marie fly fly

moving on

2012-11-24T23:59:00.000+01:00

11 months since my last post, it's time to admit to myself that I don't blog anymore. I have been reluctant to let it go, yet I don't really want to anymore.

I enjoyed blogging so much back in 2005 when "everybody" was knit blogging, but with the arrival of Ravelry we all know what happened to the knit blog community. I have been trying to keep up the blog as well as my Ravelry presence, but it's just too much work, and at the end of the day they both became a chore.

Also, I don't knit as much as I used to. I have two children now, I'm trying to lose the baby weight and have started to spend much more time walking, jogging and doing pilates. I have developed an interest in photography, and it's all taking from the knitting and blogging time.

I have been wanting to change the blog to reflect these new interests and cover more topics. I have also considered focusing more on pictures and less on text. And I have considered switching from English to Norwegian. But the blogging mojo is just gone.

Last week I bought myself an Iphone, my first, and signed up for Instagram immediately. Seven days later I have posted 50 photos, and am officially obsessed! I have tried blogging, Ravelry, facebook and twitter in the past,some half-heartedly, some grudgingly, but Instagram is perfect for my needs and my preference for communicating through pictures rather than words.

If you have been following this blog for the knitting, then you'll find me on Ravelry, where my username is marieflyfly. I plan to keep Ravelry updated with my knitting projects. I might also keep the blog updated with my knitting projects, and the odd knitting related post. I think I might continue to share knitting projects on the blog. Or maybe not. I have two finished objects, and four WIPs as we speak, that have never been mentioned on the blog, so only time will tell.

But everything else - such as etsy finds, eye candy friday, glimpses from my everyday life, photos of pretty things - will be posted on instagram. I won't be using my SLR camera for the instagram photos - iphone pics only, but I think I can live with that.What I love about Instagram is the low threshold for posting pictures and the possibility for participating in an online community that might resemble the blogging community.

My Instagram profile is Mariemarieflyfly, and here's the first knitting picture I have posted there:
http://instagram.com/p/SOfZmJD5aH/

FO: Alpaca baby raglan cardi

2012-01-02T00:19:00.000+01:00

On Dec 4th I said "I'm in the process of finishing a cardi for Jens (...). I hope to have photos of it tomorrow." Haha, the best laid plans and famous last words and so on - it took me another 20 days to finish that little cardi, mainly because I hated the finishing. I used Nøstebarns basic raglan baby cardi as a guide so to speak, as discussed before, which featured an unusual way to make the button bands. You basically ignored them until you had finished the rest of the cardi, and then you had to pick up ten stitches at the bottom edge and knit the buttons bands which you then had to sew on - I didn't like this method, it was very fidgety, and why sew when you can knit????, and I don't understand what makes it more useful that just knitting your button bands as you go along.

I used the same lovely alpaca for this cardi, as I used for his sideways striped cardi, and although it worked very well for that pattern, it wasn't the best choice for this cardi. Firstly because it's a very skinny yarn, and takes forever(an entire season to be precise!) to knit up in stockinette. Secondly, alpaca isn't a very bouncy yarn, and the finished cardi doesn't seem very stretchy or flexible - unlike the garter stitch one - so I guess garter stitch makes a more stretchy fabric?

I love the heathered color though, and I don't think I could have found a similar colorway in a more traditional baby wool. And I just LOVE the manly little leather buttons with this color and style cardi - doesn't he look just like a little man wearing it?!

Spec

Pattern: Nøstebarn stripete raglanjakke

Yarn: Garnstudio/Drops Alpaca

Started: 7th Oct 2011

Finished: 24th December 2011

baby knitting

2011-12-04T15:41:00.001+01:00

I'm in the process of finishing a cardi for Jens, which is a good thing, as he is outgrowing his Dale cardi. I hope to have photos of it tomorrow. n the meantime I'm posting some photos of him wearing the Dale romper that goes with that cardi. Except it seems the cardi and the romper are different sizes..Anyhow, I figure he needs to wear this romper everyday to make up for how boring it was to knit!!

etsy friday: toys

2011-12-02T23:37:00.001+01:00

With a new baby comes new etsy categories to explore! I have bought some gorgeous play silks from BeneathTheRowanTree, and a taggie from Razzberrygiggles. The taggie is obviously a baby toy, but the play silks are great for both the baby and the 8-year old, so it's their first shared toy. Nene had a play silk already, but it was practically disintegrating, so I decided we needed a new one. Except I couldn't stop at one when I saw the gorgeous hand painted ones offered at BeneathTheRowanTree! I bought a set of three, one mossy green, one aqua-greenish and one custom dyed red, inspired by their idea of an elements trio, but I made my own collection chosen from their multicolored range. I also bought a really beautiful, extra big one, from their inspired-by-the-arts range - this one is inspired by van Gogh's Starry Night.

With the baby, I'm using the play silks for peek-a-boo-games, for him to explore (chew!) and for songs about the oceans. Nene uses them for dress-up, and for games involving the ocean, the forest and volcanoes. Here's what BeneathTheRowanTree says about play silks:

"Playsilks are open-ended.As your child grows, their silks grow with them, becoming capes and landscapes, blankets and tightropes~ soft, warm, colorful~ lead by the child’s imagination into worlds of wonder.Playsilks make wonderful decor~ canopies, sheers, nature table backdrops...Perfect for dress up, too"

- and here's Jens with his taggie:

new meitai

2011-11-07T01:03:00.005+01:00

BF and Jens testing our new Babyhawk meitai. I love how you can choose
between a gazillion different fabrics to make your own individualised mei tai.
This one is reversible, with this butterfly fabric on the reverse side:

The owl side was my attempt to choose something a tad more masculine
(ok, let's say less feminine!), so BF would be comfortable using it too

Babywearing is included in the eight principles of attachment parenting.
It's also very practical, not to mention sleep inducing - just look at this sleepy face:

wip: phoebe

2011-11-06T00:43:00.006+01:00

I'm working on Phoebe from Rowan Kids, for Nene. I just started a new cardi for Jens, which is three in a row for him, so I needed to make something for her too. It's probably a waste of time, because although she loves it when I knit for her, she never wears any of it. She just doesn't seem to feel cold, ever. Phoebe i a short sleeved cardi, good for layering, so that might actually work for her, besides it means less useless knitting time for me. The pattern is written for Rowan Calmer, but I'm using Pure Wool DK instead. I had one ball in my stash, and ordered 3 more thinking I could alternate them if I didn't get the same dye lot, but the newer 3 balls seem a little thinner and finer than the first one, so I don't think I'll be able to the the one from stash at all.

Cowl

2011-11-02T12:13:00.000+01:00

I've used the beautiful handpainted silk-merino yarn I bought from Hedgehogfibres on etsy last year to make a cowl for myself. I like the way garter stitch shows off hand painted yarn, but I didn't want garter stitch all over, so I've alternated between stockinette and garter stitch, which gave the added advantage of stretchiness. I wanted a cowl that would be quite snug around the neck, and long and wide enough to pull over my head. I also wanted it to flare a bit at the bottom, thinking it would sit nicely on the shoulders that way. I started at the top, deciding that a 60 cm circumference around the face would be good, so I simply cast on the number of stitches needed to fill a 60 cm circular needle, and didn't bother to count them, kept knitting for a while, increased a random number of stitches a random number of time, and cast off when I ran out of yarn. It' beautiful, but a bit short when I pull it over my head, so I blocked it, but then it lost its stretchiness. It's not snug like I wanted it around the neck, so I guess the jury' still out on this one.

duh!

2011-10-10T17:04:00.009+02:00

There were some interesting comments to my post about the drops cardi failure, particularly the one from Silkesauen where she politely mentions that it's possible to make the neckline fit better by following the instructions at the very end of the pattern.

Huh?

In my defence I would like to point out that it did occur to me that something could be done by picking up stitches and decreasing and what not, but it did NOT occur to me to look for page 2 of the pattern to see if perhaps there was a suggestion as to how this could be done. Well, what do you know! I hadn't actually finished the cardi - no wonder it was such a failure!

Still big and kind of girly, but at least it's wearable:

Silkesauen also made an interesting comment about the many versions that exits of the sideways baby cardi, and agreed that the Drops pattern makes a very feminine A-line shape, whereas Nøstebarn has a version that is more square and masculine. Like I said in my first post about this project, I did in fact plan to knit the Nøstebarn version, before I came across the Drops pattern and liked it better. I don't know what my problem with Nøstebarn is - I have the book, and it's packed with basic patterns for kids' clothing and it's very popular among Norwegian knitters. I just find it boring, and all the photos of uneven knitting just don't appeal to me, and I guess I just don't have it in me to see its potential. Which I know is there, because I have seen a lot of really nice knits from this book on various Norwegian blogs. Here's a particularly good example of a lovely project that looks boring in the book, and here's another.

So I'll give it a try, and have taken the rest of the leftover brown alpaca from the Drops cardi, and cast on for a very boringlooking basic baby raglan cardi from the Nøstebarn book. No photo today, but later this week perhaps.

Instead I give you this, to prove that Mr. Grump does smile once in a while:

aarrgg!

2011-10-09T01:27:00.008+02:00

So I finished the Drops baby cardi. It's lovely. I really like the clever construction - knit sideways with short rows so it almost forms a circle. Really happy with how I didn't make holes where I turned to make the short rows. Love the colours. Love the soft alpaca yarn.
I knit the 6-9 months size, also called 74-80. I used the yarn and needles called for in the pattern. I didn't check my gauge, because the pattern instructed you to measure your centimeters, not count your rows, so why bother with gauge. Yes, my baby is only 2 months old , and no, he doesn't wear size 74 or 80 yet.
But he's pretty chubby, and he wears size 68 already, which is only one size smaller than 74. So I'm disappointed.
Actually I think I know what happened here. For the first half of the pattern you're instructed to measure centimeters. For the second half, you repeat everything you did for the first half, but now you count rows. You know, to make absolutely certain the two halves are identical. ut my problem is that I always start my knits with a very tight gauge. And then it gets a little looser. And looser. So it's all my fault :-(
I don't mind that the sleeves are too long, but I think it's a problem that the neckline is as wide as his chest:

And it wasn't really supposed to come all the way down to his knees, like a girl's coat. BF laughed and said it's like a baby blanket with sleeves..

It will fit one day of course, but I think it's a very babyish design, and I think he'll be a toddler before this cardi fits.
His chubby little legs are so cute though:

etsy friday: things made with echino fabrics

2011-10-07T11:24:00.016+02:00

It must be two years now since I bought this dress for Nene, in the fall of 2009 when I planned to post regularly about etsy finds, but then my computer crashed. I bought it from Allthenumbers, since moved to The Measure. It's a great little peasant dress, that is still wearable as a tunic, even though she's had it for two years. But what I really fell for was the fabric with its whimsical images of deer and zebras and butterflies combined with stylized trees and bright colours. I didn't know it then, but it's a design by a very popular Japanese textile designer Etsuko Furuya, who designs a range of fabrics, called Echino, for Kokka Japan. You can see more Echino designs here.

Here's the shop photo from The Measure, so you can see what it looks like when it's ironed :-)

When I started searching etsy for more items made with Echino fabrics, I was astonished to find that a few were already in my possession. It turned out that some of my favorite etsy finds were actually made with echino fabrics:

My knitting needle organizer from Granny's Closet

My knitting pouch from ZigZagStitches

My little elephant pouch from Simbiosis , and last but not least this diaper bag that I ordered yesterday from Melle Belle Shop. Can't wait to see it in person!

and this Christmas stocking from Kathi's Christmas is my all time favorite in its category - too bad we don't have that tradition:

first FO...

2011-10-03T17:58:00.007+02:00

He does smile once in while. But not in the presence of hand knits!

I just wanted to share these photos of Jens wearing the first garment I finished when I picked up knitting in 2003. It's quite clumsily done, so I hadn't expected to find it wearable and up to my present standard. But actually there is nothing he wears more than this jacket! It's knit in double moss stitch with two threads of Lanett held together, which makes a nice a fabric. It's a Sandnesgarn pattern from the mid-90s, but I remember that it was later reprinted in Lanett Baby Book 0412 in 2004 (but shown in awful colours).

The hood is too big and the chrocheted edge is very - uhm - heavy, and I had obviously not heard of mattress stitch at the time, and the sleeves aren't really meant to be flared, but for early autumn everyday wear, this is still a great baby jacket! Jens wears this a lot when he sleeps outside in his pram, which perhaps explains the yawning and general grumpiness he's showing in these photos that I took before his nap, not after!

project spectrum: yellow

2011-09-20T16:50:00.006+02:00

yellow stuff found on walks in the neighbourhood in August and September

going glutenfree

2011-09-18T22:28:00.002+02:00

Nene was diagnosed with celiac disease earlier this Spring, and a few weeks later we learned that her dad is celiac too. So, that's 2 out of 3 in our home (not counting the baby yet!), and we decided that the most practical solution is a glutenfree diet for all of us, celiac or not. That doesn't mean I don't eat gluten outside of our home (but mostly when I'm alone...), and I still eat regular bread at home, but only if it was sliced in the shop, to avoid crumbs in our kitchen.

Anne said in a comment when I wrote about this back in February that you can make fabulous cupcakes from glutenfree flour too, and we're gradually finding out that she's right. Most of the time anyway! BF has been to a a glutenfree baking class, where he was given a book of tried and tested glutefree recipes, which was a big relief of course.

But we're also in the process of trying to replace the flour in some of our own favorite recipes, the ones we're just not ready to let go. We tried my grandma's apple tart today, with glutenfree flour, and I was so happy when I saw it, because it looked perfect. It tasted nice too, but the texture was drier and more grainy than the original, which is quite typical for glutenfree baking, and I was a bit disappointed. For this first attempt we just replaced the wheat flour with glutenfree flour and also used a little less baking powder. Now that we know how that worked, we'll try it again later and tweak the recipe some more, by adding moisture. I just had another piece though, and was pleased to find that it tasted a lot better (less grainy) after a few hours in the fridge. Tomorrow I'll try my apple crumble recipe with glutenfree flour, and it will be interesting to compare the results. The apple crumble is based more on the fruit and less on the dough than the tart we made today, so I'm guessing it's a recipe that's better suited for a glutenfree version.

What else have I learnt these past months?

I'm beginning to realise that it's important that we teach Nene how to cook, as she'll be less able than others to rely on on processed food. Also, glutenfree bread can be very low in fibre and protein, so we need to learn more about nutrition and a balanced diet, and Nene needs to learn it too.

I have learnt that celiac disease is underdiagnosed, and sometimes hard to spot. If Nene hadn't been diagnosed, I'm sure we would never have found out about her father. His symptoms weren't typical (which apparently isn't unusual - what a paradox!), and celiac disease just wasn't on our radar.

Nene was complaining about stomach pains every day last fall. I searched the internet for info on children and stomach pains, and was left with the general impression that a kid's tummy pains usually stems from anxiety. We took her to the doctor anyway, expecting to find nothing. I guess the lesson learnt is to assume that she speaks the truth when she complains over pain.

I'm impressed with how well Nene deals with it. She doesn't complain, and there has been no tears. But after six months she said for the first time yesterday that she wished she wasn't celiac, because she really wanted a coronet ice cream cone, so I guess it's sinking in. I have noticed that she doesn't like it when her friends asks her questions about it, so I'm thinking she doesn't want to focus too much on what she can't have or what she can't change.

Someone told me that these kids will grow up a little bit wiser.

What else?

After six glutenfree months she looks healthier. She's gaining weight. It seems to me that her immune system is stronger, but I guess I could be imagining that. One issue remains though: She doesn't like to eat. I guess she associates food with pain, and we haven't quite found the way out of that problem yet. I used to believe in childrens' self-regulation and keeping meals peaceful and free from nagging, but we haven't been able to live by those ideals after she got sick. At the hospital we were advised that she will need to learn again what hungry and full feels like. And that we need to stop telling her how much to eat.

I'm sad for her, sad for the things she can't eat and for the practical problems she will have to face. I'm also grateful. Grateful that it was discovered. Grateful that it's a disease that allows her to be healthy as long as she keeps her diet, and doesn't require medication.

modelling

2011-09-07T23:43:00.006+02:00

I thought I'd post some photos of the Dale baby cardi from a few posts back, with a little model wearing it. I wasn't happy with the harsh light in these photos, but the young model was quite busy and had no time for a long photo session. This was the best lit shot I got:

- and this was the closest we got to a smile, but hey, who expects a model to look happy anyway?

knitting again

2011-08-30T21:45:00.001+02:00

I got my knitting mojo back, but not my blogging mojo, so I'll be brief. I'm working on a baby cardi for Jens. It's a Drops free pattern, available here. I had planned to use a pattern from "Strikk til Nøstebarn", but the Drops pattern seemed better somehow. It's quite simple and quite clever. Knit sideways, sleeves included as you go, and with short rows which shapes the yoke and the body. Nice.

The instructions advise you to slip 1 st after turning and tighten thread before continuing, to avoid holes in your knitting when you work with short rows. I tried this, and it didn't work at all for me. Instead I chose to apply the method I have learnt from the Hanne Falkenberg patterns I have knitted in the past, which is to make a yarnover when you turn, and when you come back to that point knit the yarnover together with the next stitch. This, in my experience, is a much better way of working short rows with nice transitions.

I'm using Drops alpaca. Loving that bluebell color. Loving the brown too, am thinking of using it for a sweater for myself.

When I'm not knitting, I spend hours going through all my knitting books and magazines planning my next 50 projects, yarn purchases and updating my Ravelry queue so that it reflects my actual plans, instead of using it for storing a gazillion favorites.

new life

2011-07-30T11:49:00.003+02:00

Baby Jens was born this Tuesday. He's healthy and everything is going well, we're grateful and happy and Nene clearly sees herself as Big Sister of the Year.

2011-07-24T13:57:00.005+02:00

I have no words.

But this song, "For the Youth", that was sung at the memorial service in Oslo today, is such a powerful statement about how we can choose to respond to violence. There is an English translation (sadly it's not complete) at the end of this wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Til_Ungdommen

Edited to add this newer translation I came across. The rhyme and rhytm is off, but the content is quite precisely translated:

English translation by Joe Gorman (July 28th 2011):

Encircled by enemies,
your time has come!
With blood all around -
prepare to resist.

Anxiously you ask,
defenceless, innocent:
with what shall I fight,
what is my weapon?

Here is your shield,
here is your sword:
faith in our life,
and human dignity.

Our common future:
shape it, define it;
even though the price be death,
you must strengthen mankind!

The weapons of evil
spread silently around us.
Their deathly advances
your spirit must stop!

War despises life,
Peace is its creator.
Give your whole self:
and death loses its sting.

Make greatness and love
grow stronger in your dreams!
So you face the unknown
with quiet understanding.

Great achievements,
distant dreams.
Bring them forth,
through the lives you protect.

Noble is mankind,
bountiful is the earth.
Where there is hunger and suffering,
it is our failing.

In the name of all that is good in life,
injustice must be crushed!
Light, nourishment and free thought
are our common inheritance.

Then the weapons will fall,
sink down, useless!
Create respect for humanity
and we create peace.

He whose right arm
carries a burden,
priceless and precious,
can never murder.

This we promise
from brother to brother:
we will respect
this planet we share.

We will take care of
beauty and warmth
as if bearing an infant
gently in our arms!

Dale baby cardi and romper

2011-07-20T23:46:00.005+02:00

I have finished - at last! - the Dale baby cardi and romper that I started back in February. The cardi was a fun knit, which didn't take long, but the romper bored me so I thought I would never be able to finish it.

Spec:
Pattern: Dale Baby Cardi and romper from Dale baby book # 139
Yarn: SandnesGarn Lanett
Started: 16 February 2011
Finished: 15 July 2011

christening bonnets

2011-06-22T22:20:00.012+02:00

I may not have mentioned this before, but I'll be needing a baby christening bonnet by October. For my baby boy, whom I haven't blogged about yet, who is due at the end of July.

We have a lovely christening gown that is a family heirloom, but the bonnet that goes with it is very frilly and girly and pink-ribboned. The gown has been worn by every baby in the family since 1910 or thereabouts, but for some reason no one ever thought to aquire a boys' bonnet, so all the boys have been wearing a fairly simple lace summer bonnet for their christening.

When I first discovered Solveig Hisdal's book Poetry in Stitches a few years ago, I fell for this cute, whimsical bonnet that she refers to as a Christening bonnet in the book (but why is the baby wearing a knit sweater??), and decided that if I ever have a boy, I will knit this bonnet for him. Because it's so lovely and I liked the beads and the pom-poms.

But the knit bonnet doesn't really go with the gown, which is very delicate, gauzy and airy. I don't have a good digital picture of the gown, only this one, but perhaps you get the idea:

Then I came across this epla shop called Knøtt & Knapp, which sells the most beautiful handmade christening bonnets, and now I just can't decide anymore. I particularly like this one (which would go perfectly with my bunad, but again - not so much with the christening gown, and as I'm not the one being christened here, maybe not...)

maybe this one is a better match:

oh, the decisions!

blurb photo books

2011-05-22T18:25:00.008+02:00

I have been wanting to print the photos I take in book form for years. I have printed virtually nothing since I first started using a digital camera. I created an account on blurb.com years ago, but never got around to actually do anything about it. This winter I decided that I was going to take some action and get things printed. I went back to 2007 when I got my digital SLR, at which point I switched to digital photographies only. Before 2007 I had a small digital compact camera and an analogue SLR, and used to alternate between the two, and in the end decided to make traditional photo albums covering that period. Anyway, starting in 2007, I had thousands of photos to sort through and tweak in photoshop, so it's been a big project. I decided to make one book for each year, so ended up with four books. I made books as gifts for family members too, but with fewer pictures, so those books cover two years each. I decided to use Premium paper as opposed to standard paper, which meant I got a maximum of 160 pages per book, whereas you get 440 pages if you choose standard paper. There are a number of choices in formats and design profiles. I decided to make mine very simple, to make sure they won't look dated in a few years, so I opted out of the design profiles and chose a simple design softcover standard landscape format, and I'm very happy with that choice.

I did shop around a bit, not so much for prices as for quality, before I decided on blurb, and found that blurb generally gets very positive reviews. I found the prices fair too, compared to the Norwegian options I checked out, also when shipping is taken into account. Printing and shipping was surprisingly fast, and the quality is great, so I'm happy!

Constitution Day

2011-05-17T23:21:00.005+02:00

Today was an easy day for focusing on red for project spectrum. It was Constitution Day in Norway, and the color red is everywhere, from the flag to the details of peoples' national costumes (bunad), from the uniforms of the marching bands to the scruffy red overalls and traditional caps worn by the russ (high school graduates).

17th of May is a big day in Norway. It commemorates the signing of the constitution in 1814, and has evolved into our biggest day of celebration and festivities. It's about freedom, democracy and independence, it's about the children, it's about national culture and heritage.

The celebrations are centred around the children, who dressed in their best new clothes or national costumes, parade through their local community singing, cheering, waving little flags,and later in the day eating unlimited amounts of ice cream and hot dogs.

The focus on the children, and the absence of official, military or political institutions is perhaps what make the celebrations unique, and explain their appeal and popularity among the people. We're all very proud of it and quite sentimental too. On Constitution Day, when you greet someone, you don't say "hello" or "good morning" or "how are you" - the proper greeting words on this day are "congratulations" or "happy birthday". Love it!

In my town we have several international schools, and they participate in the childrens' parade too, waving their own flags alongside the Norwegian flags, and wearing their own national costumes. By participating they remind us that we're celebrating universal values - Constitution Day, despite all the flags, is not about nationalism.

Here are some more photos from the celebrations:

Marching band led by a Scotsman in his national costume. The person to the right is a "russ".

Marching band where the players wear national costumes instead of uniforms

School marching band with a mix of people in uniform, a person in Russ overalls (to the left) an d in the middle a person wearing a national costume. This is quite typical for the marching bands on May 17th. On any other day they would all be wearing their uniforms.

Games in the school playground after the big Childrens Parade. This is a photo of Nene wearing the bunad she got when she was four, sporting a new, bigger, apron which her grandmother has made.

Stavanger is the center for the oil industry in Norway, so obviously there's an oil worker marching band too in our parade!

project spectrum:red

2011-05-16T20:25:00.003+02:00

project spectrum: red

2011-05-15T23:47:00.007+02:00

I'm a bit late to the party here, but I just realised today that Lolly has launched the 5th Project Spectrum. I love Project Spectrum, and I'll try to keep up this time, if not with my knitting, then with my camera. The colour for May is red.

baby cardi

2011-02-16T22:41:00.001+01:00

I've started a new project - a cabled baby cardi from Dale book 139. I plan to knit both pieces of this set. The pattern is written for Dale Baby Ull, but I'm using SandnesGarn Lanett instead. I prefer Lanett for neutral colours, but when I want colour, I prefer Dale Baby Ull. It's easier for me to get the right gauge with Lanett, because it's a tad lighter than Dale.

last chance?

2011-02-13T22:03:00.012+01:00

It's been a particularly cold and grey February Sunday, so we've just stayed in, playing computer games and knitting. Nene and I spent the afternoon making extremely pink Hello Kitty cupcakes. Pink batter, pink frosting, pink taste... You will see from the pictures how a baker who takes herself serious takes care to match her outfit with her baked goods. I think we could all take some style tips for the kitchen here.

We're taking Nene to the hospital tomorrow, to test her for coeliac disease, so the next time we decide to make cupcakes it could possibly be a bit trickier. I'm prepared though, I've been reading about glutenfree baking from here to over there where the internet ends. If it turns out she doesn't have it, we will probably cut down on wheat anyway.

But not today. Today is pink cupcake day!