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Has identifying the minimum in different areas of your life brought you clarity and space?

Leap

In late September:

 

Mama, who are those socks for?

Papa.

Again?

Do you want a pair?

Yes!

What a Hoot

Early in spring I learned that a trio of my friends were expecting babies. I set about stockpiling a few gifts. I loved the idea of this kicking bag (a blanket they can’t squirm out of).  It’s something incredibly useful for the mom whether the baby is snuggled in a sling, breastfeeding on the couch, or asleep in bed. I was also mightily attracted to the idea of oodles of stockinette in the round – something to let my fingers and brain do at a deep level while my mind attended to other things.

The sun-bleached, beachy colours of this yarn seemed particularly to suit my fellow La Leche League Leader, so I set these two aside for her. waiting until the baby arrived to do the embroidery. I wanted to know whether to seek ’sweet’ inspiration for a motif or ’sweet and pretty’. The arrival of little Jonah dictated a ’sweet’ approach.

Here’s a little tutorial for the embroidery, if you can call it that. One of the things that holds me back when thinking of embellishing knitted fabrics is the fact that I can’t sketch the design onto the fabric using a washable pen. Dealing with embroidering a fabric so textured seems tricky enough without adding freestyle designing to the mix.

This week, however, I learned something new. The kids are working on the woodland felt creatures from Doodle Stitching. I was puzzled by the pattern until I realized we weren’t supplied with a seam allowance. Instead we were to pin the pattern to the fabric and stitch all around it, using it as a guideline, and then cut around it with an inch to spare.  A simple, direct approach to knowing where to stitch.

I adapted this for the owl, as you can see here. I decided that chain stitch would be a) bold enough to show up on the fabric, and b) easy to do on two layers. I was puzzled by how to go about sewing something with a back layer I did not want to go through. Clearly, the up and down motions of many stitches would complicate my creative project. But chain stitch lets you skim along the top. It worked wonderfully.

I back stitched around in ovals for the eyes and prepared to do satin stitch over the whole shape. Only to learn that I do not like satin stitch much, and it really wasn’t looking great. Luckily, I realized this at a point when I could claim it was a ’sleepy design feature’. Little French knots in a different colour made the pupils.

In hindsight, I wish I would have positioned the owl lower so that I could have it perched on the bottom of a crescent moon – just to increase the cuteness. But the owl was simple and fairly quick to sew and adds that touch of special that handwork does.

Pattern: Kicking Bag for Babies (Ravelry link)

Hat Pattern: Newborn Hat and Sock Set

Yarn: Kurtenbach Sox 4 Color Twister Colour 165

100g made both projects with a bit to spare.

Autumn Spontaneity

It’s a season in which I make lists. Lists and lists and lists. Of goals. Of plans. Of gifts. Of traditions. Of books.  Of good deeds.

Paradoxically, it is also a season of spontaneity. Of grabbing a sunny day and glorying in it. Of allowing inspiration to pull me down rabbit trails. Suddenly I’m knitting things off my planned list. Suddenly I’m embroidering. Suddenly I’m letting myself do what feels fun and fulfilling.

An unplanned autumn hike with friends.

A sampler that refused to be ignored and then refused to be planned.

Most unusual for me, this sampler. Creativity without a plan. Just letting the colours inspire me. Just trusting my creative voice. Just allowing the rhythm of stitching to intoxicate me.

Inspired often by the Stitch-a-Day feature at The Hand Embroidery Network.

I began with the leaves in 3 colours and then picked three different colours for the linear section.  It’s just smaller than an 8.5″ x 11″ piece of paper.  I’m not certain what it will become, but I welcome ideas.

Terrifying Tortes

Our hard work paid off. The “Terrifying Tortes” party was a big success. Altogether, we raised $1100 to help the grandmothers and orphans struggling with the AIDS crisis in Africa, more than twice our goal.

Now for a little time to glory in our workmanship.

The Doboschtorte. An incredible Hungarian cake made of 10 separately baked layers held together by a luscious butter-cocoa cream.

Obstkuchen. A very common German sight. Fruit flan in English? Colourful, light, served with a dollop of whipped cream.

Black Forest Cake. The Kirsch-drenched classic. It’s looking a little worse for the wear here, the day after, but I think it still conveys the lusciousness. If you’ve only had the horrid, North American grocery-store version, my heart goes out to you. Overly sweet, no Kirsch, no personality. Find a real one. Change your tastebuds forever.

Donauwellen. Translation: Waves of the Danube

Not the best photo, but we were, frankly, more focused on eating than documenting.

Layers of cake rising around the weight of sour cherries make the waves in the bottom. This is covered by a pudding/butter layer and then a chocolate layer into which you draw waves with a large fork. One of those cakes so different and wonderful that I can remember eating it for the first time more than a decade ago.

Linzertorte (before baking). A late entry into our plans (after another recipe disappointed) and something neither Rainer nor I could remember having eaten. Imagine our surprise as it became our instant favourite.

It’s basically shortbread made with oodles of nuts and the wintry spices of cinnamon and cloves. A splash of Kirsch and a spoonful of cocoa to add depth. Then topped with jam and a decorative topping made of the dough. Magnificent.

Those were the cakes that we remembered to snap beauty shots of or had enough leftover the next day to photograph. A few didn’t make it, including the Greta Garbo cake and the Apfelstreuselkuchen.

All-in-all there were 168 pieces of cake for about 30 people. And, yes, Rainer, Sandra, and I did make them all.

Thank you to my parents for hosting, to our friends for enjoying themselves, to you for donating, and to the friends I called in a panicked need for cake servers. My generation? Seriously lacking in the pie-server department.

If you’re intrigued, remember you can donate and receive 3 recipes as a way to participate from afar.We’ll be translating them and emailing this week.

A Quote and a Question

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Use, do not abuse; neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.
Voltaire

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What are some of your favourite pleasures?

Breathing

We’re breathing now. The whirlwind of cake and whipping cream and talking to people has ended. Now we’re cleaning up the house after a week’s neglect and scrubbing out the last crumbs from the cake pans. I still need to work through our photos of the cakes and type up the recipes for those who donated from afar.

In the meantime, a little blue eye-candy for you. I finished two sets of socks before the end of October, both of them tying into the Project Spectrum blue theme.

Three for Wee
Three baby socks so that if one is lost it is not a tragedy.

Yarn: Regia Canadian Colours, Vancouver

Pattern: Newborn Hat and Sock Set

Knee Socks

Yarn: SuperGarne Aktiv, 01504 green/turquoise

Pattern: Shaping Knee Socks

This month I finished a started pair, started and finished two pair (it seems awkward to call the baby set a pair, but hey!) and I’m nearly done a fourth pair – just a few inches and the toes. This has definitely been my most productive Socktober yet. It was a nice break to have nothing but socks on the go. Simple, mostly stockinette, undemanding knitting that just went along with what life had to offer me this month.

Even More

Butter situation has been stabilized.

 

Now we ran out of Kirsch.

 

These are going to taste so good.  I mean sooo good.  The Linzertorte may just be my new favourite, based on the snitches of dough alone.  Soooooo so so good.  There aren’t enough ‘ooo’s in this world.

 

Yes, I’m sharing pictures soon.

More

How can we possibly need more butter?

 

A-shopping we will go.

WIP Wednesday

Work In Progress Wednesday
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60 eggs

5 lbs butter

3 litres of whipping cream

5 boxes of chocolate, grated or melted

1.3 kg of nuts, finely chopped by hand

 

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Cakes, tortes, flans, squares…the baking is well underway for the Dare To Remember Fundraiser this Friday.

There were a worrying few hours when it became apparent that our oven was melting the electrical wires in the wall.  But with a little help from our friend, the wiring is safe and baking has resumed.

Remember, you can take part, even from a distance.  Just donate and put a note requesting your copy of three delicious, mind-bendingly tasty recipes.