Full patchwork blanket instructions

Please note this page is still in progress and instructions/links do not yet exist for all squares.

 

You will need

• 1 pair of 3.75 knitting needs
• 1 pair of circular needles of the same size (for edging)
• A darning needle
• 1 * 100g ball of double knit wool in each of the following colours

(From top left) - Purple, light pink, dark pink, light blue, dark yellow, dark green, lilac, light yellow, dark blue, light green.

Knitting squares

This blanket is made up of 49 simple to knit squares
Instructions are linked from each of the names below

Ref	Description/link	Number
1a	light blue and dark yellow stripe	6
1b	light pink and purple	6
1c	light yellow and lilac	6
1d	dark pink and pale green	6
2	light yellow parallel lines	3
3	purple diagonal lines	3
4	dark yellow horizonal lines	2
5	Light green ribbed stripes	3
6	Lilac plain	2
7	Dark green moss border	3
8	Light blue moss	4
9	Dark blue moss variation	5

Plenty more ideas for squares can be found on my knitting page

The layout

2	1a	4	1b	7	1c	5
1b	9	1c	8	1d	9	1a
7	1d	2	1a	3	1b	6
1a	8	1b	9	1c	8	1d
6	1c	5	1d	4	1a	3
1d	9	1a	8	1b	9	1c
5	1b	3	1c	2	1d	7

 
(Further advice on sewing laying out and sewing the squares together can be found on the How to make a simple but beautiful knitted blanket page)

 

Edging the blanket

My tip for edging the blanket is to use a circular knitting needle.

The length of the cable is unimportant, as you won't actually be knitting in the round, however having the extra length will make the large number of stitches you'll be working with on each side much more manageable.

• Using dark green or lilac (you'll have most of these colours left)
• Start at the bottom edge and with the right side facing pick up 259 stitches - that is 37 per square (one for each stitch you cast on/off for each square)
• Work one row in moss stitch (alternating k then p for each stitch)
• Increase one stitch each end at next and every right side row
• Continue in moss stitch for 8 rows (don't forget the right side increases)
• Cast off

Repeat on remaining 3 sides and then neatly sew the border together at each corner.

Congratulations - you'll have finished your amazing patchwork blanket.

Most basic squares

These are the simplest squares and a great starting point.  They also make quick "filler" squares, if you are making a large blanket, then a few simple striped or plain squares will help bulk out the blanket and are the quickest to knit.

Basic plain square

They don't come any simpler than this, however, with 2 or more different coloured wools you could still make a beautiful blanket without ever doing anything more complicated than knitting plain squares.

Cast on 37 stitches
Continue in stocking stitch (that is, normal knitting, a knit row followed by a purl row, followed by a knit row followed by a purl row etc etc) for 50 rows
Cast off!

Stripe square

Almost as simple as the plain square - simple stripes!

Choose two contrasting colours, and call them A and B

• Cast on 37 stitches in colour A
• Work 4 rows in stocking stitch (alternate between k and p rows)
• Change to B and continue for 4 more rows. (There is no need to cut the first colour off as you will always change colour on the same side, just make sure that it's not so tight that it's pulling the square out of shape when you next change colour)
• 4 rows in A
• 4 rows in B
• Continue until you have 48 rows (12 stripes)
• Cast off

Really cool ice cream cone cakes

Who knew ice cream cones can survive 20 minutes in the oven? Well they do, and look what that means you can do with them...

Really cool ice cream cone cakes - look like ice creams but are really cakes!

 

You will need

(Makes 12)

• 12 (flat bottomed) ice cream cones
• 60g cocoa powder
• 175g of butter
• 175g caster sugar
• 120g self raising flour
• Level a teaspoon of baking powder
• 2 large eggs

To decorate

• 80g of butter
• 200g icing sugar
• Splash of milk
• Hundreds and thousands
• Mini chocolate Flakes (or 4 large Flakes cut into 3)
• Icing bag and large star shaped nozzle (see below)

Getting started

• Pre heat oven to 160 degrees and put your cones onto a baking tray

• In a large bowl, add the sugar, flour, eggs, cocoa powder and baking powder.
• Mix well for around 5 minutes then spoon the mixture into the cones
• Each cone should be between half and 3/4 full to avoid them over rising or not reaching the top of the cone

• Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, until the cake has risen and is springy

Next to decorate

Make sure that your cakes are completely cool before decorating, or the buttercream will go grainy and may not hold its shape

• Making the buttercream is as simple as adding the butter, icing sugar and milk and beating until thick but smooth. If it doesn't hold a peak in the bowl, then it won't be thick enough to pipe out as "icecream". Add more icing sugar now.
• When piping, start from the outside of each cake and pipe in a spiral into the middle following the shape of the cake underneath. Try to keep the spiral tight so there are no gaps in the icing effect.
• Finally finish with a sprinkle of hundreds and thousands and a chocolate flake.

This is my new little brother - introducing baby scrapbook project

I'm expecting a new baby in less than 2 weeks (Eeek!!) and people keep telling me how I need to spoil my little girl, as she won't quite understand and will be confused, upset and/or jealous.

So here's my idea...

A "This is my new little brother" scrapbook project

At 2.5 years old Megan might not quite be old enough to create a master work of art, but I'm hoping she'll enjoy scribbling and sticking, and most importantly, spending a little time with Mummy.

To get her started, I went to a pound shop and for £5 bought a folder, some coloured paper and some stickers.

I'd originally thought about a scrapbook but decided that as my daughter is only 2 and a half, it would be better to give her individual sheets to work on and then put them into the folder later. (Any mistakes can then be discarded).

I then made a title page to explain my idea (and also because I wanted to play!)...

So there we have it - a lovely project that she'll be able to add to as Baby grows and develops. We'll write in dates and weights and milestones, draw pictures and stick in photos, maybe even try to do Mummy, Toddler, Baby hand prints.

As well as the scrap folder, I have also been informed that it's traditional/a nice idea for Baby to have bought the existing child/children a gift for when they come to visit.

Over Christmas we went to a wedding where disposable cameras were provided on every table. Megan absolutely loved this and ran around shouting "cheese" at everyone all night! What's more surprising is that some of her pictures actually turned out really well!

So I looked at buying Megan a disposable camera to go with the scrapbook project. However, they're over £10 for one with a flash, and I thought she'd get through the 27 pictures really quickly and then have to wait until someone could take it to be developed/printed.

Instead I did some research into children's digital cameras, and decided to buy her the Vtech Kidizoom Twist robust camera.

It 2 megapixels and has a 4 times zoom. It has a voice recorder, takes videos, allows animations to be made and pictures to be edited and manipulated (think adding wigs and text and frames etc!).

What's best is that it will plug straight into our TV so she can see the pictures immediately, and also plug into the photo machines at Tesco/Boots so we can easily print anything that comes out well.

I'm really pleased with it. I paid £30 for the camera and an extra £5 for a case.

Can't wait to give it to Megan, and let her have a central role as family photographer, taking pictures of her new little brother to stick in her book.

Hope you like :o)

Possibly the best chocolate cake ever!



Possibly the best chocolate cake recipe ever!
Dark choc icing with milk choc buttons, and Milk choc icing with white choc buttons 

To substantiate that claim... in my real life I manage a team of 10 technical IT analysts/developers (90% of the team is male). Every other month we have a team meeting, and every team meeting at least one person has "reason" they cannot attend (e.g dealing with major incidents/in the middle of an upgrade etc. etc.)

Last month I baked this cake and last month I had 100% attendance!! therefore I've concluded that the cake really must be something special or perhaps has magical powers!

You will need

For the cake

• 230g butter
• 230g caster sugar
• 210g self raising flour
• 30g cocoa
• 4 medium eggs

For the icing

• 100g butter
• 200g icing sugar
• 100g melted (value or cooking) chocolate (or 30g of cocoa and a splash of milk)

To decorate

Chocolate buttons (Tesco and Morrisons both do their own brand 3 packets for £1,  2 packets is just enough)

Or

Maltesers (This is a little extravagant as it would take 3 packets to do this properly. In the pic below I used 2 packets and it would have been better with 3)

 

Getting started with the cake

• Pre heat oven to 180C
• Grease 2 Victoria sponge tins
• Beat together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy and then slow begin adding the flour and eggs.

Next add the cocoa powder, mix some more and  then pour into your greased tins.

Allow your little monster(s) to lick the beaters!

Bake for 30 minutes


Let the cake cool completely before beginning to decorate, otherwise there is a danger the buttercream will begin to melt and slide off.

Icing and decorations

Break the chocolate up and place it in a heatproof bowl. Then microwave for a few seconds (stir and then put back in if necessary). Do this very slowly rather than risk burning it!

To start the icing, add the butter and icing sugar to a bowl. BEFORE you put a mixer in there (and send an icing sugar cloud across your kitchen), take a wooden spoon and slowly and gently mix the sugar and butter together until it looks a little like scrambled eggs.

Add the melted chocolate to your icing. (The first time I did this I really worried that the warm chocolate would melt the butter and it would all go wrong, but it didn't and everything was good!!)

Now mix with your electric mixer until light and fluffy.

You can then begin assembling and decorating your cake.

Place one cake on a plate, and cover the top with around a 3rd of the icing.

Place the other cake on top, and then use the remaining icing to cover the top and sides. It doesn't need to be thick on the side, just enough to hold the buttons on!

Finally begin the decoration, starting from the outside and working in and then down the sides.

Soon the cake will look amazing and also be light, fluffy and absolutely gorgeous to eat.

Yum yum yum. Eat up!

 

Here is the massive 3 tier malteser version I made for my team meeting

And here's what it looked like less than an hour later!

No bake, throw it all in, Rocky Road

This "no bake, throw it all in" recipe is perfect for making with children.

The ingredients aren't particularly important, providing you have rice crispies or cornflakes and chocolate, everything else is a bonus!

There is no baking, and no measuring, but lots of stirring and potential for spoon licking.

The results taste pretty good too!

You will need

• 200g Chocolate ((value)milk or cooking)
• 2-3 handfuls of rice crispies or cornflakes

Suggested extras

• Mini marshmallows
• Cherries (halved)
• White chocolate chunks or buttons
• Mini smarties
• Maltesers
• Jelly tots
• Popping candy

Equipment

• Baking parchment/greaseproof paper
• Tin (optional but used to for a uniform shape)
• Sauce pan
• Heatproof bowl

Get started

• Put some water in your pan and heat to a low simmer
• Break all up the chocolate in your bowl
• Put the bowl of chocolate into the pan - ideally so the bottom doesn't touch the water.
• Gently stir the chocolate until it melts

Alternatively the chocolate can be melted in microwave if you know what you're doing!

• Begin by adding any extras you have to the melted chocolate EXCEPT white choc, if you add this too soon it will melt into the mix and you won't notice it was ever there. You may also want to hold back a few mashmallows to decorate the top with later
• Then begin adding your rice crispies one handful at a time whilst stirring. Do this slowly so that you can stop adding crispies when then there is just enough chocolate to cover all the crispies and make sure that everything sticks together
• Tip the chocolate crispy mix on the baking paper and spread it out (put this inside a tray if you want a uniform shape)
• Sprinkle with the remaining marshmallows

 

• Cover the mix with another sheet of baking paper and then press down evenly and gently across the mix to help it compact and stick together

• Leave to set for an hour or two and then uncover

 

• Your finished rocky road can now be cut into slices using a sharp knife

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