More Scarves a surfer cake & a good luck cake!

 I've been making more scarves, this one was in a bargain bucket of the local wool shop again, its quite thready rather than feathery. I used a 4.5mm crochet hook and just stuck to double crochet for this one so I could see what I was doing. I think the wool is actually called "fancy". Its a little more straggley than the other stuff i've been using.

 This one is more of that feathery stuff, I got loads of balls of it in cream, white, baby pink and this kind of spring green colour. I used almost 3 balls on this one, its crocheted up quite heavy because its sooooo long. I used treble crochet and a 6.5mm hook as it the feathery bits were quite long and I wanted to be able to count my stitches as I went to make sure it was square not hourglass shaped when it was finished.

 This is more of the "twilight" wool which I got from poundstretcher. You cant see on the picture but it does have a silver thread running through it. Again it was one of my made up lengthways scarves. I couldn't recreate the pattern I dont think..... I know its circles in the centre with semicircles staggered and then large chains and a net "v" type stitch. Again I had quite a bit of wool leftover for this one (and its really long and quite wide too) so it got a bundle of tassles.

 This is what I did with the rest of the red twilight wool....a second scarf. Its just two rows of regular double crochet then one row where you crochet 2, chain 2 (and miss two stiches on the bottom) then repeat all the way to the end. I still had loads of wool left so did a layer of double crochet right the way round the outside and back to join the top row so it looks like a square border. 

This wool is from hobbycraft, my sister gave it to me its sirdar and its called persia - the wool looks blue on the picture but its actually a green/blue colour and is quite bobbly. It crochets up a bit like bobbly fleece. With this one having such a weird texture I just did double crochet. She's given me a massiv bag of loads of different kinds of wool so I will have to get going. Not long to the next craft sale now!!!!

This one is done using more of the poundstretcher "brights" this one is in a jade/jewel green....I did this in double crochet with a 6mm hook and did 6 dcs in one central hole and created a semi-circle pattern. I added tons of tassles because I had loads of wool left over.

I've also been on a bit of a bake-a-thon. One of my friends had a birthday - obviously, hence the need for cake. However for her birthday "party" she booked us all on a surf lesson.....bearing in mind its MARCH, we live not far from Newcastle and therefore the lesson would be IN THE NORTH SEA. I dont know if any of you have been in the North Sea in our part of the world.....but its something only us Geordies/Makems do, very similar to going out on the town without a coat...in December, and even then we tend to only do it in the height of summer, fully clothed and only upto our knees, waist if youre extremely young or very foolish or both. Plus it usually involves a soggy ride home on the metro if you go in that far. So we went, and I was terrified, I dont swim very well, I can swim but I dont unless I absolutely have to, I also am no good in the cold so was dreading it. Plus it involved getting my not so lean body into a wetsuit. That was not as much of a catastrophe as I thought because to be honest......none of us looked "Good" in a wetsuit, not even the pro instructors, they just looked more used to it. Although it was a fight to get into them with numb wet fingers, and just as much of a lession in exhaustion getting out of them, I really enjoyed myself. Although I am suffering now, I have "t-rex" arms. Not as in the band, but as in they are about as much use as t-rex arms to the actual dinosaur. They absolutely ache, if it weren't for the lack of swelling/bruising i'd swear they were broken. I have to be helped into any clothes that involve sleeves and wince if I have to reach behind me or raise my arms to more than about mid-chest height. But it was a lot of fun.

Anyway here is the birthday girl's cake. She requested a cat (she has a black cat called puddle) playing the sax (she's a music teacher and saxophone is her instrument of choice) on a surfboard.

Ok so I made the sponge cake in an oven tin....it was the only shallow and square pan I could find of a decent size that wasn't extortionately priced. It worked fine for the Hello Kitty Cake. Then I slathered it with buttercream once it had cooled (and while the top sandwich was baking in the oven). I like to use Stork for baking, I mix it with icing sugar and a little bit of cornflour and some milk to make buttercream. The jam was Aldi's own brand and was one of those 50% extra fruit so it was basically chunky strawberry mush instead of the usual jelly with one odd strawberry thrown in you usually get.

By this time the second cake had baked and cooled so I got started on my "Wave". I melted some chocolate over a pan of boiling water (because it always over-cooks and goes bitty when I do it in the microwave) and stirred in some oil to keep it a bit more liquid. Then poured in some rice crispies and mixed. I then got a can of pop out of the fridge and covered it in cling-film. I also covered the inside of a loaf tin with cling-film and squirted both the loaf tin and the wrapped up drinks can with some of that squirty oil. I then put the can in the loaf tin and fashioned the chocolate crispies mix over the top of the can and into the bottom of the loaf tin (only on one side, not fully covering the can). I put this in the fridge to cool. I then coated the top of the cake with the leftover buttercream and rolled out some of that fondant icing. I put a small square of yellow in the corner (or you could crush up biscuits) to make the sand and the rest in blue. I then modelled the cat and the sax out of the other colours I had and left them on the bench to air-harden a bit. I dusted them with cornflour on the bottom to stop them sticking to the board I placed them on to dry. Then I mixed up some blue food colouring with royal icing sugar and a drop of milk (gives a paler blue than water when mixed with food colouring).

Meanwhile the chocolate crispies were set. I lifted the drinks can & crispie mound out of the loaftin using the cling-film, then carefully pulled the drinks can off and then peeled off the cling-wrap. It worked, I made a wave shape. It was solid enough to stand up but light enough to balance ontop of the cake without squashing it. So I covered my wave in blue fondant icing and then stuck it in place on the cake with a smear of buttercream. I then dribbled the light blue royal icing all over the wave & blue icing to make it look like water. I halved a small chocolate chip brioche roll and covered it in red fondant roll out icing to make the surfboard and again stuck this down with buttercream. Last I added the cat to the surfboard (using the last scrapings of the buttercream) and used a drop of the royal icing to stick the saxophone shaped fondant to the cat's body. Then I finished off my wave by sticking mini marshmallows to it with the remnants of the royal icing. I used one of those squeezy flavoured icing pens (toffee I think) for the writing.....my piping is horrific. et voila.....


The next cake was just a two layer sponge sandwiched with jam that I whipped up on Sunday while the oven was still hot after the yorkshire puddings for dinner. As I had used most of my icing stash on the cat cake, I had to just use jam in the centre (not enough buttercream) and I iced the top with buttercream (coloured with green food colouring watered down with milk to a more pastel colour) although it did end up more illuminous than I'd hoped. I used the last of the fondant icing to make a big shamrock for good luck. My sis was starting a new job on the Monday. Sprinkled with some orange & yellow stars and iced with another of those squeezy icing tubes...chocolate on this one. It didn't look too fab, but it tasted lovely...she kindly shared out wedges when we all went over the parent's for our traditional Sunday afternoon catch up. Yum Yum!

Oh and apparently Diabetes UK seem to think i'm running the Great North Run for them this year. I have no idea why...the only thing I can think of is that I wasn't paying much attention when I filled out the ballot form and ticked "which charity will you be running for" thinking it was a "which charities do you support". OOPs, it doesn't matter I suppose as its also a really worthy cause and my dad is a sufferer. And I mean an actual sufferer, he has had a nightmare trying to get his diabetes under control over the years and its still not quite right and experiencing a range of rather nasty side effects and they've been really helpful when he's called them up for advice. David can always run for guide dogs....or we can just do some other kind of sponsored event. I was thinking of palming off a load of cupcakes onto my friends to sell to colleagues at work or their kids schoolfriends. Or see if I can guilt a sweet shop into letting me shake a collection tin outside their stall.

More Scarves

Well as its freezing outside (STILL) and I've got a craft sale coming up in April, when i'm betting its still all rainy and miserable....i've been making more scarves. Most of these have worked their way onto ebay but if they don't sell then i'll take them along to the craft sale and if they do.....well i'll just have to magic up some more while i'm watching TV on these cold winter nights. I should be back outside running in preparation for the Santa Run http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north-east-news/evening-chronicle-news/2011/02/03/santa-run-back-on-after-being-snowed-off-72703-28108236/ but its still really dark & cold so i'm making use of my gym membership and building up the miles on the treadmill or the crosstrainer for now.

Now this is my latest creation. Its using DK wool called marble, thats kind of a purpley turquoise colour...it changes shades as you're crochetting. I used double crochet again and this time DC two then chained 2, then DC another 2 in the same hole in the base chain, then miss two holes in the base chain and DC two, chain 2 and eventually it goes all round and net looking.
I also repeated the same type of stitch but just DC 1 stitch then chaining to make another scarf with the rest of the wool. It was a big 300g ball I think - or it may have been 250g. I never remember I just always have a guess at how much I need, or will unravel a whole scarf and re-do it to use up less/more wool depending on how much i've got left at the end. I hate odd leftover bits. That's probably why the second scarf looks so much skinnier.

I also used up the last of my brights bargain stuff I got just before xmas at (shhh dont tell anyone) poundstretcher in the big 200g balls. I like to call the colour sunshine yellow but it literally is like a custard yellow - bright is def the best description of it!!!!



I think i've done the DC cluster of 3 pattern on another scarf somewhere - and I like the pattern, it doesn't make the scarf too thick. Although I did mis-judge it and was left with loads of leftover wool. I couldn't bear to unravel it all so I just used the rest of the ball to make the twisty tassles. It added a bit more length to it too. 2 birds, 1 stone I guess.

The next batch of wool I've come across that i'm secretly hoping will attract some unsuspecting ebay shoppers is some more poundstretcher wool that comes in 5 little balls of 50g. Its just simple DK wool with a bit of lurex in it....but its got silver running through it so it looks a little nicer than the boring plain coloured stuff. I used some blue with silver for a hat & scarf set for a friend at xmas who we were house-sitting for. Or supposed to be anyway, due to the horrific arctic conditions they ended up spending xmas at home and unpacking their bags so the set acted as an emergency xmas present and a "sorry you're not going away for xmas" consolation gift. Anyway i'm waffling...the wool is called TWILIGHT...hence my sneaky fingers crossed i'll attract some lovesick vampire shoppers if I include it in the ebay listing title. I've just used 3FPDC, 3BPDC for this one but because its quite a wide scarf it looks lovely. It makes very neat little squares in a chain type pattern. I couldn't be bothered with all that twirling needed for twisty tassles for this one though.

I still had 3 balls of wool left so decided to make a widthways scarf. I've always wanted to try something a bit more exciting looking so decided to create my own pattern as I went along. Now as I kinda made it up as I went....I can only partially remember what I did. To recreate it again i'd probably need the original scarf and some knitting markers to count the stitches. Basically I made a chain about the length I wanted the scarf then DC about 5 stitches all in the same hole in the base chain, then missed a hole in the base chain and slipstitched into the next one and began another 5stitch semi-circle. I kept going til I got to the end, then slimply turned round and went back along the underside of the chain so I ended up with a row of round crochet circles. I then slipstitched 3 along to get into the centre of my first circle and chained a row of about 7 or 8 stitches then slipstitched into the centre of the next circle until I was back at the beginning. Then when I came back to the start I did 3 treble crochet stitches in the centre of each chain string (around it not through the actual link holes in the chain) and that made the little diamond-type pattern on the outside of the centre circles. The next row of stitches I have absolutely no idea what I did but i'm sure its just double crochet...I think. The final outer row is definately just a single row of semi-circles (similar to how I started off the inner row). As I'd gone to all the fuss of fancy patterns and was quite pleased with my bit self, I decided to continue with the fancy-ness and did twisty tassles. Yep you guessed it....leftover wool.

Craft Sale January

I did go back for the January Makers Market on my own selling my hand-crochet scarves, more keyrings, earrings and phone charms and some sock cupcakes. It went much better, the scarves and keyrings from last time that didn't shift at all I actually had real buyers for!!! My scarves were going like hotcakes. I had virtually zero interest at the last sale, people weren't even picking up to look but I took 10 and all but 3 sold! So i'm definately going to make more of those for the sales I do in the colder months. Christmas i'll get cracking and make loads. My newer items did really well too, still no jewellery sales, I think the market is a bit saturated with jewellery.

 This one is made with some rather bright coloured orange wool (acrylic) that I got from poundstretcher of all places. It was £2.50 a ball so wasn't bad. I made this one double the usual width and crochet in a weave style pattern then did twisty tassles! The stitch is done by making a chain (of even number stitches) then you miss two, and dc into each chain until you get to the end of the row, chain 2 up then DC around the front post of the first DC, then DC around the back post of the next one. you just keep repeating fpdc, bpdc until you get to the end of the row. Then you chain up 2 and when you come to turn....whatever the stitch was underneath (previous) you just to the opposite. i.e. if its a FPDC to a BPDC. All the rows of opposite front and back post crochet make a basket weave type pattern. To do the twists you just draw up a really long loop, twist it round and round tightly using the crochet hook (think spinning as if you were winding something up) then you slip stitch (tightly) through the edge of the scarf which leaves a tassle. Repeat this moving along the edge of the scarf doing various length tassles and it looks really unusual. It does take up a lot of wool though! This one I sold on ebay, I was worried the postage would be extortionate but although it was chunky it was light so only cost a couple of pounds. The lady was very happy with it...she left me some lovely feedback describing it as "fabulously scrummy".

 This sea green one is paton's acrylic wool from Hobbycraft. It was only like £1.20 a 100g ball which was why I got it, plus I loved the colour. I made this one using the same basket weave front post back post combo as above, but did it in treble crochet and using a size 6 hook which is a chunky one. The tassles are just really long pieces of wool leftover at the end of crochet just tied on. No fancy crochet twisting for this one i'm afraid. This one sold on ebay.

This one was so soft and fuzzy it was made with a brown yarn called "popcorn" from the bargain basket of a local wool shop in one of those indoor markets. I used 3lots of 50g balls and just used a size 4 hook and did basic double crochet so that I could see what I was doing with all that fuzz. I had to keep counting the posts as I sometimes get carried away and add on extra stitches and it ends up like a dogs back leg from where its gone in and out again. This one sold after 5mins!

 This one was made using patons acrylic wool mix and was a lavender blue grey colour. Although it looks quite narrow it was a very chunky thick scarf because of the stitch. I used a size 4.5 hook and double crochet alternating the front post back post stitch BUT when moving onto a new line you do not change the stitch to make it opposite of the row below you do the same. i.e stitch directly underneath was FPDC, this stitch is FPDC. It creates a ridged line pattern which looks lovely but is very thick and takes up a lot of wool. Hence the lack of tassles on this one.

 This one was done using more of the patons DK, it was a lilac colour and the pattern was created using double crochet by dc 3 then leaving a gap, dc3 leave a gap then when you go up the next row chain, and dc in the gap.




This one was again patons DK but this time a slightly more pale blue rather than lilac. It was also using double crochet and again by dc three in a row and missing (or just chaining 1 in the space) a stitch but this time on the return back across the top of the row you continue to keep the missed stitches and row of 3 in exactly the same place to make a holey pillar style. The tassles are short twisted ones like on the bright orange scarf at the top.






This one was done with a chenille type feathery wool - it was another bargain basket job so i'm afraid I have no idea what it actually is called. Its a marbled mix of grey, white and brown which sounds awful but it looks lovely once crochet up! Again since its tricky to see in amongst all those fluffy bits I did DC with a size 3.5 hook to keep the stitches a little tighter (easier to distinguish apart was the theory). The lady who bought this at the craft sale was actually my lovely auntie who'd come along to have a nosey and hadn't intended on buying. She bought it for her sister as a birthday present, promising to pass on all credit if she receives any compliments.

This one was in a grey patons acrylic wool mix (although it looks brown against the milk chocolate coloured background) and I did it using I think its called brick stitch. You basically chain a row, then chain your first post, then in the base of that post, you DC another, and another and another so you've got 5 posts in one chain link in a little cluster. Then on your 5th DC you miss 5 links in the base of chain and slipstitch it into the 6th. So you're effectively pushing your cluster on its side. Then in that 6th chain hole where you've just done your slipstitch you chain 2 then again DC in the base of that post until you've got another 5 posts. You repeat this all the way to the end of the base chain. Once you've joined your last cluster of 5 to the base chain with a slip stitch, you then you slip stitch along the top of the last cluster of 5 and chain 2. Then in the base where you've just chained two, start doing your cluster of 5 again. Since you dont have your chain anymore (to skip and slipstitch into the 6th link in the chain) all you do is slipstitch into the top left hand side of the next cluster then chain 2 to start your next cluster of 5.

This one is with the infamous poundstretcher £2.50 wool and is actually a bright jewel purple (even though it looks a shocking indigo on here). The pattern is a little hard to see but I sort of made it up as I went along working lengthways rather than width ways. i.e start with one long chain the full length of the scarf then stitch around the chain to fatten it up into one long narrow piece. This sold about an hour into the craft sale and had lots of people picking it up trying to figure out the pattern!

More poundstretcher yarn, this time in bright magenta pink! I think this one was done in the waves of 3 fpdc, 3 regular dc, 3 bpdc, 3 regular dc but I didn't have a chain that was a multiple of 3...so it staggered itself everytime I changed rows. It looked pretty. This also vanished off the table at the craft sale with amazing pace.






These are my sock cupcakes. I got the instructions off a lovely lady who calls herself  Giggle on the infamous Money Saving Expert Forum and is always sharing her crafting ideas. She has her own blog called Little Puddings.

Basically I bought some multi-packs of socks from the local supermarket in pinks, purples & lemon combo colours and wrapped them into the cupcake shape Giggle has a tutorial I think....plus there are some on the internet if you search. Then you try get them to stay in a cupcake case, without exploding over the edges. I used a batch of pink swirly cases I got with a cake making kit for Christmas, I topped them with some foamy sweeties I got from Asda called love txt sweets. They're a bit bigger than a 50p piece (and were on special for 50p a bag at the time. They were heart shaped foam sweets with little messages embossed on like "love you" "xxx" etc, similar to the love heart sweets or candy hearts messages. They were all natural flavours and colourings so good for those allergic to E numbers. They were quite tasty too, fruity. Well I had to sample the strays that were leftover!!

 Then I wrapped them all in clear cellophane and tied with some pink elastic that my sister gave me with a box of leftovers from her scrapbooking session.

I used up the rest of the luv txt sweeties by filling up glass jars to do "jars of love". I basically used all the jar's i'd been storing for a jam making session. Well its free packaging, recycled, and they're easily sterilised (you just put them through the dishwasher or wash them in the sink then dry off by baking in the oven). The pic here is the bare jar, they looked much better once they were all finished but I did label them up with pink gingham stickers on the front, some pink tissue paper over the lid kept in place with more of the pink elastic donated by my sis. I think that was from Hobbycraft, the tissue paper was recycled from a Christmas present but is cheap enough in card shops & the supermarket.


I also made some gingerbread and used a tiny cookie cutter to stamp out some little hearts and I filled a couple of jars with those and decorated similarly. I called them "breakable hearts". My gingerbread recipe is:
1lb of plain flour (plus loads more for dusting)
2tsp ground ginger
tsp mixed spice
tsp baking soda
4oz butter
4oz soft brown sugar (I love billingtons dark brown its really tasty and caramely)
3 heaped tablespoons of golden syrup
1 large egg - beaten

Basically you put all the dry ingredients in a bowl (flour, baking soda, spices)
then heat up the butter, sugar & syrup in a pan on low heat until its all melted together.
Pour all the wet ingredients onto the dry ones and mix, then add the egg.
It will look like its never going to combine, but once its cool enough get your hands in there and have a proper mix and it will form a ball of dough.
It will be sticky and you'll probably need a lot of flour to work it. Roll it out into a piece about the thickness of a £1 coin and cut out your shapes. I bake it on gas 3 for about 15 mins but keep checking on it. You'll smell it when its done. Dont worry if it looks a bit cakey when you take them out of the oven, so long as they're golden/gingery coloured you'll be fine. Let them cool on a wire rack so the air gets to them and they'll crisp up as they cool.

I also did some big gingerbread men and gave them little cranberry/cherry hearts. I soaked some cranberries & cherries in some blackcurrant juice to soften them up then cut a little slit from the top into the centre of the fruit (think radius when doing maths and pi). Then once you squashed it onto the gingerbread man it made a little heart. I wrapped them in cellophane and sealed with tape on the back so they wouldn't go soft. They weren't dis-simlar looking to these: Gingerbread hearts. I called them "perfect men".

I also put together some little bags of kisses (cherry lips sweeties batches of 30 tied in little pink cellophane bundles and curling ribbon). They didn't sell so well but I can re-package them for father's day as "kisses for Daddy" or "Santa Kisses" at Christmas. The gingerbread men did surprisingly well I only had about 5 left and I made two trays full (16). The remainder went to my dad & one of the lads at work's 3 kids. My jars of breakable hearts all went, and the foamy sweet jars sold. So I think next craft sale I'll do more decorated jars!!! The sock cupcakes went really well too, I think I have 4 or 5 left (from 12) but the sweets on them dont run out til March 2012 so I can always re-use for Mothers day, Easter, Christmas or even next Valentines day.