Sage butter and roast pumpkin pasta

From Donna Hay's Pasta, Rice & Noodles cookbook. Absolutely delicious!

Chicks!

 We've had chicks hatching over the last few days. Andrew is thrilled! This is Four.

 You can just see them here with their mum, Aniseed. She's not the biological mum of any of them, but she's the one who hatched them.

One is at the back right, Two is back left and Three is in front. Five hatched this morning but unfortunately, didn't make it through the day.

Mum's mitt

 Knitted from the yarn I dyed earlier in the year, with the Baby Fan Mitts pattern from Ravelry. I swear this is the easiest thing I have ever knitted though I wish I could have figured out how to continue the pattern on the thumb too.

Losing it!

But all for a good cause!
Andrew and I have signed up for the World's Greatest Shave to raise money both to support those with blood cancer, and leukaemia research. We have a target of $5000 each.
To raise the stakes, for every $500 I raise, 10cm will come off my hair. My hair is currently almost 90cm from hairline to tips. The last time it had more than a trim was 5 years ago. The last time it was above my shoulders was 15 years ago. My hair has never been shorter than a bob!

If you can spare a few dollars, please sponsor me!

Bread making class

3 hours produced quite a good haul...

There's smoke in the air

A slight grey haze over the blue sky. It makes the sunlight oddly yellow. It would be pretty if I didn't know what it meant.
There's no fires near me yet, but I think that's just a matter of time this Summer.

Dabbling with Dye

About a year and a half ago, I bought a kit to learn how to dye yarn. Except, then I read the instructions, which required saucepans to be kept just for dyeing and I put it in the too hard basket. Then in an Ankh-Morpork Knitter's Guild swap, I received some Kool Aid. This famous American kids' drink can be used for dyeing animal fibres (wool, silk etc) so I kept an eye out for cheap but nice yarn.

Finally, I started dyeing. I started with Kool Aid ice blocks and solar dyeing

Arrange ice blocks on dampened yarn, cling wrap and place in sun until liquid is clear.

I used two packets of Ice Blue Lemonade, and one each of Pink Lemonade and Grape, mixed with half a cup of water per packet (I think I'll use more water next time, but it was really hard to find any instructions on how much to use)

I was quite impressed but didn't love the finished product. The Grape dominated and there was too much white remaining.

So I overdyed with Cherry. Much better.

I also tried a boil-on-the-stove version of dyeing with Cherry. I'd bought what was supposed to be 50/50 viscose and tussa (sic) silk, so I thought the silk would take up the dye, but no matter what I did, I couldn't get it to set.

I ended up throwing in 50g of wool. I expected a solid colour, but I really like the semi-solid effect I ended up with. I gave both the faint pink blend and the wool to my MIL, who is already knitting the blend up into a cardigan for Niece #5