2011 Crafty plan

I have decided to finish 2010 by writing a list of different projects I'd like to accomplish in 2011.

The first one is a 1930's DK cardie I plan on buying wool for this project this weekend! I'm thinking a nice mustard or navy blue I haven't fully decided on the colour yet.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/shoulderette

every month I'll post a new project, the crafty challenge is on!

Christmas is around the corner

Frosty Days new scarf keeping me warm

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Location:Corsham,United Kingdom

Christmas Knits

I decided to try and make some of my Christmas pressies this year, this is the start!
I'll post pics when they are finished can you guess what they are???

Super Long Mustard Scarf

It's finished. I wore it earlier today and then quickly realised it was way to warm for merino wool so I didn't have it on for long, roll on cold weather:)

My Favourite Colour

Mustard is definitely my favourite colour, I love it. Since Autumn has arrived I have been looking for Mustard Chunky wool everywhere!! There are mustard wools out there but not exactly the right shade and type of wool I've been looking for. That was until I popped into the new wool shop in Bath where the lady kindly showed me a colour chart and there it was the perfect shade:) Two weeks later my special order had arrived, I started my chunky mustard scarf today and its coming along nicely. It's a simple garter stitch and I plan  to add long fringing to finish it off. Here it is so far......

Knitted Puff Is Complete

I did it, I finished the knitted puff on Saturday morning. After a bit of a struggle trying to stuff it evenly with the super soft duvet it looks pretty good and more importantly it is super comfy:)

Crochet

I'm nearly finished my giant knitted puff! I just need a pair of extra hands to help me assemble it.
This is one of my first crochet attempts its very different to knitting but I am determined to master it.

Project growing

I started the giant pouf (puff) project its knitting up really thick I love it. 9 balls knitted 9 more to go!

Autumn Time and I'm Feeling Crafty

This weekend is going to be busy. I started making more crab apple jelly last night which I'll finish tonight.You need ALOT of apples to make jelly naively I thought I'd have a kitchen full of jars with my 1kg haul,more like 2 jam jars:) This time I used 3.5kg so hopefully I will end up  approx 5 jars.

 I need to get up super early on Saturday to pick more blackberries, we made an amazing blackberry chutney (I know it sounds sooooo wrong) but surprisingly it the best flavour ever especially with strong cheedar cheese.yum. I am doing a barter swap with my workmate Joe his dad makes honey so he will give me jam jars in exchange for chutney.

Besides the preserving I am starting a BIG knitting project I've decided to make a Puff. My bestie Jill sent me a link to this last year and I decided to go for it, it'll keep me busy during the Winter months.

The pattern can be found on Pickles Blog

Crab Apple Jelly

I was very excited to be handed a bag full of crab apples from a friend  in work yesterday. I decided the best recipe to try would be crab apple jelly. I ended up with 2 kg of apples after discarding the badies. Jelly has to be made in stages so I decided to boil the apples and let the juice filter over night.

Cover the apples in cold water and bring to the boil, gently cook for 30 mins until the apples are soft and mushy.

I have a jelly bag which is basically just muslin with handles, put the pulp into the bag hang it over the pan and let it drip into a saucepan over night. Never stir it or it will make the jelly cloudy.

In the morning measure the liquid that has dripped though and add sugar at a ratio or 7 to 10. 70g to every 100ml of liquid. I had 1 litre of apple juice so I added 700g of sugar. Add the juice of one lemon and I put in three cloves to add some spice.

Bring to a rolling boil, the recipe I found suggested 30-40mins of boiling but I felt this might be too long. Keep an eye on it as it can set quite quickly as there is loads of pectin in apples, which creates the set.

Chill two plates in your freezer to test for setting if you do not have a thermometer. To test put a spoonful of jelly on to the cold plate, after a minute or so touch the jelly and if it has set it will wrinkle. Turn off the heat and pour into steralised jars.

 Your done!! I love the colour its a really lovely pinkish red:)

My 1st Sewing Project

Last week on one of the blogs I follow I spotted a registration page for an online Home Ec class. It is run by lovely Leigh -Ann (LA) from Freckled Nest.I've been talking and talking and talking some more about learning to sew so I decided to just go for it!The sneak preview of the projects looked great and I've a whole sideboard full of fat squares I've picked up over the years, about time I did something with them!

So this is my first project, I decided to go for the tote shopping bag and 5 hrs later, YES I said 5 I had these bags.  This is made with two different materials.

this is my guitar rock 'n' roll tote

Now I just have to pick my next project.

July Harvest

The garden has been growing on turbo speed for the last week. We have had alot of rain at night and sunshine during the day perfect conditions for the veg and fruit.
I had a busy week so I didn't spend any time in the garden.The last time I was out there it looked like the gooseberries and black currants were near harvesting so I thought I better pop out this morning to investigate. I was expecting to pick enough gooseberries to make a gooseberry fool but certainly not jam! To my surprise there was so much fruit on the gooseberry bush that it was hitting the floor.
So this leaves me to 1kg of Gooseberries and 700g of black currants, I'm delighted:)

Now I just have to pick a worthy enough recipe for this delicious fruit.

Rose Petal Jelly

We cracked open a few bottles of elderflower champagne last week and it was surprisingly lovely:) so nice in fact I went straight out and picked more flowers to make another batch. I bottled it yesterday morning so now we are back to having 6 x 1 ltr bottles again , phew!! I plan on making a larger batch next year I didn't want to commit this year incase I didn't like it.

The elderflowers inspired me to  try using other types of flowers in recipes, so I decided to use some rose petals from our garden. We have loads this year beautiful pinks and reds.

Since making this recipe I have found loads of different ways of making rose jelly and jam online.I assumed jam and jelly to be the same but apparently not, the difference being, jelly is clear.

I plan on making more and this time I'm going to try a jam, if you use citric acid it holds the colour so if I use a combination of pink and red petals I'll hopefully end up with a beautiful dark pink jam:)

Tis The Season For Elderflowers

I went picking elderflowers last Friday, firstly I had to figure out what they looked like.When you start looking you suddenly realise there are alot of white headed wild flowers out there. After confirmation of what they look like we headed out and realised we are surrounded by them! We picked just enough for a 6 litre batch, I wanted to make sure I could actually make it first and more importantly make sure we actually like the taste:)

Its a really simple process, I used a BBC Hugh Fearnley recipe. For correct measurments google it, its easy to find online. All you need is water, sugar and lemons and 15 elderflower heads in full bloom.
 Step 1 heat water add sugar stir to dissolve add lemon rind and juice and elderflower heads, stir.

Cover in Muslin and wait for a few days.

there are mixed opinions on how long you wait before bottling it, some say straight away others say wait 6 days. I did a bit of both I waited 4 days before bottling!

Line a sieve with muslin and pour liquid

Steralise bottles and use a funnel to pour liquid in.

All I have to do now is wait for two weeks!!

Homemade Birthday Pressie

I like them so much I'm making another one for myself in a lovely green colour Limeade.


I mentioned in one of my recent posts I had made a pressie for my lovely sister in law but I couldn't post the images before she recieved the package, it would of ruined the element of surprise!!! She has now recieved it and even though there is currently a heatwave and no way she could actually wear it without melting, she loves it:)

IMGP0621

IMGP0621
Originally uploaded by sazknits

I've decided to pick a new 'long term' project something I work on while doing smaller/quicker items:)

I saved this jumper into my wish list over a year ago and would really love to make it in a mustard colour. Pattern available on Ravelry its called 'owls' by Kate Davies. I love it! It's knitted in a chunky wool but it has a lovely fitted shape rather than bulky, which is never flattering:)

This is a challenge for me, I have made one jumper which took a whole year to complete!
Wish me luck.

Crochet

I've been lured to the idea of  learning how to crochet because I love granny squares and  I just know a pretty crochet cushion would look lovely on our charcoal grey sofa.  My friend Jill did sign us up for a beginners class a few months ago but alas it was cancelled. We do plan to sign up for another class but in the meantime I thought why not try you-tube again. I did attempt this before and was disappointed by video after video of bad quality images and overly complicated instructions. Until now, I found two great instructional videos the first is;
Crochet - From Start To Finishing with Bev Dillon and the second is The knit witch 'single crochet stitch' and double crochet stitch. Maybe I was just having a good day but I found these instructions really worked for me and now I can do a single crochet stitch and a double, Yay!

I plan to watch more videos over the next few weeks so I can eventually learn how to make my first very own granny square, who knows it could lead to a cushion cover or some pretty crochet jewellery:)

The End Result

The End Result
Originally uploaded by yvestown

Crochet Glamour #22

Crochet Glamour #22
Originally uploaded by Crochet Gourmet

New Look

I've been thinking about changing the 'look' of my blog for a while now. The only problem being I cannot use photoshop, so I was very limited with what I could do to change it. Then yesterday amazingly Dave stumbled upon these Blog designs online and yes they are FREE!!.

This girl has the cutest designed blog backgrounds ever.This particular design popped out at me straight away but there are loads more,she has an amazing selection. Check out her blog  http://www.aquapoppydesigns.blogspot.com/

My current project is a Birthday gift I'm making. I cannot reveal anymore information at the moment Shhhhhh
Pics will be posted this week just need to finish it off:) This is a pic of our garden shed our garden is rapidly coming back to life, I love Spring.

Two Hats One Weekend...................

I finished my cotton hat on Friday Morning. It's nice but I was little disappointed with it only because I'm undecided if cotton is actually that good for making hats?! Also the hat is quite short, well I suppose standard size I've just been used to bulky baggy hats as of late:)

As the weekend progressed it transpired one hat was not enough for me. I have fab wool I recieved from my friend Jill at Christmas so I decided it was time to use it! I LOVE this hat. the wool knits up so well and the size, colour and shape are just perfect:) I think I'll be wearing it alot. I also have lots left so I can make something else.

Yellow Hat

I've been neglecting my knitting recently so I decided this weekend I would start something simple to get back on track. I was lucky enough to thrift some great knitting patterns from the 60's and 70's in our local house clearance store last year. One of which is a great  knitted yellow hat. I love old knitting patterns you can pick them up for 20p each, sometimes I just buy them because I love the pictures. I hope to have this finished by the end of the week. I'm using an organic hand dyed cotton by Blue Sky Alpacas with sizes 6mm and 5mm needles. I'll post pics when it's finished:)

wooley Blanket

I eventually started the wooley blanket project. I had attempted this pattern twice before but got distracted and had to frog it each time! I put it away as it just wasn't working for me.
Last night I had a feeling it would work and it did.

I'm half way through the first colour of the pattern which is a good start. I'm starting with a charcoal grey then I'll change to purple, then green. The wool is fab a mongolian aran held double throughout. I'll keep posting as it grows.