Thanks to Angie at http://www.purlingoaks.typepand.com/ for the yummy treat of yarn which I won in her bloggiversary contest. My first win. Cooling their little tails behind the yarn is a double batch of "White Mice" or "Mexican Wedding Cakes".
I remember making these with my three big sisters when I was even very small. They would let me shape the small balls and sometimes let me dip them in the icing sugar after they were baked. I'm afraid mine are a bit large, not quite rats or guinea pigs, but my family will all remark on how I can't make anything small or in small batches. Here's an early treat for you:
White Mice
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening - cream together
1/3 cup brown sugar
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla - mix in
2 cups flour
3/4 cup chopped nuts- add and mix
Roll into balls. Bake at 400 degrees F. for about 10 minutes.
While still warm, roll in icing sugar.
There will be none left on Christmas Eve as documented in the poem,
"Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse."
"Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse."
Here are my red amaryllis. I usually plant bulbs on November 1st, but the last few years have been disappointing. We went away in January and the blooms were late, so my mom got the blossoms. She also got a beautiful silk plant from me. So this year I have my own faux loveliness. It goes nicely with the white pointsettia in the pot on the mantle. Oh yah, the tree is fake too. But the knitting time I earn from not tending disposable living plants is real!
The Tomten jacket is down to the sleeves. I like knitting in bite sized bits. The front and back were a bit of a slog- plain garter stitche is not my favourite. But each module is small and measurable and quickly knit. It's like finishing several projects and then not sewing them up. Yay. This would look stunning in a more interesting wool. But I inherited this Beehive Astra and I'm making a sweater for that lady's great grand-child. My first great-niece or nephew.
I just keep thinking about those beautiful Italian baby sweaters I have seen in pastels with incredibly simple garter stitch. I do adore those. This would fit in there. I also bought really cool tractor buttons because their family sold the farm in September, so baby may not know cows or tractors, just as mine don't.
1 comment:
In response to your question on my blog....letterboxing is similar yet different from geocaching. In geocaching, you take a small item with you to place in the box and remove and item from the box and sign into the logbook. You also only use a GPS and a set of coordinates to find the box.
In letterboxing, you have a set of clues posted on an internet site (like www.atlasquest.com) and that's all you have to go on. Sometimes the clues are really straightforeward and othertimes they're mystery clues that you have to figure out the puzzle on. When you find a box, you have your own personal signature stamp that you stamp into the logbook in the box. Inside the box itself would be the logbook and a stamp (usually handcarved) that represents the box. You don't take anything out of the box when you leave. You just use a stamp pad and use the box's stamp to mark your own personal journal. With letterboxing too, it's usually about the hike and seeing some beautiful attractions in your area that you might not know were there. Finding the box and the stamp are just bonuses.
And if a letterboxer ever finds a geocache, they'll log in themselves by stamping their signature stamp in the logbook and find someway to record the geocache in their own journal.
Hope that helps!
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