LAB Bar

Last night I went to LAB (London Academy of Bartenders) bar in Soho.

The bar prides itself on being at the forefront of making exceptional cocktails for the past 10 years, and after trying a couple I can tell you that they are definitely doing something right.

The cocktail menu has over 100 cocktails on it, all unique to LAB Bar, you won't find any Mai Tais or piña coladas on the menu.

The selection of cocktails is brilliant, and they are put into sections such as tall, bubbly and martinis. Unfortunately though, having such a big selection can be overwhelming, especially if you are trying to pick something quickly as the bartender is waiting for your choice, it does however force you to try something new.

I went for the Honey Drizzle Swizzle, which contains honey, Drambuie, vodka, lime juice and limoncello.

I loved my cocktail and I think it definitely emphasised what LAB Bar are trying to create.

When you first taste the cocktail it is like a very tart lemonade but then afterwards you get the sweet taste of honey, very unusual in a cocktail but it had me wanting to go back for more, meaning my drink lasted all of two minutes.

Not everyone was as lucky as I was from our panic ordering. 

My boyfriend had a Peardrop, which was very sweet but he liked it and my friend ordered a Cracker Jack which was pretty awful, he did however order it just for the name and when he looked at the ingredients he discovered it contains black pepper and egg whites which may explain why he wasn't so keen...

The cocktails are all around the £8 mark, which is average for a London cocktail place.

The bar does get busy, but the music isn't overbearingly loud and you can ring up to reserve a table which is always welcome.

Something I really did enjoy about this bar is that the bouncer outside wouldn't let it get too crowded, it did mean you may have to wait 5 minutes to get inside, but it means you won't be bum to bum with the other drinkers.

Check out the LAB Bar website, where they have the full drinks menu so you can be a bit better prepared for what drink to order then we was.

Book Review - Coconut Unlimited

This book is one of my 99p Kindle sale success stories (unfortunately it has gone up in price now), which I am very glad of considering how awful the last book I read was.

The story focuses on Amit, as he looks back on his teenage years in the early 90's, trying to make it in a rap band with his two asian friends.

Amit goes to a private school where all the other students are white, so obviously he is instantly considered an outsider and clings to the other two asian children in the school.

In order to try and fit in more, and to get all the girls they decide to form a rap band. They call themselves Coconut Unlimited because coconut is his sisters nickname for him (brown on the outside, white on the inside).

The story follows them from the forming of the band all the way to their first gig, with lots of teenage hormones, underage drinking, a bit of bullying and the occasional bit of weed.

This book is very relatable, and quite cringeworthy, it is a bit like the book equivalent of The Inbetweeners, nerdy guys trying to get all the girls and failing.

I had a huge smile on my face most of the time when reading this, just because there are so many parts of the story that will remind you of experiences you had as a teenager.

It's also very charming and at times a little sad, you just want to shake Amit and tell him what he is doing wrong, despite the fact that you know you would've probably made the same mistake.

This book was a joy to read, and I think anyone could pick it up and relate to it and enjoy it so I give this book 4.5/5. 

I got my copy from amazon.

Knitted Friendship Rings

I knitted these friendship rings! How cute.

They are for myself and my lovely friend Rachel.

These are the first things I have knitted on double pointed needles and I would recommend this as a starter project for using double pointed needles because it is quick, small and produces something cute. They are felted as well which lets you get away with a lot because the felting masks any mistakes you may have made.

A giant duplicate stitch is used to make the hearts, duplicate stitch is also something new to me so I learnt two techniques in the space of 30 minutes.

I got to use my lovely new knit pro double pointed needles and the Jamiesons yarn I got from the knitting and sewing show at Alexandra Palace.

I used the free Heartfelt Rings pattern from the lovely Tiny Owl Knits, and decided to make them into friendship rings by inverting the colours on the second ring.

I'm quite proud of these, they are not perfect, but then again most friendships aren't. 

They are cute and chunky and are keeping my finger warm in this horrible British weather. 

Featured designer - Tiny Owl Knits

I just had to share with you my favourite knitwear designer, because I'm pretty sure my friend Rachel is getting fed up of me constantly these designs to her, it is the lovely Stephanie Dosen from Tiny Owl Knits.

Being a 20 something knitter, I sometimes struggle finding patterns that I like and that I can actually wear, as despite the rise in young knitters, the majority are still a fair bit older then I am, so a lot of what is out there is what I shall call 'classic' (read old), not me at all.

Stephanie's patterns on the other hand are gorgeous. They are cute, kitsch, charming and whimsical, all things I love. Stephanie also has some vlogs on her site which are a joy to watch because Stephanie is as lovely as her designs, I wish she would make them more often though!

Anyway just look at these great pieces of knitwear! 

Deer With Little Antlers Hat

Meow Mitts

The Beekeeper's Quilt

Mr Fox Stole My Heart

I could go on all day, but I won't.

Her patterns are all available to buy on her ravelry page and are $5.50, around £3 each, definitely a bargain.

I have made the gnome home (blog post coming soon) and I can say her patterns are very easy to follow, the instructions are clear and there are plenty of pictures so you can see what your work should be looking like, and if you still struggle there is even a Tiny Owl Knits group on ravelry where there are loads of friendly, knowledgable people who are there to offer help and advice on anything you struggle on.

If you hadn't guessed by my recent purchase of sock yarns, I am going to give the beekeepers quilt a go, which is very daunting because it took Stephanie a year to make, so it will probably take me about 3, but I think it is something that I will be able to pass down to my children (when I have them).

I just want to end this post by saying I asked Stephanie via a ravelry message for permission to use her pictures. I didn't really expect a response back because I can imagine that she is very busy and must get a lot of messages everyday, but she responded very quickly and was so nice it made me fall a little bit in love with her, I am total girl crushing, it's hard not to when she creates such fabulous designs!

Mini Skeins

Is it me or is everything better mini? Mini cosmetics are so cute and great for travelling, it turns out that you can get mini skeins of knitting yarn, and yes, they are even cuter then the full size.

I just had to share this with you. 

These are mini sock yarn skeins from The Knitting Goddess. 

This is the October mixed set, she brings out a new batch every month as they hand dye them, and they have a subscription service where you can get them delivered monthly, they are so pretty!

Sock yarn is one of the main things I was looking for at Alexandra Palace knitting show, but there wasn't that many, and the ones their was where very expensive.

This set is £10, or you can buy them individually for £1.50.

They are 75% super wash merino and 25% nylon and you get roughly 10g a skein, great for if you are working on a sock blanket or want a variety of yarns for cheap.

Here is a close up of the colours.

I just had to share them because I love them so much! Hope you like them too. 

Auntie Tor's Brownie Recipe

These brownies are pretty tasty, if I do say so myself. I'm not normally the biggest brownie fan as I'm not a big dark chocolate fan, but even I like these ones and they where gone in 5 minutes when I took them to work.
I got the recipe from my aunt, who got it from a TV programme but she reckons she has tweaked it enough not be plagiarised.
These are quite quick and easy to make so here we go.

Ingredients:
225g Unsalted Butter
100g Dark Chocolate
200g Caster Sugar
4 Large Eggs
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
50g Plain Flour
50g Cocoa Powder
Pinch of Salt
75g of Hazelnut Pieces
Makes roughly 18 large pieces.




1. Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. Melt the butter and chocolate over gentle heat.
3. In a separate bowl mix the sugar, eggs and vanilla.
4. Mix in the melted chocolate and butter with the sugar eggs and vanilla.
5. Sift in the flour and cocoa powder and mix.
6. Mix in the hazelnut pieces.
7. Pour into a pre lined baking tray.
8. To add something a bit extra, take some small hazelnut chunks (get the hazelnut, put it in a bag and bash it until you get some nice small pieces, or go to Tesco where they sell them already bashed.) and sprinkle them on top.
9. Bake for roughly 25 minutes (baking time depends on how thick your brownies are).
10. Take out the brownies, leave to cool then cut, or if you are like my boyfriend, dive straight in!

Enjoy!

                                                                                        

The Knitting and Sewing Show Haul

So this weekend I went to Alexandra Palace for the knitting and sewing show.

The show itself was pretty good, there was a huge selection of vendors there and lots of lovely things on display, however I am not sure if I would go again next year as the venue got so crowded and hot that it made me feel quite sick and at times irritated, especially when people stopped in the incredibly narrow aisles and blocked them!

Anyway, whilst I was there I picked up a few things, so here is what I got!

I'll start up with the magazine bundle. 

Homemaker is a brand new magazine, so to try and promote it they had the magazine in a bag along with a Knit TV dvd, 3 different balls of yarn (they had different colours in each bag) and a set of knitting needles, you also got to pick either Knit Today or the sewing magazine, which both had free gifts with them, all for £6!

The yarn it comes with is 100% acrylic and is pretty awful, but considering Lets Knit is £5.99 and Homemaker is £4.99 it was bit of a bargain that I couldn't resist. I also picked one up for my nan.

Homemaker is a lovely magazine, and this one is full of Christmas ideas. It has a lovely mix of cooking, knitting, sewing and other crafts, and is great if you are into vintage things or the whole Cath Kidston style.

Next up are the very gorgeous Knit Pro needles I treated myself to. They are so pretty I had to take a close up of the pattern on them.

 

The ones I got are from the Symfonie range. 

I got double pointed needles in 3.5mm and 4.5mm and straight needles in 4.5mm.

These are the first wooden needles I have ever owned, actually they are the first non aluminium needles I have ever owned and now I know why people are so fond of them and why people don't rate aluminium.

As you can see I was so excited by these that I cracked them open as soon as I came home and started knitting up my latest project.

These feel so nice against my finger tips, hold onto the wool nicely but are also very easy to knit with, I can't get over how different they feel to knit with then my other needles!

I thought these where quite expensive, at £5.50 a pack, but after looking around other stalls I found that these where actually the cheapest by about £1. I got them from Knitting 4 fun which had a great stall there. 

Next up is the yarn I got from Jamiesons of Shetland.

Once again I opened it straight away as I was so excited to get going with my latest project.

I got the Shetland Spindrift in Peach, Royal (this is the most gorgeous, bright blue, the picture isn't doing it justice!), Crimson and Sholmit.

This is proper wooly stuff, and I am not keen on the feel at all, however I am using it for felting and I have actually already finished one of my projects this morning with the yarn and it works brilliantly for felting, they also have a huge colour selection.

I also have to say, Jamiesons had amazing customer service, the woman who was serving me was so lovely. There was a shade I was looking for and they had sold out so she offered to send it free of delivery, they already had discounts on the wool that day so it would've cost her the same amount to post it as the wool itself was, I told her it was fine and just picked another shade, but I really appreciate gestures like this, she also let me off 20p as I was searching in my purse for it, so I got these 4 balls of wool for £11, what a bargain!

The last thing I got was some gorgeous sock yarn.

This was bit of a splurge, £9 for 50g but its so gorgeous and thought I would treat myself for doing so well at work (to be honest the whole show was bit of a treat, but you know what I mean).

The yarn is from Tall Yarns N Tails and is 80% baby alpaca and 20% bamboo. 

They had loads of pretty colour choices, but I thought seeing as I am splurging I should go for shades of pink seeing as it is my favourite colour and I know I would always love it. 

I have bought this because of yet another project I plan to do, so many in the pipeline! Hopefully I can share them with you soon.

So there you go! Sorry for walls of texts and photos but I am just so excited to share this all with you.

The Knit Pro needles are probably my favourite purchase, just because they have completely changed my outlook on knitting needles, although the sock yarn is so luxurious its a close second.

I just have to mention Jamiesons again as the people where just so lovely and they have great products, so go check them out!