On the crafty side of things, I hosted the aforementioned Crafternoon at our place on Saturday, which was, on the whole, quite lovely. The tradition of the Crafternoon is something my crack team of knitty girlfriends, as I have dubbed them, and I have had going for some time. It started one afternoon late last year, when my fabbo friend Ellen invited a bunch of us over to her place for crafts and a few cuppas. We had a brilliant time, and decided it must be done again, and soon. I hosted the next one at mine (complete with a Facebook invite featuring a picture of Spider Man knitting himself!), and they've sort of kept going from there.
The one at my place last weekend was the first we've had in a while, what with life obnoxiously getting in the way, as it tends to do. I thought it was high time we revived the tradition- so I squished 9 people into my lounge (including two fellers!), plied them all with sugar and cheese, and left them to it! Success!
Here, have some photos.
There was, of course a fantastic spread. However, my favourite edible items were, by far, the duck and rabbit shaped pikelets, lovingly crafted by Fran. Super cute; super tasty. Beside them are some gluten-free chocolate brownies contributed by her fiance, which were dee-vine. Real blokes bake, it would seem.
Miriam, beavering away on her first pair of hand-knit socks- a feat I have yet to accomplish in my three years of obsessive knitting. Love her ring!
Carrie and Tasha, two relatively new, but nonetheless awesome and dedicated knitters. Tasha is working on these cutie-patootees, which she plans to donate to the Wellington Hospital Neo-natal Unit:
A hat Steph is working on: a super cute faux-cabled number for a friend's birthday.
Fran, our sole Happy Hooker for the day, valiantly continuing with The Never Ending Scarf, that dreaded indominable project to which we've all fallen prey at some point. It is, however, mucho pretty, for she is a legend.
DB, getting amongst it, and continuing with his practice piece. So proud! *tear*
The obligatory group shot. The ginger-haired lad in the corner is Mikey, Miriam's Boy Thing, who she is also teaching to knit. For real blokes knit, of course. We had an amusing conversation the night before about what he could use to knit with, apart from wool. We decided, in the end, that Twizzlers, string cheese and sausages were perfectly feasible options. ;) In the end...he decided on wool. ;P
All in all, everyone seemed to have a grand old time- especially when we started cranking out the Youtube videos, and having rather intense discussions on the caffeine content in Mountain Dew (some countries do add caffeine to Mountain Dew, others don't. Can't remember the specifics. Either way, it's gross), Wellington bus prices, favourite home-made pizza toppings and the inherent sexiness of men holding babies. And kittens. And how much better-looking men in uniform are when pictured holding kittens. I don't generally do the men in uniform thing, BTW. Sacrilege, I know.
So yeah. Happy times. I was particularly chuffed that the cheese and chilli scones I baked for the gang worked out, and were polished off within the first hour. I used this recipe (very easy, I assure you) and added a block of chopped-up feta, a liberal amount of cumin powder, some chilli flakes and about three tablespoons of sweet chilli sauce. Mix it all together, bung it in the oven for 20 minutes, allow to cool, serve up, slather with butter. Bliss. More than makes up for my attempt at making Russian fudge, which was many shades of fail. Luckily, I live with two strapping young lads who are not so fussy, and are more than happy to volunteer their services as human garbage disposal units. *sigh* Better luck next time, eh?
Anyhoo. Following on from our successful little gathering, Ellen and I are now planning a Christmas Crafting Clutch- where we host a weekend long crafting session, during which we all, while loaded up with chocolate and energy drinks, support each other in our dash to finish all our Christmas crafting by 25 December. Seeing as my Christmas knitting queue seems to be creeping threateningly upwards, I fully endorse this idea- especially where there are copious amounts of sugar, chesse and Ellen's pancakes present. Might even try Russian fudge again, if I'm brave enough...
Oh, in other news...how truly awesome is the latest edition of Knitty? I am currently in the process of swatching for the Brambles Beret, for I am head-over-heels in mad hot monkey love with it. Not that I don't have my wings, two long-overdue presents and a sweater vest to finish, or the aforementioned Christmas knitting to start, or anything. ;P I also plan on making myself a Carnaby once the silly season is all done and dusted. Tres cute, no? ;)
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