Adriana's Spring Dress

About a week ago, as I was going through my daughters wardrobe, I realized she has grown out of many nice things faster than I noticed. Time for something new! With the spring coming, the next few months will be a challenge to dress, as always - the weather here turns from hot to cool in an instant. One of the best solutions is always to layer.

So, I decided to make her a sleeveless dress, to be worn over a long sleeve top and a jacket on top of it, if needed. Something simple, something everyday. I browsed through a number of crochet patterns, but most of them were just 'too much' for what I had in mind. This time I simply want cute and practical, but everyday.
So, here is my version.

Simple crochet spring dress

 It has a few flaws, but in general I am rather happy with it. I did it in one peace, starting at the top, added a nice lace detail on the bottom and a pretty finishing at the top. The flowers are Adriana's favorite. The whole dress is worked in 100% virgin wool, which was a little splitty to work with, but bearable. The flowers are made of a soft and slightly fuzzy angora mix in a gentle pink shade.

Another thing is, while I did a gauge swatch and all, it is still a little snug and (because I plan to make another one, slightly moderated), I have recalculated my stitch counts, so the next one will be a bit more loose and will fit longer, too. One more change will be adjusting the lace border. It looks fine, when worn, but it could have been done slightly better... I should get some modeled photos, I guess :)

Anyone care to join me for a 'crochet-a-long'? I am considering writing this pattern up - it is such a quick and rewarding project with a cute, practical result. Let me know, if you do!

Kαλό μήνα! Have a good month!

Greeks have a wonderfully positive attitude to life, by tradition - and that's one of the things I love about them. They have a blessing for so many things in life, and every first day of the month they wish each other a Good Month! 

So, kαλό μήνα! :)

So what are you up to in February? I have always loved this month of the year, because it is so short and often passes in a lightening speed - at this point of the year I am always getting impatient about SPRING, so I am looking forward for warmer, longer days and I spend February on work, or whatever 'must' activities I have in my life at the time - to get done with all the 'musts' so I can enjoy spring when it comes!

I hope this year will be no exception. I have been somewhat distracted during January - busy, yes, but without a clear schedule in my mind and - without a real result. So, high time to catch up.

I have one project though, that I've been working on - on and off - throughout end of December and January that I want to share. I think I'm approaching the finishing lines (and I hope I won't jinx my inspiration now by posting a photo :))

Freeform crochet with 100% wool

Freeform crochet, bullion stitch, surface crochet

 I really do love this peace. I have only used a handful of stitch types, yet it looks rich in texture and color. I am using a 100% wool yarn, lovely to work with. This will most likely become a cushion cover, and I hope to finish it really soon now...

The real question is - what shall I do with it? While I am in love with these colors, they don't exactly match my living room, I should have gone for a different theme. That's what happens when you start a project without a proper planning, just because you LOVE the yarn.... :)) Who knows, I might put it in my etsy store.

Smile!

Alexandros & Adriana

Hi.
I can not believe the January has almost passed already. Last year I made some nice goals, set some targets... some I achieved, some not, but in general I am happy with how it went. It seams like a long year, full of many happenings, mostly related to my children and family.

They grow up so fast... I want to do many things for myself, but I often get caught up with everyday activities regarding home and kids and the day passes sooner than I realize. I am sure many mothers could say the same. At the end of it I am often so tired, that even a simple knit is more than I'm able to concentrate on. And yet, I have this calm happiness in me. The most important things in my life are in balance, the rest will come.

I've been doing several little projects with my kids lately. One of the most fun was painting the fridge magnets! Oh, the excitement for all the bright colors! Alexandros was painting stars in black night, and the yellow sun in blue sky among other things, Adriana was trying out colors and her tiles are a wonderful chaos of bright and cheerful color splashes! All of these are now decorating our fridge and my kids are so proud to be the creators of them. The original thought was to send one or two to grand-mom, but I've been very selfish and this time they have all stayed with us. We might do another project like this closer to mother's day and indeed send them :)

hand made by Alexandros & Adriana with a bit of assistance from their mom :)

 I think these kind of projects are great for kids. Fantasy is working full speed on, concentration and hand coordination are in play - it is much more tricky to paint with a brush than a pencil! They also learn about mixing colors, like yellow + blue = green, etc...

This time we got a ready-made set for painting tiles from a toy store, but you could use any small tiles for this project and a magnet base.

I am thinking that next time we will go to the beach and find flat pebbles for painting, then paint them like fish or bugs or flowers, depending on what my kids will have mood for... that might be even more fun!

Gingerbread cookies or "PIPARKUKAS"

gingerbread cookies, just out of the oven

Everybody LOVES these cookies! I have been bugged so many times to share the recipe... well here it is - finally! One fair warning though - these are one of those where you can't stop at one. I make this quantity at least twice for my family during the holiday season and still we always run out of them... :))

Ok, here's what you will need:

400 g honey

400 g sugar

~350 g butter

~1.2 kg flour (it can be a little more or less! That's the tricky part)

2 tea sp. of baking powder or soda

Spices:

2 tea sp. coriander

2 tea sp. clove (or 15 pcs)

2 tea sp. cinnamon

1 tea sp. nutmeg

1 tea sp. ginger

1,5 tea sp. black pepper

some dried orange peal

All of the spices should be finely ground, either get them that way, or grind them yourself. In any case - they should be fresh, so that you get 100% of the flavor! This mix will produce a nice, balanced taste. I often spice it up a bit more, increasing some of my favorite spices, you can experiment here to your own taste.

Here is how to do it:

First before first, sift the flour. You will definitely use at least a kilo, so I usually do that and then leave it close by to be able to add as much as I need. Mix in the baking powder or soda, whichever one you are using (I actually use soda for these cookies).

First, choose a really BIG pot. It will make things much easier. Put in the honey, half of the sugar, butter and spices. Put it on a slow heat.

 While it's heating up, get a pan. Kick the kids and the cats/dogs out of the kitchen for this one! Put the remaining sugar in it, and let it melt into a brown caramel (don't burn it too much though, this will happen fairly fast!).

200g sugar in a pan

sugar, melted into caramel

Have a half cup of hot water ready, and when the sugar is nice and brown, quickly add the water. This will create a small explosion of steam, so be careful. Stir the whole thing well until all of the sugar has melted and you have one nice caramel syrup.

The 'explosion' part, where I just added water

stir quickly until it all melts

Now, the honey-sugar-butter mix should have melted nicely together by now, releasing a wonderful aroma from all the spices you used in it. Pour the caramel syrup in the pot and slowly mix it with the rest. Let it pop a bubble before you take it off the heat.

looks a little funny, I know, but the aroma is amazing!!

Now the tricky part... Start adding flour, while stirring. Add it spoon by spoon until you can't stir it anymore, then take the whole thing out on a clean surface, sprinkled with some flour and add some more, while working the dough with your hands. It will be HOT, but I never said this is going to be easy... Your target is to get a dough that is easy to work with - like the one that kids play with, and it should not stick to your hands. The first few times I made these, I had put just a little too much flour and the cookies were a bit hard to make (still tasted great though), so I always remind myself to stop before the moment when I think I should just add one last little bit... As the dough cools, it will become a bit harder.

add flour

until you can't mix with the spoon anymore

this one still needs some flour and some work. It should be non-sticky and easy  to work with in the end.

Leave it on a big plate to cool. Roll it rather thin (!) and use cookie cutters to shape pretty cookies. Try to use similar size shapes for each pan, this way they will bake more even.

Bake them in 170`C on pastry program (air plus up and down heat), TIME how long it takes to bake each tray! They are ready real quick, as they have the caramelized sugar in them. Mine usually take 5:30 min to 6:00 minutes and once the timer goes off I drop all else and take them out immediately. If they get burned, they'll be bitter.

That really is it. Let them cool on the pan before you take them off and once they are completely cool store in air tight containers, so they remain crisp. Once cool, these can be decorated with icing - lots of fun! :)

Enjoy!

Free Pattern - June Bunnies Shawl

June bunnies, angora mix
triangle lace shawl

It started with the yarn... of course. I finally got some of that gorgeous angora/merino/nylon mix that I was thinking of for so long and I could not resist casting on SOMETHING with it, as soon as I opened the package. (hence the bunnies... it's SO soft!) It was a movie night, so it could not be complicated.


I cast on without thinking much, and then picked out a simple lace pattern, that is inserted several times, finishing with a stretchy bind off.  Here is the result:

 This was a very quick and enjoyable knit, so I made another one, with a finer yarn, called Diamante - 70%merino, 20%silk and 10% cashmere - amazing fiber mix and the color.... bright, I mean, REALLY bright cobalt blue! Here are some pics:

Cobalt Blue Diamante lace shawl

The blue shawl is done slightly differently, although it uses the same pattern. If you would like to knit this shawl, you can find the pattern here -download now - it's free! ;) I hope you'll enjoy it.

Happy knitting!

Chocolate ice cream recipe

Home made chocolate ice cream
Slightly melted, but we have
43`C here today...

I just made it and it is one of the best chocolate ice creams I have had... seriously! So I thought I'd share.

* I came up with this as I was reading a collection of ice cream recipes that I have. I wanted a chocolate one, but I wanted it to be really rich and creamy - none of the ones I had seamed to be that way.... so here's what I did...


This is just the perfect amount for Krups ice cream maker - that's the one I have.

What I used:

250 ml full fat milk
250 g sweet cream 35%
100 g sugar
3 egg yolks (keep the whites for macaroons ;))
100g of dark chocolate, in little 'chips' although anything that's in little peaces would work


What I did:

Put the milk to heat slowly (don't boil it!) and beat egg yolks with sugar til they are white and creamy with no more sugar visible. Slowly add hot milk to it while stirring it in continuously. Then put the mixture back into pot and slowly heat to 85`C. (Use kitchen thermometer! If you go past this temperature, the ice cream won't be nice.) Mix in chocolate and stir until it's completely melted. After that, empty the mixture in a container that will be easy to later store in refrigerator and let it cool. Then stir in sweet cream and place it in refrigerator for at least 12 hours. After that, put it in your ice cream maker! It took me about 30-ish minutes to freeze. That's it!

A Cute Dress For A Cute Girl

Adriana in her new sundress

Woosh! I can not believe how long has it been since I last wrote.... The summer is here!

I want to share with you one of the projects I have done in the last few months. It's a small one, but I really love it! The pattern is called Miss Jenkins Dress by Diane Conroy, a lovely designer and a personality I admire. This was a test knit - I saw the prototypes she had done on Ravelry and instantly liked the dress.

So, here is my review.

About the pattern:
I think this is a well written pattern. All instructions are clear, the construction is simple and smart, the lace design is beautiful, nicely integrating increases as the dress gets longer. Super easy to memorize and pleasant to knit, even when watching a movie. I found myself knitting only the odd rows of the pattern a couple of times (I am not used to knitting lace in the round and missed the purl row), but that is just my lack of concentration, since I got to work on it after 22:00 usually.... I would say this is a pattern for an intermediate knitter in general. It's a fairly fast knit and can be done in a couple of evenings. Oh, and more good news: there is also a matching hat to this dress! ;)

About the yarn: 
Diane had used - and recommends - a cashmere/cotton mix (50% - 50%) or a ramie/silk mix (also 50% - 50%) by Colourmart. I have recently purchased cash/cotton yarn and it is really nice, there is just one But - for places like Greece (think 35-39`C) this would make the dress too warm for summer months (but perfect for fall/spring). The ramie/silk option is more summery, but I can't really tell much about it, as I have not done any projects with this one.
I chose 100% cotton for this dress, for two reasons. 1) I wanted to cast on asap and thought ordering from Colourmart and waiting nearly a week for delivery would be too long; 2) the cotton available in our LYS is fairly good quality and has some seriously beautiful shades. I could get it the same day and at a good price, too. (If only I knew I'll run short 4 rows before cast off... and will have to wait 3 weeks for a re-stock!)

I will very likely knit this dress again. I really love the design as is, but I am also thinking that the lace pattern would look very interesting with long variegated yarns. I am thinking of Wolle's yarn collection.... she has some amazing colorways! And I keep wondering, just how difficult would it be to block out the purl rows in the lace pattern in order to make it out of merino wool for winter? With some steam, perhaps? I love layering outfits, especially for kids. Let me know if you have tried it!

We did an amazing photo shoot with Adriana today - here are some of the photos: