Baskets of sheep......

.....well not quite a basket of sheep but a basket of potential sheep. 

The basket is finished but the decoration is still underway. I have failed thus far in my aim to use up all the rug wool. If I use up the rest making embellishments the basket will be covered in flowers and bits and bobs which might be a bit too over the top. Even I have my limits. The basket is fulfilling it's raison d'être by holding the sheep work in progress (ie. lots of wool), and the prototype is looking very sheepy. It was darn difficult to get the hang of the loop stitch. I thought I had worked out how to do it but the blooming sheep just got bigger and baggier by the row. I had to resort to a bit of youtube-ing and found a brilliant video by June Gillbank of www.planetjune.com. You-tube is such a fantastic resource and there are so many helpful people out there. It's like having a tutor on tap. Anyway, I have now mastered loop stitch and finished a sheep. I can't pretend that I will remember how to do loop stitch in a year's time, or even a week's time for that matter, but I know I can always rely on June to help me out. 

I have a new toy. It's a knitting machine mill by Prym and it makes a knitted tube, usually described as an i-cord these days. It's really a mechanical version of a knitting dolly which you may well have used as a child. If you have ever tried to knit a cord with double pointed needles or use a knitting dolly you will know that it takes forever to make anything like a usable length , hence the purchace of the knitting mill. It was very much a case of 'I see, therefore I need'. However, it is not quite as easy to use as it seemed, but when I eventually  got the flipping fiddlymill started, it worked like magic. It's not a relaxing 'do in front of the telly' sort of thing  because you have to keep an eye on your ball of wool to make sure it doesn't get into a tangly knot. You also need to weight and wind and clamp the cord so that it doesn't turn into a nest of vipers. I had an assistant so it was a lot easier than struggling on my own, but the resulting cord is just so full of potential.......... except for the purpose I bought  it for. I had intended to knit up a huge cone of yarn I have stashed in my wool box to then use my super chunky 25mm crochet hook to make errrmm     something. I hadn't got as far as dreaming up a finished project. More thinking is required, and anyway I haven't got as far as making the cord yet. So, plenty of time to plan and dream.....I'll post some pictures of my knitting mill adventure next time.

Planet Venus

I knew there was a good reason to leave the tripod up in the corner of the room as this glorious sunset greeted me as I arrived home from work. And you can see Venus. Hoorah. My first photo of a planet.

Winter Wonderland, sourdough and welsh baking stone

January is whooshing past and I have so many things to write about. I think I will start with today and work backwards. Today was another winter wonderland day in Derbyshire. I opened the blind  to a beautiful sunrise and everything white over. I'ts not a photo failure, it really was that pink and purple!  

Yesterday there was a sprinkling of  snow at home with much more forecast so I elected to work from home. Information Technology has it's benefits and being at home meant that I had no travel worries. The main advantage was that I could start at 07:30 (after a lie-in), and then when the working day was done it was only 4:00pm and the rest of the day was my own. I quickly russled up a big pan of chicken risotto and a butternut squash and lentil dahl (all from the fridge, freezer and cupboard - I love impromptu cooking) and then did an hour's yoga before tea. And there was still loads of time left to crochet in front of the telly!

The picture above is my leather footstool aka wool store which also doubles as my work table. Gone are they days where I had a whole bedroom as a playroom, at least for a short while. I'm currently working on using up the rug wool, which has proved to be so successful that I have actually run out before finishing the article in hand.  As you can see my basket is not very deep and is currently being used as a remote control store. Why are there so many remote controls and where are you supposed to keep them? Anyway, I've ordered more wool to make the basket more basket-y. It will probably end up being too big in the end, but hey ho, it keeps me occupied. As a stop gap, I've been planning my entry for this year's Bakewell Show 'Show us yer sheep' competition.  Obviously, it is going to involve some crochet :) and you can see my sample is underway. A lot more work is needed on this one though, so I will have to get on with it so that it doesn't turn into a mad panic at the end. 

One of the unexpected pleasures of our little rented abode is that we have the most marvelous view. I've just been watching the sunset as I type away and noticed a bright light in the sky which I initially thought was an aircraft. But, it didn't move at all. Aha, I thought, as my mind drifted on,  I bet it's a UFO. However, back to reality, it's not a spaceship, idiot.  I must watch (and read) too much sci-fi.  A quick google and it was revealed to be planet Venus. I watched it a bit more and then thought that it would be nice to take a photo, but by the time that I'd assembled the tripod and set up the camera a great black cloud was looming and it was just too dark to get it. I've left the tripod up in the hope that I can capture it tomorrow. That's guaranteed to make it rain!

Santa was good to me this year. In my secret santa letter, I suggested that it would be really nice to have a Welsh Baking Stone from the Bakery Bits website. The stone is actually a cast iron griddle and not a stone at all, and can be used on the cooker top as well as in the oven. Santa did me proud, and I duly received the baking stone with a few other goodies which included a packet of San Francisco sourdough starter. I already have a sourdough starter which has been up and running for over a year now. I now call it the 'Derbyshire' sourdough starter, although it was called Suzie in it's early days. The extract below is the description from the Bakery Bits website. I didn't really believe that it could be that much different to my Derbyshire starter, but after getting it going and comparing with mine it really is different. It has a sharper, more tangy smell and seems to be much more vigorous than mine, although I have only used it on white bread flour whereas I usually feed it with wholemeal.

BakeryBits is the exclusive stockist outside the US of this world-famous starter. This sachet allows you to quickly create your own sourdough starter, based on the same wild yeast that the early California goldrush settlers of 1849 discovered. We send our own instructions for getting the starter going with each sachet which can also be downloaded here.

Sourdough "starter", "leaven", "levain" or "mother" is a flour-based mix containing wild yeasts that give sourdough bread its distinctive, sophisticated flavour. Sourdough was as much part of the Californian goldrush of 1849 as gold itself. Travelling throughout the West in the back-packs of miners and settlers, it eventually found its home in San Francisco. The air in the Golden Gate region enhanced the bread made there with a wonderfully distinctive taste, thanks to Lactobacillus Sanfrancisco, a unique wild yeast which imparts the much sought-after flavour desired by bread bakers the world over. Once you have your starter, it will, if correctly fed and watered, last indefinitely.

I wasted no time getting the new starter....started, and took it on holiday at New Year.  Not as crazy as it sounds, as at the previous New Year holiday I was just at the beginning of my sourdough journey/obsession and took full advantage of the opportunity to bake a loaf of bread every day and have it taste tested by a load of foodies. So, again, the New Year crowd were subjected to a daily sourdough loaf to supplement the every day supermarket bread. Happily, it worked really well despite the unfamiliar kitchen and equipment which made it a real test of improvisation, and the daily bread was greatly appreciated. Several members of the group were inspired to bake at home and took home a sample of the starter to have a go themselves.  

Now a little about the Welsh Baking Stone. I didn't manage to try this out before the holidays, but had a go as soon as we got home. First of all it needed the protective paint to be scrubbed off and then it was seasoned by rubbing with oil and then baking in the oven for a bit. I was impatient to use it so as soon it was seasoned I made some dough, separated it into several balls, rolled them out into flat discs,  and heated up the griddle. This time I used the griddle on the hot plate so that I could handle the flat breads. It was so exciting seeing the flat discs of dough puff up and move around on the hot plate. Shrieks of excitement ensued -  I'm so easily pleased.  Unfortunately, I was so caught up with the excitement of it all I didn't take any photo's........For my second go with the baking stone, I followed Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's flat bread recipe from the River Cottage Everyday book. This dough didn't have any yeast - it was just flour and water. I really thought that nothing was going to happen and that my flat discs of flour and water dough would just bake into strange biscuits. Again, whoops of delight emanated from the kitchen. It's like a magic trick, it's sooo exciting. And flat breads to accompany our lentil and butternut squash dahl and rice for tea. Mmmm....

New Year

Happy New Year to you all. A little belated, perhaps, but better late than never. It's taken a while to get back into the groove. In fact I didn't pick up a hooky hook until this weekend, although I managed to finish the hearts and flowers garland. More of that later, first a few pretty pictures of our relaxing and restorative holiday in north Devon with a big group of friends over the New Year. It was crisp and clear when we arrived, no snow but lots of frost and brrrrrrr it was cold. We had a lovely local walk on the first day, all sun and frost and a gentle 7.5 mile meander through the countryside, ending in the picturesque village of Chulmleigh - in the pub of course! A roaring fire, some liquid refreshment and a game of darts. Fortunately, the fact that I only ever play darts at New Year doesn't make me stand out as a complete idiot, as most of the rest of the crew usually only plays at New Year as well. On New Years day we went the seaside. Westward Ho! was the choice of seaside venue, mostly because it was big enough to have the chance of having a tea room open. We didn't get onto the beach as the tide was in, but we did see some porpoises in the bay, which was quite exciting. Incidentally, Westward Ho! is the only place name in the UK with an exclamation mark as part of the name. An interesting but useless fact. The final picture shows the wobbly eye competition entries. To explain, we were given a pair of wobbly eyes each and were tasked with coming up with something amusing and original, (or just amusing). My entry was the crochet spider which was a pebble from Westward Ho! dressed up in a woolly crochet coat. I brought it home and now I'm not sure what to do with it. I did pick up a few more pebbles from the beach with an idea of using them in a possible xmas present project although I don't think that they will be spiders......

After the holidays, I finally galvanised myself and finished the hearts and flowers garland. I don't have room to store bits of wool so wanted to use up the left overs from the giant doily rug and our little flat really needed  a bit of brightening up as well. I had finished all the hearts and just needed to join them together.  The finishing touch was some pretty buttons bought in a lovely little shop in Exeter, so I had no more excuses for not getting it finished and up on the wall. I don't know why it is, but I struggle to finish things. I think it might be because I'm already planning the next thing and am raring to get started! Incidentally, the 'next thing' is a basket/bag sort of thing. I'm still using up the rug wool, so am going to keep going round and round until it's all gone. Does that make sense? It will all become clear when I have a picture of it.

Last minute presents

The last few days before Christmas were a bit of a mad frenzy finishing off some presents. The crochet hearts worked so well that I just kept making them. The little bag was made as a funny extra for my secret santa present. The last couple of years we've done a secret santa for the family as they are all older and everyone strives to make it amusing. This year I picked out a request for money towards a sat nav. Money is always welcome but a bit boring as a present so I decided to make a padded bag for the future sat nav and found some fab fabric with road signs.  A perfect choice. Since my sewing machine is being stored at my parents house I went over there with all my sewing stuff and quickly ran up a little padded drawstring bag. One of my sisters arrived and declared that the little bag was absolutely perfect for her sat nav, hint, hint, so I made another as an impromptu little gift. Great timing on her part!

Let it snow

let it snow, let it snow. It didn't quite make it in time for Christmas, but here in Derbyshire we had lovely covering of snow. This is the view from our flat this morning.

It's great to have snow in the holidays with no worrying about how to get to work. Today we met friends and walked from the village of South Wingfield over fields and past Wingfield Manor, now a ruin and famous for having imprisoned Mary Queen of Scots. It was all so pretty with sunshine and snow and the perfect walk ended with the perfect pint. Well, actually, we tried a couple of the pubs in South Wingfield before heading back to a welcoming fire and late lunch at Sue's.

Christmas garland

At last we have Christmas decorations. I've been beavering away trying to finish before  the big day and I'm really happy with the result. We have lots decorations in storage, but its a marvellous excuse to have some new ones, especially when they are homemade and turn out as envisaged and  are finished in time. Our little tree is new as well. Small but perfectly formed and sits very nicely on the treadle sewing machine.  The garlands are made from Ophelia from Sirdar which is lovely and soft yet has a metallic thread which gives it a bit of sparkle and a heavy feel which I imagine would make it drape beautifully in a jumper.  It's perfect for fluffy shiny hearts and baubles on a string! The big hearts dangling from the drawers were made to the same pattern but with 2 threads together.  I've made a few for quick Christmas presents as well as they are so easy to make and look so lovely. I'm definitely keeping some for myself this time though.

Lazy Sunday afternoon

Well, more like lazy all day. Still feeling under the weather so spent much of the day cozied up on the sofa with a little easy crochet listening to an audio book. The hearts and flowers bunting is coming along beautifully and I love listening to a story while hooking or sewing. I'm currently listening to a Terry Pratchett story. Well actually, I usually listen to some Terry Pratchett. I've got nearly all of his audio books and love the humour and quirkiness. It's also easy to dip into and out of the story if you are familiar with it. If I'm doing something a bit repetitive I can listen to something new, but any time I need to really concentrate on a tricky bit I lose the thread of the story and have to go back. 

We had a mini family tea today as the kids are mostly all tied up with christmassy socialising, so it was easy to prepare for with some still warm bread and a few mince pies and jam tarts. We are working our way through the stock of home made mincemeat and jam. Next year will be a bit of a lean year for the home made preserves unless I can do some serious groundwork in the garden at the barns.