Summery procrastination - the Knitty Petrie shell

Progress on my sweetheart jumper has been very slow (no idea what I was thinking when I said that it would likely take a month, its DK yarn after all), and I think it has become clear that by the time I finish it it will be too warm to wear it. I think this is partly because purling while doing stockinette (ie knitting flat) is much much slower than knitting on the round. I am currently close to finishing the back, but there is a looooong way to go!

So against my better judgement I decided to pause it and start a new, more summery project. I first spotted the Briar cardigan in Simply Knitting, which looks cute and summery, and bought the recommended Rowan cotton glace for it. But the lack of correct needle tips for my circulars, and my impatience in using tiny straight needles made me switch to the Petrie top from Knitty - I just love the neckline on this. Of course complications arose because my yarn is sport and it calls for DK, so I had some issues with getting the correct gauge. I started out with 4mm needles, as suggested, which gave me the correct gauge (with the fabric being a little more transparent than I would like though), but after knitting 10 rows I measured the piece and it seemed much bigger than what it was supposed to be for a size small. I then switched to 3.5mm needles but my gauge was off, and after some deliberation I went back to the 4mm needles; hopefully it will not be too big and not too transparent.

Being optimistic again?

The yarn is actually quite beautiful to knit with and  has a lovely sheen a, so I am looking forward to a nice, drapey top. Optimistically once more, 3 weeks? Although the top is made in two pieces knitted straight, so I might struggle a bit, as usual, with the stitching. And yes, this means it is knitted flat like the sweetheart jumper. But I never said I was rational :p

Chocolate orange cupcakes

I have been experimenting with the lovely "Red velvet chocolate heartache" book for a few weeks now, with the cinnamon-banana loaf (in cupcake format) being a firm favourite. So at this point I decided I was brave enough to adapt one of the recipes extensively and create something of my own (and thus for which I can post the recipe here, yay!).

Chocolate and orange cupcakes (makes 12)

3 eggs
180 grams light  muscovado sugar
200 grams butternut squash
100 grams ground almonds
100 grams plain flour
60 grams cocoa powder
zest and juice of one  orange
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (fan oven)
2. Grate the butternut squash very finely
3. Using an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sugar for about 5 minutes
4. Add the butternut squash and mix until incorporated
5. Add the ground almonds, flour, cocoa, zest and orange juice, baking powder and salt, and mix for another 1-2 minutes
6. Using a tablespoon, add the mixture into cupcake cases within a tray - I have a silicone one so that can be used without the cases, which is handy.
7. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool in the tray on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully take the cupcakes out of the tray and allow to cool completely on the wire rack.

I am not a fan of frosting, as mentioned before, and I think these are really good on their own. However, I understand I am a bit weird in this respect, so if you are a fan of frosting just use your favourite recipe to garnish these.

Chocolate orange cupcakes in the front, cinnamon-banana-pecan ones in the back

Sweetheart jumper (and procrastinating intarsia again!)

I have procrastinating starting my next project for a while now because I couldn't face learning how to do intarsia (even though one of my plans for this year was to learn how to do colourwork), and instead have been making headbands (see seedy bow headband and crochet bow headband posts). But enough is enough, given than my weakest aspect is starting a project rather than carrying on or finishing it, I decided to just start it and learn instarsia on the way.

The project is  sweetheart from the Domiknitrix pattern book, a gift from my 'mother-in-law' for Christmas. She also bought me four skeins of lovely and soft yarn, Artesano alpaca DK in a very very bright purple :) So I decided that, instead of just making a few small projects, it would make more sense to supplement the yarn and making the jumper - apparently she had also spotted it as a nice one to make from the book, so it just seemed like the perfect plan.

 

The jumper is a bottom-up construction that is knit in the round until just above the waist and the split into two, with the back done first, followed by the front (which has the colourwork). My plan is to get to the colourwork and then do a practice swatch - hopefully by that point I should be a bit more enthusiastic about learning this new skill. I decided to go for the small size (34'') and I'm hoping that it won't be too big, I was pretty much bang on with my gauge swatch using 4mm needles (as recommended), but I have had issues with sizing before, and it is really hard to tell with a bottom-up knit as you can't try it on. Fingers crossed!

Not gotten very far yet, but hopefully doable within about a month