Trepidation

In a few weeks my children will perform A Christmas Carol in their school and a sign-up sheet was handed out in order to find parent helpers.

I looked at it and saw, that they needed help with the costumes. I decided to sign up. I love to help, I can sew, but the question is always, will I be able to get it all done? ( This is where my little “problem” comes in: I always think, I can do it and always underestimate the amount of time it will take…)

On Tuesday I got my assignment. I have to sew 3 velvet capes for the narrators to wear. We have already bought the fabric: 6m each!

I do not have a pattern, but I have one cape I am supposed to copy. It is beautifully done. It consists of 4 panels and has  shoulder shaping. It is gathered around the neck and has a large lined hood. The edge of the hood is decorated with a white feather boa.  

Yesterday I  started to trace the pattern on tissue paper, which I had to glue together, because the cape is so large. When I examined the cape I discovered something weird: All the inner seams are sewn by hand, only the hem and front is machine stitched. Why? I know about the problem of ironing velvet, but not about machine stitching it. Hmmm….

Oh, and I got another call, I was asked, if I could sew curtains for the girls change room. No rush! ( It is time to deal with my “problem”,  isn’t it?) I guess, it could be worse: I could be asked to mend something! 

Homemade Granola

This is my favourite Granola recipe. I used to make it for years until my kids wanted the cereals they saw on TV. Now I have made it again and it is a big hit! Double the recipe, if you have a larger family.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Mix in a large bowl:

200g large flake oats

50g sunflower seeds

50g sesame seeds

50g unsweetened coconut

50g almonds ( ground or sliced etc.)

1/4 tsp Cinnamon

Take a cookie sheet and drop 3 Tbsp honey and 3 Tbsp sunflower oil ( or another oil with a neutral taste) on it. Put the sheet in the oven for a few minutes until the honey is runny and slightly bubbly.

Take the cookie sheet out of the oven and pour the oat mix onto it. Using a spatula mix the oat with the oil and honey until everything is well covered. Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes until the granola is lightly browned.

While it is still hot pour the granola back into the bowl and add 100g raisins and/ or dried cranberries. Mix well.

Packaged in a pretty jar this would make a nice gift as well.

Baby Blanket of Hope

I have made this blanket for a very good friend of mine. Her baby is due in January and she is in that horrible situation, that she does not know, if the baby will be ok or not.

I cried when I hung up the phone. It is one of those situations where everyone is so utterly helpless.

I have chosen minky fabric, because it is incredibly soft and a cheerful paisley flannel. It does not have a lining, but I stitched a large heart in the middle of it.

I will mail it today and send my love and hope along with it.

Baby Mittens

Do you remember the baby I found for my extra Pumpkin Hat ? As it turns out the same baby is in need of some mittens!

I used some leftover yarn in fingering weight from the socks that I knit for my oldest daughter. I have dyed the yarn striped, but I knit these mittens with two strands using the beginning and the end of the skein at random points of the repeat. I like this effect: somewhat stripy and tweedy!

I used a pattern from an old Debbie Bliss book and changed a few things and was quite surprised, that they ended up looking exactly like the ones Alison made for her daughter. She used a pattern from this book.

The snowflake is a simple cross-stitch design, that I added using just one strand of white yarn.  

Yesterday I tried one mitten on and guess what, the little guy liked it so much, that he cried, when I took it off! ( Ok, maybe that was just because he was fed up with me, but you never know with babies, right?)

Enjoying a Warm Neck

I own a coat, that I like to wear a lot, but it leaves my neck unprotected. I would feel silly running around with a scarf wound around my neck, since right now it is barely below 10 degrees C here. So I decided to knit myself a very short scarf: a neck warmer.

I used my own transitional yarn in fingering weight held double. I used 2 skeins of 2oz each, but I started the second skein not at the beginning. This resulted in a tweed effect, when one of the skeins change colours and the other one does not.

The scarf is started at the long edge and knit from the top down, so to speak. I cast on 80 sts and knit in entrelac over 10 sts for 4 entrelac rows. In the 5th entrelac row I knit leafs at each end.

Leaf pattern:

- pick up 10sts, turn

- purl sts on this row and every following wrong side row

- k4, y/o, k1, y/o, k4, ssk turn

- k5, y/o, k1, y/o, k5, ssk turn

-k6, y/o, k1, y/o, k6, ssk turn

- *ssk, knit until last 3 sts on leaf, k2 tog, ssk turn* repeat until leaf has only 3 sts

- sl1, k2tog, pull slipped stitch over   

I used a somewhat unconventional method to preserve the tips on my leafs: When I had only one stitch left, I made a knot into the loop by slipping my yarn balls through the loop and pulling it tight. Then I proceeded as usual and picked up the next 10 sts.

When the last leaf was finished I used a crochet hook and crocheted in slip stitch all around the scarf except for the side with the leafs. At the first corner I left a few stitches unattached to get a loop for a button.

As a final touch I crocheted a little flower and used it as a button. That is not quite convenient, because the flower does not slide easily through the loop, but I like how it looks.

The flower’s cylinder shaped centre is formed with slip stitches as well. At the bottom I added a row of single crochet, increasing every stitch to make a flat circle. The petals are formed with double crochet stitches into the same stitch of the previous row.  In the end I left a long tail, threaded it onto a embroidery needle and used it to pull the petals together and into the centre by making a stitch from the base of the cylinder over the base of the petals and pulling the thread tight.

I used 2 skeins of 2 oz yarn in fingering weight and have 20g ( about 3/4 oz) left.  

Felt Heart Garland

Yesterday I made this garland with felt hearts for my fireplace. I wanted to decorate it a bit, but I will hold off with the Christmas decorations until December.

 I really like the combination of red, white and black. I have also added some fat red candles on the mantle piece. Now I am looking for those pretty small pine cones, that I keep in a box in the crawl space. Maybe I will find them this weekend….

For the hearts I made a fabric sandwich with two pieces of red felt and a thick polyester batting in the middle. I cut a template out of card stock and sewed around this. After that I cut them out and threaded them onto cotton yarn.

This very lazy method results in hearts where you can see the white batting in the seams. But I don’t mind and I really like how puffy they are.

Not for the Faint of Heart

My Grandma has a sweet tooth and when she confided in me a few years ago, that she no longer could get her favourite candy I jumped at the chance.

As you all know, it is very difficult to find a nice gift for someone who “already has everything” and “needs very little”. (Like the socks, that I knit her and my cousin now wears…)

One of her favourite candies is Almond Brittle and I will tell you, how I make it.

A few precautions in advance: The brittle stays very hot for quite a while, so be careful. Do not taste it, if you want to give it away. It tastes so good, you will have a hard time, letting it go! Also for those of you who do not have a scale, I am sorry, but weighing is very important in order to get the proportions right, so that everything holds together well.

 You need:

250g powdered sugar, 100g butter, 300g sliced almonds and 1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Get all your ingredients ready, before you start. Spread butter on the surface where you want to roll out the brittle. A  large wooden cutting board works best. Butter the rolling pin as well. Roast the almonds in a 350 F warm oven for about 10 minutes, then  keep them warm.

Melt the powdered sugar slowly in a sturdy pot until it has a light amber colour. It will become bitter, if you let it get too dark. Do not stir the sugar while it is melting, that causes clumps.

Add the butter in small portions, so that you do not cool down the caramel too much. Add the cream of tartar and the almonds. Stir until the almonds are coated well.

Pour the brittle onto the prepared board and roll it out as thinly as possible. Let it cool and break it into smaller pieces.

Delicious – Crusty Rolls

My friend gave me this recipe the other day and I have tried it this morning. This is a recipe for crusty rolls, that is very easy to make. The secret is, that you start the dough the night before with very little yeast, let the dough rest in the fridge over night and bake it in the morning. ( Or start in the morning for very tasty dinner rolls.) Here are the ingredients:

400g All Purpose Flour

100g Rye Flour

1/2 tsp Yeast

2 tsp Salt

340g water

Kneed the dough until it has come together smoothly. Cover the bowl and let the dough rest in the fridge over night. In the morning wet your hands and shape tennis ball sized rolls. They do not need to be well shaped. Bake at 450 F for about 20 minutes.

If you do not have a scale, try 3 cups flour and one cup rye flour with 1 3/4 to 2 cups water. You want a dough that contains somewhat more water than usually. It also tastes very good made with all purpose flour only.  

These rolls freeze well, so save yourself the work and make a double batch. (That is, what I should have done….)

Denim Tunic – an Update

I have finished the back and the front of the denim Tunic for my daughter P. I must say, that she is taller than I thought she was. All that moss-stitch! ( It might also have something to do with the fact, that I knit this on 3.5mm needles and the yarn shrinks, so that I have to make the sweater even longer!)

What you can see on the picture is the yoke with all these pretty cables.

I have started on the sleeves going with the general instructions of Elizabeth Zimmerman. The reason for this is, that I do not want a sweater with over sized sleeves.

But before I can finish the first sleeve, I think, I have to sew the back and front together, finish the neck and wash the thing. The fabric will shrink slightly in width according to my swatch. My daughter can put the front and back on, then I can measure the length a washed sleeve should have. With a bit of Math and luck I can figure out how long an unwashed sleeve should be. ( And if I am wrong, could the sleeves please end up being rather too long than too short? Thanks!)

P.s.: In case you were wondering how my sewing lessons are progressing, P. sewed those two Halloween Ghosts all by herself. She told me, she sewed exactly on the line, even if the line was not straight!