23 December 2010
22 December 2010
This year's poor effort
was made with rice flour as there's several girlies at knitting group who can't eat wheat flour. I only got chance to make the marzipan and icing and decorating today so very minimal but at least the royal icing won't crack many teeth lol
25 November 2010
27 October 2010
23 October 2010
21 August 2010
Quilting Excursions
Yes I know my blog has been neglected for far too long but so many things have happened and I've not been able to get an update done. I hope to do it this week and bring everything that's occurred over the past eight months up to date. In the meantime I thought I would share this post.
I went down to the Festival of Quilts at Birmingham NEC as I've decided to have a play with patchwork. I have say spendingwise I was quite restrained in comparison to what I could have spent. I neglected to go armed with camera so no actual pictures of what I saw while I was down there but I did come back with the below :)
Well first of all I bought this:
Yes I know it's not fabric thank you very much! However I've decided to make a loving friend of mine (who shall remain nameless on this open space) a toilet roll doll for Christmas. Its intended to be extremely ghastly on the eyes and I saw these in a basket for £1 a ball and thought putting the two together along with the Action Man doll would give it just that perfect touch!
Now on to the fabric:
These two Paddington Bear pieces I bought from Doughty's. I've seen them at other shows but because I've not been fabric buying haven't really paid any attention. This will go together with some other Paddington Bear fabric I discovered earlier in the year and will be making something nice.
Now these two I saw at Fiddlesticks Fabrics.
They are e-bay only but the three go together really well (as far I'm concerned), with the cats and their antics on the left, the yarn balls in the middle and the muddy paw prints on the right.
These two pieces are going to be put together to make something for OH although I am not sure yet. I have joked with a friend of mine saying that they were going to be boxers but I don't think my sewing skills are in place for clothing just yet!
Picture on this hasn't come out too well but they're rulers :)
I'm not sure whether these are sewing pins or knitting pins but either works for me.
Spools of sewing cotton (obviously)
And then this all rounder. I'm going to be putting the above together and making some sort of bag. I got these from Van Rooyen Fabrics. They're based in the Netherlands but unfortunately are not doing mail order at the moment due to the amount of shows that they have on the go. I'm hoping that once these are over that they will start mail order again as there were other designs they had that I would want to be getting.
I went shopping to the Button Lady and got these. I haven't got any specific in mind but then do you really need to when getting buttons?
Then my final purchase of the show was this book:
Its obviously aimed at quilting which I can move on to eventually but I found the instruction section helpful for patchwork as well and also a few things which gave me creative brain food for thought.
Then some material that I bought a few weeks ago but haven't yet utilised as I had intended on doing but just to share it with everyone:
I went down to the Festival of Quilts at Birmingham NEC as I've decided to have a play with patchwork. I have say spendingwise I was quite restrained in comparison to what I could have spent. I neglected to go armed with camera so no actual pictures of what I saw while I was down there but I did come back with the below :)
Well first of all I bought this:
Yes I know it's not fabric thank you very much! However I've decided to make a loving friend of mine (who shall remain nameless on this open space) a toilet roll doll for Christmas. Its intended to be extremely ghastly on the eyes and I saw these in a basket for £1 a ball and thought putting the two together along with the Action Man doll would give it just that perfect touch!Now on to the fabric:
These two Paddington Bear pieces I bought from Doughty's. I've seen them at other shows but because I've not been fabric buying haven't really paid any attention. This will go together with some other Paddington Bear fabric I discovered earlier in the year and will be making something nice.Now these two I saw at Fiddlesticks Fabrics.
They are e-bay only but the three go together really well (as far I'm concerned), with the cats and their antics on the left, the yarn balls in the middle and the muddy paw prints on the right.
These two pieces are going to be put together to make something for OH although I am not sure yet. I have joked with a friend of mine saying that they were going to be boxers but I don't think my sewing skills are in place for clothing just yet!
Picture on this hasn't come out too well but they're rulers :)
I'm not sure whether these are sewing pins or knitting pins but either works for me.
Spools of sewing cotton (obviously)
And then this all rounder. I'm going to be putting the above together and making some sort of bag. I got these from Van Rooyen Fabrics. They're based in the Netherlands but unfortunately are not doing mail order at the moment due to the amount of shows that they have on the go. I'm hoping that once these are over that they will start mail order again as there were other designs they had that I would want to be getting.
I went shopping to the Button Lady and got these. I haven't got any specific in mind but then do you really need to when getting buttons?
Then my final purchase of the show was this book:
Its obviously aimed at quilting which I can move on to eventually but I found the instruction section helpful for patchwork as well and also a few things which gave me creative brain food for thought.
Then some material that I bought a few weeks ago but haven't yet utilised as I had intended on doing but just to share it with everyone:
19 August 2010
Christmas Cake Recipe
1lb Currants
6-8 eggs
8oz raisans
12oz plain flour
6oz mixed peel
Pinch of salt
4oz glace cherries
Grated rind of 1 lemon
4oz shelled almonds
Lemon juice
10oz margarine
A little milk
10oz caster sugar
Preparation:
Wash fruit thoroughly by putting it in a strainer or in a sieve and running water through. Spread it on muslin or a folded cloth placed on a tin and allow it to drey slowly and completely before use. A quicker alternative method is to rub the dry fruit on a wire sieve or in a cloth dredged with flour. This is very satisfactory for removing small stems and stalks. Remove any surplus sugar from peel, and shred or chop finely. Slice or chop cherries, using a light dusting of flour. Shell the nuts. Blanch almonds by pouring boiling water over them, in a few minutes the brown skin can be slipped off, and the nuts may be halved or chopped.
Making:
Clean fruit and chop the peel and cherries. Blanch and chop the almonds. Have all other ingredients ready. Warm the margarine slightly, if hard, but do not over-heat. Cream with sugar until soft and light. Break the eggs seperately into a basin, beat lightly and add one by one to the creamed mixture. Beat each egg in very thoroughly before adding the next. The mixture should be light and fluffy. Sieve dry ingredients into a bowl and add fruit and lemon rind. Fold gradually into creamed mixture. Continue to mix in the dry ingredients lightly, adding a squeeze of lemon juice and a little milk. Put the mixture, which should be a stiff dropping consistency, into a lined 9" cake tin. Bake in a moderate oven (350?F) for about 2 hours, then reduce the temperature to about 300?F and continue to cook for 4½-5 hours in all. When the cake is sufficiently brown, cover it with a double sheet of greaseproof paper. Leave for a few weeks. Cover with marzipan. Leave for 3-4 days. Decorate.
6-8 eggs
8oz raisans
12oz plain flour
6oz mixed peel
Pinch of salt
4oz glace cherries
Grated rind of 1 lemon
4oz shelled almonds
Lemon juice
10oz margarine
A little milk
10oz caster sugar
Preparation:
Wash fruit thoroughly by putting it in a strainer or in a sieve and running water through. Spread it on muslin or a folded cloth placed on a tin and allow it to drey slowly and completely before use. A quicker alternative method is to rub the dry fruit on a wire sieve or in a cloth dredged with flour. This is very satisfactory for removing small stems and stalks. Remove any surplus sugar from peel, and shred or chop finely. Slice or chop cherries, using a light dusting of flour. Shell the nuts. Blanch almonds by pouring boiling water over them, in a few minutes the brown skin can be slipped off, and the nuts may be halved or chopped.
Making:
Clean fruit and chop the peel and cherries. Blanch and chop the almonds. Have all other ingredients ready. Warm the margarine slightly, if hard, but do not over-heat. Cream with sugar until soft and light. Break the eggs seperately into a basin, beat lightly and add one by one to the creamed mixture. Beat each egg in very thoroughly before adding the next. The mixture should be light and fluffy. Sieve dry ingredients into a bowl and add fruit and lemon rind. Fold gradually into creamed mixture. Continue to mix in the dry ingredients lightly, adding a squeeze of lemon juice and a little milk. Put the mixture, which should be a stiff dropping consistency, into a lined 9" cake tin. Bake in a moderate oven (350?F) for about 2 hours, then reduce the temperature to about 300?F and continue to cook for 4½-5 hours in all. When the cake is sufficiently brown, cover it with a double sheet of greaseproof paper. Leave for a few weeks. Cover with marzipan. Leave for 3-4 days. Decorate.
21 April 2010
27 March 2010
Life Changes
Hmmm not a lot of posting again. I have to say that so much seems to have been going on of late that getting back into the routine of posting I had intended over the festive season just hasn't happened.
I'm contemplating quite a big thing at the moment and whether or not to go ahead with something. If I do lives will be effected and possibly hurt but I am wondering whether or not it is the right thing to do and that I think is the actual hardest thing to work out.
On the knitting front there has been plenty going on just not anything I can blog about so maybe one day before next Christmas!
I'm contemplating quite a big thing at the moment and whether or not to go ahead with something. If I do lives will be effected and possibly hurt but I am wondering whether or not it is the right thing to do and that I think is the actual hardest thing to work out.
On the knitting front there has been plenty going on just not anything I can blog about so maybe one day before next Christmas!
07 March 2010
06 January 2010
Day 6
Well I started off well with the 10-4-2010 on Friday. I cast on, got past the foundation block, managed two repeats of block A and then slipped up so frogged it. Repeat the last sentence and have decided to finish current WIPs first. That said I have also swatched for a green jumper using yarn I got (I think) from Coldspring Mills several years ago. I've found the tension with it is the same as for my Texere Troon Tweed yarn so no need to retype out the pattern using a different size.
No point mentioning the blooming obvious because if you don't know then you must be reading from Mars. Be glad when there is an end to it. The worrying thing though is hearing on the news that they only have eight days worth of gas in stock. Yes I am aware that this is the worst bout for 30 years but it does make you stop and think what is going to happen in the future when it does run out!
No point mentioning the blooming obvious because if you don't know then you must be reading from Mars. Be glad when there is an end to it. The worrying thing though is hearing on the news that they only have eight days worth of gas in stock. Yes I am aware that this is the worst bout for 30 years but it does make you stop and think what is going to happen in the future when it does run out!
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