Followers

Wednesday 12 December 2018

The Itch to Stitch.

Wednesday morning, once you get to tea time the week is a downhill slide to the weekend. When I worked a full night shift I loved the fact that I went to work on Wednesday, came home on Thursday and could almost touch the weekend.
Now that I no longer do any paid work I strive to keep the weekend a little special.

I try not to have any housework linger from Friday, laundry does't count as the machine does that. If the iron goes on I am sewing and if the vacuum cleaner comes out it to remove lint and threads from the sewing room. It stops them from walking all over the house.

I got my sewing all done, and the room tidied, and am now itching to get stitching. Nothing in particular, just anything. Sooooo I will be pulling out my last piece of wadding and, fingers crossed, if it is large enough I will be layering another quilt later. If not then I will work on some strip blocks that need another few pieces each.

I did do some knitting on the Advent socks last night. Then this morning I tinked it all back, Never Ever Knit When Tired, it is a simple 4 row pattern. In a zombie like state I knit row 1 on the front, row 2 on the back and so on. Luckily I had only done a pattern repeat and on 1 sock. It still niggled though. To make me feel better I knit 3 full repeats this morning while drinking tea and catching up with Nordic Stitches Vlogmas. Lovely.

Here is this years Christmas fabric, I have made jogging bottoms (called slobbers in this house, as those who wear them just slob around on the sofa.) for the SO and Francesca. I prefer to wear a skirt or dress, I used the Hollyburn pattern which is my favourite skirt pattern by far.


A close up of part of the print.


No, there are no English words on it but it is so bright and happy,
AND
it was £2.20 a metre from The Fabric Guild, I wish that I  had bought more as it is great to sew with and I would have made a dress as well.
I have taken that thought on board and will keep it in mind when I look at buying next years fabric.

I nearly forgot to tell you that I strained and bottled the sloe gin and sloe brandy. 
I have more sloes in the freezer and will be starting next years as soon as possible. I am considering using some of my blackberries to make blackberry gin for next year as well. 

After straining I tipped the sloes into the slow cooker (is that a pun I see before me?) and added the water that I rinsed the soaking bottles out with .Many hours later I pushed the sloes through a fine sieve, discarding all the detritus, and left it to cool overnight. This morning I measured my booty, a pint and a bit, into a pan. Poured in 1 lb of granulated sugar and boiled it up, it reached setting point fast and I have 2 jars and a tester of something that is not quite a puree but thicker than jelly.

It is both sweet and tart at the same time and still has a little of the 
"draw your bum up to your elbows" quality about it (Granny again).
I am hoping that it will perform like a souped up redcurrant jelly in various recipes, ie Cumberland sauce to go with my baked gammon.
Time will tell.

And on that cheek clenching note I am off to get the dogs out, the lazy pair are snuggled up on the sofa SNORING.

                           TTFN                               Pam
                                  






17 comments:

  1. A lovely skirt and so festive!
    xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is only the second year that I have sewn us all a garment in festive fabric. I fell in love with this print the minute that i saw it.

      Delete
  2. When I worked a guy in our office, his first words when returning from his lunch break on a Wednesday was 'it's all downhill now to the weekend'. Thanks for the memory, we to try and not to any household stuff at the weekend.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Once you stop work it is all too easy to lose the weekend feeling.

      Delete
  3. Oooooh that is pretty fabric Pam.

    I love hearing about and seeing peoples fruit liquers they just look like liquid jewels but the sad thing is that I will never get to taste any as I don't drink alcohol. I'll just have a glass of Ribena and pretend...lol.
    Hugs-x-

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is likely that I will not taste it, I made it for gifts. I far prefer a cuppa. I will have some Elderflower presse in and ginger beer.

      Delete
  4. "draw your bum up to your elbows" Oh my goodness, I LOVE this! You can be sure I'll be repeating this often.
    Happy holidays!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have used it many times and it usually leads to laughter.

      Delete
  5. fabulous fabric, great skirt. I am nota skirt wearer but its cute. I really need to start reclaiming my weekends again, I seem to lose them regularly !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I lived in jeans when I was at work, now I only own 1 pair plus 2 pairs of thick joggers for gardening. I love skirts and dresses.

      Delete
  6. Very cheerful and festive material...what great traditions you have, Pam.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is so bright and "in your face" really happy colours. It is good to have traditions but as our lives change some slip away. We are making new ones that fit in better.

      Delete
  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Love the skirt. You will look very festive.

    God bless.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I love a Christmas skirt! Mine has scandi reindeers on! Jo x

    ReplyDelete
  10. Nice fabric, we are a 'slobber' pair here, nothing nicer than feet up, knitting in hand and feeling nice and comfy.

    ReplyDelete

I love to read comments so take the plunge and join the conversation.