Back In Action... Again

Greetings All! And a big hello and welcome to the new subscribers.

I have been away from blogging for quite some time. My bounce back from the issues caused by the chemo wasn't as bouncy or as back as I had hoped, and there was quite a slide back in my health, but I am definitely up and going now. Yay!

I spent much of the last year getting back into knitting, as the numbness and pain in my fingers slowly began to recede, and feeling came back. It was such a relief to be able to get back into handcrafts again, especially since it it is not just about hobbying. Being on an Invalid's Benefit (Disability Allowance) means that much of my handcrafting now is very practical and necessary, as I can't afford to buy a lot of things.

Things I managed to complete for myself were a jumper, two pairs of socks, four shawls, a small lace scarf, and a pair of slippers. I also did a pair of socks and pair of slippers for Mum, a shawl for friend, and I have another jumper almost finished.
Pictured are the four shawls and two pair of socks I did for myself.


The other major happening over this time was the garden. The garden, of course, got MAJORLY out of hand, with several years of not being able to do anything. And even now, my strength and stamina are not good enough to re-establish a large veggie garden in amongst the jungle that it became. I was afraid I might have to have it all put back into lawn. As a last hope, I contacted a local permaculture group, who kindly came and re-did my garden for me last April. 

Now it is not just four beds and some tyre gardens, but the whole yard has been put into garden. I have put in a wide variety of fruit trees and bushes, and am so pleased with how it has turned out. The first year in the hugelkulter beds was, of course, not great. They really need a year to settle down and start releasing the nitrogen back into the soil, and we had a very late frost towards the end of spring which hit the tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants I had put out. But I did get a good harvest of potatoes, and a lot of self-sown pumpkins came up, which produced nicely. 
Winter has now returned, a full year since the revamp, and the winter garden is shaping up nicely. Once things are up and going in full swing - and we get a sunny day - I will do a short tour of the garden for you. And of course when summer comes and the garden is in its full glory, I will do full tour.

Meanwhile, I have started two new projects.

The first is a fabric art journal. 
Every so often, I want to do a technique study for sewing or embroidery, or sometimes a small sampler, or often just a small project. And then there are the lovely little fabric prints and pretty fabric pieces that I hang onto because I really like them, but don't really know what to do with them.
All these things end up shoved into boxes, the back of a cupboard, etc., ending up moldy, moth eaten, damaged, or lost. So I thought, the answer to that is to make a fabric journal to put all these things in. One that can be constantly added to, as things are done.
The first page I did was an exercise in Slow-Stitching. Several pieces of silk, edges left exposed, boro stitched down. I just adore the feel of this piece. Then I added a couple of antique lace pieces to it, then edged it in antique lace.

The second page was a fabric piece I had, that I really liked, paired with a set of four small fabric strips and three novelty threads that I was given in a swap a few years ago. I added a lovely piece of sheer gold ribbon that I had, some gold metallic embroidery, and a couple of Venetian lace pieces and a Venetian lace edging.
The cover I made all about the lace - 6 different antique laces layered on. In the centre, is my all time favorite fabric print - it is so "me".

The second new project is a Spirit Cloth bed cover. This project is a very ambitious one, which will take many years to complete.

Spirit cloth is a kind of patchwork-y thing, but it uses old clothes and fabric scraps to make - whatever is on hand, rather than buying new stuff. It is about recycling and re-purposing, patching and mending. It general uses natural fibre cloth, and is very utilitarian. But it is also very beautiful.

For several years I got very into Crazy Quilting, but ultimately I found it too "fancy" and impractical for my soul. I love the work I did, and cherish the work I have from others, not to mention all the wonderful people I met in the online communities and round robins, and I will likely still do the odd piece here and there in the fabric journal. But what I really wanted was something more practical, something where I could use the items I produced in everyday living.

Now I am more involved in the Slow-Stitching and Fibre Upcycling/Recycling movements, and I am finding a deep satisfaction, contentment, and peacefulness here.

From what I have been able to find, the originator of the movement, and the one who coined the term Spirit Cloth, is Jude Hill. She has a lovely website https://clothwhispering.com/, which includes a free class -Spirit Cloth 101, as well as other free classes and paid classes.

I have started my first piece, a wholecloth sampler of a study of circles. This will eventually become part of the big bedcover.

So... things to look forward to in future posts:

- a winter tour and a summer tour of my new garden. It is amazing how much food, and variety of food, one can grow in a 10 m x 11 m garden.

- new pages as they are completed and added to the fabric journal.

- updates on my Spirit Cloth bedcover.

Additionally, I am working on a toilet roll pocket book - to find out what that is see LorrieMarie Jenkins' YouTube video on making one. Mine is Teapot themed. And I also hope to start making Junk Journals once winter is over and it warms up a bit. Living in an area that gets cold winters, and not being able to afford heating, means winters tend to be spent huddled under blankets with a hotwater bottle, watching TV and doing hand stitching projects. Anything that requires moving around, or not sitting on the sofa huddled up, has to wait until it gets warmer.

So until the next post, cheers all.

Butter Me Up

Here we are, heading into the home stretch of January. While the days are hurringly hot, already the nights are cold enough for an extra duvet, and the early mornings are so cold that I can see my breath, and my feet go numb (that's what I get for wandering around the garden barefoot at 6.30 in the morning). 
Tomatoes, summer beans, and zucchini did very poorly this year and are already on their way out. I will be starting planting for the autumn garden this week - a month early, but already the self-sown seeds from last year's autumn plants are sprouting. The wind has picked up again this evening, but it was the first day for months that we didn't have roaring winds - which really ripped the spring/summer garden apart - and I was able to spend some quiet time just sitting out enjoying the garden.
The 3 year old self-sown peach tree - an heirloom variety (Blackboy), so it has bred true - has its very first peaches. This year I planted a Seville orange, for marmalade, a Blood orange, and a Key lime. A few years, and I should start getting some good citrus.

Heirloom variety of Aqualegia - First year to flower

The sock class got put on hold shortly after my last post, in favour of The Shetland Hap Shawl class, when the yarn for the shawl arrived. I finished the knitting on the weekend, and now only have the ends to weave in, the lace end-seam to sew, and the blocking to do. 
I ordered a set of blocking mats back at the beginning of December, and they are supposed to arrive on Thursday, so I will hopefully block it on the weekend. Once it is blocked, I will post photos, and give a review of the class. Meanwhile, I have started a pair of knee-high stirrup socks (no toe or heel) which are knitted flat, as my project for the next class - Knit Faster With Portuguese Knitting.

I've also been getting back into the kitchen. It is still way too hot in the day to do any bread baking - I'll wait until late autumn to get back into that full time. But I am doing butter again.
Our local 4 Square (small "corner store" grocery), often over orders on cream, and when the cream passes its printed "use by" date, they put it in the 99c area. There is nothing wrong with it. If you keep cream at around 2C (35.6F), it will keep for months (yes, really). It will eventually start to separate though (after about 6-8 weeks), then it really isn't any good for putting into coffee. But it is fantastic for making butter! It turns into butter a whole lot faster that 'fresh' cream does - under 5 minutes with a hand churner. And considering how expensive both cream and butter are ($5 - $6 per 500g/lb for standard butter, up to $10 for organic/free range/artisan butters), it's a real win. I always buy up large on the 99c cream if I have the money at the time.
A hand churner actually works better than a blender/food processor for making butter. I find with the blender/food processor, it happens so fast that by the time the cream has turned into butter and you stop it, the buttermilk has already been whipped back into the butter, then it is quite a chore getting the buttermilk out again. With a hand churner, once it separates, it stays separate, and you just pour the buttermilk off.
I had been looking for a hand churner for some time, but didn't have any luck, so pretty much gave up once I got sick. Last weekend I was at my friend Tui's place, and she mentioned that she had been looking at a little hand butter churn on the Fly Buys reward page. Being an expensive item, naturally it took a lot of Fly Buy points to get it, and none of the places I shop do Fly Buys rewards anymore - fewer and fewer places are staying with that rewards program. I only had 1/3 of the points needed, with basically no chance of getting more. Tui said she had a ton of points (petrol stations still do Fly Buys, and she does a lot of driving), and offered to do a swap - I would get something on her rewards wishlist for her to the value of the points I had, and she would get the hand churner for me. Woohoo! I was certainly happy with that! Thank you Tui!
So here is the wonderful little hand churner, and two jars of butter - the one on the left a honey cinnamon butter, and the one on the right is a Mediterranean butter (shredded fresh basil leaves from the garden, chopped sundried tomatoes, and grated parmesan cheese).
The churn does a manageable, 300 ml (1/2 pint) of cream, which makes a nice amount to mix with herbs or spices for spreading on toast or fresh bread, or enough (about 120g/4.2oz) for most smaller baking needs, in around 5 minutes (10 minutes if you are using 'fresh' fresh cream instead of older fresh cream). Love it! It is easy to use, easy to clean, and doesn't take up a lot of storage space. A definite must-have for any DIY kitchen.

New and Improved (OK, Old and Attempting to Improve)

Hi all! "Omg!" you say. "We thought you had disappeared! Just dropped off the face of the earth". Well, almost but not quite.
At the beginning of 2015 I was diagnosed with cancer. I know, who isn't these days - and we are all so over it. I think it's about time for a newer, more exotic disease. (Trust me - bad humor is the only way you get thru it). Anyway, I had surgery, then started chemo. My reaction to the chemo drugs was so severe they had to stop, so I got all the side effects and none of the benefits - kinda sucked, but that's life. The chemo left me with permanent nerve damage in my hands and feet, and it is only recently that I have been able to start doing my crafts again. 
So that's my cancer story, and that's all you get. I didn't blog about it because, frankly, I just didn't have the energy, and - to me - there is nothing more depressing than reading about someone's illness(es) post after post, month after month, moving into a few years.
So now I'm getting back on my feet - metaphorically. The nerve damage in my feet means I'll probably never be able to spend too much time on my feet without a lot pain. But I can live with that. Between the crafts and Netflix, who has time to stand up much these days anyway.

I crocheted my first afghan (since the diagnosis) - a beautiful 24 point ripple afghan. I was really pleased with how it turned out. 

At one point, I kept having to tear out the same six rounds to fix a mistake (had to be fixed or would throw off the placement of the last set of point increases). So I took a week and a half off to knit a hooded cowl.
I'm a self taught knitter, and while I'm good with what I do - beautiful stitches, even tension, looks machine knitted - my skill is very limited. This hooded cowl is actually the largest thing I have ever knitted, and I avoid all patterns with abbreviations I don't understand - which ends up being a LOT. So I decided this coming year, I would do more than just get back on my feet. I decided 2017 was going to be my "Knitting & Bread" year, where I would concentrate most of my efforts on those two thing, to become proficient in them.
To that end, I bought a butt-load of Craftsy classes. Between the 'Take your first class' discount, Black Friday sales, Cyber Monday sales, and '12 Days of Christmas' sales, I got a lot of classes, at really great prices (some as low as $10 on a 24hr 2-for-1 special with classes already substantially marked down for the sales).
The first one I took - and have completed - was "Knit Faster With Continental Knitting" with instructor Lorilee Beltman. I knit English style, but continental style is much faster (I can knit 4 times as fast now with continental), purling is easier, and doing ribbing is a breeze. The hooded cowl was done in continental style - it was my class project. Lorilee is a fantastic instructor, encouraging, patient, and just a lovely person to deal with. I can thoroughly recommend her class.

Now I have started class number two - "My First Toe-Up Socks" with Susan B. Anderson. Another good teacher. I expect this class to take quite a bit longer to complete.This is where I'm at so far - the toe of the first sock.

I discovered yesterday that there is such a thing as self patterning sock wool - who knew?! Probably everyone except me - lol. It is so cool though! Of course now I want some, and I'm also wanting some fine wool yarn to try doing a Shetland style shawl. I asked someone online where I could get the shawl yarn I was looking for, and they recommended a shop up in Tauranga. I figured I could probably get the sock yarn there too. I went to the website to buy yarn, and had problems with trying to register. When I phoned to try to get help, the first thing Lynette (the shop owner) said was "well it's your fault you are doing something wrong", and then she just kept saying that as I was trying to explain what I had done. Even if I had done something wrong (which it turns out I didn't), that is certainly no way to treat a potential customer.
I then moved on to ask about how to browse for yarns, as I couldn't find any way to do that. She was quite snippy about the fact that I had to know what I wanted - the exact brand and yarn - if I wanted buy, that I couldn't just browse. There is a search facility which I did try to use, but again you need to know exactly what you are looking for. I tried putting keywords only in - "sock" for one search looking for sock yarn, and "lace" in another search looking for lace weight yarns - both came up with nothing. I mentioned this, wondering how to find sock or lace yarns in general, and again was told if I didn't get anything from the search that it was my fault, I was doing something wrong, and anyway I should know exactly what I am looking for and should be searching for that. She did ask what I was looking for (in a very exasperated tone), and I told her. She replied "of course we have that" and told me, very curtly, I should be searching for Opal brand. Apparently I am supposed to know what brands - and yarns within the brand - are for what, and I'm being rude by asking for information or help.
I'm told the shop has an exceptional range, and as a shop it is probably very good, but the customer service is appalling, and I will definitely be taking my business elsewhere. At the moment I buy mostly from the US and the UK. There are a lot of complaints from NZ businesses about people buying from overseas, but the attitude and service displayed here - which are endemic in NZ businesses - are why.

Not wanting to buy from overseas this time - it takes so long for the orders to arrive and I wanted it kind of now-ish (as in, you know, right NOW) - I did a Google search for Opal sock yarn in NZ, and low-and-behold a shop in Hastings came up: Knitworld. I knew we had a yarn shop here (other than Spotlight), but quite a while ago someone told me that the only yarn shop here was really expensive, so I completely forgot about it. I thought "OK, they may be expensive, but maybe just get one ball there now, and then order the rest from overseas".

I phoned the shop to see what they had, and what the prices were. I could not have met a nicer person anywhere - the woman was so nice, and so helpful. The shop is a small one, but it is a franchise, so I can order online, but it wouldn't support the local shop if I did that, so I decided to make the effort to go into town to buy, to support the local shop - especially since the woman on the phone was so nice. The range of yarns she has is fantastic, and the prices are definitely NOT expensive. I go through a ton of cheap acrylic with my crocheted afghans - I wouldn't be able to do them at the rate I do otherwise. Her cheap acrylics are cheaper than Spotlight (or Warehouse or K-Mart). She has really nice wool/acrylic blends that are about the same price as the 100% acrylic at those other "cheaper" stores! Don't even get me started on how much wool and wool blends are at those "cheaper" stores!
I got everything I wanted, including stuff I didn't know I wanted until I got there - lol. Four different color self patterning sock yarns (100g balls); 2 different balls of 100% merino self patterning DK (I think that is called worsted in US lingo - knits on US7 needles), to make a couple of hats with; 2 hanks of the most gorgeous burgundy 4 ply - 75% merino 25% NZ possum fur, for a shawl; and a large hank of 100% merino 2 ply to do a Shetland shawl with. I'm a happy camper now.
They even have a small knitting/crochet/hand sewing group that meets there on Thursday afternoons. I'll start going to that in the New Year - it will be great to meet up with some other knitters.

So that is where I am at the moment. I will keep blogging as I do classes, and make stuff. For now, I will leave you with a couple of pics of my fur babies, which I got just after chemo so haven't posted here yet.

This is Arnold, a red-point Ragdoll - 6 kg (14 lbs) of fur and whinge. 

This is Sheba, a Bengal - 3 light kg of mostly claws and attitude.

Roses Are Red Violets Are... Ummm... Rose Coloured.

Well, it has been pretty much a full month since I last posted. Mostly because it has been hurringly cold! That means most days are spent wrapped up in several afghans, with a warm hat, fuzzy scarf, and fingerless gloves, hugging a hot water bottle. Very hard to do anything craft-y like that! So, yes, I am WAY behind in all my embroidery stuff. And I haven't really done a lot else either - just a lot of reading and knitting a big warm afghan with large needles.
I did manage to knit a cute Minion hat last week on 4mm needles - I was bored and in the mood for a goofy hat.

Towards the beginning of the month I made my first ravioli - it was fantastic. Filled it with my homemade ricotta cheese. I do like the homemade pasta!
When I made the pasta dough (on the last post), I only made half a recipe, but got 7 meals out of it. 3 cups of flour and 3 eggs - 7 meals. Coupled with freshly made home-made ricotta cheese (2 litres of milk), my ultra-fast home made pasta sauces (a tomato one - buy 1 tin budget tomatoes, and 1 tin budget tomato puree; and a creamed greens one), and fresh veggies from the garden for sides, salads and the sauces, I managed to do a week's worth of dinners, surprisingly fast and easy, for a grand total of $7.00. Now that's economical!

I also broke into the first of my hard cheeses - the beer cheese. Oh wow! it was wonderful! Especially with my freshly baked peasant bread, and a glass of my homemade cider.

What I am most excited about though, is the violet blossom jelly I made today.
I can see why it is very rarely done anymore - very time consuming, down on the ground, picking 4 cups of violet flowers!
My garden is overrun with violets, and I regularly pull bucketfuls of the plants out trying to keep the garden clear and stop them overrunning and killing everything else in the garden. Unfortunately, the violets I have are the white ones - no scent at all. Bummer. My neighbour down the back though has a small patch of beautifully scented rose-coloured violets. They are just heavenly! She let me raid her violet patch yesterday for the flowers. I completely stripped the patch of flowers, and just managed to get enough.
After half an hour getting all the ants off the blossoms, I then steeped them in boiling water, left them to cool, and left them to steep overnight. Boy do ants LOVE violets! I put a plate over the bowl to keep 'things' out (you know, all the 'stuff' that invariable fall into whatever you are trying to cook if you don't cover it), and when I came back to check on the flowers an hour after pouring the hot water on, the whole bench was just covered in ants! They were all trying to get into the bowl to get to the violet water. Needless to say, I had to move the bowl to where the ants couldn't get to it.
So this morning I made up the jelly. Ooooo! Heavely! Very delicate flavour, and DEFINATELY worth the effort!

Knitting Frustrations and Fancy Corn

Well, here we are, three weeks since my last post. It has been really hectic, but for the life of me I can't really think why - I haven't gotten a lot done.
Desiree (the neighbour who's garden I sporadically tend to - when it gets out of hand for her) decided she didn't want the lime tree that was in her garden. I noticed it sitting there behind the fig tree she planted, and asked if she wanted it moved, which is when she said she didn't want it and asked if I wanted it. Oooo! Not going to turn that down! So spent and hour or so digging out a 3ft lime tree and lugging it across the road home. The only place I had to put it was in the driveway/kitchen garden between the kitchen window and the lounge window. Which of course was EXACTLY where my much prized 4yr old heirloom variety marjoram plant was. So I had to dig that out, and moved it into the front garden. I really hope I didn't kill it as I haven't come across another one like it anywhere! So now I have a very sad looking marjoram in the front garden, and an even sadder looking lime tree with wilted tips and dropping leaves in the kitchen garden. The lime tree will make a comeback (hopefully), but I will lose all this year's blossoms and tiny fruits that were on it. However next year should be great for it.

I went into town early last week looking for yarn to crochet a gorgeous Victorian style ruffled neckwarmer that I bought the pattern for a while back. Spotlight was having a sale, and I picked up several balls of the most scrumptious variegated Moda Vera "Tarantino". It is normally priced at $11.95 a ball but was down to $4.00 a ball, and with my Spotlight card it was reduced even further to $2.60 a ball. I was totally thrilled at my little haul. Immediately upon getting home I dug out my crochet hook and got started - which is when I realised crocheting this wonderful knobbly kinky yarn was going to be impossible. The type of yarn it was meant you just couldn't distinguish the loops or yarn from the knobbly kinky bits that made up the yarn.
Not to be deterred, I spent the next few hours trolling the internet looking for a suitable knitting pattern for the yarn, that used a knitting needle size that I actually had. Invariably most of the patterns called for needles in sizes I didn't have, and I wasn't about to walk the several miles back up town (and back home again) a second time just to get some needles (which I didn't have the money for anyway). Finally I found a cute little basic Victorian neckwarmer pattern as a free pattern. I dug out my one and only set of size 9 needles - a vintage pair from my grandmother's collection. A few evenings of knitting, and I was getting close to the end. However all the increases meant the rather short needles were getting very cramped, but I was determined to get those last few rows out. Unfortunately old plastic needles aren't that robust and one of them snapped into four pieces as I was trying to push the stitches down to make room. Arrrrrggghhh! Only three rows to go!
Well, only one thing to do. Spend an inordinate amount of time transferring around 260-odd stitches onto a smaller needle (to get them off the proper size needle I now needed, to be able to knit the right size stiches with), then transferring them all again to another needle, because after the first transfer the knitting end was at the wrong end of the needle. And no, I didn't have a circular needle which would have solved that problem. Now I could knit that row with the proper size needle. One row down, two more to go. Sigh.
Finally, I finished, and I really like the neckwarmer. It is a lovely little pattern. By this time the next payday had arrived, so I bought some nice hand crafted wooden knitting needles (which are actually cheaper than the crappy plastic ones available in the local shops) from an online trader whom I have bought from before, and when they arrive I will knit a cowl/snood to go with the neckwarmer.

On the garden front, everything is going insanely well. I am already snacking on the odd strawberry during my morning rounds. The blueberries - which normally don't come ripe 'til January for one variety and March for the other, are already plump, and both will be ripe by December. The tomatoes and tamatillos have been flowering madly for several weeks - two months early, the zucchinis are already producing their first zucchinis (they were only 3 leaves big last year at this time), and the pumpkins are also flowering (didn't even have plants up yet this time last year).
My most exciting garden thing though, was the arrival of my heirloom variety corn seeds from Koanga this morning. The three varieties I will be growing this year are Blue Hopi, Blue Aztec, and Bloody Butcher - all varieties originally grown by the Native Americans. The Blue Hopi and Bloody Butcher are flint corns, grown for drying and grinding into flour. I am looking forward to making blue and red tortilla to serve with my homemade chilli. The Blue Aztec is a dual purpose corn, grown for eating when the cobs are younger, and also for drying and grinding when they are older.

Blue Hopi

 

Blue Aztec

 

Bloody Butcher