TIF April

Sharon B sure knows how to keep her group on its toes with the April theme of "change" and this color palette.

Change for us is usually good in the big sense: we often move to a new country and city, learn about a new culture and sometimes learn a new language. I can take these huge changes easily, but then also realize I don't like small surprises in the messy details of life. Interesting.

Her colors are not exactly what I was hoping for as we are finally saying farewell to winter, but I think I actually may have some fabric that might work.

But for a change, I wanted to get a fresh start to the month and get going on something, so later today I'll check the fabric tubs.

TIF March -- finished, along with most of our snow

I spent the early part of March thinking about Sharon B's March TIF challenge. We still had snow here, so I thought a lot about snowflakes and snow crystals.

But the month got away from me, sewing wise, and 10 days ago I realized I'd better get something going, or March's project would end up simmering like January and February -- started but not finished.

Enter a crocheted 12 sided 3-D snowflake from Berroco:
It could also be dubbed "cow udders from space" or "Madonna's rejected bustier prototype from the 80's."

It turned out to be a fascinating project, for the "details."

Vague directions and maps confound me.
So I truly enjoyed watching this 3-D object come together, although things weren't "all clear" until the 3rd point or so.

Mid-way through I realized I could have gone down a hook size to make things tighter. I used old pantyhose for the stuffing.

There was actually a lot of crocheting, so my mind wandered and thought about possibilities of future crocheted glove fingers and how now I could design something.
For the most beautiful crocheted gloves and tapestry crochet, look at these gems: Lara Croft

I tried some Regia Kaffe Fassett Design line wool, and was pleased. I was afraid it would be thin or have a superwash feel, but it is a nice wool that works up thicker than it looks.

This would be a good project for a patient teacher and teens, too. But I have newfound respect for all the crocheted toy folks out there -- you have to pay attention to what you are doing and watch your row joins counts!

Who says knitters can't do it all?

If you have a blog, then I know you read other people's blogs. We all start out reading blogs about subjects we are interested in. Then ... you have to "restrict" yourself because there isn't enough time in the day to keep up with the news, your hobbies, or crafts, or art, or geek tech stuff, or even the ever popular food blogs.

I've been reading 101 Cookbooks and Chocolate & Zucchini for a while, check into The Kitchn for eye candy and recipes, rely on the always turns-out baking from Dorie Greenspan and Rose Levy Beranbaum and take a peek at Paris Breakfasts for her daily art and drooling photos of cafe food and seasonal window treatments in Paris.

Take a look at a new food blog from a knitter: Tanta Robina She's a knitter, very active on Ravelry.com, and about to start culinary school!


I'm thrilled she'll be sharing her adventures with us! Her first couple of postings of Italian food terms and a review of a cookbook with avocado, beet and pumpkin tahinis has me looking forward to a lot more!

I'm still working on the crocheted 12-sided snowflake - slow work, surprisingly or it's just my free time is just limited at the moment.

An hour's breather for TIF March work

It looks like I'll have an hour or so to work on my TIF March project today in-between "events." It's quiet here at home, too -- so quiet it's strange, although we had a fun visit this morning with a local artist (more on that another time).

In the beginning of March I was obsessed with "snow" as we still had enough of it, but last week came around and the realization I was "out of time" for a sewing project.

So I'm working on this:

it's a dodecahedron (12 sided)shape that will be my version of a 3-D snowflake. Do snowflakes come 12-sided? Have to check that out later. It's a Berroco Free Pattern - available both as knitted and crochet patterns. Photo above from the Berroco site.

My version is in this great KF Regia striping yarn, but I'm not sure how I'm going to get 12 sides out of this. But considering how limited my spatial abilities are, I'm just going to take it as it goes.

Happy Easter!

kulich

pashka cheese to spread on the kulich

You have to go with the moment - TIF March

March has escaped me, sewing wise.

In between thinking about what I still have to do or go to between now and Sunday Easter dinner, I thought: there is no way I'm going to have any spare "free, calm and quiet moments" to even get started on something "snow" related (see a few posts below for some thoughts)for my TIF March work. Monday next week is now booked, Tuesday is a PT 1/2 day ... and so it goes.

But I did find something "fun" actually snowflake related a couple of weeks ago, and although they aren't original, they will be interesting to make (one knitted and one crocheted), and because I can pick them up and put them down, can get done by the end of March. I'm still quilting my Feb TIF and still need to finishing pulling the fringe on the Jan TIF. I do want to stay with the challenge somehow, although so far I'm doing far more "thinking" than producing.

I have to laugh: the beginning of March here was cold, windy, and full of afternoon snow storms. This week spring HAS decided it's time (vernal equinox today, I think) and yesterday it looked like a Frosty the Snowman mega-melt around town -- full wet streets, and the not-so-fun "black ice" puddles.

Cooking for Sunday

This beautiful Russian doll is all ready for Easter with her baked kulich in one hand and her painted Easter egg in the other. SHE has plenty of time though -- Russian Orthodox Easter isn't until April this year.

I made our kulich/babka last week, but after some marathon shopping today in the rapidly melting snow (read flooded streets), I made a version of Russian Easter paskha to go with the kulich. I found a lot of recipes on the internet -- here's one.
Frankly, it should be called "heart attack special". I made a version with a kilo of tvorog, 3 egg yolks, cream, butter, 2 cups of vanilla sugar, raisins, lemon zest, finely chopped apricots and almonds. As I don't have a church wooden paskha mold, I used a small plastic flower pot as the form, wrapped the inside with cheese cloth, and filled it with the mixture.

It is sitting in the fridge upside down weighted down with two plates to see if the cheese needs to drip any. The recipe, while pared down, made enough for 3 flower pots -- which I didn't have, of course. I'm convinced these recipes were to feed a huge extended family or keep grandma busy in the kitchen for a while!

This link has the best photos of what the process looks like!

We don't have kids at home any more, but I dyed eggs and set the table with family treasures. I still have a bunny cake to make and then do Sunday dinner. I'm hoping for a breather by Monday afternoon -- I have social events both Friday and Saturday!

Babka, kulich, paska ... Easter coming up

Sometimes the internet is wonderful, but sometimes it can also be confusing.

As this will probably be our last Easter



in this part of the world, I wanted to try a homemade Russian babka cake and the paska tvorog cheese pyramid. You can spend days reading recipes that call the babka and kulich the same thing -- depending whether your family was from Poland, the Ukraine or Russia. And you can find recipes that use 9 cups of flour or a ga-zillion egg yolks.

Our housekeeper said what I made was a babka -- she's part Ukrainian. I think Russians call this cake kulich. It turned out great -- and is a repeat recipe. I had a medium sized fluted ceramic form, so I cut the recipe in half and put half in a glass loaf pan. I also made a "panettone loaf" which was a complete bust -- I don't think I kneaded it enough and it wasn't what I expected, and it literally feels like it weighs a ton.

The babka is now in the freezer, but here are the hot cross buns that got made, too:

I got a little carried away with the frosting!

Sewing/knitting this week: I don't think so! I have to go to PT 2x, buy a baby present, make another babka and a bunny cake, shop for Easter dinner, go to a concert, go to a brunch, go to a baby shower AND eat Easter dinner: why do I feel like I've gained 10 lbs already!

Taking a day off but need to get busy!

I'm almost finished with the shawl collar project from Knitting New Scarves.

I'm stash busting, so this was done in two colors of Karabella Aurora 8 -- a WONDERFUL yarn for ribbings. It will need to be blocked some.
I need to resume stitching on my Feb TIF Challenge

and I want to continue working on this mitten!

TIF March challenge: swirling ideas

I'm going to work on finishing up a knitting project today but then will need to put all knitting aside to work on the TIF challenges.

My early March thoughts had to do with snow: (details, details!)


I was thinking this morning about "the color of snow" and of course found some Google information on refractive light and all of that. But for another take on snow color look at this young poet's poem "why is the color of snow".

But we also have the first snow crystal photos by Wilson Bentley, studies of snow crystals to aid in computer design, the spring snowflake flower , 3-D cutout snowflake patterns, a knitted snowflake tea cosy, and Paula Nadelstern's snow crystal quilt (photo from her site)

International Women's Day Weekend

In this part of the world it's International Women's Day weekend: Women's Day was March 8. A lot of chocolate and flowers are bought and received, and now I understand nice presents are expected from one's spouses!

When I went to physical therapy on Friday, all the women wished each other "s nastupayushchim!" (best wishes for the upcoming holiday) and on the day itself, one wishes women "s prazdknikom" (happy holiday!).

A 1932 poster:


But there are no flowers out yet. We still have snow that is thankfully melting, in- between a few low wind storms and snow sprinkles.