I’ve had this week off work. Inexplicably I’ve made:

• 1 loaf of sourdough bread (routine)
• 1 loaf of stilton and pecan bread (to have with some butternut squash soup I’d made previously)
• 1 loaf of malted wholemeal bread (to use up the flour before it goes out of date)
• 1 batch of oat biscuits (to feed someone who wanted something sweet, and we didn’t have anything ready made)
• 1 malt loaf (sweet, not bread – because I like it, and I finally bought another jar of malt extract recently.)

Actually, it’s not really inexplicable, is it? I’ve just explic’d it.

Some of it is now in the freezer. The stilton and pecan loaf of was honestly the biggest loaf of bread I’ve ever seen. It’s nice – surprisingly light, but absolutely enormous, and frankly, not a picture to look at. I would make it again, but I’d halve the recipe. It was from the Paul Hollywood ‘How to bake’ book (£0.99p Kindle deal ages ago)- but if you google it, you’ll find the entire recipe online, should you fancy making it too. Goes well with soup.

It’s been ages since I last posted here. I’d just started making an elephant in my last post.

I went from not liking this yarn to loving it again. It’s really soft. Probably not that robust for toys, but actually just makes toys that feel like they’ve been loved forever. This elephant is a really lovely size too.

I started out with a t-shirt and pinafore. Also in Krea Deluxe. Then for some reason (and this happens a lot) decided that wasn’t the right outfit. So I made her a dress instead:

And actually, I’m not sure it’s better now I look at it. She’s also really hard to photograph. Lovely in real life, but just doesn’t come across that well in pictures.

I think the issue I have with this yarn (aside from it being a bit splitty) is that it doesn’t feel like it sews up that well. Probably better if you’re knitting in the round, maybe. But still the best range of colours.

I’d also just finished another pair of mismatched socks last time I posted. I’d bought 3 colours of Cascade Heritage yarn: purple, red and coral. They were an odd colour choice to be honest, but I just liked them when they were all together. And you get a lot of yarn for your money, and 3 colours gives you a lot of choices about what to do with it.

I used the same stitch count as before, and the same pattern from Winwick Mum. I think each of the stripes is 7 rows, but the rest of the lengths/rows I just made up as I went along. I held up sock 1 to measure it against other socks I’d made as I went, and sock 2 to sock 1 to get them the same. Lazy bones.

They came out really nicely actually. I’m not keen on the jagged look of the coral colour at the start of the heal, so maybe I’d change that in another pair, but overall I’m pleased with them.

And they do actually look like a pair. We’ll see how they wash though. The socks I made in Drops sock yarn have really felted – or actually one has. One was striper than the other, and the one with the big block of red (and less stripes) has felted lot in the wash. I’ve been chucking them in the machine rather than hand washing them, because… well, see lazy bones comment above. If you’re curious, the best ones in the wash are the KnitPicks Felici self-striping ones. They’ve kept their shape and colour and haven’t felted at all. They’re also really soft. I just wish they did more colours I like.

I also made two small bunnies for two parents to be, at the request of someone from work. They asked me how long they take to knit, and I decided I’d keep a note this time, as people often ask. Turns out I’m a poor note taker. I’m already a distracted knitter – I’ll often stop after a row or two to google something, stare out of the window or just generally faff about. So trying to time myself was a bit of a minefield. This is roughly what I got:

Body: 71 mins
Arm: 21 mins x 2 = 42 mins
Foot: 40 mins x 2 = 80 mins
Ear: 28 mins x 2 = 56 mins
Head: 53 mins

Roughly 5 hours?
That’s just to knit the rabbit. Then there’s sewing up, and making the clothes. Which I completely forgot to count.

I’m a slow knitter though. Not really sure how long it would take a quick knitter. These are knitted in Cascade 220 wool, held with Kidsilk Haze for the fluff. Then the t-shirts are Krea Deluxe cotton, and the Schachenmayr Catania Denim Originals (152) for the dungarees.

And yep, that is a different t-shirt than shown in the first pic. I swapped one out as there was too much blue with the dungarees. I was pleased with these. I really like the fluff, actually. Also, that Cascade 220 is pretty robust. Makes for quite a solid rabbit when it’s knitted on 2.75mm needles. I think I made the grey t-shirt on 2.5mm needles, so it wasn’t too big. (The blue one was a bit big).

This week I’ve also knitted a dress and 2 cardigans for larger rabbits. Mainly because I decided I didn’t like the ones I’d made previously. These are for rabbits still waiting to be gifted, after, what… 2 years, I think. Pandemics eh?