mission impossible completed

Happy new year is in place. 

its been an eventful festive time for me. 

The big move has finally taken place however its never easy to achieve everything with one shot. I need to plan another trip back to the UK. I guess it givs me 1 year of rest before i start work again. I guess this will give me time to actually do all the projects I have in mind and all the supplies i have managed to get my hands on. :) 

Th very first project that I managed to achieve is the mission impossible that I was given a few months back. It came with a deadline when I arrived. Given the time I have on my hands it shouldn't be a problem at all. I craccked on with it and this is what i managed to get knnited up. 

The red one: Rico Essentials chunky melange, double moss. I used up the 2 balls (50g each)  of this yarn from my stash to knit this one. I would have preferred it if it was longer but the width was good. 

The blue: Debbie Bliss Rialto Bliss in Royal Blue. i got the pattern from Lets Knit. I really like the pattern on this as it was easy to knit up and it gives a polka dot effect as well. I only used a 50g ball to finish this one as i thought it would be sufficient for the receipient. 

The pink and purple: Schoppel Wolle Crazy Zauberball, 100g. I used Buttermere by Victoria Magnus which is found in Ravelry. I enjoyed knitting this one even though the lace part did give me a headache. I'm sure there is an easier way to keep track of the number of stiches that has been increased. 

The Autumn Leaves: easy knits, 100g. I apologise as i can't find the yarn name online 'Oh em Gee". This may have been a one off as it is from their hand dyed collection. It's a lovely 4 ply yarn, the name was confusing as it had 'DK' attached. However, the tension I knitted up was more of a 4 ply. This pattern that i used was a mix of different patterns. I mainly did the basic 4 rows of garter stitch and changed to st st, increasing on every k row. I continued in this manner until i was satisfied with the width of the shawl. The edging was simple yo, k2tog, I used a picot cast off since I had enough yarn to do so. 

This completed my mission impossible. 

It gets very exciting when a new project can be started and I've chosen socks. oooo! I can't wait to finish up the pair I'm knitting just now. 

Chinese chicken cocktail buns..

 Here goes nothing... 

After a few attempts at making these little delicacies I think it's time that i shared with you all. Firstly, Chinese chicken cocktail buns doesn't contain chicken whatsoever. 

The name came from the 1950's. The bakeries in Hong Kong didn't want to waste the leftovers so they invented a filling to go inside the buns so people would enjoy them more and be able to make use of what was left. Primarily, it came from the English term for a cocktail.. Mixing things together to create something new. Therefore, Chinese chicken cocktail buns is as it is using butter, sugar and coconut for the filling. Source: http://zh.m.wikipedia.org/zh-hant/雞尾包

These bad boys... Where shall I start? Yummy! It took me in total 6 hours to make a total of 38 buns. Including the time for the dough to proof and to bake in the oven. Thanks to Miss LSC who kindly helped me at the end otherwise it would have taken me longer to complete. Her reward was able to eat a freshly baked bun just out of the oven. At it's best. 

I knew these would be very welcoming hence the 38 but it still wasn't enough to go round for all the those I had in mind. At least I know those who got their hands on one enjoyed them. :) some even said they wanted more. You know who you are. 

For those who are interested in trying their own hand at his this then there is a link to YouTube for the video below and its how I learnt it. Not boasting or anything but all I do now is look at my list of ingredients. The whole procedure has been memorised. It may be worthwhile to check out other videos and recipe but this one worked for me. 

youtube video: http://youtu.be/mL6EfOYM5Y0

Ingredients

Bread dough:

500g strong bread flour

7g yeast 

50g caster sugar

15g milk 

50g margarine

250ml Luke warm water 

Filling: 

150g margarine

60g dry milk powder

60g caster sugar 

40g desiccated coconut

Topping: 

50g margarine

20g caster sugar 

3 tbsp plain flour 

2 tbsp custard powder

Remember to whisk up an egg to spread over the buns and sprinkle with sesame seeds before baking for the 2nd time. All instructions are in the video itself. 

Enjoy! 

Baby knits

It has been a while since I last blogged on here to share my thoughts and activities. This year has certainly been slipping past me without myself knowing. 

What have I been up to since my last post? After the epic failure, the next project(s) I have been working on are still work in progress. Finally, I have managed to complete at least one of them. 

Lets start off with the cardigan, Sirdar escape dk 100% wool. It was great to work with this as the pattern I followed was for a striped cardigan. I couldn't resist in using a self striping yarn. I was trying to use some of my never ending stash. 

The hat was just luxury to knit with. Thanks to Erika Knights British wool. I just used less than 25g to knit a 0 -6 months size. It was so soft and allowed me to have my dream come true of picking up a rather dinky ball of yarn off a shelf in Wool & Co, Dundee. 

Booties... The yarn used was bought from a few years back. It was a trip in Edinburgh, K1. The lady sourced from local farms. So it's a little bit rough looking but if I remember correctly it was Hayes Moss. 

I just LOVE knitting baby items. Please note, I'm not expecting. Its family members and friend. Baby stuff are all so dinky which means it requires less time to complete but it took me a while before I actually got round to sew up the pieces together. Now that I have the time I can plan and prioritise everything. 

Below are pictures of what I'm about to post to a friend in London. 

I hope the owner of these items will love them and get a sense for fashion at a very young age. Kaffe Fasset style. =) 

Epic failure

Never knew being a 'baking queen' the word failure would exist in their dictionary. Well, today it's made an appearance. 

It was such a pleasure to actually have one thing being filed under the failed department. Macaroons.... What an epic failure. I guess with this under my belt I will have room for improvement right? 

This first one is before it went into the oven to be baked. Pretty right? I thought I would have been able to get away without using a nozzle to pipe these monsters out... Wrong! 

Look at the next picture....

I couldn't even get one perfect shell off that sheet. Possible reason for failure? 

1. Lining the trays 

2.not keeping an eye on the time to open and close the oven door briefly. 

3. Missing out a few steps by mistake... 

Lesson learnt. 

However, taste wise - it was ok - maybe make the shells a little bit thicker. I couldn't let my voluntary guinea pigs to try them. Just one step closer they would have got them. Next time. 

Party Percy

Loving this wee elephant. 

This elephant has a heart breaking story - losing someone close is hard to accept. The wound will never be healed - only my Almighty God can bring me peace and be my comforter. 

This special wee person will forever have a place in my heart, never forgotten. He brought me a happiness that can't be described but it was I who gave up. 

Lgc pattern issue 50 

Food! Glorious food!

Happy Chinese New Year!

It's come to my attention that this blog is become more about my little creations and have neglected the food part. So, I'm going to compile it all under the one post now.

It's too bad that I can't make changes to where I want the photos to go unless I am using an actual computer. I do apologise if it gets too messy.

Where do I start? I have 5 photos to share with you. I shall work my way around them all and having to shorten it all into a paragraph each. Everyone knows the saying 'a picture says a thousand words'

The first one was taken at the 'Pancake Place' in Dundee. This was my brunch one Sunday afternoon before driving back to Aberdeen for work. There was quite a bit of variety to choose from in terms of pancake's wise. However, I spotted the 'rocky road' one from my previous visit. I really wanted to try it the next time I was in Dundee. This was 3 pancakes stacked up with marshmallows and chocolate sauce with ice cream. It was yummy indeed and it wasn't too sweet which was surprising. I absolutely live marshmallows when they have been heated up a little to make them gooey inside. However, it is rather filling and I couldn't even finish it all.

The next 2 photos underneath are taken from 'Oko Express' in Glasgow. I had a great girly day out with one of my closest friends. It was one of their special bento box and a sushi roll. It was a while ago so I can't quite remember the names of the food I had there. It may look like there is a lot to eat but I think I managed to eat all of it since I was really hungry that day after a whole day of retail therapy and having to drive back up to Aberdeen.

This isn't too bad going considering I have now covered 3/5 photos. Every one of see photos do bring back fond memories which are now going through my mind.

Next, this was a meal that was prepared by the chefs in 'China Garden' in Hadleigh. It was the week where I went to England for a little holiday around September 2012. The food was great but there wasn't quite enough to go round for everyone. To be fair, you can't have too much of good food. This meal was mainly seafood which I love as that is what I was brought up to eat. Typical Chinese.

The last photo now. His was taken just for fun.. It was to show how much food John and I would order if we were extremely hungry. I think this photo only shows about 3/4 of what we actually ate that night after a day out in Brighton. I was a little bit disappointed with the pork chop that I had. I think I was expecting a different sauce to go with it. Anyways, it was great but I was getting really full by the time I got to the main course. We like to have all the food brought out when they are ready rather than having different courses.

I think this is it for this post. :) I hope this post hasn't been too boring. Take care until the next time.

10 weeks labour...

Is this my first post for this year? Well, happy 2013 to everyone who reads this post of mine.

I must say that this cardigan (shown below) has taken 10 weeks to knit up and there has been a bit of hesitation on deciding if I really wanted to use the yarn that it asked for. I can say it is really worth that little bit extra money. I tend to have a taste for the more expensive stuff in comparison to what my budget normally is. However, I seem to manage to talk myself into going for the stuff at the top end of the market. 

This cardigan is knitted with Artesano Aran wool which is made up of 50% alpaca and 50% wool. Lush. 

Today, I finally managed to  get some buttons to finish the garment and it looks too good. =) It should be good enough to keep me warm for the rest of the wintery season in the UK.This cardigan makes me very proud. 

This cardigan has taught me a new skill, 3 needle cast off.

Spiral rib hat

This was another quick knit that I found online. This hat was knitted up very quickly for a friend's son.

I was given a scarf that his granny made home whilst in Hong Kong. My mission was to find yarn that was similar to the colour baby blue. I didn't know where to start looking. I popped along to my local yarn store to look for some clues. To my surprise the girl knew what it was and advised that it may be slightly different in colour die to the dye lot.

I was quite happy with the yarn so I bought some of it and started to knit. It was so soft to touch and I'm sure it would keep the child very warm in the winter.

Owl keyring

After a few months if not posting, 2012 has slipped past me and 2013 has begun without me knowing. Happy new year to my readers, whoever you are. :)

Who else thinks that January is a bad time to have a birthday? I think it's horrid. Simply it's right after the festive season of Christmas and new year. Most people I would imagine would have spent a lot of money on gifts and food. However, I do feel sympathy for their mums who had to carry them inside their bodies over the festive time and probably not able to have a few drinks.

Anyways, I made this owl keyring for a girl that I work with in the restaurant. She brings me joy when I need it and probably the one that I can wind up the most. I hope she'll love this little owl. It's not perfect I know but it's just a wee gift.

Cool cables

Time has flown by really quickly.. I can't believe it's been 1 year since I properly picked up a crochet hook and knitting needles. It's been a year since I've discovered my local yarn store in my city. Throughout the year I have made a few things and have ventured out to some of stitches that I thought was impossible for me to grasp. However, I have taken on the challenge of cabling whilst knitting and I have made the cushion cover below.

There have been mistakes made simply by not paying attention to which row I was knitting. This has been created with rowan all season cotton. The pattern was found in a magazine from the collection that I have at home.

The wool itself was very smooth to work with and it gives a great stitch definition especially in the cabled parts if the cover .

UGG booties

Recently I had the urge to buy the newest knitting magazines but I wasn't quite into the Christmas season yet.. One night after work on my way home I went to my local 24 hour supermarket. I had a sneak look down their News and Magazines aisle and found two of my fave knitting magazines and automatically picked them up. I continued my shopping around the store not for much longer though. 

As soon as I got home, I was getting ready to snuggle up in my bed with my magazines. I jumped straight to the front where you see photos of what the magazine had patterns for. I instantly fell in love with their UGG style booties... I also got good Christmas present ideas from it too. 

Next day, I browse online to see what deals I could get for buying all the wool that I required to make my own UGG booties and presents. I know this isn't significant but it was Wool Week. What does this mean? I got discount on any wool or wool blend yarn. As I wasn't looking to getting the stated wool mentioned in any of the patterns I had to choose from a page of suggested substitute wool. Once I chosen which brand which one would be a reasonable price, I only had one problem with choosing the colour I wanted to get for each one. I love personalising my gifts. In the end I chose Debbie Bliss Paloma in Mallard along with Rowan British Sheep Boucle. 

I can't wait to wear these during the cold and long winter nights.  They are so cosy even though they are a little bit loose but it makes it easier to get my feet in and out of them. =)

little creations

I have made these little creations earlier on this year but never really got round to putting these up...



Mobile phone sock




Cable detail

 The phone sock design is a perfect fit for almost any phone as demonstrated above. I really love the cable twist in this design as it adds a bit of texture to the knitting. This was knitted with an acrylic double knit wool in fuschia.

coin purse



Bobble coin purse

 Above, is something that I created using a very simple stitch found in my Stich Collection book. This purse was inspired from seeing a similar purse somewhere. It is perfect for using up some of the yarn that I had left over from the mary jane slippers. I absolutely love the bobbles in this stitch and the fabric used to add a bit of strength to the actual purse. It also ensures that no coins could escape too. If anyone is interested in this purse then let me know =)

With winter on the way now I also have these cute owl mittens below

Owl mittens

This is a pattern that I found in a magazine so I didn't design this one. I just used a different colour of yarn, Artesano Aran. This is lovely and soft to the skin and it keeps your hands warm when it gets chilly outside. This would make a perfect gift for Christmas....

monkey adventures

It has been a long while since I last blogged... one reason - no card reader available until today!! =D



Monkey @ the hotel in London


The monkey above has been made with lots of love. It has been on a little adventure too from Aberdeen to London then over to Colchester.

No doubt I absolutely love it. This has been made with Hayfield bonus DK in chocolate and Wendy DK in biscuit. The size wise is probably slightly smaller than it should be due to smaller needles being used. It was recommended on a 3.25 mm but I just used 3mm needles.

let's go dotty

As a present for my friend who bought a house with her husband a few months back I have made the dotty cushion below.

Again, it may not be the perfect finish but it's the thought that counts. =)

-------------

My day off (Tuesday) started really early at 9am.. not through choice but my body and warm sunshine. I headed into town to grab a few things as I didn't want to spend a whole afternoon in town not knowing where or what to do.

First stop was the bank and then over to Boots to hand back an umbrella to a customer who left it at the restaurant the night before. The Body Shop was on the cards until I walked past and seen it closed for a refurbishment... =( 

John Lewis seems to be my favourite place to get all my little bits and bobs for my crafty stuff at the minute. They may not stock on a wide range of wool but their whole Rowan collection is enough for me to look at. After a quick browse on their wool with no intention of buying any since money is tight at the minute I just ended up getting the zip I required to finish off the cushion above.

Next stop whilst on my way to Yorokobi for lunch was Primark in getting a new shower curtain... Although I've been on the hunt for something nice for going to London next week I couldn't find anything in the sales or Primark. Don't you hate the feeling of looking through your wardrobe in hope to find something nice and you don't? Then you say to yourself 'I don't have any clothes.' I guess thats why girls seem to have a lot of clothes in their wardrobes and drawers since we don't really throw much out.

Anyways, I just got on with what I was there for - shower curtain. They have shifted things about and I had to walk around all 3 floors until I found them upstairs with all the PJ's. I guess it's good to have burned off a few calories before indulging on some yummy food.

Lunch at Yorokobi was a breeze. I think that is the only restaurant that I can go to by myself without feeling wierd or pitiful for myself. 

Vegetarian Jabchae

California Hand Roll with Tobiko

Soft shell crab Maki

All of that went into my tummy. =)

That is all for my day off as the rest was spent at home watching Glee and The Vampire Diaries.

right kind of wrong

Yes I took the name of a song sung by LeAnn Rimes as the title for this post. It is true for my knitting journey that I have been on so far. It's meant to be summer just now but it feels like it's Autumn. I'm loving our traditional Scottish weather though.

Recently I've finished knitting up a pair of slippers which are very similar to the mary jane's one. 

I love the little bowdetails on them... =) This was knitted with Sirdar Crofter Chunky wool on a size 5 mm needles.. This has taught me to spend some time to knit up a tension square first. It's a little bit loose but it's good. So the 1st right kind of wrong is knitting a pair of slippers in the summer. 

the next one is I went out for a dinner date with my girlfriend C about 2 weeks ago.. I dressed up.. I was wearing a dress with stilletto heels  and the weather was pretty much miserable.. wet wet wet. However it felt good not to be dressed according to the weather though. 

My next in the car project is a pair of fingerless mittens... All I need to finish is the right hand mitten.

 

Ready to use

It has come to my attention that I haven't written in this blog for a whole month now... Where has the time gone? To be perfectly honest I think it's just all done to laziness. It's hard to think of a topic each time I open up this page on my screen and I know I have a lot that I can write about since this is very broad on what I can tell online. Here is one anyway... ready frosting..

I was invited to a gathering at a friends house during my week off in May. It was just all finger food and games night really.. I offered to make something sweet e.g. cupcakes.

Cupcakes itself is easy to bake and doesn't take long either.. I find the decorating part can take longer than the actual baking.. It's always about the looks or the cover of book that one would find appealing to their eyes. We always say 'never judge a book by it's cover' or a person by their looks. Well, thats not the case for cakes... with this in mind I didn't know how I wanted to decorate these cupcakes that I was going to make. Whilst shopping around in the supermarket I found their own brand ready to use frosting icing in a vanilla flavour. I thought this would be perfect. I have never been sure of using the ready to use or bake packs. I was surprised by this though..

To be fair, these cupcakes were delicious. The mini marshmallows just finished it off nicely in terms of decoration wise.

baking marathon

Well, after a week of holiday it has come to my weekly day off even though I've only been back at work for 2 days. My only day in the week that I can rest and recharge my batteries for the following 6 days ahead of me whether it's busy or not I still need the energy to get through them. Sometimes it can be crazy - depends on how I feel and those around me. It can get to a point where I just have some crazy fun with colleagues or even customers. Dependent on their nature if they can take a joke and not take it to heart. 90% of the time it's ok to ahve a laugh with them. Or it could get really bad where I just put on a fake smile and to me then everything and everyone will some what annoy me, except for those who know me well and will steer clear of me. At that stage I wish that I could do such and such a thing but it never seems to happen since I usually have a few errands to do on my day off. However, today was an exception. I didn't.

I thoroughly enjoyed a real lazy lie in today, I didn't really get out of my bed until near enough 1pm. Don't get me wrong I was awake already from a phone call from the MR asking me what I'd be getting up to - I didn't know. After the phone call I rambled on in my head what I wanted to do. I said to a girl last night that I had quite a lot of plain and self raising flour to use up. *ding ding* why not bake? Whilst baking I can watch Season 1 part 1 of Glee and knit too. How amazing would that be? I can tell you it was. I got up and dressed and chose what I wanted to make from looking at a cook's book. It sure has some goodies in there. I then wrote down what I needed from Asda which was my closest supermarket and headed out. I came home and decided which order to make the baked goodies. Then I realised I forgot to get the right amount of butter which meant I had to do what I planned on making last first so that I could head out whilst it was sitting in the oven baking.

After the 2nd trip to Asda the house was already smelling of baked chocolate mousse. It smelt yummy. Whilst still waiting on it to be baked I moved onto my 2nd bake - chocolate brownies. The timing was just in time for everything, by the time the brownies was ready to go in the oven - the mousse was ready. I had 15 minutes to do the cleaning up and prep for my last bake of the day. The strawberry and cream sponge cake. The only problem I have at the end of all this baking was who is gonna help me eat all this? 

Chocolate Brownies

baked choc mousse

Strawberry and Cream Sponge Cake

After the baking marathon, I made myself dinner which compromised Chicken wings and pasta with some cheese. A simple dish. My entertainment was my LoveFilm DVD which consisted of Season 1 part 1 Glee. =) 

Finished eating and I still had a few more episodes of Glee to get through so  to round off the evening I picked up my knitting needles in front of the telly. As I finished off a little bit of my cardigan the DVD came to an end.  

Staying In

After all the travelling the past 2 days I thought it was time to stay in and just chill out for the next few days before going back to work... It was a struggle on deciding on what to make for dinner. The food shopping was simple once I knew what I haven't eaten for a loong time.. A home made macaroni cheese. This dish brings back some fond memories that has been buried away.

I thoroughly enjoyed this dish tonight. It didn't taste quite right but I only have myself to blame as I made the sauce up a little bit as I cooked it in the pan.Nevertheless it is still one of my favourite dishes of all times. =)

Sometimes in life I wish I could go back to the past to make some changes. However, everything happens for a reason. Whether it's for good or bad it  depends on how we see it ourselves. Personally, everything that has happened in my life was for the best. Sometimes I like asking myself 'what if' questions, it is such a rhetorical question because we will never get an answer from these unless it really did happen or we make it happen ourselves.

teddy bear

It fees like its been a while since my last post. In that time I have made a few quick knits to use up some of my stash that I have in a box. I really didn't know what else to make but a bright idea came to mind. Just a wee knitted bear for a wee girl called Ava.

It's now time to go back to my bigger projects that I had on hold for so long, time to finish those off. No doubt after a while I will get bored and move onto another quick knit.

fair isle knitting

I have only been knitting and crocheting for a few months. I thought I'd give this 'fair isle' or 'intarsia' knitting a go and here is the outcome.

I am quite proud of this small knit being a first attempt at it... Now all I need to do is try other techniques that I haven't tried yet. =)

I am now going to work on a lot of mini projects so that I can use up my stash or yarn... any ideas what next?