Tag: Homegrown Produce

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The Kits Are Alright!

Four small cream bags lined up each showing two of the four half balls of yarn they hold, a larger blue bag on each end holding two whole balls of yarn.

The past few days have been mostly about prepping for the Pop-Up Wool Show at Hulme Hall in Port Sunlight on August 20th. I’ve been checking my stocks of kits, gift tag sets, patterns etc and making lots and lots of lists! I’m quite proud of my kits. They all come with a cotton project bag, metal stitch markers (if needed and the correct number for the pattern), a printed pattern and yarn in majority natural fibres.

Today a folding 6 foot table was delivered. Not only do the legs fold away, but the whole thing folds in half so it can fit in the car!

I’ve also borrowed back lots of knitted samples from Yarn O’clock and borrowed a couple of little stands to add to my display set-up.

The Mini Socks Advent Calendar looks great on the tree!

Mini Socks Advent Calendar, Kath Andrews, on tree

I also took pics of it hung on the mantlepiece and a door, as not everyone has a tree they can hang 24 mini socks on.

Mini Socks Advent Calendar, Kath Andrews, hung on mantlepiece
Mini Socks Advent Calendar, Kath Andrews, hung on door

The kits are all made up and include stitch markers and the tags for the numbers, as well as 10cm pieces of ribbon to tie them to the hanging loops and one long piece of ribbon to hang them from.

This is what a four colour kit looks like:

Mini Socks Advent Calendar Kit Pinks

The striped sock has been test knit (by Anne at Yarn O’clock) and she made hers super stripy, as one of her yarns was variegated. Doesn’t it look cute?

Striped Sock from Mini Socks Advent Calendar

There have been a few things happening this week that are not wool show related. I finished the Morse Code Cowl! It is currently drying having had a bath this morning. I was very pleasantly surprised that no dye emerged while it was soaking, despite the yarns being such deep saturated colours – excellent yarn from The Travel Knitter.

Morse Code Cowl Front, poem by Sue Finch, knitting by Kath Andrews
Morse Code Cowl Back, poem by Sue Finch, knitting by Kath Andrews

I know the poem will be impossible to read, partly as it curves around the cowl, partly as it’s in Morse Code and partly as there is not a lot of contrast between the two yarn colours, but it’s satisfying to know that it really is Sue’s poem. This is the actual poem that I knitted into the cowl:

This Was Once a Good Poem

but it has eaten cheese and pickle rolls for a week now

and it can’t work out why the vitamins aren’t working.

It rocks in the chair until its eyes are too tired to see

and has scared itself with thoughts of Autumn spiders

under glasses in the hallway.

It is wondering if it is true that conkers in corners

keep arachnids at bay

and is now standing in the dark

sniffing last year’s horse chestnuts

desperate to find their scent.

Sue Finch

I also took delivery of some yarn for a project I won’t be able to show you for AGES, but it’s going to be a fun one. The yarn is gorgeous – Fleece from West Yorkshire Spinners in Ecru and Fellside – and I’m looking forward to casting on later today.

West Yorkshire Spinners Fleece in Ecru and Fellside

We harvested our broad beans at the weekend, along with the first two of our squashes/courgettes. The broad beans were pitiful in quantity, but tasted good. This is the entire crop in the left-hand photo!

Broad Bean Harvest
First of the Squashes

And on a slightly less healthy, but very fun, note – did you know you can now get BLUE Jammie Dodgers?! They are filled with coloured, berry-flavoured apple jam.

Blue Jammie Dodgers!

Anyway, today’s post was going to be a short one – but it doesn’t seem to have turned out that way! Take care one and all, and if you happen to be in the Port Sunlight area on August 20th it would be great to see you!

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Falling

I’ve always had dodgy ankles. Ones that have a tendency to turn sideways, even on a flat surface. This has led to me ending up sitting on the ground facing the way I’ve just come from more times than I can recall over the years. And so, I wear walking sandals in the summer, avoid heels and try, generally, to be careful.

View over Denbighshire from Moel Famau. There is purple heather in the foreground near the path and the hills are dotted with trees. There is a dramatic break in the clouds in the distance allowing sunshine onto some of the fields. In the far distance, the mountains of Snowdonia can be seen.

Isn’t this beautiful? This is the view over Denbighshire from about halfway up Moel Famau (roughly pronounced “Moll Vam-eye”). We went up there last Thursday, with me wearing very sensible walking shoes. The rain had eased for about the first time in a few days and it was good to be outside. In fact, I haven’t been up Moel Famau in over four years, but that’s another story. The sheep were very talkative, if a little shy.

A sheep grazes on the hillside on grass. There is purple heather behind it. It is less than 2 metres from the footpath. Its head is obscured by thistles.

We got most of the way to the top and the Jubilee Tower was looking less like a blob and more like a monument.

A stony path winds its way uphill to the remains of a monument. There is a wayeinder's marker next to the path and heather on each side. A dry stone wall is on the right, with more heather and a line of fir trees behind it.

The last part of the walk is rather steep though and, as I was already quite puffed out, we decided to save the last part of the hill for the next visit. So, after a little rest on one of the very welcome benches, we started downhill.

Sue was slightly ahead of me and said a cheery hello to the four ladies coming up. It was their exclamation of “Oh! Are you ok?” that made her stop and turn around. My ankle had done it again, but rather than spinning me round to sit facing the other way, I landed face down on my hip, knee and elbow. Very embarrassing and I was a little worried I might have damaged something more than my pride. Once the kind ladies had been reassured, Sue hauled me up again and we slowly made our way onward as the bottom of the hill and the car was still about 2km away. It’s amazing what adrenalin can do, isn’t it?

I was very lucky. Nothing broken, just some rather impressive bruises and an elbow that didn’t take kindly to being moved much for the next few days. However, not much will keep me away from my knitting and I did manage to block the first of my two Into the Vortex shawls before we went to visit my mum for the weekend.

A dark blue and olive green vortex shawl is pinned out on large blue and purple play mats. The shawl is in blocks of solid colours and stripes, using slip stitch patterns and lace. The black marble of the hearth is at the bottom of the image.

And I have just blocked the second one.

Another version of the same shawl is pinned out on the same blocking mats. This time the shawl is in two gradient yarns - a neutral that moves from beige to cream and back again and a rainbow that moves from acid green to dark purple. A piece of paper with the schematic for the shawl is in the centre of the mats.

The point is turned in on itself a little more with this one so I might adjust the pins while it’s still damp. The brilliant thing about blocking a shape like this is that you only really need pins on the outside edge – the vortex shape takes care of the inside edge and if it’s not taut then you haven’t pulled it out far enough. I start by measuring the points shown on the schematic and pinning those. I then add pins around the edge from there and will move them repeatedly if I’m not satisfied with the curve/line being created.

While we were away over the weekend (and as I wasn’t driving) I have been able to get lots more of my Brioche + Mystery Shawl done. I’ve only got half the i-cord edging left to go now! Hopefully the next day or so should see that completed. I’ll post pics of that next week. Then it’s back to the final Vortex to make it super-sized.

We’ve been eating homegrown produce again today – we harvested our Pink Fir Apple potatoes yesterday (using a sack to grow them in has been SO much less hassle) and they are delicious. We’ve also been enjoying some fab greengages that I picked from Mum’s garden at the weekend.

Lots of small knobbly Pink Fir Apple potatoes lie drying on a blue/purple towel. The potatoes have some pink parts and some yellowy-cream. Some of the shapes they have grown into are quite comical.

Visiting Mum in August inevitably means getting plums from the local farm shop and we were able to get enough Pershore Yellow Egg plums for me to make a full batch of jam (and then some!) yesterday morning.

10 jars of amber coloured jam sit cooling on the bread board on a bamboo kitchen worktop. The jars have blue and white gingham patterned lids. Behind the jars are bags of flour, the yellow lid of a large pot of marmite peanut butter, a blue fruit bowl with red apples and a stand mixer.

Our courgettes are threatening to become marrows and the raspberries need picking, so I’m glad the next couple of weeks are forecast to be dry. I will also be able to finish picking over Doris’ fleece before I wash it. I’ve done half of it inside with an old sheet laid out on the study carpet, and I think being outside in the sunshine would make the task more enjoyable.

My main aim for the next week, though, is to stay on both feet and not fall over again! What are you aiming to do this week?

Take care, whatever it is, and keep knitting, K x