Gift For a Teacher

I found this cute pattern on Ravelry, but decided to crochet it instead of knitting and made it up as I went along.

The yarn is from my stash. It is a superwash wool in worsted weight, but I do not remember the brand.

I think, I will gift this in a brown paper bag. Fitting, no? It is for the same teacher who lent me her spinning wheel. I believe, she will appreciate it.  

Here is how I did it:

I started out with a small ring of 5 slip stitches that I increased with single crochet (increasing every stitch) until I had a disk 12 sts around. I placed a marker to show the beginning of a round. Then I increased 4 sts * every round until I had 60 sts. After that I went straight for 2 rows,  crocheting back and forth from this point to create an opening. In the following rows I decreased 4 stitches every other row.  When I had only 12 stitches left, I crocheted a small loop and cast off. 

The stem I made with 5 slip stitches, turned and then stitched 1 single crochet into every loop. For the leaf I made 3 slip stitches, crocheted in single crochet 2 rounds, increased to 6 sts the next round, continued straight for a few rounds and decreased until I had 1 stitch left. 

The embroidery is a simple back stitch. I folded the leaf in the middle lengthwise and stitched it together in the end to give it more shape before I attached it to the apple.

* stitch 3 increase 1, repeat ;  next row: stitch 4 increase 1, repeat;  next row: stitch 5 increase 1, repeat  etc. 

Still Flying High

I had a great time last night! It all went well and my nerves did not get the better of me. I had a lot of fun dancing for all these people (the theatre seats 1.200) , but most of all I enjoyed being a part of it. There was a lot of excitement, laughter, hugs and cheers and a few tears.

There is a group of young adults that are graduating this year and some of them have been dancing for 15 years in this studio. They did a special good-bye piece for us and it was incredibly moving.

Oh, and talk about moving: read Franklin’s post.

So You Think You Can Dance?

No – but I have to do it anyway! Tonight is the night. We practised our shuffle draw-backs, our para diddles and most importantly the time-step since September. Tonight while waiting in the darkness in the wings of the stage I will wonder if it was enough.

This is the weirdest feeling ever:  Time stands still while you wait in the darkness, glimpse the group that is dancing on stage, trying to prevent your heart from jumping out of your chest. Just breathe, just breathe.

Then the stage turns dark, you walk on, lights on, the music starts and off you go. (Don’t stumble and remember to SMILE!!!) It is all over in what feels like seconds. ( It is 3:31 minutes, actually)

Wish me luck!

 

Clown Faces – a Team Effort

I made these for the Cake Walk at our school. Taste-wise the little cakes are pretty basic, but they were a lot of fun to decorate.

This is the recipe ( makes about 12):

Preheat oven to 350 F, spread parchment paper on baking sheets

Cream 130g butter and 180g sugar, add 1 tsp of vanilla and a pinch of salt. To this mix add slowly 4 eggs, wait for one egg to be incorporated before you add the next. In a separate bowl mix 500g flour with 5 tsp of backing powder. Stir the flour into the dough with 3/4 cup milk.

Using a large ice-cream scoop portion the dough onto the baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches of room. Bake for 15 minutes then brush the cakes with milk. Return to the oven for another 5 to 10 minutes.

To decorate I used icing sugar with a bit of milk added and spread this on the bottom of the cakes. For the dark icing I just added cocoa powder.

My son piped the hair and mouths, while my daughters added the noses and eyes. I was very grateful about their help, since they did a great job and it was quite late when we started.

 My latest knitting project is a cardigan for a toddler. The pattern is called Devan and can be found here. The yarn is my own hand dyed. It is fingering weight and therefore relatively slow going, but then the stockinette is pleasantly mindless.

 

Yart Sale at Etsy

Etsy is having a Yart (Yard-Art) Sale starting Wednesday, June 11to Friday, June 20

~ FIRST ANNUAL KICKOFF TO SUMMER YART SALE ~

 An Artistic Slant to a traditional Yard Sale. 10 day countdown to the first Day of Summer.  

To find items on sale type the word “yart” and whatever you are interested in ( i.e. “necklace”) into the search engine and you will find many items.

To narrow it down it helps, if you exclude what you are not looking for by adding “NOT gold” or “NOT beads”. Also you might want to check out your favourites. Maybe some of these items are on sale.

http://www.etsy.com/index.php

Sweet Memories

When I was in first grade I my Christmas present was an actual working mini stove with oven. ( I know, it sounds very dangerous, but remember,  we did not wear seat belts then either.)

 A few years and several moves later I found a new friend in my school who had the same stove and we loved to cook together.

One of our meals was:

•  Fried Salami ( The salami had exactly the same size as the frying pan.)
• Spaghetti with tomato sauce ( The sauce came from a cube, you had to dissolve in hot water. I am pretty sure a tomato had never come near it.) 
• My favourite was the dessert my friend made: Applesauce with whipped cream mixed together and cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top. You should try it. It is delicious. 

P.s. The weather has not improved. Yesterday it rained so hard, you could have gone skimboarding on the road (if it had not been so cold, that is).

It Should Not Be This Hard

I have had a few nerve testing weeks: first my daughter injures her finger and then I had a health scare, that kept us in suspense for a while (  I am fine, thank you) and so you think all this other trivial stuff should be easy.

But the truth is that huge piles of endless laundry and winter weather in June can get you down, too. So let’s focus on the positives: 

• I did get a new oven and it looks and works so well, that we wonder, why we did not buy it sooner
• I finished my daughter’s sweater
• I sewed a skirt for her as well of her own design
• My daughter was ecstatic about her new outfit
• My new serger came with a nifty chart, that makes it real easy use
• I have started a baby cardigan and have finished one and a half fronts already
• I have found the first ripe strawberry in my garden ( It is so precious, I have not yet decided what to do with it)

Here is to having fun despite it all! Happy Monday, everyone!

I will make photos as soon as it is less dark, I promise.

Cheese – Dressed Up

Costco sells these small logs of fresh goat’s cheese. When it is quite ”young” it is still very soft, but it will harden if you let it sit for a while. For this recipe it is best if your cheese is still soft, because it is stickier. 

Fill a small bowl halfway with thinly sliced chives. You can also add a few terragon leaves. Terragon has a hint of licorice and I like the combination with the chives.

Cut the log in 2 and shape the halfs into disks like thick hamburger patties. Carefully lay the cheese onto the chives, turning it over and coat the whole cheese with the chives. For the second half you could try crushed black pepper or sweet paprika powder.

Put these cheeses on a plate, add some baguette or crackers and you have a great appetizer for your guests.  

Milestones

I have been very busy lately, but I have been eyeing two numbers on my computer screen. During the weekend I had the 10.000th visitor on this blog. I find this quite amazing: a small town worth of people have looked at my blog in about 18 month.

The other number is my yarn sales at etsy: 399 as of now. Have I really dyed, sold and mailed these many skeins of yarn? I cannot quite believe it.

Knitting progress has been slow, but I have done some spinning:

I have taken the first skein of yarn and plied it with some blue sewing thread. Then I spun the rest of my fibre, halfed it by weight and plied it together. Of course one half was longer than the other and I tried some Navajo plying with that.

I must say I enjoy spinning very much!