By Helen

June’s crochet flower…

With all the wet weather we have had (and still seem to be having: it’s just thundered – should I be blogging during a storm?) lately the only flower, in my tubs and pots, that have bravely showed their colours are the fuchsias.   Fuchsias look so bright and cheerful, in amongst all the greenery, which is flourishing.  Their petals are like little pockets of hope that one day, this summer, the rest of the garden might look as colourful…

Fuchsias were the natural choice to be June’s crochet flower.  The first fuchsia, I crocheted solo.  No pattern for back-up, just working my hook, crocheting and hoping.  I don’t think that results were too bad…

I then turned to the very talented Lesley Stanfield’s book 100 flowers to knit and crochet.  The pattern for crocheting fuchsias is in the advance designs section at the back of the book.  Me crocheting from an advance design – I struggle with the basic patterns, seeing them more as guidelines than absolutes.  I was strict, I followed the crochet pattern, to the stitch.  I don’t think it turned out too bad either…

I think the one I crocheted to my own design can hold its petals high next to the one crocheted from Lesley’s book…

Do you like the crochet hooks, that I used as stems?  I think a combo, of both patterns would be the best way forward:  crocheting Lesley’s inner bell, my outer petals and definitely the bead for the stamens.  Think I know what I’ll be doing later…

crochet cushion complete…

A while ago I bought some gorgeous yarn, from Ramshambles, which I started to crochet into a granny square cushion cover.  It is finished!  I hoped that there would be enough yarn to cover a 40cm x 40cm cushion, but two balls were not quite enough.  I should have bought three balls: but I didn’t.  I ended up having to make the cushion insert: which I think I might have over stuffed!  Nevertheless, I am quite pleased with the result.  Ta-dah…

I just don’t love it quite as much as the one I crocheted my friend!  Lucky friend :-) x

cooking up a feast…

Si and I love having friends over and cooking for them; and that is exactly what we did a couple of weeks ago.  It was the perfect opportunity to cook something from my new cookbook.  Rachel Khoo’s The Little Paris Kitchen…

Ever since watching The Little Paris Kitchen I had been hooked, so when the cookbook came out, I knew that it was destined for my bookshelf.  After spending time reading the recipes and looking at the beautiful photographs: I decided what to cook. 

The meal was to start with galette aux pommes de terre et poires avec Roquefort (potato and pear galette with Roquefort.   I have to say my galette looked NOTHING  like Rachel’s…

But then I have not been trained at the Cordon Bleu cookery school.  Despite their appearance they tasted fantastic, even if I do say so myself!  Next I made boulettes de viande avec une sauce piquante et des pates d’Alsace (meatballs in spicy sauce with Alsatian pasta), only I substituted the Alsatian pasta for good old penne.   This did look like Rachel’s…

The only hick-up with this, was I felt like I was eating gravy with pasta.  Nevertheless it tasted good!  Next came dessert, which Si offered to make.  Si carried on the Rachel Khoo theme choosing to make a dark chocolate and raspberry pudding…

This was good, very VERY good!  Chocolate and raspberry loveliness, what more can you ask for?

All of the recipes were very easy to follow and we keep trying out different things from the cookbook and from Rachel’s amazing blog.  I would recommend that you try some out and create your own Little Paris kitchen in your own little home,…

Enjoy x

quick fix crochet...

I have had my hair cut and it is too short.  Okay not really short.  Definitely shorter than before: with an annoying bit which insists on dangling in front of my eyes.  So I clip it back, problem solved. It's Friday night and I am going out to meet my girlfriends and want to wear a gorgeous red top that I found in a charity shop sometime ago.  I have no hair clips to go with the top.  What is a girl to do?  Crochet some, of course...

I am really, rea-LLY, REALLY pleased with how these turned out.  A simple crochet flower, a tiny gold bead stitched into the centre and fixed onto a kirby grip...

Ready for a great night out!

cutest crochet cardi...

Do you remember my friend's little girl I: the one I crocheted the hat for?  I decided to crochet her a cardi, to keep her toastie during the poor weather we are having.  After a happy few hours browsing my magazines and Ravelry I came across a gorgeous pattern by Amanda Tipton for the cutest cardi I had ever seen.  I am rather pleased with how the cardi turned out...

I crocheted the cardi using (my favourite) King Cole yarm and am loving the way the colour changes.  The pattern was so easy to follow.  Best of all the cardi was crocheted in one piece, top down, so no making up afterwards.

In fact I love the cardi sooooo much: I am thinking of trying to make one to for me!

The pattern for the cardi is available, as a free download via Ravelry

There was down side to the cardi...it is a little on the small side for I :-( 

Still perfect excuse for spending a happy afternoon crocheting another... :-)

baking biscuits...

I woke up and felt like making biscuits for breakfast and in just have ten minutes the biscuits will be ready to come out of the cooker, all golden, yummy and ready to eat.  I am making lemon and cardamom cookies, the ones which feature in the Hairy Bikers’ book Bakeation, the same ones which I made a while ago.  Do you remember my moan about how I couldn’t find the cookie stamps to decorate the tops of the biscuits?  I looked EVERYWHERE.  In the end I did the only thing a girl, in that situation, can do:  I asked my Dad to make me some.  My Dad is one of those very clever people who can make almost anything, out of anything, if you show him a picture of it.   He didn’t let me down…

Aren’t they brill-i-a-n-t?  He is so clever; I think that they are just beautiful.   Dad isn’t a baker, so he didn’t realise the practicality of getting biscuit mixture out of the stamps.  Not all of them worked: I was only able to use a couple of the stamps.  The biscuit mixture just wouldn’t come away from the more decorative ones: it’s a shame – they would have made gorgeous looking biscuits.

Hang on a minute; the biscuits are ready to come out of the cooker…

…Oh dear!  The biscuits rose and spread so much that the patterns were lost in the baking.  Think that Dad will see it as a challenge to make some more with deeper and simpler patterns.

Still I have home cooked biscuits and fresh coffee for my breakfast…. ;-)

welcome June...

June?  Already?  How did that happen?  I can’t quite believe that we are half way through the year. In just a few weeks time it will be the longest day.  That means we should be in the midst of summer; our gardens should be abundant with colour, the sky blue, the grass green (or scorched brown from the heat), the sun glowing a golden yellow.  How we can dream...

Last weekend's re-enactment was a bit of a wash-out, slightly better than last year but we got very, very, very wet.  There was the odd break in the rain, to dry out the tent (our home for the weekend)...

And Skipton Castle did look fantastic...

I managed to sell some braid, so not all bad.  Still some sun-shine wouldn't go amiss....