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.