AnotherPurl :: a knitter's life

a lot of vk knitting

Both my MIL and one of my friends got me a subscription to Vogue Knitting, leaving me good to go until after the holiday issue 2011. That's a lot of magazine.

Normally I look forward to all of my magazines. It's a chance to have mail that isn't a bill, which is a huge plus as an adult (or at least adult-sized) creature. However, the most recent VK was bad. Almost horrible.

Now, admittedly the cover knit was pretty cute, but here is my little overview of the Winter 2009/2010 issue.

The Good:
The Tunic Top (cover knit): cables, color work, a simple color pallet. It might not be the right length, but that should be easy to fix.
Flower Sweater: Josh Bennett's flower sweater is feminine and simple even if I just want to change every color.
Cabled Bobble Sweater: Suvi Simola's sweater is that graceful slender fit I like to see with a wonderfully asymmetric cable with bobbles placed in non-nipple accentuating positions.
Chunky Knit Cabled Sweater: I think I fell in love with the color.
Boy Meets Purl: These were all pretty nice, especially the cabled cardigan and the vest.
Country Living: I liked the Jennie Atkinson, Amy Polcyn and Tanis Gray patterns, but not enough to knit them.
Shiri Mor's belted cardigan is pretty simple, but I feel like it would be better if it wasn't cropped.

The Bad:
Boxy Stripes: Oh, so oversized and boxy. Being a cardigan cannot save you!
Black and Grey Turtleneck: OK, I know the model is wearing the smallest size, but she still looks like she has been packing on the Christmas cookies. It's so frumpy (also oversized).
Sculpted Glamour? Your sweater should not look like it is trying to double as a bra top. This top also makes the model look much larger than she is.

The Ugly:
Sorry Twinkle, but both of your tops were strangely frumpy. Normally your designs are cute even if I couldn't ever wear them in a million years, but the hoodie must go.
Shirley Paden's overly froufrou pink lace concoction is amazingly ugly. Too many laces, too many ruffles.

The rest of the items were just kind of meh. Not good enough for me to dislike, but not nice enough for me to even daydream about making.

Of course, I haven't seen the winter Interweave Knits. It's almost tempting to buy one at the bookstore rather than waiting to see if it arrives in the mail.

working on a wrap up

I have a ton of photos sitting on my computer, but only a tiny fraction of them ever make it onto the Intarwebs. Most of them are photos of food. Cake is just so photographic.

This was the birthday cake I made for our Secret Santa get together (there are so many birthday's at the end of November). Because it was a festive holiday get together, I made a red velvet cake. I made a cream cheese frosting, which was a little too soft for piping. I tried anyway.

For decoration, I colored some melted white chocolate and put it in my silicone rose mold. I used the rest of the bar to make white chocolate curls.

However, I am most proud of my sanding sugar decoration. I took wax paper and folded it. I then cut it into a snowflake shape and lightly placed it on the surface of the frosting. I then added the red sanding sugar in the gaps. I then used some of the remaining cream cheese frosting to pipe around the sanding sugar to frame the design.

It was very tasty. 

 

I could easily eat another.

2010 arrives with extra cat action

Bonk, bonk, purr. Bonk, bonk, purr. Hey mom, it's time to get up. You get up now. Bonk, bonk, purr. Hey, maybe if I put my butt here you'll wake up. Nope, not working. Bonk, bonk, oooh, hair looks delicious! Om, nom. Hey, get that head back here, I wasn't done with it yet!

Umm, thank you Saru-chan for your morning wake up call. 

So, less than 4 hours of sleep, but the option to wake up early and add a chocobo to my inventory, get breakfast, and ring in the new year.

Happy New Year!