Two more draw-string bags

I realised at 2.30pm that I hadn't done anything constructive with my day.  There has been pottering around, a bit of this, a bit of that, but nothing to physical to show.

My craft room has all sorts of bits in it, and I made a couple of little draw-string bag.  They were made simply because I could, but I had no idea what to do with them.  And then one started calling softly "I'm a gift bag, suitable for CDs." 

11.  Blue gift bag

12. Second blue gift bag

And the total is now up to 13 projects, 16 finished items, and we are at the beginning of week 16!  I am back on track!  Hooray!

A second thought on '52 in 52'

Time for a list.  Lists make me feel better.

1. Rubik's Cube
2. Wizard's false beard
3. Hereford Helices socks
4. Reverse stocking stitch socks
5. Teal cardigan
6. Purple and black socks
7. Autumnal striped socks
8. Rainbow sheep drawstring bag
9. Black drawstring bag
10. Rainbow hat

That's ten finished projects in 2013, but 14 finished items (there are two socks in a pair).  At the start of the year I very often count socks as '2' rather than 1 because it helps me feel further on.  Then later in the year when things are flowing, they revert back to 1.  :o)  

Using this logic, there are 14 finished items and 15 weeks have passed since the start of the year.  Perhaps things aren't as dire as they first appeared!

'52 in 52' is proving to be a challenge

As the title says, '52 in 52' is proving to be a challenge. Here we are, half way through the fourth month, and I have a tiny number of completed projects.

I have been exceptionally good and finished three projects started last year; a teal cardigan, a pair of socks that started out as yoga socks, and a pair of stripy socks. However, those stripy socks might not have been started last year. They might have been sitting around, missing a toe for longer than that. Yes, you read that correctly, I had a pair of socks, only needing a toe to be finished, and still they languished!

These are good socks! Not socks to be ignored for months on end! Here they are:

These socks have now found a new home with Emily. From the way she was holding them on Sunday, she will love them and look after them well.

The '52 in 52' count was at 4. :o( The teal cardigan, the purple socks and these beautiful socks bring it up to 7. Also completed are two drawstring bags, bring it up to 9.

As a total, that isn't too bad! It could be a lot better, but.... Oh, and there is a hat that I ripped back and re-knitted! That's 10. Double digits!

Garlic and Herb Tortillas

I have just made tortillas again. This time with some changes. :o)

This time, the quantities were reduced to a quarter to make two tortillas. The sugar was removed, and instead 1/4 tsp of dried mixed herbs, and 1/2 tsp of chopped garlic was added. Whilst the tortillas were hot I added some Brie and a smoosh of cranberry and apple jelly (the sort eaten with meat, not the sweet kind for spreading on toast).

It was all rather delicious! :o)

Gluten-free Flour Tortillas on my day off

A friend on Ravelry was asking about gluten-free flour tortillas.  Someone posted a recipe that her friend uses.  As it is my day off, I decided to play in the kitchen, and I am so glad I did!  

The ingredients given in the recipe are:

2 c. Gluten-free all purpose flour (or 2 c. White rice flour)
2 tsp. Xanthan gum or Guar gum
1 tsp. Gluten-free baking powder
2 tsp. Brown sugar 
1 tsp. Salt
1 c. Warm water





and this produced 8 tortillas.  I made a half-recipe to test it out, and used Dove Farm Gluten-Free Self Raising flour instead of the all purpose flour and baking powder.  This was because I used the last of the baking powder last week and haven't bought a replacement yet.  


Whilst making one of the tortillas, I noted it was puffing up in the middle, and used a weight to bring it back down in contact with the griddle.  This produced a harder tortilla, more suited to folding in half rather than rolling.  Following the instructions as started gave a soft, roll-able, tasty tortilla.


My griddle is not terribly large, and my tortillas came out a bit thick.  Next time, I will make 5 tortillas rather than 4.  It is definitely a recipe I will be using again!  

More socks

A second pair of socks to add to the 2013 total.

These are plain 'vanilla' socks.  I had meant them to be worn with the purl bumps on the outside, but whilst weaving in the ends I did it on the wrong side!  

The socks are actually teal through to cream, but the photograph was taken in poor light levels and so the colours are not as they should be.

But, this is the fourth completed project of 2013.  (4 in 2013)

Hereford Helices

Last week, my daughter and I flew to England to enable her to attend two interviews for art college.  On the first day, we were going to be travelling at least six hours by train, as well as the flight over to England.  I anticipated that there  would have rather a lot of time to read and knit.

Reading didn't really happen, but a sock was designed and knitted during those couple of English days.  'Hereford Helix' was my first thought of a name for the design as we were travelling through Hereford, and the socks have a helical pattern.  My inclination when it comes to socks is an identical pair, but in this case, it made sense for the socks to be mirror images.  Therefore, instead of Hereford Helix, the pattern is now Hereford Helices.  

This is the third completed project in 2012: 3 in 52.  There's  pair of vanilla socks just waiting to have the toes grafted.  

This is the first time since starting the "52 in 52" that I have counted socks as one project, but it is also the first time I have included non-knitted and non-crocheted projects in the count.  

A thank you card

Yesterday I was clearing some papers out of my office, and I came across a thank you card from a former colleague, David.  David had a very aggressive form of cancer.  It was discovered in the summer, and by the winter, I was at his funeral.  

I went to visit him at home one day and was shocked to see how much weight he had lost.  He was wearing a big thick sweater, and was still feeling the cold.  As is the way of such things, I asked "Is there anything I can do for you?"  He indicated that there was.  "I have seen the beautifully coloured socks you have made for people.  Might I have a pair of socks?"  Of course he could!

The socks were started and I took them along to a social evening.  Someone asked about them, and when I explained that they were for David, she took the sock from my hands and started knitting a round.  These socks were passed around.  Knitters knitted rounds, and complete novices were shown how to knit a stitch or two.

When we went to Ireland on holiday the socks went with me.  I was working on them during coffee time after church, and a woman asked me about them.  I explained and said that so far the socks had been knitted by over 20 people.  She reached out and said "Twenty one", and another woman looked on and said "Twenty two."  All of those people prayed whilst they were knitting, and wanted to send their very best wishes to him.

When David received the socks he was utterly delighted, and quite awed by the fact that in the end over 26 people had knitted his socks.  

My little one's first sock

My daughter wanted to knit socks.  One of the easiest ways to learn to make socks is by making slipper socks on big needles and using thick yarn.  It gives a feeling of how to do it.  

She is using King Cole Mirage double knitting yarn.  This was held double and she cast on 40sts.  The yarn is in reds, in shade 870, with a dyelot of 43448.

Crafting Materials Bought in 2013

I have a lot of craft materials, and my desire is to reduce the materials in increase the number of finished objects. 

For the last few years I have been taking part in "52 in 52" - producing 52 items in 52 weeks.  I lost track last year of the projects I had finished, but the year before, I managed it.  This was largely due to a month of knitting baby and children's hats; it really pushed my total up.

My current plan is to keep a record of the materials (and their cost) coming into the house, as well as recording the finished items.

The totals so far are:

2 finished items, a fake beard and a Rubik's Cube tissue box cover

£3.20 on more plastic canvas (this will become the front of a TARDIS tissue box cover)

A Wizard's False Beard

The beard was knitted for the Ankh Morpork’s Guild Wars. Terry Pratchett, writer of the Discworld series of novels, wrote about wizards who would sneak out of the university at night to listen to The Band With Rocks In. 

The university gets locked up at night.  The wizards have developed the trick of climbing over the walls, but they are not meant to be climbing the university walls after dark (or any time really).  Therefore, they need a disguise.  Who would think that a false beard would be covering a real beard!

This is the second item complete in 2013.  Only another 50 to go.

Colours on a Cube

Ah...  I have just been told that the normal combinations of colours on the Rubik's Cube  has red opposite orange, blue opposite green and yellow opposite white.

My pattern was taken from the cube my daughter has.  On it red is opposite orange, blue opposite white and yellow opposite green.  This means that if someone want to use my colour placement chart and wants to use the original colour combination they should switch the placement of green and white.

Rubik's Cube

The Rubik's Cube tissue box cover is now complete!  My first finished project for 2013.

Banana Loaf

Ingredients

110g butter, softened

110g caster sugar

2 large eggs

3 large ripe bananas (mashed)

225g plain flour (Dove Farm for gluten-free)

2 tsp baking powder (Dove Farm for gluten-free)

Method

Line a 1kg loaf tin with parchment paper, or 2 1/2 kg loaf tins, or 24 small paper muffin cases.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Cream the butter and sugar together until pale, light and soft. Alternate between adding a little egg, and a little flour (mixed with the baking powder).  Add the mashed bananas.

Pour the mixture into the loaf tin(s) or into 24 small muffin cases and bake in the oven for about 1¼ - 1½ hours for the large loaf, 40-45 minutes for the smaller loaves and 25 minutes for the mini muffins.  Bake until golden on top and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Remove the loaf from the tin and cool on a wire rack; cool mini muffins on a rack in their paper cases.

Rubik's Cube and Cold Sheeping

One of the good things about the Rubik's Cube tissue box holder is that it is using up some of my stash of yarn.  Work is coming on a-pace now.  However, I don't have a suitable green yarn.  It will now need to be set aside until tomorrow when I can get to Joan's of Onchan to buy new yarn.

Over the last few years I have tried to decrease my stash of yarn, but quite frankly, it doesn't appear to be working too well.  One possible way of going about it is to 'cold sheep'.  This is a semi-humorous take on 'cold turkey'; the person with the yarn problem simply stops buying yarn.  

Can I discipline myself in the ways of stash reduction, or is it really time to go 'cold sheep'?    Perhaps I need to give serious consideration to including yarn-based craft supplies in my New Year's Resolutions.  Perhaps.

Crafting List

The list of ideas is getting longer and longer.  A list is the answer!

• Rubik's Cube tissue box holder for Number 1 Daughter (done)
• TARDIS tissue box holder for Number 2 Daughter
• Dead Fish hat for Number 2 Daughter
• Lace hat and scarf for Number 1 Daughter
• Sweater for the Beloved
• Sleep masks for Juan

Hand-made Christmas Presents

There are times when hand-made Christmas presents are wonderful things, and other times when they are just wonderful ideas.

This year I managed to make a grand total of three Christmas gifts, and that is only if you count a pair of slipper socks as two items!

I decided around the 20th of December that I was not about to knock myself out trying to get all of my ideas into the realms of reality.  Instead, the days between Christmas and my return to work on the 7th of January would be crafting days.

Today, I am working on a Rubik's Cube tissue box holder for Number 1 Daughter. I looked at various pictures of the tissue box on-line and did not feel comfortable with any of them.  I could not be sure the puzzle could be solved.  Yes, that does sound a bit odd, but I wasn't about to make a Rubik's Cube tissue box holder that wasn't solvable.  :o)

After borrowing a cube I decided on this particular organisation of colours.  I can assure everyone that this pattern is definitely solvable. 

These are the six faces of the cube.  The letters show how to join the faces.  As join with As and Bs join to Bs, etc.  The middle orange square on the fifth face has been greyed.  This is to indicate where the opening for the tissue should be made.

I have included all six faces, but I will only be using five of them.  There will be no bottom to the tissue box holder.  Instead, the tissue box will be held in place by a couple of strands of elastic.

Christmas in Hospital

I was too emotional to post anything about this earlier.

My Dad was admitted to hospital on Christmas Eve with breathing difficulties. He has asthma and has just had a chest infection. He was not able to get enough oxygen into his system. I knew that the only place he should be was in the hospital.

He was responding well to treatment and when she went to visit him on the evening of Christmas Eve, one of he patients opposite came over and told her that Dad had looked absolutely awful when he had arrived in hospital 6 hours ago, but was looking so much better now. My Mam thought he looked utterly awful, but was very much reassured that he was looking better than before.

Each time Mam went to hospital she saw a marked improvement in him, and he was discharged early yesterday evening. There is a huge list of the drugs he has to take, and which ones he must not take, the things he has to do, and the things he must not do.

In the midst of Dad's illness, I was also worried about my Mam being alone at Christmas. My Dad has had way more than his fair share of illness of the years, but this is the first time he has been in hospital for Christmas.

Mam received at least two calls saying "You must come and spend Christmas with us." There would be lots of people at both celebrations, and she felt she just could not cope being amongst so many. She did pop in on her sister, and her family for 30 minutes after evening visiting at the hospital.

It is times like this when having the Irish Sea separating me from my parents feels like such a bad thing.

Juan's Christmas Stocking in Braille

I have been making cross stitch Christmas stockings for people, and the latest one made has been for Juan. 'Juan' is a Manx name, pronounced 'Jew-an' with the stress fairly balanced, but with a smidge more on the first syllable. It is another variation on the name 'John'.

The particular Juan this stocking was made for is blind. Whilst I was in the local craft shop (Joan's of Onchan), I saw some beautiful 6mm glass beads. Inspiration struck, and I realised that instead of embroidering his name onto the stocking, I could instead used the beads to write his name in Braille!

Christmas Preparation - part 5

On Sunday morning I made a list (I checked it twice); it had three items on it, eggs, cream and mushrooms. No need to take a shopping list of just three items! Um…

There was a queue of cars waiting to get into the shop’s car park, and this made me a trifle worried. However, when we got inside it was busy, not crazy. People were not in a frenzy, and were being polite to each other. It wasn’t an unpleasant shopping experience. When we got to the tills, all of them were open. At each one a person was being served and a second person’s shopping was being loaded onto the conveyor belt, and that was it! They were getting through the customers quickly and efficiently. (One year, I went to a different shop. It is double the size, and it was bad. Thankfully I had taken my knitting with me. I needed it. The queues were about 10 people deep for each and every till.)

I went with the idea that we would buy anything that we needed/wanted for the store cupboard and freezer, but that there were those three things needed for Christmas dinner. 

It's rather fortunate that there is a convenience shop just around the corner, and my husband has just popped out to it, to buy eggs and mushrooms. :o)  

As Meatloaf almost sang, "One out of three ain't bad!"