halloween preparations

I have cut off all the fingers of my children !!!
  I do that every year. (the fingers grow back, I have very special children...maybe they are aliens ...?)
I serve them as a little tv-snack. It's not difficult.  do you want to try this too ?  You'll certainly need a sharp knife... 

and some more stuff like :

puff pastry (bladerdeeg), sausages, ketchup, almond flakes (amandelschilfers) and a knife.

cut a piece of pastry to fit half a sausage

roll the sausage in the pastry, let a piece stick out.

close the top, and make some little cuts to form the knuckels

add an almond flake to form the nail

don't they look real ?

put them on a baking tray

if you want you can cover them with egg for a brown colour

the blood is ketchup.

I've got some more halloween tricks up my sleeve.... 

ribbon paradise

When I was in Brussels with my friends, we discovered this little shop, near the Madeline Church.  It was small, and deep, and filled tot the top with all 'broquante' stuff from days gone by.  At the very end, after a lot of  ' Oh's and Waaw's ' from us, we foud these....     Is this heaven ?

In a shop like that, you'd sort of expect a little old man to appear, with a big book of secrets and a time travelling machine.... but that's the movies.

pom pon scarf

Oh, sometimes I can fall madly in love with a project I see on one of your blogs.  And then I'm afraid there is only one option : try and make one for myself.  

This time, it was Lone, from 'flowermouse' who did it to me.  She lives in Norway, and over there they have these wonderful patterns, and gorgeous wools with the most vivid colours.  And in this case, also a great taste for designing eyecatching objects. 
Her pierrot pom pon scarf is a musthave, and I can't wait to make my own.

It took me a bit of puzzling but I quickly found out how to make the triangles.

I need to make 16 of them, and then knit them  together.  Add the pompons and... ready !
It's been over 30 years since I made pom pons...  I remember 2 cardboard circkels, and covering them in wool, then cutting and it should be a pompon.  Perhaps it's safer to check on YouTube....  my memory isn't that good anymore...

well prepared for winter

Last wednesday I was at Ajour, my favorite wool shop in Brugge.  I had to buy some items, when I noticed the new Katia skeins, to create the famous fluffy winter scarfs.  This time, it had tiny little white balls woven into it, the result was as if it had snowed upon it...  Must have, indeed... !

So, another scarf was knitted, and I just love this result !  I feel like I caught little snowflakes, while walking in the woods....  

And, what was I buying at Ajour ?  I'm not telling you.  It's a surprise.  All I can say is that it's something I've never done before...  An experiment....  here's a little hint....

furry bits.....

cut into little pieces....

I have to keep my head clear...

knitting half a scarf...

as you can see, it ends in a loop

My friend Amandine is a knitter too.  She has learned it from her mother, who is never without a knit.

When we last met, Amandine was wearing a lovely scarf, in what seemed a very intricate pattern of cables.  Her mother had knit it for her, using only 1 1/2  skeins of wool.  The pattern is called 'half a scarf' because you only knit....  half of it, yes. 

A week later I got mail : her mum kindly sent a copy of the pattern to me.  So, I tried this and it's not difficult at all.   The cables pattern repeats itself and I soon memorised it. Only 60 stiches, I knitted it in a few evenings. 

before steaming

after steaming

plain sock wool, but I like the mêlé effect