People’s Choice wine to star at the Emporium Hotel’s Cocktail Bar

Emporium Hotel is a chick luxury hotel in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. It is in the same precinct where the Channel 7 reality series, Conviction Kitchen was filmed.

On Wednesday 29th June, a special one off event will take place at this hotel where its Wine Sommelier Robert Lavelle will guide guests through a blind tasting of twelve carefully selected Premium drops, resulting in a people’s choice taking pride of place on the Cocktail Bar’s wine list.

How it will work: four stations will be arranged around the grand onyx bar, each featuring a different varietal – Pinot Gris, Semillon Sauvignon Blanc, Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon. Each guest will vote for their favourite wine from each station. The wine with the most votes will then be added onto the new Emporium Hotel Cocktail Bar menu.

Delicious tapas will keep the hunger at bay as the “honourary sommeliers” work their way through the selection.

Emporium Hotel’s Wine Tasting Event

Date: Wednesday 29^th June, 2011

Time: 5.30pm – 7.30pm

Where: Emporium Hotel Cocktail Bar

Price: $45 per person – Very limited places available

Includes: Wine tasting, tapas and lucky door prize

RSVP: Lilian Hare at [email protected] or (07) 3253 6999

Getting ready for back to school makes me think about pencil crafts, so let’s take a look at some pencil themed knitting patterns!

I recently made a pencil on a circular knitting machine, and it was a fun, quick, easy project that uses little bits of leftover yarn (and if you don’t have yellow you can make it a colored pencil using whatever color’s your favorite). And if you want to make a bigger version check out this pattern from Orange Olive Road on Etsy.

If you want to knit a pencil pillow by hand, check out Sketchy, available on Ravelry from Shana S. Cohen. This one uses worsted weight yarn and has two size options and the choice to make a pencil with an eraser or a colored pencil.

Pencil scarves seem to be the most popular kind of pencil knitting pattern, and there are lot of cute ones. This one from Cosy Craft UK mostly uses garter stitch, with some welts to add texture and what looks like an I-cord edging. It calls for DK weight yarn.

If you want to go all garter stitch try this version from Emsley Co Creations, which uses five colors of DK weight yarn and just a little shaping to make the point of the pencil.

There’s also this fun, mostly stockinette so it looks like it curls a bit, pencil pattern that looks like it’s worked in chunky yarn from Little Knits Studio. This one uses just a little garter stitch and easy shaping for the point.

If you don’t want a pencil scarf, how about some pencil socks? The No. 2 Pencil Socks from The Yarn Enabler are available from Ravelry and use five colors of sock yarn. They feature wide ribs to mimic the texture of a pencil and have options to be worked from the top down or the toe up.

Needs Sharpening by Alexander Walker is a free pattern on Ravelry that uses five colors of sock yarn to make a sort of shortie sock. The little bit of black at the tips of the toes inspired the name. These, too, can be worked in either direction and are available in three sizes.

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