Autumn

Posted on October 10, 2020 by The Little Room of Rachell

I love autumn, I always have. I’m glad we have four distinct seasons here. Fancy a rather rambling read? You’ve come to the right place.

Cooking:

The drop in temperature has meant the food I cook has changed. Plus I definitely gravitate towards a glass of red wine more too. And why not? It warms the blood.

The change of weather and a bounty of homegrown and wild produce seems to have perked up friends lately too. Recently I’ve had WhatsApps about:

T and her pots of rhubarb and ginger jam

T and his apple crumble / beef and ale pie

S made a chicken and tarragon pie

E made a huge apple pie

P is delighted that Yorkshire tea have made biscuit flavoured tea bags and says her tea drinking times have just improved!

N has been looking up crabapple recipes

B dusted off her slow cooker and made a beef and ale stew

I adore messages like those!

I’ve made Dorset apple cakes to share with family, plus tried a new bread recipe for a ginger and sultana loaf from my WI Bread book. It’s a winner! Message me and I’ll send you the recipe.

I’ve taken a few comfort food cookbooks off the shelf to get more inspiration.

What are you cooking at the moment? Have you made anything new, or an old favourite?

Crafting:

We talked about a long walk and tackling some chores in the house and garden, but after a long call from a friend and a heavy downpour went into hibernation mode instead the other day. We listened to This is This Country and roared with laughter. (Best if you already know the tv series.)

Lately I’ve sat up in the early morning with a podcast or audio book and done a round or two of crochet. It is a nice lazy way to start the day. I recommend Lisa Jewell’s Invisable Girl audio book.

I’m sticking to my Close to You scarf and Big Granny Square blanket. I’m trying not to flit around with lots of different makes, but am committing to a few. Both are easy going and not too taxing for my iffy hands.

For the GSB I’m wondering about going off-piste and buying more Hayfield Spirit yarn in different colourways. It would be a multi-multi coloured blanket. Here’s the full selection of colours from the Sirdar website. What do you reckon?

Casper might be fun for a scarf.

Walking:

It’s gorgeous weather for walks. No sunscreen or multiple water bottles to lug around anymore as it’s now 10° less, or more, than this time a couple of weeks ago. Time to get the woollies out again! We all like an excuse to show off our homemades.

There’s an abundance of berries, a friend I met for lunch said she thinks it means we’re in for a hard winter. Is that right?

In the hedgerows in fields near home there are: crabapples, sloes, haws, the last blackberries, acorns, conkers, sycamore helicopters and ash keys. It’s fantastic.

‘Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ …full poem here.

Last weekend we drove home in the dark and AN OWL WAS SITTING ON THE WHITE LINE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD! I think he’d just caught a little creature running across the road and was pinning it down.

If the low light levels and gloomy days are feeling a little bit tricky, combined with everything else at the mo, here’s a tiny rather silly little thing you can do. I bought a really cheap set of glitter gel pens from The Works and now write lists using a different colour for each item. Someone told me it’s like I’m 13 years old, but I don’t care! My shopping and freezer lists are really pretty and colourful on the front of the fridge. They’re making me smile.

How are you finding autumn?

Maybe it’s Spring where you are? What are you up to?

Yarn Along – October

Posted on October 8, 2020 by The Little Room of Rachell

With my group singing classes having restarted, via Zoom for now, after six months of silence and being able to craft a little again, I’m feeling much more like myself. Does that sound odd? Maybe you know what I mean? I have my creative ducks in a row once more. I’ve always made stuff, sung, read and cooked, since childhood. It’s simple straightforward stuff which makes me feel happy and relaxed. I’m pretty low-maintenance, which is probably a very good thing in these uncertain times.

I’m knitting a Close to You scarf designed by Justyna Lorkowska and enjoying the subtle colour changes in the Fyberspates four ply Vivacious yarn very much.

By the way, the chocolate in the photo was a late birthday present, it’s good quality milk chocolate with coconut and lime. It was delicious with that mug of black Assam tea. (I always like to know those little details.)

As for reading: I’ve read a quarter of Elizabeth Gilbert’s City of Girls so far. It’s 1940 and nineteen year old Vivian has been sent in disgrace to live with her aunt Peg in NYC. Peg owns a crumbling old theatre and puts on flamboyant shows with a limited range of storylines. The theatre seems to have an infinite number of apartments above it. This of course is the perfect setting for lots of weird and wonderful characters. I’m currently enjoying descriptions of trunks of tailor-made clothes which have just arrived with Edna and Walter. They have come to the city fresh from an ocean liner from England, with nowhere else to live and no work.

Joining in with Ginny’s monthly Yarn Along (and only a day late this month!) Check it out – it’s a really good way to explore blogs from around the world. There’s such a variety of knitting and crochet going on. Plus you might pick up a good book recommendation too.

Breaking my own rule

Posted on August 12, 2020 by The Little Room of Rachell

I know I said I’d do a lucky dip delve into my craft box to come up with bags containing mystery items. I’d concentrate on finishing, or unravelling, long ago started things before starting anything new, but blame my friend.

She messaged me last week with two shawl pattern pics asking which one she should pick. Then I say a day or so later that I really have an urge to knit.

“What’s prompted that?”

“You, you lemon!”

Ha!

Digging through my craft cube I found yarns I’d forgotten all about, some really nice stuff that’s been tucked away for a lonnnng time. I’d done that deadly thing of keeping it ‘for best’ and it ended up there for years. Today is the day I decided. Just make something, anything, with it.

Life’s a bit like that in general at the moment, isn’t it? On Simon Mayo’s Books of the Year podcast author Sabine Durrant said that she’s always finished books, no matter whether she’s enjoying them, or not. However now she will give up on some. It’s the same sort of thing. This year is making us think about some aspects of life a little differently.

It’s really pretty. The colourway is Spiced Plum and it’s by Fyberspates. It’s 100% merino 4 ply. Very pretty. I bought it years ago in iknit in Waterloo, London. I googled to see if they still sell it and found the shop has closed. I can’t find any more information about when, why or if they’ve moved. What a shame.

I’d kind of forgotten that with luxury skeins of hand-dyed yarn you can’t simply pick them up and start knitting; before you begin there’s hard manual labour to do!

I don’t know about you, but I can spend a very long time looking through patterns trying to decide what to make. This time I just went straight to things already saved in my Ravelry library and picked the first shawl pattern I saw: Close to You by Justyna Lorkowska.

Later I messaged my friend as actually it seems we’re doing a Knit Along! She didn’t pick either shawl in the end, but went for a pattern she’s used before. Here is hers in progress and here’s mine (there was a knot and undyed piece of merino unfortunately, so I had to cut it. That’s why there’s a trailing end and separate ball. Beautifully hand wound, I think you’ll agree?)