My husband doesn't always bring me flowers, but this year he surprised me!
Here are the brownies I made for him:
I used a new recipe. They are VERY rich and fudgy and chocolaty. The recipe calls for 2 sticks of butter, but I substituted half a cup of canola oil for one of the sticks. Still can taste the butter, but halved the amount of saturated butter. I also do this with my favorite chocolate chip recipe and no one notices the difference. Here's the brownie recipe I found on the back of the King Arhur all-purpose flour sack. I didn't use the expresso powder. (It wasn't listed in my recipe from the sack.)
I've been diligently working on a project for my husband. I had hoped in the back of my mind to finish this sweater for him in time for Valentine's day. It didn't happen, but I am close to finishing. I'm really uninspired by this pattern. It's not totally the patterns fault. I am exited though as it's knit totally in the round. NO sewing, YES!! It's relatively easy, once you take all the measurements. You fill in all the blanks and it guides you through all the knitting. Lots and lots of stockinette stitch, not very exciting and I think that's the problem. I think I would use the pattern sometime in the future, but would do cables or a pretty stitch pattern, or color work. Then comes the sleeves. How can I put this nicely. My husband is a big guy, therefore he needs a big sweater. This is a really big sweater...and the sleeves are, well really big, too. The pattern only tells you a little about how to decrease for the sleeves. A knitting novice wouldn't know how to even begin. Even after I did all the deceases written per the pattern I was left with way too many stitches. I had to do some creative decreasing. Hopefully the second sleeve comes out the same as the first one. I jotted down notes as I went. I may need to re-work the sleeves....we'll see. I'll be glad when he can try on the sweater.
Another thing that is worrying me is the ribbing around the bottom of the sweater which has a mind of it's own. It wants to stay flipped up...both front and back. I used wool-ease yarn. Has anyone had this happen to them? Have you ever blocked wool-ease yarn? Do you think it will flatten out if I wash and dry it? I am very worried. Hopefully it will flatten out. I knit it top down, so didn't find this out until it was too late. Maybe I should take out the ribbing and finish off the sweater in a different way. Any of your thoughts would be greatly apprecited, especially from knitters who are familiar with wool-ease.
Here's the almost finished sweater. The actual color is a darker blue. The photos are washed out.
You can see me here, hoding down the ribbing:
Well, hopefully it will all work out. Wish me luck:)
happy knitting :)
Copyright ©2006-2011 hakucho, All Rights Reserved.
Wishing you luck!!
ReplyDeleteThe flowers are beautiful and the brownies look delicious. YUM!!
The ribbing will always flip, but there are some things you can do.
ReplyDeleteCheck out these links -- you may need to copy and paste
http://techknitting.blogspot.com/2007/03/mysteries-of-knitting-part-1-tale-of.html
http://techknitting.blogspot.com/2007_12_01_archive.html -- scroll down to December 25, 2007 post
I read your post from my phone & not one picture would show itself today. Shucks. My knitting skills are dubious at best, however, Wool-Ease is one of my favorite yarns, and I used it doubled it for my Iced top-down cardigan. My sweater blocked fine with a garter stitch border. I'm completely sold on the top-down method of knitting sweaters and hope to start another soon,That Girl! Cardigan. Wishing you a speedy finish on the sweater. :) Have a great week!
ReplyDeleteThe sweater looks great, but I hope you find a quick and easy fix to the folding ribbing.
ReplyDeleteOh the bouquet is beautiful ! Thanks for the brownie recipe, I will try it. You will be surprised that I actually used that guide to make the peach mohair cardigan I posted a couple of weeks ago. It's an excellent guide but it does put off knitters. I had to get past the fact that there were no photos. I always need photos for some reason or other. In any case, yours looks great !
ReplyDeletewish I could help with the flipping ribbing question, but I'm clueless.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I can help with the flowers ....they are awesome!
Lovely flowers! The brownies look so delicious! The last ones I made were too dry. I think I'll give this recipe a try soon.
ReplyDeleteThe flowers are lovely, and the brownies look divine!!
ReplyDeleteThank you for all of the encouraging words you give me on my blog posts. You make me smile every time you comment!!
Nice flowers! I hope you can find a solution for your sweater as it looks like a nice one.
ReplyDeleteGorgeous flowers and wonderful looking brownies....I must try the recipe.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you've had some help with the sweater, I hope it works.
i think the sweater looks great. i've only used wool-ease for scarves and mitts..do you have any that you could swatch and just test it out? as for the ribbing, would steam blocking help at all? the flowers are pretty. :)
ReplyDeletePretty flower arrangement. Hubby and I had a nice meal, good bottle of wine. We don't tend to do the gift thing as much as others do though.
ReplyDelete