Advent sharing

I thought I would share a final photo of my Advent Calendar by Firefly notes. I will admit, I've enjoyed this one. 

Aside from the fact that Celestial is one of my favourite theme, I like that the stitch markers are a variety of colours and not all gold or silver.

The tin is cute too!

A nice addition to my knitting notions.

Thanks for stopping by! Cheers!

Just insanely busy .... Sigh!

That's all ... Not much time to do anything worth blogging about. However, I have been picking up my knitting needles every now and again. 

I've been working on colour work socks. Colour work on a large project is challenging enough in itself... you should try it on a pair of socks ... using double pointed needles!

I was having difficulties dragging my yarn across four needles. My yarn dragging tension was not consistent, causing loose stitches. I decided to invest in some Addi Flexiflips to see if it would solve my issue. 

They come in a set of three needles housed in a lovely tube.

It took getting used to them. I started out using size 2mm (US 0) and found that I couldn't get a grip on the needle. When a row is done, my little pinky tends to grip the working needle, as I move to another section to stitch. The needle would slip out of my hands. I even lost one, which fell in between the cracks of my mother's wooden back porch. Costing more than your typical double pointed needles, I was ready to write them off! Thanks to two extremely persevering men in my family, they managed to fish it out from between the cracks of the wood planks. Note to self, do not use in places where the needle can get lost between the cracks.

I found that using Addi Flexiflips improved my tension and lead to better stitches. Instead of four gaps that you need to cross the yarn, I only had two.

I am getting more and more comfortable with colour work socks to the point where I was no longer frogging my attempt. I lost count of the number of times I took it all apart. I decided that I had to stop and just knit. 

The pattern is called Forest Path Socks by Patricia Anne Fortune of Knitography Farm Designs. It is available on Ravelry here. I used Rauma Yarn 2-Trads Gammelserie, a wonderful yarn from Norway.

I do like how they turned out. Pumpkin fell in love with them .... Can you guess who now owns these socks? LOL I don't mind. It's just a joy when my daughter loves what I create. I can knit another pair for myself. My colour work will only get better! 

The pattern is easy to follow with clear instructions. I do love how Patricia does the back of the heel. It's a stitch sequence I can see myself incorporating in other sock patterns. 

Thanks for stopping by. Catch you all later! Cheers!

Blocking a scarf or a shawl

 As I've mentioned in a prior post, blocking a knitting project is my least favourite thing to do. I was not looking forward to blocking my Hap. 

To assist me with this task, I had recently bought a pack of Premium Lace weight wires by Friendly Products. (Made in the USA)

They are 3 feet in length and come in a lovely tube. If in your youth you were a baton twirler/majorette, this tube will bring back lots of memories ... asked my friends when I showed them the tube! LOL

You interfile the wire on the border edge of your work and I used T pins to hold/arrange to the size desired.

They work like a charm. Certainly reducing the number of pins you would need to straighten the edge of the scarf/shawl.

Full view of the blocking.

The pattern for this asymmetrical shawl/scarf is called La Bise designed by Espace Tricot. It is available on Ravelry as a free pattern. The yarn I used is Sunday Morning DK by wonder yarn co. It consists of 75 % BFL (Bluelace Leicester) and 25% Masham sheep. It is soft to the touch.

Thanks for stopping by! Cheers!

End of January

 Wow, and I've barely posted! Certainly not because I haven't been productive on the creative front, it's more of a procrastination thing. ;)

I finished Pumpkin's sweater, Le Classic by Espace Tricot. Although I like every aspect of quilting, from choosing the fabric to sewing on the binding, I can't say the same for knitting. I do not like blocking sweaters. It's so bulky and difficult to handle.

I've been thinking of getting a Wooly Board/Jumper board. Have you heard of them? 

I've seen them used on Instagram by European knitters and I thought it was a great idea. However, I cannot seem to find them on this side of the pond. Since knitting has now become another serious "hand" project, I thought it would be worth getting. It would certainly get a lot of use and ... maybe, just maybe I won't mind blocking sweaters.

My next serious knitting project is a kit I bought from The Woolly Thistle. Love that shop! The pattern is called Vardejakke Cardigan.

That's it for now. Thanks for stopping by! Catch you all later! Cheers!

Gardening!

Indoor that is. My next door neighbour gave me his AeroGarden - he obtained it early this year. He said it wasn't his thing ... his exact words, "I'm scared of it". Wow, sure I'll take it. 

I cleaned it out and ordered the Italian Herb Garden kit. I thought I'd start with something simple, herbs. 

Nine day's later, this is what the seedlings look like.

If you enjoy gardening, it's a neat gadget. It has an app that lets you know when to fertilized and when the water is low. I programmed the light to be on from 4am to 7pm. That schedule works for me.

He had started some plants back in January that were not doing so well. So, scrawny! I don't know if they'll make it. I decided to plant those outside, in a container. What do I have to loose? I'll keep you posted. 

Thanks for stopping by! Cheers!

Plugging away ...!

 I've been in a funky mood. Covid is getting old ... It feels like Ground Hog day ... I'm so eager for some change ... but, looks like it may take quite some time to happen ... sigh!

In the mean time, I've been stitching away on that 1/2 inch hexagon quilt. There's something about emptying a spool of thread ... Ah, what an accomplishment! lol

 

I've been hand basting the hexagons. This allows me to use spools of thread that I have no idea why I bought ... A hot pink hand quilting thread ... what was I thinking! Oh well, all gone!

I've been thinking of ways to remove the hexagon papers without causing too much damage to the template, allowing me to re-use them multiple times. The smaller the template, the harder it is to remove. To facilitate the removal of the small template, I use a 1/8" hole puncher and punch a hole in the middle.

In the past, I used appliqué pins to secure the template as I basted, but I found that to be cumbersome, damaging and prickly! Now I use a glue stick, which minimized the damage to the template. The trick to using glue is not to apply too much. You only need a little bit for the fabric to stick. 

At first, I used a pair of hemostat to remove the template.

I could not master the art of removing the template without creasing it to death. I lived with it for a while until an uncommon tool popped into my mind ... a seafood pick.

It fits beautifully into the hole.

And the template pops right out.

With minimal damage to the template, making it reusable ... Voila!

So far, I have a nice little stack of blocks completed.

What have you been up to? 

Thanks for stopping by. Catch you all later! Cheers!

Vanilla Cranberry Scones ...!

I just love cranberry scones ... So I've been working on perfecting a recipe to give me a delicious Vanilla cranberry scone. It's been challenging, but I think I've got it!

THE RECIPE:

VANILLA CRANBERRY SCONES

2-3/4 cups Flour (I use King Arthur all purpose)

1/2 cup of Sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt (non iodized)

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 cup cold butter (one stick)

1/2 cup Cranberries (I use frozen)

2 large Eggs

2 Teaspoon Vanilla extract (I use Nielsen Massey)

1/2 cup of cream or milk

TOPPING

2 teaspoon of milk

Demerara sugar (crystal sugar)

Preheat the over at 425F - bake 20-25 minutes

TRICKS AND TOOLS:

I like to work with a "mise en place" which means to put everything in place. It is a technique I learned when I started baking bread from scratch. By having all of my ingredients in place, I don't have to worry about missing anything ... did I add the salt?

"Mise en place" simplifies things ... yea some of you might say ... but that just creates more dishes to wash. Yes, but well worth it. Besides, I have come to enjoy doing the dishes. My mom never asked any of us kids to help wash the dishes ... we were free to play. I asked her recently about this and she said "doing the dishes was my quiet time, a time for reflection" I get it!

A great tool to have for any recipe that requires cutting in fat is a pastry cutter.

Because we will be working with cold butter, you want a sturdy one. There are two types of pastry cutter, the one that looks like a whisk is actually used for cutting in soft fats. Never use that one with hard butter, you'll trash it.

After you've mixed your dry ingredients together (I use a whisk),  add the cold butter.

Once the butter is cut into small chunks, the fun part starts! lol

With your bare (clean) hands, find the chunks and smash/flatten each chunk of butter. They should all look like this:

This will create layers in your scone ... flakier scones.

Add the cranberries. I tend to purchase cranberries in season, wash and freeze them. By using frozen cranberries, they will not break down and colour your dough while you are mixing.

Now add the liquids ... mix. Do not over mix. The goal is NOT to develop the gluten strands.

On a lightly flour surface, work the batter lightly and create the desired shape. In my case, I use a scone dish so I shape my dough into a scone circle.

I use the underside of my scone dish to mark the size of my pieces.

Place the Scone Circle on the dough and gently press to create an indentation

Cut on the lines

Place the wedges in the scone dish. Baste the scones with milk and sprinkle with a form of sugar crystal.

Voila! Delicious scones!

I hope you enjoyed this post. Drop me a note and let me know!

Catch you all later! Cheers!

A little help from a notion ...!

Have you noticed that Blogger is no longer sending out e-mail notifications for comments posted on your blog? I researched the issue and according to my findings "Google is aware and working on it". OK, I sure hope they resolve the issue soon!

I want to share with you this notion that I found helpful when working with the BOM Peace & Unity. It is called Alphabetties by It's Sew Emma.

At times, especially when it comes to a block of the month, there are numerous pieces for the block construction that are labeled either numerically or alphabetically, sometimes both! This was the case with the Peace & Unity BOM and I found the Alphabetties quite useful.

I will admit that I do not use them often, but when I do, I'm glad I have them. There were lots of pieces to this 12 month program and the Alphabetties kept me organized.

Thanks for stopping by! Cheers!

Under the Christmas Tree ... a tutorial ...!

I just thought I would share a bit how I did the wool tree skirt.

When I have a lot of placement pieces on a project, I like to section off areas so that it is easier for me to balance the design.

In the case of this pattern, I used the houses as a dividing point and one wool tree to assist with positioning other pieces accordingly. I then proceeded to hand embroider the trees.

I used my favourite method for transferring ... Transfer eze ... I created a sheet of the designs that needed to be stitched and photocopied it.

Once the trees were hand embroidered, I rinsed the product off and let it dry, usually overnight.

I will then continue to add various elements of the pattern while maintaining a balance.

Once all the pattern pieces are stitched, it was time to create the center circle and cut for the tree trunk. 

I used the original tree skirt circle template (created out of freezer paper). I tend to work in quarters (you can see the drawn sections), so it was easy for me to draw a centered circle using a compass.

I placed the original template on the wool project making sure that the cutting line was positioned correctly.  Pinned it, making sure that all was stable and ... this is the scary part ... proceeded to cut ... carefully!

For wool work, I use Karen Kay Buckley's 7.5 inch scissors. They have a micro serrated blade, perfect for wool work. They also come with a plastic guard.

I used wool for the backing. I re-used the original template to cut the backing.

I layered the top and backing, pinned it making sure it would be stable and blanket stitched around.

Due to the weight of the project, in order to avoid stretching the cut area and center circle, I started stitching an inch away from the left cut (I'm right handed), worked my way up and around the center hole and back down the cut continuing on the right. I felt that, once stitched, it would stabilize as well as minimize stretching. 

There you have it, some tips on creating a small wool tree skirt.

Thank you so much for stopping by my little corner in cyberspace! Cheers!

Wool Tutorial - Tulip Gathering

I wanted to share some of the knowledge I gained from working with the Tulip Gathering penny rug pattern. The project involved lots of pieces that had to be evenly distributed.

The first thing I did was fold my background piece in half twice, creating center points. This also provided me with the four (4) sections that I would be working.

To center your wreath, use your center cut out, fold it in half twice and match the folds of your background. I neglected to take a photograph at the beginning of my placement, but you get the idea from this picture.

Then, I positioned the four (4) stems in their proper sections and their two (2) leaves. I stitched the stems and then the leaves in place prior to proceeding further.

The stems were positioned using the technique I mentioned in a prior tutorial, Wool Tutorial - Silent Night, pining from the back.

Once all four (4) stems were stitched, I was then able to work in sections, centering everything within that section.

Because I was going to cross stitch the stems, I first stabilized them by using the button hole stitch and one (1) strand of DMC floss.

The stems now stabled made it easier for me to concentrate on the cross stitch without having to worry about the stem going wonky!

Once all the sections were completed, the wreath was the next piece to stitch. I used the center cut out to make sure that everything was circular and pinned it in place.

I'm ready to stitch!

The tulips were positioned two (2) inches from the edge using a ruler.

I should mention that when I am working with wool on wool, I do not use a fusible web. I pin my pieces in place using my favourite pins - Applique Glass Head Pins size 12 - 3/4 inch from Clover (231CV).

I just love these little pins and use them for all my applique needs! You can find them at your local quilt shop.

I hope you find this information valuable. Catch you all later!

Rising from the UFO wool project stashes!

After my dream crashing episode, I decide to tackle a wool penny rug project I started back in 2012. It was the year I started working with wool and didn't know any better. For one thing, the designer did not mention that the pattern templates were not reversed! I also used Steam-a-Seam 2 lite, which I absolutely detest! I find it hard to needle, it doesn't even adhere to the wool background AND it gums up my needle!!!

So there I went tracing the pieces on fusible ... what a BIG mistake, not to mention a waste of hand dyed wool ... so I tossed it aside (out of sight our of mind) and worked on another one of her patterns called  Two Prim Snowman, which became the last time I used Steam-a-Seam 2 lite. Not sure what is "lite" about it but my fingers are forever more thankful that I no longer use the product.

The pattern is called "Silent Night-Holy Night" by Jan Speed from A Piece of Work. I do love how it turned out!

Silent Night!

Holy Night!

Not all was calm!!! The useless pieces!

And yes I had to buy new wool! Yes, I learned quite a bit! I am glad it is done! I truly love it! A wonderful new addition to my folk art decor collection!

Thanks for stopping by! Catch you all later!