Happy New Year!

Posted on January 6, 2023 by The Little Room of Rachell

On New Year’s Day I had a good think about starting a project where you make something every day, (or plan something small that you can catch up on at the end of each week, when you invariably end up behind.) But I know better than that really, don’t I? So instead of committing to a plan, I started crocheting circles. I’lI make them whenever I want to do a little bit of crochet, or want something portable to take out and about, then I will turn them into circles in a hexagon, or rectangle, or square, or star, or… and join them together at some point. I REALLY like using variegated yarn, this obsession is not wearing off now and it’s been a couple of years. I plan to transform them with a single plain colour. Probably. That could change, as I wonder about maybe using other variegated shades for contrast, so the overall effect of the whatever it’s going to be would be mismatched and rather glorious. Glorious is a big word, but it’s a fresh shiny new year, so let’s be optimistic and enthusiastic.

After reading some one-word posts and resolutions in which people are already sounding rather desperate and negative, ready to concede defeat, I’m not making resolutions to be broken. I’m not planning to count anything (books, calories, steps, pounds etc etc…) or set big goals. I’ll make considered choices as I go. There’s enough happening in life as you go along, without beginning the year with a huge list of shoulds. No pressure, stress or things to fail. Hurray! Who’s with me?

This week there’s been a lot of wind and rain, but also a few good periods for walking. I’ve been here, there and rather busy, but have made time to walk. Look at yesterday’s sunset. Beautiful.

I stopped counting my mileage last spring, knowing after recording it for 3 years or so, that I average 1,000 miles walked a year. I did have a look at Strava and see that I walked 50 miles over Christmas. I knew I had tried to move most days, I didn’t realise it was quite so much. Those 2 mile jaunts around to look at the Christmas lights and catch glimpses of people’s trees add up!

Witney was looking really lovely on Wednesday afternoon.

It’s Epiphany today and the last day of Christmas. The lights and sparkle everywhere have been so welcome. I’m going to keep my three cosy red tea light holders out of my decs box this year and I’ve got star shaped fairy lights along the mantelpiece. January and February can be grey and grim, but there are ways to brighten up home and keep some sparkle.

I whizzed up some whole spices to top up my curry powder jar. I ground it all quite coarsely, those homegrown dried chilies are definitely still looking flaky, but it’s a perfect blend of flavours and will cook down well. If you’re feeling a bit low I recommend making a spice blend up to use in soups and curries, or as marinades. Buy a grinder and some whole spices to make your own blends. There are loads of blend recipes online. It’s cheaper in the long run than buying those titchy jars, especially if you buy larger packets of whole spices from an Asian Supermarket. You feel really productive and you get the flavours you want, adding more, or less of what you prefer. The kitchen smelt amazing afterwards, it’s very cheering.

These orchids stopped me in my tracks at the garden centre. How fresh and vibrant! Garden centres and nurseries are still managing to provide lots of colour and brightness. They’re usually warm too!

Meatless Monday’s (as I call it, most say meat- free) spicy bean & tomato soup. Fancy it? Diced onion, carrot & celery cooked slowly till softened, smoked paprika & chilli powder added and cooked for a minute, stir so it doesn’t burn, add a diced yellow pepper, a can of chopped tomatoes, 750 ml ish of veg stock, mixed herbs, can of drained black beans, can of drained kidney beans, a squeeze of tomato purée and a good simmer. Perfect!

Then a day or two later I browned 250g pork mince, cooked a little more smoked paprika and chilli powder, added the soup leftovers and threw some petit pois in at the end. Served it in bowls, with strong cheddar on top and called it Chilli!

Usually my leftovers get turned into soups/stoup (Hugh FW term for something halfway between a soup and a stew.) This was the reverse process and worked very well.

By Welsh artist Lizzie Spikes – Driftwood Designs

Too good not to share. I’ve put all the names and dates of the different moons on my calendar. So today is called Stay at Home moon. I don’t mind if I do. Sounds perfect. I’ve had a bowl of soup for lunch and my second piece of Christmas cake. (First slice of today I mean, only my second of Christmas!) I’ve started to Declutter Christmas (feels appropriate to be capitalised) as it’s time. Christmas cards are in a pile to read through and look at once more. I’ve dusted after taking away cards, Christmassy tins, a bowl of mini baubles, a wicker star and more. The Poinsettia has been watered a little, it hasn’t lost its leaves yet… Now the bauble boxes are open on the sofa, waiting to be refilled. I am feeling unusually regretful about the de-Christmassing this year; usually I’m ready to dust and put everything to rights, however this year I fancy keeping everything up until Valentine’s Day! I’ve really loved our Christmas tree. But all good things must come to an end.

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What are your plans for the weekend? Have you got any new recipes to try, new books to read or a walk planned? What about crochet and knitting; have you fallen for the make-something-everyday plan and kept it up, or failed after just a few days?!

Progress report

Posted on June 23, 2014 by The Little Room of Rachell

Oh yes, I’m pleased with this joining malarkey. Choose the outer colour, zip around round 3 and join one side of round 4. It feels like a fast way of making a blanket.

I’ve just unravelled the matador red motifs, apart from those with it in the middle. It’s not going to work. It was always a bold colour choice – to match William Morris’s red flower centres – but any more than a little splash is going to set the teeth on edge, especially with so much peach going into the mix too.

Random fact: the curtains were originally chosen, in fact the whole room was coordinated, around a cream and peach tapestry cushion I made years back. I know this probably isn’t that interesting without pics but I’m still under house arrest. I’m going to try driving tomorrow with a heavy duty support on the peg. See, you get all the highlights during these days of being patient.

I just had the nicest compliment, via the tweet machine this morning, about my last post. It was from Jennifer Reid who is a crochet designer for Inside Crochet and Simply Crochet magazines. You’ll recognise her patterns straight away if you buy those mags and check Ravelry. It’s always a lovely surprise to hear from different people. She’s also a member of the Darning Sisterhood – the leave them to the end club. Anyone else want to join?

Throw another one in the basket

Posted on June 22, 2014 by The Little Room of Rachell

Friday night’s been G&T time for a long, long time but nowadays Friday night is cocktail night. This week it was mojitos. Mmmmm. I might do a cocktail post of my faves, with recipes sometime. I keep sorely trying someone’s patience while I photograph them before drinking commences!

Fresh juicy cherries and crochet go well.

My Japanese steel snips are incredibly sharp; I have to take care around these. So much faster than grappling for scissors can be, they slide into a plastic cover when not in use. It’s a good job as even the ends are razor-sharp. They were a gift from a posh shop which sells household goods.

I can’t believe how many half completed motifs I’ve done, already. I edge a diddy little middle with a second round and throw it into the basket I rescued from a friend’s jumble sale bag. One (wo)man’s trash is another (wo)man’s treasure.

It’s nearly time to edge some with the third row and join while crocheting the fourth. I’m looking forward to placing the colours and seeing how the overall effect works. It’s definitely a different sort of palate for me.

….Oh and oh yes…the ends. Well I just read Heather’s thoughts about darning, rather than crocheting over them, and realised she’s a kindred spirit in this respect. I groan about them a bit and resolve to tackle the ends as I go but rarely do; getting absorbed in the act of creating. Select the colour, crochet the round, snip the tail, throw the motif into the basket and onto the next. Usually I darn them listening to an audio book, or semi watching a film and find it a soothing activity in itself. This weekend’s film was one I seem to have missed at the time. I really enjoyed the undemanding, sweet, sometimes funny, little story.

What are you up to at the moment?

Zippidy do-dah

Posted on June 20, 2014 by The Little Room of Rachell

Well I never! Zippidy do-dah as in ~~The~~ J~~ungle Book~~ Disney’s Song of the South (Never heard of it! Is it one to watch?) is actually spelt Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah! The things you find out when checking spelling. I’m sticking with my version.

I wasn’t planning to write this down, but I actually though I was a bit off crochet. Maybe the huge enthusiasm I’d had for it over the last few years had died down, and that was ok. But it turns out it was because I last bought a big batch of new yarn in Autumn 2012. Waste not want not, I’ve been using up left-overs, plus I’ve gradually been buying sewing materials. But the pleasure in taking off the bands of brand new yarn – 11 brand new balls of yarn! Using virgin yarn which hasn’t been unraveled, or wound into a smaller balls and put in an oddments bag and in new colours too is so enjoyable.

I didn’t choose the colours for this project (apart from substituting the gorgeous new Spice for Jaffa, as I found out Jaffa is Nemo neon orange.) I just left my Stylecraft catalogue and picked it up with all the ticks under the shades, but the combination is pleasing. I particularly like the rich Walnut brown, the teddy bear Mocha, orange Spice and Matador red paired together. These have a rather retro, back to the 70s feel. Sometimes it feels as if brown is an outcast, with the current craze for Cath Kidson reds, pinks, pale greens and blues – I love them too. Brown isn’t a colour I gravate to usually, in yarn or clothes, but this palate is somewhat rich and earthy. It’s to coordinate with curtains of a William Morris design, and I’m really enjoying the new colours. I can’t find the WM design on Google images and didn’t think to photograph the curtains. I will next time I visit.

Why Zippidy-do-dah? Because this is my progress from just two sittings. The first evening I started to crochet I ended up making 44 middles – 4 of each of the 11 colours. I do like the magic loop method. Then before I knew it I’d completed the second round of 22 of them. Last night I completed the second round of all but a few of the other 22. I’m making sure I use all the colours, but also ordered extra balls of camel, cream, silver and parchment so I can make extra motifs with just these to balance out the stronger colours. Matador type red only features a little in the curtain fabric, as the centre of some flowers, so although I’ve discovered I love it and Spice together I must be careful not to overwhelm the blanket.

Did I mention the mmmm smell of a sackful of new yarn? There’s something new car-ish about it. Oh Wool Only purists please don’t shake your heads like that!

Here are the colours listed from left to right, top row first, in case you’re feeling 70’s retro inspired (or have William Morris fabric!)
silver :: grey :: walnut :: copper :: spice :: mocha :: matador
parchment :: cream :: camel :: apricot::

I’m hobbling now, with only a small lurch and can go upstairs slowly one foot at a time, not crawling or one foot, then the other per step. Hurrah! The Goldfinch Audio book has been great company – wow – I listened to 7 hours 43 minutes of it yesterday. Kudos to David Pittu for being about to narrate young and old, male and female voices so convincingly, accents too. It’s 32 hours long so 7:43 is a drop in the ocean. I’m glad because I’m enjoying it so much. AND How to Make an American Quilt is on the way via LoveFilm by post, my last DVD before my membership ends. It’s all looking up.

Sometimes there is no right way

Posted on June 5, 2014 by The Little Room of Rachell

Playing with joining as you go the other evening I took this photo as a reminder; because I didn’t feel too confident that it was right, and thought they’d probably soon be un-joined!

After Carina commented on my last post, reminding me that she’s crocheted some of the motifs from Edie Eckman’s fabulous Beyond the Square book, I emailed her the photo above and asked how she would have joined them. It’s the first time I’ve used the join-as-you-go technique with anything apart from granny squares. I was really dithering and feeling unconfident. When I start saying, or thinking, ‘Well, I’ve only been crocheting a few years’ I know I’m struggling with something. It’s not the end of the world, but is an irritating feeling.

Carina is one of those bloggers that you just know will answer a query and try their best to help. I rushed to work yesterday having fired off a HELP ME! email, and in the evening found not one, but two replies from her. The first saying she’d had a busy day but would get back to me shortly. The second, sent less than an hour later, had detailed ‘This is how I would do it’ instructions and an attached photo. She’d obviously pulled out her BtS book and had a go at joining two motifs. How kind!

I do prefer Carina’s joining method which replaces the 3 corner chains with 1 ch, 1 jss (joining slip stitch) 1 ch. This was the part I wasn’t sure about. Do you replace all the ch with one jss, or only one? How many jss would you need overall? What about the 5 ch in the middle? Carina had also joined this motif in four places, rather than three.

If the motifs were making up a blanket it would probably be more…I’m struggling for the word….connected? Strong? Less gapy? I just checked the spelling of gapy, so I didn’t type gappy by mistake instead, and asked ‘Is it gay-ai-pee-why?’ I’m tired!’ Taking non-drowsy cough med is so stupid right before bed. Consequently I was wide awake and reading my Kindle after midnight last night. (The book was Necessary Lies, if like me you like to know these details. It was a 99p Kindle deal I bought weeks ago. Diane Chamberlain a new-to-me author but the blurb interested and readers’ reviews and stars were impressive on Amazon. The first two chapters have me completely intrigued already.)

The point which I’ll try quickly to come to now, I always waffle far more when tired, is that when I popped into the library today I swerved to the fab craft section and ended up having a quick flick through a Crochet Guide by Jane Crowfoot. She writes that joining motifs is similar to free-form crochet; no two people will join them in the same way. I’m really grateful to Carina for her help, will be joining the motif using her suggestion, but also have learnt a good lesson and a bit of a confidence booster on the way. Sometimes there isn’t always a right way or a wrong way. There’s your way and there’s my way.

Productivity

Posted on June 3, 2014 by The Little Room of Rachell

I was given Beyond the Square for Christmas, but haven’t made a single motif until this week. The other evening I thought I’d play with #118 and figure how to join it as I went. It took five tries and I got it, I think. Others might have sussed it out differently but mine looks like it will probably work. Since then I’ve had a little production line going making middles and am now round twoing them all.

I have no idea what I’m making, or for whom, as it’s been so spontaneous but it’s another way to use up some of my oddments of Stylecraft.

As I crocheted half-finished motifs, and tossed them into the basket beside me, I realised the colours are echoing those in my bouquet. This is nice, I like it.

Some stack their middles and half-done motifs beautifully, others lay them out in imaginative patterns to photograph; mine are tossed into a basket ends up and bedraggled! It’s all about doing some crochet again, not artful photographs. I can attempt to redress the balance and make sure they’re laid out with a CK mug of coffee in the background (tho I mostly drink tea) or my socked feet in the picture if you like? All the blogging photo cliches by request.

Stop being silly and go into the garden.
The potato leaves are looking lush and healthy, hopefully the potatoes are too. I can’t wait to dig into the soil and see them.

So many strawberries for one plant! My friend’s are redder and huge too, I think they get more sun in her garden, but I’m pleased my plant came through our wet Winter so well.

The first tomato. I bought two varieties this year; yellow Golden Sunrise and Gardener’s Delight, a red cherry.

The pepper plants look ready to fruit too. I’ve grown extra to swap with family this weekend.

I’ve baked wholemeal and a white seeded – poppy, sunflower and pumpkin – loaves for this week’s daily bread. The white is a bit darker brown than usual on top, I blame that motif I was trying to whizz around – rather than just putting it down and getting to the oven a few minutes sooner. It’ll be fine though. The bottom and sides are a nice colour.

For a week I’ve felt under par, waking up in the early hours with a thumping headache and sore neck/throat, had a hacking cough with lots of sighing and a bit of grumping. Today is the first time I’ve truly felt like myself and even slightly dynamic, rather than going through the motions. Three lots of washing washed and hung on the line too. It’s been a good day.

Oh and now it’s raining again, doesn’t that always happen just after you’ve done the watering?!

How are you feeling this week?

Oh by the way rather than just staring, hearting and commenting on others’ pics (only in the last few weeks – what can I say, I’m slow) I’ve started to join in on Instagram. Only three pics so far, but there’s scope for more! Let me know if you’re there too. I like the way you can swap quick chatty comments and search for hashtags, it feels like the best aspects of blogging and twitter. However I can’t imagine it replacing blogging, for me, because you’re limited word-count-wise…!