Lavender pouches part 2

It's been a while since I've posted about knitted things, but I hope you like what I've managed to do, and to be fair, there's more coming! I just didn't want to show you things before they were properly finished, not while they were pinned to a towel being blocked! So I have been busy, I just haven't got round to getting things ready - just - right - ;-)

I managed to finish some lavender pouches. Here they are. The first one was a 'test' really, but a friend of mine came over to stay and she loved it so much I decided to give it to her and put her initial on the front. It was done in stockinette by alternating a size 3 needle and a size 6, which gives it a slight lacy apperance. You can vaguely see this on the photo.

The second one was done for Boyfriend. As I was giving the purple one to my friend, he started saying he doesn't get any knitted things. So I knit this one for his car and it smells so nice!!! I did it by alternating one row knit, one row with the following pattern: k1, *yfwd, k2tog* repeat until last stitch, k1.

The third one I made for my mum. Last time she came over I showed here photos of these. She liked them very much and said she'd quite like one for herself. Her only request was that it should be in pink. So there I went, bought some nice pink yarn and made it for her. I'll give it to her in a little Christmas hamper. I haven't filled it with lavender yet though, as otherwise it would loose some of its beautiful fragance. This one was done by repeating the following pattern: k1, *yo, p2tog* until the last stitch, k1. I like the end result, do you? I hope she does!

And thanks for the suggestion I've had for the blackberries. I've actually come up with a few ideas myself, and I can't wait to find a minute or two to get things started! First, there will have to be a blackberry crumble - it's a must isn't it? Second, there will be blackberry and apple leather strips - now you'll just have to wait and see what those are! And finally, there will be blackberry brandy - oh yes, another Chrismas treat is one its way!!!

Weekend walk

Hello!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a weekend hey?? I don't know about you but mine was crazy!!! I did so much stuff it's unbelievable, and to be honest, I did so much I don't mind too much being back in the office this morning. I know. Cra-zy!!! lol


First of all, have a look at the views we saw from our little walk yesterday afternoon. Boyfriend's family came over for Sunday lunch (we went out to a local 'gastropub') and after they left, we both decided we needed a bit of fresh air before the start of another week. We're extremely lucky with where we live, close to London, but in the countryside too. And I wouldn't change that for the world. I absolutely love being so close to nature. Even though I've always lived in a town, I've been privileged to always be quite close to fields, so I guess that's just in me. And as I've grown older, I enjoy 'the simple things in life' more and more, and walking through fields is definitely one of them. So please, have a cup of tea, and enjoy the view.

So, what do you reckon? Not bad hey? And guess what, we weren't just going for a bit of fresh air. I was determined to pick some of these little beauties. And goodness, we weren't disappointed!!!

We filled up the tupperware I'd brought with us. Ooooh, I'm thinking blackberry and apple crumble!!! Maybe even blackberry icecream? Can you think of anything else? I don't fancy making any jam to be honest, I've done plenty of that already this year, but please, any suggestiongs welcome! x

Update

I'm totally with Jo on this - photos aren't always required for a post - well I say that because I have none to show :-( I blame it on the rubbish weather, this fast approaching dark and windy winter which means that when I get up it's still dark, and by the time I get home, unless I pounce on the camera and take photos of whatever it is that I want, the light is gone before I know it. So that means I have to be super organised at the weekend, think about what I'd like to write about during the following week and take photos in advance. Yeah right, like that's going to happen!

Anyway, so here it is, today, there won't be any photos. I'm sorry! Don't have much news to be honest, apart from that I wanted to tell you that I shall soon be revealing little knitting projects I've been working on. Some are finished, others are nearly there. So come back this weekend, hopefully I'll remember to sort out this out tomorrow! xx

Baking frenzy

Well not exactly a frenzy, but the oven got well used last weekend! If you’re here after reading yesterday’s post, thank you for coming back! Let me share a couple of recipes with you. The first one is fool proof, and won’t disappoint. Easy peasy. It’s pizza dough. I found it a few years ago, unfortunately I can’t remember where from, but it’s absolutely brilliant. You’ll never buy a ready made mix packet again. The list of ingredients may be a little long, but don’t be put off, you just end up mixing it all together in a bowl, there’s nothing more to it! So here we go:

• 650g 00 flour (this is very fine flour, I’ve found it in Sainsbury’s and Waitrose in the past, so it shouldn’t be hard to come by)
• a 7g packet of dry yeast
• 2 teaspoons of salt
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil or vegetable oil
• 50ml of warm milk
• 325ml of warm water

Mix the flour, yeast and salt in a large bowl. Add the oil, milk and water and mix thoroughly until you get a soft dough. This shouldn’t take too long (5 minutes). Try to make a kneading action as you mix. Form into a nice ball in your bowl, cover with cling film for about 1.5-2hours until doubled in size. You can then tear off the amount you need and freeze the rest.

When I made it on Sunday, I divided it into four. This makes four generous sized pizzas to feed two hungry people each. When you need a batch that’s frozen, just take it out of the freezer the night before and leave out until you need it (it’ll be easier to roll out if it’s slightly warm). I’m afraid I don’t have any photos for this though, it was just too yummy and I wasn’t quick enough with the camera! We had it with tomato paste spread as a base, followed by slices of fresh tomatoes, smoked mozzarella (first time I’d had this – it’s AMAZING!!!) and mushrooms, with a drizzle of olive oil, a good sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper and some torn basil leaves. Yum-my!!!!

The other thing I baked was a version of this, a banana, white chocolate and raspberry cake. At first I was a little taken aback by Maria’s recipe, as it uses cups, which I am not familiar with. But I worked around it, and here’s what I used in good old grams:

• 250g plain flour
• 110g soft butter
• 110g brown sugar
• 100g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 50ml milk
• 2 mashed bananas
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 200g raspberries
• small bag of white chocolate chips (2 handfuls should do)
  

Preheat oven to 170˚C and line a loaf tin with baking parchment. Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time. Beat well. Add the bananas and milk and mix. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add to the creamed mix. Mix in the raspberries and chocolate chips. Pour the mix into the tin. Bake for about 1hour and 10min, or until a skewer comes out clean.

I thought this turned out lovely! Using up raspberries from the pick your own that I’d frozen was really nice too! I guess this might be nice with blackberries too, or whatever else you’ve got at the moment! xx

Match made in heaven

Good Tuesday everyone! I managed to do quite a bit of cooking at the weekend (feeling low does not stop me from enjoying spending time in the kitchen - unfortunately for my waistline!), and I thought I should share it with you! Yesterday’s post was long enough, I though it was best if I saved some news for today. First of all, let me show you the last batch of cherry plum jam I made a couple of weeks ago. Not sure why I didn’t end up writing about it earlier, but I just didn’t get round to it, you know how that just happens sometimes don’t you. Well anyway, here it is! Went from this:

to this!

This did involve butchering my fingers (I wanted to get the stones out), 3 hours of hard labour and 4.5kg of fruit ready for action. But it was all worth it in the end. The thought that this jam was made with local fruit that grows around the corner from where I live, that I didn’t have to pay a penny for it, that I picked it myself (with the invaluable help of Boyfriend on that sunny Sunday morning with a stool to reach the higher branches – thanks again!), just fills me with joy! I thought these would make cute additions to some Christmas hampers too perhaps. I know I know, I mentioned the C word!!! Please forgive me, but I guess I’m one of these people who gets very excited by it all. I’ve done more C work and research, but I’ll save that for another day ;-)

So back to my weekend delicacies! Farls. Irish soda farls. A weekday breakfast without them is a sad one. There are sooooo yummy, you just won’t believe me until you try it. To be fair, it might not be to everyone’s taste, but I need energy in the morning. I have breakfast at 6.20am, do a fair bit of walking to get to work, and don’t have lunch until 12.00pm, so I need something that’s going to stop me from snacking all morning. And boy does this work. Have them cut in half, toasted, with some jam, and it’s a heavenly start to any day. I promise!

So here’s the recipe. It couldn’t be easier - though it is a little messy, but I’m getting better and better at containing the mess everytime!

Ingredients:

• buttermilk – the tub I get from Sainsbury’s is 284ml
• 300g flour
• 1 heaped teaspoon of baking soda

Mix the flour and baking soda in a bowl. Make a well in the middle and add the buttermilk. Mix until you get a soft dough (about 5min or so). Leave the dough to rest for about 10min. Knead very lightly on a well floured surface (and I mean WELL floured – add more flour if you feel you need to, otherwise it does get very sticky). Form into a flattened circle with your hands, about 1-1.5cm thick and cut in 5 sections.

Sprinkle a little flour in a frying pan, put it on medium heat. When it’s hot, add the farls (you may have to do this in 2 batches depending on the size of your pan, as you don’t want them touching each other) for about 6min on each side, until they’re nice and golden brown. Store in a Tupperware for up to a week (they may last longer, mine just never get to last more than that!).

Come back tomorrow to see what else I got up to! xx

Little crisis, the Ippolyts trail and Victorian classrooms

Good morning all! So, how was your weekend? A little less emotional than mine I hope! I won't go into details, I don't think it'll really interest anyone, but had a little crisis this weekend. Realised that even though I have a good job, a lovely flat and an amazing boyfriend, I wasn't happy. Now maybe that's exaggerating a little (the not being happy bit), but I guess the fact that my birthday is coming up gave me the shivers a bit. 25. That's half way to 50. I'm closer to 30 than to the day I passed my baccalaureate. Now there's a scary thought. So I guess that got me a little depressed. Or just worried. Was I doing the right thing, living in the right place, working in the right job etc etc. You get the idea. I'm a little over it now, thanks to Boyfriend who was wonderful and helped work things out. But I still reckon I need to do some more thinking. I'm sure you've all had times like these, how exactly do you deal with it? Do you tell yourself you're doing the right thing and just carry on, or do you throw everything away and try something new?

Anyway, onto lighter and happier thoughts! For the first time in my life (there's a first time to everything right?) I bought some sunflowers. Not any sunflowers though. Look at these babies, aren't they ABSOLUTELY gorgeous???!!!

Everytime I look at them, it feels like they're staring back at me, sending me a little bit of sunshine. I love them.

I could honestly spend an hour just looking at them. They make me happy. Alright alright, after reading the start of my blog you're probably thinking, well they didn't make you happy this weekend did they?! and you'd be right, well at least only on Saturday. Yesterday, they made me smile. And hopefully, they're making you smile now as well.

Moving on. This weekend was Heritage Open Days in Hitchin, the little town where I live. We missed it last year because we were on holiday, so this time around, we thought we'd make the most of it. What happens is some venues around town and in the surrounding villages are open to the public for free. Some you'd usually have to pay for, others are actually closed to the general public. So it felt like a privilege to be able to have a look around the Biggin for example. What a stunning building. We decided we should go have a wonder around St Ippolyts church as well, which dates back to 1087. Yes you read correcly, that's the 11th century. Instead of driving there though, we got our walking boots on and walked there. It was truly lovely. I got told off for getting a little snappy-happy again with the macro feature of the camera, but I'm sure you'll appreciate ;-)

I'm looking forward to coming back to these fields either this weekend or the following, there are so many elderberries and blackberries waiting to be picked! More jam parties for me then!!!

Anyway, before I go, I want to show you a few more photos. I know this post is getting a bit long, but bear with me, it'll be worth it! We had a look around the British Schools Museum on Sunday, and my goodness, the place is full of treasures. They have a variety of objects used by schoolchildren during Victorian times and a history of the school. It was truly fascinating. If you're interested in that sort of thing, I recommend you go have a look yourself. We even had a go at writing with a dip pen and played the penny game. So here are a few snaps, I hope you enjoy them!

Happy Monday to all! x

Flower explosion

Good morning all! I hope you're having a nice week so far, hasn't the weather been wonderful?!! I know the temperatures are going down, but the sun is still shining, so we can't complain really!

In line with all this glorious brightness, I'd like to share some photos of flowers that I took at the weekend.

I'm not very good with plants, so I don't know their names, but I hope you enjoy my little mosaics! (on that note, sorry if I got a little mosaic-happy, I have only just discovered how to make them and I had to get it out of my system!)

Baktus

Finished!!! It's finished!!! After leaving it a few days until I decided it was finally time to sew in the ends, and it's done! I'm so pleased, I just can't wait till it gets cold enough to wear it! And I can't thank FancyElastic enough for this :-)



Type of yarn used described on Ravelry - my username is PetitFiloux if you want to find me.
Hope you like it as much as I do, I think I'm developing a thing for stripes ;-)

Colour to lift up our moods :-)

Now I don't know about you, but I'm a little confused with the weather at the moment. Ok ok I know it is now officially September, it seems everywhere you looks there are massive signs saying "summer holidays are over, get back to school!".


Now I don't have children going back to school, so I'm not feeling this as much as others, and I'm still hoping for a little ray of sunshine. But honestly, did you look out the window this morning?!!! Blustery winds - I thought a full on storm was coming our way! And then I was told it had already been - honestly, can nothing wake me up?!


Anyway, feeling a little grey at the moment. Might be due to the fact that I have been poorly for the last few days, and may be also due to the fact that it feels like winter is well on its way. Now don't get me wrong, I love staying indoors, snuggling underneath a cozy blanket with a mug of hot chocolate in one hand and yarn in the other, but it still feels too early for all that.

So there, I found a few photos that I took at while back during the "summer" on my way to work, when the sun was shining and I left the house is broad daylight, not what now feels like the end of the night. Some of the photos are of flowers from a nearby pub which are simply stunning, others from a toy museum. I've never been in, but I really should, it looks like it hides a million and one treasures...

A weekend in F

1/ Football

Very few perks come with my job, but this one was not insignificant, far from it: 2 tickets to go and see Boyfriend's favourite team. In a box. Now, am I not the best girlfriend ever?! ;-)

2/ Family

Golden wedding anniversary on Boyfriend's side of the family. A lot of eating, drinking and laughing!

3/ Food

As mentionned earlier, certainly a most memorable weekend of food!! We even made one of our favourite dishes yesterday: poulet basquaise. Couldn't be more simple as well, just brown some chicken thighs/ legs in a big pot, add chopped onion, garlic, button mushrooms, chopped red/ yellow/ green peppers, tomato sauce, a few chopped fresh tomatoes, some red wine and plenty of herbs and that's it! 180C in the oven and 1hour later and you have the most tasty dinner ready!

4/ Fabric

A while back, I'd ordered some swatches from Cath Kidston. I never ended up buying any material, but didn't want the swatches to go to waste. So I made this little 'pillow', I just think it's very cute! And the plastic box the pins came in was so ugly, I just had to do something!