A weft yarn

HCB - Chocolate Raspberry Trifle

The trifle is made up of layers of chocolate cake, custard, raspberry preserves, raspberries, and raspberry cream.

I made the moist chocolate genoise cake the day before. One of the reasons I was keen to join the Heavenly Cake Bakers was to encourage myself to try out new cake baking techniques. I wanted to move outside my comfort zone and it seems that having a group to belong to and a deadline to meet is one way to keep me moving forward. I don't want to stress too much about having to be absolutely faithful to Rose's instructions but I do want to make sure I give myself the very best chance to make the cake as intended.

Other principles that I want to bring to this weekly baking endeavour are that if I have a piece of equipment or an ingredient that is "near enough" (again, without compromising the baker's intentions) then I should use it. So, my first challenge is around the 60% - 62% cocoa solids in the chocolate. In my fridge (where I store my chocolate) I only had 50% or 70% and while I was happy enough to look around for a 60-62% chocolate at the local mall, I wasn't quite willing to drive to a specialist grocer or to search online. Unfortunately no one had 60-62%. So, very first compromise - I used half 50% and half 70% cocoa solids in the Lindt dark chocolate.

 

The chocolate melted beautifully and was lovely and glossy. Then Rose mentions that you don't need to warm the eggs and sugar if you are keeping them at room temperature, which she gives as 26C. I do keep my eggs at room temperature but given it has been a super cold Autumn here in Canberra (minus temperatures overnight) and I've got the heat on to warm the house, I am reasonably conscientious about energy consumption so I only keep the house at 19.5C. Rose gives instructions on how to warm the eggs and whisk them until they are 26 degrees. I used a thermometer to make sure I had the exact temp before placing them in mixer. Whereupon they did exactly what she said they would do - increased in volume! Then I sifted the smallest bit of flour into the mix, in the proportions required (ie three times), then folded in the chocolate, which sinks immediately to the bottom of the mixing bowl. After lightly folding the chocolate until it seemed uniform enough, I poured the chocolate genoise mix into the pans and baked them in the oven.

All these new techniques - melting chocolate with boiling water, warming eggs, the mousse-like consistency of the batter, no butter in a cake. It was fun.

While the cakes were in the oven I made a custard following Rose's instructions. I've made custard many times, so found this step reasonably easy. About the time when I'd finished the custard the cakes were ready to come out of the oven. I was pretty pleased with how the cakes turned out.  And I had each of the family members wander in through the afternoon, curious about the beautiful smells coming from the kitchen. Wait, wait. Paitence my people.

On the next day, I used a long serrated knife and cut the cakes in half, giving me four layers. I made the sugar syrup but did not add any alcohol as my trifle tasters will be under the age of consent. Well - not so much the alcohol content would be a problem to them (or me) but the taste would not appeal, I'm sure. Pity. Cause Raspberry liqueur sure did sound nice. Maybe I'll try it for an adult party sometime.

Then I whipped the cream and what a stroke of brilliance, I added the raspberry preserves as instructed and wow that was fantastic. I could have just scooped that raspberry cream right out of the bowl and into my mouth. Hmm. Perhaps I did. But at least some made it to the top of the trifle. My piping skills are very entry-level baker's apprentice. But I'm OK with that. I quite enjoy piping and don't need things to look pristine.

I've always wanted to make a trifle. I love cake and berries and custard and cream and alcohol - but more importantly I like them all together in the one bowl. We missed out on the alcohol but again, there's always another day, another excuse to make this fantastic dessert.

 

Celtic scissors keep - update

I have started my new Celtic scissors keep and despite spending a goodly amount of time, do not have much stitching progress to show. I scrounged around the house for ages looking for an embroidery hoop that would fit such a small piece of Aida. I'm not exactly sure a hoop is necessary for this piece so why I  devoted so much time to searching isn't clear. I guess it was more that I don't like loosing things. Despite the lack of stitches, I do have some treasure to show that I found in a local op shop.

For the progress on the cross stitch, you'll note a completed gold frame for the front and an incomplete gold frame on the back. It's a start. Every journey, single step, all that.

But onto the treasure....I picked up 8 cards of Ginnie Thompson Flower thread for a song.

When I did my creative tapestry course back in 2004, the teachers provided some Ginnie Thompson flower thread for us to use. As part of the course, we learnt a range of embroidery stitches that could be applied to tapestries. And for each stitch we used a range of threads - Perle 5, Perle 3, Wool, DMC, Fine Medici Wool and sometimes Ginnie Thompson Flower thread. At the time, they made mention that the Flower thread was somewhat rare, could be hard to come by and would have to be ordered. In the intervening years, I do not recall seeing it any of the Canberra stores.

So, I was pretty excited to find such a rich seam of thread gold in my local op shop. When I got home I did a bit of research and found this curious history of the thread with the eccentric name. After all, it sounds like something your great-aunt Adelaide made up when she couldn't remember the real name.

  From the Ginnie Thompson Flower thread website...

There are two main reasons for using Flower Thread. One, the soft matte colors made to resemble natural dyes and two, the thickness of the thread which equals two strands of six-strand floss. 

The colors were originally dyed by the Danish master dyer, Einar Hansen. In the Museum of Applied Arts in Copenhagen there is a series of folios by Einar Hansen in which he has pressed and mounted those plants which made the natural dyes used in the 1800's by Danish peasants. Beside each pressed plant is a wool sample showing the color of the natural dye. These colors were the basis for the chemically dyed cotton thread we call Flower Thread. The name reflects the infuence of Gerda Bengtsson (1900-1996), A Danish designer who is best known for her beautiful flower designs. Miss Bengtsson was trained as a weaver as well as an artist, and was experienced as a dyer.

Another artist and a contemporary of Gerda Bengtsson and Einar Hansen was Else Johnsen, who sought textural uniformity in counted cross stitch embroidery by using the same thickness of basic thread for the background fabric and the embroidery thread. As devotees of Flower Thread know, this similarity of thickness gives a very special look to pieces worked on linen of a thickness equal to a single strand of Flower Thread (26-30ct.) or linen of a thickness equal to two Flower Thread strands (18-20 ct.).

Ginnie and Ken Thompson introduced Danish Flower Thread to the American market in the mid-1980's. When the demand for the thread exceeded the production capacity of the Danish Handcraft Guild, they introduced Ginnie Thompson Flower Thread®, with redesigned packaging, color numbering and a broader color range, as a substitute to meet market demands. The Flower Thread Company is presently operated by their daughter, Meg Shinall.

Here is an image, found here,of one of Gerda Bengtsson's embroideries of an artichoke. I could imagine myself doing something like this one day...

 

I also found an Australian online supplier here that stocks both Ginnie Thompson and Danish Flower Thread. Ah, projects for another day. Happy to look for now. I have more than enough hand sewing and knitting projects in my rotation system at present.

HCB - Barcelona Brownie Bars

This group of Heavenly Cake Bakers has been baking along for two years (2009-2011) and I'm just jumping in when the last 20 or so cakes are being baked. I've been following their progress for awhile and about 3 months ago I bought the cookbook Rose's Heavenly Cakes. It has some pretty special cakes in it and Rose Beranbaum provides extensive instructions on all stages of the baking process. We decided after Nick read Harriet the Spy, that if Harriet could eat cake every afternoon after school, then maybe we could eat cake one afternoon a week. So, if I can maintain the rage, there's a cake to bake once a week.

This week is Barcelona Brownie Bars, which the group made in 2009 and now we are making in 2011 with our new host, Knitty Baker. I was grateful to start on a fairly straightforward baking assignment. I've made brownies lots of times, with Tessa Kiros' recipe being my go-to brownie recipe. Like Rose, she also uses cocoa in her brownies and good quality dark chocolate but Rose does this thing with cream cheese which adds a nice complex tangy taste to these brownies.

I think some of Rose's cakes are going to be very challenging so, again, grateful to start with something simple. I made it even simpler by skipping the step where I pump extra chocolate ganache into the already very chocolately brownie. I also have children who are not fans of nuts so, as Rose had a dried cherry substitution, I used some dried blueberries. These I soaked in some boiling water so that they would plump up a bit.

The children enjoyed afternoon tea and I really liked the serving size of these bar shapes. They will also go into lunch boxes very neatly.

 

Weaving with the Ashford Knitter's Loom - update on blue scarf

So we are at the end of the weaving process that was begun here. Tess has finished the weaving and now we need to cut the ends and tie the knots. As part of earning one of her Girl Guides badges, she took the loom to Guides one night and demonstrated the weaving. She had also got onto the internet and done a bit of research on weaving and having seen photos of woven baskets and bags, she then rummaged through our dress-ups box and found a woven grass bag that had come home with us from a trip to PNG in 1994. So she took her loom, her printed A4 pages of weaving research and her grass bag to Guides and did her bit. I gather the whole session went over time, as many of the girls wanted a hands-on go. Who wouldn't? I can't wait to get my hands on it. She has agreed to lend it to me (for a small fee - very entrepreneurial of her - she's currently addicted to Sylvanian families, which is burning a hole in her pocket money).

Here's the end of the loom. We will cut these threads and make a knotted fringe. I'll update when that is done. And if you are interested, here is a blog with a quite nice, detailed, adult version of weaving on the Ashford Knitters Loom.

Cat tapestry - progress

I have been working on my cat tapestry. I managed to add 6 and half rows over the 10 hour period. I had a couple of particularly slow nights where I felt foggy and sluggish. My dad's birthday took place during the week I worked on this, but as he passed away in December, I felt kind of morose and melancholy for days. It was a bit of therapy to concentrate on the intricacies of this pattern and just let myself be calm.

In the photo below, I can imagine that the dangling threads and needles looks disconcertingly messy but I'm following the technique as described by a French teacher, whose book I've read. I've referred to it here. I actually am thrilled now with this method. The challenge of this particular tapestry is all the colour changes and that is solved by threading up many needles, storing them in a needle-store-device-thingy, following the chart closely and, then, after the one or two stitches in a particular colour, I then park the needle and wool, letting it dangle, until I return on the next row. It's way easier than trying to follow the chart and work in one colour at a time - given there are over 40 colours in this tapestry and lots and lots of colour changes.

Aldo's head is beginning to take shape. Two little pink ears and then a bit of black and tabby joining up the ears.

Someone from my tapestry class enlarges her charts on the photocopier and so I took a leaf out of her book and am glad I did. I ended up with 4 x A4 photocopies for the one chart but it is much easier to follow the colour change. I also mark the row I am up to with the orange coloured sticky tape that is like post-it notes - sort of a reusable sticky tape. I've described this in another chart-related post.

 

This final image is of my general tapestry-related clutter (including the mostly finished block of Haigh's chocolate) that accompanies my tapestry work station. If you're interested, the threaded up needle-storage-device-thingy is at the back of the table. And, for anyone familiar with Amy Karol's bend the rules sewing book, the bag I store this tapestries' bits and bobs in, was sent to me as part of a bend the rules sewing swap way back in 2008. The woman who made me the bag knew I liked gardening and funnily enough was an expat-Aussie living in America. I used to use it for painting and drawing supplies which was a nice idea but somewhat misguided, as we don't draw or paint very often. I am now making much better use of her (my) bag. Next 10 hour project is the one I call the Brown Owls project - at the moment it's the celtic cross stitch.

Pyjamas sewn - new look 6746

I had a few quiet hours on the weekend and managed to sew Tessy's pyjamas that I had cut out and were waiting in the cupboard. The pattern I used was New Look 6746 in size 8. It is up on the wall behind my sewing table. I kept the pattern instructions open behind the sewing machine and mostly this worked fairly well. I could follow along what I needed to do next and it only occasionally got awkward while I was sewing the larger bits of the PJs. In retrospect it was reasonably detailed sewing for a pair of bedroom attire. Still, I actually think that is rather brilliant - to learn to sew by making reasonably complicated pyjamas.

Tess had picked this pattern because she loved the headband. I liked the pattern because it was pretty. We recently bought the floral blue flannel in Sydney but I had the plain greeny-blue flannel in my stash.

 

The pyjama top closes with snaps and on the front you are meant to attach three ribbons but Tess didn't want to feel all buttoned down around the collar so we just put on two of the snaps and two ribbons. Ribbons were from the stash as well and were the choice of the pyjamee. I love the gathers around the bodice and the skirt-like effect of the top. I also like the little lace trims around collar and sleeves and cuffs. The collar is interfaced and the trimmed with bias binding on the inside of the neck. All these techiques were new to me and in the past I would probably have huffed and puffed and stressed my way through the sewing. I took a bit out of my hand sewing philosophy, which is, that time is not the measure of success. I think in the past, i've always rushed through, made mistakes, not done my research and reading. Anyhoo, I enjoyed the sewing and she loved the pyjamas - smile.

A few other details - cuff with lace and topstitching. Child with strange markings on her hand. She's often self marked but on this occasion it was the school teachers, as she ran around the oval in the cross country. She did three laps but didn't need a mark for the last lap. I wonder if teachers enjoy drawing on children? She certainly enjoys taking a pen to herself.

The pattern is a size 8 and Tess is 9 but it fits her well and has enough room for growth. She is still wearing some size 6's so I was pretty confident the size 8 would be fine. And it was. There's enough length in the pants to maybe get two seasons out of these. She's also wearing her little felt slippers purchased from the Nepalese felt stall at the Folk Festival. Cozy. I know. I have a pair as well.

Happy girl. She's asked for more versions but I've a feeling there are other sewing tasks queued up - aprons, soft toys, quilts....but I'm sold on the joys of garment construction and will return to the scene of my crimes.

My next Celtic scissors keep - new kit

I finished a cross stitch kit a few weeks ago that made up into a lovely little scissors keep. It isn't a big project and as I have a number of project bags in the rotation system, each with their own little embroidery kit, I thought I might like to make another one of these. I came across this new Celtic kit in the current Fox catalogue. Here's a look at it. It is a medieval stylised bird. I gather from the instructions that it is an image from an illuminated manuscript. Interesting posture that bird has!

From the Textile Heritage kit blurb ..."this kit is inspired by the richly illuminated gospels produced by Celtic monsatries during the Dark Ages. The Celts were widely distributed throughout Europe, and the British Celts were forced by Anglo-Saxon invasion to move to the remoter northern and western areas of Britain and Ireland. The Celts became Christians earlier than the Anglo-Saxons and developed a rich monastic culture, and sent out missionaries, such as St Columba, who came from Ireland to convert the Scottish Picts. He established a great abbey on the Scottish island of Iona. The monks here would have produced beautiful illuminated gospels. The designs in these texts drew on a wide range of artistic influences, reflecting the scattered origins of the Celts."

There you go. A bit of a potted history of events that took place thousands of years ago, of culture, art, war and religion - all the big themes of life, embroidered onto a piece of Aida and then attached to scissors in Canberra.

Loot, treasure, promises as yet unfulfilled, gratitude expressed late

In this photo: Mother's day flowers, Autumn wool and sack club, and the generosity of fellow bloggers.

In this photo: May 2011, April 2011, August 2009.

In this photo: Fibrewebs Autumn club 2011. Merino silk. 50/50 superwash merino and silk, 100g, 393m (430yds), Mulled wine. AND 4ply sock, 420m, 105g, 60% superwash wool, 20% cashmere, 20% nylon, handyed by knittingsprouts.

So, I have love, promises of future projects, beauty, and gratitude in this photo. As well as tardiness and regret at taking so long to post a great big "thank you" to knitting sprouts, for the hand dyed wool sent to me in 2009! I'd like to think, it's never too late to say sorry and never too late to say "thank you".

When my daughter finishes her weaving, I might request the loom for a short period of scarf making.

Sewing pyjamas

I spent a very enjoyable March following along the talented folks who jumped into the Me-Made-March or in one case Mama-Made-March. It made me want to start sewing again. I was so impressed at how easy they made it seem (hehe ...groan). Anyway, I did my usual thing of spending a whole month trawling through the sewing books I own, making notes, organising my sewing patterns, making lists of supplies I had and those I needed...my usual long journey to the beginning of something. But, then, when I started, I felt reasonably comfortable, instead of the clothes sewing anxiety that sometimes strikes me. All that effort and what if it doesn't fit..blah blah. I also solved the biggest problem by deciding to do more the "mama" thing than the "me" thing. Though trust me, it's all part of the grand plan of moving on to skirts for me next.

Somewhere along the road, I read to iron the tissue paper pattern before cutting it out - that seemed weird but I did it anyway. It actually wasn't that hard. I just made sure the iron was on low and it pressed out heaps of really big wrinkles.

I then laid out my new cutting board which had come recommended by Buttontree Lane - and I too loved it. I could confidently cut without worrying about my dining room table top. (sorry about the gloom in the photos - it was an overcast afternoon)

I had remembered from my sewing adventures in the past that I hated the pinning and cutting phase, so, this time around, I decided to trace the sewing pattern onto the fabric using carbon paper and a tracing wheel. It is a multi-sized pattern and potentially it could be used again - though this is actually a bit of a furphy because the pattern I have goes from size 3-8 and my little one is at the top of the range. I still prefer it though. It did save me some fussy cutting of the tissue paper. Instead I did fussy tracing but then I found the cutting really easy cause I wasn't wrangling the tissue paper and the fabric and those sharp and pokey pins, all at the same time. I did lightly pin the tissue paper to the fabric while I traced with the wheel but I didn't pin as I cut. The fabric is flannel (PJs after all) so it stuck together quite nicely and had a nice weight to it as I cut. The tracing took me about an hour, and the cutting took 15 minutes. I was really happy with that balance.

 

 

My photos aren't super clear but if you look closely you'll see that there are little red dots that form the shape of the pattern, and that I've traced the pattern marks and then gone over them with yellow tailor's chalk.

In the photo below you can see the red carbon paper all dotty and lined from running the tracing wheel over it mutliple times. I'm reasonably frugal and I've put it back in the cupboard for another day...I think it still has some life left in the red carbon.

That was enough for a single sewing session, so, I took Built by Wendy's advice and bundled up the trim, the bias binding, the cut interfacing and the cut out pattern pieces, labelled it all and then put it back in the cupboard. Crossed fingers it comes out next week and is sewn together and that I don't find it when Tess moves out to University.

Fanciful Felties - book

We were in Sydney about a month ago and as part of the festivities I managed to have lunch at Orange Grove Markets in Rozelle and then spent a small amount of time in Calico and Ivy. I was pretty shopped out by that stage, so didn't purchase much from that beautiful shop, but I did come across this gorgeous thing.

There are patterns for a range of English "uptown" folk like Marge below. She can have her own felt car and home made by you. It might be a bit difficult to tell from my photos, but, you are provided with patterns to embroider their faces and all the details on their clothes, houses and cars.

Then when you go "down country" you'll come across this ruggedly handsome chap, who appears to be wearing a natty cabled jumper.

The back of the books shows you a couple of other images - my favourite is the bird milkman, complete with satchel, cap and embroidered milk bottles. Aggh. Gorgeous.

I had not come across the author in my travels around the internet but her name is Samantha Cotterill and she has a website mummysam.com. Very cute. very clever. Honestly, the book is fun to read like a play, imagining these characters running their terribly british life, and if you felt inclined to make something you do have patterns, or it could easily just convince you how very much fun it would be to do your own drawings of people and transfer them to felt! If you are interested - browse on - here's a flickr group Fanciful felties. I loved them.