Freebies

I love freebies in magazines but very rarely do I use them. I have countless knitting needles from these magazines still sitting in their packs. Mind you that's mainly due to the fact the tend to give away the size that most knitters are going to have already, 4mm. Plus some of those plastic ones are a nightmare to knit with. Last months Lets Knit came with free bobbly yarn called Cookie by Charlotte Lewis. I love unusual yarns so it got put aside until I got round to knitting with it.

My knitting group recently decided to make the shoebox appeal it's charity this year so I used this to try the yarn. I picked out the scarf from the magazine called Ali (issue 39 in case you were wondering). It was quick and easy to knit and if you don't look too closely turned out okay. The pattern was simple. I normally don't bother with the fringe but in this case the pattern needed it and I am glad I bothered. The yarn on the other hand is a nightmare. The bobbles split and fray so easily. At some points in the yarn they were already frayed. It made it very awkward to knit with. Nice result but I don't think I will be knitting with it again.

I also attempted this week to make some lemon cupcakes from the Hummingbird bakery book. The photo above is my second attempt. Don't fill your cupcake cases quite as high as the recipe suggest as it only leads to disaster. My baking tray looked like one big cake. It wasn't pretty!