Kitchen Adventures - Brazilian Cheese Buns

As Avonlea Clothbound Cheddar won cheese of Canada this year it has been around a fair amount. As a result I have been doing my fair share of baking, cooking, and ice cream making to make sure that this cheese is enjoyed to the best of my abilities.

Brazilian Cheese buns:
Now this recipe is not mine, I take no credit for it, but it is the best recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 egg, at room temperature
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 2/3 cup milk
• Scant 1 1/2 cups (170 grams) tapioca flour (tapioca starch)
• 1/2 cup packed (about 100 grams) grated cheese of your choice, I usually use more cheese than the normal person but I have a lot of cheese.
• 1 heaping teaspoon salt I do not add extra salt, if you are using a cheese with enough taste, you will not need the extra salt

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 400°F. Grease a mini muffin tin generously. 
• Put all of the ingredients into a blender and pulse until smooth. 
• Use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the blender so that everything gets blended well
• Will yield about 2 cups batter.
• Transfer the batter into well greased mini muffin tins. Fill up about 3/4 full. Bake in the oven for 15 - 20 min
• Buns should be puffy, and until all puffy and just lightly browned
• Remove from the oven and let cool on a rack for a few minutes. Eat while warm or save to reheat later.

More info go here: http://rasamalaysia.com/brazilian-cheese-bread-pao-de-queijo/2/

HedgeHog Fibre June Club Installment

My June installment of yarn is here! So pretty!!!!! Quite happy with the contents of this bag.
The first question my mom had was, what are you going to do with it? Well I honestly do not know, that is not the point it is all about the yarn.
The present question/debate is do I start knitting with the yarn as it comes? Or do I wait for it all to arrive and then decide what to knit?

Right now I am with the later in my opinion, as I want to pile them all together and take a picture of them as friends. I think they will be so pretty.

I was somewhat generous with myself, and I signed up for three of their clubs. Sock, Twist, and Mini, so all told I ended up with 6 skeins of yarn, but 3 are 100 gram skeins and 3 are mini ones, so it was not as bad as 6 full skeins....

From left to right we have, Doll House, Odyssey, Minx, June 1, June 3, June 2.

Just so pretty!

Olds Merchant Mall Fibre Week

So this past weekend I took myself and a friend to the Fibre week Merchant Mall, we had a blast. I purchased far more than I needed to, but you know what, it was a blast, and I think it was worth it in the long run.
So I bought some yarn, and some fibre:

 and last but not least, a spinning wheel:

It is official I am 9000 years old, but really that does not matter, I am happy, and think I will have a blast. I am super excited about plying some of my older yarns together and making something out of pre-plied re-plied yarns, with giant needles, I think it will be grand.









I was just receiving this picture, and I saw the maroon, bottom middle, and the silver metallic, left middle, and thought "These must be spun together"
That might be this weekends adventure.














Let the spinning adventures begin!

Socks: Second Attempt....

So I used the exact same sock yarn as before: Patons Kroy Sock, and this time I followed the pattern down to what needles I should be using, 2.25 mm.Now the pattern calls for 100 grams of sock weight yarn, but that is for a midcalf length sock, which I find far too long and would probably never wear. So having 26 grams of sock yarn in this skein, it was perfect, well at least I thought so. 

I did as I was told, got out my yarn (food) scale and measure out two 23 gram skeins of yarn, wound them so they were centre pull balls, determined that I would just make the cuffs shorter and next to no leg and all would be well. Everything started off brilliantly. This picture shows you 10 rows of cuff 6 rows of in the round and then the start of the heel and that it does go on my foot, which is amazing. It fit really well. 

Well then the toe happened. I was very nearly out of wool, and so I began the toe, hoping against hope that there would be sufficient to close off the toe and make it fit. Well it 'fits' in the sense that you can get it on your foot, but your toes are for sure bent double. You can even see the curve of the toes.                                                                                                                                                                                        I have left my row indicator on, as I would like to get a pair of socks out of this ball of yarn, at least make me feel like I finished something, but sadly, they do not fit me. I may keep them as a testament to the fact that I knit socks, or they may go to someone who has smaller feet than I do. 

The lesson today was, when buying yarn for socks, always buy 2 skeins, and if you have left over, add it to the left over pile, and be happy that you made something instead of having an eternal 1 sock floating around. I can see the bonus to 2 at a time socks, but I am not that organized with yarn management. 

Cannot wait to see what the next sock installment brings. 

Socks....

So I was ill in bed the other day, and after watching Inside Number 23 on youtube, I thought okay if she can knit socks while she is sick so can I. Having previously downloaded a vanilla sock pattern I got that out, a set of 9 inch circulars, and some sock yarn.

Well, I should have taken pictures as it was hilarious. everything went really well, other than the fact that after I turned the heel and had completed about 7 rows of the foot of the sock I was a) almost out of yarn, b) THIS SOCK WAS MASSIVE c)there was just no way it was going to work out into a sock. So I have learned a lesson.

My first mistake was following the size of the needle on the yarn wrap, not on the pattern. Second mistake was thinking that just halving the leg of the sock was going to make everything better and make a sock out of 23 grams of yarn, after the pattern called for a total of 100 grams of yarn for 2 socks, math was not on my side, again I WAS ILL. Really not an excuse but there you go.

I could have made a stunning pair of toeless socks, or heeless, and toeless socks, but an entire sock out of 23 grams of yarn was out of the scope of my amazing talents.

I shall try again, but it does not help with my knitting monogamy at all.

Muse Top

Start Date: 05/01/2016
Finish Date:

So the components on this are the hem, the front, the back, and the sleeves.

I read ahead in the pattern, and noticed that the front and the back are knit separately and then seamed together. What? I need to pick up stitches to make this and then it wants me to seam? and the hem is attached in the round. No no no no. World of no.
I then spent the rest of my knitting time figuring out if it would be possible to knit it in the round, and by golly I think it will be. Now I am even more excited than I was before because I know that I will be more efficient working on it this way.

Hem:
05/01/2016 - 51% complete
05/02/2016 - 72% complete
05/03/2016- 100% complete!!!!!

I completed 98 repeats instead of 97, as the extra .5 inch will come in handy when it comes to casting on the body, and getting the front and back panel of lace to match in their size of 3 inches.




Body:

05/03/2016 - I started picking up the stitches along the hem to start the body, and I have knit about 3 maybe four repeats of the 9 I need to do before beginning the decreases for the waist. This is gorgeous so far! So glad I worked it do knit in the round, it makes it far more addicting and means I never manage to put it down because I can just keep going round, and round, and round.



05/06/2016 - So as you can see this is super quick, or at least is is since I changed it...oh dear, but seriously, it needed knitting in the round.

05/08/2016 - I got to the start of the arm holes, and started them, and I have knit like crazy, 1 problem, my modification did not take into account that I would be purling my YO's but you win some you lose some, and at least when i do the back I will know how to knit it forwards and backwards, which I do not feel is a problem and so far so good, everything is turning out the way it is meant to. 18 rows to go and then I am at the end I should think.

05/15/2016 - the front is done (well done as far as the pattern says to go) and the back is now 16 rows from starting the shoulder straps. The pattern wants you to BO the front where I am, but it just feels too short, so I was thinking I would block it still attached to the needles see how much length I get, and then try it on and then I think I will feel better about the entire process.

05/23/2016 - it is blocked, and the collar is complete, just have the sleeves left to do! It is a tiny bit short, but it is not that short...it will work out I think. The arm holes are a bit big, but I think that will work out once the sleeves are done, and everything is all well, and I am super pleased with how it looks.

Sleeves:
05/28/2016: Sleeves! The first time these were attempted something went very wrong. Needless to say it got frogged. I knit the sleeves separate from the body of the sweater, because my arm holes ended up too large to pick up and knit properly. I made it longer, I still pray that it blocks out about another 2 inches, that would be amazing. After I knit both sleeves, I blocked them, and sewed them on.
I have no idea what buttons I am going to find, but I am prepared to just not have buttons as I know that I don't want to have the wrong buttons.

05/29/2016: The sleeves are on! I just need to tweak a couple of things, and as I am sure I said before it is not quite long enough.....going to block it again and see what that does for it, and then I have 1 other minor adjustment to make weave in the ends, and the world will be my oyster.

May 2016

May also included Year End Inventory....such a lot to do with that.
Part of me feels a little bit like I should be going for quality over quantity right now. But when you want to make a thank you for someone and you need to get it done quickly you end up with another cast on project. The good side of that though is then you have started and finished your project in one weekend. So for a pair of mittens and a hat in 2 days I did amazingly well. Then there is the sense of guilt I feel in knowing that I should have spent that time working on something that means something to me instead of something I have no idea if it is ever going to be used.
Also, with that in mind, the quantity just happens by default as one feels overwhelmed with always having something complex on the go. I guess I will just never be satisfied.

I also treated myself to some new fibre for spinning and this happened:
Yes that is me turning into a Smurf ever so slowly.

I did also figure out why some text was highlighted white and some was just plain, I want it plain for the record not white. I have changed it for this post and for posts going forward, but if and when I have time I will go backwards. 

FO's: 

1. Reverie hat
2. Grammy's Mittens
3. Corner to Corner blanket in red, black, and white 
1. (the border is not done, and the ends are not woven in, but my mom does the borders, and the ends will not matter until I need to give it away to someone).
4. Very odd scarf thing...

Knitting I have on the go:

1. Illuminated Lines Blanket: Thank you Knit Picks
2. Circlet Cardigan: Thank you Knit Picks - so pretty! I cannot wait to see this finished.
3. Feather and Fan Blanket - This really is if I am desperate for a change.
4. Banana Bunches - Eager to finish this sucker! about 50% complete
5. Hue shift in 5 colours not 10 - 40% complete/li>
6. Dragon Stole: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/dragon-stole
7. Happy Spring Leaves
8. Muse Top - Thank you Knit Picks!

Books:

1. Pride and Prejudice
2. Moll Flanders
3. The Girl you Left Behind
4. Call of the Midwife Book 3
5. One With You
1. Sometimes you just feel like reading a bit of trash, and this was the epitomy of a bit of trash. Yes that does mean I have read the other books in this series, but WHAT A WASTE. Easy fast read, but don't waste the time or the money. Please remind me of that next time I think about reading something like this.