Sew, Create and Recycle

That is the name of a new blog that I stumbled upon yesterday, I was enjoying a cuppa after making the Elderflower syrup and then cleaning the kitchen!
you can find it at sewinggreenlady.blogspot.co.uk

I spotted a comment and clicked on the name to have a nosy. There are recipes,vegan, for me to try, some sewing and dressmaking and lots of random things to read. Sounds a bit like this blog.

I have skimmed back a few months and followed, I don't want to miss something good.
 I will be trying out some of the recipes over the next few weeks. I look forward to sharing it all with you.

The weather has been kind again,although the clouds gathered once or twice. I managed to spend some time in the garden, some general tidying up and a little weeding. I hope the next door house sells soon, the garden is rapidly reverting to wilderness and most of my weeds are from seeds blown over. Then there are the brambles that seem to think they ought to be in my garden, I cut some back and lob them over the fence almost every day.

I cut my latest dress and the lining out, this is a pure experiment and I have no idea if it will work or if I am making posh dusters.

I did go and pick another lot of Elderflowers, the first batch is so good that I know it will disappear fast. I used far more flowerheads in the second batch and the juice and zest from one large orange and two huge lemons. 
The first batch is lovely but I hope that this one will turn out to be much more intense. I plan on using it in winter fruity puddings and sauces, it should give a little blast of summer days to the kitchen.
It is made and bottled and is now cooling down.

I have been quite tired this week so today will be fairly low key, just a meatloaf to make for dinner, and a little knitting on my cardigan sleeves. We are off to the food festival tomorrow and I do not want to be wiped out after an hour.
The sleeves are growing steadily, I did a little more this morning while watching the new Sew Sweet Violet podcast.
She has inspired me to dig out some strips of fabric and make some more bags, I could do with a couple of large ones for sweater projects. That will be for another week, once the experimental dress is finished.
One thing that I do want to do this weekend is make a slope for Fran. I know her dress size and skirt length but bodice fitting has to wait until she is here. I would love to be able to post a dress off to her every now and then, she gets through a lot of clothes in her work and, even in the sales, dresses (good ones) do not come cheap.

It has been suggested that I should have a podcast. It would be good to try but I have no idea how to go about it and am not sure that my hop and skip nature would make for good watching. I tend to go off on a tangent at the drop of a hat and that confuses me at times.

I just glanced at the clock and it is only 7:12, I wonder what time I got up. I didn't even glance at the clock and I have made the syrup and watched a podcast and done a few rows of knitting.

I still have to wash up but there isn't much there, just the pans and stuff from syrup making and my tea mug.

 I will go and have a pootle round the garden and see if any of the pots need watering, we did have rain overnight on Wednesday but it has been hot with a drying breeze since then. 
Then a little more knitting after Ben has had his walk should ease me nicely into the day which, by the way, looks like being glorious.

I will have a dish of fruit with some yogurt for breakfast I think, I am bound to pick some more strawberries on my wander.

                      TTFN                                             Pam

Flash Bang Wallop

Wot a picture, wot a photograph. With apologies to the so very talented Tommy Steele.

I think that I may just have caught up with photo,s, lets see.

Fran's Dittany socks, love them and will be casting on a pair for myself.

The pattern that the lovely Sheila sent me, I rather fancy the cap sleeved version but will probably have just 1 button below the waist and then a stitched placket to the hem. Time will tell.

I finished Fran's socks early evening yesterday and couldn't sit with empty hands. It was far too warm to work on the Flax, so I cast on the sleeves for a cropped cardigan and I am using the Dittany pattern. I had to be creative with the stitch count but will put that right with the increase rows. Just 2 pattern repeats and it is looking good, to me anyway.

I am using this wool from Debs wool shop, it was one of her super dooper bargains.It is hand wash and dry flat but that is how I treat all my hand knits.

Finally this is the fabric that I bought for Fran's Pilates trousers, I sent her a photo and she likes the pattern and colour. The fabric has been washed and pressed and will be cut out later today.

Phew, I think that I am caught up now. 

I paid the price of my wonderful nights sleep last night, I managed about 2 hours between bouts of tossing and turning. I threw the towel in just after 4 and got up.

 Ben didn't so much as flicker an eyelid as I walked past him, in the end he had to be winkled out at around 8:30.

Dinner last night was a pasta dish, the sauce was full of various veg, lots of garlic and some plump olives. With it we had a chopped salad, also with olives, the ones that come stuffed with garlic, yummy yum yum.

Fresh fruit for pudding, a mixture of peaches, strawberries and  watermelon. Delish, and just the thing to dampen down the garlic.

Tonight it will probably be a crustless quiche, I want to empty the salad drawer and have some milk to use up. The premise behind crustless is that I may just make a fruit crumble with custard, well I need to use the milk up don't I.

Fran arrives tomorrow and we will be having meatloaf for dinner with sweet potato mash and cauliflower cheese, at her request. That tells me that she is having a hard week and needs "nursery food".

I need to sit down with a cuppa and workout a list of makes for the next 6 weeks. I would like to see 2Kg of yarn out of stash by the end of July and another one of the boxes of fabric emptied. I have emptied 2 but have several lengths of fabric that are washed, pressed and ready to be used. It is a big wish but 3 fully lined dresses will use up a sizeable chunk of that.

I want to make another hanging thingy tidy, wide enough to take  A4 punch pockets. Simply because my pattern folders are full enough and there are several things in my Ravelry library that need printing and Mandy has a new sock pattern in the making.

 That's it for now, I need more tea and then I have to finish off my Elderflower syrup. WOOPS I forgot to tell you. Yesterday when we were in the garden I realised that my Elder tree was dripping with lacy flowers and the scent was intoxicating. In fact it was the scent that made me realise it was ready, a good bunch were picked but I have left lots of flowers to develop into berries for jelly.

The heads have been steeping overnight and will be strained and so on this morning. Francesca loves Elderflower Presse and buys it whenever it is on promotion. I have 3 bottles with her name on to be filled, some sparkling water and she can have homemade presse whenever she likes.

I really am off now.

                          TTFN                                        Pam

The long and the short of it.

Before I get into that I have some exciting news for you, well I think its exciting.

My crafty friend Mandy has started a podcast!!!!!

How cool is that.

Her first episode is on YouTube  now, look for stitching for sanity. She told me that it was terrible, she was so nervous, problems with the recording, yahde yahde.

Not So, she was her calm and gentle self. Do go and have a look, I expect the content to grow and you will be astounded when she shares her crochet.

It is always good to find something new to watch and the fact that this is local is the icing on the cake, the fact that I know her and see her most weeks is the cherry on the top.

I have  new neighbours, just 3 doors away, Angela, who has moved from Pembrokeshire to be nearer to her Mum. To keep her company she has a whole extended family of little dogs.

Here are just a few of them, I will try to get sharper photos another time, they were too excited to keep still for a second.

I think there are some different ones here.

This pair are on full alert and have all the angles covered.


The reason for all the excitement,

Rufus, who lives just next door, has visitors from just over the road.

Meet Bertie, on the left, and Queenie. Rufus loves them and they often visit each other.

And here it is, the long and the short of it. Bertie is quite small, much smaller than Queenie and next to Rufus he is really petite.

Ben joined in the general melee so I scooped him up and took him home for his dinner.

By the way the new recipe is not half bad, I had some smoked humus with my Felafels and the SO had chilli and garlic sauce with his. I will make them again but will add some mint with the parsley and possibly some lemon zest.

I found some fabric for Fran,s Pilates trousers and will get it washed tomorrow.

 I was reasonably good this afternoon, no yarn was purchased. I did have a lovely long play with Sophie but I did do a little knitting as my wrist was much better. In fact there was no stiffness at all by the time I got to Llandeilo. I did a little more in the evening but only about 20 minutes.

We had a very lively meeting, lots of chatter on a myriad of subjects. One of the group runs a little business with her husband, they produce items with a little poem made around the recipients name. I will share what I bought tomorrow.

I was tired by the time I got home and was glad that dinner was an easy make, 30 minutes from start to eat. No pudding, we both need to keep an eye on what we eat, but there is always a bowl of fruit and this week I have some slurpalicious peaches and apricots.

I was in bed by 10:00 and didn't wake until 7:50 !! that is a record sleep for me, I am still not fully awake but when Ben and I go for a walk I am sure that the fresh air will work it,s magic.

BTW the sun is shining out of a baby blue sky, I have put a load of fabric on to wash. I wash all my fabric before I make anything, even the high end stuff shrinks just a little. I would hate to put the work into a fitted garment, just to have the bodice shrink by just enough to make it too tight.

Right, my tea is drunk and Ben is hovering so I am off.

                     TTFN                                             Pam

Just before I go, the lovely Sheila, "Life's too short to iron tea towels" contacted me about a shirt dress pattern that she had and would never use. I have hunted high and low for mine and have decided that it must have been a figment of my imagination. Well I said "thank you very much and yes please I would love it"

Woo Hoo it arrived, not only one but two different sizes,and there's more. Sheila put a dvd by Debbie Shore in the packet. Thank you so much, I will be making good use of that Sheila.xx

No Crafting today. BooHoo

I don't know if it was all the housework yesterday or the hand sewing that I did in the evening. I finished off a pile of little jobs and then did some more knitting.
Then again I may have slept in a strange position, I do sometimes grab a corner of the quilt in my right hand and tuck it under my shoulder, I sleep on my front with my head facing to the right.

BUT, my right hand is very stiff along the thumb joint and up into my wrist. I have broken the wrist, but several years ago,and even further back had a bout of RSI.

This is the first time that I have had this problem so I am going to be very good and rest it today.
I will still go to knit and natter, I can join in the nattering and possibly sneak in a lovely play with Sophie.

I need to go to Flying Geese, the quilt shop in Llandeilo, it is lovely having the 2 shops so close together. Fran took some lounge pants, (ooh how posh) really just pj bottoms but in a heavy cotton fabric back to Beckenham with her after her last visit. She wore a pair to Pilates and, although they were fine, she would like some with slightly wider legs for the stretching. When I made those I did shave off a great deal of width from the legs. I have been through the stash and don't have fabric of the right weight in the correct length and a colour/pattern suitable. well there is one piece but it has a pattern pinned on for me and as I had to play pattern tetris I am not going to give it up. I will simply find a quilting cotton that is suitable.

I don't think that this will break my fabric buying as it is for a specific request and I will buy just enough for it.

On the subject of diets, Debs has some yarn in at an amazing price. I may just get some put away till the end of the month. I will try to resist, honest, but if there is some that has my name emblazoned on it then I will just surrender.

It feels very strange to have empty hands but I must persevere and give it a complete break.

I am not even going to cut out my pattern, it can all wait for another day, probably Thursday. As for polishing and so on, that can wait too.
I did all the ironing yesterday as it came off the line, that may have helped this problem to come on as well.

Ben had his walk,wolfed his breakfast down and retired to the sofa, boy is he better.

The weather is undecided, fluctuating between grey and bright, but it is warm.


Dinner last night was a very tasty steak and kidney pudding, I know that it is cold weather food but I planned it at the weekend. I cooked carrots, cauliflower and cabbage to go with it and enjoyed it immensely.

Tonight I will be making a new Felafel recipe but forming them into burger shapes, I will make crushed garlic potatoes and cook some peas and sweetcorn.

It is now getting on for lunch time, I am feeling quite peckish so a fridge raid is on the cards.

That reminds me, I need to pop into Lidl and get a couple of bags of peanuts to make some peanut butter as there is not a scrap in the house. I use it in several recipes and like to have it on hand.

Fran is here on Friday for a long weekend, weather permitting we are going to the Llandeilo Food Festival. It will be my first visit so I am hoping for fine weather so that I can have a good look at everything, not to mention the tasting.

My phone seems to be okay now (fingers crossed) it died last week and would not charge. I took it to the shop in Neath and it charged fine there but then failed at home. I got the new battery this morning and it still wouldn't charge*#*. A quick shuffle round of chargers and success, I am not glued to my phone but like to have it with me when out and about, just in case.

Now I really must have a shufti in the fridge as I just grumbled so loudly that I am sure some of you may have heard me.

                      TTFN                                      Pam

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind

Never mind the answer, what's the question?

Oh come on now, it is sunny, there is a lovely breeze and it is Monday.

There can only be one question.

Where Is The Laundry?

I woke up, after a good night's sleep, to sunshine. Of the brilliant kind. 

The bed was stripped and linen in the machine before you could say Jack Robinson, should you feel the need to say that, and why wouldn't you?
Closely followed with the clothes washing, how good is that feeling of having an absolutely empty laundry bin.



The bathroom and kitchen have had their "good going over" and the vacuum has been right through downstairs. It will be going upstairs once my cuppa is drunk.

All that is missing is the smell of lavender polish and it could be a day from my childhood. Monday was always washing and cleaning day.

No crafting today, well so far anyway, I have a pair of trousers on the cutting table and want to sort out fabric for a top to go with them.

They will wait till the chores are all done though, I may not be houseproud but my fun time needs to be earned for it to be fun.

Ben is back on top form.

I wasn't up too early this morning but he hunkered down in his bed and made his appearance about an hour after me.

Then, in the way that only animals can, looked at me with the " why is my breakfast not in my dish and why have I not had a walk yet?" face.

So my cuppa was abandoned and a walk was the first priority, then breakfast was prepared and wolfed down, in a " just in time before I starved to death" way.

Now he is in one of his favourite spots and snoozing.

My cup is empty but my list of chores isn't so I will say toodle pip, see you on the shiny side.

                        TTFN                                            Pam

Stitchin in the rain, just stitchin in the rain.

What a wonderful feeling, etc etc etc.

I had a good day playing and Ben decided that he did want to eat after all, but still spent most of his time sleeping.

Here is Fran's new sock, the second one is cast on and I will knit on it later. I plan on some more hand sewing first, I find it very relaxing and not at all tedious.

The row count is much the same as the last pair of shorties but this is patterned. I used the pattern from Mandy's Dittany socks, a paid for pattern on ravelry, and love it. I did use my afterthought heel as I wanted to use the last of my green yarn. I will be kitting the pattern up as written on a pair of longer socks, for me.

A closeup of the pattern, see how neat it is, even on this striping yarn it still shows, but my pair will be in a lighter colourway.

I have finished the prototype wall hanging/tidy away thingy.

I have hung it on a temporary bar for you to see, I will be using a wooden dowel. It is simply too wet to venture up to the shed for a saw to cut the dowel to size.

It is a bit wobbly as my walking foot has given up the ghost. Not surprising considering the amount of work that it has done. I used wadding for the back rather than the iron on interfacing. Simply because I only had enough to do the pockets, I do have some more on order.

While I was cruising up the Amazon I looked for some pattern tracing paper, I don't like cutting my bought patterns to size as I like to pass them on once I have my size traced off. Very often I float between sizes as the measurements used are sometimes quite peculiar.

However I could not find anything suitable at a price I was prepared to pay, I don't want to buy a box of 12 rolls for £How Much!!!

A flying visit to ebay solved everything and I have 20 mtrs coming soon.

Now that I have wandered around a bit, I will go back to my make.

What do you think, is it worth a giveaway? Not the prototype, one made without the wobbles. Could anyone find a good home for one?

Mine will be holding all my  circular needles, they are in a little basket at the moment, each pocket will hold different sizes and hopefully will make it easier for me to keep track of them.

My restful day meant that my eyes pinged open at 3:45 and refused to close again. A cuppa was needed and of course I am far too awake to return to bed. 

Oh dear, never mind, I will just have to knit. It is a crying shame.

I have to find a replacement foot, and I must remember to call it a dual feed foot.I did start to look on the GUR website but they have so many variations that I will wait till Monday and ring them.

You wouldn't believe it, there are peeps in the street, just strolling along chatting away, as though it were the afternoon.

Must be a case of rising damp.

I did a little of my hand sewing last night and then changed over to knitting to watch Doctor Who. I didn't want to run the risk of stabbing myself in an exiting moment. I needn't have bothered, it was a bit Bleh.

It is definitely time for a new Doctor, and maybe some new writers.

I did dally with Indie and the temple of doom before that, I almost know the script word for word now but it is pure escapism with lots of funny bits.

That series of films and the Crocodile Dundee films always make me giggle.

Upon reflection I will be making a different hanging thingy for my circular needles, ( I told you that my mind hops and skips around a lot) it will be twice as wide with more, smaller pockets. Having had a look through the needle collection 4 pockets will not cut the mustard.

I have a copy of the book, Patchwork Please! by Ayumi Takahashi and there is a project for a wall hanging thingy in there....................

I just pulled the book of the shelf, the project is called, You've got mail wall pocket, all the little pockets are pieced to look like open envelopes.

I will hack that and make the pleated pockets, I need enough depth to hold the needles in their cases. 

I will be able to store all the gubbins that come with the interchangeable needles in there as well. 

I think that I will call it a done job here, I could run on for reams otherwise.

Dinner tonight is a surprise, I will have a rummage in fridge and pantry and see what springs to hand and mind. Mmmm I quite fancy something beanyish, perhaps felafels. I haven't made them for ages and I have plenty of mint in the garden.

 So Spicy felafels with a minty yogurt dip, brioche buns (RTC at 20p for 4 and safely tucked away in the freezer) and salad, here I come. 

I wonder if there will be some Koko yogurt in Tesco, it is made from fermented coconut milk and is delicious. A tub will make the dip and leave enough to have with some cooked fruit for pudding. Giving me a delicious, dairy free day, good for my mucus membranes as well as my taste buds and tummy.

                    TTFN                                         Pam

Sewing for fun.

I have been using my overlocker quite a bit lately and it has a tendency to jiggle around a little. I knew what was needed and today knew that it had to happen. I knuckled down and made a mat for it to stand on.
Not just any old mat, oh no, this is bright and happy and has a little pocket for all the shavings that swoosh out of the cutting area.
They normally end up on the floor, but no more. 

There is no excuse for waiting this long to make my mat. I have fabric and wadding, I have miles of thread and I didn't need a pattern, I had worked out what to do the week that I bought the thing. It just kept being pushed to the back of the queue.

While I was in the zone I cutout and sewed a hanging storage thingy. It has 4 storage pockets and will hang in the sewing room. It is being finished off by hand and I will show tomorrow. If I like it I will make a few, they will be ideal for using up odd bits of fabric. There may be a giveaway in the making.

We had a lovely day, washing on the line that was warm when I got it in.

Ben was off colour all day, he slept for most of it, just moving to drink or ask to go out. he ate nothing and was running a bit of a temperature.

He is still sleeping a lot today but has eaten a healthy size breakfast. It is far too wet for him to walk but he is happy (well resigned) to trot out into the garden.

I have almost finished the next sock for Fran. I put an afterthought heel in before doing the toe, I used the green and am so glad that I made that decision as I don't have enough yarn for both heels and toes. I will do the toes in the main yarn, photo tomorrow.

My phone is dead, really most sincerely dead. It needs a new battery and one is on the way down the Amazon. Just under £6 with free postage, not too shabby considering that the same one from Samsung was £25. daylight robbery.

I have pulled chilli from the freezer for dinner and cooked some rice ready to nuke when we are ready for it. But as I have just hoovered up a bowl of chopped salad anointed with a spicy garlic sauce, and the SO did the same with a chunk of chicken, bacon and mushroom pie, it may be quite late.

I now have to 'fess up. Sighs dramatically.

I actually got the chilli out for yesterday's dinner. More dramatic sighing and a bit of self conscious wriggling.

We went to Neath late yesterday afternoon to run some errands. I like to save them up to make the journey worth while.

When we got back to Pontardawe it was gone 5 and we had rumblies in the tumblies. That may have been all in the mind as we knew that our favourite chippy, Charlo's, would be open. Fish and chips for dinner Oh Yum. We did order small portions and still could not eat it all.  Just over £6 for dinner was not exorbitant and made for a lovely treat.

Now I must get back to my hand sewing, I want to have it done and hanging before the day is out. 

                        TTFN                                         Pam

PS. I so forgot to wish you all a good weekend yesterday, my mind was focused on Ben.