It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

It snowed today!! (not my car, btw)

It actually snowed yesterday too, but this was thick, proper snow, and at one point the backyard looked like a snow globe. A cold snow globe.

The holiday carnival has been up and running since Thursday. There's a ferris wheel and other rides, a Highland Market, German Market (I hear there's awesome Christmas markets in Germany, which is why they have them over here too) and the ice skating rink!
I haven't been on yet, but I will!

That last photo was taken just before 4 pm!

I'm not quite ready for all this yet, but the atmosphere is definitely here!

Stay warm everyone.

Craft Fair on Saturday!

I'll be at Drummond High School, Edinburgh, this Saturday to sell my fibrous wares. So if you're in town please stop by!

If you aren't in Edinburgh, as I realize the world does not revolve around this city and most people don't live here... you can buy from me online at http://fibrous.etsy.com I'm having a Black Friday - Cyber Monday sale, 10% off everything when you use the coupon code YAYPRESENTS

And sorry for the short posts the past few days, I've just started a holiday job, and this was a last-minute booking for the craft fair, so my spare time has been spent with frantically making stuff!

PS, Kirsty, if you're reading this, I'll make some sheep tonight for you, and you didn't leave your email in the comment form :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Hope you had/are having a wonderful evening! Yes I mean you, even if you aren't American. And if aren't please have something yummy for dessert to celebrate anyway! We can all use a good dessert sometimes ...


One of the many things I'm grateful for:
That there are people who find me interesting enough to read my blog! So a special hellooo and thank you!

Blustery Day Knitting

Today was a blustery day. The sky was dark, rain skipped across the window.

Not a day for rushing about. Or felting it seems. A day maybe for knitting.
I've nearly gotten to the point where I should separate out the armholes from the rest of the body. About time too, because right now the knitting is too large for the circular needles.

It's a bit annoying when the stitches push each other off the needles and need to be rescued, but there's also something satisfying about have too many stitches. It's an overindulgence I don't have to feel guilty about (unlike having three of those pumpkin cupcakes in one evening :)

Pattern: Wicked
Yarn: New Lanark

PS. Very soon I'll leaving this blog and just posting on my new one!

Please change your bookmarks to: http://fibrouscreations.com

Pumpkin Cupcakes!

MMMM. Cupcakes. Have I mentioned I like dessert? It's my favorite food group.

These are some yummy cupcakes. Extra bonus that it's not too sweet, in fact the pumpkin almost makes this taste healthy!

The recipe makes 24 cupcakes

280g plain flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
110g butter, softened
200g caster sugar
5 tablespoons brown soft sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
180ml milk
250g pumpkin puree

For icing:
8 tablespoons (1 stick/4 oz./113g) butter, at room temperature
3 cups confectioners' (icing) sugar, sifted
3 to 5 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1.Preheat an oven to 190 C / Gas 5. Grease 24 muffin cups, or line with paper muffin cases. I use silicon cupcake cases. They're great, no greasing or paper cases needed!

2.Sift together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, clove, allspice, salt, baking powder and bicarb. Set aside.

3.Beat 110g of butter, caster sugar and brown sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Mix in the eggs, one at a time. Stir in the milk and pumpkin puree.

4.Stir in the flour mixture, mixing until just incorporated. Don't overmix! Pour the cupcake mixture into the muffin cases.

5.Bake in the preheated oven for about 25 minutes, until golden and the tops spring back when lightly pressed. While the cupcakes are cooling, make the icing.

6.In a large bowl cream together the butter and vanilla. Blend in the sugar, a quarter at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the milk, and continue mixing until light and fluffy.

7.Cover the cupcakes with the icing, either by spreading it with a spoon, or you can put the icing in a small plastic bag and cut a bit off one tip.


Though I don't recommend putting on those little edible ball thingies. Cupcakes shouldn't be so crunchy!

Mail posting dates

Yup, it's nearing that time of the year where we need to pay attention to Christmas posting dates, so here's the info for any of you who are buyers/sellers:

For packages from the UK:
Monday 6th December South & Central America, Caribbean, Africa, Middle East, Asia, Far East (including Japan), Australia and New Zealand
Friday 10th December for Eastern Europe, USA and Canada
Monday 13th December for packages to Western Europe
Tuesday 21st December for First Class packages within the UK

Items coming from the US:
Domestic
Monday 20th December for First Class Mail
Tuesday 21st December for Priority Mail
International
Dec 10 to Canada, Mexico, and Europe

More info on USPS shipping and more info on Royal Mail shipping.

Btw, very soon I'll leaving this blog and starting a new one!

Please change your bookmarks to: http://fibrouscreations.com

Yay electronics!

Tonight at Granny Green's Big Night Out (a weekly craft group I go to) they were holding a Beginning Electronics Workshop hosted by the Edinburgh Hacklab.

I can still remember a little electronic kit I had when I was a kid, and every few years I consider buying myself another one and never end up actually buying it, so I had been looking forward to this workshop all week.

We each got a little kit with directions and a friendly hacklab person was at each table to help us out.

Here's the first step, a bunch of transistors waiting to be soldered:
Here I am soldering. Apparently it's fascinating... :)
Actually I think she was just making sure I was doing it correctly.

And soon I had a flashy light thingy!
Woohoo!

And now the question is, how can I incorporate this with fibre without electrocuting myself...?

Btw, very soon I'll leaving this blog and starting a new one!

Please change your bookmarks to: http://fibrouscreations.com

Not in Kansas anymore - pizza

I've decided it would be amusing to start regularly posting odd cultural differences between how I was raised in the US and what I've encountered in the UK.

(Yes, I am pointing to the relevant sentence with a knitting needle)
Now I admit I’ve eaten pizza with a knife and fork at a restaurant over here, but I’ve always assumed that people ditched the knife and fork when they were at home! A quick google search tells me it’s pretty fairly common in America too. An inquiring mind want to know – How do you eat your pizza?

New Best (and warm) Friend

Yup, I'm talking about a hat!

A hat that looks like I'm wearing a bunny on my head, and kind of impedes my sight, but it's sooo warm! And it's made in the UK (Lee Cooper), and I bought it on sale. So yes, definitely news worthy. BTW, that's my black alpaca owl cowl I'm wearing in the pic too - also super warm!!

And those gloves I'm wearing - not warm enough. Almost ready for the snow, almost.

Btw, very soon I'll leaving this blog and starting a new one!

Please change your bookmarks to: http://fibrouscreations.com

Trip to the bead shop

Today I went to my Local Bead Shop (LBS?), The Bead Shop Edinburgh.

I don't bead, but I somehow went away with more than just necklace clasps.Lovely, aren't they? I thought they looked fibrous.

It's a nice and friendly store.
They also have wholesale discounts, if you buy enough of one item.

I couldn't help taking pictures of the beads. There were all these colors and shapes saying hey, look at me!


Maybe I should take up beading ...

Lonely Autumn Leaf

I was going to post this at the end of Autumn. But really, my definition of Winter is when I contemplate buying a balaclava. In my heart, winter is already here.

Last month I sent in a little fibre leaf to the Craft House Concept Autumn Leaf competition (Craft House Concept is a neat little store in Edinburgh selling handmade goods). Well, I didn't win (you might have already guessed this as I did not title this post "yay I won").

If you get a chance though, check out the other submissions! I particularly like the leather one by Eleanor Young. It's nice to be reminded that there's so many talented people out there...

Here's my little guy: