Putting my best foot forward

I have passed the heal on my first sock. (More details here) My plan is to knit them as far as 50g of yarn will get me, so I have enough for a second sock of the same size. The yarn is beautiful, it is certainly a contrast to the grey wintery skies outside today. It is my most colourful knitting project to date, and maybe the brightest socks I will have owned since I was seven? I mostly stick with black and navy, so this is pretty out-there for me. Fun to knit, though.

What's happening in your Creative Space this week? Are you knitting? Sewing? Something else? Would you wear hand-knitted or brightly coloured (or both) socks? See what everyone else is doing, over here.

Yoplait Picnic

Product Talk By Nuffang

Today we were blessed with a public holiday co-inciding with a lovely, sunny day. Perfect for a picnic at one of our favourite playgrounds. This picnic is sponsored by Nuffnang and Yoplait.

When we arrived at the picnic, the kids were given some 175g tubs of strawberry yogurt. These tubs are a great size for snacks for little kids. I think they would also be good for morning playlunch at school or kinder. Yoplait is full of calcium, so it's great for growing strong bones, and it doesn't contain any artificial flavours or colours which is a real plus in my book.



The kids were enjoying them so much, they even licked the lids clean. You could say they were lid-lickingly good. Just for fun, Yoplait have printed some great little facts under the lids, like this one:



Happy people live nine years longer. Good thing my kids are happy people, then. I want them to live forever.





For a special treat, I made some Berry Yogurt Slice. The recipe calls for three cups of low fat vanilla yogurt. The 1kg tub of Yoplait Vanilla was perfect. There was even some left over for later. The vanilla flavour is really good, it even contains real vanilla pod.



I had a few problems with this recipe, when I poured the jelly on top, it stirred up the yogurt a bit, so there was yogurt in my jelly and the whole thing was a bit more wobbly and errr.... mooshy than my usual jelly slice, too. We had to use plates and spoons to eat it. I did leave the yogurt part to set overnight, so it wasn't that. I'm thinking next time I might use a little more gelatine? The flavour was really good though, better than the condensed milk version I am used to. One tip though - when pouring the jelly, pour slowly!



I also made some Honeyed Strawberry Dip, this time I used the Yoplait Vanilla from a 1kg tub. The recipe suggests reduced fat "natural" yogurt, but I wasn't able to find any. It was very sweet though, so the honey in my opinion wasn't really necessary. I gave the kids some bananas and strawberries to dip in it, and it was a winner. Not too sweet for them. I'm thinking you could save yourself a heap of trouble though, and just use some of the fruit flavoured yogurt without adding anything to it. It contains real fruit, so it would be just as good.



After our little picnic, Maxx and the kids went off to play in the playground. Amélie has just mastered going up and down slides by herself, so she was really keen to try out the slides at the park. She started out with some of the smaller slides, but was keen to go on the bigger ones.





After a few goes with me, she did it by herself!

Sock it to me

You might remember a few weeks ago, I won a voucher from Yarn, Glorious Yarn. I was a bit over-whelmed by all the pretty yarn, but eventually, I decided what to get - four balls of Schoppelwolle Zauberball. I was really tempted by some Tilli Tomas Disco Lights, but I really can't see myself wearing sequins anytime soon, so I gave it a miss. My plans are to knit a pair of socks, and a wrap, and then decide what to do with the rest of the yarn after that.


Zauberball - Flair


Zauberball - Stone-washed


Crazy Zauberball - Tropical Fish


Crazy Zauberball - der Lenz

I have started knitting a test swatch, using some tropical fish, so that I can get started on "David's Toe-Up Sock Cookbook", available as a free download on Ravelry. This pattern is a "recipe" for toe-up socks with any yarn, to fit any foot. I need to work out my gauge before I get started.



Having never knitted socks before, this is all new to me. Did you know that you can knit two socks at once using two sets of circular needles? It is said to combat "Second-sock-syndrome". Have you knitted socks before? Do you have any advice for me? Do you prefer to knit toe-up, or top down? One at a time or two at once? Do you have a favourite sock pattern? Do you knit them for yourself, or for other people?

Check out what everyone else is doing in their Creative Spaces this week.