Knit. . . "Comfort Slippers", a Fishy Hat and a couple of mysteries.

Children's Fishing Competition hat

There was to be a Children's Fishing Competition at the local wharf, and the likelihood of catching any fish was pretty slim. However, Sonny Jim reckoned he could be in with a chance at getting a prize for "Best Dressed Fisherman" if only I could come up with a costume for him at a few days' notice! So, I scrabbled around in the cupboards and found a length of fabric adorned with a shark print, which would suffice for a fish-hunter's cape. But February is summer and so young Sonny Jim needed a hat to keep the sun off. I rescued one of his discarded ("because it's not cool!") school sun hats and found some fish left over from my epic fish blanket (finished last year). Et voilà! One fishing costume, with a brim large enough to hook the fish up onto at the front, when they got too annoying!

Not only did the young man scoop the coveted "best dressed" prize, but this Fishy Hat also won me a prize in the 12-in-2012 group on ravelry, for daring to be quirky! Which comes naturally to both the son and me!! Two prizes from one impromptu costume - what a score! Not bad for a bit of fabric, an old sun hat, some stuffing and 16 knitted fish!!

And for myself, I managed to complete a pair of Comfort Slippers for Japan, by Reiko Arato - a fund-raising pattern for disaster relief efforts in Japan.

These slippers are just perfect for late summer/early autumn, when you don't need anything too toasty, but bare feet on cold lino floors isn't too much fun either. I have worn them lots since I finished them, and I made them from Lana Grossa Meilenweit Cotton Spirit, which I know from experience is a very hard-wearing yarn. Definitely a hit!

I was working on a Mystery Knitalong shawl, but have put that to one side for now in favour of more pressing things, such as birthday presents. However, I will show you a progress pic as the last clue has been available for over a week and many participants in the knitalong have long since finished the entire shawl, so hopefully I am not spoiling anyone's surprise. . .

Part of the shawl at the end of clue 1 (with stitch markers handmade by the beautiful Derailme)

The other mysteries will have to remain just that, as they are birthday presents for two ravelry friends who sometimes frequent this blog. However, all will be revealed next month :)

Knit. . . the Fish blanket is finished at last!

Oh yes indeed. . . it has gone from this:

Selection of sock yarn scraps (these from iMake in Guernsey)

to this:

Gratuitous photo of dog posing on part-finished fish blanket

to this:

Tedious task of adding approx 7 metres of 3 stitch applied i-cord

to this finished product (finished, but as yet unwashed and unblocked!)

Finished fish blanket, laid out on Queen-sized bed

It's a great feeling to finally have it finished after 3 years and 1 month, but at the same time I feel a bit "lost" on car journeys without my ever-present fish to knit. I have tried knitting other simple projects in the car, but it's not quite the same. But do I really want to knit another fish blanket? Not really, well, at least not a sock yarn one. Maybe one in thicker yarn at some stage, with a much more restricted range of colours.

Now for some stats on the blanket. I started it on 24th May 2008 and finally finished it on 25th June 2011. It is 13 fish wide by 24 fish tall. The 312 fish and applied i-cord combined weigh a total of 860 g or 1.9 lbs. That's around 3.5 kms or 2.2 miles of yarn!! I used 74 different "dark" yarns and 34 different "light" yarns (substantially less light yarns, because so many of the light fish are undyed). Unblocked, it measures 50" or 127cm square, and once I have washed and blocked it I will update this post with new measurements and pictures.  You can get a bit of the back story on the blanket in my post from March: "The never-ending fish blanket."

The fish blanket would not have been possible without the generosity of many women in swapping sock yarn scraps with me: Susan, Jesse, Martine, Katrina, Sara as well as everyone who took part in the 2010 NZ sock yarn swap. I thank you all most sincerely :) Also my lovely Wifie who knitted every single one of the rainbow fish which form a border to the blanket (alternate rainbow and undyed fish). Although she can knit, it's not a big obsession. She can happily go for months without so much as picking up a knitting needle, and yet she stoically knitted 35 rainbow fish for me over a period of 6 months this year. If that isn't true love, I don't know what is!!! Thank you my love ♡

This is one of my favourite projects EVER - in fact it probably takes top place. I would definitely recommend it as one of the best travel projects known to humankind, as a travel fish-knitting kit takes up so little room and hardly weighs anything! The pattern I used was April Broken's "recipe for fish", which works in any yarn weight, as long as it is a smooth type of yarn with good stitch definition. Here is the link to my ravelry project page and so far this project has received the most ♥ of any of my ravelry projects :) 

I still have loads of sock yarn scraps left over, so next I am planning to make a "Mitred-square sock yarn blankie" as detailed here at Shelly Kang's blog. Watch this space :)

PS I have finished knitting lots of other things in the last few weeks as well, but felt that the ginormous project that is the fish blanket deserved a post all of its own! 

Eat. . . Sushi, Kiwi style!

We love sushi in our family. . . so much so that several years ago I painted a ceramic plate with the words and symbols for "Love Sushi" in Japanese. Later I found out I had the symbols a bit wrong, but hopefully it's the thought that counts and I didn't write anything rude by mistake!

Jamie has loved sushi since he was a toddler, less than 18 months old and I gave him a small piece to try. He's never looked back. When we lived in Blenheim when he was aged 2 and 3 we occasionally used to go to the local Japanese restaurant for a treat and he loved to have a "Children's Bento box" including sushi, tempura prawns and some other treats. We still buy sushi from time-to-time, but now usually make our own. The way the Wifie and I make sushi is definitely not authentic, but it's the way we like it! We usually make homemade sushi at least once every couple of weeks and I made some a few days ago (which is when I took these photos). This is how we do it:

First rinse 2 cups of  sushi rice in a sieve, until the water runs clear or until you get bored of waiting! Then boil 3 cups of water in a pan and add the rice. Boil fast for 3-5 mins then put lid on pan and take off  the heat. Leave the lid on and don't remove the lid for at least half an hour. Once the rice has cooked, make the seasoning mix. Add 1 tsp sugar and 2 tsps salt to 2 tblsps white vinegar. Stir to dissolve, possibly with the help of a little warming in the microwave. Stir this through the warm rice. Taste rice and see if it is tasty enough for you. Adjust seasoning to taste. We used to use the proper rice wine and rice vinegar usually recommended, but eventually swapped to this cheap version - tastes pretty similar.

Allow rice to fully cool.




Get a piece of nori seaweed and lay it on your sushi rolling mat. Not sure if it makes much difference whether it is shiny or dull side up!

Spread the rice over the nori with a spoon dipped in water, leaving a margin at the top of the sheet with no rice.

Place fillings in a row across the rice. We use a variety of things including strips of egg omelette, long slices of carrot, cucumber, avocado, capsicum/sweet pepper, asparagus, French green beans depending what is in season. Yes, sushi can be vegetarian! We sometimes add smoked salmon or tinned fish such as tuna or pink salmon. The sushi filling above is for Sonny Jim by special request - tinned tuna, carrot and avocado, with egg omelette about to be added. . .

Brush some water onto the riceless portion of nori, to act as "glue". Then roll up the sushi in the rolling mat, starting from the front edge. Once you have rolled the first bit to encompass the filling give it a little squeeze, then proceed to roll up the rest.   

Give the roll a squeeze all the way along, to make sure it will stay together when it is unrolled.

Repeat the sushi making process until you run out of rice. . .

Using a sharp knife dipped in water, cut each sushi roll into individual pieces. We usually cut them between 1 and 2 cm thick. Serve with pickled ginger, soy sauce and wasabi to taste. . .

Knit. . . the never-ending fish blanket

The first few fish, May 2008.

This started out back in May 2008, after I found the "recipe for fish" on ravelry. The tessellated fish vaguely reminded me of an M.C. Escher design and I had recently started knitting socks so I was sure I would have plenty of sock yarn scraps to use up over time. I decided to have "dark" fish swimming one way and "light" fish swimming in the other direction. Thus began my lengthiest knitting project to date! After the first few fish I had the pattern memorised and I soon discovered it was the ideal "travel knitting" project. I packed a small plastic box with a few scraps of sock yarn, a couple of wooden 2.5 mm dpns and an old dental floss container for cutting the yarn. This "Emergency Knitting" box accompanies me almost everywhere, just in case I get a chance to squeeze some knitting into my day e.g. whilst waiting at the Dr's or dentist's or as a passenger during a lengthy car journey. I can even take my "Emergency knitting" on domestic and international plane journeys and do a little in-flight knitting, as my kit meets most airline regulations! The wooden dpns are little more than toothpicks and I don't need scissors to break the yarn thanks to my trusty dental floss container!

This is the blanket at the moment:

To be honest, I am starting to tire of knitting fish and yearn for a different little travel knitting project. But I won't give up till I have finished. I have promised myself that I will get the interminable fish blanket finished in 2012, as part of the "12in2011" group challenge on ravelry.

As of today I have 254 fish, of which 185 are sewn on so far and 69 swimming free. . . 

The blanket is 10 fish wide by 18 fish tall, with the 19th row half completed. 

My aim is for the finished blanket to be 14 fish wide and 24 fish tall, but I may alter that as the end of the year approaches. Current plan is to have a border of rainbow and undyed fish all the way around and Wifie has started helping to knit the rainbow fish for me - for which I am eternally grateful.

I will update you on my shoal of fish later in the year. . . and in the meantime if anyone reading this has any scraps of sockyarn they would like to donate to this blanket, please let me know at yarnificationz (at) gmail (dot) com 

Thanks :-)