I have very little inspiration for writing this post if I’m honest as I didn’t massively enjoy making these gloves. I started them about three times and kept messing the cable up – only to discover there was a mistake in the pattern on the cable bit, when I checked there was an errata but it was still pretty annoying!

The thumb placement and by extension the fliptop are off centre (and yes I followed the instructions exactly – wish I hadn’t, should have used my own judgement) and the top is too pointy for my liking but now I’m being picky

However I was really pleased with the cable, it’s very pretty and the gloves are ever-so cosy with this lovely alpaca yarn!

Many years ago (okay 2 and a bit) when Simon got his first iPhone I happened to have the sewing machine out and he asked me to make him a case for it. He despised the hard ones as they ‘ruin’ the smooth clean sleekness of  the design. But rather, he wanted a slip case to protect it in his pocket from keys and change and the like.

I threw a couple of pieces of of fabric together in about 3 minutes (as I had far more interesting things to be sewing) always intending to make a better one at some point, but he never wanted one. He stubbornly clung to this wonky, too long, ratty scrap of fabric over a more polished (and bloggable) item. It was also embarrassing as people must have judged my crafting skills based on that shitty thing!

Anyway, recently it has gotten so frayed as to be useless to protect the screen and so Simon comissioned another, he asked for a knitted case in a reddy/orangey variagated sock yarn I had left over from some delicious socks. It’s a perfect use for it as it’s strong but slimline, ideal to fit over the ohone and in his pocket.

It took me about 2 hours to knit, I’m sure you don’t need a pattern but anyway, here’s how:

You will need:

Leftover 4ply sock yarn
2.5mm dpns

Cast on 36 sts and join in the round
Work in K2P2 rib for 6 rounds
Knit for 50 rounds
Kitchener the live ends together

That’s it!

You could add a button or similar but why bother, it’s only going to get worn out.

PS Apologies for the shit photos, they were taken on my phone in the evening. The proper camera is buried under kitchen stuff in a cupboard somewhere whilst we spend all our daylight hours renovating…

So I was just chatting to Pam about tomatoes, how fun it is to grow them from seed and how lovely to have such a huge crop for various dinners, not just salads either, this sweet cherry tomato and sausage bake is definitely a fave.

However, now the weather has turned the tomatoes started rotting on the vine so I picked all the good ones this weekend and made some green tomato chutney.

I found a great recipe here simple and delicious, it actually tastes pretty close to Branston Pickle to be honest, but SO much better of course!

Another Christmas present to go with the jam for our family and friends. Plus I gave all my leftover jars to a lovely lady from the WI as we are cleaning out ready for the new kitchen, (eek!)

They are currently engaged in the Hackney Harvest, where they collect fruit from peoples gardens who are doing nothing with it, make jam/chutney and give it back to them – how cook is that. She did try to recruit me so I might go along…

Just to be clear, I’m not a huge fan of cross stitch. That is to say, I don’t hate it, but it’s not a craft I have lots of time for myself. However, on this occasion I have made an exception.

On holiday in France recently I came across a quilting/knitting/general craft shop (much to Simon’s disappointment) and found these cute little jam pot covers in aida fabric.  Having just made a shit load of jam this seemed like the perfect accompanying craft to transform them into gifts.

I had some left over crewel wool from the Olde Towne crewel work project, which I used instead of embroidery thread and I found the pattern for free on this fab blog - instant gratification craft, you can’t often say that about cross stitich.

PS I still don’t like cross stitch

I made this on holiday in Switzerland visiting our lovely (if knackered) friends from Ruffles and Ribbons. I got very over excited when we went to the market and found deliciously ripe figs, yumarama!

This is a fun afternoon’s activity, first: make the pastry, chill for one hour. Make the frangipane, chill for one hour. Roll out the pastry to practically transparent thinness, line the tin, chill for another hour. (I hope you’ve got a good book on the go).

Bake the pastry then add the frangipane, push the split oozing figs into the mixture and cover with orange zest, falked almonds and drizzle over sugar syrup.

Bake, done. Serve with creme fraiche.

It’s bloody good.

I got this kit from the Purl Bee for my birthday, I was SUPER excited about it. I like the idea of embroidery but find it rather daunting, this was perfect for me as it was quite open stitching and I learnt loads of different stitches.

The kit comes with everything you need plus a whole stitch booklet (type-written) and really detailed hand-written instructions. This made it feel very cottagy and vintage.

Basically I couldn’t put it down, it was so much fun to do.

I need to get it framed and then it will take pride of place in my Haberdashery.

For my next project I’d like to try these goldfinches, maybe for my grandmother, or there are some amazing jacobean samplers around, but what would I DO with them? Answers on a postcard…

So, I have had my eye on this party garland recipe from The Purl Bee for ages as it looks amazing in their carefully styled photos and I loved the different shapes and sizes. Seeing as it looked pretty easy and I’m all about the instant gratification of such projects, I gave it a go one typical ‘summer’ afternoon.

Apologies for the poor and dingy photo, I’m afraid I have no garden or quaint natural setting as has Kimberly… However, it does look very sweet in my newly organised Haberdashery room and was super easy and quick to make, as claimed by The Purl Bee.

I used some ‘fat eighths’ of this beautiful V&A revival fabric that Kimberly bought me over a year ago for patchwork, but as mentioned earlier, I’m all about the instant gratification and I have discovered that slow paced crafts such as patchwork are therefore, not for me.

First I downloaded the templates for the different shapes and duly cut out a few of each from each piece of fabric. I was concerned that the shapes looked a bit titchy but did what I was told…
I then laid them out into some kind of ‘random’ order.

So, to the sewing! I was thrilled to find the required invisible thread in my local Morrisons! It was actually quite satisfying sewing it all together, if only because it takes hardly any time at all and the whole thing was finished in an afternoon!

Although it looks lovely, my main problem with the whole thing is that it is all so ABUSRDLY TINY! As if it’s been made for The Borrowers’ summer fete. The main reason I decided against employing my own initiative in the sizing was that the photos on The Purl Bee made it look much larger and I thought it would all be ok once it was put up somewhere. What a fool I was…

The fabric works perfectly for this project I think but I would need a lot more to make a proper length garland should I want to use it for some kind of celebration.

So, despite the templates for this being so stupidly miniature, I would definitely make more of this, but bigger, and maybe using some plain fabrics too to complement the beautiful patterns. The moral of this story is therefore, I know best.

Last weekend in the sunshine Simon and I went berry picking at Parkside Farm in Enfield, sensibly we arrived early, before the rush which was descending as we left at 11am!

Arriving home with a decent haul of strawberries, raspberries and blackberries I rolled my sleeves up for an afternoon of jam making. As ever I pulled out the preserving bible that is The National Trust Book of Jams and Preserves for guidance.

The bramble jam was a quick make, equal amounts of fruit and sugar plus the juice of two lemons, and was done in 20 mins. It is a delightfully tart jam and due to the short setting time still has large bits of whole fruit in it. In a blind taste test (which basically meant me feeding Simon breakfast) Simon rated this lowest of the three, but given that they are all delicious I think that sounds harsher than it should be.

The raspberry jam is easily my favourite, slightly sharp, very fruity and great texture (unless you’re the sort of weirdo who likes seedless jam), I left this to mingle with the sugar overnight before boiling and it really helped with the consistency. I’m also slightly partial to this as I potted it into some of my favourite jars…

The strawberry jam took four days to make, yup, 4 freakin’ days! But who am I to argue with The National Trust?

The first day you layer the fruit and jam sugar in a dish, cover and leave to soak, on day two you boil it for 5 mins, then cover and leave in the pan for another two days, on the fourth day you can finally bring to setting point, pot and cover.

So is it worth it? I would say yes, I got the best set I’ve ever had with this jam and Simon rated it top in our blind taste test, plus I would say the strawberries were not the best I’ve ever picked so definitely a success.

So that’s cream teas, victoria sponges, steamed puddings and a number of christmas prezzies sorted – shout now if you have a preference, I’m not sure how much will be left by then.

I’ve been meaning to make this for ages, this is another gem from my Italian classics cookbook that Simon got me a while ago.

Should have done it sooner – they are freaking’ amazing. I might have made them slightly too large but I’d only eat more if they were smaller.

I also used some of my delicious vanilla sugar (made from the empty vanilla pods as suggested by Nigella, I do everything she says you know) which I’ve been saving for just such an occasion and as far as I’m concerned that really made the difference (yeh so I’ve got nothing to compare it to, give a shit, I trust Nigella!)

Anyway I quite like the idea of making these every weekend to have with coffee, that’s probably unrealistic but I will certainly try these chocolate ones next time.

I’m aware this isn’t a great photo, it was very difficult to photograph without putting it on a child, and a) I don’t have a child and b) the child for whom it was made was not born yet, annoying.

Anyway this was made for a beautiful baby boy called Harrison, he’s the son of my jitsu sensei so it had to be very boyish indeed, and it’s hard to find good baby-boy items to knit. But I think this is ideal and I really like the contrast edging and the button band construction.

This is the first time I’ve made a pieced item of this kind and I WILL NOT BE DOING IT AGAIN. It was a fucking nightmare, it took me about a week to do all the knitting and then at least another week to sew it all together, if someone ever re-writes this pattern to be knitted in the round I would definitely make it for another boy as it did turn out really cute!

I used King Cole Baby Comfort DK which is really cosy and soft, plus it’s washable at 40, which I’m pretty sure is important when you have a small child.

I made it for a size 12 months but my gauge must have been off as it is a 6 month size in my opinion, not a big deal, it will fit at some point

Anyway, look at the cute baby bear ears!