Will we, Won't we

Get some snow?
I can see snow from my windows, not on the garden but on the fields on the Mountainside. Our day started wet and warm, well maybe not warm but not cold either. 
Ben was not reluctant to go for his first walk but the cold is dropping down upon us and his second walk was virtually non existent.
As he gets older he really does not like the cold and wet together, one or the other and he is fine.
I am working on the foot of my second Hermione sock and have yet to decide what pattern to do next. My Lara Neel book, sock architecture, arrived today and I have had a dip into it. There are patterns galore in it, each with instructions for top down and toe up.
I may decide on one of those although I have a couple of patterns in my folder waiting to be knitted.
Once this sock is cast off I want to dig out my sweater in the round and do some work on that,before casting on another project.
I know that some pod casters have multiple projects on the go, it would drive me doolally trying to decide what to pick up next.
And now I am about to prove myself a liar, I was given a bag of random wool last week. In it there were several balls of mohair, probably blended as it is very soft and not at all prickly. I have picked out 3 colours and want to knit a shawl, I do have a pattern but need 10mm needles. I will wait until next Tuesday and see if Debs has any, or some  interchangeable points.

I am hoping to go to a crafting get together in Bethlehem (near llandeilo) tomorrow, but it all depends on the weather. It runs from 10:30 -4:00 once a month and I have been wanting to go for ages. This time is the first that nothing else is planned so fingers crossed.

My veg chilli was delicious and there is just enough to turn into an oggy for tomorrow. Today I have pork chops marinading in a chilli, honey and liquid smoke concoction. They will go into the oven with jacket potatoes and some peas and sweetcorn should do nicely for veg.

My shopping list is very small again for this weekend, milk, veg, bread and a bag of strong wholemeal flour, not forgetting food for Ben. I hope there will not be a heap of bargains as I will have no room to store them.

I plan on making Pizza over the weekend, I have some butternut squash that once roasted is a good topping with some kale. I also want to plan a meal to use some of the chicken fillets from last weeks bargain buys, Ben has tried them and approved greatly. At less than £1 per kilo they are a cheap treat for him, every now and then.

Ooh yes, I watched the Martin Clunes program, set on the Australian Islands, last night. Part of it was on Norfolk Island where they have their unique dialect. One of the residents has written poems and books in the dialect, to keep it alive, and read some out. Well quite a bit of it sounded much like the broad Norfolk that I grew up with, but when Martin read it he made it sound West Indian! 

On that note I am off  to do a bit more Knitting and then a bloggy catch up reading session.

Stay warm and safe.

                    TTFN                                             Pam

Woolly Bargains

Knit and Natter was very busy yesterday, a full house and some new faces. The shop was heaving, and at times just a teensy bit noisy. 
There had been a delivery of new yarn and to my joy there were bargain packs of pure wool, both British and some Merino blend. Packed in 12 x 50gm balls, I snapped up some for both colour work and a sweater for Fran. I now must keep my purse locked up until I have worked my way through most of this.

This is my bargain wool, the bottom colour in Merino is destined to become a sweater for Francesca at some point, as long as it is ready for her birthday in November. The other colours will become part of a colour work project. I have seen some very pretty (free) patterns on Ravellry. I have not done this kind of knitting since the early 70's but am excited to try.

My Hermione sock, I am very pleased with it and will be casting on the second one this afternoon.

.

I was not sure about the heel, usually I knit a slip stitch flap with a clearly defined stitch to pick up for the gusset. However this pattern left a row of little bumps instead and was just as easy to knit. I did drop down to 60 stitches rather than the 64 asked for in the pattern. If you remember I was going to use the Mercury pattern, but this sock fits very well so I may use the smaller count on my next pair.

Oops,I have gone off piste,back to my bargains.

Debs is wonderful when it comes to these special offers, she passes on the savings to her customers.
If you are in the area I strongly suggest that you pop in for a look, I cannot see them staying on the shelf for long.

Dinner was a stir fry with some sausages and spicy beans with a little mashed sweet potato, a real mix it up and use it up meal. I tipped a pack of salad leaves onto the stir fry to wilt. We didn't let it linger on the plates for many minutes. Fruit for pudding later if needed. 

Tonight I plan a vegetable chilli and will serve it on a bed of shredded, steamed cabbage. I may even add a few kale leaves as well, the splash of very dark green is as pleasing to the eye as the palate.

Now it is time to wrap Francesca's socks and get them sent off.


                     TTFN                                          Pam

A Double First for the. New Year

Woo Hoo, I found a new Podcast this morning, Mara Knits. just a short one to begin with, a very friendly and chatty 20 minutes or so.
Mara has her You Tube channel ready loaded with some tutorial videos for the new knitter. I 'fess up to not looking at them yet, but I will later, they were put up as a favour to some of her friends but are available to everyone. I hope that she carries on sharing, mainly as she is an avid sock knitter, and I like her relaxed style. 
She has a knitting project on a pair of HUGE needles that look like rolling pins. I  could not consider trying them, my hands curled up just looking at them.

My other first is an Indie dyer, Rosie's Moments, from Winscombe in Somerset. I was watching the last Bakery Bears podcast yesterday morning and her wool was shown. Well I had to slip over and have a look, and there it was a delicious  looking little morsel,  80% superwash Merino and 20% nylon  called Sprinkles.

I have opened the skein up so that you can see all the little speckles. I think they look like cake decorations, sweet and moreish.

The skein came with a little lavender bag so it smells delightful.

There was also a pretty little stitch marker, I will use this once I cast on.

I ordered this straight away and to my delight it arrived this morning, now of course Iwant to wind it and cast on.

I will be making socks from this yarn, to me it has a subtle look of Christmas about it, the right colours but not bold and in your face. I may have to try and make this my Advent knit, we will see how good my will power is.

On a down note I received 2 letters from the hospital yesterday

One was to cancel my appointment for the 31st and the other was to offer me a new one for Feb 8th. Both sent on the same day from the same hospital, 2 letters, 2 envelopes and the postage cost for 2.

No wonder our health Service has cost issues.

Leaving that behind I have finished the first Hermione sock, just forgot to take a photo. I will later for another post, I am pleased to say that my Kitchener stitch is improving greatly.

Today is Knit and Natter and I am looking forward to it, I have a WW11 sock to work on so no concentration required and I can natter with the best of them.

Now it seems to be tea o'clock so I will leave you here.

                      TTFN                                      Pam

Oops! no title, feel free to make one up.

Fran's socks are ready to wash and block before I post them off to her, the second sock was so much better to knit once I changed needles.

Thanks to Annabeth I whipped through the Kitchener stitch with no lost stitches or naughty words.

I had to cast another pair on using one of my new yarns. I decided to use the Drops Fabel Long Print and the Mercury Sock pattern. But as you can see that morphed into Hermione's Everyday socks, I knitted the rib and at that point changed my mind.

Since taking this I have done the heel flap and am ready to turn it.

The pattern does not show up very well, once finished I will put it on one of the blockers to see if it shows better. This is a very simple 4 row repeat and has a modified Eye of Partridge heel with a garter stitch border. I am not sure about the heel but decided to go with the pattern, once I pick up the stitches to continue knitting the foot I will pass judgement. Obviously I will use the same heel pattern on the second sock, if I don't like it I will use the normal slip stitch heel if I knit the pattern again.

The weather here has gone from clear skies and a smidgen of sun shine to  heavy mist rolling down the mountain, that mist is now receding but there is no sign of the sun.

I saw the situation in Poland on the news earlier, Eastern Europe is really suffering, I can only hope that it does not drift our way. Just fancy, snow in Greece! I daresay that the price of Olives and their oil will rocket, along with other foods that we import. This weather may have a devastating effect on this years harvest of many foods.

One of my favourite treats is Kalamata Olives with my own preserved garlic cloves, I have 1 jar of the olives and may buy another couple, just in case.

I am off to the shops later, I need to fill up with petrol as well as do a little essential shopping. I will use the opportunity to time this to do a bit of bargain spotting, this will be my first shop since New Year's Eve and apart from a calendar I just need fresh fruit, veg and milk.

I have not been to look at the sales, there is nothing that I need and nothing that I just want. I hate crowds and often feel that sales are second cousins to jumble sales, the ones where you get a black bag for £x and then fill it as fast as possible. It is all sharp elbows, swinging shopping bags and an overpowering air of desperation to grab as many so called bargains as possible. I once saw 2 women fighting over a garment, each had a good grip and were pulling as though their lives depended upon winning. Of course neither won anything as with a loud ripping noise each was left holding part of the original garment.

I was chatting to my friend Mary yesterday and we were both saying that January was to be a use it up month and both of us were leaning towards a mainly vegan meal plan. Later as I was washing up and planning the next days jobs, it struck me how fortunate we both are. We have well stocked pantries and freezers and can chose what to eat every day. I can only wish that everybody was in the same position.

We both live very comfortable lives on retirement pensions, we were both fortunate enough to have well paid jobs and saved.  Most importantly we had the best upbringing. We were taught how to cook from scratch, make the best of what we had and forage in hedgerows for free food. I only have a tiny portion of the gardens that I have had in the past but I grow a good amount of food. I still have leeks and some small cabbages growing from the stumps where I have cut the large ones. There will be as much Purple Sprouting broccoli as I can cope with, and some to give away.

I have apples, rhubarb, gooseberries, strawberries, raspberries and jostaberries as well as honeyberries and blueberries all growing well. With the kilos of blackberries,  rosehips and crab apples that I gather from the wild I could be self sufficient in fruit and jam.  I also have a lemon tree and a fig tree, both young but I have had a few lemons and there are young fruit which I hope will ripen later this year.

But I like bananas and pears and I buy seville oranges for marmalade. These are wants though and if I could not afford to buy them I would still have fruit in my diet.

Oh dear this has turned down a completely different path than I envisaged, I don't want to preach or proselytize so I will stop now.

                  TTFN                                                 Pam

Busy doing nothing.

On second thoughts perhaps it was something. The sky was blue, the sun shone and 2 loads of laundry dried outside.
I went through the fridge to make a shopping list, it is empty, no shopping required yet.
I did find half a cauliflower that needed using and then there was the posh Stilton, very little was eaten over Christmas.
Hmm Use it or Lose it.
I cooked the cauli florets for about 4 minutes and plunged them into very cold water, then cooked about a cup of penne pasta and dunked that in cold water also. I did the same with some Edamame beans (aka soya) and some petit pois. A pint or so of Stilton cheese sauce made and then poured over the above drained pasta and veg.
Into 2 dishes and a sprinkle of dried breadcrumbs mixed with some grated cheddar. One into the oven for dinner and one into the freezer.

I also found half of a Butternut Squash along with 2 small carrots, 1/4 of a swede, a small parsnip and an onion. All peeled and diced and into a pan with some coconut oil and sweated for about 5 minutes. Throw in a tsp each of mustard seeds, cumin seeds and medium curry powder and a good pinch each of salt and pepper, stir it up and cook for another minute or 2. Tip in a tin of chopped tomatoes and a good handful of puy lentils then pour in 500 ml of veg stock, stir,bring to the boil and then simmer till it is all cooked. Then I drained and rinsed a tin of chickpeas and stirred them in, at this point I would normally simmer to heat the chickpeas through. This time though I was cooking for tomorrow so I plunged the pan into a sink of cold water to cool it down. It is now sitting in the fridge ready to be reheated for a lazy meal for 2, and left overs.

Oh and by the way, about my moan about head over heel yarn and my thought that needle choice may have an effect. I cast on the second sock and used a different circular, win win. I used  a knit Pro rather than a Hiya Hiya and my problems were as mist on a sunny morning. I am now about to finish the heel flap and there were no bad words.

As usual Ben enjoyed his walks in the sun even though the first one was rather cold. 

That's all for now, I want to have a look through my reading list to see what every one else has been up to.

                    TTFN                                                Pam
PS. Does anyone else rub the soft skin off chickpeas, a tedious job but I think that it it improves the texture. That's what the "food Buffs" call mouth feel.

The last presents.

Here are the pictures that I promised, no big surprise that they are sock related.
Two parcels of woolly deliciousness, with what is in m,y stash I have more than enough to knit my hoped for 2 pairs a month.

The Regia pairfect will possibly be my first proper pair of toe up, I will make a trial pair first though. The Cole's ZigZag is in one of my favourite colourways but I have not knitted with the Drops Fabel wool before. I like the fact that it comes in 50 g balls, no winding off half a ball to knit both socks in tandem. The plain black will make heels and toes to help stretch my multi colored yarn.

I have not knitted with either the Sirdar Heart & Sole or the Coop Socks Yeah and look forward to trying them out, the WYS does feature in my stash and I find that it knits up well.

It is strange how we all seem to find different qualities in the same yarns. At Knit and Natter yesterday I mentioned that I was not liking the Head over Heels, and had agreement from other knitters. None of us could quite put our finger on why, it just does not handle or feel comfortable to use. I love the WYS yarn but another prolific knitter finds it splitty and slippy to use. I think that the needles you use and how you knit must have a great deal to do with it.

Bedsocks for my chilly footed friend, I made 2 samples and we had a trying on session yesterday. This size was just about perfect, Drops Alaska on a size 4mm needle, 40 stitches and a very short cuff and leg. I have knitted one to the last few stitches and am almost there with it's partner. I will not finish the round toe off until she has tried them on, I then have the option of another 2 rounds or frogging back 2. I have a fair bit of this yarn in the stash and as it takes 2 x 50 gm balls for a pair I will have no odds and sods to use or bin. Cue a happy dance.

On the subject of odds and sods I was given a bag full yesterday, I have not looked through it yet, and hope to make some of my donation hats with it.

The leftover 4 ply sock yarn will possibly go into a blanket, I really don't need another but do not fancy weaving all the ends in on stripey socks. I could use the magic knot to join but am wary of them slowly coming undone.

This morning is warm and a bit damp, I believe that we should expect this for a few days. I don't mind I have plenty to keep me occupied indoors.

Bum, I just realised that my tea is cold, I am off to make another.

                  TTFN                                                  Pam

Blue skies and sunshine

It has been a glorious day, the sky was blue as the sun slipped over the top of the mountain this morning and my heart sung with joy.
It is such a simple thing but after shoving several loads of washing through the dryer I was delighted to get the last 2 loads out in the fresh air.
It is lovely having visitors but oh the washing, it goes beyond the obvious bed linen. There were piles of towels, tea towels (extra mouths to feed = more washing up) dish cloths, place mats oven cloths etc etc. Oops I nearly forgot the sofa and bed throws, I can not have heating on at night so extra throws are for the chilly ones.

My first sock is just about done, 2 more rows of toe decreases and then Kitchener, no longer a terror to me. I am knitting it in Stylecraft Head over Heels. It is softish but I would not want a shawl or scarf made with it and I am not enjoying knitting it up. I find it fuzzy, it has a pronounced halo, and is quite splitty. That bothers me as I have another ball for socks and two for a shawl. I much prefer the King Cole ZigZag, I do have WYS fingering sock yarn and have knitted a few pairs and found it excellent. 

I also have some lovely hand dyed yarn but would not dream of comparing it to the mainstream stuff. Perhaps once the socks are both knitted, washed and blocked I will change my view. Watch this space.

Dinner is a curry, cooked and cooled to reheat later. I just took a selection of veg from the fridge, sliced and diced and sweated it in coconut oil with some cumin seeds. Then added turmeric, hot paprika, fenugreek leaves and some generic curry powder. Once sizzled for a minute or 2 I tipped in a tin of chopped tomatoes and enough veg stock to almost cover the veg, a good grind of salt and pepper then on with a lid to simmer till the veg were just soft.
This will make at least 3 portions, if I add chick peas it will feed 4. I do have some diced lamb left over so may add that to some to freeze. The bones should have gone for stock but instead Ben had one yesterday and will have the other tomorrow.

It is almost 4:15 and the sun is sinking behind the Morriston Mountain, once it slides out of sight it will be virtually dark. I know that the days are drawing out, minute by minute but I am so looking forward to seeing some evening hours.

On that note I am going to bid you bye bye, I have just a little ironing and would like it done and out of the way.


                   TTFN                                                       Pam