I Love Lopi

It is now March and about time for an update I think. I have kept myself busy with knitting projects since I finished all my xmas gifts. Before the new year I started a new lopapeysa for myself called Aftur, from Istex Lopi knitting book 29. I love how the colour work turned out on this, not too mad about the fit though, will  know better for the next time. 

After this jumper I started my first ever knit for the boyfriend. Of course it ended up much too small, couldn't even fit it over his noggin, so it now belongs to me. He chose black as the main colour and white and grey, I would have rathered different colours, but my mistake so therefore I can't complain! It was the pattern Fugl, from Lopi 25. This pattern is for a zipped cardigan, but he just wanted a jumper. It was knit in Alafoss Lopi.

So, I still owed Stephen a jumper. He chose the pattern Riddari from Lopi 28, the pattern calls for Létt-Lopi, but I adjusted for using Alafoss lopi. Again, dark colours, but I really like the shades of grey in it. He likes it so that makes me happy :D

Right now I am knitting a lopapeysa for my co-worker Malgorzata. She is leaving us and going back to Poland, so I am making her this as her leaving gift. Gosia chose the pattern Var from Lopi 29, without the zipper and hood and a little longer. 

After reading some threads on the lopi group on Ravelry, I decided to attempt to knit this peysa top down. It would make it easier for me to take it into work and have her try it on, as I went along. So, I began with a provisional cast on at the base of the yoke and knit the yoke to the neck, then began the first sleeve, now I am onto the second sleeve, then the body will follow. We had a fitting the other day and it's looking good size wise. She is tiny, but with very long limbs and torso, so my shape is no use as a reference! 

 This was it after the yoke was done.

I have also knit, this lopi ipad sleeve for Stephen.

This lopi hat for Stephen.

This phone sock for Malgorzata, in the same wool as her cowl :)

I may be knitting a lopapeysa for Malgorzata's husband next, I don't know. I think I need a break from the lopapeysa! For a while anyhow. Stephen bought me a beautiful book as an xmas gift, it arrived late due to an incorrect address. It's from the Shetland Trader, I think I would like to try something from this next for me. All of the patterns are beautiful and most include things I have never done before, so I think it's a good next move for me to progress in my knitting. 

I baked some delicious brownies last week. My first ever brownies and they were delicious. I got the recipe via this blog, the recipe is from this book originally. I really want this book now! The caramel sauce that you have left over and can pour over the brownies is just amazing! I was so happy with them. 

 Although there is whipped cream in this photo, they are actually better without it, I just wanted to use up the cream. 

Stephen and I celebrate our 13th year together on Monday 21st. We are going to have the other half of our xmas hamborgarahyrggur for dinner. All I need is to find a good enough dessert to bake. Something new I think. 

Bread Baking

I have finally got my crafting groove back. Just in time for xmas gift season! Of course I can't post the details or photo's of these yet, but just know I am knitting a lot of new things, so it's a lot of fun.

I have two video's to post, both baking related. The first is from Sept, when I baked Icelandic rugbrauð (ryebread). My boss had given me the recipe before I started my summer holidays and I eventually got around to baking it.
It takes about 10 minutes to get everything together, but then 9 hours to bake!! The recipe makes three loaves and you pour the bread mixture into milk cartons! Quite a novel approach.
The bread was beautiful, very heavy though, so you would only have 1 or two slices at a time, with delicious Icelandic smjör (butter).
Here is the video Stephen made of me taking them out of their milk carton homes and slicing them up.



On Monday just gone, I baked one loaf of banana bread. Wow, one is never enough! We finished it today, it was so good. I used this recipe here, but substituted the butter for light vanilla yoghurt and used brown sugar instead of white.

Here is the video, from the beginning this time.

Starting as I Mean to Go On

I have been busy in the kitchen lately, baking cookies! I baked a big batch and gave a box of them to a friend and she and her family really liked them, so I promised to make her some the next time I was doing a batch.
I ended up making two huge batches of different cookies, to try out new ingredients. They are the same recipe I used a few posts back, although since then I have realised that first batch had way too much butter. I think I either read the recipe wrong, or the person wrote it wrong, either way it's now correct.

For this latest batch, I ran out of eggs, so had to buy white eggs, whereas I usually use organic brown ones. For this reason, or maybe that the butter was not at the optimal softness, the cookies turned out crunchier. I nor the intended eater of the cookies minded about the crunchiness, which was good, coz she had one hell of a box of cookies! haha

For my friends batch I stuck to the recipe and instead of raisins I added chocolate chips. For my batch I used ginger, raisins AND chocolate chips. The raisins were Sun Maid and the chocolate chips were 56% cocoa from Freya, an Icelandic company.

The ginger was very subtle. Next time Stephen wants rum and raisin ones ;D

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Today, I baked a pizza. I used a store bought dough, which was spelt. It was pretty tasty, I am going to try out different brands to find a great one.

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Here are a few things I have made in January so far.

Some new fancy hair sticks, made with fimo :

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A tea egg holder, also made with fimo :

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A couple of hama bead things for me, a mushroom brooch and a hello kitty keychain :

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These hair clips were for my friend W's daughter M's birthday :

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Feeding the Stress Monster

As of today I have 14 hours until I have to get up and go to work! The other night I just had to bake something to take my mind off the approaching day.
I wasn't in the mood of setting up the wobbly water bath for the cheesecake, so I looked for a recipe for mini cakes. I have just started using evernote and moved all my cheesecake recipes over, so it was so much easier to find one, than searching through the lists of recipes in bookmarks!
I found a perfect one and got started. It is pretty much the exact recipe for the cake version I love to make, only the sour cream gets mixed in with the whole mix, instead of layered on top, like the cake does.
They turned out really well and when we finally tasted them yesterday, they tasted great too. Some though, had a bit too much biscuit base, as it's kind of tricky to figure out how much you have put in, in the muffin pan. Still they are quicker to whip up than the cake(except for the 3 hour cooling in the fridge! Stephen didn't appreciate that!)
One mini cake is enough for me, in one sitting.

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After I popped the mini cheesecakes in the fridge I still had more baking power in me, so I searched for another recipe, something new. I came across a recipe for Gingerbread bars with Lemon Cream Cheese Icing. I didn't have ginger, so I swapped it for cinnamon, I also swapped the molasses the recipes called for, for golden syrup. Everything turned out delicious, so I think they were fine to swap:D I also left out the lemon extract they tell you to use(it being a company recipe!) I just added more lemon.
The icing was really delicious, very lemony, but a nice compliment to the cream cheese. I will definitely make these bars again, next time with the ginger ;)

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Good enough for a Queen

A wave of domesticity came over me today and after the hoovering and washing of dishes, I got a craving for cake. I decided I wanted a sponge cake today, so I googled a recipe and got down to business!
As I was gathering my various ingredients and bowls, I realised I no longer had two sandwich tins. I had used one of them to hold my fimo creations in while being baked in the oven a few months back. I had gotten distracted and they had almost blown up! So the tin was unusable.
It was ok though, it just meant it took a little longer to make the cake and gave me time to get the stuff ready for our dinner of home made burgers and mash :)

I used this recipe for the cake and raspberry jam and my own buttercream for the filling. I sprinkled it with confectioners sugar on the top.
With my new electric whisk it makes creaming the sugar and butter in recipes like this, so much easier. The only things I really could do with now are, a sieve and a cake cover.

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The cake looked great, just a touch of golden on top and nice and bouncy. It tasted so good. Not too sweet, just soft enough. A small enough slice was just perfect. I will definitely keep this recipe on file.

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Stephen thought it was delicious and in return I got a foot rub :D

Scones

I baked some scones the other night during a craving for some nibbles. They are yummy.
I used the same recipe as before, but I also added some sunflower seeds.

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