Julbak

Eftersom stickning och virkning går rätt långsamt med en tvåårig drama queen och en nollårig lillkille hemma, så är det i stället dags för en julbaksblogg.
Jag är glad att jag förra året kom ihåg att länka här till receptet på de ägg- och mjölkfria pepparkakorna, så hittade jag det lätt i år. Därför kommer nu receptet på det här årets mjölk- och äggfria lussekatter, så har jag det också på bra ställe:

150 g mjölkfritt margarin
5 dl sojamjölk
50 g jäst
2 kuvert saffran
½ tsk salt
1,5 dl socker
1,5 liter mjöl
russin till dekoration (egentligen också en deciliter i degen men det glömde jag)
+ litet till sojamjölk för pensling

Smält margarinet, tillsätt mjölken. Smula ner jästen du lyckats få ner temperaturen till ca 37 grader, och lös upp den ordentligt i degvätskan. Kör ner saffran, salt och socker. Tillsätt mjölet och knåda till smidig deg. Täck, och låt stå och jäsa ca en halv timme. Baka ut, peta in russin och pensla med sojamjölk. Grädda i 250-gradig ugn ca 5-10 minuter. Låt svalna på bakgaller under duk.

Basreceptet är ett recept på lussekatter som fanns i nåt reklamblad för nån matbutik i Stockholm 1999 tror jag. Sen bytte jag bara ut mjölken mot sojamjölk, och såg till att använda mjölkfritt margarin såklart. Frågan om vad man penslar med då man inte har ägg var länge öppen - jag googlade litet och provade tre olika sätt: pensla med smält margarin, med sirap utspätt i vatten och sojamjölk (tipset jag hittade var sojagrädde, men det hade jag inte. Minst gillade jag sirapsmetoden, rent färgmässigt alltså, och sista plåten penslade jag igen med sojamjölk som gav ganska lika resultat som margarinet, men kändes enklare.

Tror jag ska baka morogobbar enligt samma princip också; ifall jag gör det så ska jag försöka lägga upp en bild här åt alla stackars ovetande som inte vet vad en morogobb är (ingen julaftonsmorgon utan morogobb ju!)

Christmas baking this time, traditional Lucia-buns, this year egg-free non-dairy ones.

Baby Converse!

Kan inga virktermer på engelska så det får bli på svenska den här gången! Blev påmind om Baby Converseskornas existens i Allers häromveckan men hittade inte tidningen nu när jag skulle börja virka så jag använde det här mönstret i stället - det var trots allt det jag såg först. Märkte senare att det också finns ett gratis mönster från Järbo garn på nätet, tror det är det som också fanns i Allers.

Hittade till sist, efter stora utgrävningar i garnskåpet litet lämpliga restgarner - naturvitt och grönt Novita Luxus Cotton. Fyrans virknål. Använde dubbelt Novita Kotiväki för de svarta detaljerna - man tager vad man haver!

Tyvärr tog det vita garnet slut efter tre skor - om nån vill skicka mig ett nystan naturvitt Luxus Cotton så får hon/han ett par Baby Converseskor i returpost!

Skorna på bilden är förresten ytterligare ett par maskor längre än i beskrivningen. Märkte nämligen att lillkillen har ganska långa fötter redan. Borde ännu gjort litet längre plös kanske, så hade jag kunnat göra skaftet litet högre, men är nog helt ok så här också.

Crocheted Baby Converse Shoes from online pattern in Swedish, I bet there are patterns in English out there as well as I stumbled upon one in Portuguese the other day... I ran out of white yarn and ended up with three shoes... if someone would be kind and send me a ball of Novita Luxus Cotton in natural white, I'd send a pair of Baby Converse shoes in return!

Den som väntar på nåt gott väntar alltid för länge!

Long time, nothing finished. Knitting with two small toddlers in the house is often not even possible, extremely slow when possible, and full of making mistakes and fixing them. This overall would have been finished ages ago otherwise.
But here it is, at last, and just in time for some cold weather. Pattern from Finnish Moda magazine 4/2012. I used 2,5 and 3,5 mm needles, and since my LYS did not have the Sandnes Smart yarn (they used to, but now they had it only in their downtown store and I did not feel like waiting for it or going downtown to get it myself), I used Dale of Norway/Dale Falk yarn. I needed half a skein more than I originally bought (11½ skeins), but fortunately they had the same dye lot left when I went back there last Wednesday!
I made size 2 years old in width and 4 years lengthwise, and am happy with this as it fits perfectly. Only one problem: little'un likes it so much she won't take it off. And we're indoors; she'll get overheated soon...

Kiemurtelevat kuviot

The Neulomo community apparently got tired of waiting for the promised Novita sock book/magazine, and decided to make their own. I bought a copy, and decided to make a pair of Teppana's design - I've often admired her designs on the site, but since I do not make socks that often, I've never made any before.

The yarn is Austermann Step, a Christmas present. Really good yarn, very pleasing to knit from. On sock #2 I kept dropping stitches, but as that did not happen on sock #1 it cannot have anything to do with the yarn. Also I ran into two knots while knitting #2, which was a bit surprising, but since this yarn is so nice in every other way, it did not bother me at all! (Normally I hate when they do that.) Knitting needles 2,5mm. I think a little bit thicker yarn/needles would have been better for this pattern, at least with my hand, since the socks could have ended up a bit wider, but then again, I plan to give them to my MIL for Christmas, and her feet are much smaller than mine, so that should not be a problem.

I'm glad I learned to knit cables without cable needles last year - I would have lost my nerves completely if I'd had to use two cable needles as in this pattern.

I knit 3 pattern repeats on leg and 3½ on foot. Typical Finnish heel. For the toes I first made decreases on every second row, and when I had 8 sts left on each needle, I grafted the rest.

Oh, and the pattern (in Finnish) can also be downloaded on her website here.

Two Shawls Finished!

It's been a while, but finally I have something to show again!

Last, but not least, therefore first (...eeh - logic?), I dug up my Mystic Desire Shawl. Or actually, I lifted it down from the top shelf basket, and finally blocked it!!! It's been finished for a year or so, I just never got on to blocking and weaving in loose ends - blocking is difficult with a 1-year-old in the house so basically I understand why I placed it on the shelf back then, but postponing things is dangerous!

I'm not 100% satisfied with my blocking this time, but as my assistant helping me with the needles is not yet 2 years old, this is good enough! And I am very pleased with the shawl, as usual when it comes to Anna Dalvi's designs :-). The size is just what I wanted - height approx. 1 meter, and almost two meters wide, and as I used Grignasco Merino Silk on 3,75 mm needles, it's as thin as nothing else, and weighs 62 grams. On to the pictures:

Also, a couple of days ago, we blocked my Panache shawl. The yarn is a mystery yarn that I found in my freezer... I think it's Evilla, it's Estonian wool in any case. Knitted on 5 mm needles, and while knitting I was sure I'd end up with lots and lots of leftover yarn. In the end, the last rows, as usual, needed lots and lots of yarn, and I ran short. I think I knitted, tinked and re-knitted the last few rows three or four times and in the end had less than 1 meter yarn left after weaving in the ends... I had to leave out the last four knitted rows, that, and making only 8 chain stitches instead of 9 on the last crocheted row, was the solution to the problem.

While knitting I was also very disappointed with the yarn colors - too much boring gray for me. But as usual, blocking makes miracles happen, and I'm very happy with the result. Even the dull gray turned out to be a really pretty green color in daylight after blocking.

Shawl size a nice 90 centimeter diameter, weight 200 grams. Ready to fly:

Triangular Summer Shawl

I was going to knit the Anniversary Mystery Shawl 2011 by Goddessknits, but could not find any appropriate yarn in my stash, which feels kind of improbable since I have loads and loads of yarn... But I still wanted to knit a shawl, so I looked through my shawl books and decided on Triangular Summer Shawl from Nancy Bush's book Knitted Lace of Estonia.

This is the second triangular shawl I make from that book, and for some reason they're both a bit on the smallish side for me - I find that I tend to prefer big shawls. But it's pretty and was a nice knit.

The yarn is Estonian too, an angora goat wool blend that I ran into by accident on our local market last year. Thin, soft, nice to knit. The only problem I had was when I was sewing the lace border onto the finished shawl - the yarn is a bit furry and was difficult to sew with. Also it would run very thin at the end, and I ended up transporting a lot more yarn through the seam than I first counted on, since it would break every now and then. For shawls with sewn-on border I guess a stronger and less fuzzy yarn would be more appropriate...

Summer hats

I made two more summer hats this week. First I made one with red flowers. Then I planned to make another one with red flowers, but after a day or so I realized that I did not have enough white yarn. And since I had very little red too, that would never work. So I dug up the blue yarn instead, and made the brim and the flowers blue. At first it bothered me that I could not make the hat all white, but actually I think it turned out almost even better this way.
Yarn Novita Kotiväki, hook 2,5 mm. Size approx. for a two-year-old.