NEW YEARS EVE

I was about to take down the Christmas Branch when I thought I'd take a photo. I had to open the back door to try to get more light in and the breeze kept making the birds move. I kept the decorations very simple this year (less to pack away). What to knit next? a fast moving throw for me? or the zip up vest from Yarn Magazine for Dan or my Brother. Tonight I'm knitting a couple of dish cloths, though the cotton was expensive so I think I'll call them face washers and put one in Mum's birthday goody bag.

PIPARKAKUT CHRISTMAS BISCUITS

These biscuits are thin, crunchy and very spicy. The sugar content is high so they burn easily, I've found that working with smaller sections easier to handle and I roll them out between two sheets of plastic.

PIPARKAKUT

1 cup brown sugar
3 tbsp dark syrup
1\2 cup water
200g unsalted butter
2 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1\2 tbsp ground cloves
2 tsp ground cardamom
zest of one orange
2 tsp baking soda-
(bicarbonate of soda)
4 cups plain flour-
(all-purpose)

Melt sugar, syrup and water in a saucepan.
Place butter, spices and orange zest in a large mixing bowl, add the melted mixture.
Stir until the the butter has melted.
Allow to cool.
Blend baking soda together with the flour.
Quickly mix the ingredients to a smooth dough.
Wrap in plastic and let rest overnight in fridge.
Lightly roll portions of the dough with a rolling pin.
Cut out shapes with cookie cutters.
Place the biscuits on silicon/baking paper.
Bake the biscuits at 200-220 C degrees for 5-8 minutes, middle shelf.
Check the biscuits while baking as they BURN EASILY!

My oven is a little temperamental so I have to stand watch right next to the oven for every batch. So I usually make them at night when it's cool and it helps to turn the tray about half way through the cooking time.
I finished Mum's throw at 1.00 am Christmas morning. This is the first year I've included handmade presents and Mum and Dad seemed to really like them. The colours of the mohair gave her skin a pink glow but not old lady pink. Then on Boxing Day I spent most of the day sleeping and I'm still tired.

NEW CHRISTMAS DECORATION

I'm almost ready for Christmas! there's still the sewing in the ends of Mum's throw/yurt. I think it's now taller than me! I'll have to get someone to hold it up so I can take a photo. To night in between doing the last few bits and pieces I'll make the Piparkakut biscuits (Finnish ginger/spice). Last year I was still baking at 11.00am Christmas day. Each year I like to buy one new Christmas decoration, this year I found this lovely candle mobile at kiki.k . When we lived in Sydney my family grew up best friends with a Finnish family called the Larkso's so we would have two Christmas's a Scandinavian one on Christmas eve then our more Anglo one the next Day.

DUCKCLOTH FABRIC

I've found a really nice online fabric blog/ shop called duckcloth . I found the scooter piece on sale and the Christmas panel I just couldn't resist. The red scooter has a more natural linen colour and there's two full repeats of the pattern. The Christmas panel is crisp and bright, not like my bad photo. What to make? the scooter will be a drawstring bag for a friend (she rides a scooter) and I'll make two little Santa Stockings with the Christmas panel.

THE ALL ORGANIC FARM

Today is an exciting day! we have just had our first box of organic goodies home delivered from The All Organic Farm. I spent $51.29 and as you can see apart from the fruit and veg there's also Elgar Farm unsalted butter and mozzarella, Sunday Hill blueberry jam, a large jar of tomato puree and a huge bunch of fresh herbs. Ive always had a vegetable garden but this house has three large native trees and a real problem with ants so I'm limited to pots.

BEETROOT RELISH

BEETROOT RELISH

INGREDIENTS
400 g grated beetroot
175 g grated green apple
1\2 red onion diced

1\2 cup white wine vinegar

1\2 cup balsamic vinegar
1\2 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp lemon juice

1\2 teasp Dijon mustard

METHOD
Heat a splash of oil in a large saucepan and saute onion until transparent. Add all of the other ingredients, cook on the lowest heat for two hours until it resembles jam, then cool.

FAVORITE CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS

This is one of my favorite Christmas decorations I've collected twelve of them over two years from Habitat during their Christmas sales. Each year I used to do a different colour scheme but for the last couple it's been red, white and silver. One year green, white and silver would be nice but then my red birds might get upset. I wish we had a white Christmas tree but they are just to expensive. Mine is homemade from dead branches painted white it doesn't look as even as the shop ones but it still does the job. This year all white fairy lights are on my shopping list the wires need to be white as well.

CHRISTMAS BALLS

I found the Christmas Bauble pattern on a site called canadianliving.com the pattern is actually from the book Handknit Holidays by Leigh Radford, and the pattern is Christmas Ornament. This is the larger size with an attempt at embroidery I think more practice is needed before I can give one as a gift. The knitting's fine but my stitching is a little 1.00 am crazy. I used red wool first but it looked dull and flat so the idea was to find some red sparkle beads in my stash of shiny things. No red shiny beads but I found some glossy embroidery thread! how I have this I have know idea as I'm not a hand stitching person. So the effect is a raised shiny snowflake? just don't look to close.

NEW SECOND HAND COMPUTER

The 6Th December was my birthday and this was the picture from my Cat Calendar. (by B Kliban) I now have a fantastic computer with XP thanks to my Dad, he's upgraded to a brand new whiz bang Apple and very generously passed his older one to me including monitor. I'm behind with my Christmas list!!! but I've almost finished Mum's throw, this has taken forever!!!
This years cooking will be Finish spice biscuits and I've found an easy recipe for beetroot relish. I was going to make small orange & almond cakes but I haven't found the right tins, not to big or small about 20 cm wide and 10 cm tall. I like to give everyone one handmade gift as well as our traditional gift vouchers (ready for the Christmas sales).

ORANGE AND ALMOND CAKE

We went for a drive on the weekend to Remarkable Cave which is past Port Arthur and it rained buckets as soon as we left the car. I was desperate for coffee so we called into the Eagle Hawk Cafe (top picture) for coffee and cake, here's my version.

ORANGE AND ALMOND CAKE based on the CLEMENTINE CAKE by NIGELLA LAWSON

4-5 oranges 375 g total weight
6 free range eggs from happy hens
225 g sugar
250 g ground almonds
1 heaped teaspoon baking powder

Put the oranges (whole) in a pan with some cold water, bring to the boil and cook for 2 hours.
Drain and when they're cool cut in half and remove pips.
Then pulp everything - skins, pith, fruit- in the processor.
Preheat the oven to 190 c / gas mark 5.
Line a 21 cm springform tin with silicon paper.
(Do the next bit by hand)
Beat the eggs, add the sugar, almonds and baking powder.
Mix well, adding the pulped oranges.
Pour the cake mixture into the prepared tin and bake for an hour, when a skewer comes out clean (you may need to cover with foil or silicon paper after about 40 minutes to stop the top burning) remove from the oven and leave to cool, on a rack but in the tin.
When the cake's cold, you can take it out of the tin.

ULTRAMARINE SOCK YARN

I LOVE this colour!!! Ultramarine Panda Wool by Crystal Palace Yarns, 51% bamboo-39% wool-10% nylon-Dl 9573- lot C from YARNOMAT. Now I have to find a sock pattern that I can actually knit, I'm waiting for Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch to arrive.

NEW SWEDISH TEAPOT

Meet my new Swedish teapot, or is it a coffee pot? Price $6.00 ( postage extra,ebay). The blue's a very dark midnight colour and the inside's warm cream.
The SOUTHERN SUMMER of SOCKS has started but I'm still trying to find yarn and patterns. I think I'm an advanced beginner so the patterns need to have more detail in the instructions and not be to hard. Last year I managed only ONE sock! bad pattern and yarn choice, my knitting was to tight even though I did a swatch.

DRESSES FOR LILLI

I've found some lovely fabric on sale so I'll make two dresses for my brother's daughter Lilli. The pattern is Burda 9799 both will be view (B), bottom photo the fabric's called floral fancy and I'll add sleeves. The top photo the fabric is a mix of carnations and roses it should make a lovely Christmas day dress, I'll add bow at the back to make it more festive.

FAIRY FLOSS WOOL

This is my second lot of carded wool ready for spinning, it looks like fairy floss! I'm using a small cat brush with wire prongs I think it's called a flick brush. So far it's been easier to work with small pieces I seem to loose less wool this way and have more control. At first I found the wool sticky to spin but then I realised I had been trying to spin some of it backwards, so now all the wool is going in the same direction it should be easier to spin. The wool hardly smells at all and lanolin has made my hands nice and soft I just need to get a large amount ready so I can get stuck in and learn to spin.

SPINNING WHEEL

This is my new second hand spinning wheel (photo by wooltassie/ebay) it's an Ashford Traditional I'm not sure how old it is, the price was $180.00 I'm hoping to pick up on Thursday/Friday this week. How to learn to spin? I've found there's a Hand Weavers Spinners and Dyers Guild of Tasmania inc. I'll start there first and they have all sorts of things to rent and buy as well as workshops. My knitting has been very SLOW lately, I've been to tired to concentrate I'm only half way through mohair throw for mum. Is it going to be cheaper to dye and spin my own yarn? that's the excuse I've used, I can't wait to start!!!

TEAPOTS

My Apple Tea Set arrived on Friday (e-bay) when I first saw it I thought apple teapots need apple tea cosies! now all I need to do is figure out how to make one. The new Knitty is out!!! but I'm still waiting for Vogue Knitting and Knit Scene to appear. The ABC are going to play some Hitchcock films starting with Vertigo, I love the look of his films.

MORE MOHAIR

I was in Spotlight last week sifting through the end of season yarn box and I managed to find 500 gm of the same dye lot (colour no:20-eggplant, dye lot:750655) for only $2.00 a ball. The blend is 50% mohair 50% acrylic I usually prefer at least 70% mohair so it will be interesting to see how a 50/50 blend compares. My household has been sick with a flu/virus for three weeks, virus being the key word- no antibiotics. So I missed out on a trip to Adelaide for a large birthday bash (Dan's family) there were at least 250 people.

MOHAIR WRAP FOR MUM

This is the wrap/throw I'm knitting for my Mother and the Ravelry Olympics. I'm in gift giving pentathlon! Go Team Oz !!!! the needle size is 10 cm and it's 2x rib. The ribs are soft and flowing but I think I'll need to get some more mohair as I want it to be bigger than a scarf and smaller than a blanket.

TEAL

I found a fantastic angora mix jumper for $6.00 last week. Is this colour Teal? it's more blue with green the photo makes it look more green, after frogging there's about 300 gm of 8 ply. I LOVE combining colours like this, I think this would look better if the red was more a raspberry colour.

MOHAIR FOR MUM

This is Te Awa Wools Soft Spun Mohair in Scotch Thistle, 100gm the colour's actually a little warmer than this. I'm going to knit a throw/shawl for my Mum, she likes my big grey scarf so I'll use the same size needles for her. The yarn came from Tasmanian Wool Suppliers, http://www.woolsuppliers.com.au/

GREY MOHAIR SCARF

Here's the finished grey mohair scarf, I used size 15 mm needles and plain knit stitch. I wanted a loopy puffy look rather than a flat thick look. We now have broadband!!! yay!!! I can visit Ravelry without freezing my computer. My favorite yarn store is now on line www.woolsupppliers.com.au my latest purchase was The Harmony Guide number two and 100gm=200mt ($17.00) hank of soft spun mohair in scotch thistle by TeAwa Wools it's a lovely soft mix of pinks, blues and lilac perfect for a shawl for my mum.

MORE MOHAIR

I've had an extended break from blogging, knitting and my computer, but I did manage to add to my stash. This is a red/orange 5 ply mohair, I also have 1 kg charcoal wool 8 ply, 250 g red fluffy mohair, chocolate lama hand spun... I really do have a stash now!!! the grey mohair scarf is done and it's so warm. I've started a wide scarf/throw using the cream kid seta for my mother but it's been unpicked two times so far, first the needles were to small then the pattern didn't work, so this is attempt number three.

MY YARN STASH

I just couldn't resist this YUMMY hand dyed mohair from The Spindle Tree, 100g-200m for $23.00!!!. I think I'll knit a wrap/stole on large needles, the colour is a little lighter than the photo. The new Yarn magazine has finely arrived! I didn't have a look until all jobs were done, dinner cooked, washed up and I had a cup of tea with a warm chocolate hot cross bun!!!. We are thinking about getting broadband it seems my dial up connection is getting even worse, when I try to do Ravelry things it takes so long and after a while it freezes!!!!! this is so anoying.

New project idea, TEA COSIES!!! I'm in the middle of test no1, might try felting a swatch to get a firmer result.

WRISTLETS

This is the first hand warmer I've knitted, there was a little trouble around the thumb I'm still getting used to translating patterns into normal English!!! the wool mix has a little green in it so it's not as blue as the photo. Number two is almost finished the pattern said three hours but I've taken about five days, I'm a very slow knitter.

WRISTLETS FREE PATTERN

The two top photo's are my op-shop finds, blue wool is totem shade 9009 and the black/white mix was a jumper with silk, cotton and wool with a small amount of mohair that took ages to unravel! The bottom photo is how they look together . The free pattern is from knit.1 magazine winter 2007 . there's a very sweet sheep as well. The pattern uses a fiesta wool/silk mix, the gauge is 5 mm needles, 19 sts, 23 rnds to 10 cm, using St st. So what I did was try different yarn and needle combo's until I had the gauge right. The picture has pretty good detail so I could see that the yarn was quite thick, all I have to do now is get knitting!!! http://www.knit1mag.com/

St VALENTINE

This is my favorite mug! I don't use it any more as there's a crack in the handle. The artist is "B. Kliban" (1935-1990) and he based his cat pictures on his real life tabby cats!, love cats now hold my pencils and brushes on my desk.

First Knitted Colour Work Test

This is a test swatch for " Snowflakes Tam Pattern" by Strings And Sealing Wax. I simplified the motif as I wasn't sure if I could handle colour work. It's a bit hard to see (having trouble with my photo's flaring) the colours are blue/white on black background, The pattern has x3 colour changes in the trees dark to light but I didn't have any leftover bits to use. I think I'll knit a simple Tam first to get used to the style of pattern then go for gold with Snowflakes!!! I love the way the trees line up on the Tam top. PS I'm on Ravelry! as wattlebirdies but there's not much to see yet. Have a peek at strings and sealing wax and her lovely patterns. http://sasw.blogspot.com/

First Sock Finished !!!

Here's the long over due photo of my finished sock from last year. There's one HUGE problem, I haven't been able to knit sock number two as I've lost my pattern notes. I'm usually more organized than this but we had friends staying at Christmas - New Year and the spare room had to be a bedroom ( all my craft-art and computer bits and pieces live there ) . I'm still hoping they'll turn up as I unpack the last boxes.

2008 Resolutions

1. This year I will be a fearless Knitter.
2. Cook a new vegetarian dish at least once a month and like it.
3. Knit/sew for charity.
4. Take the Indie challange.
5. Give more handmade gifts.
6. Organize ALL our cupboards.
7. Sell my felt birds/animals at Christmas.
8. Go to our local Indie cinema more often.
9. Exercise!Exercise!Exercise!
10. Make our house as GREEN as can be.

cacti flower

It's been two months since I've been able to blog!!! poor sick computer, has anyone tried to get something fixed over Christmas-New Year without it costing an arm and leg as we say in Australia. Just look at the flowers on my cacti !!! they only last about a day, I look forward to them every year. The funny thing is for about three years they were cream not pink.