A badger for a bag

There is a club whose mascot is a badger wearing a yellow scarf. It transpires that, for a number of very practical reasons, the female members of this club all have very similar handbags and, as a result, I was asked by one of the members to create something that she could attach to her bag to make it a little more distinct. After all, it's no good arriving home, sticking your hand into your bag to retrieve your door keys, to find that you've accidentally picked up someone else's. Chances are you would also be missing your mobile phone, probably all your phone numbers, and any means to pay for a locksmith.

A badger seemed like the obvious adornment and, indeed, what had been requested. And so it was that I sat down for this month's craft club with a very particular mission.

It has been a while since I needle-felted anything three-dimensional. My first attempts had been rather tiny key rings but knowing how hard detail is to create in miniature I decided to go a bit bigger this time.

Earlier key rings for a couple of newly-weds...

...and for my rhino-collecting friend

For a whisky-loving Dad

And perhaps my most ambitious project to date - yes, it's tiny!

Fortunately I had a good source of inspiration from a book of British mammals. I've had it for years but had only unearthed the other weekend when I was having a clear out. Not only did it have a family of badgers on the cover but four pages inside with lots of different and very beautiful illustrations of this elusive creature (sadly, I've never seen one in the flesh - and alive - just on television or squished by the side of the road).

Anyway, I began by making a simple cylinder for the body and a ball for the head, always leaving loose fibres at one end so that they could be felted together.  Then came four small, relatively flat cylinders for the legs, again with loose fibres at one end to aid attachment. These were all in black. I then took a blend of cream and light grey to make a tail, in a similar fashion to the legs, but much smaller; and then two tiny black ears, each backed with an even smaller bit of white.  All these were felted together and worked with the barbed needle to get the right overall shape before adding elements of white and light grey to give the animal its distinctive markings. Initially my fellow crafters seemed surprised to see me adding grey as people often think of badgers as being black and white but my trusty field guide assured me otherwise.

I was quite pleased with the final result, the yellow scarf enabling me to securely fix in place a keyring so that it could be attached to the handbag and, hopefully, make it easily recognisable.

International inspiration

Whilst on holiday in Amsterdam last summer, I stumbled into a shop selling all things Egyptian, including some beautiful metal lamps and lampshades. I fell in love instantly!

Not quite knowing where I could put such an item, I practiced extreme restraint and merely took down details and enquired about shipping costs to the UK. However, that has not stopped me from thinking about them ever since and, as I planned my new kitchen in the autumn and turned the plan into a reality this spring, they were very much in my mind. In fact, one iteration of the kitchen design went through a very North African phase before being reigned back into something a little more monochrome, but hopefully far more adaptable over the years to come.

And so it was this weekend that I finally made the curtains for the patio doors.  Requiring just over 10 metres of fabric, it took three trips to the fabric shop before they had enough in stock. Naturally, the fabric was chosen with the lampshade in mind. Still in simple black and white but with a dot display that hints at the lampshade pattern.

In the spirit of restraint and recycling, I reused the linings and heading tape from the old curtains, which made the construction of the new curtains a little swifter, and so the job was completed in a day. And what a difference it makes to the room to have the curtains up!  I am delighted with the finished results.

Well, I say 'finished' but really the finishing touch will be the lampshade. I just either need to track one down in the UK (John Lewis, very expensive) or send off an enquiry to Amsterdam (perhaps those shipping costs were quite reasonable after all?)

Sounds like a job for next weekend...

Emma the bunny

In between snagging the kitchen and fitting in a much-needed holiday, the crochet hook has been out once again. Let's say I've now officially got the Edward's Menagerie bug...

After struggling (and failing) to make the elephant for my friend's baby at Christmas, my crochet hook and the pattern book were banished for a good few months. However, the impending birth of my cousin's baby made me have another go and, you may recall, the camaraderie of Craft Club in March ensured that my second attempt at crocheting a toy animal was much more successful. Not that I think my fellow crafters think much of my new favourite pastime since I'm completely incapable of talking and crocheting at the same time.  I find myself having to constantly count the stitches as I work my way around each of the pattern pieces. Even, heaven forbid, perform my times tables as I go so I know when to increase or decrease. However, I promise I can listen and crochet, even nod my head when offered a cup of tea!

Anyway, the animal I chose to make this time around was Emma the bunny and I'd made all but an ear and her tail prior to yesterday's crafty gathering so I could join in much of the chatter as she was stuffed and assembled.

I'm afraid I didn't get to take any photos of the creative process but we (Emma and I) have just completed a photo shoot and are happy to give you a sneak preview. Mind you, I'm not sure how photogenic she is (shh, don't tell her I said that) as I think she looks far cuter in real life.

I'm now feeling confident enough to reattempt the elephant so watch this space for how I get on. With two babies due this summer I should be well prepared with gifts, even if the kitchen does go another month or two without any curtains!

Energy Balls

The past few weeks have been completely dominated by preparing for and then having a new kitchen fitted. First there was the task of emptying all the kitchen cupboards, lugging all the loose furniture upstairs to the spare room and taking everything off the walls - curtains, pictures, the clock and the calendar, the latter two meaning I've been a bit lost; then there was setting up a makeshift cooking station in the laundry room; and that was before the contractors arrived to create more dust that I could really cope with. I'm sure you can picture the scene: you glance down at your leg in the middle of an important work meeting and notice that there is an unmissable smudge of white dust all the way down your right leg!

All this has required boundless energy so I've been keeping a good stock of 'energy balls' in the fridge to keep me and everyone else going. Fortunately they don't require any cooking and can be rustled up in a fairly small space. When I say, don't need any cooking, I guess I should qualify this. The recipe does ask for 2 tablespoons of melted coconut oil, but fear not. Coconut oil has a very low melting point so placing your oil on a radiator, boiler top, sunny windowsill, even in the hands of a very warm-blooded person should do the trick, particularly for such a small quantity.

The original recipe is from the Sainsbury's Magazine and made with dates and cashews but I've also been experimenting with other combinations and shapes.

The first of these was to substitute the dates with dried apricots and the cashews and cashew butter with almonds and almond butter.  The results were just as delicious.

Apricot and Almond Energy Balls

I've now just made up 1.5 times original recipe and pressed it all into a rectangular tin, rather than shape the mixture into balls. It's a lot less messy than making the balls but a top tip, should you choose to make the balls, is to ensure you have wet hands.

Once set, I cut the slab into cubes, which I'm hoping will be easier to pack into a lunchbox (less prone to rolling around!)

Cashew and Date Cubes

Once this batch has been consumed I've already decided on the next flavour - hazelnut and dark chocolate, inspired by a visit to friends the other weekend. I'll stick with the dates but use hazelnut butter and chopped and toasted hazelnuts rather than the suggested cashews but will also sprinkle in some dark chocolate chips. I'm also considering something with lemon zest in but will mull that idea over a bit more.

Right, time for a cup of tea and a cube of energy I think!

Fleeced!

Apparently it takes a professional shearer approximately 2 minutes to shear a sheep but how long does it take to put a fleece on a sheep? I guess the sheep would say it takes a full year of dedicated grass eating but, if my experience over the past two weeks is anything to go by, I'd say about 10 hours.

OK, so it wasn't an actual sheep that I was re-fleecing but a small crocheted one. However, you hopefully get the idea that it was quite a laborious process.

I'm talking, of course, about my latest crochet project that I had first attempted back in October. On that occasion, after 6 hours of starting, unpicking, re-starting and yet again unpicking I had nothing to show for my efforts except a splitting headache and a crick in my neck. Fortunately, my second attempt two weeks ago was much more successful, mainly thanks to some moral support and advice at the last Craft Club gathering. By the end of the afternoon I had a body and head to show for my efforts and by the end of the following day I had 4 legs, a pair of ears and a tail.

That just left me to stuff the pieces, sew them together and then add the fleece. This final bit was a tiny line in the instruction booklet so surely I'd have this little sheep done and dusted and ready for his new owner?  Let's just say, after the first hour of attaching 8-chain loops to the body of my sheep I realised I was in this for the long-haul and BBC Radio 4's Drama of the Week podcasts were summoned alongside copious mugs of tea.

Anyway, the little chap - courtesy of Edward's Menagerie by Kerry Lord - is now complete. Now we just need the new baby to arrive!

Oh, and now I've got the crocheting bug once again, I just have decide which animal to make next...!

Chilli Jam

So much for me spending this weekend finishing the crochet project that I began last weekend. Let's just say I became somewhat distracted by a bowl of chillies.

We are lucky enough at work to have a fruit and veg stall, half of which is set aside selling bowlfuls of things for £1. Whenever I pass by I always look to see if there's anything interesting on offer and this week a £1 bowl of hot, red chillies took my fancy. I paired it with a similar bowl of sweet red peppers, picked up a kilo of jam sugar on my way home and then dug out a bottle of cider vinegar. After completing my regular Saturday chores, time has rather slipped by this afternoon as I combined the aforementioned ingredients under the instruction of Nigella Lawson.

I've not picked up my crochet hook yet but I do have 5 very pretty jars of Chilli Jam waiting on the side to cool.

Meanwhile, the spare chilli and peppers have been diced and thrown into a vegetable chilli that is now in the oven, so at least there will be dinner.

Fortunately, the crochet project, which is for a baby with a due date of tomorrow, did make some progress in the week so all is not entirely lost. However, I am secretly hoping the aforementioned baby will be a little late in making his/her first appearance to give me a bit more time. I'll just have to make sure I don't get distracted by anything else!

Cakey-biscuits?

It has been a busy few weeks involving a lot of travel for both work and pleasure, all great, but it was nice to finally find myself at home this weekend. And what a weekend! It finally feels as if Spring has sprung and it was Craft Club, so there was no excuse not to get creative.

My Craft Club contribution was due to be cake although what I ended up making was a bit of a cross between biscuit and cake. The recipe was an adaptation from a Hemsley and Hemsley recipe, adapted out of necessity because of the paucity of stock held by my local supermarket. In spite of that, the results went down well with our mid-afternoon cup of tea so I thought I'd share my version of the recipe with you.

Melt 75g of butter with half a teaspoon of Bicarbonate of Soda and a teaspoon of vanilla bean paste. Place 175g ready-to-eat, pitted prunes in a food processor and pulse until well chopped. Pour in the melted butter mixture and combine, then add 250g ground almonds and mix until everything is well combined.

Take heaped tablespoons of the mixture and form into balls, squashing each to a fat disk about 5-6cm in diameter. Place on a large baking tray lined with baking parchment. You should get about 14 'cakey-biscuits' from your mixture.

Pop them in the fridge to chill for about 15 minutes whilst you pre-heat the oven to 160C or gas mark 3. Cook for 15-18 minutes and allow to cool on the tray.

Meanwhile, melt 30g dark chocolate to drizzle on the top. I found the easiest and least messy way to do this was to place the chocolate pieces into a disposable piping bag - the sort that you snip the end off when you are ready to pipe. Don't snip the end off yet but place it in a mug, twisting the open end of the bag and tucking it through the mug handle. Pour over not-quite-boiling water and leave for the chocolate to melt.

Once your bakes are cool, remove the piping bag from the mug (the chocolate should now be melted), dry the outside of the bag, snip off the tip of the bag and slowly drizzle the chocolate over your bakes.

Once the chocolate has set, make yourself a nice cuppa, sit back and tuck in!

Whilst in the relaxing environment of Craft Club I made a second attempt at a crochet project that had previously defeated me. It's going well so I hope to be able to 'show and tell' next weekend!