Planning a shoot and fighting an urge...

Easter brings with it the opportunity to go home and that means a chance to do a photoshoot. I'm still terribly undecided on the issue of single patterns or a cohesive e-book for the collection I'm currently working on. At the moment I'm leaning towards e-book, so I'm planning the photoshoot accordingly. If the weather allows it we will be able to shoot 4 patterns during easter, hopefully in one day. That is, if I finish knitting the sample of the 4th pattern.

I'm surprised by how much I enjoy designing sock patterns and I'm currently knitting on sock #2 on my second sock design. It's coming along well, but there's still half a sock left and easter is sneaking up on us.

It's also with regards to this sock that I continue to fight the urge to just start the testing fase already! It's so easy to get impatient and just want it all done, NOW! I dream of the day where I'll be able to manage having several patterns in testing, but alas now is just not that day yet.

What plans do you have for easter?

Glimpses of a sock

Today I want to share with you a glimpse of a sock design I'm working on. It's ready for testing, but I've learned the hard way not to have more than one test knit on the go during the semester, because something is bound to be up with both patterns at the same time and also I have a group of wonderful testers and they can only knit so much for me at a time. (Btw, if you want to join in, you can!)

100% Rye by Shannon Stronger - a Review

100% Rye by Shannon Stronger

Sourdoug is a passion of mine and rye is a grain, I eat almost daily, so when I found out that a woman I admire was coming out with a new cookbook called 100% Rye, I had to get a copy and tell you all about it. Shannon Stonger and her husband Steward graciously provided a free copy for me to review, but although I will send them a grateful though every time I bake from this book, it did not influence my review.

About the author

Shannon is a mama to four small children, homesteader, freelance writer, cookbook author, and fermented-food enthusiast. She is the author of three books: Simple Food for Winter, Simple Food for Spring, and 100% Rye. She also chronicles her family's off-grid journey at nourishingdays.com.  

About the book

First off, let me tell you about my overall impression of this book. It rocks. There, that's it. You want more..?

What do you think about when you hear about 100% rye baked goods? If you have no familiarity with rye you may just think " how exciting", but if you've ever had a rye bread go Wrong (yes, with a capital letter), then you may be slightly on edge, at the same time chances are that you've also had rye breads done right and know what glorious baked goods they are.

Shannon uses traditional ingredients in her baking, much in tune with Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook That Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats, which happens to be one of my favourite cookbooks, so I'm slightly bias from the get-go.
For me, sourdough is something I preach. If you ever get me talking about baking, it will not be long before I offer you some sourdough. If you have no idea what a sourdough is, here is (some of) Shannon's explanation:

"At its most basic, a sourdough starter is simply a slurry of water and flour that contains a living colony of bacteria, yeast, acids, and other microorganisms we probably don’t even know about." p 16 

Shannon also shares a good deal of her personal story with her reader which leaves me with a feeling that anyone can make these recipes work for them. Just listen to one of her musings on rye:

"I found that rye flour has a window of hydration in which it works best. Too dry and it becomes a lead brick. Too moist and overworked and it becomes gummy and shapeless. Working with this fact, and not against it, was a sort of breakthrough I had when I began developing recipes for my family." p 8

This book gently takes you by the hand and guides you through the motions, even if you have never used rye or sourdough before. Shannon deals with the many questions that surround rye and sourdough, problems that may occur and ways to adapt the recipes to your comfort level. All this is spruced up with rustic, handdrawn illustrations that makes the book both authentic and charming as well as mouthwatering colour photos of the baked goods.

Finally, any cookbook that lists carrots this way is bound to win my heart:

"2 cups (tightly packed) freshly grated carrots (none of that pre-shredded, dried out nonsense) " p 78

Sadly, I've yet to try any of the recipes due to time constrains, but I'm positive they are delicious and will recommend this book to anyone and everyone interested in baking with rye and sourdough.
First on my list of recipes I want to try ASAP is this delicious goodness that I'll leave you with as a teaser:

A productivity tool - #CTBrainDump

A New Week, Already?!

After I read my bible yesterday morning, I looked at instagram for a few minutes and stumbled upon Create & Thrive's blogpost on Morning Brain Dumps. This was a God-sent message for me, since I had no idea how to go about what seemed like a frustrating Monday.

You see, I'm writing a thesis and I have a  big, huge problem: I'm not actually writing anything. Ouch, that is not a nice place to be. I'm spending my days frantically looking for a primary source to analyse for my thesis. I've read a bunch of secondary material already and am hooked on my topic of choice, I just haven't had much luck locating a primary source.

The Morning Brain Dump

Well, enough with the woe-is-me already and on to the tool, right?!

You basically make four lists before your day begin. The first and most important is your MUST list. The second is your SHOULD list, then there is your COULD list and finally the WANT TO list.

Since September 2014 a bullet journal has been my faithful friend, so naturally I made the list in my journal.  It started out looking like this (and yes, I did it in English because most of you don't read Danish and I know you are curious to know what I actually had to do, you don't have to thank me, really it's okay):

During the day more items got added as I thought of them, because I was waiting to hear from the royal library whether or not they could find a book in their archives. For hours it didn't look like I would make any progress on my most important MUST, so I decided to get a lot of other things taken care of, while I basically had to sit around and wait.

By 1 pm, the end of my lunch break, my list had grown quite a bit, but a lot had also been checked off:

At 2 pm, while I was busy working on both COULD items and a WANT TO item, I received notice from the Royal Library that the book I needed was now available. So I waited not so patiently until my bread was done baking and my laundry could be put in the dryer and then I headed off to the capital. By then my list looked had no item on it, that I hadn't at least started to work on:

When I came home, I had two possible primary sources for my thesis and had gotten a whole lot of things done, so I decided to relax, finish this post, drink some tea and knit on the sock as the only item left anywhere on the list was the PT (Practical Theology) for next week.

Evaluation Time

Not only did I get a lot done, I also felt like I had a really enjoyable day. Being able to see that you are getting the things you MUST get done is great, seeing the SHOULD, COULD and WANT TO is fantastic.
I'm going to try this out for a while and would encourage you to do the same. Have you tried something similar before or do you have another favourite productivity tool?

Knit Crush: Cow Town Knits

It's not often that we see a really good knitted skirt. Kate Bostwick has designed a beautiful pattern for a pencil skirt that looks very flattering. But she is not a one trick horse, she does sweaters, baby rompers and mittens brilliantly as well, just to mention a few of her lovely designs. Below are my top four favourites from her hand. Which of her designs is your favourite?

As always, all pictures in this post are borrowed with permission from their respective Ravelry project pages, by clicking their name, you'll be taken right to them.   

The Helen Pencil Skirt 

Siffleur

Eleanor Romper

Kicking Horse Mittens

11 (okay 3) FOs and a winner.

11 FOs...

My oh my have I been stitching. I'm, quite frankly, unable to keep myself in knitting/crochet these days. I cast on something new and whoosh it's done already, it's so odd, considering it was only last month, I was talking about how I needed to regain my joy and knitting mojo. I need to cast on a me-sized sweater to stop this insanity.

As a result of the just mentioned insanity I bring you 11 FOs:

The first 9 FOs are cotton rounds. What?! You don't think counting them as individual FOs count? Well then, I guess 3 FOs total is a decent amount too. 11 just sounds so impressing, doesn't it, and I needed impressing. 

These are made of lush organic cotton, that is certified fair trade as well. I may have some plans in the work for them, but it is too early to tell you about them.

My second FO is the tiny waves baby hat I wanted to cast on. I started out knitting it as per the directions, but I wasn't a fan on the slouchiness, so I ribbed it back a good deal and then redid the decreasing. It's a lovely little hat, now if only I knew a lovely little baby that could wear it. For now it'll go into the baby gift basket. You can never have too many baby items on hand. 

These you are most likely familiar with if you've been hanging around for a while. Another pair of socks are ready for my dad. I've been told that if you only wear hand knit socks, as he does, you'll wear out 4 pairs per year. Thus I've been knitting him 4 pairs per year for years, but it seems his sock drawer is slightly overflowing and I don't think he has had to discard more than one pair yet, if that. As a result I may just take the rest of the year of from daddy-sock making and focus a bit more on Pia-sock making. 

Speaking of socks, I have a new pattern almost ready for you, all it needs is a photoshoot, but the weather has been uncooperative lately on the weekends. 

... and a winner

To end this post, I'm happy to announce that my dear friend Nadia of Abso-knitting-lutely! is the winner of Evin O'Keeffe's book Bake Knit Sew: A Recipe and Craft Project Annual. 

Free e-guides from Craftsy

Did you know that Craftsy offers a wide range of free e-guides in everything from photography to woodworking?
It's a pretty neat way to learn more about your crafts of choice or maybe dive into a completely new craft to see if it's something you enjoy.

Even if you don't find any of them interesting, which I find hard to believe since I want to read a dusin of them, then go ahead and download one if you have your eye on a class you want to take, since most of them contain a coupon code for classes in that category.

This post contains affiliate links, so if you do decide to get any of the FREE guides, I get a small compensation, which I will greatly appreciate :)

I know most of you are stitchers, so let's start with a few stitching e-guides:

Embroidery
"From picking the best thread for the job to innovative ways of working with beads to enhance your projects, learn everything you need to know for stunning, dimensional stitching success!"
eGuide: Adding Dimension to Your Hand Embroidery

Crochet
"Learn how to crochet a chain, single crochet, double crochet and decode crochet abbreviations."
eGuide: The Beginner's Guide to Crochet 

Knitting
"From necklines to shoulder styles, this eGuide will help you unlock your knitting potential, creating sweater designs perfectly tailored to your needs!"
eGuide: 20+ Sweater Designs You'll Love to Knit 

And in case you have some non-stitching interests or would like to explore some, take a look at these cool e-guides:

Photography
"Learn to manipulate variables like depth of field and shutter speed for breathtaking photos with dramatic effect!"
eGuide: Understanding Exposure for Better Photos Now: Beginner Photography Tutorials

Cake Decorating
"From unique buttercream flavors to pretty piped flowers, this eGuide will help you unlock your sweet creativity to create eye-popping designs that are bowl-licking good!"
eGuide: Not-So-Basic Buttercream Decorating Ideas

Food & Cooking
"From decadent classic glazed to deliciously healthy baked, to chocolate, iced and sprinkled, you'll learn everything you need to master the ultimate breakfast pastry."
eGuide: Delicious Doughnut Recipes You Can Make at Home

Paper Crafts
"From envelop embellishments to color blocked cards, you'll learn over six unique ways to transform leftover paper scraps into Pinterest-worthy projects."
eGuide: 6+ Stash-Busting Paper Craft Projects

Drawing
"Drawing the Human Face covers facial proportions, proper placement of features, accurately portraying eyes and lips, and incorporating shape and value into hair."
eGuide: Drawing the Human Face: A Primer

Painting
"This guide starts your journey into the wonderful world that is watercolor painting. Beginning with the basics, you'll learn how to choose paper and build a color palette. Then, it's time to move on to color study, where you'll discover how to manipulate color transparency, value, intensity and temperature for the radiant, luminous watercolor works you always dreamed of creating!"
eGuide: Beginner's Guide to the World of Watercolor

Gardening
"All it takes is a little expert guidance to unearth your gardening abilities, no matter how small your space. This eGuide is full of rich information on how to container garden, from step-by-step potting instructions to an overview of the best plants for containers, so you can grow your greenest thumb, even if you live in a concrete jungle!"
eGuide: Success With Container Gardening

Woodworking
"With expert instruction, you'll learn the ABCs of woodturning, crucial safety tips, and how to keep your tools sharp and precise."
eGuide: Woodturning Basics for Beginners