Tuula socks

För ett par år sedan besökte vi släktingar i Finland. Medan vi var där passade damerna i sällskapet på att besöka ett par handarbetsaffärer. Jag köpte ett par babysockor, som var stickade i en modell som jag aldrig hade sett förut.

Det fanns även en historia bakom sockorna som gick ut på att en äldre dam hade stickat just sådana sockor utav sin upprevade tröja till en liten flicka som frös om fötterna en kall dag under andra världskrigets evakueringar.

Av en händelse snubblade jag över ett par bloggar där de skriver om just dessa sockor!

Restgarner

Soanspysselblogg

Tusen tack för att ni delar med er!

Jag provade att sticka Tuulasockan på 2 stickor. Jag använde ett ekologiskt muga-silkegarn från Sidengården. Jag använde stickor nr 2 och stickade minsta storleken, och resultatet blev bra!

 

 

Sorry for the Swedish text. I found a Finish pattern for a special model of baby socks, called Tuula socks. I used a silk yarn and knitted the socks using two pins.

Rye bread

This morning I tried yet another recipe of Martin Johansson’s, a rye bread. I have not cut it yet, so I’m excited to see how it turned out.

 

The recipes in the book are very simple, but good. I’m used to use a machine to knead the dough, so the folding technique is new to me. The dough is also much stickier than I’m used to. The only thing that doesn’t follow the recipes when I bake is the baking time in the oven. Perhaps it’s my oven, but I need to have the bread in the over for a much longer time than indicated in the recipes. Compared to other recipes I’ve tried the baking times in this book are short.

I bought bread malt yesterday from our local bakery! It is a fluid, and not flour as I had hoped. I would like to make bread called “Malaxlimpa” for Christmas, but then I need “memmamalt”. I will try to order some from Finland. I’m sure I’ll find some interesting recipe using fluid bread malt for my Christmas bred!

Baby socks to go with the hat

I made a pair of sock of the same yarn as I used for the hat.

The pattern for the socks is a free pattern called Baby Booties by Drop Design.

I made the sock about 5 mm shorter than described in the pattern, but I still think they look big for a tiny new born.

Bread with rye, wheate, and durum

I have tried another recipe from Martin Johansson’s book “Bröd och pizza”, namely the bread he calls “Bread with rye, wheate, and durum”.

It is based on sour dough, which I first mixed with water and flour:

 

The dough is then prepared by simply stirring it together:

The dough rested for just over 3 hours, during that time I folded it 3 times.

The dough is then supposed to be put in two proving baskets, but since I don’t have any, I put the dough in two bowls:

 

After 12 hours in the refrigerator I put the bread on a hot baking plate:

The bread turned out quite nice, I haven’t sliced it yet though, I had to get to work!

 

Walnut baguettes and ginger bread

This week-end we began the preparation for Christmas. We will celebrate Christmas Eve together with the rest of the family, and it is our mission to provide everyone with cookies, sweets and bread!

We began by making ginger bread.

The dough took two days to prepare, the cookies 30 minutes, and the reduction to 50% after they came out from the over, about 2 minutes. Of course you have to taste every shape! I’ve divided the dough into suitable sizes and frozen it, so in two weeks I hope we will have (had) enough of ginger bread.

I also tried a new bread recipe. I lent a book from a friend of mine, Francesca at BB Italia.

I did the walnut baguettes and they turned out lovely!

I often use a machine to knead the dough when I bake, but this recipe called for a different technique. You simply blend all ingredients, and then fold the dough a couple of times during the day. I must say that it resulted in less washing up, and very nice bread! Thank you Francesca for the tip!

A baby hat and this week-end’s bread

If everything goes well, our little family will grow by the beginning of March! Both boys are born in the summer, so we don’t have any baby clothes suitable for the late winter month. Every year I hope that the spring will come early, but truthfully, the warmth don’t come back until early May.

So, to keep the little one warm I made a baby hat of a silk/alpakka blend, FIN by du Store Alpakka.

 

I lent the pattern from my mom, who bought it 30 years ago. I’ve made this pattern before for different hats for the boy, and it has a great fit!

We baked some bread as well this week-end. This time we made S:t Gallen Bürlibrot, by Jan Hedh.
The bread is made with sour dough. The sour dough was not in best shape though, but the bread was really tasty all the same. It was especially good after it had gone thru the toster.

 

 

 

 

Surprises

Today when I got home from work the house smelt lovely! In Sweden, St Lucia saffron buns are very popular this time of year, and my three boys had decided that it was time for the first batch to be made!

 

The classic saffron buns are quite nice, but the boys made these really delicious, stuffed with butter and almond paste. It was a very popular Thursday evening snack yesterday!

Furthermore, there were two packages for me in the post!

 

We try to minimize our use of plastic at home, especially when it comes to cooking, eating, and food storage. There are so many reports on hazardous softeners in plastics that are suspected to act as hormone disruptors, especially for infants and particularly for boys.

I’ve had my eyes opened for something that can replace plastic film, something we use a lot of. So I found Bee’s wrap:

It was quite expensive, but I was really excited about this product!
The Bee’s wrap is a piece of fabric infused with beeswax, jojoba oil and tree resin. It is made by a small company in Vermont.

I had to try it immediately! Voila, a piece of parmesan cheese wrapped in Bee’s wraps.

As you see, the wrap is really snug. You use the warmth of your hands to form it really stick to the shape.

The third surprise was in line with the Bee’s wrap, namely Otter wax.

I’ve seen that other bloggers use this to make waxed table cloth and bibs for kids! These are projects that I hope I can share with you soon!

Adjusting size of felted mittens

The mittens I made for my husband turned out pretty well!

However, the right hand mitten was a bit smaller than the left hand mitten, and my husband preferred the fit of the smaller one.

I tried to adjust the size by felting the mittens by hand. To do this I filled the sink with hot water and some flaxseed oil soap.

Then I worked the mittens towards the washboard. I tried to make the mittens fit more snuggly around the wrists.

 

This treatment turned the mittens thicker, so they will stand more of the cold wind, and the sizes are now also more coherent.

 

 

Mittens for the husband

After my incident with the felted mittens that turned out too small:

I decided to make another pair for my husband. I have not made anything for him before, he's quite picky, but I think a pair of felted wool mittens will come in handy when the snow starts to fall.

I did have a back-up plan: Since "my" mittens now fit my 3-year old, I figured that if my husband's mittens turn out too small as well, they will fit me!

I made the mittens huge, and run out of yarn during the process.

After an hour in the washing machine on 40 degrees Celsius, they looked like this:

The mittens shrunk a bit differently, but that could be fixed. I could also tell where I ran out of yarn, because the new yarn shrank more.

However, the end result was good:

I will do some wool embroidery too, but I was quite eager to share the result so far.

My sister joins the sewing community!!

My sister bought a sewing machine a while ago. She has made some beanies for my boys, and now she has made her first top.

I'm really impressed!

She didn't use a patter, but traced a top she had. I've never succeded in doing this!
Furthermore she stars out her sewing adventure with sewing with knit fabrics!

Great job sister!

Bread

Yesterday afternoon/evening I made some bread loafs with the kids.

I'm not used to the English language when it come to baking, so I will write in Swedish.

Jag skulle gärna vilja baka mycket mer av det dagliga bröd som familjen äter. Det går bra i perioder, men så känns det ofta som att det är svårt att få tiden att räcka till. Särskilt nu när jag jobbar under dagarna.

Det var dock en positiv överraskning igår att det gick att få ihop bröden under en helt vanlig kväll. Jag började redan på måndagen med att skålla rågdeg, sedan blandade jag ihop fördegen igår vid 17.00, och denna skulle jäsa en timme. Sedan var det dags att använda hushållsassistenten och knåda degen som sedan skulle jäsa ytterligare 1 timme. Därefter formades bröden, som jäste 45 minuter och gräddades 1 timme.

Jästid: 2 h 45 min
Gräddningstid: 1 h

Det var alltså 3 h 45 min i bara jäs- och gräddningstid! Om jag inte hade varit tankspridd och skållat rågmjölet kvällen innan hade jag ALDRIG gett mig in på ett sådant projekt en helt vanlig kväll.

Det visade sig dock att det gick hur bra som helst att baka dessa bröden! Arbetsinsatserna mellan jästiderna är små, och gräddningen kunde ske medan nattning av busfröna pågick.

Jag ska prova mer vardagsbak framöver!

 

Resultatet blev härligt fluffiga limpor!

 

Receptet finns i Jan Hedhs bok "BRÖD", och kallas Laputabröd.

Stain treatment - flaxseed oil soap

When doing laundry this week-end, I found a few clothes pieces that did not come out as nice and clean as I wished for.

These clothes had been in the laundry bag for quite some time, so the spots had dried thoroughly. I did not treat any of the spots in advance, they just went in the washing machine, 40 degrees Celsius.

 

I put flaxseed oil soap on the spots on the wet  garments and let them rest while I had dinner with the family. Afterwards, I put them in the washing machine again, 40 degrees Celsius.

 

The results:

 

The blood stain is almost gone!

 

The neckline looks better!

 

 

The corn stain is still there...

 

The deodorant stain is not as pronounced.

Felted wool mittens

I have just made my first felted wool mittens!

I thought these would be perfect for when I bike to work during the cold months.

The pattern and yarn is from a local needlework and wool shop, Fingerfärda  The yarn is by Ullcentrum, a company that sells local sheep wool that would otherwise have gone to waste.

Since the mittens are knitted with large needles they are very quick to knit.

Before they are felted they are huge. I put plastic bags inside the mittens and thumbs to keep them from felting together.

 I used flaxseed oil soap to prepare the mittens then put them in the washing machine together with some red bath towels, and washed them in 40 degrees Celsius.

 When the mittens had dried I used some wool embroidery thread and stitched some stars.

There is only one problem…

Lovely, warm, mittens for the kids!

Play clothes

This week-end I made some play clothes for the elder son. I haven’t made anything for the little guy lately, but he really has a lot of clothes. He is not interested in clothes either, but soon enough he will notice that his brother is getting fun clothes and then I will have to make clothes in multiple.

 

The tee is Biscuit from Tamanegi-kobo. The front and back are made from a photo print cotton jersey fabric, and the fabric for the sleeves is a really soft jersey from my stash. I made the first Biscuit tee a month ago, and it’s already time to adjust the pattern, to both lengthen the sleeves and the body!

The trousers are Kickin’ back sweats from the book Sewing for boys. I made the size 2/3 in with and 4/5 in length. Because the trousers are ment to worn at home I thought that I’d just cut the leg of at right length and leave it at that. But, the legs were very long, so I ended up folding the hems 5 cm and stitching them in place with a twin needle. Now, I can adjust the length as he grows.

Even though I made the trousers in sinze 2/3 the trousers are really wide! I have already cut and stitched another pair, but if I use this pattern again, I will certainly adjust the width.

 Excuse the wrinkles; I just have my sleeve ironing board at hand!

 

 

Dumper truck sweaters

My mother knitted these gorgeous sweaters for the little guys’ birthdays. They turned 1 and 3 late this summer, and now the weather is perfect for these warm and cozy wool sweaters.

I believe the pattern is from Sandnes garn

The boys love them!

Thank you mum!!

Tiger tee

We’ve had a wonderful autum so far, but it is getting colder every day now. While my little guy (1 year) is having lots of clothes his elder brother (3 years) is running short of almost everything!

I’m very pleased with the fit of the Biscuit tee (Tamanegi-kobo), so I don’t bother to test any other tee patterns for now. I have precious little time to sew so here is my next version, the Tiger tee!

 

 

The sewing went really well until I was stitching on the neckband. Suddenly I was stitching with too much seam allowance. Sigh! I figured that I would just go over the seam allowance with my overlock machine, but my overlock machine didn’t do a good job on the thick rib knit. In the end I topstitched the seam allowance and cut it close to the stitches.

As I mentioned before, the sewing went well up to that last point! I want to show how I get over the bulky seam allowances when stitching the side and arm seams.

I use a gadget for stitching buttons to lift the presser foot when going over the joint seams.

 

 

 

 

 

I use a stretch straight stitch on my sewing machine to stitch the tee together, and then I trim the seam allowances with my overlock machine. I’m not confident enough to simply sew the tee together using the overlock machine.