Shortbread bake-off

This weekend I had a shortbread bake-off at my home. I used two different products, Tamara’s Cut and Bake shortbread and Snowflake Treats shortbread, for my bake-off.

Preparation

Tamara’s Cut and Bake is exactly that, you cut the dough roll from frozen and bake them for 8 minutes. Done!

Snowflake Treats, take a bit more effort. You first have to mix 300g of butter/margarine until soft and then add the premix and combine. You make two rolls and leave in the fridge for a bit, from there it is pretty much the same procedure.

Tamara’s win this round.

Taste test

The hardest part of the taste test was to wait for the biscuits to cool down enough to be eaten.

Tamara’s biscuits do not really taste like shortbread and resembles a plain butter biscuit for me, it also isn’t so sweet.

Snowflake Treat biscuits is another story, they are sweeter and definitely has shortbread texture.

Snowflake takes this round hands down.

Cost

Tamara’s shortbread dough was R25 for the roll, I made 16 biscuits from it, but they were sliced very thin, so if I made them the same thickness as the others, I probably would get about 12 biscuits. That would work out to R2.08 a biscuit.

Snowflake Treats was R35 for the box plus R10 for the margarine, but I got 40 decently sliced biscuits from the box, so that come to about R 1.13 a biscuit. Almost half price.

Overall, Snowflake takes the cake.

Baby Blanket and Wine Bottle Carrier

I have not been writing much, but I was definitely crafty. I do not know if my hands will ever stop being busy with knitting or crochet.

A while ago I was contacted by someone who wanted a small leafy baby blanket that is small enough for her to take on a plane. This is what I came up with. I finished this project in a record 10 days, since she was about to leave on her trip. 

I also recently crochet a wine bottle carrier for a friend as a birthday present. As any good crafter, I saw the idea on Pinterest and think that the end result wasn’t too way off.

I started to do a bit more crochet recently. I feel that I can still learn a lot about crochet and have been exploring that recently. I will upload other project in this genre soon.

Floral Garden Baby Blanket

A local Afrikaans magazine, Vrouekeur, recently had a knitting competition. One of the competition rules stated that the pattern should be original. I decided to make a baby blanket with a floral garden theme. After gathering sponsors to buy the supplies I started in full flair.

Since I decided to knit the stems into the blanket, I had to stop and untie all the balls of wool from time to time. I would usually decide what to do next with each branch when I pick up the work, just to re-evaluate the next time I pick it up. It was quite a project.

After I finished the base I proceeded to knit a lot of leaves and white flowers to make a nice edge. I finished with even more flowers (all knitted, not crochet) all over the blanket. I think that it turned out very nicely.

New bag for my iPad

I recently bought a new handbag, which resulted in me not having space for everything that was in the old (and bigger) handbag. One of these items was my iPad, so I decided to make my own iPad bag.

I wanted to try a crochet pattern I saw in a book I bought a while ago. The pattern was for a round cushion so I had to adapt a bit for it to fit on something rectangular.

You start by crocheting a circle, but only through the back loop. Then you crochet with different colour on the front loop. In the end you fasten the different sized circles together. I’m proud of my iPad bag that gets noticed everywhere I go.

On winning things

I have a history of winning things; in fact, I probably can’t recall everything I won in my life so far.

It all started one day when Pick ‘n Pay had a clay building competition to entertain the children when their mothers shop. I build a cute clown from my clay and received a ball for the effort (I think everyone got one, but that wasn’t important).  Apart from various cash prices, which include a photographic competition hosted by a local photo shop, I won a lot of big prices over the years.

 I won a small colour television on a teenage show, named Tekkies. In this particular competition I entered because the runner up received a tog bag full of TV bars, but instead I won the first prize, but that was probably better for my health in the long run. In high school I won a Wendy house in a competition in the local paper and a tennis racket from Jungle Oats. I once won 10 CDs on Highveld Stereo as well as a night’s stay at the Caesar’s hotel. Recently I won a stainless steel fire pit at the Spur and a Lenovo IdeaTab in the last month.

Still I won’t give out hope that one day I will win a car, preferably one I like. And lots of money won’t hurt either. I have however resolved that I will never win the lottery, so I do not even play. Whenever I get the feeling to play the lotto, I rather use the money to buy chocolates.

Knitting, the (not so) forgotten art.

Knitting is having a revival in the past few years, mostly due to yarn companies developing new and exciting wool each year. Like the latest, net yarn varieties. Most of these seasonal knitters are confined to knitting scarfs and other small projects.

I have been knitting way before it was popular, but how did my journey start?

My grandmother taught us all to knit and crochet when we were young, but this talent laid latent until I reached St. 8 (Grade 10 these days). At that stage, my mother acquired a few Angora rabbits and was spinning the wool herself. The promise was there that we will each get a jersey, made from this gorgeous, soft wool. I just could not wait to get mine, so I volunteered to knit my own jersey. And the rest, they say, is history.

Through the years, knitting became my hobby and therapy. I gained a lot of experience through mistakes, but do feel that I can call myself an expert knitter today. I have a repertoire of jerseys, scarf, mittens and gloves, blankets and even bags to proof it. Yet it does not end.

When I realised I do not have enough closet space to keep on knitting for myself, I turned to friends and family. There are a few people out there who are lucky enough to own a “Handmade by Juanita” article. I image they are wearing it proudly.

People used to think it strange that such a young person, as me, would sit and knit, but I’m sure our Grandmothers were young when they started to knit. It is not the type of thing you start do when you are older. However it may be, we are all getting older and my hobby is becoming more appropriate for my age, or something to that effect. If you are looking for me, I’ll be on the porch.