Ukrainian Christmas 2015

Yesterday was Ukrainian Christmas so I made a traditional Ukrainian dinner. I made pierogies with two kinds of filling... one potato and dill and one potato and cheddar. I used my mom's recipe and it was pretty good. It is just very time-consuming to make the filling and then the dough and then the pyrogys themselves but it was worth it because they were really delicious. I like to panfry them a little bit after I boil them so they get kind of crispy on the outside.

It has been a while!

I haven't posted for a very long time mostly because I forgot my password! now that I have reset that and all is well I can carry-on. I have been doing some knitting and some Crosstitch not too much though I seem to of lost my momentum there.

I have taught my daughter how to knit. She is working on a scarf and doing a fantastic job. After she does that, she wants to knit a blanket for her stuffies. I hope I have passed my love of crafts on to her and she keeps up the good work. I will post her finished picture when she is done! I have been busy crafting but not blogging..time to change that?

Finished Cowichan Sweater

I finally finished the Cowichan Sweater that I've been working on for a year. I designed the Inukshuk myself as I was knitting this during the 2010 Winter Olympic Games and thought it would be a nice touch. I also added the Maple Leafs and the "Canada" along the bottom instead of the X's the pattern called for. Sewing the zipper in was a huge pain in the A$$ and I hated every minute of it. But, I finally got it done, gave it to D, he put it on and then I noticed the GLARING error!!!! What happened there? Not sure why it doesn't match left to right. All sections measure the same. I told him of the mistake and said I would need the sweater back to fix something but he said it was the warmest sweater he had and didn't want to give it up. He's growing so fast it probably won't fit him in a few years but until then, he is perfectly willing to live with my mistake! I don't even know what I did wrong so I don't repeat it. Any ideas?

Happy New Year

Well, another year is over and a new one is about to begin. We had a great Christmas break. I learned to make Gluhwein (mulled red wine), baked some really good cookies, built a gingerbread house, went to the Nutcracker ballet and German Christmas Market, and saw the lights at Van Dusen gardens. I have enjoyed spending time with my children over the past 2 weeks and will be sad to see them go back to school next week.
It's been fun but I do need a break from all the eating, drinking and spending :)

By the way, I did finish the Cowichan Sweater and he loved it!

Gluhwein

We went to the Vancouver German Christmas Market and had the best spiced wine drink called Gluehwein or Gluwein. It was so tasty...I am trying to recreate it on the stove right now :)

They also had a delicious baked apple with vanilla sauce and some beautiful ornaments for sale. I loved it! The Gluhwein was sold in little blue mugs that had a $4 deposit on them if you brought them back, but I kept mine because it was so cute. In fact, I really want to get another one but don't want to go all the way downtown to get it. If you're going, pick me up one :)

Pictures of the Cowichan sweater that I knit. My friend Lana and I took a class together in Jan. and I have had my pieces done for a while but I HATE sewing the pieces together. It's the same with my quilts...I like to sew the top part of the quilt but then when it comes to actually quilting it with the backing and batting, it just ends up sitting there. These pieces have sat in my closet all summer and part of the fall. This would make a great Christmas present...I should just buckle down and get it done :)