Bake - Speculaas biscuits - pretty much the real thing, in my humble opinion! I've made a slight correction to the amount of cloves (a bit less) and cardamom (a bit more) in the recipe, but I don't think it is crucial!
Knitting - the 5-day beanie - So-called because I reckon it can be made in 5 days of fairly relaxed knitting
follow the link for instructions and video tutorial.
Paper Make - little scandi hearts (or big ones! depends on the size of your bits of paper) hearts, made of paper, or felt, if you like.
I made a whole load of these one year from red and white felt, and hung them up as Christmas decorations. They were just the right size for a gold chocolate coin!
These are made from wrapping paper which was red and spotty on one side, plain brown on the other;
There are tutorials all over the web for the right hand version which involves weaving three 'strips' together. I'm going to step by step through the right hand version which is simpler and therefore easier to start with.
Cut two strips of paper 3.5 wide and 11 long. Inches will be easier to work with; I made mine in centimetres and it was a bit fiddly.
Fold the strips in half, so that they are 3.5 by 5.5 now. Lay one on top of the other and round off the top, then cut a slit as shown. If you look at the straight edge either side, the slit is slightly longer.
Now the for the fiddly bit; If you look at the brown heart, I have looped the left hand end OVER the spotty strip, and tucked the right hand end INTO the spotty strip.
Ah, I seem to have turned it over! No matter - just you turn yours over too, and we'll be fine! While weaving the 'OVER' brown strip THROUGH the spotty strip, I am also persuading the 'UNDER' brown strip to go 'OVER' the spotty strip.
If the slits you cut earlier are too short, you won't be able to make this happen. If they are a little bit long - well, that will be fine.
Then I shall just jiggle everything gently about until it goes flat. It's much easier with felt, because it is more flexible than paper.
For the three-way version, I cut two slits in the original version, and the weaving was more complicated, but manageable!
I'm trying to post the first week's craft ideas ahead of the start of Advent so that you have a chance to think about them...
Here's the first of the projects for the Advent Craft Adventure Book - A very simple Beanie Hat. I've called it a '5-day beanie hat' because I reckon it would be doable in the time - I did it three and a half days and now I need to take a day off from knitting!
In summary; for a smallish(ish) adult beanie, head circumference about 21-22 inches, you will need
178 yards chunky (bulky) yarn, NOT 'Super Bulky'
6mm or 6.5 mm needles
aim for a gauge of 14 1/2 stitches and 26 rows to 4". It's not crucial to be exactly exact.
Cast on 40 stitches, and knit 108 rows. (Each ridge in your knitting = 2 rows)
Stitch markers to count the rows are very useful.
Your finished piece of knitting will be 11" along the cast on/off edge, and 16" around the long edge. Garter stitch is very stretchy, so the 16" should fit comfortably around the head.
You can do an ordinary bind off, and then sew the two short sides together, or consult google and video tutorials and do a 3-needle bind off which is what I did, which combines binding off and joining two edges in one go.
Now you have a tube!
At the open end with the longest tail of yarn, thread a needle and go around the top picking up every other ridge like this;
and gently draw it tight like this
fasten off and weave in all the ends. A hat! You can add a pompom, home-made or bought fake-fur if you like.
I think that knitting 108 rows at the rate of around 24 per day wouldn't take too long each day; it's helpful if the yarn moves more easily across the needles than mine did. It all depends on the needles and the yarn. My hat is actually a size bigger, because I used 6.5mm needles. I think you would be better off doing some sums or wading through the website (see below) if you wanted to make a smaller size or use different yarn.
The youtube tutorial for the hat is here
The website, www.yayforyarn.com has the pattern for this hat in every size from premature baby to large adult, and every yarn weight from sock yarn to super chunky. The website instructions are maddening as it is full of advertisements; I suspect this is to encourage you to buy the ad-free pattern!
I have summarised this information, including the name of the website, on the card which I photographed tucked into the brim of the hat.
