Mayonnaise SOS

 

C'mon folks, I sure need some help here.

No matter which recipes I try, which oil I use, my mayo is always an oil slick. SO disappointing.

There is a little hope - in the form of the Pret* book that I bought recently.
Their recipe has some vinegar in it - doh! That's improved things - seems so obvious. But - here's the but - the mayo is still a bit oily. But, it's a bit vinegary too - so I don't want to add more.
What would you guys do - don't tell me to go and buy a jar of Hellmans! - add more vinegar? More Mustard? Give up ?
Answers. please, on a blog near you - well, this one, preferably.
India
* Am I right in thinking that McD's owns Pret now?

Sew cool!

 

Well, I can no longer say 'I never win competitions.' Look at this cool fabric I won on the Sew, Mam, Sew! blog.

Each Friday she has a 'Free Fabric Friday' competition - the rest is history. Wonder what I'll make with this????

Actual Knitting Content

 

Hard to believe, I know. Of late this has been more of a cooking, baking, sewing, anything-but-knitting blog.

But I was inspired (OK, I'm a copy cat) by the Oak Leaf Shawl that I saw on Yvette's blog. The problem was I just didn't know what yarn to use. I have some lovely alpaca and some simply gorgeous purple Zephyr Silk that a Secret Pal sent me - but these just wouldn't do the job, IMHO. Why? What's wrong with Zephyr? Nothing, nothing at all and I can't wait to use it in just the right pattern.

The trouble here is quite simple - the pattern was too simple for these yarns. The Zephyr is just crying out to be something light, airy and intricate. What I needed was a not-so-'plain' yarn. I wonder if this is why Yvette chose to hers in those broad stripes? I was tempted....but no, I couldn't. I had to come up with my own solution. I considered some of my other yarns, but the variations in colour were too bold. Finally, a little light began to glow. It was a bit like the whole energy saving bulb thing - you know, starts off really dim but before you know it - POW! Completely dazzling.

Shaeffer Anne bought a couple of weeks ago from Fankle. A sort of 'semi-solid' in deep purplish-pinks (Don't you just love my lyrical prose....?)
Knit on 4mm needles I obviously had to do more repeats than the pattern stated. I could probably have done a few more but having frogged it back once to add in some more repeats I was loathe to do it again.

I foresee many more of these emerging into the light.

I love Latex

 

It's true. And if you want to love it too,have a peek here.

But why do I like it so much? Because I'm fed up of Word messing up my text.
Sorry?
What was that? You're looking for the rubber section?
Can't help you, I'm afraid - this kind of LaTeX is the documentation kind. I can't help it if you were trawling the web looking for salacious content, can I ?

As I was saying, it really naffs me off when I'm writing an assignment and word processing packages take over. Number Guy (aka Mr India) has been threatening to show me some LaTex (oo-er, missus) for months now and he finally got around to it. It's cumbersome at first, but I'm getting used to it.

SO, now that I've got that off my chest* (!), back to the work
India
*That was my attempt at salaciousness so that those looking for same wouldn't feel too disapointed.

A sad day

 

My thoughts are with the victims in Virginia and their loved ones.

What's your learning style?

 

Mine is definitely trial and error. In other words, I screw up a lot...

Eventually, though, with lots of blood (man, pins are so sharp), a fair amount of sweat but thankfully no tears, my first sewn hat is complete.

Trial and error was also involved in the picture taking - ever tried trying to get a hat picture sans model? Mr India was being very unhelpful and working late - not that I was aiming to have him model the hat, but now I come to think of it....

I give this hat 6/10 in the satisfaction stakes. You might not notice, but the slight ripple effect on part of the lining is the evidence of my screwing up. I topstitched the outer shell, the interfacing and the lining together in one piece - I think that is why there are ripples - the lining and shell are cut from the same pattern and I think this means there is slightly 'too much' material on the inside. If I had read the pattern correctly, the topstitching is done seperately and the interfacing slipped in afterwards....

The top of the hat and the sides are a real beggar to stitch together. Appently one notches the material before sewing to ease the fit. Well, Heather and Yvette might, but I had a few problems.

I also find the shape of the hat a little odd - I don't think 'cloche' is quite the word I'm looking for, but the hat is a bit sharply angled in profile. If Mr India ever stops working, I'll show you what I mean. But still, for a first attempt, not bad.

PS The ripple is really onvious here - but you know, I kind of like it....

Slapped wrist...

 

Hmmm. Youch. Still hurting....
Am I the only one to have done this (go on, lie, make me feel better, say 'no').
You've been lurking aroound a blog for a while, some questions come into your mind. The questions aren't to do with the blog exactly, but they are related to the core of the blog subject. You look for an email adddress and don't see it (because, as it happens, you didn't trawl far enough past the pics in the side bar, doh!).
So, you decide to put a question in a comments box anyway. You think you have made it clear that you understand that the topic is a little delicate. You say that you are interested in different perspectives, you note that maybe the blogger might not want to engage with it on their blog. You think that if it isn't, they'll tell you.
Boy, she did!
I guess from the response that my question touched a raw nerve, guess I know where she stands on the issue I was querying. But y'know, I feel like I just had my bare legs slapped, and I think that was an over-reaction. As I said in my response to her response (!)'netiquette' is a tricky thing, and sometimes I slip up a little. All I can say is, cut us poor benighted souls a little slack - it's nice to be nice.

Sew fast, so easy

 

Well, it took me about 5 hours. I reckon if I was Yvette I could have done it in a lot less time. But I LOVE IT!!!!

I had made the Miss Twiss Hustle Bustle Skirt . This is another really great pattern, but when it was made I just wasn't feeling the love for the material, so I did a heck of a lot of Googling and came up with the Thai fisher (wo)men's skirt .

What can I say? A truly remarkable pattern which enabled me, a non-sewer, to make a great skirt. And I made some cool flat fell seams . This is the kind of seam found on denims - apparently it is particularly strong. It looks particularly good, IMHO.

There's going to be a few more of these, I reckon.