68 posts tagged “101 in 1001”
Well this Easter Weekend we did a lot of relaxing and nowhere near as much gardening as I had hoped. The weather was mostly grey and changeable and just didn’t inspire us to be outside very much.
We took some green waste to the recycling centre, visited a garden centre and did a little planting out but I did not manage to take the compost heap apart and finish building the raised bed.
We went to the garden centre to get some more herbs for J to put in the front garden. We replaced the thyme, tarragon and fennel and I got some more garden mint which I planted in a huge pot by the front door.
I also got some flowers to plant out which is rare for me (I tend to prefer vegetables) – a Night Scented Phlox and something called "The Love Plant" both of which are very pretty and should be flowering well into Summer.
Unfortunately J discovered he had missed the boat on planting potatoes which should have been done much earlier in the season but instead he has decided to plant them in August so that we can be eating potatoes come Christmas Day. This will also give me more space for vegetables which will have been dug up by August getting two crops out of the same bed. Next year we really must get ourselves more organised earlier in the year for potatoes!
I got several more recipes made from Nigella Lawson over the course of the weekend since we were doing a bit of entertaining:
The Mexican Flan – very nice, like a crème caramel but much faster and less hassle to make. Even J liked it and normally he doesn’t like creamy things.
Sweetcorn Chowder – very quick to make and everyone who had it during the gaming session said it was good.
Deep fried squid rings – I splashed out and bought some fresh squid from Abel & Cole to make Nigella’s deep friend squid rings with garlic mayo. The recipe was very good and I was surprised at how well the squid came out with its semolina coating. The meal was really rich though and despite having it with some steamed purple sprouting broccoli neither of us could finished it. In fact I packed up probably another portion of the squid rings with some tzatziki and a salad for my lunch on Tuesday.
J also made quail boiled in a lemon sauce with mashed potato one night and that was also fabulous. The quail had a lovely flavour but it was so fiddly to eat I am not entirely convinced it was worth it.
I have finally finished the Austrian Socks. These are some amazing heavily cabled socks from Favourite Socks which my sister said she really like when she flicked through the book. I have been working on them for her birthday but they have taken me a very long time. I think that it is because they have such a complex pattern that I needed to take the book with me everywhere or knit them at home and they isn't the most convenient type of knitting. There was also an embarrassing ripping back incident when I thought that I had memorised the pattern and was very very wrong about that.
This will tick off part of my challenge to knit every sock in Favourite Socks no. 4 and to give my sister 3 pairs of knitted socks no 69 from 101 things. I really hope she likes them as I chose a delicate pink and green yarn that I thought she would like.
The yarn is Easyknitter's bfl in the Blossom colourway I think and as always was a dream to knit with.
I have just finished challenge 67 of my 101 things in 1001 days. This challenge was to knit a garment for a child.
I found that a local friend was having a baby boy and so I set my mind to work thinking about knitting a garment for a baby. I decided on the following list of attributes:
1. Must be easily washable (I figure a new mum probably has plenty to do without handwashing fine cashmere)
2. Must not be acrylic (apparently acrylic can melt onto skin whereas wool is fire retardant so I want to use a safer option)
3. Must be easy to put on (don’t want the young mum to be wrestling with the baby for 30 mins trying to squeeze it into a tube)
4. Must be size adjustable (need to get the maximum shelf life out of the clothes despite baby growth spurts).
5. Must be knit from stash (I have plenty of yarn and should be able to find something nice without spending more money)
So
I decided to use superwash bfl wool from Knitwitches as my yarn (I
was told that the Mum would like blue for a boy) and had a very
pretty blue called Sea Holly in my stash. The yarn is super soft so
perfect for delicate baby skin (lets just hope it isn’t
allergic to wool) and I knitted a gauge swatch and washed it on a 40
degree wash just to test it. The gauge swatch came out perfectly –
no shrinkage and it might have even been softer than before which was
great.
Proof of Swatch!
I then cast on for Clementine’s Baby Kimono. I chose this pattern because it was a tie on baby jacket so now struggling to pull a jumper over their head and no danger of buttons coming off and being swallowed as the ties as made with ribbon. Secondly because of the kimono style and the fact it was knitted in ribbing means it will be stretchy and adjustable in size as the baby grows.
I knitted it on size 4.5mm harmony circular needles.
I really enjoyed knitting this, it was fast and simple and the knitwitches yarn was gorgeously soft. There was something very cute about seeing the little jacket emerge in miniature. If I made any mistakes it was probably not converting the pattern to the round. Although knitting the jacket was fast, sewing it up took FOREVER and I had forgotten how boring sewing up can be. Not least because I had to sew 4 ribbons on to it to tie it up. Being thrifty I had sourced all the ribbons for free from various places and was lucky to have great matching colours with the yarn for the jacket.
I was sensible enough to remember to block it before sewing it up but even this didn’t make me enjoy the sewing up.
The other slightly annoying aspect was steam ironing out the ribbing to create the length of the jacket. I only hope that when the mum washes it that it doesn’t completely spring back otherwise it will become an annoying cropped kimono which will not look so good. I am crossing my fingers it will work out ok (which lets face it is a doomed sign in knitting – but it is too late to back out now).
Here is the finished item and I am really pleased with the way it looks.
I had a fair amount of yarn leftover at the point (but not enough for a pair of adult socks) and so I decided to whip up a quick baby beanie by doubling the yarn. I found a very simple pattern on Ravelry and finished it off in one evening leaving only the tiniest amount of yarn left to sew up the jacket.
This weekend I have done two things out of the norm for me. Firstly I should say I am not a great shoe shopper. I dislike it intensely. As a women who hates heels I find it incredibly hard to buy work shoes which I can bear to walk in but do not look too casual for work - if truth be told I probably skate that line pretty finely.
Secondly I have large calves (relevant for boot buying here) as product of having a bike and pair of legs as my primary modes of transport for about 10 years. So can I get a pair of nice knee high boots which are flat. Well not unless I buy DMs which frankly I don't do since they moved their operation to China as the quality has plummeted beyond that I can bear (and beyond that which the very high price tag is worth). Also DMs don't count as work smart for my job.
My next problem is that I generally don't "like" the look of *smart* shoes. I wouldn't choose to wear them out and generally tend to sling my chucks in my rucksack and change out of the smart shoes the first chance I get.
So Saturday was amazingly surprising in two ways. Firstly I bought a pair of smart knee high boots that fit and that I can wear to work. They were even in the sale (which is never heard of for someone with size 6 feet). They are not DMs but I don't hate them and did I mention that they fit my calves. Then I bought a pair of shoes on impulse. I am pretty shocked at myself to be honest. But when I examine it more closely I have to admit it wasn't really impulse. I do like Mary Jane Shoes (especially the DM ones even given my previous rant). I have been taking opinions from a lot of people for some time as to whether they think the DM style of Mary Jane would be ok for work and I had considered they looked very cute.
Well Clarks had the nicest looking Mary Janes and they were all soft and cushioned when I put them on. Then I realised that they showed off my handknitted socks to perfection. Well I just bought them, right then. I am wearing them now in fact and can honestly say that I don't mind wearing these work shoes outside work. In fact I really like them.
And here they are...
I don't intend to wear my handknit socks with them unless I am in non-work clothes as I think that this is probably a step too far. Black socks will be more acceptable in the smart dept. Wish me luck with them though.
(Buying the boots also ticked off another 101 in 1001 days.)
It is well known that J and I love food, and consider it something of a hobby. Food seems to have been more of a feature in our lives than usual recently (in a good way) and I thought I probably ought to record that fact.
Firstly we went out for a special
birthday meal on 2nd February to celebrate J's birthday. I booked a
table at Indigo on Aldwych, a short walk from the theatre where we were
going to see Avenue Q and we had a very good (and fairly expensive) 3
course meal.
First course was scallops with crispy pork belly on a sweetcorn puree, the scallops were a little bitter but this was more than made up for by the perfectly cooked piece of pork belly which was fabulous in everyway. The puree was a bit of a non-event. Second course for me was amazingly good. It was duck breast with caramelised cauliflower, new potatoes and picked blackberries. It was a perfect combination of sweet and sharp and of course those two flavours go brilliantly with duck. (J had bream with a lightly curried moule veloute and something potato-like) For pudding J had an apple tart and I had pineapple poached in coriander with tapioca and shards of peppermint flavoured sugar. J's pudding was nice - mine was a bit of an experiment gone wrong. The pineapple was ok but not amazing, the tapioca…welll I have never eaten it before and I probably wouldn't bother eating it again and the shards of sugary stuff tasted like humbugs or everton mints which was a bit retro but not in a good way. Fresh mint with pineapple - yes... melted humbugs with pineapple - no.
Then it was J's birthday party and I took the opportunity to reprise my maple syrup baked ribs and drumsticks from the year before - they always come out perfectly and taste great. But I also decided to make something new in the form of cocktail sausages baked in a mixture of soy sauce, sesame oil and honey. Both sets of nibbles were really good and were devoured really quickly (which was very satisfying). I managed to get free range chicken drumsticks but couldn't source free range ribs or cocktail sausages so next time I make this I will try harder to get some more sustainable pork products. The sausage recipe also came from Nigella Lawson so I am one recipe closer to cooking the whole of her Express book for my 101 in 1001 challenge.
I am now up to 83 out of 130 and have two more scheduled to make this week. No birthday is complete without a cake and I made 2, one lot of banana bread (which J doesn't like) to use up some very ripe bananas and a pineapple upside down cake (J's favourite). I used John Barrowman's banana bread recipe with only 2 bananas not 4 and one extra egg. It was actually amazing. Probably the best banana bread I have ever had, it was moist but very very light and I had 2 slices for breakfast the next day. The pineapple upside down cake was touch and go (our oven appears to have started cooking unevenly - very annoying) but looked fine when I flipped it over and tasted perfectly good. In celebration of the special day I used some more of my (rare and magical) edible glitter to turn the whole cake into a giant sparkly affair. Everyone commented on the sparkly cake and I was really pleased with it. Someone even took a photo where you can see some of the glittery bits.
In fact you can also see the edge of the banana bread at the very back of the photograph.
I only want to use the glitter on special occasions because there isn't a lot of it but I am so keen to bake with it again. I might make a simnel cake for Easter this year and use the pale green glitter as I reckon pale green glitter on yellow marzipan would look very springlike.
On the morning of J's birthday his Dad and Step-Mom had got him a bottle of nice champagne some good chocolate and a jar of really good looking pate. J and I do love pate and I am really looking forward to eating it.
Lastly we finally ate our first meat from the stash of game in our freezer. When we ordered our Christmas Goose from Heal Farm we decided that to save on transport costs etc we should order a few other bits and pieces as well. We ended up with 2 pheasant, a partridge, 4 quails, 1 rabbit and 2 pigeons which we have been treasuring ever since. Sunday night J cooked half of our wild rabbit portion using an Antonio Carluccio recipe. He put the rabbit pieces in a big pot with onions, peppers, sliced potatoes and lots of wine and rosemary and simmered it for a fairly long time in the oven. The flavour of the rabbit came out really well and I was lucky enough to get a chunk of rabbit liver in my portion (I love liver and the rabbit liver was a bit over done in terms of texture but had a fabulous flavour). I think I would have preferred the potatoes to brown a little more as I like my potatoes quite crispy but the flavour was excellent. I am looking forward to working out what to cook next.
Tomorrow is the day when the Mystic Star KAL finally starts. To honour the situation I have made myself a new knitting bag. I like to have a little knitting bag about the size of a washbag to carry around a small project into stop the yarn getting tangled in my bag and to ensure my drink doesn't spill on it etc. For about 2 years I have been using an old drawstring washbag but it is now falling apart (not surprising as I use it every day) and so for this new project I decided a new bag was in order.
Since no 38 of my 101 challenges was to make three bags from my stash fabric I really had to make it myself. Also from Christmas I was giving (in my stocking) a little iron on transfer of a Chinese Dragon which I thought would make a neat decoration. I had also considered using one of the gorgeous little vintage buttons I posted about yesterday but I decided in the end it would probably come off because the sock knitting bag gets very well used. This project was my first sewing project in a while but also the first sewing project where I got to use some of the techniques I recently picked up on french seams and bag construction. Although I didn't use french seams in the end I did use the same method of reinforcing corners because it is the corners which went first on my last sock bag (and needles and stitch markers love to slip out of corners.)
So I ran up a little drawstring bag this morning and threaded a bit of old ribbon through the top (I keep pretty much every scrap of ribbon I have even been giving in the hope that one day they will become useful and I was correct in this case). The ribbon is a lovely bright bit of orange ribbon which came wrapped around a blanket my Mum bought for me. I always feel good if I can do a bit of re-purposing when I am sewing these bits.
So here it is christened the Dragon Sock Sack despite the fact that the first project it will be used for is in fact the mystic star lace shawl. I hope that this serves me well!
I has been a bit of a crafty job day today since I not only ran up the little bag (and completed task 38 on the list) but am also taking up two pairs of J's trousers (he has an unusual body shape and off the peg trousers don't fit him very well) and also wound up 3 more balls of sock yarn so that it is ready to go as soon as I finish a project (I hate finishing a project without my next ball of yarn already wound up).
I did quite a lot of things this weekend however I feel very chilled out as thought I spent the whole time relaxing. Since one of my goals for this year to become more chilled out and stress less (especially about the little things) I am hoping that this is a good start.
Firstly we had friends round on Friday
night to watch North by Northwest. I have never seen this before and
it was a good uncomplicated film to watch whilst knitting. I was more
than a little surprised at the amazing sexism in the film (although it
was old so I should have expected it) and how similar it was in many
way to the 39 steps. I do believe that Spooks has spoiled me for spy
drama though.
We woke up on Saturday to find it had snowed...
This is a pretty rare occurrence where J and I live in the South so I enjoy it whenever I get the chance.
Saturday was role playing and I managed to finish the socks for B in the game and then give them straight to her. She seemed really pleased with them and was kind enough to model them for me so that I could blog about it…
Saturday evening I went out for a late night walk with some friends to Runnymede. Once or twice a month I go out into nature with a few friends usually in the evenings and it is really a very interesting experience. Last night a heavy mist was lying all over the area and it was about -3. The ground was frozen solid as were the stream and lakes and a heavy carpet of frost lay all over the ground. But it was also once of the brightest full moons I have seen in ages. The silver light from the moon bounced off the frost and the mist really transforming the landscape into something otherworldly and it was a really moving experience. It was more special because you had to be there, no camera could capture it because without a flash it would have been a little too dark to pick up the detail and with a flash you would have spoiled the effect of the moonlight on the frost and the mist. The tree were all bare and shed pretty moonshadows on the meadow. It was the sort of experience it is all too easy to miss as who is out walking in -3 on a late Saturday night in January but it was spectacular.
Sunday was a day of rest - enforced rest since it became apparent that J was not well and getting worse. I racked my mead into a new demi john, the process seemed to go well, I managed to siphon it off without too much mess although sterilising the equipment took the back off my throat again. It is now bubbling very enthusiastically and will be doing so for about another 2 - 4 months which makes me think that I ought to be starting some wine or another batch of mead in the next couple of weekends to keep it rolling over. I must remember to buy a second airlock for the demi johns and some rubber bungs for the tops. I might go for some raspberry wine since it would use up the surplus in the freezer - I will have to have a little look online to see if I can find any good looking recipes.
Sometimes I really wish the community I live in had more of a barter economy. Swapping skills etc as the LETS project enables. I think that it can both foster community spirit better than almost anything and allow for us all to live better more enriched lives at a lower cost. For example it is easy (ish) for me to make my own jam, so I often make more than J and I can eat so I pass a jar to my parents who then give us some of their extra eggs that their chickens lay.
This is something that I would like to try and do more of and I will be looking into joining the Staines LETS scheme at some point. For now though I am trying to encourage it in my circle of friends. Offering homecooked meals to my non-cooking friends in lieu of other favours and most recently promising a pair of handknitted socks to a friend who came round to spend a day decorating with us and really helping us out of the pre-christmas decorating push.
I cunningly sourced her favourite colours as green and pink and since she is a bit more girly than me chose a pretty ankle sock with a lacy cuff and picot edge.
I am nearly 3/4 of the way through the pair and they are looking good.
Challenge 101 in 1001. Number 40, making mead.
It probably seems odd to people that I like to make alcohol, being as I am a complete non-drinker. I think I enjoy the science, the process and the sense of creation when I get it right and there are plenty of people around me who will a) drink it and b) test drive it to ensure it is ok. I suppose I also see is as a part and parcel of the life of a person who cooks, makes jam and chutney, grows vegetables and hopefully, will one day, raise animals for the table.
A year ago I decided to try and make mead. If it goes well I foresee myself making a lot of it as it is popular amongst many of my friends and often difficult to obtain and/or expensive. I am vaguely aware that one can buy it cheapish at Morrisons but in trying to live a more mindful life I would rather give money to the small beekeepers and do the job myself. I probably have enough demi johns to make 10 litres at a time (including enough for racking off) although this first outing is for 5 litres only as a test run.
I found this recipe online which looked pretty reliable and my rudimentary wine making experience tells me that it at least isn't total rubbish. If the basic recipe works out then I will be experimenting with some of the other ideas on the same website for blackcurrent mead, gooseberry mead (both of which we can grow in the garden) and nutmeg mead which sounds amazing. The complete list of links is here.
I start making it today as it seemed appropraite that one of the last things I do this year is start the process but the sterilisation process was horrible. I made up a mixture of sodium metabisulphate with a tsp of citric acid dissolved in it and swirled it around all my containers and implements. Both containers said "do not inhale" on them and now I know why. My nose and lungs have been thoroughly sterilised and are still irritated even now. I certainly don't remember having this much trouble with sterilisation the last time I made alcohol (which was about 5 years ago - the lethal apple wine). It is done now though and I know to wear a mask next time.
I was talking to my Dad about making alcohol the other day. He was explaining how he made buckets of home brew back in the 70s because wine was incredibly expensive and they just couldn't afford it. I remember those days very well we had lots of weeks out in the countryside gathering blackberries, dandelions, elderflowers, elderberries, apples and all sorts of things for free. I remember sitting in the bathroom just so I could watch the bubbles in the airlock and I remember learning about wine flies and siphoning. I made my first alcohol when I was 16 back when I used to drink. It was very bad beer which had so much yeast sediment in you could chew it but it was cheap and definitely alcoholic. My friends and I once even made a keg for a party which ended up being pretty drinkable, that was a real triumph. What is surprising to me is that the sort of wine my Dad was making out of the free foods in the hedgerows is now expensive English fruit wine which sells for £10 a bottle in tourist shops in Devon when normal wine is now really cheap.
Anyway, at the moment the yeast is bubbling in the corner and the honey must (mixture of water, 1.5 kg of honey, citric acid and yeast nutrient) is cooling to 37 degrees so that I can add the honey must and pop it in a demi john for a couple of weeks. There is one more thing to confess on this blog post and that is to say that Dad is having a great time keeping chickens, such a great time he is thinking of getting bees in a year or two and the average bee hive can produce 30 pounds of honey a year. I intend to be prepared to help him out with processing the excess if it comes to it.
I it works out I will have to raise a toast to Odin to thank him for stealing the mead of poetic inspiration back in the beginning.
For reasons best known to me and J we often start major decorating projects just before Christmas; but... only on those years where we are hosting the family for Christmas dinner.
So for the last month J and I have been having building work done, various plastering and a fire place ripped out, a bathroom tiled and new shower and toilet fitted and then we have stripped and repainted 3 rooms including the living room and dining room (fairly essential for Christmas dinner). I have been pinging off the walls in terror that it would not get done in time, and it has been tight, J is finishing painting the final room on Christmas Eve. But thanks to some immensely helpful friends and family the bulk of it is done and the Christmas decorations are up.
I am going to gloss over the final details of the decorating but lets just say that things went much much faster after my parent arrived and informed me that although it was laudable that I was diligently scrubbing all the old wallpaper paste off the walls it was entirely unnecessary. You know they were right as I cannot tell the difference now there are 2 layers of paint on the walls.
Given the period of incredible stress getting the room sorted I am now insanely happy with it. The colour is gorgeous, very warm and bright (just how we like it). Most importantly though J had an inspiration. We have two rooms which are connection with a big open archway almost the width of the smaller room. The larger of the two rooms had previously been our living room and the smaller one our dining room but the layout was flawed because there was a lot of wasted space in the "living room" and the dining room was very cramped (you could hardly get people round the table. The upshot of this was that we rarely used the table except to pile junk on it. Around about the time we started to plan the improvements J suggested we make the small room our living room (it did accommodate our sofa but without an inch to spare!) and turn the bigger room into the dining room. At first I was a little unsure but very willing to give it ago. Now we have lived with it in the new style for about 1 week and I don't think we have ever used the table as much. Now it is easy to get to we are constantly using it and I tend to use it in preference to slumping on the sofa. The sofa room feels snug and very comfortable as well. All in all a great decision.
B took some photos of the rooms to
showcase our giant Christmas among other things but you will get a
sense of the colour if nothing else here.
So this is another challenge ticked off my list of 101 things and this was a good challenge in that it took many hours of very hard work (which drove me close to the edge of sanity) to a deadline but that now almost all of it is done and over I am enjoying the results hugely and will continue to do so for sometime.
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