Happy Paddy’s Day :)

Not a holiday I normally celebrate, since I’m neither Irish nor Catholic, but I take it as a good reason (or excuse, if you will) to drink lots of beer and make green stuff 🙂 Not that I actually drink beer, I leave that to some other creatures in this house… By the way, dyeing beer green with food coloring makes the beer flat and according to my boyfriend also makes it taste funny

I’ve crocheted a leafy scarf for Piggen, and a Leprechaun top hat for Iggy.  Pattern for the hat is here, and the leafy scarf pattern will be posted later 🙂

The hat turned out to be a bit floppy, so I felted it.

The scarf was originally intended for Bollan, but it looked more like hair than a scarf, so I gave it to Piggen instead 🙂 It can also be used as a really big bracelet :p

I have even made cupcakes for this occasion! Like the rest of my baking, they’re not pretty, but they are at least tasty 🙂 And green! Pistachio and yoghurt cupcakes with green sugar frosting. Well, almost green.. Almost half a bottle of food coloring and all I got was this horrible minty green

The weird shape is because I crammed too many cakes onto one tray, and then I overfilled the cups because I wanted to use all the batter instead of making a second tray… I never pays off to be lazy Anyway, in the oven the batter of course rose over the cups, and when finished they looked like this:

Yay, am I a baker or what…

Figs, anyone?

Well, of course I couldn’t keep away from the 100 Flowers book either, and just had to try out a couple of patterns. A nice break from studying for my Latin test yesterday (which I think went well, by the way). I made a fig leaf and a fig (also made a ginkgo leaf, but haven’t photographed it yet).

The fig leaf was actually pretty difficult to make up, because you don’t crochet all the lobes the same way on the same round. You’re supposed to make first three lobes, then crochet down the middle of the leaf (from the top to the stem), turn, and then make the last two lobes. Then you fasten off, re-attach the yarn by the stem and crochet the second round. That the last half of the first round has the back facing forward doesn’t really show on the finished leaf (it’s the two pointing down/left on the pictures), but I don’t see why I couldn’t finish the first round in one go, and then continue with round two without breaking the yarn. You just end up with four yarn ends instead of two… And on top of that, the leaf is sort of split open down the middle, so you have to stitch that up as well.

The fig itself was an easier pattern to follow, except that the book (which is English) suddenly switches to American terms in the written directions. However, if you look at the picture, it seems that the chart is correct. The whole thing is worked in double crochet, but I think it probably should have been hdc, because the stuffing really shows through the stitches, even after I tried to fix it with a yarn end 

Oh, and look, my groundhog has arms! We are moving forward 🙂

Cookies :)

We made cookies today 🙂 My grandmother has made several other kinds before I even got here, but these I just have to make every Christmas. My favorites 🙂 The first ones we call “flat toads”, because the first time we made them the dough/paste was much too soft and runny, and the result was very flat and sticky cookies. I loved them, of course, I’m not a fan of crispy food. The name “flat toads” stuck, and is much better than the original, which would translate as “almond blobs”. I like almonds, but blobs are not tasty :p

These are called chocolate sweethearts, basically the same dough as the previous cookies, but somehow different. (They look pretty much the same this year, because we made a mistake and put chocolate in the toads, instead of just on top.) The sweethearts are supposed to be glazed with chocolate, but we never do, it’s too much work. They are also supposed to be all hearts, but we use other shapes as well, like bats, squirrels, frogs, people and pigs 🙂

This last kind is something my mother usually makes, and I tried to crochet one that turned into a Ferrero Rocher 🙂 They consist of crushed oats, cocoa, butter, coffee and sugar, mashed into a paste and rolled. Easy and delicious 🙂

The Boll helped, as always 🙂 She felt there should be a hedgehog cookie shape, but I’m not sure… I don’t think we’d be able to eat them, they’d be way too cute! 🙂

Ice cream cone pattern :)

The pattern for this ice cream toy is now posted on my other blog, you can find it HERE 🙂

I know it’s a little out of season, but I came up with the idea and wanted to try it. That’s just how I am, I just have to do something with my ideas right away or I get frustrated.. Anyway, I think the top scoop kind of looks like Frankenstein’s monster, so maybe it’s a little in season after all :p

I have also posted a little tutorial on how to make a rattle from bells and Kinder-eggs, found here if you should be interested 🙂

Cupcakes!

Today I have been writing out the patterns for these cupcake pincushions. I scribbled down the patterns when I made them two years ago, but my way of writing patterns for myself is unintelligable to anyone but me.. So now I have (hopefully) made them clearer, if anyone should want to make their own. So far I’ve posted the patterns for the tiny banana cupcake and the blueberry cupcake, and the rest will follow when I find the time 🙂