Vstrecha-blog

FO: Hats two ways - Stripey Winter Hat & “Fair Isle” Earflap Hat

I also made a couple of hats as Christmas presents. I really like making hats, since they work up pretty quickly (as compared to say, an afghan or a sweater :)

The first of these was for my sister’s boyfriend, who is (sadly) a Gamecock fan. 

Pattern: the hat portion of Galen’s Manly Scarf & Hat
Project: on Ravelry 

I worked it up in garnet and dark charcoal, for South Carolina colors. My favorite part about this stitch pattern is how it comes out looking very houndstooth-esque. In better colors, I think this would be cute not only for men. ;)

For another friend, I also worked up this earflap hat in a sort-of “Fair Isle” color pattern.

Pattern: Aspen Ski Hat (Crochet Today! Nov/Dec 2011)
Project: on Ravelry 

Funny story, I’d made a hat for this same friend a couple Christmases ago — an earflap hat in a different pattern — and it turned out too small! I felt so bad, I promised him that I’d make him another hat that actually fit, and this Christmas I finally came through. That original earflap hat also gave me somewhat of a complex, so now I’m super careful about how a hat fits. (Which is why the striped hat came out a bit big. Oops.) The good news is, this hat came out perfect!

When I start a project, I usually just go to my LYS and get all new yarn for it, but this Christmas I made a conscious effort to use up the yarn I have already in my stash. I had all of these colors for the Fair Isle earflap hat from another project. Truthfully, I was a bit worried that all of these bright colors would compete with each other and clash. Perhaps they would for any other person, but the combination of all these bright colors fit my friend’s personality so well! I was just glad I could make up for my previous failed attempt. :)

Adventures in Cooking: Cabbage Soup

I seem to have almost completely neglected to take pictures of this endeavor. In my love to cook all things Russian, I once again turned to Smitten Kitchen, where Deb had posted a recipe for Veselka’s cabbage soup. In Russian, it’s called щи (shchi, though the first letter is pronounced so quickly that the ‘ch’ sound is almost nonexistant).

This went together almost strangely easily (for me at least, who is always waiting for something to go wrong whilst cooking). That is, if you don’t count the fact that sauerkraut apparently does not come in small containers, only large ones. So now I have a large container minus one cup of sauerkraut in my fridge that I am never ever going to use. 

Perfect for a hearty winter meal. I had mine with a side of black bread and a dollop of sour cream on top. And I had plenty of leftovers…

I have since eaten one of those frozen containers. I did think it a bit salty the first time around (the sour cream helps with this), so when I reheated, I added a cup of water, then tasted, & ended up adding another cup of water to even out the taste some.

Ravelry Christmas Ornament Swap

Pattern: adapted from Matrioska bookmark
Project: on Ravelry

Before Christmas, I participated in an ornament swap (see the Seasonal Swappers group on Ravelry if you’re interested in joining future swaps!). 

I think these matroshka (Russian stacking dolls) turned out pretty cute, despite the fact that

1. each one is slightly different since I had a hard time following the pattern (it’s translated from Spanish) & I did a lot of supposing what I should do next from the pictures.
2. embroidering is kind of a pain, so I just did it for the face & hair, and took the easy way out for the body by sewing on buttons instead.
3. after looking at the pictures on facebook, my mom declared that “Those snowmen are so cute!” Oops. Though, I think if you worked these guys up in all white, they would make really cute snowmen.

Super secret step: after crocheting, but before decorating, I sprayed these over with stiffener & let them dry a whole day. That way they wouldn’t be flopping around on the Christmas tree.

And these are the new handmade ornaments I have for my tree! I love them, and I definitely got lots of comments on how cute they were :) Thanks, ladies!

Adventures in Cooking: Gluten free cupcakes!

First foray into gluten-free cooking! This will date how far behind I am with these posts, but these were for a friend whose house I was staying at for a weekend visit just before Christmas. Whenever I stay with people I always try to bring them a little something to say, “Hey, thanks for letting me crash on your couch.” I feel a teensy bit bad bringing baked goods for these particular friends, since the one guy wouldn’t be able to eat them, so this time around one friend got Muddy Buddy mix & the other got these cupcakes!

I found this recipe for GF vegan chocolate cupackes, which I then proceeded to tweak, since I didn’t really care about it being vegan, AND since I only wanted to make a half dozen (plus one more for tasting/quality control ;).

I surprisingly had most of the ingredients already. I could not find specifically sorghum flour, but I did find that GF all-purpose flour at Harris Teeter, which contains sorghum, plus some other flours AND starch. Also with some googling, I discovered that 1/2 T of egg replacement + 2 T of water equals one egg. (As a side note, this was — to my recollection — my first time ever making coffee. Good thing I have a coffee maker for when I have guests, ha!) So my list of ingredients for the cupcakes came out to be:

3/4 c GF AP flour
1/4 c unsweet cocoa powder
1/2 c cane sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1/2 c warm coffee
2-ish Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp rice vinegar 

The cupcakes came out perfect! They smelled absolutely amazing, and looked good too, with such pretty domes. The frosting on the other hand…

I didn’t make too many changes here, just used regular butter instead of vegan margarine, & regular vanilla instead of bourbon vanilla. And halved it:

4 Tbsp butter
1-2 oz cold coffee (1 oz = 1/8 cup)
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp instant espresso
2 cups powdered sugar

And I mixed. And I mixed. And I mixed. My frosting was still way to liquidy. So I kept adding more powdered sugar a bit at a time & mixing some more until I felt like I’d added so much extra I’d get diabetes from just looking at the frosting. And then I refrigerated it overnight. 

I’d even gotten a pastry bag & tips for fancy decorating. But when I attempted, the frosting just went pthhhhhht.

A mess to eat & ugly to look at. But they passed my taste test at least! Anyone know what I did wrong with the frosting?

FO: Minnesota Mitts

Pattern: All for One Family of Mitts
Project: on Ravelry

   
in progress… 

First in my Christmas present series! These were for my cousin (along with the Doctor Who cross-stitch you saw), who goes to the University of Minnesota. Apparently I matched the color pretty well. (Yay!)

Y’all, these were so comfy and so warm, I almost didn’t give them away! I’m definitely making a pair for myself, but maybe going up a size, so I can crochet them in DK with a smaller hook — that way the ribbing isn’t so bulky. These are super-easy to whip up, btw. I took my time with these (I didn’t want to screw up the cables), & it took me 2 nights per glove (one for the ribbing, one for the palm) working in front of the TV.