More puerperium love, with a twist

I have made the puerperium cardigan many times. It is my go to newborn cardi. I can't help myself. I'm a sucker for a raglan sleeve and a quick knit. And any opportunity to have cute buttons is always a plus. 

But I like to play with things I'm familiar with. I usually use a recipe once or twice and follow it exactly as written. Then I can get a bit more creative with it. 

What I did in this instance was to change the sleeve on the cardigan to a short, ribbed sleeve. 



Here's how I did it, should you wish to do the same. 

When you pick up the stitches underneath the armhole to do the arms, pick up 5 stitches to make it 36 stitches in the round.

Then knit in rib, k2,p2. Do so in the round until the cuff measures about 2-3 cm. Cast off in pattern.

TA-DA! Ribbed short sleeved cuff. I think it looks cute and means that I was able to knit this cardi with just one ball of the yarn. The lovely alpaca yarn from Drops. 

Enjoy!





Raveled here.

Swedish word/phrase of the week

Tandkött

Actual translation : gums
Literal translation : tooth meat

What can I say? Body parts and Swedish, always a delight. I'm fortunate to be able to say that my tooth meat is freshly scrubbed ready for a new day. Healthy and happy tooth meat.

Things the boy shared with me

So my Mum was born in Germany. I learned German at school and went on exchange to Germany when I was 15. The boy finds German to be an entertaining language and has a few utility phrases. These include such delights as "Can you show me where the moguls are?" and "I am a giant blue duck."

He came home tonight and told me to look up on youtube the following phrase:

Germans trying to say squirrel

I did. It amused me. Please enjoy.

There are many words in Swedish that I find nigh impossible to say. Most things ending in 'ion' for example drive me insane. 

And one more quick German language delight for you. Barbara and her wonderful rhubarb cake that is ever so popular. This one it is helpful to understand German for. Another thing the boy put me onto 

FODMAPs friendly waffles

So here in the Swedens, they do have a gluten free waffle mix. But considering waffle recipes are about the easiest things in the world to make without a mix, I figured I'd just wing it by converting a standard waffle recipe found online.

I was not unhappy with the results. I present to you, FODMAPs friendly waffles that are also gluten free.

Ingredients

3.5 dl (1.5 cups) of gluten free flour

2 tsp baking powder

4dl (1.7 cups) lactose free milk

100g butter, melted

1/2 tsp vanilla seeds, optional 

Mix the flour and baking powder together. Add the milk and stir with a wooden spoon. 

Melt the butter in the microwave and pour into the batter. 

Mix it all together well, making sure to get rid of as many flour clumps as you can. I have found gluten free flour mixes to be quite lumpy when making batter.

Heat up your waffle iron and get cooking. 

Here's a couple of shots of them almost ready:

These waffles were just as good as regular ones made with normal flour and really quick to make. We enjoyed them with raspberry and strawberry jam and a tiny bit of ice cream. I used lactose free ice cream for me, but the other two just had regular vanilla.

Belated Swedish word/phrase of the week

A delayed word of the week due to illness. Over the last week I have been struck down with a succession of colds that have been exhausting. I apologise for missing my usual Monday. I do have a bunch of projects to share, but they will come later, when I've slept some more and divested myself of the virus that will seemingly not leave me alone. Please enjoy this word, I know it amused me when I first heard it/understood it. 

Moderkaka


Actual translation : placenta
Literal translation : mother/parent cake/biscuit

Like all wonderful things in Swedish to do with the body, lots of very inviting mental images are formed when you literally translate them. 

I'm reminded with this one of a story to do with the boy and the birth classes we attended before the birth of TWO. We went along to the first one, it was all in Swedish. On our walk to the tram stop together afterwards, he asked me about a word, förlossning. He could gather from context that it was a process, but not exactly what it was. It means birth. I guess he was, strictly speaking, correct. But I still found it amusing to hear him say "I worked out it's a process. But what does it mean?". I'm pleased to say that since then I think both of us have gained in our Swedish vocabulary and would not make the same mistake. A million and one others, but not that same one. 

Swedish word/phrase of the week

Örngott

Actual translation: pillowcase
Literal translation : eagle good/tasty/yummy

I have no idea why Swedes equate pillows and pillowcases with eagles or the state of being tasty, but it would appear they do. This was one I hadn't thought of before overhearing a conversation in my favourite cafe. There were some fabulously hipster Swedes sitting with some equally hipster Americans sitting behind me while I drank my coffee. The Swedes were explaining it and I quickly jotted it down for the blog. Hilarious. 

image from here

Knitted cloths, functional and playful

I love knitting. It's something that keeps my ever busy hands busy with something functional. If I didn't knit, I think I would spend a lot of time just tapping or fiddling with things like pens and I would annoy the crap out of everyone in my vicinity. 

So one thing that I find as a quick and easy gift for new babies and kids alike is the knitted facecloth. Knitted in cotton, they work well as face washers in the bath or as blankets for toys. 

When TWO was small, these small projects kept me busy, but weren't so involved that my overtired brain couldn't cope. 

Here I present to you the birthday gift for Imogen. Her name in cloths. I found the pattern for them here.

What's on my needles, or what was on them last week

I recently purchased a set of knit pro interchangeable circular needles. With needles ranging in size from 3.5mm to 8mm and different cord lengths, it's a really useful little kit and the needles are beautiful. I particularly like working with knit pro needles because they feel so good when you are knitting, smooth and warm.

I've been working on my favourite pattern for newborns for a friend expected her second child at the end of this year, a puerperium cardigan. I've shown previous versions I have made here and here. 

This time I dyed some wool with yellow and then blue to make a variegated yarn. It hasn't ended up quite how I wanted, so I overdyed it this weekend with blue, as I found the yellow flecks made it too busy. I will post a photo of the completed cardi soon. But here's the work in progress.


I took the photo of the cardi while waiting for my students to turn up for my balboa class last Thursday night. I'm teaching a beginners class with the delightful Gašper and will have to write a post about the joys involved sometime soon. I'm really enjoying teaching beginners again, and as a follow too. But more on that another day. I hope you enjoy the almost completed, hand dyed, green puerperium.

Swedish word/phrase of the week

Bläckfisk 

Actual translation: squid
Literal translation : ink fish

What can I say? Literal translations are the bomb. Ink fish. Excellent. 

Seafood risotto - FODMAPs friendly

Before I discovered the joys of eating a low FODMAPs diet, we started making our own stock after having a roast chicken (and now I have a FODMAPs friendly version). It seemed to be an easy way to get the most out of our chicken. We quickly discovered that it also tasted fantastic.

We predominantly use stock in our house for risotto. So I have adapted our regular risotto recipe to one that is FODMAPs friendly. It is still super tasty and doesn't make my stomach hurt or blow up like a balloon.

Here's the general gist of it.

Ingredients 

A good glug of garlic oil

4dl arborio rice

1 red capsicum, diced

1 tub of mini prawns

2-3 slices of smoked salmon or gravlax, diced

3/4 cup frozen peas* 

3/4 cup grated parmesan

3/4 cup white wine (optional, but add extra stock if you don't use it)

1 litre chicken stock

1 blob/knob of butter at the end
1 big handful of fresh mint or a good shake or two of dried mint
Juice of half a lemon  

*peas are a moderate FODMAPs containing food and while this portion size should be safe (even on elimination), just be careful with how many you add.

Method

1. Put the stock on a low heat. It should look a bit like this:

2. Add the garlic oil and rice to a big pot and bring to a medium/medium high heat ( I use 4 out of 6 on our electric stove) and stir with a wooden spoon. At this stage you want to toast the rice. Stir for a few minutes to both coat the rice in oil and to start the cooking process. I generally do this for a few minutes while I make sure I've got everything I need.

3. Add your wine if you are using it. You want the wine to cook off quickly, which is why the toasting before will do you a favour.
If not, add the first ladle full of stock and stir, stir, stir.

4. Continue adding stock, a little at a time,  and stirring. You want it to cook slowly at a simmer, not a boil. You may need to lower the heat a little as you cook. 

5. At this stage I usually start chopping my capsicum between stirs and grate the cheese, get the prawns rinsed and the salmon chopped. 

The rice should look like this when it's on its way to being ready. 



6. When the rice is cooked, it is time to add the other ingredients. Put 2/3 of the parmesan in, the capsicum, the prawns, salmon, peas and mint. Adding them last makes sure you don't overcook the prawns and make them tough. The ones we use are precooked and just need reheating.



7. Give the whole thing a good stir to mix it through and heat up the peas to eating temperature. 

8. When the risotto looks ready to go, add the butter and lemon juice, and serve. The consistency I like is fluid but not soggy or gluggy.
Serving on a plate rather than a bowl ensures that your risotto doesn't continue to cook while you are eating it. 



I like to serve with a bit of mint on the top with some parmesan sprinkled over and the boy loves a bit of cracked pepper. We also like to add a bit more lemon juice when we serve it. I love the acidity of the lemon juice with an unholy passion. TWO is also fond of lemon and delights in squeezing it onto our plates and then just sucking on the remnants of the lemon to get more juice out for herself. 

Risotto is one meal that we can guarantee TWO will eat. She loves it and will eat all the ingredients, even if they aren't ones she is familiar with, or would otherwise reject in other contexts.

The only problem I have encountered with this risotto is that it is so moreish that I am quite often forced to go and eat more later in the evening. Which, in all honesty, is hardly a problem. I always make more than we usually eat in one sitting because it makes excellent leftovers or late night snack.

Pro tip from the boy: if you are planning on storing leftovers, add a bit of stock to your container so that when you reheat, there's enough moisture in it so that it doesn't dry out in the microwave.  

Halloween Swedish word/phrase of the week -extra edition

When I dropped TWO off at dagis today, I saw that quite a number of kids were dressed up for Halloween. Being an Australian, it's not really something I pay much attention to, so TWO was not dressed up, unless you count the gorgeous red cardigan that her mormor knitted her for Xmas last year. She insisted on wearing it because it had pockets and she needed them to store her buttons.

In any case, as I was redonning my rain gear to walk to the tram stop in the delightful autumn rain, I heard the other kids running around saying "Bus eller godis". So I thought that would make a fun translation effort for the blog.

Bus eller godis 

Literal translation : mischief or lollies
Actual translation : trick or treat

Godis is such a central part of Swedish life that it really deserves another post for another day. 

Bomb marks the spot

So I mentioned a week ago that my wee one told me she loved me for the first time. I thought I should perhaps mark the spot with something. But someone beat me to it! 

The bomb marks the spot where my lovely wee darling told me she loved me for the first time. 

Swedish word/phrase of the week

Blixtlås 

Actual translation - zipper
Literal translation - lightning/flash lock

This weekend I was at Stoff och Stil, the fabric store and I was reminded of another fabulous literal translation. Lightning/flash lock, love it. I guess it makes sense though, you are able to 'lock' two pieces of fabric together really quickly. :-) 

Crocadippo

My sister in law loves the colour purple. So when it was time to work out what to make my niece, her first daughter, something for her first birthday, I knew it had to be purple. 

I found this pattern for a crocodile at a fabric shop here in G-town. It is my go to place for new fabric and very lovely accessories like this, more on those beauties later. 

I also found some lovely corduroy, or what the Swedes refer to as Manchester, in a deep purple colour and set about making my first softy. 

I now need to explain, the instructions were in Swedish, and relatively brief. The tail construction was particularly difficult to follow. As a result, the crocodile didn't quite end up looking as much like a crocodile as it might otherwise have done. It was more of a crocodile/hippo cross breed. Hence the name crocadippo. 

The wee one loved it and was loath to give it away to her cousin. I had intended to make her one, but I haven't quite got onto it yet. One day. I'll add it to my ever extending list of projects. 

How my child made my heart melt into a melty puddle and other stories

Monday afternoon was grey and cloudy. The wee one (TWO) and I were on our way home from dagis. She was all snuggled up in her pram with the blanket that her Nanna bought her before she was born. She had Cressida the cow with her and her lion hat on. (see the picture below, Ottobre pattern 'Ernie')

We were walking past the shop where we bought her bike helmet. Right about the place where, every time we reach it, she comments on the fact that we bought her helmet, her blue helmet, there. I was playing some kind of game with her. I don't quite remember which one. Entirely possibly we were making funny faces at each other. She's got some great ones. 

I put my head inside the rain cover on the pram and up close with hers. I said "I love you, monkey." and she grabbed my face in both her hands and said "I love you, mama." That moment there. That was when I melted. 

I hope never to forget the first time my wee girl told me she loved me. Maybe I should put a heart at the spot, much like these hearts I saw while out and about. 

 

Hand dyed puerperium cardigan for Shell and Con's baby

So probably my closest friend here in G'town is Shell. We hang out pretty regularly and shoot the shit. As a fellow scientist type, Shell has a similar perspective on the world and we enjoy talking about science, life and food. 

She and her Swedish boyfriend, who I call Con, are expecting their first baby in February. I'm rather excited for them and had planned to make them something for the baby. My favourite baby cardigan has to be the puerperium cardigan. It is adorable and practical. 

So I started with the premise that I would knit up a cardi in red yarn that I dyed myself. However, once I did the first round of dyeing with the red food colouring as per this post, I really didn't like the red. It was too coral and not bright enough. I made the decision then to put some yellow in it and make an orange instead. The result was awesome. I was incredibly happy with it.


As you may be able to note from this picture, I ran out of yarn just before I reached the bottom of the cardi. So I had to dye more yarn. But I'm very happy with it anyway. 

Shell is a huge fan of squirrels and so finding these squirrel buttons was just the icing on the cake.  Finishing up what has ended up being a rather autumnal garment. Hopefully it will brighten the dark Swedish winter and keep her wee one warm and snug come Feb. 





Raveled here. 

Swedish word/phrase of the week

Glasögon 

Translation : glasses 

Literal translation : glass eyes

A story to accompany this word of the week. When I finally got around to getting myself an ID card for Sweden organised, some 4 years after moving here, I had to go and get my photo taken for said ID card. 

I'm guessing the woman who was on duty that day behind the new photography device saw my name and felt it would be easier for all concerned to speak English. I appreciate this gesture sometimes from Swedes, particularly when I'm feeling tired or lazy. I can just speak my own language and let my mind wander elsewhere. But in recent times, as I've become more confident with Swedish, I find it a bit amusing. 

In any case, she was having difficulty in getting the new fangled photographic device to work and take a decent photo of my face. At which point she suggested that it might be best for me to 'take off your glass eyes' so that she wouldn't have trouble with reflection.

From that point on I have always thought of the literal translation of glasses to glass eyes. Speaking of which, I relatively recently bought new glass eyes with gold hearts in the frame. I love them. One could go so far as to say I heart them. 

Scrap happy baby gifts

I love making gifts for people. It satisfies my creative self and stops my house being filled with things I've made that I can't use. I'm also a big fan of reusing/recycling or using up the last scraps of fabric from other projects. So when I saw that Dana had a tutorial for burp cloths I had a solution to a couple of problems. I have lots of scraps and babies to make gifts for. 

For example, from left to right in the picture below I have some remnant fabric I used to make a wheat bag for my running buddy, lining fabric for a dress I made for a friend, and spotty stuff from a dress I made for a friend's daughter. 
All made up into burp cloths and tied with that ribbon that you get on some ladies garments for hanging. I often cut those off to use for this kind of purpose because they make the cloths stay together and also because they look cute bundled up. 



At the end of last year, some more scraps helped me make a gift for my yet to be born niece in Queensland. My sister in law was expecting her second around Christmas last year so I sent a parcel for her older daughter and the yet to be born baby. My sister in law loves the colour purple, so I used a fair bit in the gifts for the girls. Here you can see the mooshy bunny (with tutorial) that I made from leftovers from other projects, including a bell inserted in that squishy belly.



And here are the cloths themselves with my knitted facewasher that I found the pattern for here. 

From left to right we have, floral fabric that I loved but had no specific project for, leftover dress fabric from a 2nd birthday dress for a friend's daughter, lining fabric as above, another love fabric without specific project and finally the green with the floral is a pair of my PJs that I had worn out the bum on and pulled apart to reuse in projects like these. 



I'm guessing you've worked out the niece's name started with a 'H' right?

I love that I can reuse old clothes and leftovers from other projects to make colourful gifts for friends and babies and friends' babies. I'm feeling the desire to get the rabbit pattern out again and make some more. They are easy to make and super cute.  

Being vampired, Swedish style

I gave blood this morning. It is a slightly different experience in Sweden vs Australia. I gave blood for the first time at uni in 1998. SInce then I've done it fairly regularly. 

In Australia I would get a snack of cheese and biscuits with maybe a milkshake if I were especially lucky.

In Sweden, I get to choose a gift of some description as well as a snack. I now have a small collection of blue bowls and I also have a 'blood bag', which is a cotton shopping bag. 

I want to get about 4-5 of these blue bowls. So I guess I'll have to keep donating. Lucky for Sweden and for me that I have good veins, a healthy iron count and a desire to do my bit and share my A+ blood with those in need. 

Rock the casbah! Musical stylings of a two and a half year old

The wee one (TWO) loves watching music videos on the TV. We have a whole bunch of them and this morning we had to watch Rock the Casbah by the Clash, many times.

I'll give it to her, she has musical taste (the less said about Gangnam style the better)