Garden tea

After picking the garden produce it was time to make it into tea. I decided upon roast vegetables with cheese and chilli lentil loaf followed by stewed apples and custard. I couldn't find the recipe book for the lentil loaf so had to do it from memory. It turned out surprisingly well. I think I might put some cheese on the top for it to brown in the oven next time for pureley aesthetic reasons as it actually tasted really nice. I'd like to say that the custard was made with free range eggs, fair trade sugar  and organic cream, but it's good old Bird's powdered custard. I love real egg custard but I just didn't have the time (or energy) to make it, and I like Bird's custard.

Late autumn garden

Late Saturday afternoon I needed a break from the relentless packing and slipped out to the garden with a cup of tea to my favourite bench. The weather was perfect with the sun still warm and casting long shadows. I love this time of year with the autumn colours and the garden still full of flower and fruit, but beginning to close down for winter. I know that soon I'll have more time for snuggling in a cosy room and doing some sewing/crochet/knitting (and everything else) when the garden has been put to bed. My favourite spot is here....

I realised that this might be the last time EVER for quiet enjoyment in this garden so grabbed my camera and snapped away, at the same time trying to pick some fruit and veg for tea. So much for quiet contemplation! Follow me for a quick tour of the vegetable and herb gardens.....

Nana's knitting

After writing my last post I've been thinking about my Nana. She is no longer with us but rummaging through her knitting needles brought to mind the last item I can remember her knitting......the essential tea time favourite, the tea cosy. I'm not sure if it should be 'Cosy' or 'Cozy'. I'm going to go with 'Cosy'. 

Now, Nana only made one sort of tea cosy and made it so many times she didn't need to use a pattern. I can only remember her making it in the same colour as well. It was always a willow green and lemon to match the kitchen. In her memory, I decided to make one too. I found the pattern in a brilliant tea cosy book "Tea Cozies" by Virginia Brehaut. As you can see from the cover picture, I was drawn to this book! I've actually made a couple of the patterns from the book, but the one below is my rather feeble (but well used) homage to Nana. I had to rescue it from a packed box to take it's photo, and then I couldn't find a teapot to model it on. Sigh.....packing is not at all fun. I'm quite determined to make a new one, but it won't be for a while because the book is packed as well. Doh.

I had to close this post with this fabulous retro teapot cosy found at Grandma Dorothy's. It was made for a gi-normous tea pot which is has been redistributed within the family ready to come out for the appropriate (large) family gathering and has now been reunited with it's own very special cosy. I would love to make this. 

Fish and Chip Babies

Most days I find the necessary 9-5 gets in the way of the fun things in life. At the moment though we are spending an inordinate amount of time discussing casting on and 2x2 rib. It's marvelous. The reason for this is one of the work fund raising/community initiatives this year is to knit jumpers and hats for babies in Africa for the  "Fish and Chip Babies" scheme. You can find more about it and the pattern here, but is essentially knitting clothes for new born babies in Africa who's mothers are so poor that the babies come out of hospital wrapped in newspaper, hence fish and chip babies. When this was announced, my first thought was how we all take for granted that our newborn babies have everything they need and a lot of things they don't, and that it seems inconceivable that there are babies being born in the world that don't even have anything to keep them warm. My second thought was a much more banal "Oh no, I've packed all my knitting needles". I had intended that crochet would keep me sane over the next few months until I could unpack my sewing room, so I was knitting needle-less. Then, I had a light bulb moment. I was pretty sure I hadn't packed my Nana's needles and after a bit of rummaging in a partially packed box I found them. Hoorah! They are not really my cup of tea because they are mostly plastic needles - they were the new invention 30-40 odd years ago, and my Nana loved them. I much prefer bamboo needles both for crochet and knitting. Anyway, I was able to find 7 and half (!) pairs of 4mm needles (or old size 8), and a few balls of colourful acrylic yarn - of course there is never a shortage of left over yarn at my house even in these desperate packing times. So, I printed off a several patterns and persuaded 5 colleagues to have a go. Most had not knitted since being at school, but I cast on and gave a few quick reminder session and they were off.......this is how far we got last week, except for Maria who hadn't brought her's in. Mine is the bumble bee effort - it will make my son smile because he is a Hull City supporter and they are the Tigers, which is pretty much the reason for me having these colours in my knitting wool box.

The funny thing about my knitting wool box is that it is actually a leather foot stool. It's huge and it went this weekend to our temporary accommodation which is a little flat above some shops. Anyway, the footstool is really quite heavy and awkward to carry and I was saying "It's only got a bit of wool in it, and a couple of magazines........." until it was dropped after a bit of a struggle at the bottom of the stairs and I was rumbled. It's got lot's of wool in it, about 10 magazines and a few books. Oops.

Scrubby shower mitt.......or the rough with the smooth

Another xmas present. This time it's for one of the lads. I figured that tea light holders would not necessarily be their thing. So plan B is for some shower accoutrements (I had to check how to spell that one because the spell checker doesn't think it is spelled properly - anyway, I meant accessories). I decided to try and make a sort of bath mitt with different textures on each side so that one side would give a good scrubbing, ok.....exfoliation, and the other side would polish or smooth their cares away....... See what you think.

Please understand that we dont' normally (or ever) shower outside at any time of year, it was just better light for photo's! To make the scrubby, I adapted the facecloth pattern from the Crochet Home magazine, making the facecloth with a slightly textured 2dc miss a dc (repeated). Then I made a second facecloth with a twisted treble pattern. This makes a bumpy raised pattern ideal for exfoliating. I then joined the two pieces together with a double crochet seam and then made a rib along the bottom. The final step was to join the side and end seams. The yarn used is a cotton/acrylic blend, but it's lovely and soft and as you can see has it's Sirdar 'Simply Recycled' aran weight. I've yet to see how it performs when wet!

This is how it looked before finishing the seams.

Crochet and baking

Well, another week has gone by and we have more boxes filled for moving day. Doing some crochet in the evening helps me to unwind. I think it's the rhythm of forming the stitches and counting as I'm going along. I find myself counting..... 1, 2, 3, 4.....1, 2,.......1 2 3 4.....1, 2. It sounds a bit mental but it works for me.  I've been working on a gift for the new owners of our house. It may not be to their taste, but it sort of feels a bit symbolic to give them something made in our home for their new home. I decided to make a tea light and vase set. It sound's a bit grand, but it is just a few jam jars covered with some crochet. I made them as a present before and they went down so well that this is a repeat performance, which of course makes it a lot easier to do. I used some lambswool in a natural/light brown colour which was left over from a jumper I made a few years ago. Waste not want not and all that! It actually is perfect for the job because it has a chunky rustic look to it. As mentioned before, I've been using a pattern from a magazine I bought in the summer - 'Your Crochet Home'. It does need to be adapted to fit your jam jars, though. At the risk of appearing a lady of leisure and not in the middle of a frantic packing period, I spent a happy half hour in the garden in the sun  taking photo's as I went along. Here's how I do it........

For this example I used small pesto jars. The first step is to make the base starting with a slip loop with 6 dc for the first row, 12 on the next, 18 on the next and so-on.

 Check that the base will fit the jam jar.

The next stage is to double crochet into the back of each stitch without increasing. This makes a little ridge which squares off the base ready for the cover to grow up the jar.

Then I did a row of trebles and this helps to firmly seat the jar inside the cover and hide the tea light candle. The pesto jars have bulbous bit at the bottom, so after the row of trebles I did a row of double crochet and decreased a few stitches along the row so that the cover would fit snugly.

Now the lacy pattern starts. This particular pattern is just 5 chains, miss 3 double crochet, slip stitch into the next dc then 5 chains. This is continued all the way round. When the round is completed, slip stitch to the centre of the 5 chain loop and then complete the next round with 5 chains, and slip stitch into the centre chain of the previous row 5 chain. 

The next step is a bit more tricky because the crochet cover is now a bit of a sloppy joe and we want it to be stretched out and snug to the rim of the jar. To do this I just had 2 chains and a slip stitch to the top of each 5 chain loop. This made it really quite tight and hard to slip onto the jar, particularly as this jar narrows towards the rim. In reality, this took a bit of trial and error, and you don't have to be afraid of undoing and altering a row when necessary. Now to finish off the rim which of course meant wriggling it off again to do a row of double crochet, then trebles and then a final row of double crochet. I didn't have time to finish it in the afternoon sun so the rest is sitting in front of the telly in the evening.

The Hoorah moment........

The funny bit about the garden tutorial was that I was photo bombed by the cat...... and what was even worse was that he was doing a mouse massacre! You can probably see a coating of feather's on the lawn. We are pretty sure it was not an exploding pigeon, but you can't be sure....

Quick pic of Sunday tea cake

Oooh.... I nearly forgot. I'm pretty sure that none of the children will have read this far, so here is a sneak peak of the santa special for this year. 

Just keep packing.....

just keep packing, packing, packing. I feel like Dory from Finding Nemo and am singing along as I'm packing. There's sooooo much to pack, although I had a little baking interlude as Sunday is family tea day and the tradition is to get the team together for a light bite and a chat. Today I made a victoria sponge and some sourdough cheese scones. Since I have a self imposed embargo on baking sourdough bread during the packing period, I need to keep the sourdough 'starter' alive so I've been using it for scones and pancakes. I'm missing the bread baking though. I know it sounds a bit soppy, but my little spell of baking soothed my brain from the rising packing panic. It must be something to do with the routine and normality of measuring out the ingredients, mixing the cake and watching it rise in the oven, and just making something comforting and lovely for the family to share.

Yes, I know the scones look a bit wholesome. They are made with spelt and barley flour with most of the bran sieved out, so are actually not as wholesome as they could be. They taste nice anyway as I've already done a taste test. Baker's privilege and all that! The cake is also made from spelt (again, with some bran sieved out) - it's stealth tactics to make sure the team get some goodness with the badness.

Yarn shopping

I couldn't resist a visit to the nearest wool shop when we had an almost spontaneous stay in Buxton this weekend. We needed a break after a rather hectic holiday at home which included a daughter’s wedding, a kitchen fire (don't ask), and house move preparations. Anyway, the shop is Sew-In of Buxton and though small, has a marvelous selection of yarns. I spent forever in there dilly dallying while my exceedingly patient man pottered off around the shops and then settled down in a coffee shop to wait for me. I was looking for some DK cotton and drooled a bit over the Rowan Softknit cotton, but I really couldn’t justify the cost for the current Santa Special and plumped for some craft cotton and Sirdar Simply Recycled instead. This was rather handily on offer and although it is a cotton/acrylic mix it has exactly the soft unglazed look and feel that I was looking for.

Sew-In of Buxton

I would recommend a visit to Buxton if you have not been before. It is like a mini Bath with lots of Georgian architecture. We stayed at the Palace Hotel which has a charming air of faded grandeur. There are so many things to see; the opera house, the Pavilion Gardens, the Crescent (a semi circular set of buildings like the Grand Crescent in Bath, though not quite so big), and even the Derby University 'Devonshire Dome'. This is a huge and grand domed entrance hall which was built by the Duke of Devonshire of the time for his stables! We haven't seen all the delights Buxton has to to offer yet, which of course give's a reason to go again!