November...ing

 Hello there, welcome to November...ing.Lots of foraging this month so here goes.

Foraging - in our fields for parasol mushrooms. I left this one because it had opened out too much but I picked a whole basket full.

Walking - to get some exercise. Beano the boundless spaniel helps me to walk quickly and get out of breath.

Cutting - the very last summer flowers from the garden. Now I have planted up some bulbs in all of the outdoor pots.

Going - to a ball - I know! My friend has a charity ball every year (except during covid) where we get the chance to dress up and catch up with friends I only see once a year.

 

Sewing - A dress for the occasion. None of my evening dresses fitted me. The margins are small on evening wear so a little adjustment in waist size can knock an outfit off the list. This time I went for a wrap dress to eliminate future body changes. This is the glitter lace fabric with a satin back which I used - such wonderful fabric and a versatile pattern.

Fixing - my sewing machine! It was making a funny noise so I lifted the foot plate, cleaned it out and found the very tip of a broken needle in the bobbin case. I re-oiled it and put it all back together. This saved me about £80 I reckon, the minimum charge for a service. Very chuffed with myself today.

Baking - white chocolate and cranberry cookies with Meg.

Eating - Homemade cinnamon rolls. Meg wanted to make these but Jeez they took all day. Mixing, first prove, rolling and filling, second prove, baking, resting...but they were nice. 

Visiting - Hergest Croft Gardens to see the glorious late autumnal Acer trees.

Cheating - by making this Tilly and Buttons Nora top from a cotton waffle knit fabric. For a knitter like me, the lure of a sweater made in 2 hours was a novelty.

Finishing - my latest (real) knitting project. I am thrilled with it. A teenage sweater pattern called Jory in 4ply. It was in The Knitter issue 168. Heidi looks fabulous in it but I knitted the arms longer so she liked the fit.

Thinking - out a few plans for Christmas knitting. In the meantime, to give me some head space, I have this stop gap crochet shawl which I add to every time I need to think. It includes all the ends of sock yarn I have left over so it sort of grows and changes over the year. I have recently added some of the grey from Heidi's jumper to use up an end ball and break up the mad colours.

Pre-washing - fabric for sewing. I don't know what yet, something long sleeved to pair with the autumn leaf design. But hey, you know me, it will probably become lots of things to the very last scrap. 

Searching - for Sloes to make another batch of sloe gin which I gift at Christmas.

Firing - the young 'uns outside for a bit, they have been a bit glued to the TV of late. They really enjoyed themselves on their tree swing and remembered just how much they like playing out together.

Leaving - you with one for the road as always. This was just before everything turned orange in the last week.

Thanks for dropping by. Jo xx

A Finish, a Newbie and a Save.

Hello there! Time for a little catch up and a knit and natter. My latest make is a tank top from The Knitter issue 166. It is a cabled top called Demeter by Emma Vining

I am loving tank tops at the moment. Our house is too warm for my old chunky knits of the past but sleeveless tops are perfect. This has a complex interlocked rectangle design which was tricky. Using stitch markers every 15 stitches helped me to keep the pattern accurate. 

The top is made from Stylecraft organic cotton which is double knit, it is worth noting that, for a cotton yarn, it did not spilt. I used seven skeins so it was a very economical make. I always joke with my girls that they are allowed to disown me when I start wearing beige. Heidi reminded me of this when I finished the top to which I replied "It is an "Antique Rose!" The colour is actually 7188 wood.

I always have my next knitting project in my mind while finishing the previous one. So let me introduce Jory by Outi Kater, a fairisle kids knit that goes up to age 13-14 years. Bingo! A sweater knit for Heidi that looks grown up but to which I can make the arms longer for my gibbon girl.

Heidi does not wear pure wool well so I plumped for Sirdar Country Style which is 50% wool and 50% acrylic. The only draw back of the pattern is that it is in 4ply. I ploughed my way through some catch up TV and the grey body in anticipation of the patterned yoke.

I am really enjoying the colourwork, each row takes about 30 - 40 minutes but I like to ensure the floats are correct so that yoke still has stretch. The yarn bloomed just enough for stranded work without being pure wool. This sweater will take me to the end of November before I start knitting for Christmas.

My final knitting project to show is a save. I desperately wanted to save my joyride jumper. It had an old issue and a new issue to solve. The old issue was that I had cast on too tight so the rib constantly flipped up...so irritating. Since making this jumper I know now that if I cast on with needles it is better for me than the thumb method and stops the issue.

The newest issue is that I washed it after a bonfire party and it grew! It was already a touch long and with the added length it was really unflattering. You would think only the brave would decide to shorten a sweater from the bottom but it was actually quite easy.

With a double length of contrast yarn you pick up the stitches all the way round a little shorter than you would like to allow for an added rib. Do this in good light so that you don't drift onto another row above or below.

You will know you have kept to the one row when you return to the beginning and you are one row below where you started. Snip the yarn above the contrast yarn. Leave a couple of rows if you are not feeling too brave!

Pull back the un needed yarn and roll up to use as your rib. Ensure you are using the correct needle size for the yarn. 

Luckily, I keep a knitting journal so I looked up the needle size from 2019. Geeky or what!

Pick up the stitches from the spare yarn trying not to split any yarn. Pull out any spare rows carefully. All you have to do now is knit on a rib using the yarn you have taken off.

Ta dah! A fantastic save: a better length, no flipping rib and the bonfire smell has gone. It is a bit big in the arms but I kind of like nice long arms to fill my coat sleeves for dog walking.

Any seasonal knitting happening at your end?

Jo xxx 

The Last of...

 This months three word gardening post highlights all the 'last of' summer plants and edibles that have finally finished their growing cycle. It has been a glorious Autumn to put the garden to bed properly without the thrash of sudden wild Autumn weather making it all a bit of a rush.

I am picking the last of the cerise Godetia and white Cosmos. There are about three cosmos plants left in the front and back garden which are next to some dahlias and I think if I pulled them up the wind would snap off the dahlias so they are left in for protection.

I am also picking the last of the late Asters which I grew from seed. When these go over I have bulbs ready for winter pot displays.

The veg patch has been cleared. The courgette plants were huge and quite frankly, it is no surprise to anyone who grows courgettes, we were sick of eating them. I harvested four huge ones which I had left on to use as halloween lanterns.

I spread manure on the whole area...

...and put it to bed.

On the fruit garden, I am picking the last of the autumn raspberries. 

Then I tied the canes to supports to ensure I could harvest the very last ones. 

My big girl challenged herself to grow continuous salad for 6 months as part of her skills section on the Bronze Duke of Edinburgh award. She did so well at inter cropping and being ahead of each plants' growing cycle. This is the last of her lettuce.

The herbs are going over so they all had a haircut (but not into the woody stems, that kills them) however we are enjoying the last of the parsley before the cold weather gets it.

In the greenhouse, I have cleared out the tomato plants except for the cherry ones. I used the old growbags as a mulch on my ranunculus corms. We are hanging on to the final plant to get the last few super sweet fruits.

The pepper plant came indoors for a few weeks where we ate them roasted. I sliced them in half length ways then stuffed each 'boat' with chilli cream cheese. Yum!

The chillies are perfect for us. Not too hot but just enough to add to meals without worrying about a disaster. I am not reporting the last of these but the start of our chilli harvest.

I have plans for the seasons ahead. There are bags of bulbs to go into pots and garlic to be planted. I am thinking ahead to next spring with the advantages that a big greenhouse brings. I have cornflowers, sweet william and sweet peas all popping up to be overwintered in the frost free greenhouse.

As I look out of the rainy window I can see the last of the dahlias getting a good bashing but all in all for my first year in a brand new garden I think we have done pretty well.

Thanks for dropping by. Jo xx 

No Waste Sewing

 I try not to waste anything, it is part of my DNA I think. I especially try to use up my craft materials the best way I can. Today I have a few things to share that use up my purchased fabrics to the very end.

My fourteen year old has been struggling to find T-shirts that are slim enough but old enough in design for her size. She needs a child size but they have unicorns/fairies/princess slogans on - you get the idea right? So I made a pattern purchase that was rather an investment - The Rio Ringer T-shirt by True Bias. It is not a massively versatile pattern but it does come in a range of smaller sizes which was what I was after. It was eye wateringly expensive but I knew it would work for two of us. The fact that it worked out for all three females in our house made it even better value.

I ordered three colours of jersey from Minerva which I thought would work well together: a red stripe, blue and yellow.

Firstly, I made a size 2 blue T-shirt with a join down the back. It saves on fabric and my girls like it because you can see which way round it goes without the need for labels. It was a touch small for Heidi so Megan snaffled that one. Next up I made size 4 in the pink stripe and this was a good fit for Heidi. She liked the high neckline, the slightly curved waist and the contrast bands. Finally using up the last sizeable pieces I made a size 12 which was a good fit on me.

To cut multi sizes from one pattern without going out of my head with tedium tracing off each size, I simply roughly cut out the front, back and sleeve pieces then used dressmakers carbon paper and a serrated wheel to trace through the paper straight onto the fabric. The wheel has been a new purchase for me and it has been a game changer piece of kit for transferring darts and markings. It was the perfect way to trace multi sizes from one pattern. 

 We found the neckband to be a little tight causing some ripples around the neck but I will just add another centimetre next time, that's all it will need.

Heidi liked the T-shirt shape so much, I found some other jersey pieces and got creative. There was a small piece of blue striped and chocolate brown for a front paired with a yellow back which I trimmed with the yellow and brown. That one had a 1970's vibe about it.

I spent a mindful hour listening to the radio the other evening while cutting out all of the last little pieces into underwear parts. Both of my girls love these knickers which is a size up from the largest Speedy Pants pattern by Waves and Wild (free pattern). Essentially, I made my own sized pattern based on my girls leg and waist size from the speedy pants pattern shapes then used picot elastic. 

And if that wasn't enough for you, I pulled all the thin pieces tightly to roll the jersey strips into garden ties. Jersey makes fab garden ties for tomatoes etc. because they are snugly allow the stems to grow without cutting into the stalk.

All done jersey but not all done with the Rio ringer T-shirt pattern. There is a T-shirt dress which my big girl would like for next summer - without unicorns!

Jo XXXXX