Grafting

I finished one side of my knitted cushion.  I'm not totally convinced I've done it right because the tension of the wrapped stitches looks awfully loose compared with the rest of the knitting.

And I managed the grafting. I've grafted two cast off seams before when making a cardigan, but I've never grafted stitches while they're still on the needle. Thank the lord for the internet, because the knitting pattern said 'do not cast off, but join last segment to first by grafting one stitch from the needle with the corresponding stitch on the cast-on edge. See page 41.'.  I saw page 41 and it had no instructions what-so-ever on how to graft stitches that you haven't cast off yet.  You tube, I love you.  

It turns out this grafting malarky is not something that should be attempted for the first time whilst the children are in the house/awake or the telly is blaring. You need a nice quiet place, a flat surface and some patience.  


'knit, slip, purl; knit, slip, purl; knit, slip, purl;...'


It's not the neatest, most even grafting in the world, but that's the beauty of homemade.

Edited to add :: for those of you that don't know, grafting is a method of seaming that creates a seam that looks like a row of stitches.

Baking day :: A Spelt and Fennel Seed Loaf and Spotted Dog

I acquired a new cookery book at Christmas - Scandilicious by Signe Johansen.  

I find I am mostly drawn to the sections about breakfast, brunch and baking. Funny that! It's where I found the recipe for Mor Monsen's cake, a cake with an unlikely sounding combination of  flavours - almonds, lemons and currants. It was delicious. 

Today I've made the Spelt and Fennel Seed Bread (recipe here).  Whole and refined spelt flours mixed with buttermilk, treacle and butter and then sprinkled with fennel seeds before baking. 

The dough seemed very wet and sticky to start with and was difficult to work with. Resisting the temptation to add more flour, I remembered that I have a dough scraper (well it's really a royal icing smoother, but what's the difference?) and went at the dough with that to start with. I didn't need more flour in the end.    

I left it to rise for a second time while I went to get the children from school - a trip that takes about an hour... 15 minutes for me to get there and 45 minutes for us all to get back home.  By the time we got back the dough had risen a lot and looked like it was about to collapse...

Anyhow, I wasn't going to knock it back a second time, so I just carried on.

Look at it, fresh out of the oven...  I could hardly wait to try it...

In the end I don't wait until it's completely cold. I love warm bread. This is a delicious loaf; soft and light with a slight tang from the buttermilk; a loaf that makes me wonder why I don't bake my own bread more often.  

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To use up what was left of the buttermilk I made a small loaf of Spotted Dog. 

Well, what else was I going to do with it?

Perfect with an afternoon cup of tea or for an after school snack.

And (oh, I can hardly wait), look what's being published this Summer. That's going straight to the top of my wish list.

Weekend Outing :: Dunham Massey

After a rainy Saturday we had our weekend outing on Sunday. A beautiful sunny, but freezing cold, day. We took the children and their bikes to Dunham Massey. Not the most adventurous place to go, but it has long straight paths for the children to cycle down and Mr yrh wasn't feeling too well so we thought it best not to go too far from home. Look at the colour of the sky in these photos...

and we were there at just the right time for the snowdrops...

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So, half-term is finished. What with visits to the park, seeing friends and family and a bit of baking (iced fairy cakes and rock buns - the usual suspects), it seemed to fly by. 

And I haven't even mentioned the inordinate amount of time my children spent industriously cutting pieces of coloured A4 paper into small squares. Why, I don't know, but we've had to keep them all. Children can be weird sometimes. And that's a small price to pay for a bit of quiet activity ;-)

Off the hook :: Spring Bunny and other FOs

I've seen this amigurumi bunny on a number of blogs now and I couldn't resist making one for my bunny mad #2 child.  All his favourite soft toys are bunnies.

Amigurumi are great to make if you have children and there's nothing else you fancy crocheting.  They are so easy too - usually being crocheted in a spiral using UK dc stitches only. I'd recommend a stitch marker though so you don't lose the end/beginning of the round.

Hook :: 3.5mm
Yarn :: Rowan Handknit Cotton, shade 205
Pattern :: Spring Bunny by Stephanie Jessica Lau
Given name :: 'Flower'  :-)


Other FOs...


another animal motif, a squirrel...

and a heart doily for a handmade Valentine's card...

Now I've got an amigurumi panda and a bit of knitting on the go - a round cushion cover. Once I start knitting I remember why I don't do it very often - it's too slow. And it sounds like there's some complicated grafting to be done too which means this cushion cover is something that may never be finished.

Hearts

I never would have said that I had a 'thing' for hearts, but I look around my house and I see...

♥♥♥♡♡♡♥♥♥♡♡♡♥♥♥♡♡♡♥♥♥

Happy Valentine's Day

Crochet animal motifs

You start to think you've seen it all when it comes to crochet and then something comes along that makes you want to pick up your hook immediately.  For me, last night, it was this photograph on Pinterest. I followed the link to this website, picked up my 2mm hook and some cotton 4-ply and got to work.

The motifs originate from a Japanese blog, 'Crochet a Little', from which I followed a link to Facebook.  And, oh my goodness, the things this designer has come up with are so original. Look, you can crochet Cinderella's pumpkin coach, or a dinosaur, or a giraffe, or a seahorse, or several beautiful doilies. Worked in one piece, I think they are so, so clever.

I will say that these charts are not that easy to read and, at times, I was having to read them upside down, so I wouldn't bother even attempting making some if you aren't familiar with crochet symbols. Having said that, I would heartily recommend learning to read crochet charts. For patterns like these they are so much easier to follow that written instructions. One of the best resources for the interpretation of crochet chart symbols is mypicot.


I have no idea what to do with these little motifs, but it was so nice to come across something so different and a little challenging.

Blog awards are like buses...

there are none for ages and then they come along in threes. Two sets of three in this case.

I have been awarded the Versatile blogger award 6 times. So thank you to 

Stocki, Karen, Mel, Gwen, Laura and Linda.

I am grateful that people like my blog, but I am going to be incredibly lazy and direct you to previous 'about me' posts. 

There is not much going on around here this weekend.  Children's parties and swimming lessons are dominating the schedule. I've have, though, had a nice relaxing morning at the hairdresser having all my horrible grey hairs seen to. I feel so much better now my hair is all nice and brown again!  We had the dreaded nit letter from school the other day and despite checking both myself and the children (and finding nothing) I still felt like my head was crawling. I was half expecting to be sent out of the hairdressers in disgrace, but thankfully not!  I then came home and had an un-relaxing afternoon cleaning the children's bedrooms. A job I loathe as you can't just go in there vacuum cleaner blazing in case some vital piece of playmobil/lego/polly pocket shoe disappears up it. They are busily messing it up again as as I type.

I hope you're all having a lovely weekend x 

The 'Swedish hearts' pattern revisited

If you've been reading a while you'll know that about 18 months ago I came across a pattern for a crocheted heart. The pattern was in Swedish (or Norwegian?) and I spent a while playing with an on-line translator and a stitch dictionary in order to translate it. 

Yesterday I emailed the designer of the Swedish heart, AnneSofie at Slojdmagasinet, and asked for permission to publish my translation on my blog and she graciously granted that permission. So here it is  - in the nick of time for Valentine's day - my translation of the Swedish Crocheted Heart pattern.  This link will take you to the original pattern and I give full credit to AnneSofie Ampén for the original design.  


Please, if you use this pattern do not credit me with the design. The pattern, in Swedish, is already on the Ravelry database, so if you make some of these and add them to your project page please link to the Swedish pattern (Virkat Hjärta). Do not add this translation as a separate pattern. This is something I feel very strongly about. I did not design this heart and should not be credited with doing so.  

Swedish Heart Crochet Pattern

Stitch names are UK terminology.


Make 18 chain

Round 1: 1tr in 6th chain from hook, 2ch, miss 2ch, 1tr in next ch, 2ch, miss 2ch, [1tr, 4ch, 1tr, 2ch] in next ch, miss 2ch, 1tr in next ch, 2ch, miss 2ch, [1tr, 5ch, sl st] in last ch

Round 2: Do not turn the work - carry on working in the round throughout. You are initially working along the other side of the foundation chain.  3ch, 2tr in 2ch space, 1tr in next ch, miss 5ch, 1tr in next ch, 2tr in 2ch space, 1tr in next ch, 10tr in 5ch space, 1tr in next tr, *2tr in 2ch space, 1tr in next tr* twice, [2tr, 3ch, 2tr] into 4ch space, *1tr in next tr, 2tr in 2ch space* twice, 1tr in next tr, 10 tr in 5ch space. Join with sl st to 3rd of 3ch.

Round 3: 3ch, miss 6tr and work 1tr in next tr, *1ch, 1tr in next tr* 11 times, *2ch, miss 2tr, 1tr in next tr* twice, 2ch, into the 3ch space at tip of heart work [1tr, 2ch] 4 times, miss 2tr, 1tr in next tr, *2ch, miss 2tr, 1tr in next tr* twice, *1ch, 1tr in next tr* 10 times, 1ch, join with sl st to 3rd of 3ch.

Round 4: 40ch, sl st in same place as last sl st in round3 (hanger made).  1dc in each of next 2 1ch spaces.  *3ch, 1dc in 3rd ch from hook (picot), 1dc in next 1ch space* 8 times (9 picots made), 2dc in each of next 4 2ch spaces, 3dc in next 2ch space (tip of heart), 2dc in each of the next 4 2ch spaces, *1dc in 1ch space, picot* 9 times, 1dc in each of next 2 1ch spaces, join with sl st at base of hanger.  Fasten off and weave in any ends.

I think these hearts look good straight off the hook, but you may find that it benefits from a little blocking, just to pull it into shape and to make the point a bit sharper.

The hearts in these photos have been worked in 4ply yarn with a 2mm hook (which makes them around 8.5cm wide x 5.5cm high). As an aside, if you can get your hands on a steel 2mm hook it's well worth it - my plastic one snapped and my aluminium one isn't strong enough and bends as I use it. I made a heart from crochet cotton and a 1mm hook too, just to see how it came out.

So, there you go. Happy Heart Hooking! x

Recipe :: Toffee popcorn

When it's cold, goes dark early, 'Lion King' is on the telly and 3 of us are suffering from a late night there's a definite need for an afternoon sweet treat - crunchy toffee popcorn.


You need


1½ oz / 40g popping corn
2oz / 60g unsalted butter
2oz / 60g caster sugar
1 generous tablespoon golden syrup
pinch salt

Pop the corn and then remove any unpopped kernels.  

Put the butter, caster sugar, golden syrup and salt into a pan and melt over a low heat.

Once the butter and sugar are melted,  allow the mixture to boil for a minute then remove from the heat.

Add the popcorn to the pan and turn in the syrup until evenly coated. 


Tip the popcorn onto a non-stick baking tray and spread out into a single layer.

Bake in a preheated oven (150°C, gas mark 2) for 10 minutes, turning halfway through.

Leave to cool (it will become crunchy as it cools). Break up any big lumps and scoff.

p.s. the syrup mixture will be very, very hot so this isn't a recipe I'd let my children help with. Don't try eating it straight from the oven either if you don't want to burn your mouth!


So, have you all had a good weekend? Are you all covered in snow? We had about 1cm yesterday afternoon which quickly turned to slush. It's practically all gone now and I am hoping we don't get any more. I have to say I have achieved very little this weekend - too cold to spend much time outdoors and too busy reading a book whilst indoors!  x