Thursday 30th November - a load off my shoulders?

 Or, a haircut! My hair had grown halfway down my back. I looked into getting a mobile hairdresser to come round and do my hair in the garden in the Spring, but then there came a series of unfortunate events, ranging from bad weather, to my father being ill, or me being below par, all interspersed with school holidays (mobile hairdressers tend to be mothers of school age children) intervened.

And who would want to get their hair cut outside now? I'd have to take my hat off for a start!

A day or so ago I took matters into my own hands, and set Best Beloved to work while my hair was soaking wet from a bath. 'Could you cut it to about this length, 4 finger widths below my ear?'

He set to work, I heard the scissors, and a huge chunk of hair fell into the bath.

His interests lie more in the area of quantum physics than materials science. Which is why insufficient allowance was made for the elasticity of wet hair, and also the effect of drying on the length of hair.  

All things considered,  my hair is looking pretty good, inspite of being shorter than it has been for many years!

Things continue apace for the Advent crafts project. I have made a scandi heart and a flexagon as possibilities, a 1-week cowl is underway and the Teddy bear factory is in full swing.

The Teddy at the top right is one of a pair of glove puppets my daughter gave me some years ago. She bought them at a craft fair somewhere, and I have been developing my own version.  The great teddies have been sewn together now to make a finger puppet, with the little red scarf sewn in place. It's just waiting for eyes, nose and mouth.

If you fancy a bit of quick and cheerful Christmas knitting, Ang has posted a pattern for tiny knitted Christmas jumper ornaments which she is selling in her shop. And do go and have a look at the shop too. 

Wednesday 29th November - Advent 1 - The 5-day Beanie Hat

I'm trying to post the first week's craft ideas ahead of the start of Advent so that you have a chance to think about them...

Here's the first of the projects for the Advent Craft Adventure Book - A very simple Beanie Hat. I've called it a '5-day beanie hat' because I reckon it would be doable in the time - I did it three and a half days and now I need to take a day off from knitting!

In summary; for a smallish(ish) adult beanie, head circumference about 21-22 inches, you will need

178 yards chunky (bulky) yarn, NOT 'Super Bulky'

6mm or 6.5 mm needles

aim for a gauge of 14 1/2 stitches and 26 rows to 4". It's not crucial to be exactly exact.

Cast on 40 stitches, and knit 108 rows. (Each ridge in your knitting = 2 rows)

Stitch markers to count the rows are very useful.

Your finished piece of knitting will be 11" along the cast on/off edge, and 16" around the long edge. Garter stitch is very stretchy, so the 16" should fit comfortably around the head.

You can do an ordinary bind off, and then sew the two short sides together, or consult google and video tutorials and do a 3-needle bind off which is what I did, which combines binding off and joining two edges in one go.

Now you have a tube!

At the open end with the longest tail of yarn, thread a needle and go around the top picking up every other ridge like this; 

and gently draw it tight like this

fasten off and weave in all the ends. A hat! You can add a pompom, home-made or bought fake-fur if you like.

I think that knitting 108 rows at the rate of around 24 per day wouldn't take too long each day; it's helpful if the yarn moves more easily across the needles than mine did. It all depends on the needles and the yarn. My hat is actually a size bigger, because I used 6.5mm needles. I think you would be better off doing some sums or wading through the website (see below) if you wanted to make a smaller size or use different yarn.     

The youtube tutorial for the hat is here

 The website, www.yayforyarn.com has the pattern for this hat in every size from premature baby to large adult, and every yarn weight  from sock yarn to super chunky. The website instructions are maddening as it is full of advertisements; I suspect this is to encourage you to buy the ad-free pattern! 

I have summarised this information, including the name of the website, on the card which I photographed tucked into the brim of the hat. 

Tuesday 28th November - The advent of Advent....

 

Today we opened the chest where Advent (and wool and stuff) is stored. These two wooden calendars are in place, waiting for their contents.  The fabric Advent calendar  and the pole it hangs from are ready and waiting, and the lego box has been unearthed. The chest is also where Christmas cards are stored. Keeping them all in the loft with the Christmas decorations proved to be a bad idea in the past which is why we split out the 'pre-Christmas' items. 

Did I mention yarn? I found a set of those looms for 'knitting' tubes, like the French knitting dolls, or maybe the handmade versions made from a wooden cotton reel, navy of us had as children. I bought it back in 2019 in the hope my godmother might enjoy using it, but her hands were too arthritic to manage. So I have put the outturn book inside the package ready to remove it.

And I found the strips of Tunisian crochet I started making back in 2013. This was when my mother came out of hospital following a major stroke which left her unable to use the left side of her body. I hoped that she might be able to manage this one-handed, but unfortunately it proved too difficult. 

I carried on making the strips using yarn bought at different places. It was a soothing activity during traveling, especially a couple of long haul flights to Canada, or just in the evenings, Howevef it soon became clear that if I followed my plan of sewing them together to make a blanket, the final result would have been incredibly heavy as Tunisian crochet makes a very dense fabric.

I've unravelled two strips so far, and will use the yarn to make something else. 

There are three more strips in this photograph, all with poignant memories. There are two rolled up together on the right; the very first one dating to when I was trying it out, rolled around one I made later when we stayed in a National Trust holiday house in the grounds of Battle Abbey.

The one on the left is the colours of the sandy beach and pake blue sky at Ijmuiden in the Netherlands where we scattered my mother's ashes among the dunes where she played as a child. I'm not sure what I shall make from this strip once I unravel it.

That was a lovely day. Perhaps that sounds odd, in the circumstances, but I just felt that she was released from the very difficult years preceding her death when she was confined to a wheelchair, totally dependent on others and in constant pain. 

At the same time all the Dutch side of her family were gathered together, many having been out of touch for many years, and it was a great celebration of the importance and joy of being a family. I hope that the re-established family ties have lasted. 

All that wool winding has sent my step counter on my wrist crazy; I certainly haven't walked anything like the 3000 steps it is displaying!

Monday 27th November - Advent Calender Booklet

This year, as there are four full weeks in Advent, starting on Sunday 3rd, I've decided to make myself an Advent booklet with ideas for each week. Then, next year, I can use the book again, and add ideas too.

I've made the book from four envelopes, and Christmas cards from last year. Ivalso used a bulldog clamp, a glue stick, scissors and some sticky tape.

Here we go... take your envelopes,  Stack them all facing the same way. Make sure the bottoms of the envelopes are level. I'll call the bottom envelope #1, and the top one #4.

Gently lift the edge of the top three envelopes and glue the flap of the bottom envelope, #1,  like this. I wrote on the flap where the glue goes, and you can see how the glue has smeared the ink.

Press envelope #2 down onto the gluey flap, and apply glue to the new flap

Do this again; so you have now only envelope #4 folded up while you glue the flap of the #3.

Now your stack looks just like it did when you started. Put glue on the flap as shown, and fold it round to the back, so it will be sticking to the bottom envelope 

Turn the envelopes over. You now have a booklet! Find a card, or cut a piece of card, that will be bigger all round than the open book.

Turn the stack over, so that you are looking at the open sides of the envelopes,  and glue in place. I've left a small gap between the open edge of the envelopes and the centre of the card to make it easier to fold the card closed

I've labelled each envelope Advent 1, Advent 2 etc, and cut a couple of cards to fit inside. I'll use these to write recipes or craft ideas, or other things, to find each week.

I was a bit concerned about the exposed gummed edges; it would be very disappointing to come next year and find the whole booklet gummed shut! So I've used some tape to cover the gum.

And here's the finished book. I suppose it took less than half an hour once I had every to hand.

I'll be posting ideas for each week, starting from Sunday 3rd. That will give me a week to test each suggestion before I launch it upon you!

I'm testing a hat pattern from the internet for week 1 at the moment; if you want to risk preparing in advance, it uses 1 ball of chunky (bulky) yarn, about 178 yards long and 6mm or 6.5mm needles (check the ball band for details), for the adult medium size. Gauge is 14 stitches or 20 rows to 4 inches. I'm just over halfway and, so far, so good...

Sunday 26th November - let's get started!

 I try not to think too much about Christmas until after my birthday, near the end of November. With Advent starting on 3rd Dec this year there's quite a breathing space. (Advent can begin any day between 27th November and 3rd December.)

I had just said 'how about aiming to put up the tree on the weekend of 10th December' when there was a knock at the door, and a long thin parcel was delivered 

I have had one of these before,  several years ago; a living Christmas tree, all carefully squashed flat to fit through the letterbox! It came complete with a pot, lights, garlands and decorations including a star.

It's only about 18" tall, but absolutely delightful. The last one has survived a number of years in a pot outside.  In a few weeks I will ask Himself to shift it to the front of the house and put some decorations on it.

So, it's not even Advent, and we have a Christmas tree!

Sunday 26th November - Cake Sunday? Pudding Sunday?

 

No, this isn't cake or pudding Sunday! (Although I have made three Christmas cakes, and eaten the first two 'testers' already)

I might make a small pudding tomorrow or Tuesday. 

This is the last Sunday before Advent, and is the day the Church of England celebrates 'Christ the King', a few weeks before we celebrate the Nativity. 

Round in a circle we go; from the end of the church year to the beginning, from Christ's death and resurrection to his birth.

The collect for the day famously begins with the words 'stir up', which is where the idea of making cakes and puddings comes from.

Stirring up our wills to do good works. Seeing what we can do to 'plenteously bring forth the fruit of these works', as a response to the work done by God in us.

This gives me an impetus to get a grip and write the Christmas cards (I didn't get round to doing them last year).

And to give consideration to the various charities which work to bring relief to those less fortunate than me and make time to send off donations so they can carry on.

Some of the charities I'm thinking of are the Salvation Army, Trussell Trust, Crisis at Christmas, and, for further afield, Unicef. It's easy enough to donate online.

Friday 24th November - Yosemite, Camino de santiago, a jam cupboard, flowers

 I finished the Yosemite virtual trail yesterday. It has been fun;

apparently, to reach the top of this hill I had to go up steep, irregular steps, then scramble over rocks, and finally go up a sort of 200m ladder made of slippery wooden treads fixed between two steel cables, all the time keeping an eye on the unpredictable weather, as mist and fog can suddenly descend without warning meaning that it is unsafe to continue.

None of this would be remotely possible for me in real life! But what a view when you get there....

I've so enjoyed the scenery along the way, and the informative 'postcards' that arrive every so often.

What next? I've paid for the Camino de Santiago, about 480 miles long, from somewhere in France to the tip of Spain. At my current rate of about 6 -7 miles per week (!) I have set a finish date of May 2024. I promise not to post Every Day for the next 18 months!

This is the start; very different scenery.

Joining a challenge does motivate me to try and reach a minimim of 2000  - roughly a mile - steps on my step counter by bedtime each day. Most days I'm still at about 500 by the evening, so I make up the number during the advertisements on TV, and a final 'sprint' just before I get into bed. The final sprint is made much easier by putting on some bright and cheerful Bach. Yesterday it was the concerto for four harpsichords - wonderful.

Having made chutney and jam earlier in the week, the problem was where to store the jars. I eventually thought of a cupboard in the dining room; but I had to clear it first! All this came out of the top shelves;

  

and was sorted into 'keep', 'charity bag' and 'ziffit' so that my little hoard could go in. Jam on the left, chutney on the right. I might add the unopened jars of bought jam and chutney to free some space in the kitchen cupboard.

It's ridiculously exciting - I've never had a proper 'home made preserves' cupboard before. I'll certainly move last year's mincemeat, currently 'out of sight, out of mind' and a jar of chutney which was a gift, into the cupboard (once we have moved the shredder and stack of papers which is blocking the door!)

This arrived in the post today, inside a stout 'letterbox' carton. I quite often send flower cards like this to people for birthdays, or as a special card, and it is rather lovely to receive one. They are real, fresh flowers, arranged in a little block of oasis. There's also a little plastic pipette for watering them every day.    

And look - a little butterfly charm in among the flowers! I've put on my little worktable beside me.

Thursday 23rd November - this'n'that

 I'm reading 'Greengates' by R C Sherriff at the moment. Written in 1936, it concerns what happens when Mr Baldwin retires from the cashier's office of a city firm (insurance? banking?) and how it turns the lives of his wife and their cook/parlour maid upside down. 

All unknowingly, he disrupts the pattern of their lives, sitting late over breakfast reading the picture paper, which his wife was used to read before starting her domestic routine, and making it impossible for Ada to clear the breakfast things and do the bedrooms before the tradesmen appear at the kitchen door and it's time to make lunch.

I have got to a point where everything is going to change...

'Miss Buncle's Book' by D E Stevenson is about to be the 'Book at Bedtime' on BBC Rado 4. I'm looking forward to this iimmensely . I love the book (also published by Persephone Books) so I have high hopes for this admittedly abridged reading. Another radio joy for me is the return of 'The Kitchen  Cabinet'. I've found one episode so far.

In the post

A comb ;this may not seem particularly significant, but I bought myself a new hairbrush recently, an old fashoined Denman nylon and bristle one to replace the ancient Mason Pearson brush I had been using for perhaps thirty or more years. 

I knew Best Beloved's comb was also heading for 'vintage' (is that 50 years? or 60 years old?). This is a near identical replacement, apart from the colour. The comb it replaces is missing several teeth, and, after much thought, we realised he got it back in 1977, before we were married! You can't say we don't get full use from things!

Cross Stitch

I'm hugely enjoying this month's cross stitch. I can't resist a little snapshot; I don't think it gives much away;

I'm using three strands of embroidery cotton, taken from two or three different skeins. When I'm using variegated threads, I reverse one in order to keep an indefinite marked effect. Not much more to go now, which is just as well as I am running out of different colours. 

Supper

This was ready, and we were tucking in within 10 minutes of my finishing a piano lesson. 

The spring onions and other veg were prepared (or fetched out of the freezer!) and an egg all ready beaten up in a cup beforehand. It really was the work of minutes to stirfry the veg, zap the microwave rice and add it to the pan, dose it all with soy sauce and sriracha and stir the egg through. 

Perfect!

Wednesday 22nd November - Aha! That's what it is for!

GLIMMERS

Have you heard of this idea?

I had a 'glimmer' moment early this morning,  not Very Early because it was soon after sunrise which is at 7.30am these days. While the Eastern sky was still very pale pink, there was a huge rainbow arching right across the sky. Something to notice, and resist through the day to bring a bit of happiness.

I've been spotting references to 'glimmers' in various magazine articles recently.  I think I may prefer noting 'glimmer' events rather than 'gratitude' things at the end of the day. It just seems more natural.

Although I could mention that although I am sorry that she's not well, I'm grateful that my last piano student of the day has cancelled!

The 'Aha' thing;

 Yesterday I posted this picture of a plastic thingummy which came with some small jars I ordered;

 

Today I went back and ordered another pack of 6 jars and spotted this photograph 

There is the thingummy, with the plastic handle assembled. I threw away the foam pad, thinking it was just a bit of cheap packaging.  In fact the description states 'free jar cleaner included'. The plastic handle has joined the horrible bit of foam in the bin! One piece of plastic tat less in the kitchen drawer.

I've been making slow cooker chutney.  Once again I filled the pot too full, and ended up tipping everything into a saucepan for the final stage. I've run out of jars, so the final half dozen spoonfuls have gone into Pyrex ramekins, with wax discs and several layers of cling film. I'm not sure how chilli-hot it is going to be when it matures.  So far it tastes as though it would be good with sausages, or as the base of a marinade for sweet and sour chicken.

I made a point of labelling yesterday's jam as they are very similar in appearance; chilli chutney on toast would be a fairly savage way to wake up in the morning!

Tuesday 21st November - can anyone tell me what this is for?

 I bought some half-size kilner-style jam jars on the Internet.

It was a set of six, and each jar came with two types of seal and two types of screw, which wasn't what I was expecting 

I reckon the seal with a hole (on the left) is meant to go with the lid on the right, and the idea is you can use a straw to drink your smoothie or 'immunity shot'. I think the grommet round the hole would seal reasonably well against the lid.

But what is the flimsy plastic thing for? It came carefully wrapped in a padded bag tucked in with the jars. I've worked out you can fit the two blue prongs into the thicker end of the white thing, but then, what is the white two-pronged catch for?

I made another batch of High Dumpsie Dearie jam, and this time used half quantities and bravely did the whole thing in the slow cooker.

It tastes wonderful; quite gingery and dark, and not too sweet.

Roughly 350g jam sugar, 350g fruit in total (3 Plums, 1 over-ripe pear, 1 Cox apple) and about half a open cubes of crystallised ginger chopped small. 

About 2 or so hours on low, stirring occasionally, and then 2 hours on high with the lid propped half open on a wooden spoon. I started testing for a set after the 2 hours on high, but that was too soon. It took about another 30 mins or so, testing every 15 mins.

Monday 20th November - I'll save that for tomorrow's post

 But now it IS tomorrow, and I can't remember what it was that I  saved...

I have resumed patchworking again after a break of a couple of weeks. I made a couple of 'quilt as you go' hexagons while we were away, but when I came to look at them they were weirdly wonky.

Then when I came to look at the edge of the quilt, that was also weirdly wonky

/

There's a bit of a 'jog' where the red and blue patches meet. I took the cream wonky patch and persuaded it to fill in the gap.

I reckon it will pass the 'galloping horse' test. All the patches have been quilted, and I've added a couple more. Progress!

I'm very pleased with myself for managing TWO sessions of cross stitching today.

(I've also made ANOTHER Christmas cake but I promised not to do any more Christmas cake posts. I'll just say that I remembered to get it out of the crockpot at about the right time and it's definitely looking better the the previous effort!)

Sunday 19th November - Trinity 24

 

'Absolve thy people from thy offences'. Is this the same as 'forgive us our trespasses? I rather think it is. You don't have to believe in God to understand what this is all about. We all offend other people, trespass upon their good nature, cross boundaries in how we should act towards each other, and I suppose most of us would want to apologise and have our apology accepted, the whole incident put behind us.

Then, of course, we want to be delivered from the bands (shackles, handcuffs) of our sins, offences, trespasses, call them what you will; released from guilt or old hurtful memories.

And, we would like to find the strength to stop making the same mistakes; this is the Prayer Book confession;

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we have sinned against you and against our neighbour, in thought and word and deed, through negligence, through weakness, through our own deliberate fault. We are truly sorry and repent of all our sins.

I reckon these words will catch us all, one way or another.

And let's not forget the other part of the Lord's Prayer;

'forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us'. If we receive absolution, we should pass it on.   

Saturday 18th November - crack open the champagne!

 And the reason for the celebration?

I've completed the task I began about May, and then left drift....

MY TAX RETURN

And as always, filling in all the pages and pages of questions was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be.

Although....

I may doubts about one of the questions... perhaps I'd better go back and have another look....

Friday 17th - positively the last post about Christmas cake (6)

 And also inedible biscuits...

Cake first. 

Here's what I did to make my three lots of ingredients Christmas cake;

The top table is from Nigella's Christmas book, which gives the quantities, from Hazel Hook, for three different sizes of cake.

The below, in black type, are the instructions for a 1 pint 3-ingredient slow cooker cake.

The scrawled notes in green and purple is what I actually did;

Melt together 80g butter, 1 tablespoon treacle and 50g dark brown sugar in a Pyrex jug.

Make up to 200ml with whisky (or rum, or brandy, or orange juice)

Tip into a bowl and stir in 300g of luxury mixed fruit, including cut mixed peel and glacé cherries, set aside to soak.

Beat two eggs (they are about 50ml in volume each) and stir into the fruit mixture. If you are in a hurry and the fruit and liquid is hot they WILL scramble!)

Add in 100g plain flour, 20g SR flour,  1 tablespoon mixed spice, 50g flaked almonds, and give it a good stir. If it looks too sloppy you could add ground almonds or flour, but I don't think I did.

Triple line the crock pot with baking parchment,  push well into the base and against the sides.

Cook on high for two hours. Place a clean folded tea towel under the lid to absorb condensation,  and turn the pot a few times in case there is a hot spot in the base. (There is in my crockpot).

Check for doneness with a skewer,  and give it a little longer if necessary (I accidentally gave it 2 more hours. Oops.)

The cake is dark, rich and surprisingly moist after its maltreatment,  and the alcohol flavour is quite prominent, presumably because of it being cooked at a low temperature.

Inedible Biscuits 

I found some biscuits in this magazine; this is the front covet;

The biscuits looked delicious, and so pretty;

but they are made out of brown felt!

 

Thursday 16th November - Cake(5) and Cross Stitch

Ang's cross stitch package arrived today - Two Weeks Early! She has recreated a sampler of the type they were required to to in the first year of secondary school.

I've photographed the whole piece of fabric in two halves so you can see it in situ. Nothing I made at school; the convent (where we similar sewing on binka fabric) or secondary dchool survives. I love the colours and variety of straight and cross stitch patterns Ang has used.

The first thing we made at secondary school was a Cookery apron. We had identical t-towels in blue and grey (school colours) and had to turn down two corners on one short side for the top, and attach tapes, and presumably a loop to put our head through? And, I suppose,  sew on a name tape. All using a terrifying electric sewing machine. The school was brand new in 1965, so very well equipped. 

We had been using pre-war treadle sewing machines in the last year of the convent. I enjoyed these, but these electric contraptions.... ugh. 

Here is the other half of the cross stitch piece;

By comparing the two, you will see there are only three spaces left!

Cake

My mother used to bake an immense fruit cake for my father to take on his sailing trips. It made him a very welcome crew member. The cake was affectionately know as 'the mud weight', which it a type of anchor used in places like the Norfolk Broads. I'll dig out the recipe sometime. 

Anyway, my Christmas cake would make a good mini mud weight. I took the biggest knife to it, Paul Hollywood style, prepared for the worst;

It has caught a bit round the edges. I cut a thinnish slice right across the centre, and divided is between ourselves. We tried it, cautiously, and came to the conclusion that if I trimmed the sides it would be fine. We both finished our sample pieces, so that's a good sign. The centre is dark and moist, the edges a little bit dry. I shall trim it, add a little more whisky,  and marzipan on half for Christmas.  It will be an unusual shape, especially as I plan to serve it as a sort of semicircular hill (like the chunk on the right). The other half can be wrapped and kept for later.

Wednesday 15th November - Christmas cactus and cake (4)

My cactus is flowering. Having ignored it all year, it has responded with a will, and every branch has a bud. Last time it did this, the buds all shrivelled up and dropped before any of the actually bloomed

It seems happy enough on the windowsill at the bottom of the stairs, so there it will stay.

I made what I hoped would be The Final 1Christmas Cake, following the notes and additions I made after the prototype.

As you can see, it's a slow cooker cake. Unfortunately I was distracted by something or other, so it's had a couple of extra hours!

I'll try it tomorrow when it has finished cooling. At least there's time to make a third attempt!

Tuesday 14th November - should I build an ark!

 Well! To say it was raining this morning would be an understatement! I watched it while I was cross stitching this month's picture for the November swap. Ang has posted her picture to me already... only halfway through the month! I'll be needing at least a week yet, as I only stitch for an hour each day before I lose concentration and start making mistakes. 

Luckily the rain stopped in the afternoon. I looked round the garden from the back door step. Every single thing that could hold water; buckets, saucers under plant pots, the seats of the garden chairs, was brimming.

I don't do 'wordle' every day, but today I had a go. I managed to get the word right at the last attempt; very tricksy, and - was it a 'proper' word? Not a word I ever use; I wasn't expecting it to be accepted, let alone correct!

Monday 13th November

 

Here's another view from my Yosemite Trail virtual adventure, from a wooden bridge over a rushing river. I'm more than three-quarters of the way round the route and there have wonderful things to see. The Mirror Lake looks so beautiful;

I made soup yesterday. We often have 'posh supermarket soup' for supper and it is usually fine, but whatever it was we had a couple of nights ago was so boring that I couldn't manage to eat mine. A sort of minestrone accordingly to the description,  but it was dull, dull, dull tomato-coloured gloop with uniformly shaped bits of veg lolling about in it.

Mine was just a selection of veg; kohl rabi, onions, carrots, celery, cabbage, simmered with a tin of tomatoes and some beef stock made with a cube. It wasn't ready in time for supper yesterday; I was distracted by a visitor halfway through the chopping. So we had my cheat's egg-fried  rice, and the soup today. We should really give up on shop soup... mine wasn't anything special but was infinitely better.