Monday, October 28, 2013

Extra, extra, save some thread!

Noodling about on pinterest, I saw this 2 Unexpected Tools for the Sewing Room.  I'm not so sure about shoving a screwdriver near a needle, but I've definitely used the thread starter idea.  Even better, if you run off your sewing back onto scrap fabric, you end up saving a lot of thread.  (Probably better if you're going to sew over such stitching or if you've done a few reverse stitches to fasten off and don't intend to work the end in)

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Sunday, October 27, 2013

AKC (Actual Knitting Content)

From my posts, you might not know what an avid knitter I am. I tend to put my work on Ravelry and forget about anywhere else - oops
Here's a few things I've made
IMAG0240 DSC01196 DSC01394 DSC01023 DSC01024

trying a different blog app

Wonder how this one works

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Feeling like a spider

Because I'm spinning silk.  The above was how far I got last night

I'm attempting to spin one ply long draw because I've had a lesson on it and then the other ply short draw so I can see what the difference is.  I've no idea what the outcome will be or if it's even advised to do this, but what the heck!  I have 104 grammes of fibre and have another 10g to spin for the first ply.  My bobbin's almost full - that tussah silk goes a long way

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Just fabulous - knitting calculator

Knitting Calculator at Jimmy Beans Wool - http://pinterest.com/pin/121175046197701597/

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

An apology of sorts

Not much of one though.  I want to commiserate with people who have landed on my blog using either 'naughty knitting book' or 'booty swapper'  as the keywords in their search.  I don't know what they were looking for, but I'm sure they were severely disappointed with what they found

Pinterest adventure 1

So, is anyone else making from pinterest in response to my challenge?

I thought I'd better get on with it, so I started with a bit of baking and made magic cakes from this pin

There was lots of mess,

and the resulting batter looked more like an enriched milkshake than something that would make a cake. Uncooked, it tasted like a weirdly flavourless, floury milkshake too

The recipe specified an 8" by 8" pan, but there was so much mixture that I filled one of my silicon cake tins too (and yes, I know that is an oxymoron....)

The cakes really puffed up and in hindsight I don't know if swapping their position in the oven 2/3 of the way through was the right thing to do, but after they came out of the oven they deflated but still looked good



I was a bit impatient and didn't wait the 3 hours recommended before taking a slice.  Excuse the dark pic - it was raining heavily at this point



It tasted good and had a really interesting combination of fluffy and flabby textures (I'm really selling this to you, I can tell).  I had another slice a couple of hours later and it was delicious so I'd recommend following the instructions to wait.  As the evening wore on, the flavours and textures blossomed.  The downside of course was that the cake got smaller and smaller. This was the last piece



Luckily I had the second cake in the fridge.

Because
a) the whole thing reminded my husband of an egg custard without the pastry
b) it was in a silicon 'tin' that gives a weirdly smooth surface to anything in it
I decided to unmould the second cake and serve it upside down

What a hit - it disappeared in minutes



I will definitely make this again, but next time I'll find a larger and deeper tin to bake it in as I didn't really get much of the middle sloppy custard layer, but did get the slightly cakey top and the gorgeous thick custard base

Wonder what I'll make next?

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Heavenly Easy Lemon Meringue Ice Cream

Many years ago I worked in the Sainsburys in the Arndale Centre in Doncaster.  Very occasionally, the canteen would make this ice cream and it always went down a storm.  I eventually prised the recipe out of the canteen manager and I was shocked at how simple and easy it was

So, ready for a huge list of ingredients?

1 large pot of double cream (600ml)
1 454g jar of lemon curd
1 pack of meringue nests (there were 8 in mine)

That's it

Honestly

I suppose you could make your own lemon curd and meringue nests if you're that way inclined

So, whip your cream until it's stiff

Add the lemon curd - all the jar

Roughly crush the meringue nests and fold everything together

You can decide how combined you want the cream and lemon curd - if you want it uniform you could fold those two ingredients together to your liking and then add the meringue, but I like the little blobs and swirls of lemon curd

Either spoon into individual moulds (clean empty yogurt pots are fine) or into a container and freeze overnight



There's no need to stir or whip

You can eat the unfrozen mixture as a fool type dessert, but it might be a bit strong/sweet as the proportions are intended to counter the flavour dulling effect of freezing


Once frozen, this is how it looks


And it scoops out beautifully

Now, confession time - I picked up the smaller pot of cream by mistake so my ice cream is more lemony than you may get - still tastes lovely though

Tuesday, October 08, 2013

Pinterest - thoughts and a challenge

In my quest for pinterest world domination (truly, not) I've added some pinterest toys to the blog so I can be followed and pinned (Eeek).  I still don't know if I really get pinterest.  Doesn't stop me loving it, but I'm never sure if I'm, well, doing it right. Whatever, I enjoy what I do with it and love all of the wonderful things that people find and share on there.  I'm on the desktop this morning and I never realised how much functionality I miss because I'm usually on my tablet.  Its been a revelation, let me tell you.

However much I love seeing all the pretties, I have a sneaking suspicion that my pinterest could be in danger of becoming an overstuffed but dead space.  Kind of like my del.icio.us account - full of lovely things that I don't use  - the same could be said of my papercraft stuff in real life - I start to sense a theme here.  Magpie time - ooh shiny......

So, I want to issue myself a challenge and invite you all to join in. If you have a pinterest account where lots of great ideas are languishing, within the next month, make something from it or use a tip.  Post about it somewhere and link to me / tell me about it in the comments.  Feel free to issue this challenge to others and lets see if we can use what we've saved on there.

Instinct wants me to set up a group blog so we can all share, but I'll see if this takes off first

And on that note, I just snapped my glasses






Monday, October 07, 2013

Ridiculous Thoughts

I caught myself having not just one ridiculous thought, but lots.  I must have been mentally doodling while playing a game as I realised I'd made up part of a stand up comedy routine . My question is why?  It's not as though I'm asked to entertain a crowd of people on even an irregular basis and I have no ambition to do so. I can't see when having such a routine would benefit me. I'm unlikely to be captured by terrorists and forced to put on a show.  If I was, I wouldn't want to use that material anyhow. Given that it revolved around a certain sex act, I wouldn't want to give them any ideas.

Ah, the perils of staying up late.