Roasted & Salted Almonds

Almonds are delicious - whether in a homemade muesli, in bread or just as a snack. I don't know why it never occurred to me before to make my own roasted and salted almonds, - until a few months ago, that is. Since then I have made these almonds more times than I can remember - they are delicious. These almonds are perfect with a cold G & T, in a bowl with raisins and your favorite chocolate, or as a little gift to bring to a dinner party.

Planning a new blanket

It's been a while now since I finished my Northern Zealand Blanket that I crocheted using the Tunisian Full Stitch. Find the blog post and free pattern for that blanket here. 

I always like to take a little break after finishing a blanket before I start something new - just to get a little break and decide what I want to do next. We've also had a few very busy weeks lately - at the end of June we moved into our first very own house. So as you can imagine, we have been kept quite busy both during the week and on the weekends. But now I finally feel like I am ready to start another blanket - and so the whole process of determining colours, yarn and a pattern can begin :)

I have to admit, I'm a little bit confused. I'm torn between choosing colors that would complement our living room - or just choosing colors that I like, but that wouldn't necessarily blend in very well. The mint and brown color option way below would definitely work well in our living room - and I do love that color combo - but I am also drawn to number 2 and 3, in particular. With the colors of square number 2, I would like to do granny squares (not with granny clusters, but simple double crochet) - and possible arrange them like in my colorful squares blanket here).

More free patterns

I don't know if you've noticed, but I've added a new page to my blog - FREE PATTERNS - making it easy to find all of my free patterns in one place instead of having to go through all of my crochet posts to find free patterns. Here you will find all the info you need to make the blankets: links to all free pattern pdf's ready to download, links to the blog posts for the various blankets as well as links to the Ravelry pattern pages.
Keep checking in - in the next few weeks I will upload free patterns for the Grey & Blue Baby Blanket and the Stash Buster Blanket.
I currently have free patterns available for the following blankets:

Northern Zealand Blanket

I am so happy to finally be able to reveal the final result – my first Tunisian crochet full stitch blanket. Actually it didn’t take that long to make – I started in late February and finished mid-May – but I did try to crochet almost every day. (Free pattern below)

Raspberry and White Chocolate Muffins

Raspberries and white chocolate are a great combo - the tartness of the raspberries and the sweetness of the white chocolate is a match made in heaven. I love these muffins (or are they cupcakes?) - I guess it depends on your definition, but I call these muffins seeing as they don't have icing on them. But regardless of what you call them, they are divine. Not to mention really easy to make. For a long time now, they have been my go to for everything from desserts to afternoon coffee treats, the obligatory birthday cake to bring to work etc.

Update - Northern Zealand Blanket (Tunisian Full Stitch)

(See final blanket and free pattern here)

I have now been working on this blanket for a little over a month and I really like how it's coming a long. Whenever I crochet blankets with lots of different colours and a 'random' colour scheme, I always doubt myself and the project - a million times - while working on it. I always wonder if the colours really go together, should I have chosen other colours, are there too many...you name it. But I've found that the key to overcome this is to just keep going - even if you're not sure you like the colours. With projects like these, it really comes together after a little while. You can't base the final look of the project on just a few rows - the design of the blanket, with its multitude of colours, only reveals itself once you're further down the line. So my mantra is always 'keep going':)

Marie's Windsor Throw - Tunisian Crochet

This is a bit of a throwback Thursday of blankets. I actually made this throw a few years ago - it was one of the first blankets I made when I had just taught myself how to crochet - and this was before I started Green Tea and Giraffes. I only realised now - when I am getting more into Tunisian crochet - that I had not written anything about this blanket - but here it is. (Free pattern below)

I was inspired by a knitted lapghan I found on the Red Heart website - but seeing as I don't knit, I came up with a crocheted version. I chose the Tunisian simple stitch, as this was the first project I had embarked upon using Tunisian crochet, so I wanted to start out as simple as possible, - but also because I like the texture of the Tunisian simple stitch and it creates a nice almost woven look.

Northern Zealand Blanket - starting out (Tunisian Full Stitch)

I’ve really looked forward to starting this blanket. I don’t have much experience with Tunisian crochet (check out my one other blanket here), but I love the texture you get with Tunisian crochet – and it really lends itself well to lots of different color combinations, I think will look great. This blanket will be made using the Tunisian full stitch.

(See final blanket and free pattern here)

Of course there is the issue of crochet hooks – especially when crocheting blankets using Tunisian. Then it is crucial to invest in the crochet hooks with long ‘tubes’ attached to them. But luckily that does not have to be a costly affair. I found mine on Ebay for about US$ 6 including shipment (to Denmark). The packet included 12 crochet hooks – 3 mm – 10 mm – all with a 1.2 m tube attached to it. Now this may not sound like it will be big enough for the length of a blanket, but a tube of that length can actually hold quite a few chains, so you can still produce a blanket that is quite large.