Flower Soup

These are for a knitted cushion which will have a cluster of knitted flowers on the front. It's evolving as it progresses, and it's quite fun making flowers of different sizes and colours, tossing them into the mix and seeing the pile grow.

For a small thing where the edges are going to be on show, I found there could be a big difference in appearance depending on the cast-on method used.

Just out of interest, this is a buttercup flower, cast on using the thumb method.

This is exactly the same pattern (from Nicky Epstein's knitted flower book), but made with a cable cast on.

Both nice in their own way.

I'm thinking of using this as an edging for the cushion, not all the way round but maybe on the two vertical edges. Not sure yet how that will look but we'll see.

Do you have a favourite baking recipe you come back to again and again? This week's baking was something I've made many times before, rock buns made using Jane Brocket's recipe. The taste is a wonderful combination of lemon and nutmeg.

They are easy to make and are a particular favourite of Mr. Knot Garden.

Birthday Owl

In our family there are several birthdays close together at this time of year. This week it was daughter no.2's birthday - can you believe she is now 23. Not too old for a birthday tea made by her Mum though!

The birthday cake was a chocolate marble cake with white chocolate and cherries, with white chocolate buttercream icing.

She likes owls and had asked if I would make her an owl cushion. This is my homemade version of one she saw in a shop.

Firmly stuffed or what? A huge amount of stuffing has somehow disappeared into it.

Some respite from the stifling heat today. Thank goodness cooler temperatures are being forecast for next week. I might even get some gardening done.

This year I grew some marigolds and this is the first one to come out.

Enjoy your week whatever you're doing.

ETA: There is no pattern for the owl, it was based on a similar ready-made one and I just winged it (no pun intended)

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.

Christmassy

We don't have a huge amount of decorations up at Christmas, but I am prepared to make some effort - it's either that or risk being labelled a killjoy, or as my daughters would say, a "fun sponge"! So we always have a real tree, and that tree has as much squeezed onto it as possible.

The food preparation is one of the things I enjoy most about Christmas. Everyone has their own preferred way with mince pies, don't they? Cranberries are my secret ingredient. They add a lovely sweet sharpness and an extra kick of flavour to ready-made mincemeat.

Wishing you a happy and peaceful Christmas.

Cookies and Quilting

I've been baking chocolate chip cookies this morning. This is the classic Toll House recipe from here. (Just type Toll House into the search box, and it's the first recipe that comes up.) They turn out perfect every time and it makes a huge batch, but they won't last long in this house;) If you haven't tried this recipe, try it, it's a good one.

Heres my finished star quilt, all quilted and bound.

I hesitated before deciding on that green binding, but I'm glad I went with it. I think sometimes a small amount of an unexpected colour adds a bit of spark. There is some mossy green in the print of the cream fabric, so the binding does relate to something.

If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you can see the binding and quilting more clearly.

Anyway I like the effect, and I enjoyed making this quilt, especially the quilting. I like working on a small to medium-sized scale, and this is just over a yard square.

The weather's hotting up a bit here. I like the sunshine but not the heat, so I hope it doesn't get too hot. It's nice to have a change from rain though. Hope it's fine where you are!