Thursday, July 28, 2011

Phillippa Joads Hand Painted Shetland

I spun this 200 gms of top at 12:1 over 1" , twist-assist then chain-plied at 5.5:1 over around 12" to keep the colors relatively unmixed. This hank is about 100 yards:

This hank will be added to the knitted scarf as per Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer's "Morning Surf" scarf - 'though this is more like "Evening on Heath":
Some was combined with my softer ECX first-shear DroimAnUan hand spun to knit a pair of wrist warmers as per Samantha Thompson's Urban Weave wrist warmers. 

I used the rest, again combined with the white hand spin,  to make a 20"ish  X 20" Log Cabin weave which will form the decorative front for a cushion:


Got a lot of fun out of this.

Nest

Seems this bird likes a bit of hand spun yarn along with the fleece, twigs and moss!












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Sunday, July 3, 2011

Cooking reaction

Despite having some nice meals on my trip to England, I returned home with a cooking deficit and a slight feeling of just too much greasy food (loading up with "Full English" too often?).

So upon return, a cookin binge ensued.

coooking june25
"The Fruitcake", Basil and Parmesan buns, Lemon marmalade (from the skins kept in the freezer).
The basil grown from seed doesn't seem to rot off at the roots like the shop ones I've bought.

elderflower cordial
Elderflower Cordial . Just caught the flowers before they went over. This is surprisingly nice stuff - poured over ice cream for instance. Surprising to me, as I usually find elderberries have an evil-type taste to them ( perhaps something  on the surface of the berries?). Anyway, hurry for screw-top wine bottles!



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