Sunday, October 31, 2010

Halloween Treats

I am still in the cookie baking mode...don't know if I will ever be out of it because it is too much fun and the people around me, including myself, are eating them up.  I also made Symphony Brownies last night.  For anyone who does not know about Symphony Brownies, they are worth knowing about.  Also very simple.  Just make your favorite brownie mix batter (not the kind with extra syrup or caramel or chips, just a plain old brownie mix).  Put half of it in the baking pan, take one Hershey's Symphony Bar, break it in pieces and layer on top of batter.  Put rest of brownie mix on top and bake according to instructions on box.  YUM!  I usually keep a few mixes and candy bars on hand.  They're perfect for any occasion. 






My friend Cathy came over a few nights to decorate with me.  She and I are both night owls and it's fun to have a friend that I can call at 10 or 11 pm and say "Do you want to come over and work on a project with me?"  We have a kind of understanding about using cell phones past a certain hour so as not to disturb sleeping husbands.   Fortunately she lives down the block so it's not a long late night trip.

I have started back in my knitting projects as well and just posted a new pattern on Ravelry and Etsy.  Like lots of others knitters I'm into hand warmers in a big way.  They are such a nice snuggly personal gift and they don't take hours and hours to knit.  I knit my first pairs in two new yarns that I hadn't tried before.  Wisdom Yarn's "Poems" reminds me of the beautiful Noro self-striping colors but is much softer.  At only $6 a skein you can make a set for only $12.  I also tried Universal Yarn's "Classic Shades."  I saw it laying on the counter at The Gourmet Yarn Company and had to have some.  When I found out it was 30% wool and 70% acrylic the yarn snob in me waivered for a moment but the color "Sapphires" was so pretty and it felt so cushy I went ahead and bought it.  I swear it would be hard for Clara Parkes herself to tell that there is synthetic in there.  It even has a nice fuzzy halo like the real thing.  And at $7 for 100 grams (enough for both handwarmers and some to spare) it's a bargain basement price for something that looks and feels like a hand-painted luxury yarn. 

Here's the handwarmers made in Poems.  I kind of like the mixey/matchey way they are different from one another but if you wanted them to match a little better you could just pay attention to start each one in the same place on the skein.  You have to buy two skeins anyway.  After I finished my right hand, instead of going on to the next skein, I started the left hand with the end of the first skein and, so, my mixey/matchey result. 

Here are the warmers made from Classic Shades:



Classic Shades repeats the dye pattern twice in each skein so it is easy to make the warmers match up.  And there is even a little left over for a teeny project like a doll hat or cell phone cover.

I posted the "Cabled Hand Warmer Pattern" on both Ravelry and Etsy this weekend although I am having a little trouble getting the picture up on Ravelry.  I did post them both as projects though sp you can see more pictures on the project pages.

Well, I'm off to finish a hat and sweater set out of Ella Rae's wonderful washable wool that I started for my new little grand-nephew last June.  Our weather is just now getting cool so I thought I better get it to him before he is too big for it.  I made a size 12 mths but his mom said he's growing like a weed so hopefully he'll get at least a few months out of it.  I'll post pics this week. 

Happy Knitting, Josey

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Ella's Cookie Basket with Hat and Ballerina Booties

Hi Knitters,

A dear friend became a grandmother for the first time last week to a sweet little baby girl named Ella.  My friend, a sewer and quilter, helped Ella's momma decorate her nursery in pink and white toile and pale celery green.  The sweet little nursery looks like a page out of a magazine. 

While working on the wedding cookie favors for Hannah's wedding I found a wonderful book at my local bakery supply shop.  Cookie Swap is chock full of the most informative, artistic, and clever recipes and instructions for cooking making that I have ever read.  And instructions for making pink toile cookies!



Julia Usher is an artist.  When I saw her pink and white toile beaded cookies I knew that I would be making them for Ella sometime after the wedding.  In the back of her book Julia gives a detailed list of all the sources she uses for supplies and clear instructions on all her techniques, including how to use "wafer paper" to decorate cookies.  Wafer paper is made of potato starch.  It's a little thicker and softer than regular paper and can be used in a printer with inkjet cartridges of food dye.  I ordered the already-printed toile papers from fancyflours.com and they were no disappointment.   The pink toile came as a set with a blue toile sheet so I made some in the blue too. 



The daughter of our next door neighbor got married just a few weeks before Hannah and she was back in town to visit her mom and dad.  We've known her since she was a little girl and were so happy that she dropped in to say hi.  I knew from her wedding registry that she was decorating her first kitchen in blue and white and yellow so I sent the blue toile cookies home with her and she seemed pleased.  Perfect timing.  I love when things happen like that.



I had never decorated cookies with wafer paper before but thanks to Julia's tips it went pretty well for my first go-round.  I can't wait to order some of Fancy Flours Christmas-themed papers.  They carry green and red toile and even plaids and I am already picturing a pretty holiday cookie tray.

After the cookies are iced and very dry (overnight) you simply cut the wafer paper using the same cookie cutter that you used for the cookies.  Since I iced inside the edge I traced on the inside of the cutter with a pencil and then cut just inside the line.  Using a sponge craft brush coat the backside of the paper with light corn syrup and press on top of the icing -- Presto! 




The paper edge stuck out over the edge of the icing a little and I found that if I dipped my finger in water and ran it gently around the edge of the icing the paper relaxed and covered the edge perfectly.  You have to be careful though because with too much water the paper disintegrates.



Another idea out of Cookie Swap that I tried for the frst time was using stencils to monogram my cookies.  When I have monogrammed cookies before I assumed it was just a very steady-handed talented decorator behind them.  Julia enlightens us and gives s source for nice quality culinary stencils.  It was a little challenging to get the frosting consistence just right so that the stencil didn't bleed but for my first try I think they came out okay.   Cookie Swap gives several sources but I ended up buying them from Designer Stencils.  They arrived in two days.  The instructions included some other great ideas for the culinary stencils including monogramming home-baked bread and rolls with crushed herbs -- Can you imagine?  Very Martha Stewart.

Of course I had to include something knitted to go along with the cookie basket so I made this hat and pair of ballerina booties.  They knit up in one evening in Berocco "Weekend."  It's a cotton/acylic blend that feels and looks just like 100% cotton and costs only $6.00/skein.  For the booties I used a Zoe Mellor pattern from Fifty Baby Bootees to Knit and changed the button strap to little ties.



Finished basket ready to go.





My next cookie venture is going to be Halloween cookies.  Whooooooooo.  I'll keep you posted.

Happy Knitting, Josey

Sunday, October 10, 2010

I'm finally back! Wedding Crafts

Hi knitting and crafting friends,

Pardon my long absence.  Our daughter became engaged to a wonderful young man this past New Year's Eve and by early springtime wedding plans were ramping up.  All of my knitting and crafting quickly became wedding related.  There are so many creative ideas and such an abundance of inspiration out there.  Thanks to Martha Stewart whose website has endless ideas, mywedding.com, weddingwire.com, etc., etc.  I could have kept going and going.  And I pretty much did until right up to the day.  Both my daughter and her fiance (now husband) are creative individuals and appreciate all things hand-made so that made it extra fun to have such an appreciative bride and groom. 

Now that all the celebration is over and our daily life has returned to its normal pace I am only sorry that we don't have another daughter to marry!  I have not begun to exhaust my ideas for wedding crafts so I can only hope that Hannah's close friends will let me contribute to their future weddings.

I can't catch you up on all the knitting/sewing/baking/printing etc. in one blog but here is a sampling of some of the items that issued from my craft room this year:

Tote Bags in the wedding colors for the bridesmaids (and  a white-and-creamy-colored one for the bride):





Socks for the groom, father of the bride, and father of the groom (My sister-in-law volunteered to knit two pair -- a lifesaver!  She is KnittingMaryB on Ravelry:



Bridal accessories:





Cookies: (This was very fun!  Lots of trial and error but once I got the frosting consistency right I had a great time).  A good friend helped me bag and tie every last cookie.  Thank you Cathy for being a night owl like me!




More cookies for bridemaids luncheon:



Tags for cookies (the stamp is from Tickled Pink Paper Ink on Etsy).  The kids loved it.  I used the stamp for cards on the welcome bags for out-of-towners too:



Welcome bags with homemade ginger snaps and trail mix:



I wish I had a cute wedding picture of the bride and groom to share with you but the pictures aren't back yet and we're just now starting to get a few of the candid shots from friends and family.  Here's a cute one of the bride with her bridesmaids at her bridemaid luncheon:




I'll post details later.  Meanwhile, I have finished a few non-wedding projects which will be posted on Ravelry in a day or too.

Happy Knitting,  Josey