May I Proudly Present…

In moments of desperation I thought this post would never see the light of day (I’ve been writing the opening line for a few days in my head already). But sewing gods must have had mercy on me, and I did finish my Wiksten tank top! The very first adult garment, and rather wearable, in a slippery cotton/viscose blend. The most excellent choice for a beginner to sew a top for the first time. Really.

I took a lot of freedom with the pattern, though, including some amount of cutting off pieces. The neckline was too deep for me, and the armholes were flashing some parts of my attire I would like to stay hidden. But it was very easy to alter, in fact. I omitted French seams, too, due to the slippery fabric, and serged the seam allowances (but it frays like crazy, if I didn’t have a serger I would have had to turn to French seams, after all).

Before I say (or write, to me more exact) the next sentence, I want to assure that the pattern is very easy. But the most nightmarish part was THE HEM. In the end I got so desperate that I just cut it off in a straight line, that later on turned out not so straight, either, and the front side is shorter than the back, but it looks good, phew! But I found one very useful link on finishing curved edgings. To save some length, I serged the edge and made a single-fold hem. Here’s a close-up:

All in all, this is not a top I would wear on my night out due to many faults, but I was feeling proud of myself nonetheless and  even performed a mad dance around the fire (in my head, once again, to save the living room floor) :)

It’s a lovely pattern, and the top is wonderful, but if you are a beginner, I really recommend you to collect a bit of information on hemming curved edges before, it will definitely save you lots of headache!

Today I link to My Creative Space.

In the Making

After some internet searching I’ve finally adapted a mitered granny square to get a really nice square ‘unholey’ granny square. Phew. So far so good. And I’ve played with the possibilities of a wall photo studio :)

Today I’m connecting to Our Creative Spaces.

Keep Calm and Swatch On

Gauge is a tricky matter in the knitting business. Everyone knows your should swatch before you start knitting, and many ignore it. I mean, gauge is written on the ball band, right? I confess, this was my philosophy oh so often. And I was mighty lucky, as I never had problems with sizes of the finished projects later. Nastier things happened, though. Like planning a project, finding a lovely stitch pattern, the suiting yarn in the color you love, designing a project and then… on finishing… realize… that the stitch/yarn/color combo JUST DOESN’T WORK. That sucks, doesn’t it? My previous knitting half-disasters left me with some lack of motivation to start something new, but a swatch was just a perfect size, you know. A great way to play around with yarn and some new stitches, and get a feeling if they are a match made in heaven. Or maybe not. Plus, I have several ideas kicking around in my head, but, alas, not enough time to commit to them right now. Once again, enter a swatch.

Invigorating! And I had some fun with taping the swatches on the wall. A tabletop is not a very safe place with an active and curious-about-everything-Mummy-is-doing  2-year old :)

Sprinkle Cake

This is a cake I made for my son’s second birthday. The base is a simple sponge, there are so many recipes around that it doesn’t make sense to write one here. But what I wanted to be special is the cream. Not an easy task, as I didn’t want the cake to be too heavy and too sweet, and butter cream is oh so typical. I was very pleased by the result, light and still keeps the cake moist. Secret ingredient? Ricotta and banana-cherry filling between the layers!
Here is the recipe:
Ingredients:
2-3 ripe bananas
a handful of cherries without pits, fresh or preserved, I didn’t use that many
30 g powder sugar (yes, that little! but don’t forget the bananas, and preserved cherries add sweetness, too)
500 g ricotta
125 g cream
Beat ricotta with the powder sugar well. Beat the cream and fold carefully into the ricotta/sugar mixture. That easy!
Assembling the cake:
Make a sponge base and cut it in two. Put one sponge layer on a plate. Cut bananas in half lengthwise and put them on the cake in rounds. Distribute the cherries around. Like this:

Cover with cream. Put the second sponge layer and distribute evenly the cream on the top and the sides (the amount was more than enough for everything!)
Enjoy!

For more inspiration head to My Creative Space here. 

Think outside the frame

Watching children play is fascinating. But especially if you are a creative person (or call yourself one), being a part of a child’s imaginative play reminds us how little we know about creativity. Actually, I prefer another word choice: how much we have forgotten since we were children.
I mean: give a kid a bunch of bread sticks and you get a piece of art. At least to me it’s one.

Joining in with My Creative Space today.