Swatchless

Last Christmas I gave my brothers soft squishy presents under the tree.  They unwrapped and found bags of fiber which I promised to make into something that would be unique and perfect for them.  I never guaranteed that they’d be done quickly or anything.  Here are the results of several months of spinning and knitting.

A cable hat for brother #1 made of merino wool

And…for brother #2 who can’t wear anything wool because it is too scratchy, a pair of mittens designed for operating an iPod or iPad made out of superfine alpaca.

These are hunting gloves, with a finger and thumb separated from the hand.  The tips of the index finger and thumb have conductive thread stitched in.  This is what lets the touch screen devices pick up the “touch” signal.

He’s going to have the warmest hands this winter–no need to take these mitts off EVER!

This year I went home for the holidays.  Every year since I moved out I have returned home for the holidays–at most I am a 12 minute walk from home on most days, but for the holidays I pack my stuff and sleep over–this year we were all there, both brothers, my parents and me.  We take comfort in many holiday traditions, some of which have just sort of evolved over the years.  Take our Christmas Eve dinner–It has been lasagna ever since an unfortunate self-timing-oven-broiling-incident about 20 years ago; Mom had the timer set so the lasagna would be done after the 5pm church service.  Ever since I can remember we’ve all go to the midnight service where I now sing in the choir, and my brothers–both grown men–sing descants from the congregation.  From where I sit, I can usually see the giggles from my family, and others around them.  It is tradition to see choir friends returning from university, or from jobs far from here–some come with spouses and kids now!  After late church, giddy as anything, we head home to eat a Yule Log that my mom makes, and listen to a compilation of interesting Christmas music that my brothers put together before we hang up our stockings.

Christmas morning we open gifts slowly-a tradition that we didn’t really like when we were little, but we appreciate now that we are older.  I’m not sure how it is in most families, but I get the traditional gifts of shampoo, pantyhose, life savers, and gingerbeer every year!  A new tradition, that I’m not sure will stand the test of time, is that my brothers and dad grow Christmas mustaches–I bet that they will be gone by New Year!

grandmother's tree

We gathered for dinner at my grandmother’s house.  This is her 96th Christmas, and she had a great time.  Many days are spent in preparation for this feast.  My aunts and my mom and my grandmother all do lots of cooking and organizing.  We gathered on the 23rd for the annual smoothing of the table cloth and setting of the table.

We had a lovely turkey (note the mustache).  My mom and dad have been the turkey preparation team for the past few years.  It was delicious!

My grandmother made the pudding again this year.  Every year there is a concern about how the pudding will turn out.  It was delicious as always…

..and it flamed really well too!

The tradition of doing it all again on boxing day is something else I love.  We are dressed more casually, and can bring a gift to show and tell.  We used to play never ending games of checkers with all of the cousins, but this year everyone was watching football because their proline tickets were still good by 6pm.  It was an exciting time for them.

I knit more of my pathetically late secret santa mitten.  At least I’m knitting the thumb now–Deadline #2 is Jan. 3rd.  Fingers crossed it will be finished by then.What are your Christmas traditions?

This year Christmas kind of snuck up on me. I had been so focused on all the mini deadlines that I had lost track of the fact that December is here, and almost gone! I didn’t really get all the knitting done that I wanted to. I didn’t really want to go to the malls, although I did go a few times. When I woke up on December 23rd and realized that the next day was Christmas Eve, I knew I needed a solution!

Thankfully I had stocked up on butter and flour and eggs…I got out my recipe box and on December 24th made lots and lots of cookies. Cookies are great gifts for cousins and friends. They make wonderful care packages for those who might be spending Christmas away from family, or for whom the season might be difficult.

I love all the recipes, and want to share them with everyone. For massive cookie production, I recommend clearing a large place for cookie cooling, clearing space in the fridge for chilling dough and pans between trips to the oven, and using parchment paper to line the pans! (I actually don’t recommend making all of these in one day–it left very little time for all the other Christmas Eve things, like delivering gifts, eating dinner as a family (we have lasagna every year), and singing at the late church service.

Cookies were baked and cooled, and packaged in time to deliver by 5:00pm. Delivering nicely wrapped home made cookies to people on Christmas eve who are not expecting a gift is kind of a special thing. I was able to see some of the people, but others were left as part of stealth missions of Christmas joy. I may never hear back from those ones, but I imagine that they were thrilled to receive a Christmas surprise. I enjoyed being the secret santa to about 10 unsuspecting people this year. If you get into a cookie baking marathon, you need to think up about 10 families that will eat all the treats!

Here’s my dining room table when things were winding down.

For some reason, I didn’t get to taking a picture of the disaster area that was my kitchen. It’s clean now though, I promise!

So here are the recipes:
Snickerdoodles
2 3/4 c. all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 c. butter
1 1/2 c + 2tbsp sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 F. Sift flour and baking powder and salt together then set aside. Put butter and 1.5 c sugar in the bowl of the mixer. Mix on medium until pale and fluffy (3 min). Mix in eggs, reduce to low speed and mix in dry ingredients.

Stir cinnamon and 2 tbsp sugar in small bowl. Shape dough into small balls then roll in cinnamon sugar. Space 3 inches apart on baking sheet. Bake cookies until edges are golden (12 minutes. Cool on sheets.

Lemon Poppyseed
1/4 c. fresh lemon juice +3.5 tsp grated zest
1c.butter
2c.flour
1tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg
2tsp pure vanilla
1 tbsp poppy seeds and more for sprinkling

Bring lemon juice to a simmer over medium heat.  Cook until reduced by half.  Add 1/2 cup of butter.  Stir until melted. Set aside to cool.

Whisk flour, b.powder, salt in med. bowl.  Put remaining 1/2 c. butter and 1.5 c sugar in bowl.  Mix until creamy.  Add egg and reserved cooled lemon butter.  Mix until pale (3 min). Mix in vanilla and 2tsp. lemon zest.  Reduce to low.  Mix in flour and poppy seeds.

Stir together 1/2 cup sugar, 1.5 tsp lemon zest.  Roll dough into 1.25 inch balls. Roll in lemon sugar.  Press with bottom of a glass dipped in sugar mixture until 1/4 inch thick.  Sprinkle with poppy seeds.  Bake at 350 F until browned (12min).

Oatmeal Raisin (These were the favourite of the season!)
3 c. rolled oats
1 c. + 2tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 c. wheat germ
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (I added more)
1/2 tsp salt
1 c. unsalted butter
1 c. granulated sugar
1 c. packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 c. raisins

Preheat oven to 350 F. Stir together oats, flour, wheat germ, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.
Put butter and sugars in another bowl and mix on medium until pale and fluffy (5 min). Mix in eggs and vanilla. Reduce speed to low and add oat mixture. Mix until just combined. Add raisins.

With a 1.5 inch ice cream scoop (or large spoon) mound dough on pan. Space 2 inches apart. Bake for 14 minutes. Cool on sheets 5 min. Cool on wire rack after that.

Molasses Cookies
1/2 c butter softened
1 c packed light brown sugar
1/2 c granulated sugar and 1/4 cup for rolling
2 large eggs
1/2 c unsulfered molasses
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 c all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground all spice
1/2 tsp salt

Put butter, brown sugar, 1/2 c granulated sugar in the mixer (3 min) on medium. Mix in eggs followed by molasses and oil.
Reduce speed and mix in flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, all spice, salt. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour or more.
Preheat oven to 325 F. Put remaining 1/2 c granulated sugar in a bowl. Scoop out dough and form balls then roll in sugar. Place on a pan 3 inches apart. Bake for 17 minutes. These cookies spread a lot while baking.

Gingerbread (my great aunt’s recipe)
2.5 c flour
2 tsp b.soda
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp cloves
2 tsp ginger
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 c. butter
1 egg
2 tbsp. molasses

Cream the butter and sugar. Add egg and molasses. Add the dry ingredients. Chill 1 hour at least. Roll to about 1/8 inch and cut into shapes. Bake at 400 F for 5-8 minutes.

It was a crafty Friday!

A group of us got together and made porcelain snowflake Christmas ornaments.  It’s a wonderful thing to know a potter who is generous in their time and materials.  If you have access to clay and a kiln, and want to know what we did, here are the steps.

1.  Make a paper snowflake.  Fold paper into quarters or sixths and cut out along the edge and the middle.

2.  Unfold the snowflake and use a damp sponge to adhere it to a thin rolled slab of porcelain.

3. Using a scalpel blade/exacto knife, cut out the snowflake.

4.  Peel back the paper, and let the snowflake dry and harden.

5.  Fire the snowflake in a kiln.

Some of us were not really into the whole snowflake thing.  They thought that making guns ornaments would be more manly.

I look forward to seeing what the finished products look like.

It seems like Christmas was ages ago.  Trees are now being thrown out, decorations have been carefully put away, and gifts are now being put to good use.

This year I was surprised and very happy to receive this beautiful ornament made by Candra.  I’ve examined the construction, and it appears to be a glass ball ornament, painted to represent the globe, suspended from a pair of painted chopstick knitting needles.  The world is decorated with “Knit The World” written in many languages.  Such a thoughtful, handmade gift will be treasured for years to come.

This ornament came with a gorgeous skein of Cascade 220 hand-dyed to a shade of pale green, and a story of a chance encounter in Wool-Tyme when Candra and I were both there, secretly buying gifts for each other at the same time.  We both recently had a good giggle when we realized what went on that day.

Did you get any great knitting gifts?

I am enjoying my new knitting journal given to me by a colleague.  Between the covers of the notebook are sheets of paper/graph paper, and reference materials that are proving very useful for sketching my new pattern ideas, and keeping track of my current projects.

A used copy of the book, Glorious Colour by Kaffe Fassett, has been a good resource for interesting colour combinations.  I’m sure I’ll continue to flip through it from time to time when looking for design inspiration.

Knitting bobbins are another thing that I’m thanking Santa for.  These will save me hours of frustrating untangling time when I’m knitting with several colours.  Contrast colours are wound onto the bobbins, and can hang inside/behind the work-in-progress until they are used.  Anything that saves me time and frustration is very welcome!

What knitting toys did Santa bring you?

Happy Holidays Everyone!

I have been looking for a project that could be finished quickly.

Something that with minimum effort would give maximum results….

And it has to be festive.

I decided that it would have to be a TINY project.

One that is small enough to fit in a little glass ball, and hang from my Christmas tree.

Instructions….Just in case you are in the mood for some tiny festive knitting

Mini Striped Sock (toe-up)

With 2.0mm needles and laceweight red yarn cast on 8 sts (figure of 8 method)

Knit in round increasing at either side of the toe every round until 16 sts in round

Knit in alternating red and white stripes (I did it so there were 5 white stripes)

Make a short row heel in red

Continue knitting up the leg of the sock (16 sts in round) in alternating red and white stripes (I did it so there were 7 white stripes)

Knit 4 rounds of K1P1 ribbing. Cast off in ribbing.

Mini Mittens (make 2 and put on string)

Cast on 10 sts in the round with white

Knit 3 rounds white

Knit 1 round red

K1 red K1 white around

K1 round red

K1 round white

put two stitches on spare yarn for thumb

Cast on 2 sts over thumb hole

Knit 5 rounds.

K1 K2tog until 2 or 3 sts remain. Draw yarn through remaining sts and pull tight.

THUMB: pick up 2 sts from scrap yarn, and 2 sts from above thumb.

Knit 3 rows on those 4 sts.

K2tog twice

Pull yarn through sts, and pull tight.

Santa Hat:

Cast on 20 sts in white.

Purl 3 rounds white

Knit 6 rounds red

Decrease. K3 K2tog until 3 sts. remain.

Knit remaining 3 sts in white for 3 rounds.

Cast off. Tie tail yarn around where the white joined the red to make it look like a pompom.

Festive Knitting: (sticks and strings)

Cast on 10 sts in white. Knit 4 rows. Knit 4 rows green. Knit 4 rows white.

Transfer stitches to round toothpicks that have been cut in two.

Wrap up the ends into small balls of wool (use a half hitch to secure the ball so it wont unwind)

suspend from both ends of needles.

What should come next???

Note: Glass balls were purchased from Michael’s Craft Store.

Have you seen my pattern for Olympic Red Mittens yet?