A Closer Look at Tweed

1. Coin Purse, 2. Traditional Knitted Fish of the North Sea - Harris Tweed Fish, 3. Harris Tweediness, 4. Vest Swatch, 5. Tip of the Tweed Iceberg, 6. Hand loom warp sheet, 7. Harris Tweed, Isle of Harris, 8. Irish tweed, 9. Harris Tweediness

A Closer Look at Tweed
Have been knitting with lots of lovely vibrant colours of tweed yarn recently. Here's a selection of tweed in various forms from flickr favourites.

Plum and White Chocolate Tray Bake

Plum and White Chocolate Tray Bake

Any recipe with white chocolate in the list of ingredients usually catches my eye. I thought I'd give this one a try, it's in the September 2010 edition of Country Homes and Interiors magazine.

75g butter
200g white chocolate
125g light muscavado sugar
3 medium eggs
175g self raising flour
250g ricotta cheese
65g castor sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract
300g plums stoned and cut into wedges

1. Preheat the oven to 190 c/375 f/ gas 5. Grease and line the base and sides of a shallow baking tin measuring about 28cm x 20cm. Break the white chocolate into pieces and melt with the butter.

2. In a separate bowl, beat together the muscavado sugar, whole eggs and flour to make a paste. Stir in the melted chocolate mixture. Spread into the prepared tin.

3. Beat the ricotta with the castor sugar, egg yolk and vanilla extract and spoon over the top of the chocolate mixture . Use the end of a round bladed knife to lightly marble the two mixtures together. Bake for 20 minutes.

4. Scatter the plums over the top and bake for a further 25 minutes until set in the centre. Leave to cool in the tin before cutting cutting into squares and serving.

Weekend Gloves

Knitted flat on straight needles in chunky weight yarn, these gloves are a quick knit project which can be completed over a weekend. Make longer for arm warmers or keep short for hand warmers. 

The pattern includes instructions for knitting gloves all in one piece with a thumb and separate pattern instructions for knitting with a sewn inset thumb as follows: 

• hand warmers all in one piece
• arm warmers all in one piece
• hand warmers with sewn in thumb
• arm warmers with sewn in thumb
• cable instructions

Weekend Gloves Pattern

Knitting skills

For the sewn in thumb option: cast on, cast off, knit, purl, knit two stitches together, cable forward.

For the all in one piece option: cast on, cast off, knit, purl, make one stitch, cable forward.

Suggested yarns

Stylecraft Alpaca Tweed Chunky x1 100g ball (makes one pair of arm warmers or two pairs of hand warmers)

Stylecraft Special Chunky x1 100g ball

Paintbox Yarns Simple Chunky x1 100g ball

You will need

x1 pair 6.5 mm needles
x1 cable needle ( or spare double point needle)
Blunt tapestry needle for sewing

Sizes

Hand Warmers
Fits small to medium women's hand
Size - 7" x 3.5" (18cm x 9cm)

Arm Warmers
Fit small to medium women's hand/arm
Size - approx.13" (33cm) long
Will fit approx. 7.5" (19 cm) circumference around knuckles.

The pattern prints out over 6 pages including the instructions for the cable stitch. 

Weekend Gloves Pattern

Handmade Autumn Mosaic

1. Dyed speilsau yarn, 2. Tea Towel Tour 5 for IamSusie, 3. Plaid Maple Leaf, 4. Autumn Leaves Pincushion, 5. Handmade Leaf Garland, 6. Autumn Scene - handmade punched oak leaves ~ 3 of 4 photos, 7. fall coasters, 8. Thanksgiving Cookies, 9. Closer