Baking a Cake...

Last weekend I had the urge to bake a cake after I happened to come across my mother's recipe, which contained some vague instructions like "oven temperature between 180 - 200°C and "baking time 50 - 60 mins". I knew I'd be taking a risk trying it out; after all I'm not the best cook in the world, and cakes I make tend to be stodgy or crumbly. But I felt I had to give baking one last go before I give it up for evermore due to hopeless incompetence.


Luckily, the cake turned out to be a success, and because it is so simple yet delicious, I would like to share my mother's recipe with you:

Ingredients
350g self-raising flour
150g unsalted butter
150g sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup milk (at room temperature)
vanilla essence or vanilla sugar to taste
optional: 1 cup of chopped roasted hazelnuts

Method
First mix the butter, sugar and eggs until creamy and fluffy; at this stage the mixture is still runny. Then add the remaining ingredients gradually until the dough has an even consistency. Put the mixture into a regular sized greased loaf tin and bake in a preheated oven at 190°C for about one hour.

If you're giving this recipe a go, please do let me know how it turned out for you.


Toodles.....

Gothic Granny Squares

Granny squares don't need to be all prim and proper in pastel colours.

I thought I'd give them a sinister twist for my recent creation, a Tarot reading cloth.

This was a really enjoyable crochet project; so easy to complete whilst watching TV.

Traditional Bohemian (i.e. Eastern European) designs have inspired me to come up with this colour scheme.

Now that it's finished, it would also make a lovely baby blanket for the Addams Family. What do you think?

Yarn: Sirdar Click DK; colours: Black Sheep 138, Fern 132, Blueberry 137. Available online here.

If you would like instructions for the granny square, please check out this page.

Skull Jumper

Skull patterns on kids clothes are quite popular for some strange reason, and my son thinks they are "sick" (the latest word for "cool"). So taking into account my current knitting frenzy, I decided to knit him this one.

If you like the pattern, then you can download it as a PDF document here:

Skull Pattern

The Passionate Scarf

When I looked at the photos of my latest creation, I thought that there's a lot of red, pink and purple happening on this blog! But don't fret, if you're starting to find this boring; soon I'll be posting pics of some green and black creations moving towards a more gothic feel.

In the meantime, I did some crocheting for a change and learned the V-stitch pattern and a new type of flower.

The yarn is Sublime Kid Mohair in Rouge (shade 68), the softest Mohair I've felt for ages. One of my bargain buys at just £1.99 each 25g ball (I needed three balls to make this scarf) from The Black Sheep. I wanted to create a romantic piece, that brightens up dull winter days and perk the wearer up a little. In fact, I made it for a friend, who needs a bit of cheering up and will hopefully like it.

Current Yarn Stash

On Friday I went wild in Hobbycraft. As indicated by the red "clearance" labels on the left pic, there was a sale on, and I just needed to get those bargains.

There's one particular yarn, I would like to recommend: the Sirdar Balmoral. This soft yarn only contains natural fibres - wool, alpaca and silk - and can be washed in the washing machine (on the handwash cycle). I have already used this yarn for my psychedelic jumper, and when I saw other colours in the sale, I couldn't resist. What will they turn into? Not sure yet, but watch this space.

Pink Heaven Cosy Swirly Jumper

At last I managed to take photos of my latest creation in its true colour. On previous attempts my current favourite piece looked strangely purple, but this is a luscious raspberry pink, Debbie Bliss Luxury Tweet Colour No. 17.

I knitted this jumper free-style, without instructions except for the lace pattern in the centre of the front and sleeves. You can download a copy of this very easy pattern below.

The jumper has a gentle A-line shape and a belt feature at the back. I've already worn it loads of times.

The yarn is lovely sofy, and although the label recommends handwash, I've washed it in the machine on the wool cycle without problems. Another yarn I'd recommend!

Pattern Sheet: Lace Ajour PDF

My Fab New Knitting Bag

I've been searching high and low for a pretty and practical knitting bag and found one right under my nose, i.e. in my own shop!

I toiled with a Cath Kidston design, but I felt I wanted a bag that doesn't look like a knitting bag and can be used for other purposes like shopping, too.

When I saw the one, I knew it was right; not only is it made from my favourite fabric - velvet - but it also has the most beautiful embroidery and plenty of little pockets for all the essentials.

I also got the matching make-up bag, which nicely holds all my crochet needles, tape measure, scissors, double-pointed and cable needles.



The large bag has two side pockets, in which I keep my long and circular knitting needles. Inside there's another small zipped pocket and a mobile phone pocket. What else do you need? And if I don't use this bag to carry all my knitting on-the-go, then at least I can also use it for a shopping trip into town.

I love it!

If you want to find out more about these bags, please check out the following links:

Large Velvet Ribbon Embroidery Bag

Make-up / Pencil / Craft Utensil Case

What I got from Father Knitmas....

Season's Greetings!

This year, in addition to the usual non-risky presents (mainly bottles of wine and chocolate truffels), I have also been given some no-calories treats, which reflect my rediscovered passion for all things knitting and crochet:

1. A subscription to Simply Knitting magazine

2. A book on how to crochet flowers, Crochet Bouquet by Suzann Thompson

3. A Cath Kidston flower suitcase with yarn and wooden knitting needles

At my age, the excitement could only be kept under control with a few glasses of red wine and my son's persistent nagging to help him build the Lego sets he was given, which I dutifully did, so I could think about my forthcoming yarn projects whilst building pirate islands and space ships.
Anyway, the colours of the Cath Kidston set would go very nicely with our 50s style kitchen, but what can I make for the kitchen except potholders? I'd love to get your advice. Please do leave a comment with your ideas. Thank you so much.

Wishing you all lots more festive cheer and a wonderful New Year.

Yarns Worth Raving About: Colinette Point 5

If you are looking for a quick knitting/crochet project, then a scarf is always a winner and would make a lovely timeless gift.

There's lots of adorable yarn out there, but some yarns are more adorable than others!

One of them is the Colinette Point 5 pure wool chunky yarn, which comes in a large range of the most beautiful colours.

For my Indigo Rainbow Scarf shown in the image, I needed two hanks of this yarn, colour option Kingfisher no. 33.

The yarn is spun unevenly; it's quite thick in places, and you will need size 12mm needles.

Cast on 14 stitches, 2 knit/2 purl until you've used up all the yarn. Length of the scarf: 150cm x 12cm width. 

Knitted in two days. 

Quick, easy and ideal for a beginner.


UK stockist: http://www.cucumberpatch.co.uk/point_5.htm