Creative week? Maybe...

Did a few things this week that tapped into my creative crafty side...

My first attempt to dye... Well that was interesting! I followed the instructions on Pea Soup's blog on microwave dying with food dye using 100g of Naturelle Chunky 14 ply that I bought from Morris and Sons. I did this as a project for the Christmas Swap on Ravelry's OTF group, and the swapee I had mentioned Christmas colours, so I chose red and green and left a section white.

I wasn't happy with how I blotched some of the colours together, and that when I rinsed it some of the red food dye managed its way to the white section and it turned out a very light shade of pink... But once it was wound up it actually looks alright, and the pink doesn't scream out like it did in a skein.

So here's a pic of the yarn in a ball - I've already knitted a bit of it to make the Christmas stocking, but it still looks kinda pretty!



And here's the Christmas stocking for the swap. :D First time I did something similar to a sock, and it was a fairly quick knit.



So when it's knitted up it's not too bad, the pink is not too obvious. But in the ball and when it was in a skein that was like ten more obvious... Anyhows, I hope my swapee likes it anyways!

And last night I made some cupcakes! I used the Magnolia Bakery's recipe for Vanilla Cupcakes, and they turned out okayish... They're really sweet! I initially did another batch beforehand of Chilli Chocolate cupcakes, but I accidentally put one tablespoon of baking powder instead of one teaspoon, and it deflated on me ten folds. And Mark didn't seem to like it either, so I threw it out.

Here are some pics of the Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Icing! :D I think I did an okay job, and I must say it makes a hell of a difference when you have an electric hand beater - not having one last time made my buttercream all runny, and this time it was spreadable!



I'm practicing my cupcake making so that I can make a whole big batch on Friday for the students doing their recitals next Saturday and Sunday... So I'll be baking cupcakes all day, that's for sure!

And the other day Mark was visiting his parents, and I thought I'd come up later and pick him up and drop in to say hi as well. Pam (his mum) and I were talking about knitting, and she said that she found Mark's scarf that he made when he was in year 5 or 6 in Primary school! Pam was so nice to let me have it, and it just seems so cool to have something that he crafted when he was younger that is actually kinda functional.

Mark told me that when he made it, he didn't really want to, and so to finish the project as quickly as possible he made sure he used the biggest needles he could find - 13mm. He also used 3 colours, which was not what many other kids were doing in the class, and he told me of races that he had every now and then to see who finished a row the quickest.

So as you can see - for a first (and only) knitting project, I think Mark did extremely well for a 11 year old boy. I think young boys have better motor skills than young girls (I teach piano, and is a common observation not only from myself, but from others as well). His ends were just tied (obviously didn't care about weaving ends in) and there was one or two dropped stitches, but in general a pretty good job!

I have a theory that he may have changed needles half way - what do you think?
The right side is tighter than the left side, so I'm assuming that his
tension improved, or he changed needles sizes... Not quite sure...

As you can see here - he just tied the ends... :D

And this is one scarf that I will treasure for a while. I'll even whip it out when we have kids and go "See? Even Dad knitted once!" Well, first thing's first, we need to get married and have kids, but that's another 10 years or so away!

Oh and other good news to add is that all my students who went for exams passed! They all got a Credit (B) for their piano exams, and I'm totally happy about it. I'm also teaching another student that I used to teach when I was home in Bankstown, and I'm glad that she thought of me when her mother wanted to change teachers... I guess I'll be teaching piano for quite some time, hey?

So here's another week to creativity - am up to my neck full of projects that I want to start, and have started and want to finish ASAP... I wish I was a faster knitter, or I had motivation to knit more! Ravelry and the internets are very distracting sometimes...