Crochet, Knit, Sew, Bake .....

Last night was FNSI  where 53 ladies from around the world joined in with Wendy from Sugarlane Quilts to do some stitching of various types and then blog sometime over the weekend to share what they did.  It's fun to see what other people are working on, and it's always nice to get ideas or a bit of inspiration - mostly I find its nice to think there are others that wish we had ladies sitting around a table having a natter, coffee and stitching together, but for many of us that seems to be hard to find - so this is a nice way of filling that gap :) 
 I decided this time I'd make a start on Friday night working on a bit more knitting of my Sandpiper Shawl which I'm trying to get finished by the end of April.
 

 My little buddy was busy snoring his head off - he's gradually beginning to improve after doing his crucial ligament a month ago, but being over 12yrs old the cooler nights are starting to tell! Can you even see him poking out from his handknitted woollen blanket???

 This morning I decided to continue on with a bit more stitching and after finding my sewing machine (it's been covered in a bit of this and that of late).......

I managed to get a few mug rugs made (some for the grandies and a couple of gifts), plus decided to whip up this little purse for holding knitting stitch markers and such.

After a bit of sewing I got moving on some crochet work ....... DD has requested a couple more of my crocheted topped kitchen hand towels ...... I'm still working on those so I'll wait till I finish to show you.

I don't know about your place, but it's still raining here and seems to be getting cooler ........ since we haven't yet lit the fire, I figured I would soon warm up if I did a bit of baking........ out of the oven just in time for afternoon tea.......   Yum!!!  I used my simplicity cake recipe and divided it in half ....... one half I added 3 tablespoons of cocoa to make a chocolate cake ........ and the other one I popped into the tin then added half a dozen teaspoons of homemade blackberry jam and just simply swirled the jam through the cake mixture.  (The jam was made using blackberries picked a couple of months ago).   And that sounds like the sausage rolls are finished, so I best go and pull those out of the oven.

I'll leave you with the cake recipe which is super simple, and has been one I've used for 30 odd years - its great as it makes 2 cakes, can be altered to make any flavour you can think of and is a nice moist cake that always gets compliments wherever it seems to go :)  Enjoy!!
Simplicity Cake:
2 Cups Self Raising Flour
1 Cup Sugar (use white or raw sugar)
180gr Softened Butter
1 Cup Milk
3 Eggs
1 Tablespoon Vanilla
Put the flour and sugar into a bowl (no, I don't sift them), then add all the wet ingredients.  Now combine them all and then beat on high for 3mins.
If you are making chocolate cake add 4 tblsp cocoa - adjust this if halving the mixture to make 1 chocolate and another flavour cake.   You can also pop sliced apple, apricot etc onto the mixture.

Pop into whatever baking tins you wish to bake in (you can also choose to pop the mixture into patty tins to make small cakes for the children) ....... Bake in a moderate oven until it looks ready - test by placing a skewer or toothpick into the centre and having it come out clean.