ABSOLUTELY VEGAN - Barking Zappa Pumpkin Muffins - Messy Indie Cooking (Baking) Vol.6

So fall is coming to the Northern Hemisphere, and Pumpkins are making their kingly entry to the market. Although, I used the canned pure, you can still take advantage of the season goods. 

Here is the recipe:

• 1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• Chai powder mix spices (Cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger)
• 1 cup pure pumpkin
• 2/3 cup soy milk (Almond milk is delish)
• 1/3 cup canola oil 
• 1/2 of crushed peanuts (walnuts or pumpkin seeds work well too!) 

Preheat oven at 350 F/ 175 C.

 Start by mixing all the "dry" ingredients, flour, sugar, spices, baking powder and nuts. Separately, mix the "wet" ingredients, pumpkin pure, soy milk, oil... Pour the "wet" into the "dry. Mix well.

 

Looking nice and fluffy, ready for the oven!

Off they go for 10 to 15 min in the oven. If bigger these might take up to 20 min. Check with a tooth pick or spaghetti.

And VOILA!

We ate almost all of them in one go!

I also made 4 large ones. The total was 12 small and 4 large.

The Muffin Prince would have been proud! In sweet memory of FZ.

Domino Knitting Hyde Park Pillow

I've been redecorating my fiance's apartment recently, and I thought of making a few handcrafted pillows for him to feel "at home". I got a 1lb bag from Purl SoHo on my last trip to NY, and started mixing the fabrics together. So far I've sown 2 pillows, and still planning the rest. More to come soon!

As well, I got some Debbie Bliss yarn, baby cashmerino, in 4 different colors. I was knitting this pillow cover for the past couple of weeks and I decided to share the pattern with you. It's pretty simple, and all you need to do is keep up with the math. I did this Op-Art pillow.

I learned the technique from Maie Landra's book "Knits from a Painter's Palette". Check out the Klimty Klimt Jacket I made for my mom:http://schizoart.blogspot.com/2011/03/klimty-klimt-jacket-finished.html

Here is my version adapted from the book.

My suggestion is always start with an odd number of stitches, more than 11 would be good to differentiate the colors you are using, Begin by using 2 different colored yarns. I made the big one with 4 colors and I must say the yarn got tangled a couple of times... Here, I made one starting with 29, 53  and the big one with the four colors being 145 stitches in total.

I'm no Pro with instructions so here is my way...

Let's do a sample:

Cast-on 31 stitches. Knit the first row and purl the last stitch on needle. On WS, move 1st stitch to the new needle, continue to knit till 1 stitch before center, meaning, knit 13. 

Decreasing part: As you reach center, place on needle 1 stitch, knit two stitches together and slip the one you moved before on top of them. I know there is a much faster abbreviation than mine. If you know it,  I'll be glad to post it here. ( I think it's sk2p in the knitting lingo)... Knit the coming 13 stitches and purl last one. 

Change color as you begin the RS, knit first row, and purl last stitch. On WS, move 1st stitch to needle and knit 12, make the decreasing in center and knit the 12 remaining stitches and purl the last one.

Change to first color. Continue in this method, keep decreasing till you reach 3 stitches, then bind off. 

There you go. 

 Happy Knitting :)

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