the repair shop | The Little Room of Rachell

1. Crocheting!

Here’s the somewhat eccentric thing I was crocheting at the end of last year. It felt slightly weird to be crocheting a cover for a cafetiere to sprout mung beans, but when I started to blog people were all over crocheting covers for wooden coathangers. So perhaps it’s not that strange! (Eccentric crochet first mentioned here.)

I wanted to try sprouting mung beans in a cafetiere, as I’ve seen it can result in really plumptious beansprouts. (Apple really doesn’t like that word. It’s very red and wiggly underneath. Well Apple, Google says it’s real and has a pronounciation guide, it’s not a Rachel Special.) I started them on Monday and so far I can’t see that they’re looking any more impressive than they did when I sprouted them in a soup mug, covered with a piece of muslin and secured with an elastic band… We will see…

I’ve also been doing some proper crochet. I’ve dug out my Ana Lucia shawl, found some notes on the pattern and realise to my shock that they were written in October 2019. This IS going to be FINISHED this year.

It’s further on now, with some very nice charcoal stripes, but I’ll wait for a brighter day to take some updated photos. It’s grey, grey, grey.

2. Baking

Think I’ve invented pizza topped sourdough focaccia!

Sun dried tomatoes, green olives, a thin spread of red pepper pesto and a sprinkle of mozzarella. The SD proved overnight in a bowl in the fridge waiting to become something last Sunday. A piece was so tasty eaten with a fruity crunchy red cabbage slaw, with the last of my Christmas dressing (dijon, honey and clementine, instead of lemon juice) dressing and topped with omega seed mix.

Lucky dip cookies from a Good Housekeeping magazine in March 2017. Recipe can be seen here.

I’ve just used up the rest of the cracking nuts and chocolate chips from Christmas, with some desiccated coconut, raisins and a few more of those mixed seeds. They haven’t been tested yet. Soon!

3. Sprouting

A spicy mix of red cabbage, broccoli and radish volcano, my first sprouts of the new year.

Butternut squash, sweet potato and chickpea curry, with roasted cherry tomatoes and a handful of sprouts on top. Warming winter meal.

4. Walking

It’s always an effort to walk when it’s cold and grey, but look what a lovely day it was when I took these photos last week. You’ve got to get out there whatever the weather, but particularly when it’s this blue. The snowdrops are already up and in bud, I should go back soon because they’ll be open now. Beauties.

5. Reading

Travels with my Aunt by Graham Greene. Very much of its time, partly making me cringe, partly making me smile. I thought I should read one of his novels.

I’ve been listening to Someone Else’s Shoes by Jojo Moyes but I’ve run out of hours on Spotify, so I am waiting for my new allowance. I could get the library book, in fact I was next in the queue on Libby, but I sent it back. I’m really enjoying the narration.

I’ve been approved to read a proof copy of the forthcoming accompanying book to the BBC series The Repair Shop. It looks interesting. As new converts to the show (after it’s been on for about a hundred years) I spend evenings wiping my face with mascara coated tissues. Every time one of them wells up, I do too. Then when the big reveal happens and they start boo-hooing I have tears rolling down my face. It is the devil‘s work! Can’t someone bring something in which THEY once bought and is now damaged? Do we really have to have every item loaded with some sentimental family significance? It won’t stop me watching, but I’m definitely going to go through a lot of tissues this year.

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What are you up to? How about sharing a few things?

Lastly, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

A walk, very muddy and windy, blasts of fresh air, perfect post turkey and Christmas pud etc on Boxing Day. Seven miles of revitalising and invigorating walking. Happy!

Wandering around the sales. I bought this really cute Christmas tree decoration. Who really can resist a clothed rabbit on a mistletoe bicycle? Well, not me anyway. Also, earrings from Accessorise (traditional purchase post-Christmas, 50% off. Why buy any the rest of the year?!) and a really nifty card purse in mustard yellow. I just can’t wear the colour as a main item, it makes me look jaundiced, but I do like it for accessories like gloves and for useful things like purses.

Knitting! I did some knitting! We were watching The Repair Shop at Christmas (BBC) the other night and as usual I was deeply impressed seeing the skill of the crafts people, not to mention their patience as they tackle the trickiest of items. Then came the Secret Santa sequence and there was a little shot of one knitting a dog coat for another. Something ignited and I jumped up to grab my stripy blanket and find my needle ends. I can’t remember the last time I knitted this blanket. My poor little hands have been working so hard rolling out dough for Chelsea buns, lebkuchen and using an icing bag, wrapping presents, baking and cooking, chopping vegetables for soups… they’re tired and achy. But I thought I would do a little with the old knitty sticks and see how I got on. I LOVED it.

A train trip, this photo taken as we sped past Honeybourne, Worcester. It was a really quiet train, I don’t think trains heading in the opposite direction to London were in the slightest. We picked the right way to go. As we travelled I listened to an Uncanny podcast about a mother and son renting a very spooky, noisy house with a mirror coming off the wall and scrambling footsteps going upstairs at all hours, plus a lot more.

Gloomy on the outside, Worcester Cathedral has a Christmas tree festival in full swing, it was full of sparkle inside. And much creativity.

The main areas of the cathedral are decorated beautifully with Christmas trees and fresh floral displays. I bet Carol services sound fabulous with the acoustics of the building

Like this a lot but I was itching to tidy that stray book up

A fishy Christmas tree made by the Worcester WI for the Clean Rivers campaign

I could have spent hours looking at all the items on this tree

A very old letterbox outside the cathedral

A much needed sit, a cup of tea and a tasty salted-caramel crispy. A chilled three quarters of an hour before the train left. My sparkly Christmas nails captured as I looked through my photos.

Visiting family and enjoying a glass of champagne, a late Christmas celebration, I was waving my hands around as I chatted and dropped a hulahoop straight into my glass. Did you do anything silly like this?!

Some more knitting, two nights running. Wow! We listened to John Sessions reading Charles Dickens The Signalman (on Spotify Premium) the log burner roaring away, many candles flickering, choccy cookies to share, mugs of lemon and ginger tea for me, whisky for Someone else. Perfect Crimbo Limbo evening.

I love this week between Christmas and New Year, where if you’re lucky enough not to be working the days and nights blur. It’s a time to get out and enjoy some fresh air and exercise, with a little bit of wandering around the shops without any pressure and stress of necessarily doing any shopping, spending some more time catching up with family, hunkering down in the evenings to watch festive tv and films, read, listen to music, audiobooks and do a little craft, or just stare into the flames. Perfect.

Yesterday I had an email with my blog stats from the last year. I realised this morning that this blog is nearly a teenager. I started it 12 years ago today! I had a goal to learn to finally learn to crochet. As blogs were HUGE in 2011 I thought I’d join in with my own online diary charting my progress. I also secretly fancied being included in a crochet magazine, but never admitted that to anyone. I achieved both of those goals, and far more. Then dibbled along carrying on posting, bit by bit, year by year. Suddenly it’s a dozen years later. The stats tell me that although I’ve only posted 17 times during the year, there have been many, many thousands of views. It is absolutely staggering to see the number.

THANK YOU so much for continuing to read and for taking the time to comment, or message me privately. I really appreciate this and know I wouldn’t have carried on without the interaction, or knowing people are still enjoying what I have to write and like to see my photos, even with a reduced amount of crochet and other craft.

I’m not sure what the last day of 2023 will hold, I suspect a lot more rain as I listen to it patter against the windows. What are your plans? Whatever you do I hope that you’re feeling well and happy, and that you’ve had a good Christmas and Crimbo Limbo week.

Here’s to another year. See you on the other side! 2024, already. Aren’t we lucky?