My Going Outside Outfit

It's been so cold that I abandoned my desire to knit a balaclava, and went ahead and bought one at the Canadian Tire. Trying on a balaclava at a retail store is a little awkward, as every image I have in my head of people wearing them in a store is when they are about to rob the place. Luckily I didn't have to try the balaclava on very long to know I loved it - the hot pink won me over. Score! At the check out this hat rang up as "childs", so I guess it is confirmed that I have a small head because it fits perfectly.

The balaclava does what it's supposed to do too, as I was brave enough to test it on a cold day earlier this week. The uncovered space around my eyes still gets a little too cold for long walks, but at least I can go outside for little jaunts now.

The funny thing about getting your photo taken while wearing a ski mask? I'm still smiling as wide as ever. Can you tell?

Rainbow and Cloud Cupcakes

I really love adding colour to my baking. The Wilton gel colours are so fun and easy to work with, over the past few years I have been colouring everything I can. I've made colourful cake for cake pops, sugar cookies, various icings, fudge, green bread, and my all time favourite colour experiment: rainbow cake. I really do find it a lot of fun.

This past weekend I transformed the rainbow cake idea into rainbow cupcakes. I used marshmallow buttercream for icing and I ended up with some pretty rainbows with clouds on top. I love these cupcakes (even the cupcake wrapper looked good).

Rainbow Cupcakes - Ingredients
1 box white cake mix; batter prepared as per package directions
Gel food colousrs: red (no taste), orange, yellow, green, blue, purple
6 bowls and 6 spoons
Patience while layering the cake batter

Method
Step 1. Gather supplies: Prepared cake batter, food colours, bowls, and spoons.

Step 2. Separate the batter evenly between 6 bowls. Dye each bowl a colour of the rainbow.

Step 3. This is the tedious part and requires a bit of patience. Layer your colours into cupcake pan lined with baking cups. I sat at the table and did this and it took me about 45 minutes to make 21 cupcakes. So just be aware that this will take time.

Start at either end of the rainbow spectrum (I started with purple) and add colours in order (or reverse order) along the spectrum R-O-Y-G-B-V. For the first layer, I used a toothpick and spread the purple batter out evenly to ensure the bottom of the baking cup was completely covered.

Keep adding your colours, 1 teaspoonful at a time until each cupcake has six different colour layers in it. Don't worry about the colours spreading evenly across the batter below it, I found that gravity and the baking process evened them out for me.

Step 4. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack.

Marshmallow Buttercream - Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
2 cups icing sugar
1 jar Marshmallow fluff

I previously blogged about Marshmallow Buttercream here. To prepare: cream butter. Blend in icing sugar in 1/2 cup intervals. Stir in 1 jar of Marshamallow fluff. Done. This icing is both easy and tasty.

I thought the marshmallow in the butttercream would add a cloud like feel to the top of the cupcake, so I prepared it and piped it on using a 1M tip.

Absolutely loved how these turned out. So pretty and fun to eat.

Winter Hat For John: Finished Object

Well John has a new winter hat and it only took 3 years for him to get it. It's been extremely cold this winter, so this was a good time for me to complete it.

But you might be wondering why a simple hat pattern took three years to complete. Well, it didn't really - the knitting itself only took about 4 days of dedicated knitting. Unfortunately the motivation to knit it took a lot longer to pin down.

Here is the project as it was three years ago:

After completing the K2P2 ribbing, I got tired of making the hat. I also got distracted from knitting by my life and other projects, and it just sort of stayed on the needles until two weeks ago when I remembered that knitting is the best.

I spent an entire afternoon/evening knitting and knocked out a whole lot of stockinette rows.

I picked up the needles again last Thursday and then was able to do the decreasing rows and seam it on Friday. And done!!

The best part is that the hat actually fits him! I had made myself the same hat (but with a pom pom) and it was too small for him (I have a small head). I made his hat bigger by adding 20 extra stitches when I began the project. I'm a novice knitter, so I didn't really know if that would be enough or too little, but it sounded good. I also did some basic math to make sure the decreases would still work with the extra stitches, and I was pretty sure they would (they did!). Also, John has declined a pom pom for his hat.

Pile of Sweet Potatoes #FoodPicFriday

There was a sale on sweet potatoes and I got a pile of them. The ones I didn't already enjoy, I put in this serving bowl and took this nice photo of them. I love love love sweet potatoes and don't think I could ever have too many in the house. Most of these will end up mashed as sides to meals, but I'm setting a few of them aside to finally try making sweet potato pie. I've looked at dozens of recipes over the past few days and I think I've narrowed down the one I want to try. Getting excited!

Though not as glamorous as some of my other #FoodPicFriday contributions, this photo still brings me a lot of joy to look at it.

Testing Knitting Gauge

A few years ago, my Grandma explained to me all about checking gauge before starting a knitting project. And despite this passed down knowledge about gauge, I never tried it. I just haven't attempted a project where the gauge really mattered to me.

It's freezing cold this winter and I want to knit myself a balaclava. I found a pattern at my skill level and set about to make it. The pattern suggested chunky yarn, so I picked up some chunky yarn. Turns out there are different sizes of chunky, and the pattern calls for "5" (bulky) and I got "6" (super bulky). I wasn't sure if the super bulky yarn would still work on the suggested needle size, so this was an opportunity for me to test the gauge.

First step was to knit a swatch. I didn't time it, but I think it took about an hour to knit. Spending an hour on something I'm going to rip out anyway seems tedious, but if it saves me making a whole project that I have to rip out (because it's too small or too big) it's totally worth it. I didn't cast off my swatch, as I will just pull out the knitting and re-use it for my actually project.

Next I watched this video about checking gauge.



Then I used the "Knit-Chek" tool I bought three years ago but never used. The pattern called for 4 stitches + 5 rows = 1 inch.

Here is how mine measured up:

So it looks like I met gauge, which means I could proceed with these needles and this yarn and my project should turn out the proper size.

The swatch was also helpful for me to get an idea of what the end project will look/feel like. And in this case, I think the yarn is too thick and the knitting is too tight for it to be a comfortable and breathable balaclava. I held the swatch over my nose and mouth, and I am able to breathe through it, but I think I would prefer a little more space between the stitches. So I am going to switch gears and use this yarn for slippers or slipper socks, as I think this yarn would be perfect for them. It feels really warm.

So my first try at testing gauge was a success. I got an idea of the finished project and that helped me decide whether to proceed or not. My balaclava project is on hold, but now I'm super excited to find a slipper pattern!