Following the recent budget someone saw fit to put tax on pasties, all is not lost though!  There is a loophole … you can make your own and avoid this draconian assault on the great pasty!

We’ve gone largely vegetarian of late, given the appalling quality of meat and the soaring prices attached … actually, I must say that the grubs been going down a treat and I think our diet and variety of foods that we’re eating has improved 10-fold.

In this case even the pastry was home made!

I lifted the recipe from the River Cottage book, Veg Every Day!, and whilst I don’t intend to reproduce it just now in it’s entirety I may be tempted to do so once I’ve refined it a bit.  Although to be honest it’s pretty fab as it is.

I’m not a fantastic knitter, I get by, but frankly anything other than stocking stitch is a challenge.  So, why on earth did I think it would be a good idea to try an aran jumper?  After searching the web for hours to learn what C4B and C4F meant, not to mention T3F and T3B, and after unravelling row after row of mistakes I finally looked inside the front cover of the knitting pattern to find a comprehensive and easy to follow set of instructions.

It turns out C4B means put two stitches from the left needle on the cable needle and hold them behind your work, then knit the next two stitches from the left needle and finally knit the two stitches you have on the cable needle…see that’s easy.  C4F is the same but you hold the cable needle in front of your work.

T3B – put 1 stitch on the cable needle and hold it behind you work, knit the next two stitches and then purl the one on the cable needle.

T3F – put 2 stitches on the cable needle and hold it in front of your work, purl the next stitch and then knit the two on the cable needle.

Now you know and you too can knit a splendid jumper with minimal of mistakes as I have.  See if you can spot the massive mistake due to losing my place in the pattern.  This isn’t a past time for telly watching at the same time!

A little turquoise trinket pot created using this tutorial and some crochet know-how.  I found the tutorial via Pinterest, which is my newest love/obsession.  You can follow MadeStuff at pinterest.com/madestuff/

I don’t think we have trinkets in our house…detritus yes, but not trinkets.  Nevertheless, I’m sure it’ll still look nice on the (yet to be purchased) bookshelf.

PS: Apologies for the picture quality…mother nature is being rather cruel to us at the moment with dark days and grey skies.

It said on the box that you can weave a full length scarf in 3 hours.  Considering it took me over 3 hours to warp the loom, I knew I wouldn’t hit the suggested timescales, but this makes me very happy, to create a piece of fabric that is unique to me, so I’m not that bothered.

I’m calling it the Raspberry Shang-a-Lang because it reminds me of the Bay City Rollers for some reason.   I don’t know why.

Waiting for more wool…

Variegated pink scarf.  I love the white warp threads peeking through.

Eager to progress from my cardboard loom, I was delighted to find several affordable weaving looms on the well known auction site last week, and even more delighted to successfully bid on one.  It arrived yesterday and while it’s not in the greatest condition (buyer beware), it certainly weaves a nice fabric.  For the moment I am weaving simple linen style fabric in the absence of much weaving know-how and am very pleased with the results.

The following are last nights efforts (click for bigger picture).

The greyish fabric was created with some cheap green DK (warp) and the grey wool (weft) I spun the other week.  The green is just cheap DK wool…in fact I don’t think it could get much cheaper!

While on the subject of spinning, I’ve figured out how to spin even thinner wool so that I can think about knitting or weaving with it.  It’ll take an awful long time to spin enough wool to make a scarf though.

Some new items listed in the shop today; pin cushions, bags, brooches, pendants and our hanging bird ornament kits.  Check it out!

shop.madestuff.co.uk

This is from BBC Good Food…easy and quick to make and very adaptable for any sort of biscuit/cookie you might want to make.

Ingredients

250g butter
140g caster sugar (I used granulated and it’s fine)
1 egg yolk
2tsp vanilla extract
300g plain flour

1. Cream together the butter and sugar.  The butter should be soft for this and I cheated throughout and used the electric mixer.
2. Add egg yolk and vanilla essence
3. Mix in the flour
4. Put in the fridge while you do the dishes or have a cup of tea or whatever
5. Take teaspoon sized amounts and roll into balls.  Press onto greaseproof paper with the back of a fork to make dents (this is optional)
6. Bake at 180 degrees for 8 minutes or so until golden brown.  I’m assuming most people have a fan oven but you should adjust the temp if you don’t.
7. What I would have done, if I hadn’t used all the butter we had, is mix up some butter icing (butter and icing sugar) to make little biscuit sandwiches.  You could also dip them in chocolate to cover half.

This made 50 or so teaspoon sized biscuits.

Trying to design a mug cosy to fit a particular mug (that is quite a bit smaller than the one pictured)…needs a lot more work.  In the meantime, I’ve got a nice new cosy to keep my tea warm, which is desperately needed since I keep forgetting I have tea and it’s stone cold by the time I come to drink it…a hazard of being a new parent.

This one’s made from the wool I spun the other day.

I think we tried all the major online craft outlets over the years and have remained largely unimpressed with either the serious US bias or the lack of facility in return for commission, hence we have now developed our own online platform.  Today the shop is (partially) restocked and ready for use.  You can still purchase via PayPal’s secure checkout and will still receive the same service from us only we can keep prices lower by not having to pay commission to a third party.

Check out the shop at shop.madestuff.co.uk where you can buy any of the following delightful Fabric Finches.  These finches were designed and handmade by me at home in Scotland.  They each come with a gift box and can be made in a variety of colours – if you don’t see anything you like then message me to discuss options.  The paper fabric finches are slightly more expensive because paper fabric has to be made and it’s a rather laborious process (although well worth it for the end result).