My family - for as long as I can remember - has always made wine at home. It is a big hobby of my brother's and my dad's, and was my grandfather's as well. My husband, knowing that it's being done but was never really exposed to it, thought it was interesting that my family did this.
Him being more of a beer drinker than wine, a few years ago he was gifted a beer making kit, and has made a few batches with great success.
Last Christmas, to take his home brewing a step further, I bought him a brew-your-own hard cider kit, because he talked about how he used to have hard cider when he was visiting his family in Northern Ireland when he was younger. I think this particular hobby picked up better than making his own beer, and he has since made a handful of batches.
This month is both Father's Day (June 21) in Canada and his birthday (June 28th) - so to extend his new hobby a bit further, I bought him a few more home-brewing cider things, plus I made him these lovely dishcloths to clean up his fermentation equipment with:
The pattern is Fresh Knit Apple/Bar Mop - it's another mosaic dishcloth pattern. I had so much fun learning the mosaic knitting technique from making the St Patrick's Day ones, I was eager to make some more!
The texture of these on the picture side is so waffley, it's very neat to feel and I'm sure will be very scrubby to work with! I can't wait to make more of these, I can totally see myself making them for Christmas!
My brother's birthday is in September (coincidentally, a few days after International Bacon Day) so I decided, as part of his gift, to make him a set of alphabet pigs in the letters 'B', 'A', 'C', 'O' and 'N'. I'm hoping to complete all five this month.
Last night, I finished the first two letters:
That little munchkin hand you see is my 2.5 year old son grabbing the 'A' right at the last minute as I took the picture!
I've already cast on the 'C', can't wait to get it done!
