Merry Christmas

Wishing you all a Christmas filled with love, happiness and plenty of mince pies! 

x

A Scarf for my Sister

 

This is a Christmas gift for my sister. I made it using the lovely Bluefaced Leciester wool I bought in Hay. The wool was a joy to work with – lovely and soft with a gentle sheen. However, of all the things I have made for christmas, this was by the far the most labour intensive – it has taken me ages. This wasn’t due to the pattern though, which is really very simple – no the problem was that I managed to get my yarn into a big fat tangle and so for every couple of rows I crocheted, I had to spend 20 minutes or so untangling the wool. Agh! I only have myself to blame – I wanted to get started straight away and decided not to bother winding my skeins into balls. ‘I’ll be careful not to tangle it’ I thought. What a fool. Needless to say I have learnt my lesson and have requested a nostepinne for christmas, to help wind all future skeins into balls! 

Anyhow, tangles aside, I am really pleased with how this turned out. It’s the first thing I’ve blocked and, although it took me a while to do (as I had to block in sections due to not having anywhere large enough to lie the whole scarf out) I was very impressed with how the blocking process transformed the drape of the fabric. It also added a couple of extra inches.

So, that’s my christmas gift for my sister and, as christmas gift for any crochet fans out there, I have posted the pattern here. Enjoy!

Manx Loaghtan Hat

Well, my christmas gift production line is still churning out hats – mostly made from Jacob wool but I also wanted to try out some Manx Loaghtan wool (again from Garthenor) and this was the result:

The colours of the wool are gorgeous – chocolate and caramel – and the wool is lovely and soft and provides good stitch definition – more so than the Jacob, which is slightly fuzzier. 

About the breed: The Manx Loaghtan is a small sheep native to the Isle of Man. Their beautiful moorit colouring and impressive horns give them a striking appearance. The breed came close to dying out in the 1950s and, although numbers have increased since then, they remain ‘at risk’, as categorized by the Rare Breed Survival Trust.

Crochet Hat and Mitts for baby

This is a christmas gift for my best friend’s baby girl. I really hope it fits as it looks so tiny! I know my daughter must have been small enough to wear them at one point, but she’s grown so much that it’s hard to believe! Anyhow, the details…..

Pattern: ‘Ruth’ from Easy to Crochet Cute Clothes for Kids by Sue Whiting

Yarn: Sirdar Snuggly DK in Ballerina Twist (50g) x 1 plus a tiny amount of Debbie Bliss Cotton Cashmere for the trim and embroidery.

Hook: 4.00mm

Modifications: Although I’m ashamed to admit it (as it’s such an easy straightforward pattern), I really only glanced at the directions and ended up doing the hat completely wrong. I guess some things can be too simple! My ‘mistake’ was not to turn the hat after each round, resulting in a curving seam. However, I discovered that I much prefered the texture of the fabric that not turning produced – I don’t know how well you can see from the picture, but the hat fabric is flat and the stitches irregular, whereas in the mittens (which I did turn) the fabric is slightly ridged and the stitches more pronounced – so I ended up quite pleased with my mistake! My other modification was to embroider stars as they’re simpler and more festive than flowers as shown in the book. I really love the embroidery – I’ve never really done much needlework (well, not since I was in brownies!) but it seems to work well with the crochet so I’m keen to brush up on it. It seems a simple but really effective way to embellish projects – something else to add to my never-ending ‘to-do’ list!

Ludlow Medieval Christmas Fayre

Yesterday we spent the day at Ludlow Medieval Christmas Fayre. It’s becoming something of a christmas tradition for us as we’ve been 3 years on the trot now and I suspect we’ll be there next year too. It’s just such good fun! 

One of the things I really like about the Ludlow Fayre, is that it’s not just about buying things. I’ve been to a number of christmas fairs over the years that are really just a collection of stallholders selling stuff – but Ludlow is different – there’s lots of entertainment for a start – carol singers, comedy acts, medieval minstrels, falconry displays and wassailers plus plenty of activities for children too: storytellers, ‘have-a-go’ archery and puppet shows. 

However, after saying that, there are plenty of things to spend your money on too and I’m always very impressed with the quality of the goods on offer. I also like the fact that, in keeping with the spirit of the fayre, there are a lot of medieval-themed crafts on display such as hand-made longbows (which my husband was very taken with), beautiful naturally-dyed yarns (I wanted to buy them all), medieval-style pottery, historical costumes and weaponry, green man plaques, leather drinking vessels and illuminated manuscripts. 

I do have a tendency to eat my way around events such as this and yesterday was no different. I chomped on a venison burger, slurped mulled wine, munched mince pies and consumed an alarming amount of fudge! It was all delicious. In fact, it was a really great day out – if rather cold – and I think the baby enjoyed it too. Well, that was until we reached her usual naptime and she became quite vocal about how tired and cold she was – we decided it was time to get the train home then!

Preserves for Christmas

This year I’m trying to make all my christmas presents and am planning to give my parents and my parents-in-law both hampers of homemade goodies. I wanted to make a really special preserve for the hampers and so, after flicking through a few recipe books, I plumped for ‘Melissa’s Chestnut Jam’ from the River Cottage Preserves book. However, as I shelled my sixtieth chestnut, I did start to wonder if any jam could really be worth all this effort!

I’m pleased to say that when I tasted the finished product, the doubts vanished from my mind. This is an exquisite preserve – decadent, sophisticated and perfect for christmas. Yes, it’s not the quickest or easiest jam to make but it really is worth the trouble. It’s also quite versatile and the author recommends adding it to chocolate mousse, spooning over ice-cream, using as a filling for chocolate cake or serving it dolloped in meringue nests with cream – something I’ll definitely be trying. Yum!

Russet, Plum and Sloe Gin Mincemeat

 

I haven’t been able to post for a little while as I have been ill and then had guests staying so was kept very busy! Before I succumbed to an evil bout of flu, however, I was able to get started with some Christmas cooking and finally have a few moments to share the results with you…

The recipe I used is from Pam Corbin’s wonderful book, Preserves (reviewed here) and it makes a deliciously fruity and light mincemeat. There is no suet, so the mincemeat has a lovely freshness to it and is also suitable for vegetarians. I also love how it uses seasonal fruits – apples and plums – to make something really special. The only negative point is that the mincemeat was a bit more runny than I would usually expect, however, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing and is probably due to the fact that I pureed the plums through a sieve rather than whizzed them up in a blender. I wholeheartedly recommend the recipe – if only for the gorgeous christmassy fug that fills the kitchen as you cook it!