WIP brown and pale pink

I have always liked pale pink and chocolate brown combination but my girls seemed to favour only pink with no additions. Last night I just happened to see these two yarns side by side and started knitting instantly regardless of future owners disapproval. Luckily she was very happy this morning when saw this knit.

Would be nice to finish tonight but I don't think that's going to happen. Tomorrow would be good too but not sure of that either as I have some other knitting projects to be finished some time soon. Though the knitted piece is almost twice the size as WIP photo taken earlier today when we had just the perfect weather and very enjoyable for outdoor knitting.

Lace top in Raspberry red

I have knitted quite a few of these tops in different sizes and spent last couple days trying to write down pattern. I can see happy end for this one. Written part is pretty much done, I have to finish charts with all small details to pay attention to, and check maths.

Here are some pics of this top in gorgeous red shade.

Home made gingerbread cookies

Christmas feeling is all around and we gave our try to make home made Gingerbread cookies. I always had thought it was a rather messy process and hard work, but it was not that bad after all. And result is tasty.

You will need (I used this recipe as main guideline and added some minor modifications):

1kg sugar (I intended to use 500g honey and 500g sugar as seen in picture, but ended up with using sugar only)

1 glass cold water

500g butter

1,2 kg flour

1 tsp baking soda mixed with 3-4 tbsp sour cream

3 eggs

gingerbread spices (15 cardamon pods, 1,5 tsp ground cinnamon, 30 cloves, 1,5 tsp ground ginger, 3 tsp ground corriander, 15 black pepper, orange and lemon rind).

That below posing with our gingerbread ingredients is Albert from England, who is visiting Australian schools and spent weekend with us. Hope he enjoyed baking Christmas goodies :)

So to start grind spices and put aside

Melt sugar on the stove until all melted. That will take about 20-30 minutes. Stir occasionally and be careful not to burn syrup. Take of the stove. Picture below is of the very beginning of the process.

When sugar is transformed into dark brown syrup, add water and butter. Stir until mixture is smooth and well combined.

Check if mixture is reasonably warm, not hot. Only then add about half of flour and mix well.

Add sour cream and soda mixture and 3 well beaten eggs. Leave in fridge to rest until next day.

Next day add flour until get consistence of good dough. Roll it, cut cookies, place on baking trays, put in oven and bake until brown (about 10 mins at 200C, but that will really depend on your oven). Be careful not to overcook as then gingerbread cookies will become bitter.

Some not too successful examples :(

And some good ones :)

Merry Christmas everyone!

Wow!!!

I have been on Etsy Front Page! This treasury made by Dee from rabbitandme was featured there on Saturday December 18th and my white lace socks were included in it. I couldn't believe my shop traffic after this. My shop is rather new and small, and I hardly do any promotional activities. This came as a surprise I had never dreamed about. Ferby does a very happy dance :)

Below is the screenshot of Etsy Front Page and some photos of my knitted lace socks.

Blueberry muffins for Saturday's lazy breakfast

Very moist and full of flavour muffins. Easy to make, too.

120g melted butter or good quality cooking oil
125g sugar
2 eggs
270g flour
1.5 table spoon baking powder
100ml thickened cream
blueberries

Mix sugar & butter (or oil), add eggs. Mix baking powder into flour and add to mixture of sugar, butter & eggs. At the end add blueberries and cream.

Bake about 20 minutes in preheat oven at 200C.

Note: I also have used raspberries and apples instead of blueberries with good results. Cream can be replaced with milk if you are calories cautious.

Cabled sweater

Warm, cabled, traditional heirloom hand knitted sweater :)

Green linen summer shawl

I have had this finished for a while but somehow never got to posting pictures. Knitted loose fabric scarf in linen and viscose blend, very lightweight, breezy and summer-feel-like. I tried several different ways how to wear it and accidently found it to be of perfect length for wrap. Though I don't have pictures of wrap-tie style yet. Probably I will knit another piece of softer wool yarn to make cosy wrap.

 

Set of 2 cardigans

This was particularly enjoyable custom order for two little girls. My girls are about the same age so they tried the cardigans on (being very careful not to damage them in any way!) Kids can wear almost anything and still look cute.

Finders Keepers Markets

I was at fantastic Sydney Finders Keepers Markets last weekend. Just a few pics to get a impression of venue, Sydney Etsy Team stall and overall atmosphere :)

French version of free Christmas tree knitting pattern available

I am very happy to announce that thanks to Miliezebomb my Christmas tree pattern has been translated to French and is available at her blog. This is the very first time my pattern has been translated to some other language and I am so excited :) So if you feel more comfortable with French than with English then I strongly recommend to go and check out Miliezebomb blog from the link above!

Bind off using crochet hook

Recently I had to bind off my knitting using knitting needles. Only then I realized that I hadn't done that for ages. It felt really difficult and inconvenient. So I thought I would put up some pictures in this blog how I do bind off with crochet hook. If you have never tried that you might want to give it a go. It is an extremely easy, fast and very effective method to produce neat bind off edge just as in the picture below.

I basically use crochet hook instead of right hand knitting needle and work bind off as if to do single crochet by inserting crochet hook into next stitch on the left to bind off. Pictures explain that a lot better.

 

WIP this Sunday

Here is what I have been working on this weekend. It is a short sleeved Butterfly cardigan similar to this. Hope to get it done by tomorrow.

NKR - wombats :)

NKR - Not Knitting Related.

We went camping on the weekend and that was the first time I saw wombats that close in their natural environment not some wildlife park. Pictures could have been better but it was dusk already. My camera is not that good at capturing shots with poor lighting.