or cut and paste this URL intro your browser: http://www.woollymammothknits.com

Besides my blog, the new site has free knitting patterns, a selection of hand-dyed yarns, random assorted knitting tips and more.

I hope you will stop by and have a look!

I had two other successes yesterday. Unfortunately they were not exactly the success I had hoped for (the success I had hoped for had something to do with a certain job interview, but alas, no success there) but they were nice anyhow. The first was that after 5 years of experimenting once about every few months to get my tofu to come out the way it does in Asian restaurants, it finally did, last night! I had stir-fried tofu, fried it, grilled it, deep-fried it, and had tried pretty much everything I could think of, but none of it worked. The key turned out to be that it has to go in the oven, marinated and all, for about 30 minutes at the highest degree possible. We ate it with satay, rice, veggies and cucumber salad, and it was yummy
My second success of the day was my latest wool dye colorway. I call it “pomegranate sunset” because of the deep reds and purple. I’m very happy with the result and can’t wait to re-skein it and knit with it!

In other news, I just finished my warm winter sweater design. Can’t post any pics (yet) as I’d like to try submitting it somewhere. It’s great to have finished it, it turned out exactly as I had hoped! Now I just need to write the pattern for it.

Just as I was thinking to myself that my stash heap was in need of replenishing after much knitting from it! There was a stand with huge bags full of yarn, priced at 5 balls for £1! Most of it was 100% or 90% acrylic, but after quite some digging around (while husband dutifully held a bag full of yarn and chatted with people petting on pup). I came away with 25 wonderful balls of yarn for just £5 total. This is what I got:
(from bottom to top and left to right):
- Wendy Merino four ply, 100% wool, in light pink and coral, 1 ball each
- Wendy Family Choice chunky, 50% acrylic, 40% nylon, 10% wool, pink, 1 ball
- Patons Cotton Soft, 100% cotton, light pink and light blue, 1 ball each
- Viking Narvik chunky, 100% wool, burnt orange, 5 balls (This is my favorite. At 100g. each, I’m so happy!)
- Handspun wool, chocolate brown, large ball of approx. 250 grams, without tag or band
- Wendy Mohair, 90% mohair, 6% polyester, 4% acrylic, light blue, 3 balls
- Wendy Cotton, 100% cotton, red, 1 ball
- Patons Capstan, 60% wool, 40% nylon, cream, 1 ball
- Wendy Orin Co chunky, 60% acrylic, 20% nylon, 20% alpaca, 4 balls red, 1 ball moss green
- Wendy Family Choice DK Tweed, 38% acrylic, 36% wool, 26% nylon, 4 balls red & grey

Needles to say, we’ll be going back to that car boot sale again soon!

In other knitting news, I have almost finished Stefanie Japel’s cardigan with leaf ties (from knitty). I just need to finish the i-cord that goes around the neckline. It’s been a very fun project to work on, and the Andean Silk yarn from Knit Picks that my sweet husband gave me for Christmas makes for a very nice cardigan indeed

I’m also working on two designs of my own and knitting them up as I go along with the pattern-making… more on that later.

It’s 100% pure new wool, handknit, the tag reads “Fisherman, out of Ireland”. I love the fair isle pattern as well as the tweedy flecks. It’s making me want to tackle a fair isle project next! But I think I should focus on some summer cotton knitting first.

Anyway, I took this beauty with me when my husband, puppy and I went camping last weekend. Even though the weather was gorgeous, it still got pretty cold at night. The sweater kept me wonderfully warm by the campfire in the evening and I even wore it on top of my pajamas while sleeping. We had such a fun time camping, walking in the woods, shivering on the (due to the strong North Sea wind still cold) beach, grilling our dinners and telling each other ghost stories by the fire. It was great! 

That reminds me, I recently read a discussion somewhere about whether or not wonderful handknits should be taken on such trips at all. The drawback of course is that they might get dirty, but I firmly believe that handknits should be worn, especially, even, on occasions like these. That is what they are made for after all, right? I can understand the sentiment of not wanting something you put so much time, effort and love into making, to get dirty or worn out at some point, but then, what is the point of having it at all? Wool is such a wonderfully strong material, and handknits stand the test of time much better than store-bought items. It makes me think a bit of some of the rugs we have in our house. They are stunning, handmade Middle Eastern rugs made of wool and silk with beautiful colours and patterns. At first I was almost afraid to step on them! Well, not really, but the thought of our then-not-yet housetrained puppy having a “moment” on them definitely worried me. Yet my husband, the rug afficionada who taught me all about rugs, was not at all faced by the prospect (which in the end did happen several times). As he said, these rugs have been made for centuries, and were originally designed to cover the sandy floor of a bedouin’s tent in the desert. Not only people, but camels as well, would walk on them. They can withstand a whole lot, which is why they’re so great – they’re functional, yet beautiful. That’s how I feel about handknits as well.