Japanese flower scarf

Flowers in winter, around my neck. That was my motivation for the Japanese flower scarf. I first discovered this scarf pattern here and was immediately spellbound. Since the pattern was not in the Internet I bought the pattern book from Japan via Etsy. It arrived only one week later, very carefully packed. I was a bit afraid at the beginning if I would be able to read the crochet stitch diagram as everything in that book was written in Japanese. But what a joy, it worked out just right, the stitch diagram was enlarged and very clear with international symbols! I have never before worked with stitch diagrams and with the help of translation tables it was easy to crochet along.
As for the yarn I was intrigued by Lucy's description of Debbie Bliss Andes. I searched the net and found Debbie Bliss Andes at eBay. This yarn is really rather luxurious and soooo soft. It was great joy to crochet the Japanese flower scarf, everything so exotic for me from pattern to yarn. And I was almost a bit sad to have finished this scarf.

Onion Tart

I love all things baked. And I love to bake and cook, but mostly there is only time at weekends for cooking. Yesterday Peter surprised me with a delicious onion tart. It's a simple recipe and serves 4 people.

ONION TART
For the pastry:
250 g flour
250 g curd cheese (German: "Quark")
250 g margarine or butter
1 tsp of salt (optional as ham and cheese already contain enough salt)

For the filling:
1 kg onions
300 g ham or bacon
300 g cheese
4 eggs
4 tbs milk
2 tbs flour
pepper, nutmeg, chervil, herbs of the Provence, basil

a) First make a pastry. Mix all ingredients for the pastry and make a dough. If you cannot find curd cheese, try joghurt instead. Spread the dough evenly onto a baking tray.

b) Then prepare the filling. Chop the onions and stir fry them with a little bit of oil in a pan until glazed. Dice ham/ bacon and stir fry shortly as well. (We usually buy diced ham.)
Now spread the onions and the ham/ bacon evenly onto the pastry.

c) Grate the cheese (any type of hard cheese will do) and sprinkle onto the filling.

d) Now whisk the beaten eggs together with milk and flour and add the seasoning. I have used dried seasoning, but you can also use fresh herbs. If you can't find herbs of the Provence you can also use (dried) marjoram, thyme, savory, rosemary and sage. Or just the herbs you like or have in store. Pour the mixture over the onion-ham/bacon filling.

e) Place the baking tray in the middle of a preheated oven and bake at 200°C for about 20 minutes. The pastry should have risen a bit and the cheese is melted and golden brown.

 

Cut the tart into pieces, serve and enjoy! You can serve new white wine with the onion tart (usually available end of September/ October). It's very yummy! 



Phone cozy

The starling handbag needed a partner, a phone cozy to go along with it. The pattern consists of single crochets and the button is a crocheted ball. It fits the black bag as well, but maybe I'm going to do a black one too.

Starling Handbag

You can never have too many bags! This is what I thought when I first saw Futuregirl's starling handbag. The very talented Alice from Futuregirl did not only write a tutorial which is available in four languages (English, French, German, Italian), she also did video tutorials (very helpful) and a tutorial for sewing a lining into the bag!!! 

I crocheted the bag with soft cotton yarn (Lana Grossa Linea Pura) and thanks to the video tutorials I learned some new techniques. The lining part was not easy for me, as I don't have a sewing machine and generally don't like sewing much. So it took me quite a while to finish the whole bag. But the lining improved the quality of the bag, as the cotton yarn is so soft the bag can't keep its shape by itself. I also added a magnetic button.

Well, before I did the lining part I crocheted a second starling bag with black yarn (Lana Grossa Secondo). This yarn is a bit thinner so the bag is a bit smaller than the beige one, but stability is much better. So the black bag will be used without lining!

 If you are looking for ideas to crochet a bag have a look at this website and here. Jessica from Schoenstricken collected lots of fabulous ideas within blogland. Have fun!

Amineko Family

May I introduce you to Amineko or better to the Amineko family? I first heard about it from my sister who is a real cat lover. The word "Amineko" can be a colloquial abbreviation for 'amigurumi neko' which means anthropomorphic (designed with human characteristics) stuffed cat doll. 'Ami' refers to 'knitting or crocheting'.

Well, my sister bought an Amineko pattern book and crocheted the beige one with scarf. As I love amigurumis, I planend to crochet such a cat myself - and forgot about it. Then a few weeks ago I saw pictures of very cute Aminekos and wanted to do them right away. I bought some yarn (Red Heart Lisa) and a new crochet hook (3,0 mm) and searched the Internet. And how generous, the very talented Nekoyama, who wrote the pattern, has a website with an English tutorial! Thank you so much, Nekoyama!

It is a lot of fun crocheting Amineko. I did the second one right after finishing the petrol coloured one. This time with another yarn which is a bit thinner (Gründl Wolle Lisa). So our shelf is hosting a second amigurumi family (the first one is Totoro and his friends)

Milk Shop

On our way back from the Lüneburg Heath we passed a milk shop. The surroundings looked so much "idyllic world" that we stopped and had a look.

The roof of the shop was amazing:

 

And behind the shop there were more pretty buildings: 

 

This one has a traditional pediment of this region, horse's heads: 

 

There was also a lush blooming flower garden, cows and their calves and a playground-barn. And the milk shop sold not only milk but also delicious cakes. I really enjoyed this stop!

Lüneburg Heath

A 70th birthday party was the reason for a mini short trip to the Lüneburg Heath, just one hour drive to the north. Actually I wanted to drive back home after the party the same night, but Peter insisted in staying over at a nearby hotel. And indeed we spent a lovely day in that area! To beginn with the party, it was very jolly, I met a lot of people and it was quite late when we left. The following morning I started with a swim in the hotel pool. Very refreshing! Then we had a great breakfast in the hotel garden.

They had amazing flowers blooming all over. So colourful and cheery! And I was not the only one loving flower gardens and breakfast: There were lots of wasps flying around our table and tasting our food. You really had to watch out when eating.