April 18, 2016

Mystery Knit-A-Long

Yesterday, Sunday 17th of April, I joined a Mystery Knit-A-Long.
It's for a shawl, and the first clue was pretty easy, but still interesting.
The pattern is by Ardilanak, and the pattern is called Udaberri Mystery KAL.
When I first saw this KAL I was thinking of using a variegated sockyarn, but then I remembered that I had some yarn with sequins in my stash. And it should be enough for this pattern.

When I went to have a look at the yarn I found that I had 3 skeins of the yarn, in different colors.
So why not make 3 shawls?!
Well, I'm doing 2, and my mom got the last skein, so now we're knitting the same shawl.
I had one white, one grey and one brown. Mom wanted the grey one, so that went to her. And I'm doing both of the shawls on one long circular needle.
Can't wait for the next clue to come out!


April 05, 2016

Making

I'm inspired!
Yesterday, I was listening to A Playful Day, and in that episode she talked about preserving and eating seasonal produce.
In Norway in the winter months, you don't get much fresh produce, but we do have those veggies that you're able to store for a while, like potatoes, carrots, beetroot, parsnips, onions and other.

I had to go to the grocery store yesterday after I listened to A Playful Day, and started looking in the vegetable shelves to see what was produced in Norway.
Of course the lemon and lime and oranges was from Spain, but that is not something you typically find produced in Norway anyway.
But the leek was also from Spain, and I know we can grow that during the fall and in greenhouses and have all winter.

To my glee, I found beetroots, ecological, grown in Norway at Rosnes Gårdsdrift in Sande.

So today, I decided to do something with them!
I could have done a numerous things with them, salt baked them, made brotsj or whatever.
But my choice fell on pickling. Or preserving as it's also called.
Off I went!

First I boiled the beets for almost an hour. Check if they're done with a knife, they should be tender.
Then, peel them! For this you should wear rubber gloves! Unless you want your hands to be pink after. Then you cut them into the shapes you want.
I did small cubes, whole slices and half moon slices.
You also need a preserving liquid.
For 1 kg of beets I made it out of:

6,5dl 7% vinegar
5dl water
3 dl sugar
2 teaspoons of caraway seeds

Let it come to a boil and let it cool down.

Then you put your beets into a jar and pour the liquid over.
Let it sit for 2 weeks before you have a taste.