Edda

I've been thinking of knitting Edda for quite some time. What stopped me were the short sleeves and the lack of buttons. However the best interpretations I saw on Ravelry were without buttons and with elbow length sleeves, so this time I opted to go with the mainstream. The result is a soft and comfortable summer cardigan which can be donned on at home in the evenings or on my way to the supermarket in the morning. Yes, it's mine :), though Gaby is kind enough to pose for this photosession. And because she is such a good girl, I might lend it to her if she wants it :)

Pattern: Edda by Kim Hargreaves
Yarn: Lanoso Alara 50% cotton 50% acrylic, 220 g
Needle: 4 mm
Time to knit: appr. 3 weeks with long breaks

For my version of Edda I followed in the steps of Bunny-B - as my needles were smaller and my gauge quite different, I decided to knit the two fronts and the back together, based on the instructions for the M size and aiming at the S size. For the sleeves I cast on 41 sts and increased to 51 sts, adding one stitch to each side every 10th row, for a total of 60 rows to top shaping.

Swedish Bread with Cream Cheese and Dill

I'm continuing my culinary experiments in international breadland with this super delicious Swedish bread. The egg, cream cheese and butter give it extra rich flavour and make it the most tasty bread I've made so far.
My source - labrex from a popular Bulgarian culinary forum.

Ingredients: 500 g flour, 7 g dry yeast, 1 tbsp salt, 1 tbsp sugar, 100 ml milk and 100 ml water, 150 g cream cheese, 1 egg, 2 tbsp melted butter, 2 tbsp chopped fresh dill (first crop from my "spice garden").

Add the yeast to the warm milk and leave for 10-15 min. Sift the flour and add the milk with the yeast and the other ingredients (the cream cheese must be with room temperature) and mix soft and elastic dough. Leave to rise until its volume doubles. Spread into a rectangle 1 cm thick and fold into a form. Place in a rectangular baking tin (mine is 28 cm x 8 cm x 8 cm) and leave to rest for 10-15 min. Glaze with milk. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 C.

This bread is ideal for sandwiches with all kinds of cheese, fish or ham.
I found it super delicious with butter, feta or yellow cheese and slices of cucumber.

Definitely recommend it, my husband keeps asking me when I am going to make it again :)

And meanwhile - I cast on Edda. I'm knitting it in one piece, following Bunny-B's notes, as I got the same gauge as hers on 4 mm needles. I've got only about 200 g of yarn and the garter stitch eats it very quickly, so I'm not sure how long (if any) sleeves I'll have, though I would prefer them to be at least 3/4 in length. But we'll see how it goes.