The holiday issue of KnitSimple magazine has patterns for some cute little fairies. I made this one with single wings and a little cap. Also included, is a pattern for one with double wings and braided hair and a petal bag to put them in. The total length of this little fairy is about 5 inches. They are knit with sock weight yarn on size 1 needles.
This issue also includes some tiny mitten and tiny sweater ornaments, baby layettes, and a Christmas bird garland that are on my list to make.
Having been away from home for a couple of weeks, I didn't realize that the pods on the cotton were almost ready to start picking. There are still a lot of blossoms on the plants which I hope will still form pods and produce more cotton, but there are many pods drying now and starting to pop open. Aside from the obvious usefulness of being able to spin my own cotton, I really enjoy watching these plants as they go from seed to seedling to full grown plants with their delicate pale yellow to pink flowers and then the pods and cotton itself.
In my ongoing quest to use figs in every way, shape and form, I found a recipe for Italian sausage with figs. This recipe calls for a couple of pounds each of pork and beef and some dried figs to be ground and then mixed with herbs and spices. I've taken the ground mixture and made patties to freeze for future use. I did take a bit and cook it up to taste. Tastes like a slightly sweet Italian sausage.The recipe can be found on the Fig Advisory website.
It's Sunday morning and time for a nice breakfast. My husband is in charge of Sunday breakfast, usually making bacon or sausage, hash browns and eggs, and toast. This morning I started breakfast while he was busy and decided to try making a fig coffee cake since the fig tree has been so prolific this year and there are more figs than I know what to do with.
Since there have been so many figs I have tried to get a little more creative. After making over 100 jars of fig and fig blended with other fruit jams, I have since made figs filled with goat cheese, wrapped in prosciutto, grilled and drizzled with a balsamic vinegar reduction; fig and tomato salsa; fig muffins; and now fig coffee cake. I have used figs fresh, I have dried figs in my dehydrator, and I have frozen figs. I have given figs away. I have shared the figs with the birds. And still there are more figs on the tree and dropped figs rotting on the ground. But I digress...back to the coffee cake.
I mixed margarine and brown sugar in a pot and heated until it was melted together. Then I added chopped dried figs. I mixed up a batter from baking mix and spread the fig mixture on top. Taking a knife, I swirled the fig mixture through the batter, covered with a sugar/cinnamon and walnut topping and baked. Yummy! (Check recipe page for more details.)
More baby knitting this month. The pink skirt and hat are Bernat Baby Jacquards yarn. The patterns are on the yarn bands and on their website. With this yarn, if you knit right to gauge, you get a little floral pattern--so cute and fun to knit.
The puppy booties and pumpkin hat are from Irresistible Gifts to Knit Volume Two, published by Simply Knitting. There is actually a puppy dog romper that coordinates with the booties. There are so many cute patterns in this publication, mostly toys, including some Alan Dart monkeys. If you like knitting that sort of thing, I highly recommend it. I certainly plan to knit a few more things from it.
The kimono is my modification of a simple Lion Brand kimono pattern. I added the garter stitch and flower border. The flowers are bobbles and the leaves are embroidered on. The coordinating little shoes are Baby Mary Jane Skimmers from http://hookcandy.com.
The pumpkin booties are my design that I have made before and details of the sheep booties were previously posted. All of these items were knit in acrylic blends for easy care.
The figs are ripening on the tree now and I have been making lots of jam--blackberry fig, peachy fig and strawberry fig. I love combining the fig with other fruits. They make delicious jams. My own recipe for Peachy Fig Jam is here on the blog on the Recipe Page.
