Fondant

I like candy. A lot. I want to make my own candies and delicious things. There's many reasons for this, one is that it's typically a bit cheaper though it can be time intensive, and I'm much more interested in homemade than not anytime, and two is that high fructose corn syrup, additives, and preservatives are not very good for you. Recent studies have shown that high fructose corn syrup contributes to weight gain (possibly due to the unnatural format, confusing your body instead of just sweetening your food) and unnatural things just aren't typically that good for you anyway. Changing the format of fat and calories entering your body changes how your body processes them. Basically, if your candy, desserts, and sweets are homemade with good ingredients, you don't have to worry as much about intake. Of course, you can't have cake for every meal, but you don't have to skip dessert.

Recently, I finally mastered fondant. Okay, so, maybe not mastered, but I have fondant. I'm still learning how to quickly and easily make the perfect fondant, I'm not there yet. Seems to me that you can't let it cool all the way or else it takes almost an hour of creaming it to work, and you should get it as hot as possible without going into the hard ball stage, so as close to 242 F without going over as possible. I also learned that some of my early candy making and attempts at fondant didn't work because my candy thermometer is about 10 degrees Celsius off. Not even close.

Fondant, yay!

With fondant, you can do quite a few things, and homemade fondant tastes really, really good. Like, really. You can also add flavors and colors, though I can only find powdered food coloring here and I don't like it. It can be used in oh-so-many ways, too. I decorated a cake, but didn't take a picture before transporting it, and it managed to get squashed in transport. I also made chocolate covered fondant candies. These are delicious.


I added almond and vanilla to one lump of fondant, and some grated orange zest to the other. The really cool thing about the grated orange zest is that it also gives the fondant a bit of color, which I like. After mixing in the flavorings, I rolled the fondant into a log and cut off slices to coat with chocolate. This does take a lot of powdered sugar to coat the surface and your hands with, so the fondant doesn't stick to everything. I saved the leftover powdered sugar in the fridge with so I could use it next time I was going to use the fondant. That stuff is expensive! The goal was round candies, but the fondant flattened out a bit as I cut it, so they ended up being more rectangular. They were amazingly delicious! I dipped the fondant into milk and dark chocolate, since I keep a supply of both in the cupboard.*


The other nice thing about fondant is that it will keep in the fridge indefinitely, or so sources say. This means that I can make fondant every so often, and keep the leftovers in the fridge, and when I have an event it would be good to bring something to, mix in some flavors and/or colors, dip in chocolate, and voila!, a quick, fancy-looking and delicious treat as a hostess gift, party favor, or quick addition to a potluck or work party. Excellent!

*I have never once raided that supply when I've had a chocolate craving. I have just realized this, so now, the chocolate is in danger. I am quite surprised that that chocolate has been safe for so long.

Happy Easter! (Thought I posted this, it was in Drafts!)

I made an Easter Basket!


There's these cute little kits here to make baskets like that. I have a few, and they're adorable, if not the easiest things to get started. I nearly threw it all away, but finally figured it out and think I should make all the ones I got. Early Christmas presents!

I also tried to go through all of my projects to make sure I wasn't forgetting/neglecting any. I count 29. This is not correct. I've been adding projects and subtracting them as I go, so I should have 31. I'm missing 2 projects somewhere. Cross stitch is definitely correct. Papercrafts, stamping, frogging, and spinning are too. That leaves knitting, crochet, and sewing. Now, it's not impossible that I've missed a project or two, but I just can't think of what it is!

New projects are Unders and patches for my holey socks, I've finished four open projects and the LSG scarf, and that should leave me at 31, by the running total. What's missing? This will bug me for quite some time. Maybe I didn't update the total at an earlier date? If I can't figure it out soon, I'll just re-adjust. Makes getting down to under 30 quite simple! And if I just take a day to sew, stuff, weave in ends, and finish patching those socks, that'll be under 20. I like this plan.

In other news, I've lost one of my Fetchings. Again. I believe I still have enough for a fourth one, but jeez, I've gotta find a way to keep track of these things better! Maybe get one of those Mitten Minder things for really young kids or something...I definitely won't have enough yarn for a fifth!

Blocking from the last time I re-knit one

I wonder which one I lost? The newer one likely grew to the same size anyway - I don't recall one being larger than the other anymore. Has anyone else found Cascade 220 to grow quite a bit through use? My Calorimetry and Fetchings used to be great, but they're a bit big now. Oh well. Another small project to toss into the lineup!

Mobii

I made a lot of Mobius cowls as Christmas gifts. I made four more, exactly like that first one awhile back, for my mother, her three sisters, and my grandmother. I was able to get all five out of a bit less than two skeins of Knit Picks Shimmer in Sweet Pea. I have two more skeins, and am considering making one for myself, but I don't think I want to dip into those two fresh skeins just yet. You can do a lot with two skeins of laceweight, and I don't think I want to limit myself to millions of cowls, though I do love the pattern and how fast it works up. I also wore one for a day and really, really liked how it was, so now I'm wishing I'd made one for me. I do have some other laceweight looking for a project, though it's a bit thinner (KnitPicks Alpaca Cloud), that would work, and some as-yet unassigned solid colored laceweight...hmmm....


I got a bit artsy with some of these shots, so I've just shown off the nicer ones and not the oh hey, another blocking trapezoid! shots, and all the details are the same, except the exact working dates. I had some issues with my Boye Interchangeables set with the first one; the cords must be joined to work a mobius, and the join was sticking. I got an amazing Addi Turbo Lace 32" (80 cm) US4 needle for the others, and love, love, love it dearly. I can't wait to work on another currently hibernating lace project with these needles, it's so wonderful. I've decided to get the full set of 32" Addi Lace Turbos, and have just learned that they're in the process of prototyping and testing a set of Lace Clicks, so I may just get a set of those next Christmas instead of continuing the collection of 32" circular needles. Mmmm, I do love these things!

Pattern: May Flowers Mobius
Yarn: KnitPicks Shimmer in Sweet Pea, approximately .4 of a skein
Timeframe: One week per mobius, if I'm concentrating on it and it alone, but months really for most of them waiting to block
Mods: None, used Snapdragon Variation
Problems: None, this was lovely and amazing and I'd love to make more!

FO Round Up 1: Clogs

I've got a bunch of finished items that just haven't been blogged. Let's start with clogs!

I made four pairs of clogs for Christmas. Four pairs of clogs for others, and those two that are about finished for Lee and I, six in all. I had a bunch of Patons Classic Wool that I'd just decided to make useful things out of instead of keeping it around for a possible future blanket that likely won't get made while in Japan, and I've already used about half of the 20 skeins I was saving. Many of those skeins went for these clogs.

The first one was all Patons, I had a skein of gray and the 20 skeins of Taupe, obvious choice to start with.

Pattern: Fiber Trends Clogs
Size: Men's M
Yarn: Patons Classic Wool, 3 skeins, Taupe and Gray

Needles: US13

Timeframe: December 10 - 16, 2009
Mods: None.
Problems: Felting wasn't perfect, but I don't think with my setup it can be.

I was surprised at how well it felted. I have a front loader with no hot water possible, and this felted quite nicely for the most part.

For the next bunch, I put some puff paint on the bottom so they'd have a bit of traction. Two pairs are going to my grandparents, and I will not be responsible for causing broken hips if I can help it. I didn't do it for the first pair and probably won't for the last two, unless they prove to need it during use.

Pattern: Fiber Trends Clogs
Size: Men's M
Yarn: Patons Classic Wool, 1.6 skeins Taupe, 3 skeins of Japanese dollar store wool in gray, and a bit of Patons in gray because I didn't have enough Japanese yarn.
Needles: US13, US11

Timeframe: December 13, 2009 - January 4, 2010
Mods: None.
Problems: Felting wasn't perfect, but I don't think with my setup it can be, ran out of gray and used a slightly differently shaded one.

I found a good yarn at the dollar store to use, but it was closer to a DK weight so required triple stranding to match the Patons. With the triple stranding, I thought it was slightly thicker so went down a needle size to match the same gauge as the Patons.

Pattern: Fiber Trends Clogs
Size: Men's M
Yarn: Patons Classic Wool, 1.6 skeins Taupe, 3 skeins of Japanese dollar store wool in green, and oddly had enough yarn this time.
Needles: US13, US11

Timeframe: December 28, 2009 - January 4, 2010
Mods: None.
Problems: Felting wasn't perfect, but I don't think with my setup it can be.

Pattern: Fiber Trends Clogs
Size: Woman's M
Yarn: Japanese dollar store wool in pink and beige, under 6 skeins of beige and 3 skeins of pink.
Needles: US11

Timeframe: December 30, 2009 - January 4, 2010
Mods: None, though I discovered that spit splicing the two colors together works quite well since it's going to be felted anyway.
Problems: Felting wasn't perfect, in fact, the soles didn't felt well at all. They shrunk, but are still very ridged.

I learned that I should use the US13 with the dollar store yarn anyway, and this yarn makes for awesomely cheap clogs. I may just be knitting more next winter for those who didn't get them this winter.

Candy!

I enjoy trying to make things, things I like to eat. This includes a few breakfast or dinner meals, but mostly it's baked goods, desserts, and candy. A number of the dinners I enjoy include baked aspects, like curried pot pie and a casserole with drop biscuit topping as well as biscuits, bread, and tortillas for other meals. My recent candy attempts have worked amazingly well.

First off, I made some butter toffee. Lee isn't a big fan of many of the things I make candy-wise, but he loves chocolate bars containing toffee. I wasn't sure how it would turn out, and nuts are expensive here, so I made it sans almond topping, but it was delicious:


I read quite a few different recipes, because I've found that especially with candy, there are typically many different possible recipes, but some aspects remain the same no matter what. I trust Cooking for Engineers quite a bit, so adapted their recipe:

Cover a tray with parchment paper or a silicone baking sheet. Mine has a gutter around the edges, and some of the toffee dripped down into the gutter but didn't stick to the pan at all. Parchment paper may or may not be necessary, but the recipe says to use it. First off, make sure your candy thermometer is reading reliably. Boil some water, it should be 100 C or 212 F. At boiling, mine reads 110 C, so I have to adjust temperatures by about 10 C.

Put in a saucepan at least twice as large as these ingredients:
225 g unsalted butter
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
A large splash (approximately 2 tsp) of water

Boil over low/medium low heat. Stir constantly; it will bubble up while the water boils off and will stay at approximately 110 C (120 C on my thermometer) while this happens. Then, it will thicken and the temperature will rise fairly quickly. Continue stirring and heating until it's at least 150 C but before it hits 160 C.

Remove from heat once it's at 150 C and stir in:
1 tsp vanilla

Pour onto the pan and spread using a silicone spatula. I grated a bunch of milk chocolate from a large block over half of the hot toffee, and laid a 60 g chocolate bar on the other half. Then, I spread the chocolate around the top of the toffee as it melted from the heat of the toffee. I tossed it into the refrigerator to cool for awhile, then broke it up. It was delicious.

WIP Down

WIPs must be finished. 34, if I'm completely honest about everything, is the number of WIPs I have.

Some can be finished easily. I have some little magnets that just need seaming and stuffing. Others are not so easily finished; a large lace stole, colorwork sweater, and two queen sized blankets as well as my cross stitches are waiting their turn.

At the moment, I have an at-home project and an out and about project. The at home projects are the last two pairs of felted clogs, just in time to store them for the summer. Oh well.


I ran out of yarn for Lee's, so used a similar color from a different pair to finish off the center sole. I'm triple soling them for maximum warmth and comfort. It's not noticeable unless you're really inspecting the clog, and once it's felted, will probably be invisible.

At this point, his are finished except felting, and I just have the final two soles and attaching to do to make mine.

My out and about project is the last of a string of Mobii. Mobiuses? Neck cowls.


I have 1.5 rows, and then the I-cord bindoff left to finish it up. I should have all three done this weekend, and will be moving on to sewing up the magnets so they're finally done (killing a whopping 10 WIPs) and probably taking one of the queen sized blankets as my take-along project. Must finish knits! So I can start more...

Pairs

I was going over my WIPs the other day. I have a lot. They all seem to come in pairs. I have:

2 pairs of gloves
2 pairs of socks
2 pairs of slippers
2 blankets
2 WIPs started pre-Japan
2 bookmarks
2 magnets, times 4, 8 total
2 pairs of socks to darn
2 WIPs that don't fit in the other categories
2 Art of Disney cross stitches
2 other cross stitches

I feel like I'm forgetting something...

Anyway, lots of WIPs, even more FOs, some baking and candymaking, and continuing blanket progress. Stay tuned.