Skully brithday cake

Here we are for another birthday. Matija has turned 12 and 12 were ment to be the skulls flying around the big one. I have to admit that they turned out more like creeepy medusas, but I was trying to beat my record of baking-in-a-hurry... and this was the result.
Eating the cake was far more delightful. It was a three layer sponge cake with strawberries and whipped cream. Mmhhh.

The wild bunch

So, my japanese flowers are here - more or less. I'm not sure about the way to put this scarf together. I have enough yarn to make another 2 or 3 flowers or to clip the flowers. Maybe I'll better crochet more flowers and than sew the flowers with an almost invisible silky thread. All I can say is that the original colour of the flowers is far better than the one resulting from the picture. I'll take another pic in the daylight.

The balcony

Our balcoy is almost ready. We just have to build the roof, but it's already a lovely place. Just wait to see it full of flowers. The only ona who's not happy with it is our Mindy. She hates stairs.

Today I feel owlish

The house where I live is place where you can sense  owls being your discreet neighbourghs.
I love to hear them hooting at night - mostly in the late afternoon - and I'm used to write down on my wall calendar the day I first hear them calling in spring.
In February we made a short trip to Graz and Vienna. And it was in Graz that I saw a bookshop using owls like the only ornament. It was late and the shop was closed, that's why I did't came home with owls and books.

Maybe next time....This owls are sitting on my window. Did I mention that I'm an owl addict? No? How strange......

Just because I'm in the mood: meet Mindy, the lazy greyhound and Gromit, the clever kitter's friend.

How to enter a new week a day later

Let's start the day with something sweet and a cup of tea. Not the caffelatte I'm used to drink when running from here to there, with so much work to do and far from having pairs of spare helping hands. Today they will complete the wooden contruction of our balcony, the kids are going back to school in Austria, so I'll see them next Friday afternoon. Next Friday, hmmm, the royal wedding day in UK and... sorry for you Willi and Kate, my son Matija's birthday. He will be 12 and I have to plan a real nice birthday cake for him.

knitting time

I don't know how it goes chez vous, but I'm always knitting lots of things in the same time. It's not only I'm a little bit compulsive - just a  little - it's mostly because there are different projects for different moments of the day, even of the year.
I have a very flexible timetable at work. Sometimes I have to be at work at 5.30 AM, sometimes I'm working till late.You understand that it will be impossible for me to knit complicated cables in the late afternoon after an A working day (from 5.30 till 13.00) - that's why the Tzugumi's Celtic Plait Shrug has to wait for more relaxed hours, while I'm mindlessly knitting an oh-so-easy Emma Fassio's Rosa's sleeveless cardi-jumper.

It's the right  project for people watching TV or being half asleep. I need  knitting work like this even when I have to think or make plans - my hands are working by their own while I'm fully focused on the project I have in mind.....
Right now I'm struggling with maths - constructing a gansey for my son Luka. It will be a heavy one, knittend in yeans cotton from Rowan and I have made the cast on using a channel islands way that provides a very strong border. It take me hours to cast on 166 sts, but the result is really nice. Now I have to put together the design....

Work in progress

No knitting, no cooking - just a note about our home and the new balcony. That means: another step on the path that will help me to my future fairy garden.... a new place for me and my knitting.... a proper place for my hanging flowers...

If it sounds a little bit personal, it's true. But right now it's all  in the paws of our Gromit the builder

The future stairway....

Meet Her Majesty Betti II.

This is Elizabeth II. in my personal version. The pattern is from the booklet Knit your own royal wedding by Fiona Goble. www.amazon.co.uk/Knit-Your-Own-Royal-Wedding

Ok, the queen is looking more like my mom than the real Elizabeth, but it was a funny knit for a lazy weekend.

The dame I've knitted has her necklace, quite a royal  broche and a funny hat. Maybe she is not dressed up for a wedding. Maybe she was cought on her way to Ascot .

 Anyway. She had to take a rest in my very personal garden. Alas, she will remain the only one of  the royals I'll ever knit. The patterns are pretty good, but I'm devoted to Alan Dart and, most of all, I'm able to knit half a vest or two plain socks in the time I knit all the parts of the queen project. not to mention the time to sew, stuff and compose the entire doll.

I'm sorry, madam, you'll remain alone. But I'll give you to my friend Mima (she is the one who gave me the big paper owl in my avatar) and she will take good care of you . I know she'll appreciate you, I just hope her dog won't chew you. 

Dampfnudeln

I don't mean to suggest how to prepare and serve the best Dampfnudeln. There is a wide german world out there that will really tell you how to do it. But "Dampfnudeln" - like Buchteln and the Dalken - are really my favourites.
The Dampfnudel are "a piece of cake" to prepare. trust me.
All you need is a really good flour  (500 gr), fresh yeats (40 grams), half a liter of milk, 100 grams of sugar , 100 grams of butter at room temperature, and ... time.
It's the perfect pastry a knitting mom will serve for supper - while the dough is rising, you knit.
So - let's start:

Put the  flour in a bowl. Find a central place where you'll put the yeats, half the sugar and a quarter of the milk, lightly warmed. Mix a little bit, cover (first with some flour, then with a towel) and go knitting. Or crocheting. It works too. After half an hour or so add another quater of milk and half the butter. Another quick mix and you are ready for another knitting session. Now you are here.

  

It's time you drop knitting for a while and part the dough into 10 or 12 small, tennis-like balls.
Let the yeats  work for another 20  minutes. You may cast on a sock in the meantime.

Now take an iron or heavy bottomed pan. Put in the rest of your butter, the sugar  and the milk.  Put into this  milky nest your  dough, cover and let it simmer - strickly covered - for about 25 minutes. A very nice smell of caramelised sugar will take you away from knitting. The Dampfnudeln are ready, plae as you see them, but you have to serve them on the resverse side, where they will form a nice, brown crust. Enjoy them with a vanilla sauce, a vanilla puding, or just like they  came from the pan.

Spring time

There is a secret place in my life. It's in another town, somehow related to another life. But it's my garden. With a tree that was planted when my first son was born, with roses and other flowers from all my previous gardens, including a lemon tree.  It's a garden full of parfumes , beggining with the calycanthus - at it's best in January - ending with late roses. There is a honwysuckle there and lots of jasmins. I'm also very proud of my osmanthus, a tree that has this peculiar smell of apricot candies.

What a beauty

Kynance Cove in Cornwall, just around the corner there is Gweek, another lovely place. One of the tousend places I'm dreaming about when I'm stressed. Hope Tzugumi will find this a convenient way to apologize for my lack of sensibility ........

My name is red - finished

Meet my tiny herb garden. It's very usefull - you just go outside and pick whatever you need for your meal: fresh herbs for an omelette, something to add to your best salsa, even mint leaves for tasty drinks you'll serve your visiting friends.

 I've just finished my new sweater - a Stitch diva project I've already knitted in a Rowan tweed version. For this one I've used a Lana grossa yarn, a smooth cotton blend with a bright red colour that's not the one you see here. The picture was taken with my smartphone, but somehow it did not work. To give you an idea, the sweater lies on an electrical blue throw....

a brand new knitting project

Here it is, a personal version of an Emma Fassio design.
I have two skeins of a nice Lana grossa sock yarn with travelling colours and half a skein of an old lace yarn. The colours  are just perfect. Sometimes it goes like this when you have an Ali Baba' cave instead of a small stash.

Hiya

After a long time - almost a geological era in the blogosphere - I'll refresh my blogging. Will anyone care? Maybe yes, maybe not.
But I'll like to share my knitting and cooking tips. When I was e-learning how to knit socks (in ninety-nine something) there was a world of unknown knitters helping me. And also a bunch of farmer girls and cooking moms feeding me with their advices. I've treasured every single drop of their knowledge, now is my time to give.
See you soon with a brand new knitting pattern.
By the way - if you are wondering what does it mean "slit", it's me - half Slovene/half Italian.