Dark Green Baby Socks

It was quite a long time ago I knitted something and last week I felt I really wanted to start a new project. Since my inspiration was low and I had not much time I thought I would try to knit baby socks because they are small and easy. Once again I fell in love with knitting as soon as I started and I could not stop until they were finished. It is a big mystery why I think it is so much fun but that is how it is.

This pattern is easy to understand and you don't have to know all kinds of techniques.  Here you can find the link to the free pattern at Drops Designstudio's homepage. If you would like to read the pattern in a different language you can choose your language in the flag menu at left side just below the picture.

The yarn I am using is Read Heart Soft Baby Steps 100% acrylic. I like acrylic yarn because the colors are so intensive and the yarn shines very pretty. 

Happy knitting everyone!

Blueberry Pie

Is there anything better than pie and vanilla custard a sunny autumn afternoon with a cup of coffee or tea to warmen you up? No, I don't think so, especially blueberry pie. Blueberries are one of the forest's finest treasures, both tasty and healthy, and they are so useful for many things.
This recipe is easy and it does not need too much preperations, the total amount of time is about one hour so it is a perfect pie to make after breakfast on Saturday morning to get freshly baked pie to the eleven o'clock coffee break (at least in Sweden coffee at eleven o'clock is a general phenomenon).

Blueberry Pie

Crust
2,5 deciliter flour
1 deciliter sugar
0,5 teaspoon baking powder
150 grams margarine or butter 
2 tablespoons of water

Filling
4 deciliter blueberries(frozen or fresh)
1/2 deciliter sugar 

Put your oven to 175 Cecius. 

Mix flour, baking powder and sugar in a bowl. Add the margarine in little cubes. Use your fingers to form a dough and then add the water to make the dough not crumble. 
When finished put the dough in a plastic bag in the fridge for about 20 minutes, or the freezer for about 10 minutes, to cool it a bit (it is easier to work with it if is is a bit cool).

Divide the dough in two and distribute one of them into a pie dish (approximately 26 centimeter in diameter) by pushing the dough with your palm and fingers to cover the whole bottom of the dish. Bake it in the oven for 8 minutes. 

Put the dish out of the oven and sprinkle the blueberries over the crust so you get it totally filled. Then add the sugar on top of the blueberries.

Now take the second and final part of the dough and by using your fingers take small pieces at the time and spread them over the blueberries until they are almost covered. The dough is containing baking powder so the little pieces will swell a bit while baking in the oven.

Put the pie into the oven at 175 Celcius for about 25 minutes or until the crust is getting a nice golden color. 

Salt dough accessories

As a child my mother and I sometimes made small trinkets in salt dough and let them harden in the oven. That was a very long time ago and I asked myself yesterday why things you do as a child tend to be labled as childish and therefore you don't do it as an adult. I did not have a good answer to that question so today I decided to make some dough and just go crazy! Well... Or at least I did some small things I can use as accessories for hair clips or why not a brooch :)
I used superglue to fix the things to the hair clips.

Salt dough
1 deciliter salt
1 1/2 deciliter water
1 1/2 teaspoon oil
180 grams (3 deciliter) flour

Mix salt and water in a bowl and let the salt solve into the water for about 30 minutes.
Add the oil and then the flour while you stirr with a spoon. The dough will soon be easy to form with your hands and if you feel the doug to be a little sticky you can add more flour.

When you don't use the dough you can store it in a plastic bag in the fridge.

When you have made some nice things with the dough and you want to keep them and maybe color them you need to put them on a oven plate covered with baking paper and let them dry in the oven in 80 Celcius for at least an hour (but the time depends on how large things you have made and how thick they are). 

You can color your things when they are hard and cooled. I used acrylic paint to color my things, but perhaps you can find other suitable paint in your craft store or on the internet :)