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Wednesday 18 February 2009

another year over!


no, I didn't fall asleep during january and just woke up to discover the new year! but when you have kids you might just as well measure the years in how they grow:)) DS is 11 now, easy to remember his birthday (can a mother forget her kids' birthday(s)?) - because he just made it in time to be born on valentine's day! and every year I have to "invent" a new cake. a few years ago it was a graveyard scene (inspired by one I saw in a book about fancy cakes), the year after it was a wizard's castle (dito - and a huge cake to boot - we ate castle for days afterwards:). we also had a hp cake - but this year it was to be the kids series "avatar - the last airbender" as inspiration. now, as I admitted before, my drawing and painting skills are nothing to write home about - so painting an avatar on top just wasn't a good option. I had planned to fill some coloured buttercream into piping bags and draw the signs for the 4 elements onto the cake - but the powdered food dyes (red for fire, blue for air, greenish-blue for water - and natural cream for earth - because I accidentally had used up all the chocolate one:)) made the buttercream separate, so that wasn't a good idea. eventually I drew the lines onto baking parchment, melted some chocolate and drew over those lines. this was reasonably easy to do, so I just used the slightly funny looking coloured cream as a base and put the cooled chocolate signs on top. bingo - son was happy, the cake was a bit more managable than the giant castle and it tasted good as well. I added some of the melted chocolate to the buttercream inside the cake. I wonder whichever fancy will take him next year....
enough about food. I did some knitting as well. I finished another "harmonia's rings" - but this time I changed the pattern slightly. I only worked 5 rows of pattern for each repeat, but the main change was, that I finished the upper rim with an attached i-cord with "loops" (= a few rows of unattached i-cord) instead of adding beads. and I finished the lower part with an attached i-cord instead of the rolled-up purl rows - which makes a nice rounded edge at the bottom. this one I'll keep for myself (at least that's the plan:)), very soft and cozy, but not too warm. both are actually the same blend, 70 % superwash wool and 30 % silk, handspun, 2ply. the dyed one was knitted with needle size 5, the white one was more tightly spun and plied and I worked it with needle size 4, albeit with a few more stitches all over.
this is a larger pic with details of both borders - the one with the "holes" could be used on another garment instead of button holes?
tomorrow we're off to Dublin for a visit to the zoo - so I better make sure that I have a small knitting project at the ready to get through the train journey without major boredom attacks!

6 comments:

Julie said...

What a great birthday cake!
I love the white harmonia ring, it looks so soft and I like the lacey looking edge.

Leigh said...

Bettina, that cake is so clever! You are quite the artist, in more ways than one.

I really like those harmonia rings too. Very clever and they look very cozy.

Anonymous said...

hallo bettina..das sieht ja wunderschön aus!! tolle idee mit dem schal..könnte ich mir auch gut als kragen eines pullovers vorstellen..

gruß wiebke

Woolly Bits said...

Wiebke, ich glaube, das saehe zwar ganz gut aus, waere aber ziemlich knifflig anzubringen. oder man strickt erst den kragen und dann den rest des pullovers von oben nach unten... wuerde laengeres nachdenken erfordern:))

Jana Muchalski said...

Liebe Bettina,
erstmal: Glückwunsch zum 11jährigen! Die Torte sieht toll aus! ...und die Harnomia rings finde ich richtig richtig schön! Ich mag separat zu tragende Kragen.
Herzliche Grüße
Jana

Jana Muchalski said...

"Harmonia" natürlich...