The seasons, they are a turnin'.

It’s been pretty undeniable that spring has been coming, and as daffodils are now about, they trumpet it’s arrival like tiny yellow heralds. During the week I spent a lot of one particularly sunny day at work thinking how much better it would be if I could just be at home, hanging out washing and enjoying the actual nice weather by being in the garden rather than waiting for whatever dubious weather was being forecast for the weekend at the time. 

A few weekends a go I managed to make a start on the border in the back garden, a full wheelie bin and a whole heap of scratches later and I’d cleared about half of it, and discovered two rose bushes (one had a tag still attached so I know what to expect) and some daffodils ready to flower. I’ve also had a man in to drastically cut back the giant buddleia that have been over shadowing the entire garden (and the bloody things keep popping up all over the place).  

Yeah, that fence needs repainting.

A couple of weeks later, and importantly a green bin collection later, and I’ve managed to finish clearing the massive tangle of bramble and honeysuckle that was growing. Another surprise rosebush was hiding underneath, and even better, an apple tree! Not the biggest tree, but hopefully if I can keep the climbers under control it’ll have a bit more room to grow and produce more than the single apple that I found rotting underneath it.

An actual apple tree was completely covered in honeysuckle and brambles.

Next step is to buy some border edging and a giant bag of topsoil, and I’ll be a happy bunny. The lawn needs a mow and some holes need seeding as it has gone a bit bare where it didn’t get a lot of sun light, but it’s all feeling manageable again, which it didn’t during the week.

For Christmas I got the Otter Farm “The New Kitchen Garden” book, and although I’d had a look through at the different plants I hadn’t read the introduction. Mark Diacono, the author, talks about making your garden work for you, to grow things that actually get you excited, that you want to eat, and only require the time you have spare to give them. I’d been feeling a bit down before I read it, but afterwards I felt better about the garden. I’ve decided to grow some weird and wonderfuls this year, I may still grow carrots (although rainbow ones, obviously) and peas, but I don’t need to grow these as they also come from shops, and I'm not aiming for self sufficiency . Odd squashes, tomatillos, and unusual herbs don’t come from the shops how ever, and they’ll have a space in the veg beds. Also going a bit out there and trying melons. Not really what you expect to find in the fens, and maybe they won’t work, but then what if they do… ?

Not much now, but will soon be brimming with more small black trays.

I also received at Christmas what the box describes as a “pop up cloche” but when I set it up this morning it’s a mini green house (I knew it was 1mx1m when I asked for it, but the size is still surprising). And now it’s got a handful of seed trays in it, a few herbs and veg that I had seeds for from last year, and flowers I never even opened as I did nothing with the garden last year. My plan to have a D&D garden may not be realised, I have some Black Knights and Goblins but other than Snap dragons I’m running out of suitably named plants, but I will have plenty of flowers for the butterflies now I’ve put a serious dent in the buddleias.

Yellow!

 

New year, old me

New year, when there are loads of articles about how to make a shiny new you for the next 12 months. But I don't want a shiny new me, I want the old me back. This time last year I was in hospital, after a serious belly ache and a trip to A&E I was eventually diagnosed with appendicitis. "You'll be out tomorrow, we do these all the time" the surgical consult said. Little did she know that the offending vestigial organ was totally gross and going to perforate. This ended up with a nearly week long hospital stay, two weeks signed off sick at home and a year I feel didn't go to plan. We'd bought a house autumn 2015 and I was looking forward to finally have a garden where stuff didn't just blow away, that could actually be sat in, and where plants might survive. The problem with appendicitis is that to get it out you have to go through a lot of muscle which is also in a really difficult place to heal, so although I tried to do garden stuff, it was very tiring and/or painful.

So for a whole year I didn't eat anything I'd grown (except a couple of berries from the blackberry hedge I never got around to cutting back). My poor garden was more or less ignored, after having cleared loads of weeds I didn’t have the energy to keep on top of it. Luckily I’d put black sheeting down on the worst part, but bindweed finds away.  I didn’t brew anything, had no fruit bobbing around in jars of alcohol, bake, or even looked after my little house plants that well.

These are the saddest chillis.

This was really brought home to me when I was cleaning the kitchen after Christmas. I'd brought some flour to make mince pies with (but never got around to it) so was going to put it in the storage container when I discovered some of my flours had flour mites in them! I had to bin four different flours. I’d been thinking about making a summer berry wine using frozen fruits after finding them in the shop, luckily I checked what brewing stuff I had before starting because all my yeasts, nutrients and other stuff was out of date. It took a really long time to find my hydrometer as well before start because it was still in a random box in the shed. For over a year.

Lots of tiny yeast farts.

 So that's why this year I want to go back to the me before. The brewer, the baker, yes, even the candlestick maker. I know I need to be better at getting off my arse and actually do things. I’ve got a self imposed knitting ban for the weekends, it’s so easy to sit and knit and do nothing else, so now it’s an evening only activity. I’m hoping that’ll allow me to do some of the hobbies I’ve put to one side. Already I’ve tried to do more this year, I did start my wine eventually, and started growing some mushrooms a friend gave me for Christmas. I even got one of my spindles out again which felt good (but trying to spin and watch a tv show that has subtitles really doesn’t work).

Mushroom. Mushroom.

And I’m hoping to keep up with this again, share progress on the garden and other projects.

Lots of little bits.

Recently, and for some time in the future, I've been making things for mostly small people. Now this has been quite fun, planning things for people not yet here (not mine, this is not my way of announcing anything) and trying to make something a bit more unique and special than something just bought off the shelf.

For the baby my friend is expecting I've made a baby bag. It's kind of become a bit of a thing for me to make these; this will be the third. When I made the first one nearly three years ago whenever I explained what I was making people were always like "a bag you put a baby in?" But I believe recently they've become more popular as it's like a sleeping bag so babies can't kick it off and get cold. I've also found that self striping sock yarn is really good for these too, the first one I made was plain, but this latest one is very bright. The twisted rib cuff is really effective too, maybe it's lost a bit in the multi colours, but its very simple to do and looks a bit like cabling.

Fancy twisted rib.

For my birthday in July my husband bought be a book of crochet animals, I'd been a fan of the menagerie since I saw them at an NEC event and they had a very cute bunny called Emma (and as Coke can testify, giving things names is a very good marketing tool). I had bought a PDF with some of the animals, but the book has more patterns and better instructions for the different fur stitches. They're such lovely toys I had no problems making one for my friend's little boy's first birthday. The wool I used was free from a friend clearing out her stash when she moved; it's grey flecked with green and pink which gives it a much more lifelike quality. I made an elephant because out of the more basic patterns (I'm not as confident with crochet as I am knitting, and I really like the book is set out in levels of difficulty) it seemed to have a lot of character. Since the intended received it and I put some pictures on instagram a cousin has expressed an interest in receiving one for the baby he and his wife are expecting.

Really pleased with the tail.

 And so, I've had a quick break to make something for me. A year ago I was planning to make a hat and bought some lovely llama wool. I decided that the wool was too variegated in colour for the hat and chose something else, but this wool was going to be something beautiful. Luckily my wool shop keeps it in stock so I was able to get a second ball. On Ravelry I have a whole list of things I'd love to make, and this particular pattern had been in that list for a while, since I saw Michaela Strachen wearing something similar on autumn watch last year, and decided this would be the perfect pairing. Casting on is fairly straightforward, but it took me three goes to join all the stitches without it being twisted and becoming like a Möbius strip, and every time I had to start again I was putting on more and more stitches, until the final time I had 300 and managed to get it joined without twisting (I know, I could just have undone some but then I didn't think it would have been as loopy as I wanted it).

The pattern is a really simple but effective repeat, using yarn overs to create the eyelets. Because I had two balls of wool I alternated which one I used over every couple of rows so that any colour changes between them would be evened out, but I possibly didn't need to as the changes in each ball over the whole round were amazing. Due to casting on a few more stitches than originally called for I did run out of wool a bit earlier, cutting a repeat short and eventually having to sub in a dark, not so lovely, yarn for the final bit of finishing off, but I don't think its noticeable.

Trying not to make duckface.

The binding off row is quite a bit tighter than the other rows, but I think this gives it structure and holds it all together; if it was as loose as the rest it might just be a bit much. As it is I can still wrap it around my head three times if I want to, but I'll probably just do it twice most of the time (trying to get the third wrap off my head was difficult, trying to find the last loop and it kept getting stuck on my ear stud). I really enjoyed this project, it was quite quick and easy to do watching the TV and I think it might make a really good present for my mum if I find the right wool. Also, I think doing it in something lighter, like a cotton, might make a really good spring/summer scarf (I'm going to end up with a selection of these, I can see it now).

...A Woolly jumper!

OK, bit of a gap between posts, but it took longer to finish the jumper than expected and then it's all been a bit busy. But it is finally done!

Not your run of the mill jumper.

In my last post I mentioned that I needed to check the sizing because I might not have made the right one, well, turns out I was making a size too small. First lesson kids: always measure yourself before picking a size to make. Real rookie mistake. But how to fix this? My idea was just to make two panels and sew them in under the arms, but after talking to someone at work, they suggested picking the stitches up one edge then working the same number of rows as stitches I was missing. This then meant I only had to sew one seam per side rather than two. And it worked. Really well in fact. The change in stitch direction also makes it look deliberate rather then just trying to cover up the mistake.

It was meant to look like this...honest.

Rookie mistake number two was not double checking which sides I was sewing when putting it together so I managed to sew one side up with the right side of one piece and wrong side of the other both on the same side *slaps forehead* Putting the arms in was really simple too, just a case of picking up stitches, the correct number for the size I should have been making with the added panel I put in, and knitting. I was worried when I was doing it the sleeves may have been a bit long (being short sleeves sometimes are a bit long), but they've come out as great little cap sleeves, more or less.

Teeny-tiny sleeves.

Once the two front pieces and back were attached, and arms put in, I could work on the hood. Really straightforward, just knitting straight rows to make what seems like a massive 80s collar before it's seamed across the top. When I reached the point that the pattern said to seam it just didn't seem big enough... so I did a few more rows. I now have a giant hood. It definitely covers my head, which I think is the basic purpose of a hood, even if it does restrict my vision a bit.

Last step was just the ribbed button band that runs all the way from the bottom of one side, around the hood and down the otherside. Took a bit of fiddling about, I didn't want to buy a massive cable I wasn't likely to use again, and although Knit Pro (the make of needles I use) make a small part to connect two shorter cables, neither of my local yarn shops stock it. So it was a case of knitting along one then unscrewing the needles, putting ends on, attaching the needles to another wire and then starting along that cable. I had a bit of trouble picking up the 150-odd stitches I had to in order to do this, I kept over and under picking, but a friend's mum told me when she has to pick up a lot of stitches, she divides it into manageable chunks and works out how many she needs in each block. Shame I'd already moved on when she told me about this.

It's macro time!

The button holes were simple bind-off/cast-on type, but I think I need to work on them, or pick a different cast-on because they're a little loose. The buttons were a bit of a find in the local everything shop, I wanted wooden ones, and these have purple that is a really good match for my wool.

Just so happy to have finished it.

And voila, one jumper. I've worn it a couple of times, its really handy to have in the car, if it looks a bit grey and miserable before work I can wear it in and it squishes small enough to get in my bag if the weather picks up.

What do you get if you cross a sheep and a kangeroo?

So, I'm sitting here, new tablet on my lap, the sun is shining, birds singing, glass of elderflower cordial on the table, and upstairs I have parts of a cardigan blocking in the spare room.

Ignore the hats, they're not part of this.

Why do I have a jumper on the go in June? Because I'm an idiot, I'm easily distracted or disheartened, and I just haven't pulled my finger out. I remember about this time last week saying "oh, I've got the three main parts done, I could be finished by next weekend". The plan was to block Monday or Tuesday, then take it in the car with me when I went out with a friend because she wanted to drive. I could have knitted the hood or something. Except I didn't do the blocking. But at least its done now. The problems I've had with this jumper have been there from the start.

Its my own fault, I needed a weird jumper. I get hot very easily, so even in winter I'll be running around in little tops, making old women feel cold and getting told I must be freezing. But sometimes its just nice to have something to throw on that won't be stifling, and a few years ago I found a great, short sleeved cardigan. The only problem is that it only does up at the top, and it flares out at the bottom and my belly gets cold. So I found a short sleeved cardigan that does up all the way down. I bought wool, great, its chunky so should knit up quickly. And then the problems really started. Following the instructions for casting on, the ribbing around the bottom, I had the set up for the cabeling. It just wouldn't add up. I thought I'd miscounted, maybe my maths were wrong, but no, I just couldn't get it to come out right.

So I went back to Ravelry and someone had mentioned the errata. Ta da, turns out it wasn't me, the pattern was incorrect. So since I got the corrections I have been plodding along, losing track of which line I'm on in the chart because it's been too long between picking up sticks, but finally I'm on the home straight.

But then I thought that last weekend. I've still got to check the sizing is ok (I'm worried I've made a size too small and I'm going to have to knit some sort of infill for under the arms to let it go around me, I know, rookie mistake), and then it's the hood, the arms, and the ribbed strip that goes from one bottom front, up around the hood and then down the other side. Nothing much then I guess. But thats the problem with big projects, and this is my first really big project, there's no win. I had to make this little guy the other weekend just to feel the satisfaction of completing something.

A one inch Godzilla. With wings.

And the weather has changed, I no longer need my jumper, I want to make some socks, try new techniques. I want to start a giant snood (although I want that for Autumn) and to start making baby things for a friend due in December. And theres other hobbies I want to do, like my wine making, and soon it'll be good for making jam. I guess I can't do everything, although by writing this I feel motivated to get it done, so (and I'm sure I'm jinxing myself) by next weekend it might be finished.

Emma's homemade, not shit, toad-in-the-hole.

Last week, whilst driving into work and trying to avoid the awful “call or delete” Radio 1 insist on playing every Wednesday, I tuned into Radio 2. Chris Evans had proclaimed it National Toad-in-the-Hole Day and had a range of TV chefs on the phone to tell everyone how to make it great. I don’t know who the first one on the line was, but he was called Mark. Mark proceeded to tell us how you can’t get the batter to rise as you would with a Yorkshire pud because there was no hot fat. He then carried on describing the process, seeming to do it mostly in a frying pan, chopping up the sausages and adding thyme to the batter, which, horror of horrors, he’d made with water!

Then came Tom Kerridge, not a chef I’ve watched but my dad (ex-head chef) seemed to like his roast potatoes, so I don’t think he can be all bad. He didn’t seem to like the idea of water in batter either but he started by telling everyone to make the batter the day before to rest it, and (making the whole enterprise pointless) cooking batter and sausage separately. That’s not a toad-in-the-hole, that’s a sausage with a Yorkshire pud.

Last came James Martin. “Here we go,” I thought, “a bit of sense, none of this ‘chopping sausages up’ nonsense, this will be good.” The first words out of his mouth were “weigh out 400g of flour…”

I turned him off. You don’t need to weigh for the batter, it’s done by volume. So, since no one seems to know how to make a decent one, I give you Emma’s Homemade, not shit, Toad-in-a-hole.

Emma’s Homemade, not shit, Toad-in-a-hole (for 2)

Two eggs

Plain flour

Milk

Sage (or any other herbs, fresh or dried)

Sausages

When Tom Kerridge said make the batter and give it time to rest, I think he was right. When he said it needed to be left overnight I think he may have been overdoing it. I make my batter first and it then has the time it takes to sort the sausages out. The best batter is done by volume, you don’t need a set of scales, a measuring jug will do (or even a mug, but a measuring jug has marks on it to make this easier). First, break your eggs into whatever you're measuring your ingredients with. Note the volume and then put into another bowl. Measure out your milk to the same point and then pour into the eggs. Then the same with the flour. It is a bit more difficult with the flour, I spoon it into the jug and shake to level out the flour. This can then join the milk and eggs. The reason I do the eggs first is because eggs are a fixed volume of fluid: you could measure 100ml of milk, but you may have to use a bit of an egg to get the same volume and that could be wasteful.

Eggs

Milk

Flour

Give the batter a good whisk (remember to get into the corners to get all the flour) and add some herbs. I used a small handful of fresh chopped sage out of the garden because I’m lucky enough to have it. The Mark guy from the radio show used thyme, but I don’t think it’s got a strong enough flavour which is why I picked sage.  I don’t think the herb choice really matters  too much; if you were having lamb sausages you could stick mint in the batter, or put in a mix if you have a variety of dried herbs in the cupboard, and if you don’t just add some salt and pepper (do this anyway, in fact, herbs or not).

I have a magic whisk.

Sage. It smells like sausages.

Put the batter to one side. Turn on the oven (I have mine about 180C fan) and get out the pan you plan to use. I choose quite a large one to give all the sausages room to cook and get the batter around them. Splash a bit of sunflower/vegetable oil in the bottom of the dish and add the sausages. Prick the sausages to let out fat so they don’t explode. Stick in the oven. By the way, I'm cooking six sausages, but two were used the next day for sandwiches.

This is the time to prep potatoes for mash, and veg, so that when the sausages are ready for batter, I can put the potatoes on to cook too.

Lots of fat. Take that, "Mark".

After 15/20 minutes, the sausages should be brown on top. Work quickly, turn the sausages over and pour the batter around them (maybe give it a quick whisk to make sure you’ve got no lumps).  After another 15/20 minutes you should have a batter that’s cooked and risen around the edges, giving everyone a bit of crunch and a bit of soft, like a Yorkshire pudding cross-section.

Having been waiting all week to have the time to make this, I may have gone a bit over board when dishing up, and made it a bit more special with mushroom and onion gravy (fry mushrooms and onions in a pan and add your normal amount of gravy granules mixed in double the amount of water when cooked. It will thicken up.)

So there you go. TV Chefs take note.

In my last post I talked about how bummed out I’d been and feeling like the world was piling on top of me. Well, the knitting project I wanted to do is finished (and I even made gloves to match the hat), the plants I wanted to move are all in pots (although a tornado seems to have gone through the garden and my gooseberry bush has disappeared). I’m even looking forward having (drunkenly) ordered some seeds and started off some more wine.  It’s been a very productive month.

RaaRaa likes his hat.