Jirachi Cardigan

Finally a modeled photosession of my latest cardigan - Jirachi. Jirachi is a free Knitty pattern for a summer sweater by Karen Clark. I fell in love with the lace pattern, but the last few years of knitting proved to me that summer cardigans are much more wearable in our warm climate with only light chill in the morning and in the evenings, than summer sweaters. So I turned the lace pattern into a cardigan, replacing the rib with moss stitch to match the moss stitch diamonds of the lace. I've included some notes on my Ravelry page, but couldn't be bothered to write down the whole pattern.

Pattern: modified Jirachi sweater
Yarn: YarnArt Jeans, 280 g, color 63
Needle: 2.5 mm moss stitch border, 3 mm body
Time to knit: 19 days

Pictures taken in front of the Sveti Sedmochislenitzi Church, built in the 1900s through the conversion of an Ottoman mosque, built in 1528 upon the ruins of an early Christian temple from 4th-5th century, which on its turn was erected upon a pagan temple of Asclepius from Roman Serdica. I love it, when a place can trace its history back in time :)

Phone Case in Jeans and Orange

Alex's phone case was rather worn out, so yesterday I made him a new one. I followed my own photo tutorial (that's why I love it when I keep notes of things I do :)

1. Measure the phone, cut the pieces as calculated in the tut, iron the fusible. Make the flap.

2. Sew the bottom piece to the front piece and the pocket.

3. Make a holder and sew it firmly to the back.

4. Add the zipper for the inner money pocket:

5. Add the inner money pocket:

6. Sew the back to the other side of the bottom piece:

7. Close one of the edges and add the lining. Do not forget the flap:

8. Close the second edge. Fix the inner money pocket in the opposite end, so it won't gather and pucker. Turn the case, close the lining.

9. Place the lining inside the case and sew along the edge.

The case is a compact purse for a phone, small amounts of money, school identity card, transportation card and keys.

Of all the phone cases I've sewn so far I like this one best. Gaby's phone case is also quite worn out, next I'll have to make a new one for her too.

And I finished my Jirachi cardigan, it's been even worn once. I'll have to organize a decent modeled photo session soon.

Far Breton

I first came upon the recipe for Far Breton last summer in Mira's cooking blog and was immediately intrigued. Flan meets custard - my two favourite desserts - who wouldn't want to try it. I even made the prunes at home, in the oven, following instructions I found on the web.

However, instead of a few hours, it took a few ... days!, so next time I'll probably buy a fruit dryer first or experiment the traditional way with sun and air.

However, I made the mistake of using a rather big baking dish for my far breton and the batter came very thin, not covering the prunes. It was delicious, but not a real far breton. I put away the remaining prunes in the freezer and have been meaning to make a proper go at the recipe ever since.

Until Mira's latest publication on flan reminded me of the Far Breton. This time I used a more suitable baking dish and everything went as planned.
Ingredients: 

• 250 g flour
• 500 ml milk
• 3 eggs
• 150 g sugar
• a pinch of salt
• 2 tbs of alcohol (this time we didn't have rum or cognac at home, so I used Irish cream)
• butter to graze the tin
• prunes

The method I used is as described by Mira - you mix the dry and the liquid ingredients separately and then add the liquid to the dry and mix thoroughly.Then pour the batter onto the prunes and bake in a preheated oven at 200C for 15 min and at 150C with a fan for another 45 min or so, until the crust is golden.

The resulting dessert is interesting, tasting something like flan and something like baked macaroni with milk, but not quite. Still, if it's going to be eggs, milk and sugar, I think I'll stick to flan or custard next time :)

And my new beginnings - three new puzzles I bought yesterday:

And the sleeve of my Jirachi cardigan - I think the transition from the moss stitch border to the chart went very smoothly, so far I love it!

Three Color Zebra Cake

I made a zebra cake again, but this time using some cooking dye too and a new recipe for the batter:
Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 180 ml milk
• 50 g butter
• 220 g sugar
• 250 g flour
• 10 g baking powder
• cocoa, red cooking dye

The most crucial moment when making zebra cake is the equal density of the three color batters. The cooking dye adds no density to the batter, so you don't have to worry about it, but cocoa makes the batter much thicker, so you have to add some milk to equalize the density. And that's the tricky part, because, I suppose, you wouldn't use any special instrumentation to measure the density of the batters other than your own eyes and other senses and that might not always produce correct readings. My cocoa batter turned heavier than the rest and the cake is not perfect - in the course of the baking  the cocoa sank to the bottom of the dish. But it was still very delicious, nevertheless :) And my son even thought this distribution of the colors - brown at the bottom and white and pink at the top was intentional and was amazed by my mastery. LOL :)))

Last night I weaved in all ends and declared my second Windsor cardi a Finished Object. In the end I knitted it with the same yarn - Zettle Nadine, alternating the three skeins for equal distribution of the the three shades of teal. I also changed the pattern, knitting the sleeves separately, instead of raglan. The fit is excellent and Gaby hurried to wear it to school today, pretty pleased to have a new cardigan. Hope to take a few modeled pictures soon.

Now I'm sampling the second turquoise yarn. It is thinner than Zettle and I didn't  like it for the very lacy pattern of Windsor. But I think it will make a decent Jirachi. I want to turn the lace pattern into a summer cardigan with 3/4 sleeves and fitted look, much like my favourite Cobalt. Tonight I'll try to figure out if I prefer moss stitch for the bottom, neck and button bands or 1x1 or 2x2 rib. And then will follow the numerous calculations. I wish I was more organized and kept track of my knitting notes or, for that matter, kept any knitting notes that would make sense after I've forgotten the pattern and not just some obscure digits on a scrap of paper :)))