Facecloths & Soaps

Do you remember these cute little packets that I showed you just before Christmas?  Well now it is time for you to peep inside.  :)

Crochet Facecloths in  beautiful natural 100% cotton.  I did a lovely textured stitch - alternative DC and TR then when working back I TR into the DC and DC into the TR.  I then edged them in a row (or two) of DC.

Then I added a bar of my home-made soap. It was lucky dip to who got what fragrance.  There was Poppy Seed and Lemon, Musk & Walnut Shell, Lime, Rose Petal or Lavender.

Rolled it up...

Tied it with a lovely ribbon.

And wrapped it  :)

As I am putting a facecloth in the Birthday Blog Box, I better add a bar of home-made soap in there too - don't you think?  :)

Bead Buddies Secret Santa

Every year over on the Bead Buddies Forum we do a Secret Santa.  Anyone wanting to take part pays a set price and they get a selection of beads, charms, etc to make something with to send to a secret recipient.

All the contents are the same, but in different colourways.

This is the lovely selection I received from the marvellous Audrey  (you are supposed to guess who sent you your gift, but as I organise it I get to know right from the start - it is still a random selection though, I don't pick and choose who makes for me  :)

Didn't I do well?    And it all came nicely wrapped in this pretty felted case.

If you are reading this, THANK YOU so much Audrey.

If you would like to see previous years, just click on the numbers  :)   2011 / 2012

January Workshops / Classes

A list of classes for January 2014.  Would love to see you at some if you can make it  :)

There's not as many as other months, but restarting those cogs after for Christmas  :)  Lots of demonstrations too which are free to watch - come chat to me :)


Fri 10th Jan (12.00noon-2.00pm) Beading Demonstration at Hobbycraft, Carlisle  - might be jewellery making or beadweaving, or whatever you might like to see - in conjunction with Have A Go Hobby weekend.  FREE to watch, just pop along.

Tue 14th Jan (2.00pm-4.00pm) Crochet Demonstration at Hobbycraft, Carlisle - in conjunction with Have A Go Hobby weekend.  FREE to watch, just pop along.

Tue 14th Jan (6.00pm-7.30pm) 'Bead & Banter' - a tutored jewellery making/beading group at Hobbycraft, Carlisle. £5.00, bring your own projects.  Call 01228 812362 to book.

Fri 17th Jan (12.00noon-2.00pm) Beading Demonstration at Hobbycraft, Carlisle  - might be jewellery making or beadweaving, or whatever you might like to see - in conjunction with Have A Go Hobby weekend.  FREE to watch, just pop along.

Mon 20th Jan (6.00pm-7.30pm) 'Crochet & Craic' - a tutored crochet group at Hobbycraft, Carlisle. £5.00, bring your own projects.  Call 01228 812362 to book.

Tue 21st Jan (2.00pm-4.00pm) Crochet Demonstration at Hobbycraft, Carlisle - in conjunction with Have A Go Hobby weekend.  FREE to watch, just pop along.

Fri 24th Jan (12.00noon-2.00pm) Beading Demonstration at Hobbycraft, Carlisle  - might be jewellery making or beadweaving, or whatever you might like to see - in conjunction with Have A Go Hobby weekend.  FREE to watch, just pop along.

Sun 26th Dec (10.00am-3.00pm)  'Crochet for Beginners' a workshop for those wishing to learn to crochet. I will take you through all the basic stitches, granny squares, how to increase and decrease and other stuff too.  Lunch included.  The Eden Workshop, Plumpton, nr Penrith. £40.00, including all materials. Email enquiries@theedenworkshop.co.uk  to book, or visit the website www.theedenworkshop.co.uk

Tue 28th Jan (2.00pm-4.00pm) Crochet Demonstration at Hobbycraft, Carlisle - in conjunction with Have A Go Hobby weekend.  FREE to watch, just pop along.

Fri 31st Jan (12.00noon-2.00pm) Beading Demonstration at Hobbycraft, Carlisle  - might be jewellery making or beadweaving, or whatever you might like to see - in conjunction with Have A Go Hobby weekend.  FREE to watch, just pop along.

Festive Fritters

A lot of people are still eating turkey days after the big Christmas dinner.  Turkey sandwiches, turkey curry, turkey pie etc....  not me, being vegetarian and that, but I still do have leftovers to take care of.

One of my most favourites is leftover vegetable fritters.  Let's call them "Festive Fritters" due to the fact that they have sprouts in, and that it is two days after Christmas  :)

Oh yeah, Merry Christmas by the way, hope it was a good one for you.

Anyway...... you will need:

• A couple of tablespoons of flour (any, whatever you have)
• Dried herbs, chilli flakes, seasoning  (any, whatever you have)
• Left over cooked vegetables (any, whatever you have)
• Egg  (an....... ok, just an egg)
• Splash of milk  (water will do)

What you do:

• Put some flour in a bowl  (you know I don't measure stuff don't you?  Go on, just put a couple of spoonfuls in there)
• Add some dried herbs, black pepper and some dried chilli flakes if you like a bit of a kick.

• Make a well in the centre and crack in an egg

• Start to mix, bringing the outside of the flour, in.  As it gets thicker add splashes of milk and water.

• Until you have a nice thick batter.

• Grab your leftover veggies.  I have peas, carrots, cauliflower, parsnips, brussel sprouts and roast potato in there.

• Chop it all up into little bits.

• Then mix into the batter mix.

• Heat up some oil in a frying pan and drop in blobs of the mix.  Spread it out a little, you need it flattish so it will cook through.

• Once you can see the edges cooking it is time to turn it over - don't be tempted to do it too soon or it will all fall apart.

• Cook the other side then serve.

• With a festive blob of cranberry sauce  :)

What do you do with your leftovers?

Cumberland Rum Butter - gifts for workmates

Last year (- has it REALLY been a whole year?) I made my work colleagues a jar of Rum Butter.

As it went down rather well, I thought I might make it a tradition, and make them some this year too.  (but with an added bonus of a wee bottle of Sloe Gin)

I actually used SIX blocks (250g blocks) of butter for this batch.  I did four to start with and decided it wasn't enough, so did another two.  For the second batch I could only get dark brown sugar though, so the batches are slightly different colours - but equally delicious.

Here is the recipe for you.  (I have broken it down into a smaller portion for you, but the photos show bulk :)  )

You will need:

• 250g butter
• 500g soft brown sugar
• a good measure of rum

What you do:

• Pop the sugar in a bowl and pour the rum over it.  Let it soak all the way through.

• Meanwhile, pop the butter in a non-stick pan over a low heat and allow to melt.

• Once melted, pour onto the boozy sugar and stir.  The hot butter will dissolve the sugar.

• Give it a good mix with a wooden spoon then plug in your electric whiskers.  (you can do the next bit by hand, but you will have muscles Popeye would be envious off by the time you are finished)

• On a slow setting give it a good whisk until the sugar is blended with the butter.

• Now, go away for half an hour, do some crocheting, make a brew, wash the dishes, catch up on Corrie - whatever, just leave the butter to cool slightly.

• Then go back and whisk it again, it will magically change colour.

• I leave it another 15 minutes and give it another whisk to make it light and fluffy.

• Then pipe it into pots.  I prefer to pipe rather than blob it in with a spoon as it's much less messy.  Although on the down side it looks rather like...... let's not go there!

Voilà!   Yummity, easy-peasy, hand-made Rum Butter.

To make it into a gift I added a scruffy hand-made label - or you can take your time with it and make a pretty one  (time was running out fast for me this Christmas)

.... and added a little bottle of highly alcholic, home-made Sloe Gin  (Sloes kindly picked and donated to me by my lovely friend Lezley)

Tied it up with a red ribbon (got Hubster to curl the ends to make it prettyful)

Pretty pressies all round  :)

And there is a pot left in the fridge for me  :)
Perfect on hot toasted crumpets, so the Rum Butter all melts and leaves a puddle of sugary rummy mess on your plate which you just have to lick  :)

Aruba Scarf #2

Do you recall at the end of November I did a lovely scarf for a display at Hobbycraft in Carlisle?

You can find it HERE if you want to go see.

Well, someone only went and STOLE IT!  Yep, really, they stole a sample scarf from the store.  

I was most upset as I tend to take ownership of these pieces, as my time and effort has gone into making them, but I hope they enjoy it anyway, if the guilt doesn't take away that moment of enjoyment.

Anyway...... so another was needed, quick smart.

This time I took this pink, blue and white colourway.  The yarn is Sirdar Aruba which is bobbly, frilly and full of texture.

It really is a nice effect and you can get a scarf made in an evening, so it works up really quickly.

I took it into work and fixed a security tag to it  :)  Hopefully it will deter any wannabe scarf rustlers and stay on display for a while  :)

Here is the other colourway for you to look at again, as you can no longer go into store to stroke it  ;)

The Eden Workshop

Yesterday I had a meeting with the lovely Jane from The Eden Workshop.

Situated on farm land at Plumpton  (only 5 miles or so off the M6 / J40) it is a beautiful space, refurbished for cooking classes and craft workshops.   Isn't PLUMPTON a great name,  plump, plump. plump - such a lovely word (and now it sounds funny coz I have said it too much!!)

I am hoping to start teaching some classes there in the new year - beadweaving, beaded jewellery making, crochet etc.... so watch this space.

In the meantime have a look at the website - www.theedenworkshop.co.uk/

..... and keep an eye on my WORKSHOPS tab (you can find it on the links bar at the top of the blog) as dates should be announced very soon  :)

I am going to take a class there myself in the new year, just check out these fabulous bags!

You can find more of them on the Facebook page Hole House.

Dancing Hearts Shawl

I follow a crochet designers blog by the name of A Creative Being and on one of her posts she asked for comments on what colours you would use to make this beautiful shawl.  I put shades of grey, and won a free copy of the shawl.  I was a little bit chuffed I can tell you.  You can find it HERE if you would like to buy it for yourself.

So, I really did mean to do it in shades of grey, but hadn't realised what a nightmare that would be finding the yarn.  Now, of course, I could mix yarn types but really I wanted it to be all the same make.  I could order some online, but being an impatient soul, I wanted to get started sooner rather than later.

I popped up to Hobbycraft and got the Sirdar Ella range in Grey, Pink and Cream.  It;s a pretty DK yarn with a strand of glitter running through it.  Perfect.

I made a start, although this one below had to be unpicked as there are too many 'petals' in it.  (must learn to count!)

Start again, a cute pile of grey and pinkness - such an 80's colourtheme.  I had grey and pink striped curtains in my bedroom way back then - the material was horrible if I remember correctly.

But it has made a comeback and it does work well together.

Just to put it all together now  :)