Secret Garden Cropped Cardi

SECRET GARDEN CROPPED CARDI FREE PATTERN
 

Yesterday Gaby and I organized a quick photosession of the little black cardigan I knitted for her this summer. As I mentioned, Gaby spent the summer in a two months' practice at Cambridge university, so I had to improvise the fit, trying the cardigan myself. I should confess that I am as pleased as punch with the general outlook and the fit of the cardigan on her, it's better than I imagined it to be!

I am taking part in a Design Along voting on Ravelry, so I wrote the pattern for the cardigan for size S and I'm offering it free here. I thought I could grade it for other sizes, but that would require testing and I simply don't have the time for such a big endevour. However if size S suits you or if you are experienced enough to grade it to your desired size, I'm happy to provide the pattern.

Pattern: Secret Garden Cropped Cardi
Yarn: Performance Cotton Gem 330 g
Needle: 3.25 mm, 3.5 mm
Time to knit: two weeks

My husband proposed the name Secret Garden, as the columns of ssk and yo looked to him like the steel bars of a fence, through which you could see the cables (trees) of a garden.

Celtic Dancer Slippers

Another pair of slippers by DROPS design I made these days. I like the original construction of DROP's slippers, although I have a few remarks to make to this design. The obvious - the pattern requires sewing at the heel. This I avoided by casting on with provisional cast on and then grafting. At the toes the pattern envisages cutting the yarn, pulling it through the remaining stitches and tightening - like at the top of a hat. I replaced this with the usual and much neater Kitchener stitch.

However, although I had some doubts about the angular heel, I did not modify that. If I was to knit these slippers again, I would cast on 23 sts - only 3 seed stitch for the under foot and gradually increase the seed stitch section to 11 sts. This would give a more round form of the heel section, which is a bit angular now and make it symmetric to the toes.

My other modifications - I knitted the slippers with 4 mm circular needles and the ribbed edge - with 3.5 mm circular needles and I cast on 31 sts - only 11 sts for the under foot. Because of my thinner yarn and smaller needles I was able to work the diamond section two full repeats.

Pattern: Celtic Dancer by DROPS Design
Yarn: Alize Lanagold Solids, color 645 (mustard), 70 g (the remainder from my Monte Rosa cardigan, I worked the rib of both slippers to the last cm of yarn).
Needle: 4 mm, 3.5 mm
Time to knit: 4 days

Kitchener stitch instead of sewing

Autumn scenery from our recent hike in the Balkan Mountains (reportage coming soon:)

Pumpkin Pie

I've made this pie  many times with grated apples and it is considered by my family to be the best apple pie ever. This time we tried it with grated pumpkin instead and it is (almost) equally delicious :) - I still think I prefer the apples, but that's me - hubby liked the pumpkin better.

Ingredients: 

• 1 kg grated pumpkin
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 cup semolina
• 1 cup flour
• 10 g baking powder
• 100 g melted butter
• walnuts, cinnamon

 

Grate the pumpkin, add 1/2 cup of sugar, cinnamon and walnuts. Mix in a bowl the flour with the baking powder, the semolina and the remaining cup of sugar. Grease a baking dish with butter and spread a layer of 1/3 pumpkin, then a layer of 1/3 dry ingredients and 3-4 tbsp of melted butter. repeat the layering two more times. Place in a preheated oven and bake at 180 C for 40 min.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve cold with coffee, milk or tea. Enjoy!

This pie is very fruity and juicy and really super easy to make.

And on the knitting front - today I've been working on the design of a new little dog sweater with a simple Celtic knot. I think I got it figured out and I've already started knitting it. Stay tuned :)))