - I use homemade whole wheat crust.
1 large or 2 small chicken breasts (grilled, roasted, or cooked in some fashion), sliced
grilled veggies (I used leftover grilled onions, mushrooms, red peppers and summer squash from last night's supper)
pesto
feta cheese, in small cubed
mozza, grated

Method
Preheat grill to medium heat.

Form dough into balls larger than golf balls and smaller than tennis balls. Roll out to between 1/8" and 1/4" thick. Dust with flour and stack in layers, separated by parchment paper.

Place pizza rounds on grill for 2 minutes with the cover closed. Flip. While still on the grill, spread with a bit of pesto, sprinkle with mozza, feta, veggies and chicken.

Go sparingly on the toppings on this pizza, it gets soggy with too many and is difficult to remove from the grill.

Close cover, grill for an additional 90 seconds, or until mozza is melted. Remove to a cooling rack, or cut and eat immediately.

I can only fit two 8" pizzas at a time on my grill so some of the pizzas are warm and some are hot by the time I have them all cooked. But at ~4 minutes cooking time, I'm done 8 pizzas in 16 minutes!

Yummy!

Monkey See, Monkey Do...

I couldn't put this pattern down! This was such a cute fun knit. Details and mods on my Ravelry project page.