COINCIDENCES

This entry has 1)Welcome Riley, 2)Kindle stuff, 3) Recipe and 4)Knitting.
1) Welcome Riley

We were happy to welcome a new member of the family this week.  Baby Riley arrived weighing in at 8lb. He arrived on June 4^th which just happens to be my mother’s birthday.  So that was a happy coincidence.

I have been really well disciplined and not bought any noisy toys!  Yet. 

Riley has been the recipient of a hand knitted shawl I did, but is not inundated with knitted clothes from me.  (His dad didn’t want a “knitted baby”)  I know this is hard to believe if you are knitting orientated, but I am a firm believer in Mom and Dad of the child know best.  And since I espouse this ethic, I have little choice but to abide by it.

It goes without saying he is the best grandchild anyone ever had.  So yeah, I think I could become a granny bore. 

2)Kindle stuff

I am a sucker for “free” books!  I put this in inverts because many of the books I have downloaded are not free all the while.  I have regular alerts from this site http://www.ereaderiq.com/free/ and it is a really good tool for finding free books.  Especially if one subscribes to their email as this can be personalised allowing the recipient to only have alerts on topics in which they are interested,.   It is also worth noting that books free on Amazon com, are not necessarily free on Amazon co.uk. Many of them are only free for a very limited period so one does have to be a regular visitor to the site to ensure a good book isn’t missed.  One I thoroughly enjoyed though sadly at the moment no longer free, was shown on the ereaderiq site and is by

P D Bekendam and called Prime of Life http://www.amazon.co.uk/Prime-of-Life-ebook/dp/B0078H9XZQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338833027&sr=8-1

Sometimes I just check out the “Customers who bought this item also bought” section on Amazon and thus today came across a few books that appealed to me including  http://www.amazon.co.uk/mystery-romance-Cottonmouth-Series-ebook/dp/B00688GE7Q/ref=pd_sim_kinc_99#reader_B00688GE7Q 

if anyone else has any to recommend I would welcome the link.

 3)Recipe

Easy Make now eat later salad.

I packet of microwave long grain rice cooked, 1 can chick peas opened and rinsed, some quartered cherry tomatoes, small cubes of cucumber, slices of spring onion, handful of halved grapes, a sweet red pepper chopped into small pieces. Mint leaves. Optional dressing.

If beetroot is liked it could be served alongside, but not with as it will discolour the rice.  This is a nice salad with crusty bread.  It is best not to put the dressing on until just before eating.  For the dressing I like a splash of balsamic vinegar, but otherwise a classic salad dressing of say 3tbs olive oil, 1 tbs white wine or cider vinegar, seasoning, 1tsp sugar, all shaken together, is fine.

4) Knitting

I was asked this week how a knitter can avoid a curling cuff on Sanquhar gloves.  I have seen many pics of my favourite gloves to knit and think it may come with the territory to varying degrees.  I gave suggestions of a couple of rows of seed stitch at the edge, or simple rib to start before introducing contrasting colours.  If anyone else has any suggestions I will gladly pass on advice to the person who approached me.

For anyone who is not sure of what  Sanquhar knitting is, here is a sample of my knitting in this Scottish pattern.  This project used the Dukes pattern.