Cookies Day

It takes a cloudy day to produce a stay-at-home Saturday and some cookies production (preceded by their craving). I have never tried this recipe before, but I thought it looked rather healthy (well, as far as cookies can be HEALTHY) – very little sugar and some oatmeal. Well, they can indeed be called healthy – one is more than enough (um, almost), as they are pretty rich, after all, but that makes them all the better for a rainy day. The recipe is from a Swedish book, so all the measures are either in grams or in milliliters – even flour, that’s the usual Swedish way. But for sure you have a measuring cup with milliliters division – good opportunity to use it!
Here’s how I made them:
200 g butter
4 tbsp sugar
150 ml oatmeal
300 ml flour
Mix together butter and sugar, then add the oatmeal and flour. Form the dough into balls and press them slightly with a fork. Bake at 200 ° Celsius for 10 minutes. Enjoy!

First patchwork attempt_Complete

I’ve finished my very first patchwork pillows yesterday night! Since I’m not very mathematically gifted, the process involved quite a lot of trimming, but the end result is not too lame, if I may say so myself. The idea of colour arrangement is my own (to say I DESIGNED them is far too much, I think – they are so simple, after all, but still a pat on the shoulder).To stabilize the fronts a bit (the pillows are somewhat wobbly) I used the iron-on interfacing, it does help. I would have LOVED to quilt them, but I have no walking foot (yet), and I didn’t want to do the first-time quilting with the regular foot. Well, there will be more pillows in the future!The back of the pillows are dark grey, with simple envelope closure.
I’m only wondering now how long it will take before some spot appears on this white sashing… There’s already some amount of cat hair adhered, in any case. Selma seems to like the pillows, she’s slept close to one with the checkerboard pattern (my favourite too!) all night.

Literary Electron

I have been knitting and sewing so much that my brain must have yarn and thread lines (instead of the real ones, that is). While I was still waiting for my baby to arrive, I managed both knitting AND reading. Haha. I wonder, where is all my time going?
Anyway. I’ve finally managed to get back my reading mojo – with my newly acquired author-love, Bill Bryson. An American who emigrated to Britain (speak about going back to your roots) and loved every moment of it. I adore his style, so easy and light without being simplistic (I know, I’m a snob when it comes to literature, but I guess that’s what happens if you get a degree in linguistics and teach language after that for some years) and repetitive. God, I would like to write like him! What’s more, he chose a subject that … I don’t know if there is anything left there. But still. Shakespeare. I am a great fan of his plays and have read them many times, and never failed to discover something new. But I would NEVER think of pursuing an academic career studying Shakespeare (and I was dreaming about academic career in literature!). Not only this field is, to put it mildly, overcrowded, there’s very little information that can be proved. It’s all about interpretation, guessing, deciphering. What I love about Bryson’s Shakespeare, is that it’s exactly about what we don’t know concerning Shakespeare. And still, Shakespeare did not live in some kind of vacuum, and only his time can fill a whole volume. And what’s more, I can read this book before going to sleep, isn’t that great for a baby/yarn-infused brain?
By the way, the post title refers to what Bryson called Shakespeare – for his being there and not there.

Cutting and Sewing

Gatto has started sewing! It’s been so hot here recently, that handling any kind knitting has become impossible, even with cotton. I’ve been interested in patchwork for quite some time now, but it never went further than drooling  over all the beautiful quilts one can find on the Internet. Somehow, I was afraid that I’d fail (big time, too) and just cut up lots of fabric for nothing. Well, wise people say you just have to try. I did. Lots of planning, calculating (not always correctly) and cursing over my non-existing mathematical abilities – and I have two pillow fronts! Actually, three, but the last one suffered somewhat from the larger than life confidence in my knowledge  of IKEA products. I was so very sure that the pillow measured 40x40 cm. While pressing the seams on the finished pillow front, a light bulb went on in my head and I decided to measure the pillow. That was an Oh, crap! kind of experience. The pillow mysteriously fattened up to 50x50 cm. After all, not too bad, as I can add a white border just as on the other two.

Lesson learned: don’t think. Check.

One more lesson learned: Patchwork is like chocolate (or coffee, as far as I am concerned), i.e. addictive.