On a Heart Theme

Two pairs of fingerless mittens

for two grown up daughters.

The pattern is Roses from Queen of Hearts by Louisa Harding. You do have to follow a chart to do the heart design, but it's only a small one (16 stitches). Normally I would run a mile from charted instructions with symbols telling you what to knit, but I wanted to knit this pattern so I gave it a go, and it wasn't nearly as painful as I thought it would be.

Any dk yarn could be used for the pattern.

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It has become a yearly tradition in our house for me to bake Mr. Knot Garden a heart shaped cake for Valentine's Day. (In return he supplies me with chocolate.) This year it's a Raspberry Valentine's Cake with cream cheese frosting, from Gorgeous Cakes by Annie Bell, a fantastic book with very reliable recipes. I had this book for Christmas and I've been working my way through it.

A thank you to everyone who has signed up to follow my blog recently.

Hope some Valentine's treats come your way!

Cakes and China

Something I do quite a lot of and really enjoy, is baking. I bake for Mr. Knot Garden and myself, and also for other members of my family. I'm a firm believer in the wholesomeness of home baking with good quality ingredients. Synthetic, mass produced cakes just aren't the same.
Having said that, these are probably highly calorific, but who cares. I wouldn't eat them every day. Naughty but nice. The recipe is Peanut Butter Cupcakes from this excellent book.

We've got some rare sunshine today. Isn't it lovely when the gloom lifts and there's some real light in the house? I was going to take some garden photos, desperately seeking signs of spring, but nothing much is happening out there so I'll show you some recent charity shop purchases instead.

The charity shops in the town where I live are very few and not very good, so I sometimes travel further afield in my search for charity shop goodies. That's how I found these, but not all at the same time. If I can find one thing I'm happy.