WWKIP Day 2019

It’s that time of year again, when crafters get twitchy and start to make nuisances of themselves by coming out of the woodwork and flaunting their skills and beautiful wips under the noses of unsuspecting passers-by. That’s right, it’s World Wide Knit in Public Day.

As is typical for SnB, we included a range of crafts, not just knitting of course. And unusual for us, we actually went to a yarn shop/cafe. In the past, we’ve chosen some unlikely – but fun! – venues (check it out here and here), but this year we kept it casual.

Our destination of choice was the lovely Folklore Yarns in east Belfast, and owner Åsa (pronounced Oh-sa) and her daughter Hannah made us feel right at home. While we munched on a variety of baked treats and sandwiches, she kept the teapots filled and coffee brewing! We had a variety of crafts on display: knitting, crochet, fibre spinning, patchwork and embroidery. Perhaps best of all was Emma Whitehead ‘s tent: a 20+-year project that never fails to amaze crafters and non-crafters alike. It truly is a sight to behold.

There was some Pom-Pom making, cross-stitching, yarn squishing and yarn sniffing too! Some new friends were made, and old ones caught up. And a few skills were passed on too, because what’s the point of a fibre community if you can’t share the love?

Meriel’s first time spinning!

 

Happy WWKIP Day! 

Happy Winter Festivities, aka Pinterest Fail Cupcakes

So last Monday was our last Badger party of the year, the Badgers being a youth division of St John Ambulance that I happen to help out with. I seem to actually be the leader, but that has yet to be confirmed. Anyway, it was decided we were going to have a party and I was happy with that because it meant I could bake cupcakes. And who doesn’t like cupcakes?!

So of course I went onto Pinterest and found these cute little cupcakes shaped like snowmen using marshmallows and icing. Simple, effective, not overly Christmas-y for those in the group who may or may not celebrate. Perfect.

snowman cupcakes – cute, huh?

So I started with my favourite cupcakes ales recipe from Hummingbird Bakery and got to work. Did I mention I only had about an hour to get these done?

 

I had an assembly line going. I used orange starburst for the noses and had my daughter helping me shape them into carrot noses. I’d dollop the icing on and she’d pop a nose in place and then I’d ice the faces with an icing pen. This was all going really well until everything started to melt. It being winter, and cold outside, we’d just had the heat on. The kitchen was nice and toasty from the oven too, and in a matter of minutes noses were sliding into chocolate-dotted mouths or plopping unceremoniously onto the table. I did what anyone would do and started shoving everything into the fridge a la The Great British Bake Off and started hoping everything hardened.

Yes, some of those snowmen are on their backs.

Pretty quickly it was time to leave and I threw the cupcakes (gently) into a tin, muttering the whole time about darn stinking noses falling off. My daughter sweetly commented from the backseat that they would be delicious regardless. I only wished I had her faith.

At the party, the state of affairs was apparent. Most of the noses had bailed. The snowmen were lopsided and the piped arms and faces were slightly smeared from all the handling. I had dusted them all with a last minute spray of edible silver glitter (y’know, like snow, duh) and while I had hoped they would give the snowmen a little extra sparkle it really just made them look like old divas from the pantomime with too much make up, too much bling, and too much gin, reminiscing about the good ole days.

Luckily the kids didn’t seem to care too much, hyped up on sugar as they were. We managed to pull off a fairly successful – and rather tasty – party if I do say so myself. But thank goodness we’re not back for awhile. I’m looking forward to a break, aren’t you?

I think the moral of this story is don’t make cupcakes in hot kitchens and snowmen don’t always need noses to be successful snowmen, even if they don’t make the Pinterest cut. They’re tasty in spite of their flaws.

Happy Holidays from me and Frosty!