It's official: I'm IN PRINT!

TA DAH!!!!!Oh my dears it's been an incredible week and I have been skipping around the house for joy and daydreaming and simply NOT getting on with the '' jobs that need doing''!
Here is my pattern!!! The very simple but effective phone cosy in Issue 5 of Inside Crochet.
Haven't they made it look good?! I still prefer the variegated interpretation but this does kinda look classy.
My issue came yesterday as I 'd taken out a sub at Aly Paly but I hadn't expected it until Monday. There's LOTS of lovely patterns too: the mukluks for example BUT I have a MOUNTAIN of crocheting still to do/ on hand already!!! Currently: a cowl, baby bootees for a friend and a scarf ( for me? possibly- in more Ba TAT and in amaaaazing colours that make it PURE JOY to stitch with.

Then there's 3-4 jumpers and cardigans that I either have the idea and the yarn for OR have already started!!!!( oops remember the raspberry chocolate brownie cardigan for my daughter???)

EEEEK and there's stitching on my beloved PFAFF to be done too, been'' constructing fabrics '' today: 4 hours of it and it FLEW by. Bonding and weaving mostly but now those 3 samples need a bit of STITCH.

Before I dash off back to those- urgent- baby bootees: let me tell you about a few links:

You simply MUST look at the crochet portraits by JO HAMILTON!!!

SEE here.

And for a fun project: visit the Royal Sisters on the OZZIE blog and do the twinkly granny star tutorial!!! HERE.

For both of these I have to say thanks to Lucy at Attic 24- see sidebar for link- as she posted the links on her blog late last night.

TONS of lovely INSPIRATION.

Got to go now, hope to show you these bootees tomorrow: they're for a baby boy.

Less than 14 days COUNTDOWN

Hiya how are y'all? Had my day in Windsor today so did lots of machine stitching but no crochet.
It's was wonderful even including the- I'm so terrified I shake all the way there- drive there, but nothing to show and tell with you just yet.
13 Days today or 2 weeks from YESTERDAY - depends how you look at it-my patterns will be in the published issue of Inside Crochet!!! It's getting terribly terribly exciting! There was a thread on Ravelry about it and a preview is imminent so I dare show just a few pictures..
Teen shawl they call it, but it's just a little scarf really, Miss E absolutely LOVES it and wears it to school most days. Mine is made in a super soft but affordable hand-dyed sockwool called: BA T'AT : this is the colourway: BUDS OF SPRING and it takes just one skein, available from Create! See tab of blogs on the right side bar below- and NO!!!! I'm not getting any remuneration from any of this free advertising or promotion.... The fringe is another sockwool: A Norwegian one from the Black Hills shop in Henley.

For the magazine I had to remake it in BFL from the hand dye-ing chap in London, Easy Knits.

The fringe is in the bamboo mix which was lovely to work with: sooo soft! ( pricey though)

My other pattern is a phone cosy, which again I had made for Miss E ; so she can cycle about with her friends and keep her mobile phone handy. ( round her neck under a sweatshirt)

This one in Rowan Summer Tweed was for the magazine. AAAh no not for my preteen as she hates pink!

This one below is my preferred version: in a variegated thick cotton from Schoeller and Stahl.

The Knitting Hut in Woburn Sands do something very similar from Katia I think.

Which reminds me: remember that pom pom scarf in turquoise and grey ''AZTECA'' yarn?

Here it was, well The Knitting Hut now import this LOVELY brand called KATIA and they HAVE lots of AZTECA in stock in many amazing colourways so you can make the same scarf now....Well in another colour , because the grey/Turg is no longer available....

Ta dah?!!! What do you think?

Christmas Pudding next steps

Today was the day for steaming these puddings as above. As I got rather busy on Sunday with all the gown making I forgot to buy the required orange and ended up raiding an ''open late'' shop for a single orange at 8pm!!! Hence by the time the juice and zest were added I let it all soak for another night.

Then after a trip to the dentist with Miss E, I got all the remaining ingredients ready and mixed them well, you need a really LARGE bowl for this, not the medium one used to soak the fruit.

Also once I remembered the orange I also acquired the (dreaded) white bread and took out 6 slices to dry out a bit before processing. Miss Y is over the moon to be allowed a slice of white bread today as this is a banned substance in our house.....

They dried out overnight.

From left clockwise: brown sugar,breadcrumbs,suet with flour,2 beated eggs in a mug and an apple about to be peeled and grated.

In a larger bowl, well mixed it looks like this! And then transferred to the 2 pudding basins:

The small one's kept for any special event, New Year's Eve, a visit during Christmas or for Boxing Day...The big one is IT for Christmas Day.

I cut 2 squares of baking parchment and 1 square of foil per basin, place on top of each other: 30 cm square for the small one and 38cm by 45 cm for the bigger one. Fold in half and fold back on itself to create a 2-3 cm deep pleat in the centre. This is to allow it to expand during steaming.

Tuck layers over basin with the foil on the outside. Ohhh I forgot, you grease the basins with butter before putting the mixture in. Ooopsie. The pic above is the small basin.

Cut a length of string: aboit 1.8m and fold in half, run the double strands around the basin just below the rim and thread the ends through the loop at the centre: can you see?

Now comes the tricky bit: while keeping the string as taut and tight as possible, thread some over the top along the centre and under the string collar at the opposite side, then pull it as tight as you can and knot it in place. This forms the handle to remove the basin after steaming.

I do a series of half-knots along the handle with the spare string. Very macrame style, see above.

Trim foil and paper to about 3-4 cm below string. Put into pan with a well fitting lid and onto a heat-proof saucer or trivet.( these are inside the pan for the pudding basin to sit on!)

I have broken many ''old'' saucers over the years and now use a metal cookie cutter to keep the basin off the base of the pan. Amusingly I used an angel cookie cutter this year...To keep watch over the pudding and it's secret surprise....

Fill pan halfway up basin with boiling water, fit lid and steam for 4-5 hours for the large one and 2-3 hours for the smaller one. Keep checking the water level but a strong simmering setting should suffice. Leave to cool and then cut way the foil and paper and replace with an identical fresh set.

Leave in a cool dry place for - recipe says 2 months- up to 6 months is what I have done in the past and all was well.

To reheat on the day:

Steam for 2 hours or remove the foil and paper and reheat in microwave for 3-5 minutes depending on size and power of microwave.

To serve: run a flat bladed knife around edge and turn it out onto a decorative plate.

Pour over some gently heated brandy and carefully light this with a taper if so desired; carry into a darkened room for maximum effect.

Serve with brandy cream or brandy butter or ( for the children) vanilla ice cream.......( home-made?!)

MMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm DELICIOUSLY FRUITY!!!!

( fresh cream or home made vanilla custard can also be used)

This is how much the pudding bows up inside the pan, I have sealed the pouring lip of the pan with some extra foil to improve the retention of the generated steam.

Conkers and fridgecake, magazine inspiration

Fridgecake: Yummy scrummy! More of this later.

CONKERS! We did well in the end and this is a small selection of our pickings.

Ha ha now laundry is sooo much more fun! I used to have this enormous whicker logbasket and all the laundry ( and toys and unworn clothing etc) got chucked in by one and all and I had to sort it several times a week to identify which load to wash next etc etc Boooring.

Now I have invested in 3 lovely new laundry baskets: Crisp clear white for whites, Royal papal purple for darks and coloureds and a pale blue( not shown) for bedding and towels( boil wash).

As soon as one is full I can take it direct to the machine and voila: more time to enjoy the better things in life: like crochet or reading.....

Of course I'm still working on educating the members of my family but we ARE getting there!
And these 3 take up the same room as my elderly logbasket which has moved to it's rightful place by the open fire! Nights are getting colder after all. The Liberty bag holds all my pegs and it's been a joy to have been able to dry washing in the garden for all of September!
This was my happy haul in late September! I'm still enjoyong them all. How about THIS AMAZING BUS!!!! Miss E wishes THIS was the bus that takes her to school....
These mukluks are in the NEXT isse( #5) of Inside Crochet : aren't they beautiful? I'M IN LOVE!!! I was tickled pink by this picture....What can we feed such textured lips? Fridgecake!
Now I have to admit this is another recipe from the whicked-but-wonderful- Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook.

This is how their slices look: tempting? Well YESS SIREEE!

Miss E had been haranguing me for weeks for me to make this so I finally gave in:

2 packs of digestive biscuits and a load of raisins...

Almost 2 ( WHAT TWO??!!!) entire packets of BUTTER and oodles of golden syrup and cocoa.....

( Gosh I was really surprised it didn't use real chocolate...)
Combine the two really well and weight down with all the cans you can muster...

Then when it's cooled, deposit in fridge for as long as possible: try to play deaf to the many cries of: IS IT READY YET? CAN I CUT A SLICE?

We cut ours into small-ish squares due to my phobia of what so much butter would do to us and then they just flew out! I made this on a Friday and a week later it was all gone. And there was loads and loads of it....

They do look a bit like the book don't they?

P.S. Do not take out to take on walks or late treats on a warm-ish day as it goes very gooey and sticky and drops crumbs EVERYWHERE. Best eaten straight from the fridge.

Science Museum day trip, cupcakes and moebius.

About a week ago today we all went to London for a day at the Science Museum.
I had finished the moebius scarf on the Tuesday after our return from Yorkshire so It's about time I showed it to you: TA DAH!!! It's like a cowl and VERRRRRRY SSSSSSOFFFFFT!!!
And therefore very warm too. No I didn't wear it to the science museum, I DID take 2 new little projects along to do on the train and while waiting , on the tube or in queues and more of this later!
The moebius WIP pictures are within the Yorkshire posts and the pattern is in issue 1 of Inside Crochet magazine, it's called CECILY.









On the way to the museum we stopped by the Hummingbird Bakery on Old Brompton Road to sample some of the infamous cupcakes for ourselves and the kids had been looking forward to this enormously as they have been baking from ''the'' book.
Alas the bakery itself was a dissappointment: it was very small, the staff unhelpful ( to put it mildly) and it stank of a strange disinfectant.....No comfy worn leather sofas to lounge on while sipping a latte and enjoying the delightful cakes...
We chose one cake each and hightailed it to the sunny pleasures of the gardens of the Natural History Museum!
Here are our choices clockwise from top left: red velvet( Miss eldest),chocolate cupcake( ME!),
vanilla cupcake( JJ), black-bottomed cupcake( Miss youngest): mmmmmm can't wait!

Yummy but the dark cake was too bitter for her and she didn't like the frosting much.

Mmmmmmmmmm, yummy- well mummy thought so but again she didn't like the cream cheese frosting...7 out of 10.( mum gave it 9)

All gone. And just to show the amazing redness of the red velvet: Voila.

Then a quick goodbye to the lovely building in which many happy hours have been spent on previous holidays/half terms and onto the Science Museum!

Such lovely brickwork isn't it? And such an abundance of incredible detail!!!I 'd like to stop and draw....oooh mu-uuu-um come on! A quick photo has to suffice for now.

Hours of happy experimenting later and including a rocket show with Newton's laws explained and demonstrated and a ''pringles rocket '' hitting the ceiling we went to the IMAX cinema to watch ''fly me to the moon'' in 3D.

HUGE spectacles were provided and we settled in to wait for our amazing SPACE experiences.

As you can see I'm crocheting while we wait: a trendy triangle mesh scarf for ''going to secondary school'' girl. Having completed project # 1: a neck pouch for her mobile phone on the train journey into London( 1 hour)!

Project details and photos in the next post I promise. We also watched DEEP SEA 3D and I can heartily recommend both, the space one has cartoons that can get a little annoying to adults but keeps the kids happy and the deep sea is absolutely amazing!!! It's like diving without the hassle: I even felt out of breath until I told myself firmly that NO! I WAS NOT ACTUALLY UNDER WATER!!!!

Fish and weeds float and swim all around you.

The cinema screen is 10x that of usual cinemas or the height of 4 double decker buses apparently.

What a lovely day in London: we are so very blessed with our marvellous musea and cultural treasures! My favourite is the V&A but that'll wait for another time....

See you for lots of CROCHET in the next post I promise but for now there's the last moments of madness with the kids before they go back to school in 2 days- and counting.......

Crochet and cake: a pottering day.

A lovely sunny pottering kind-of-a -day with leisurely cups of tea in the garden with my moebius crochet scarf. This was a holiday project chosen in haste from my stash but I'm rather falling in love with it now. The stars are a delight to crochet and I'm just chuffed to bits with the cuddly softness of the angora and the alpaca.
It all started with one ball of ''KIMONO'' angora yarn from Louisa Harding which I had bought years ago, but it breaks very easily and was a 4 ply and I could not decide what to do with it.
It's in Purple/grey/aqua green/sky blue variegated yarn and fine, very soft but has to be handled very VERY gently as it breaks if you tug at it at all.

Added to this is a ball of Artesano alpaca 4 ply in a lovely plain purple, which I's bought ''to try out'' again and had not yet used in anything. Finally the last: NEW ball is an Angora Spun from Jaeger in royal blue which I've had since the early 1980's....YES this IS stashbusting!
This one is 70% angora and 30% lambswool and I have quite a bit more in my ancient stash: in green, black and red also. 20 g of a 4 ply and I now discover it's fabulous to work with.

Added to the above were all ''leftovers'' balls mostly Rowan merino wool in 4 ply or DK in pale / medium shades of lilacs and blues and a pale aqua green Baby Bamboo leftover from a baby cardigan for one of my nieces. Finally some curly boucle type yarn in a variegated purple/black/blues mix that I cannot remember what it was or the brand.

On the stone seat in front of the cottage where I sit happily crocheting with my cup of tea!

Yummy close ups- do you agree? I think they're just lovely!

View from upstairs windowseat: this changed all the time with the light and weather and time of day....This is a hazy one.... Ripple blanket out of the window to show it off!

There can you see? Crocheting upstairs on blanket and down in the garden on the moebius and JJ reads his paper or a book( now gone hiding) but spot the 2 cups of tea ?!!!

The upstairs bedroom windowseat from the inside with ripple blanket- working on a turquoise stripe after a lime green one at the moment and the new yarns from Ilkley to add to the stash / make into scarves for family.

We had a nice walk out and in the eveing I baked another ''appletaart'' as per the recipe a few posts ago. I used a smaller size caketin that I had bought in Leyburn: 8 '' diameter exactly.

JJ had used the egg I had kept aside for scrambling so I glazed this one with apricot jam.

Voila!!! Very Yummy!!!!

Much higher sides due to the tin size and the same quantities of dough as the recipe.