Creating A Pretty Crafty Home - Hmmm Not Quite!

I am not sure I am cut out for this Making a Pretty Crafty Home malarky.   This is an after shot!  I am to ashamed to show you any of my before shots of anywhere in this house!  I tidied the whole kitchen this morning for about an hour and a half, which is a housework marathon by my definition.  I went in all the drawers of Crappitty Crap and cleared off nooks and crannies.  The drawers actually open now!  Disgraceful.  I found all sorts of ancient paperwork and dusty stuff!  These little shelves were a disgrace, piled high with junk.  I know they look like they need another de-clutter.  Now the kitchen is the tidiest room in the house I will have to tackle the living room.  I am finding Tina's advice is crucial, to tackle areas in small chunks.  If I look at is as a whole I find it soul destroying and don't do any of it!  I really think I am allergic to housework.   I have been reading lots of articles and find 'Kanelstrand' a really interesting blog.  This article Bliss Through Innermost Simplicity was fascinating, particularly the video link to here to 'Innermost House':

Armed with my black bags, I am on a one woman mission to throw everything away!  Not my yarn, fleece, needles, hooks, spinning wheels or any of my crafting paraphernalia though.  Hmmm come to think of it it may be that creating all the mess.  Surely after all this tidying a girls deserves a bit of Yarn fun!

Hope You Are Ready

Hug in a Mug - Valentine Mug Cosy Free 'Pattern'

Valentines Day is rather like Pilchard Pie in this house!  I am the only one that likes it!  I really like this time of year and it is all about baby lambs and birds with nesting materials in their beaks, Daffodil shoots and Snowdrops.  Soon we will be admiring the Spring Violets and getting busy in the garden again with flowers springing everywhere.  Rule number one regarding Valentines Day or any other day for that matter, is 'You have to love yourself'.  So if you don't have anyone to make this 'Mug Cosy' for, make it for yourself, you know you want one.  They take little over an hour to rustle up and are very easy.  They certainly add a bit of extra love to your Hot Chocolate.

‘Hug in a Mug’

Materials: Scraps of Double knit Yarn in Chocolate Brown and Red.  Three buttons.

Hook Size:  4.5mm

Abbreviations:

Chain - ch

Double Crochet – dc

Treble Crochet – tr

Single Crochet – sc

Instructions:

For the Mug Cosy in ‘Chocolate’ coloured yarn.

Make 15 chain.  Turn.  Skip the first stitch work a dc into each ch.  14 dc.  1 ch turn. 

Work 1 dc into the back of each previous dc (14 stitches) 1 ch to turn.

Repeat until your work is long enough to fit around the mug of your choice.

To Make Button Holes:

Work first 2 dc then work 5 ch, skip the next 3 dc and work the next 2dc,  make 5 ch, skip next 2 dc, work the next 2 dc, make 5 ch skip the next 2 dc and work the last 2 dc.  Fasten off.

To make the Heart in Red Yarn:

Ch 5, join them with a slip stitch.

First Round:  Ch 3 then work 10 tr into the circle.

Second Round:  Sl st into the next tr, (1 dc, 2 tr) into the next tr, (2 tr, 1 dc) into the next tr, sl st into the next tr, (1 dc, 2 tr) into next tr, (2 tr, 1 dc) into the next tr, sl st into the next 3 tr.  Fasten off.

Making up:

Sew in all ends.

Sew the three buttons into place.

Sew the heart motif onto the mug cosy.

Copyright: 'In The Sky 1' 2012

Wild Fibres - From Nettles to Soy Silk

Teresinha with a Flax stook from flax grown on her allotment

Today we went to our monthly meeting at The Birmingham and District Guild of Weaving, Spinning and Dyeing. It was a members morning where we get a chance to work and chat together on our own projects and in the afternoon Teresinha Roberts gave a very interesting, fun and informative talk, Wild Fibres - From Nettles to Soy Silk.  Last year she gave a talk 'Wild Fibres - From Angora to Yak'.
           Teresinha is a very interesting, knowledgeable and enthusiastic speaker, she asks very thought provoking questions and welcomes questions and discussions from her audience.  She also brings masses of samples of plants, fibres, yarn, cordage, knitted and woven samples.  These are passed around the group so you get a tactile, hands on experience with fibres you may not ordinarily come across.  Teresinha's enthusiasm is quite infectious as she talks about her trials and tribulations with growing her own plants for fibre and dye and preparing them.  Today was the first time I have handled flax, cotton, bamboo, corn fibre, soy silk and others.  I felt like I learnt a lot in a really great multi-sensory way.  I am interested in the concept of preparing plant fibres and have read a little about nettles for fibre.  The closest I have got to spinning with nettles is Raime Beaded Yarn Here.  Raime is native to Asia and is a close relative of the 'common' Stinging Nettle'.  Raime has been grown for at least 6000 years as a fibre plant and it is one of the 'bast' fibres, in that the fibre is made from the inner bark of the plant.

This is my Raime Fibre which is lustrous and lovely.  The Fibre is naturally white and therefore does not need to be bleached.  I spun it into a sample of beaded yarn here:

I love the look of bamboo fibre and yarn, but not the texture.  A fibre I would be interested in experimenting with in the future is Soy Silk.  I did not take a notebook with me today and really should have done because I have a head like a sieve where facts and figures are concerned.  We discussed the different properties of fibres for example 'Coconut fibre is one of the few fibres that does not corrode in salt water, therefore it is excellent for rope on boats, Kapok, floats and is very useful in life jackets but can be dangerous to transport as it burns very easily.  40kg of Nettles would yield enough fibres to make one shirt!  That is a lot of nettles.  Teresinha grows her own flax on her allotment as well as many natural dye plants and has also managed to grow her own cotton plant in her conservatory.  I would love to grow a cotton plant just to see how he works.  I would be delighted when the seed pod popped open to show cotton wool.  I do not really have any suitable hot spots in my house though.
           It was a very enjoyable day.  I managed to get some more spinning done.  I spared everyone the 'Dirty Alpaca' that is on my Ashford Kiwi wheel.  I took my Ashford Joy, this wheel folds up and is designed to be portable.  I love my 'Kiwi' so much I tend to neglect the 'Joy'.  I look at her sitting all lonely in the corner and think I should really find her a more loving home.   Today we bonded a bit more though and I don't think I would like to part with her.  The Kiwi is a little 'work horse' that doesn't mind getting dirty with Alpaca, I don't think the Joy would appreciate me getting her all dirty.

I am sure it is just a case of getting used to using it.  It is quite different to spinning on the Kiwi.  The Kiwi is double treadle that I can control with just my feet and the joy is single treadle.  The Joy also has more ratios (but they are a bit like gears on a bicycle I don't quite understand them).  I am trying to finish odd projects and bits and bobs I have lying around, (hmmm, that may take me a while).  Today I did manage to finish spinning some fibre that the lady I bought the Joy from kindly gave me.  I also Navajo Plied on the Joy for the first time, it felt rather clumsy and I ended up with a skein of considerably over spun yarn.

I can only identify the fibre as wool and silk, I have no idea what sort of wool it is though, I do quite a lot of 'mystery' spinning.  Half of the skein is thick and over spun, the other half is not too bad at all.

My Mother has a gift for saying encouraging things to me, as only a Mother can when they can see disappointment or discouragement.  When I said 'Oh look at that, it's all lumpy and over spun!  What can I use that for now?  Nothing!'  She replied 'That is fine, it is very nice, it would make a nice stripe on a hat!'  So before anyone asks me what I will be making with it, it is going to be a nice stripe on a hat! 

Pie Day Friday - Another Under Rated Pie To Try

"QUALITY CANNED FISH FOR OVER 50 YEARS. CONTAINS OMEGA 3. GLENRYCK PILCHARDS are of the finest quality and freshly caught from the ocean for canning. "In value for money, GLENRYCK PILCHARDS provide more first-class protein than does beef steak." GLENRYCK PILCHARDS contains more calcium than cow's milk. A serving of GLENRYCK PILCHARDS can provide 33% of the "Recommended Daily Intake". (One can contains four servings). "Omega-3 fatty acids naturally found in GLENRYCK Pilchards add to the dietary value of a good, hearty meal". Allergy Advice Free From Additives, Free From Artificial Preservatives Ingredients South Atlantic Pilchards (64%), Tomato juice from concentrate (34.7%), Salt, Modified Maize Starch, Thickener - Guar Gum, Spices" 
(Taken from the Information on the can).

Sounds like good stuff to me.  Not to anyone else in the house though.  I am continuing with my plight to work my way through our 'Store Cupboards' and the Freezer.  If I get on my hands and knees and feel about in the back of the cupboard, I am coming across all sorts of things like these Pilchards.  It is a shame to throw food away if it is edible.  As a child I can remember eating Pilchard Sandwiches, Pilchard and Tomato Sandwiches, Pilchards on Toast and once a delicious Pilchard Pie made by my Uncle.  Uncle Keith whose name was Dave was my dads older brother.  There was a lot of that in those days wasn't there?  Jack who was Reginald, Nancy who was Kathleen, Bill who was James, I have never really understood how that happens.  Uncle Keith went back to being called Dave after about thirty years, but I never got the hang of it, he was always Uncle Keith to me.  He sticks out in my memory for many things, he was an ex Paratrooper and suffered with a very bad back.  He told me 'You are not safe unless your feet are on the ground!'  That makes perfect sense to me.   He had four children and I think home cooked nutritious meals that did not break the bank were crucial to many families.  I can remember a very tasty Pilchard Pie that he bought to our house for my Dad.  Pilchards seem like a 'super' food to me if you read their nutritional resume.  My sons would rather go hungry than eat a pilchard though!  Not for all the tea in China would they eat a Pilchard.  I am on my own again with this Pie.  I am really getting the hang of this 'Pie Making' lark and can rustle one up in about ten minutes, I used to think pies were tricky but like anything the more you make them the easier it gets.


Ingredients
2 x 150g Cans of Pilchards in Tomato Sauce
1 tablespoon of Olive Oil
1 Large Onion Peeled and finely chopped
1 small yellow pepper finely diced
1 small red pepper finely diced
1 small green pepper finely diced
1 tablespoon of tomato ketchup
A Jolly good squeeze of lemon juice
Salt and pepper


Method
Line a pie dish with shortcrust pastry and roll out the top of the pie crust.
Fry the vegetables in olive oil until they are tender.  Mix all the ingredients together well and season well to taste.
Put the pie filling in to the pie and place the pastry lid on.  I liked decorating the top of my pie with two little smiley fish, with little swishy tails and scales and everything!  Ok I had a bit too much fun making little fishies to decorate the pie.

Bake in a medium to hot oven until it is golden.
Serving suggestions:
This pie is tasty hot served with New potatoes and green vegetables such as peas or beans or it is also delicious served cold with a salad.

A Very Chilly Bedtime For Chickens

The garden looks very uninviting, the snow from five days ago is all dirty and icy.  More snow has been predicted and tonight we have had frozen rain which crackles as it falls.  When the light gets to this stage in the evening, three chicken girls waddle their way reluctantly to bed.  Kids do not like bedtime and neither do chickens.  They have supper each night, if they eat before bed it is supposed to keep them warmer for the night.  Tonight they had a can of sweetcorn.  They also like 'Chicken Candy':

Mixed Corn

Tonight I thought I would photograph their bedroom for you.

These are not supposed to be their bedroom, these are the nest boxes.  I have naughty chickens and they do not all roost on their perches, they use one nest box for laying, always the box on the right and they like to sleep in the other nest box.  If more than one chicken needs the nest box at any one time they form an orderly queue rather than lay in the left nest box.  I think it is very cute if they are running around the garden and one  needs to lay they will run back to the nest box.  It is very convenient for me as I do not have to hunt for eggs. They keep the laying side very clean.  Even at this very cold, dark time of year they are still laying one egg each a day.  I expected them to stop for the winter, I think maybe next year they will stop, because it is their first year and they are young and fit they have just kept going this year.  We love our eggs.  I don't usually pack the nests with so much straw but it adds insulation for the below zero nights.  Chickens can cope with the cold as long as there sleep area is dry.  Damp is more harmful to chickens than cold.  I use a thick layer of eco-friendly, wood pellet Cat litter to line the indoor part of their coop.  It is highly absorbent and goes in the compost bins when it is spent.  Organic Chicken Poo is sold by the 5kg and is very expensive at our local, upmarket Garden Centre as it is excellent fertiliser.  I point this out to my other half when he moans about the Crapitty Crap everywhere!

When you have more than one chicken you have a pecking order.  Poppy is the top of the pecking order with my trio.  I am lucky they are all sweet natured but Poppy is definitely the boss.  She was the first to come and see what I was messing about at.

Poppy is closely followed everywhere by Daisy.  These two spend nearly all of their time together and they they like to sleep huddled together.

Finally Rosie wonders where the other two have gone and comes to investigate.  Rosie is like Winnie The Pooh, the bear with very little brain, she acts daft and is the bottom of the pecking order but I think she is actually the cleverest in her own way.  She quite literally thinks outside of the box.  She seems more interested in people than chickens.  She doesn't seem to mind sleeping by herself and I have checked when it is very cold all three sleep together.  

It all gets quite cosy at bedtime in the coop.  There is no light in there the light is from the flash of my camera.  I can tell the chickens apart easily by the coloured rings on their legs.  You can see in this photograph Daisy's Nictitating Membrane, chickens have three eyelids on each eye, the Nictitating membrane is translucent and can be drawn across they eye for protection without the chicken losing vision.  Chickens are very vocal, I don't mean noisy, I mean they chat a lot and use a wide range of vocalisations.  They were very intrigued with my camera at their bedtime and had a little sing about it.  I shut them in at night and there is usually a fair bit of shuffling going on before they settle for the night.  I have seen a fox pass by my house a couple of times in the last month or two so I like to make sure they are safely tucked up and locked in for the night.  I am always pleased to see them in the morning and they are always pleased to see me ( or breakfast). I open their door and they nearly fall over each other tumbling out in such a hurry.  They get their breakfast before the rest of us.  If it is cold they like a bit of warm porridge for brekkie, nice life if you can get it!