Thursday, February 7, 2013

When bread imitates knitting


Knitting on the Alex scarf continues apace and I'm finding it an excellent project for whilst watching TV now I've got the pattern firmly in my head.  

I've learnt how to read the stitches so I don't lose my place, well not too often anyway!

The light side
I had a hospital appointment yesterday and decided to take my knitting with me in anticipation of a long wait.  Could I find find my pretty little sheepy needle protectors?  No, of course not!  So I had to to improvise and stick corks on each end instead.

The safety pin is for when I have to do a 4 stitch decrease.  I could use a cable needle to hang the middle stitch in front of the work but that was too awkward with just one stitch so at first I tried a stitch holder.  Again, I found that a bit fiddly and so finally I've settled on the good old safety pin which makes slipping the stitch back on the needle a doddle.

As I'm using yarn from my stash I will be changing the dark colour soon as the purple is about to run out.  After a bit of a rummage I found some Debbie Bliss tweed in a deep purple and a paler version.  Now I've just got to decide which to use next.  I think it will probably be the paler one so that the ends of the scarf are both dark.

Close-up of the dark side
 I must have this stitch on the brain as when I was making a loaf the other day this is how I decorated it.

It's not brioche!
It's a traditional decorative finish for a farl, or oven-bottom loaf but it does rather echo the leaf pattern doesn't it?!  Usually a farl would be made with just white flour but I made ours with 50% spelt flour, 50% white flour and I added lots of different seeds, chia, pumpkin & flax, to make it extra tasty.

I think I'd better make a brioche loaf soon............