Blanket weather

The past few weeks have definitely constituted 'blanket weather' in my opinion and it seems that I'm not alone in feeling this way.

So, with the cat making the most of one fleecy blanket, I have begun work on a new appliqué design to make some more. To date I have tried elephants, birds and butterflies. This new design is inspired by a couple of young sea scouts that I know, who happen to have birthdays approaching...

I'm pretty excited and pleased with progress to date and hope to bring you a full set of photos in the next few weeks. In the meantime, I'd better get back to cutting and sewing...

Macaroons with a twist

I've not made macaroons before and always imagined they were tricky, fragile and temperamental. How wrong I was!

Yesterday was the first craft club of 2017 and I had volunteered to take along some cake for our mid-afternoon snack. Trawling through my recipe folder I found a recipe which I think originally came from the Waitrose Kitchen magazine. It was for Date and Walnut Ricciarelli - a type for macaroon which originates from the Italian city of Siena. I think, traditionally, these are a fairly regular almond macaroon but this version has the added zing of orange zest, a hint of orange blossom water, and sweet chewiness of chopped dates.

The list of instructions was minimal but I was concerned how sloppy the mixture would be and, consequently, how messy they would be to roll into a ball and place onto the baking tray. My concerns were completely unfounded and they turned out just like the picture. They also tasted amazing, with everyone asking for the recipe.

These are definitely going to become part of my repertoire for 2017. Delicious!

Mission: poncho

Have you ever started a project and then quickly regretted it? My latest project began in exactly this way.

A few years ago I spotted the instructions for a lovely crocheted poncho in a magazine. The pattern didn't look too complicated - the instructions only covered one page - and it seemed to consist more of holes than yarn so I was keen to have a go.

The opportunity arose when I found out that my poncho-loving friend was going to be spending a month in the UK over Christmas and so I decided to make it for her as a Christmas present. However, as someone who only wears black, I first had to track down some suitable yarn.

The pattern is from the yarn company Bergère de France (from their magazine 166 if you are interested). It's a lace-weight cotton and, perhaps understandably, comes in lovely summery shades, but not black. However, I managed to track down an almost identical weight yarn by Rico Design and was all ready to begin. It was mid-December and was due to meet up with my friend in mid-January so I was feeling confident.

That was until I actually read the pattern. The first instruction was to create a chain of 667 stitches. A bit bewildered as to how I was going to manage to keep count, a colleague at work suggested I put a marker every 50 or 100 stitches. Of course, simple really! So, armed with a collection of unusual but, for this purpose perfect, safety pins I set off.

Unusual safety pins, perfect as stitch markers

Having proudly produced a chain of 667 stitches I looked at the next instruction which was for a series of quadruple-treble stitches linked by chains of 11. Don't worry if you are not a crocheter and this makes no sense to you because I had never come across a 'quadruple-treble' stitch before either so was quickly seeking out instructions before I tentatively set off to complete row one of the poncho...

An hour and a half later I completed the first row. Yes, you read that correctly. It took me an hour and a half to complete one row of the poncho. Only 61 to go! Yes, it was at this point that I had serious doubts about my choice of project/Christmas present. I was also thinking if it would be possible to delay meeting up with my friend, perhaps only agreeing to wave her goodbye at the airport as she flew home again?! Friends were also trying to convince me to give it as a Christmas present in 2017 or even in 2018. However, I am a stubborn - I mean determined - soul and so I ploughed on.

No need to ask or even guess what I did this Christmas and New Year. I crocheted! When it rained - I crocheted. When others were going out walking on lovely crisp sunny days - I crocheted. When I babysat - I crocheted. When I thought about going to the cinema to see that interesting new film by Jim Jarmusch/J.A. Byona - I stayed in and crocheted!

I do have to say that not every row took 1.5 hours. Just two rows in every seven. Two of the rows I could complete in a speedy 15 minutes, and the big loopy rows could each be completed in about 20 minutes. There was a little complication around the opening at the neck (which made a hole far to big but I resolved that at the end by adding a couple of rows to the neck hole) but in the end I completed the final row after about 50 hours of crocheting. I also enjoyed as many hours of podcasts thanks to BBC's Drama of the week and NPR's TED Radio Hour which inspired, entertained and educated in equal measure.

It did take me a further 2.5 hours to finish off the ends and add the tassels, but this final step completely transformed it from a pile of yarn I was, quite frankly, sick of seeing to a really lovely garment.

I completed it just 14 hours before I boarded a bus to meet my friend but it was complete and I was very pleased with the result. I was even more pleased with my friend's reaction. She absolutely loved it. That was worth every hour - every minute - of work I had put in.

Mind you, that doesn't mean I'm going to be rushing to make another one for quite some time.  If ever!

Pavlova Bar

What better way can there be to see in the New Year than helping yourself from a Pavlova Bar? Exactly! So, that's just was I created as my contribution for this year's gathering: three different flavoured meringues; a selection of fruit, some soaked in booze and some completely unadulterated; a couple of sauces; and a pile of whipped cream. What could be simpler for people to help themselves from throughout the evening.

I began the day before by making the meringues. I used three egg whites per flavour which gave me five meringues of each, fifteen in total. Weigh the egg whites and then weigh out twice the weight in caster sugar in a separate bowl. Using a large, very clean bowl and an electric hand whisk, whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Then, very slowly (about a dessertspoon at a time) add the sugar, whisking in each spoonful thoroughly before adding the next. Once all the sugar is mixed in, continue whisking for another 5 minutes until the sugar has dissolved into the egg whites. If you put a small blob of the mixture between your finger and thumb and rub together you shouldn't be able to feel the sugar granules.

Once you reach this point you can add your flavourings. For chocolate, fold in a dessertspoon of sifted cocoa powder so that you have a marbled effect. For a nutty flavour, stir in 2 tablespoons of finely chopped nuts - I used hazelnuts but you could use pistachios. For something fruity, buy a tube of freeze dried berries - you can buy freeze dried raspberries and strawberries in a tube in the baking section of a decent supermarket - grind up about a dessertspoon of your chosen flavour to a fine powder and fold this into the egg white mixture.

Meanwhile, draw 10cm circles spaced across a sheet of non-stick baking paper, turn the paper so the drawing is on the underside and place on a baking sheet. Heat your oven to 100C. You should still be able to see the drawn circles through the baking paper and so use these as a guide as you dollop your meringue mix onto the baking sheet into a series of discs, leaving a dip in the middle of each (to eventually pile in your cream and toppings). For the berry meringue you could add a few drops of pink food colouring gel to the top of each meringue disc and gently swirl these in with a cocktail stick. If you choose to make pistachio meringue you could do the same with green food colouring. You could also dust the chocolate meringues with a little cocoa powder. Bake for 1.5 hours then leave in the oven to cool, opening the oven door slightly to let any moisture escape.

Repeat the process until you have enough meringues in sufficient flavours.

The rest should be fairly simple. Grab a selection of fruit. I defrosted some cherries, popped in some dried cherries and soaked the whole lot overnight in a generous splash of Kirsch. I also used fresh blueberries, raspberries and blackberries. I chose to provide a salted caramel sauce and some lemon curd 'thinned' to pouring consistency using limoncello.

Actually, lemon curd is a bit of a must, not least because it's one of the things you can make with the egg yolks you have left over after making all that meringue. I found a recipe on line that used all egg yolks rather than a mixture of yolks and whole eggs. I adjusted the quantities as appropriate - I had nine egg yolks to use up which produced two and a half jars of lemon curd. The half jar perfect for adding to the pavlova bar.

Huge thanks to Sainsbury's Magazine and The Meringue Girls for the inspiration, K for the use of her tiered tea plates and table runner and for making the bar sign and to J for the party. Happy 2017 to one and all!

This year's Christmas tree decoration

Each year I come up with a Christmas tree decoration and tend to make a whole pile of them to give in place of Christmas cards. This year is no different although the design is far from Royal Mail-friendly so they haven't been sent as far and wide as usual.

I did ponder how to make them 'flat-pack' but felt it was far too complicated, necessitating fiddly buttons and a full list of instructions for assembly to send with them, so they ended up 'fully formed' but with fewer recipients.

Made from felt in Scandi inspired red and white, they use different length strips fixed at each end to form a bauble. Really very simple yet, I hope you agree, effective.

Using a fabric roller cutter, a ruler and cutting mat I cut a series of felt strips, all 2cm wide. Each bauble needs one white strip 10cm long, two further white strips 14cm long, and two red strips 12cm long.

To assemble, take a set of felt strips and pile them up so that you have a 14cm white strip, a 12cm red strip, the 10cm white strip, a 12cm red strip, and a 14cm white strip. Line up the top edges and join with a cross stitch of red embroidery thread. Then line up the other ends and do the same. Add a thread loop to the centre of one of the cross stitches and - hey presto - you have a bauble!

I'm already working on the 2017 design but really do need to make sure it can be posted as a letter rather than a small packet!

Jam jar tea light holders

Last Christmas I was inspired by Kirstie Allsopp's Handmade Christmas to recycle some jam jars into gifts. And not by filling them with chutney, which is my usual festive make.

This time the project ditched the kitchen and instead I got busy with sticky back plastic, a shaped hole punch and can of glass frosting spray. Oh, and a selection of bottles and a (left) rubber glove!

I first cut a load of star shapes from the sticky back plastic and stuck these onto the clean jam jars in varying patterns.

The next step was to place a rubber glove on my left hand for protection (I'm very right handed), grab one of the jam jars with my left hand and a well shaken can of glass frosting spray with my right (I used PlastiKote) and head into the garden. I may have mentioned this in a previous blog but, whatever the spray can says about using at room temperature in a well-ventilated room and placing protective covering on all surrounding areas, your room cannot be ventilated enough and you'd need to work in a room entirely covered with protective plastic sheeting - all for a job that lasts a few minutes. The easiest and safest thing to do is go outside. So long as it's dry, not too windy and also not really cold I found the paint adhered very well. Just use a couple of really thin coats of paint to avoid it running or puddling in places.

Then, back inside, leave your jam jar upended on a bottle for the paint to dry before either applying another coat or, if you are happy with the coverage, removing the sticky back plastic shape.

You are then left with a decorated glass tea light which just needs a tea light...

To turn this into a lovely gift, fill the jar with sweets, pop a new tea light in the top, screw on the lid and add a ribbon, label and whatever other adornments you like.

Ta-da! Up-cycling at it's simplest.

And I've already been inspired for next year's little gifts. All I can say is that I'm on the hunt for cups and saucers so will be hitting the charity shops in the New Year!

Birthday Gifts

Last week was my Mum's birthday and her present involved two creative projects. The first was to make her a new apron. She had dropped a very heavy hint that she really didn't like her existing apron and rather liked the double-sided one I had made, firstly for myself, and then for a friend. With a lime green kitchen to compliment, I had been on the look out for some suitable fabric for some time and eventually found a lovely geometric bird print by Rose and Hubble in the Flo-Jo Boutique on Bristol's Gloucester Road.

Mind you, it took me three attempts to find a fabric to use to compliment it. Firstly I bought a lime green and white polka dot but the lime green only matched under very specific lighting conditions. I then bought a plain lime green fabric but had the same issues with that. In the end I went for black with white polka dots which made the bird print really sing.

The second part of the present didn't start out being a creative project. When we were out and about towards the end of the summer, my Mum spotted a cake knife set in the window of a local antique shop. It consisted of a bone handled cake knife and six bone handled tea knives. She was very taken with them and said how she no longer had a good cake knife and how her small knives were too heavy and kept falling of the plates whenever she was handing around slices of cake. Being a dutiful daughter I therefore raced back to the shop the very next day and snapped up the set.

It turned out that they were in the original box and that the knives had stood the test of time far more elegantly than the box had. It was broken, dusty and had signs of having been damp at some point in its history.

This is where this part of the present turned into a creative project. I began by reattaching the lid to the box and replacing the missing bit on the left hand side. I did this with masking tape.

I then raided the wrapping paper drawer but decided that brown paper was probably the best in terms of size and strength to cover the whole box, inside and out.

To add colour and hide a few joins, my next step was to add some coloured tape as a trim.  I also added a flap of ribbon to aid opening the box, since covering it all in brown paper had made the lid fit slightly more snugly than before.

The final step was to sort out the card inserts which held the knives in place.  I found some patterned craft paper which I thought added a feminine touch and perhaps also hinted at the original age of the knives.

I was proud of my efforts and my Mum was thrilled with both gifts, although did admit to having absolutely no recollection of ever coveting the cake knife set. However, they did come in very handy when serving her birthday cake. May there be many more birthday cakes to come!