So this morning I was browsing through the internet for a simple Spanish Coffee recipe to serve at a get together tomorrow evening when I found one on the FoodTV site, right beside the picture of this "Yule log" - as I've learned to call it in English.When I was growing up in Quebec and going to French school we learned all about the folklore of this traditional Christmas dessert. We learned how to make it in a jelly roll pan, we learned how to wrap it in a lightly floured tea towel, to roll it and about creating pseudo-mushrooms with meringues that have had cocoa dusted onto them. The only thing that stumped me was when the heck was the plum pudding (with hard sauce, of course) going to be eaten, and why didn't any of my friends know the French name for plum pudding? Growing up English in a French community, it was not an uncommon thing to learn theoretically about traditions that we never got to practice at home, but the details that I retain of the importance of buttered hands when pulling taffy (la tire de la Ste Catherine), making maple poached eggs, and how to perfectly apply the icing to the Christmas "buche" to make it look like bark, are all fond memories that stay with me much as I remember the details of "Catherine's" bed chamber in Wuthering Heights: dear to me in an outsider's way.
Actually none of this has much to do with knitting, but what I did learn is how many interesting experiences one can have by following from one link to the next on the internet. Here is the address for the blog where the Yule log recipe is found: http://www.foodtv.ca/BLOG/archive/2008/12/01/12-days-of-holiday-treats-chocolaty-christmas-log.aspx and being a blog, they're are always links to other blogs. Well, go figure, who knew that there would be as many, if not more, obsessed foodies wanting to share their ideas and discoveries with their cyberfriends on food blogs (over 50 of them have links from that page.)
Now why would I find it odd that there would be so many food bloggers? I'm a big food fan myself. I guess I just don't hang around with people who are as passionate about food as they are about knitting.
Anyone who wants to take the "Sock in a day" class at the store in January had better "get their skates on" (as they say on Coronation Street.) We're already half full. Lots of other great classes coming up too. I'm really looking forward to it.As promised, this is a picture of the tea cozy that I knitted, felted then needle felted for my oldest who really enjoys her tea. The scroll work along the bottom is just multi coloured roving as is the "I". The heart and the tea pot were made by using miniature cookie cutters that I got at the Bulk Barn. You lay them on the fabric to be embellished and fill them with fleece then start poking the heck out of it with a felting needle until it's nearly flat. If you want more high relief add some more fleece and poke the heck out of it again. Remove the cookie cutter frame and use your needle and accent/shading colours to work in the details.
It really is as easy as can be. But my advice is that it should be appreciated by all from a distance of not less than 3 feet. Like much art work it loses a lot of its magic when scrutinized too closely. If you haven't tried needle felting, it really is worth the $15 investment to have a real play time. Great way to distract yourself over the holidays.
