Make Your Own Om Nom

My daughter started playing “Cut the Rope” game a while back and she immediately fell in love with that cute Om Nom character. Of course she also wished for a “real one” and came to me with request to make her a knitted companion.

She said: “I KNOW you can do it.” so matter-of-factly and with a wide genuine smile that I could not refuse this request even if I weren’t enjoying the challenges she puts before me.

This toy is a small knitted plushie, filled with polyester fiber (pillow filling) and with details made from felt cloth, cotton thread and buttons. Mine is about 12cm in diameter, size of a larger apple. It is worked on a small set of dpns 2mm or smaller. Choose needle size to produce firm fabric with your chosen yarn. As it is often said to “take time to save time” try your hand/needles/yarn on a small swatch so that toy making doesn’t end in tears when you will be trying to fill too loose package.

So, to make one of your own prepare:

-          One skein of yarn (Om Nom is green in the game but it could be beautiful in any other color also. Depending on a yarn you chose you could have plenty left over as it only takes about 20 g to make one)

-          Set of 5 double pointed needless appropriate for your chosen yarn (mine were 2 mm for yarn Jelka - fingering 4ply, 200 m in 50 g)

-          2-3 handfuls of polyester pillow filling

-          2 small black shank buttons for pupils of the eyes

-          White and black felt cloth (I ran out of white so we used light blue)

          Darning needle

-          Small sewing needle

-          Cotton thread in felt cloth colors

 BODY

Shaping of the ball that makes the body is like shaping the top of top-down hat like beret/tam that has 8 “slices” at sides of which you do all of your increasing and decreasing.

Using method of disappearing loop cast on 9 stitches (as the method does not allow for even number of stitches).

Preparatory row: divide stitches to 4 needles (2+2+2+3), mark beginning of round if you want (yarn tail will be hanging out of disappearing loop so maybe you can orient by this alone). You will now be working in the round, always with right side work facing you. Try to pull the tail to make sure it can be tightened.

1^st row:  knit 2+knit 2+ knit2 and knit 3

2^nd row: kfb all but the last 2 stitches, just knit them (there should be 4 stitches on each of 4 dpns)

3^rd row: knit

4^th row: kfb all stitches (doubling the stitches, there should be 8 stitches on each needle which equals 2 “slices” of 4 stitches each - from this point onward if you think in terms of “slices” it will be easier for you to visualize where to increase and decrease)

5^th row: knit

6^th row: *kfb, knit 2, kfb* two times per needle (2 slices of 6 stitches each or 12 stitches total per needle)

7^th  row: knit

8^th row: knit

9^th row: *kfb, knit 4, kfb* two times per needle (2 slices of 8 stitches each or 16 stitches total per needle)

10^th row: knit

11^th row: knit

12^th row: widening for “chest” and “back” of the toy will make Om Nom more balanced when sewing on feet so counting from the beginning of the round on 1^st and 3^rd needle kfb seventh and ninth stitch (total 18 stitches), knit all stitches on 2^nd and 4^th needle (stays 16 stitches)

13^th row: knit

14^th row: counting from the beginning of the round on 1^st and 3^rd needle kfb seventh and eleventh stitch (total 20 stitches), knit all stitches on 2^nd and 4^th needle (stays 16 stitches)

17^th to 34^th row: knit

35^th row: counting from the beginning of the round on 1^st and 3^rd needle decrease ssk 7^th and 8^th stitch and k2tog stitch 12 and 13 (total 18 stitches), knit all stitches on 2^nd and 4^th needle (stays 16 stitches)

36^th row: knit

37^th row: knit

38^th row: counting from the beginning of the round on 1^st and 3^rd needle decrease ssk  7^th and 8^th stitch and k2tog stitch 10 and 11 (total 16 stitches), knit all stitches on 2^nd and 4^th needle (stays 16 stitches)

39^th row: knit

40^th row: knit

41^st row: decrease at the ends of “slices” so *ssk, knit 4, k2tog* 2 times per needle (slices of 6 stitches or total 12 per needle)

42th row: knit

43th row: *ssk, knit 2, k2tog* 2 times per needle (slices of 4 stitches or total of 8 per needle)

44^th row: knit - here is when you fill the body with pillow filling. Fill quite packed as you will work few more rows afterward to close out the body so there will be enough filling for whole body.

45^th row: *ssk, k2tog* 2 times per needle (total 4 stitches per needle)

46^th row: *ssk, k2tog* once per needle (as there are no more stitches left and with this decrease it leaves 2 stitches on each of four needles)

47^th row: k2tog each needle stitches, collecting them to one needle only (4 stitches total)

48^th to 52^nd row: knit 5 rows of i-cord with remaining 4 stitches

53^rd row: kfb all stitches, dividing them to 4 needles (2 stitches on each needle)

54^th row: knit

55^th row: kfb all stitches (4 stitches on each needle)

56^th to 60^th row: knit

61^st row: *ssk, k2tog* all around (2 stitches on each needle)

62^nd row: knit

Fill the small tentacle on Om Nom’s head and cut approx. 20 cm tail of yarn. Darn needle with the end of yarn and pull it through all remaining stitches, closing it like the disappearing ring in the beginning (cast on). Weave the end firmly and invisibly into the tentacle.

LEGS (make 4)

Cast on 8 stitches using Judy’s Magic Cast On - 4 stitches on each needle, like you are casting on for a sock.

Knit one row.

In second row increase kfb on beginning and end of each needle (6 stitches per needle, 12 total)

Knit one row.

Increase kfb on beginning and end of each needle (8 stitches per needle, 16 total).

Knit around dividing stitches on 4 needles, 4 stitches each, mark beginning of round if needed.

Knit 4 more rounds.

Cast off not too loosely, cut approx. 20 cm tail. 

FELT PARTS

Cut out eye whites and 4 teeth from light felt.

Cut out thin line for the mouth from black felt.

So, now you have all your parts for making Om Nom...

... and when you arrange them like this you can almost see how he will look like.

FINAL ASSEMBLY

Make sure to position body correctly in regards with supposed “chest” and “back” (increases and decreases on 1^st and 3^rd needle) before you begin attaching feet. Using the tail from cast off attach feet to the body, filling it with polyester fiber when you come to last 3-4 stitches and close all holes and weave in ends neatly.  

Using black cotton thread sew shank buttons to the light felt making the pupils for the eyes.

Using light cotton thread sew eyes to the body.

With black thread sew mouth to make Om Nom smile.

With light thread sew teeth below the black line of mouth spacing them evenly apart so he looks cute and hungry.

Weave any remaining ends and go fetch him some candy. All done. 

You can even take him to work with you to show off :)

What's Cookin'?

It's a Saturday morning on an actual Friday and I'm up and about for three hours already and I'm happy and content at this moment and I'm actively trying to savour and prolong this moment so I'm writing a post about it.

Last few weeks have been tough. I do not feel like talking about it since I feel that the story is not mine only to share but the thing involves my (direct) family and is a source of constant pain and dissapointment. And I cannot speak about it.

So I thought to share how I've been dealing with it.

I bought myself a wonderful toy: Kenwood FPM 270. Somebody may think that this has something to do with music, as name Kenwood would suggest, but this is even better for a woman of many appetites like me.

This appliance is a food processor with all the beauty of audio componenets Japanese Corporation with which it shares the name makes. I saved money for it and have been keeping an eye on it for a year and finaly I chose to buy it now. My interest first was piqued by this application having a grain mill and I wanted this because special flours in Croatia are expensive as gold. Like buckwheat flour; 1 kg buckwheat costs 2,5 $ and 1 kg buckwheat flour is 7 $. For rice price for 1 kg can be as low as 1 $, but 1 kg of rice flour is almost 10 $. Urad or chickpea flour is unavailable alltogether in Croatian market and there are wonderful things to be made from it.

So this appliance makes posible many other DIY things for me. And it also grates, slices, mixes, liquifies, presses citrus fruit, makes nut butters, pates and doughs and its centrifugal juicer makes the most of any fruit and vegetable in terms of wonderful fresh juice and pressed pulp for cooking. It is very robust and everything is detachable so it can be thoroughly cleaned.

And I am very pleased with things I can do with it: two mid-sized carrots and two small apples yield one full glass (2 dcl) of juice!

I was shocked how much pure juice there is in them and I can also turn pulp into delicious cake sasoned with cinnamon, clover and nutmeg.

This is 3:7 buckwheat to wheat flour bread (with some flax and sunflower sees kneaded in). Smells so wonderful I think this is the best baked good smell I ever experienced and my daughter liked it so much she even asked me to pack her a slice for snack at school three days this week.

This morning I thought to grate some fresh carrot and beets and leave them to marinate for lunch salad. It took 5 minutes to clean the veggies and 30 seconds to grate them in FPM:

And while doing this I realised I could go for a glass of fresh beet-carrot-apple juice and I'm sipping on it now.

In this moment life is beautiful.

65daysofstatic and sleepmakeswaves @ Mocvara 11Oct2013

I rarely come late to a gig but I also rarely check the itinerary for the gig.

I find that “door at 20:00, support at 21:00 and headliner at 22:30” often boils down to “door at 20:00 and after that you’re in the club, conversing, buying drinks and having a generally good time so why would you need to know when particular part of gig starts!?”.

I checked the itinerary of this gig and subsequently I was late. I was not pleased with myself.

But I was very pleased with beautiful, crystalline sound in Mochvara set for sleepmakeswaves. It was beautiful right as I entered through the door and it was equally great wherever I went through the crowd. They have this exquisite melodic guitar unhindered with effect and its sound was meandering around people inside nicely packed Mochvara hall. I thoroughly enjoyed all the songs played live there and I enjoy listening to them at home so go check their bandcamp page and have a taste test - maybe you will like them too, because - let’s face it! - who wouldn’t love the band that presents itself with a sentence “we write love songs about delay pedals” ;-)

Sleepmakeswaves climbed off stage and went to merch stand in the vestibule* and looking so up close I’ve noticed that apart from awkwardly standoffish manner Alex Wilson is really an extremely attractive guy. I lingered a bit while sipping on my cold beverage, mostly lost in a daydream, and then went off to check how the stage is coming along.

Stage master for this occasion was Frank Forman and I thought this a good sign as Mr. Forman is guitar specialist so this could mean that upcoming 65dos show will not be so electronically based as last show in Zagreb was, or so I was told. Since I also prefer their more post-rockish sound to their tranc-y electronic one noticing this was a great joy.

And when the show started this joy was multiplied countless times.

Sound was really, really excellent, they were in good spirits and the audience was mellow, good willed and up for some dancing. And I danced too.

Frank played a song with 65s and I clapped happily when he was thanked and introduced until my hands went numb. I liked that.

When I particularly enjoy a gig I just surf on a wave of happiness, completely forgetting which songs I heard and how long does it last and I’m not thirsty or tired and don’t have to pee and this wonderful, warm, cottony happiness completely hides me from reality. There’s just me and the music. Dancing. 

That is how it was.

I’m gonna do it again.



*this strikes me as definitely the best word for Mochvara bar area so I’m using it. Deal with it.

Portman, Elephant Stalker and Hesperian Death Horse at KSET 03Oct2013

On Thursday October 3^rd evening I went to KSET to hear Portman promote their new album The Man Who Carries a Light.

As I walked through the door Elephant Stalker started to play.

They are magnificent and I love them to bits.

I first listened to them in Spunk with Rens Argoa and Moraines on 15Jun2013 and I remember being rendered speechless all through their act. I also remember asking Rens Argoa guys how is it possible that we have such treasure within our grasp and that they are still not widely acknowledged and all of us sighing and exchanging familiar glances of complete non-surpriseness.

We are acutely aware of where are we living at, it seems.

And yet, such magnificence exists here to regale us.

Elephant Stalker were great this night also.

As KSET was nicely packed from the very start I chose to watch them from gallery. The sound was excellent and they were in good spirits, frontman jovially spoke to the audience:

“And now we will play one of our songs, from EP available on bandcamp. Whoever knows the words can freely sing with us.*”

There were also some jesters in the audience as I clearly heard someone sing “Na na Naa Na” during one catchy passage.

After a quick breather, Hesperian Death Horse were next.

I did not like this. I did not like this one bit.

I do not know what actually happened but there was a problem with the sound. Quite opposite from Elephant Stalker, sound for HDH was terrible to say the least. It was too loud and it was tuned so just bass sounds were prominent and the rest of sound landscape was muffled nearly into non-existance. It was so unpleasantly loud that I could feel my innards trembling with the bass. I was also surprised by the selection of tastes Elephant Stalker - Hesperian Death Horse - Portman as HDH sounded like something from completely different music book. It was pretty cold evening so I didn’t feel like standing outside but I got as much away as I could, right by the checking room, and it was still too loud and muffled.

When they finished I talked to acquaintance a bit and I shared my concern:

“As I did not listen to them before I’m not sure if this is what they are supposed to sound like but I think this visceral unpleasantness would be really a cheap trick for someone in this musical genre. “

But he chose to answer with sarcasm and condescension on top of blatant disregard of objective parameters and, I shit you not, with:

"I may not know anything about art but I know what I like."**

... so I think this acquaintance phase can only go downhill from here. Sometimes human relations are so simple and easily predictable.

To top this off after I got home I did listen to Hesperian Death Horse album on bandcamp and it seems to me that this was not a cheap trick but sound-setting error as they actually sound great on the album, with varied and bright musical picture and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the album, with no unpleasantness of any kind.

When Portman went on stage sound was again excellent (re-set maybe?) and the frontman was just like I remembered him from Maybeshewill concert in Attack! plus a beard. I frequently remember subtle details about a person’s gait and “feel” they leave on people and pervasive quality (“aura”) they carry with them and I remember this particular mixture of standoffishness and penetration like most particular bouquet, intoxicating and wonderful in its essence, if somewhat somber in nature.

 They played excellently and I have already at that time listened to their release about a dozen times (even if it was only released that same morning) and I was sad I had to leave for home after just three songs but my kid had "Bread Day" celebration tomorrow morning and she remembered to tell me she needs freshly baked goods just as I was leaving for concert. So I went home and baked, pleased with the results of both the gig and baking session.

* Them being instrumental band makes this comment funny
** saying atributed to Orson Welles, btw

The Yawns at Tvornica 27Sep2013

I went to see The Yawns play at Tvornica last Friday.

Day was long and preceding week positively terrible and I was just in the mood for some fresh indie and a tiny bit of socializing and this evening was just a perfect score.

Afternoon was coldish and it rained so evening did not feel promising for a bike ride. Around half past nine I sat in my car and picked up a friend and we drove to town, chatting away. Streets were empty and we found a parking spot fast and we came to Tvornica to find it nearly empty. I had a tiny bit of fun joking with the bouncer and inside there were few girls and barmaids and we got a drink while more people gathered. It was a busy evening with two more gigs that I know of and a club called Klub opening night. Overlaps of gigs that count on the same audience are so funny in a town this small. Few more of our music friends joined so we made more scene jokes and sipped our drinks.

At one moment small group of people passed by us and went on stage. I did my homework and listened to their materials before I went to see them and I found them interesting and very listenable so maybe you too should give them a go and check out their bandcamp page. My favorite is I Win.

Most noticeable thing seeing them live was their age. They seem so very, very young. But they come across as very nice, civilized folk and their frontman talked quite a bit and regaled us with his directness and unpretetiousness.

He introduced the band, told us they have come from Scotland and thanked the hosts for wonderful meal and he continued to amble and speak of personal details in between songs and to introduce every song to us with a few words:

"This one is called: I believe in UFOs. You know, the flying saucers"

There were so few of us in the audience, maybe 20 together with Mali Pogon personnel, but it felt nice and heartfelt from both sides, both to listen and to perform, it seemed. I was thinking about how funny this is, how much of attention and grandeour does the band naming themselves "The Yawns" would actually expect.

"This one, color, I don't know what do you call it in Croatian, like that [shows something by first guitarist] - that color! Brown. That is my favorite color."

They have loveliest, most beautiful bass player I ever saw live. Wonderful color and grace, sparkle in her eyes and real proficiency in playing.

And they have played all the songs they had. All. And it was over.

Small group of people went over to them and asked them for merch and talked with them for a while and it was so great to see this; fans so overwhelmed with joy they can converse with the band and band so overwhelmed with joy to be loved and sought in some distant spot of the planet far away from home.

And then they packed their stuff in under ten minutes, I swear.

I never saw enything being done so efficiently. One moment everything was there and in the next stage was a blank canvas.

We lingered contently a bit over our drinks and then went into the night.

Lose Yourself To Dance

Waaay back in May Random Access Memories by Daft Punk was released and I fell in love with it first time I heard it.

It made me hum, it made me listen, it made me angry.

Everything I ever want from a stimuli; to engage me.

When RAM was just a seven day baby Dean Kotiga wrote a great review on Kultivator covering all the things music geek would ever want to know about this album. I still read a paragraph or two of this awesome article now and then to remind myself of something or just to enjoy concise beauty of it and ginormous discrepancy between simplicity of expression and thousands of hours spent in making all this knowledge accessible and well presented.

Few weeks later I decided to lose myself to dance (i.e. take dancing lessons).

Dance is not something I felt proficient in and it never brought me any joy before taking this course. As I was quite depressed and fully in joy-free mode at that time I reckoned I’ll give this a go as an aerobic activity since exercise is scientifically proven depression treatment. I am aware of dancing being prelude to procreation and its value for social interaction including limbic resonance but I just chose to consider this functions as far second to actual movement in rhythm with the music. I never gave much thought to considering dancing a dyadic social activity and have always thought about it in terms of knowledge and steps - proficiency in narrow meaning of the term. But as it happens this was a gross mistake on my part. This dancing lessons were such a great choice and Martina and Mislav from Jungle dance school are such great teachers because they teach most important thing of all - dancing is NOT just knowledge and steps.

As it could have been expected I had no trouble whatsoever in remembering the steps. Interacting and dyad-ness were completely different story.

Very idea of having to touch another person of male persuasion and to coordinate - let me rephrase that - “to let him coordinate” OUR movements through space in time with the music was so overwhelming for me I spent all my mental fortitude on smiling (as scientifically proven mood and image management) and I must have told a million and ten jokes in that 12 hours of lessons (as I diffuse tension with humor, apparently).

Somewhere in second half of lessons there was a bit of skirmish.

We had to change partners for every dance and I liked some partners less than others. As it happens to me more often than not, extroverted talkative ones I find most… unlikeable.

So we danced. It was cha-cha-cha (my second favorite), 360°turn and Manhattan roll-out figure. While doing that figure you momentarily let go of your partner so lady can do a 360° turn and then both do a sequence of steps and half steps in one direction and then other while taking care to stay close enough and hold and let go hands in sequence so that whole thing is nicely coordinated and social. So we did the cha cha part and then I rotated and he did not (over)reach for my hand and I did not extend it. We just continued with the steps as if we were dancing separately.

After the whole figure (steps only) he said, in a tutoring voice of someone who thinks he has shown me wrongness of my ways:

“You see how this looks if you don’t give me your hand?”

And I said, flat out, surprising myself almost as much as I surprised him:

“Yeah, I do. It looks just like any other dance before now in my entire life.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean just that. Looks like I’m dancing alone. Just like I danced alone every time I danced up until now.”

That blank stare of utmost lack of understanding that only the chasm between introvert and extravert can cause. He got angry, turned red and clammed up. I was so shaken up I lied that I feel overheated and I went to the toilet and cried. I cried because I want to learn how to dance and because “to dance” means “to voluntarily let go of my solitude for the duration of the song”. The expression for this predicament in Croatian goes: “Nemreš bit’ jeben i pošten” and in English I “can’t have my cake and eat it too”.

So I dried my tears and went back to class.

Mistaken for Strangers

I could never, ever, be mistaken for The National fan.

It's not that I don't like their music or that I find their congregation funny, it is just that they don't do anything for me, they do not move me.

Or at least they didn't until last Thursday.
   
On Thursday (19Sep2013) evening I went with some friends to opening screening of Mistaken for Strangers in Kaptol Centar Zagreb. Movie hall was nicely filled and had an unseemly event, like bombing or fire, happened, Zagreb would have lost almost all of indie-hipster opinion makers. We waved and greeted people around us entering the hall and I smirked a bit and said we should do a muster call to see if anyone's playing hooky. When I sat down a friend leaned down to me and asked:

"Why is hipster sad?"

"Dunno. Why?"

"'cause he heard his band on the radio."

And as we laughed the room got dark and the movie started.

Original movie poster

Right from the start I felt that I'm right where I should be. I may not be The National fan but I'm person enamored with music related documentaries and well made films built on disarming psychological premises and this film is clearly both of those things and displays all its glory right from the very first scene.

 "Don't you have any kind of system or organization for the things you'd like to ask?" 
[Matt to Tom in one of the scenes from his dissorganized interviews]

 The axis of this movie, principal structure around which everything here revolves is Tom Berninger, the guy that spent a year on tour with his brother's band (as movie tagline deftly spells). Tom Berninger is pudgy, naive, seemingly easygoing yet troubled and at the same time extremely gifted individual. Incidentally, he is also the younger brother of Matt Berninger, The National frontman.

By the course of either fine dramatization or simple truth of events Tom Berninger goes on tour as a roadie with The National as a pity or support gesture from his brother - depending on how you look at it. Motivation behind Matt's act remains his own throughout the movie, but this does not diminish the grandeur and beauty this course of events brings.

"I had no idea you were never in Europe!"

[Matt to Tom while flying from USA to Europe]

Movie tells a tiny bit of story about Matt Berninger and The National, about how frustrating and humble their beginnings were and how big they have grown from then to now and this leaves me quite unimpressed as it also left Tom. 

I was never that kind of fan who makes subject of her adoration into an object. I never forget that there are personal lives behind that people up there on stage and I see their crumpled up clothes and bags under their eyes when they are on the road. I notice that overrehearsed boredom and meet with respect both the surprise with unexpected well reception from the audience and watery glazing over of the eyes looking somewhere deep inside his own head where someone close is talking to him from afar.  So in this respect my experience is akin to Tom's. We both see the musicians for ordinary humans and we're too close to the topic to be impressed. But in everything else, hearing Matt talk is just like hearing my own inner voice; civilised yet annoyed and short-fused, focused on the task at hand and intent on having no idling in between two successes. And what makes us most annoyed of all is not being able to transfer that skill (modus operandi, really) to ones we feel closest to us, to ones we believe would benefit the most of it.

So Tom's trouble and lack of focus moves me on a personal level like daily life does - but this feeling comes out of a sequence of scenes and motifs that Tom had put together, while making his movie.

It is a wonderous paradox.

Beauty of seeing someone understand for the very first time. Magnificence of growth.

Tom: “It’s like they think the only reason I’m here is because I’m your brother!” 
Matt: “The only reason you’re here is that you are my brother.”

There is a slew of scenes depicting Tom as a quitter, failure, misfit, inadequate and a great bunch of people that love him and believe that there is value and ability behind his facade of leisureness. It slowly dawns on us, the viewers, that the only thing he truly lacks is not the talent or ability or persistence - it is confidence. But confidence stems from success and feeling of self-worth from feedback of being good at something. 

Like being good in making a movie and people liking that movie you made.

I may not be The National fan but I'm sure as hell Matt's fan after seing this film. Because the greatest gift one can give to another is an opportunity to be a success.

Walnut-Cinnamon Buns

I'm just sickly methodical person. Let me illustrate:

Since my daughter is in third grade this year and there is no afternoon programme in school few weeks ago I started to prepare for cooking in the morning, before work, to leave her with freshly cooked lunch. Last year she had lunch in school so I only cooked dinner after I got home and I didn't worry much about what kind of food I cook in terms of practicality and re-heating because I was there to help her with serving and it was freshly cooked but now I have to leave her with a lunch that would look and taste well in four hours time and one that she can easily serve and eat without assistance.*


Yesterday she told me a little story.

She likes to have mid-morning snack and I usually make her a small sandwich to take to school. Yesterday T (my daughter) said that her friend also had sandwich during break and that she asked her, while they were munching on their sandwiches, what will she be having as her "nice lunch".

Friend responded that she will have another sandwich.

"What do you mean, "another sandwich"?! I asked." T told in her story:"My mum left a nice lunch for me to have when I return from school, before doing my homework." 

I have no idea where she got this "nice lunch" expression as it certainly wasn't from me but it felt like a ginormous compliment. Especially after just one week of me cooking her school lunches "for realzies".

It felt so great a compliment I decided to bake a fun cake for breakfast and snacks. It took just a few moments to come up with this adjustment of Chelsea Buns recipe I found in The Ultimate Book of Diabetic Cooking (bought this for ideas for entertaining friends and family members with diabetes).

Walnut-Cinnamon Buns

Dough:
300 grams flour (150 g graham + 150 g plain)
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp dried (instant) yeast
180 ml warm milk
30 g butter 
1 egg

Measure and assemble all dry ingredients in a bowl and mix together. Warm up milk with butter so it is hand-hot and butter nearly melts.  Pour milk and butter into dry ingredients and stir it with a fork, check the temperature and mix in the egg and then turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead it for 10 or so minutes until it forms soft, elastic dough that doesn't stick to surface or your fingers. You can flour surface or your hands additionally but bear in mind that the dough should stay quite soft and that graham flour will use more moisture from the dough than regular flour would while rising.

When you're done kneading roll the dough on lightly floured surface to about 1 cm thickness.

Filling:
2 tbsp olive oil
3 -5 tbsp ground walnuts
2 tbsp sugar (or mixture 1 tbsp sugar and 1 tbsp vanilla sugar)
1 tsp cinnamon

Brush dough with olive oil, sprinkle ground walnuts, sugar and cinamon over, leaving 2 cm empty border on one edge. Starting with covered edge, roll the dough to finish at empty edge. Cut the roll into 12 slices and arrange them in lightly oiled tin, cut side up. Leave in a warm spot to rise for an hour, until almost doubled in size.

Heat the oven to 200°C (without fan) or 180°C if you plan to use oven fan and put the tin in  when fully heated. Bake for  approx 15 minutes, until fragrant and golden all over.

Turn off the heat and take out the tin. Pour 1 dcl milk over the rolls using spoon so everything is covered and cover the tin with aluminum foil (or another tin, if you have it, to keep the steam inside) for 15 minutes.

Enjoy your hot walnut-cinnamon bun or leave it to cool so it is only warm. Baked like this rolls can stay out of fridge for a day, no more, or you can keep them in a closed container in the fridge for 3-4 days. Warm up cold/refrigerated buns before eating them, to at least room temperature.

.
*And I think I'm doing a great job after a few weeks practice if you don't mind me saying so! You can check my progress on twitter (my handle is @derzafanistori) as I usually tweet my lunch idea for the day. And all this without being late for work! :D