Knitting like a mad thing.....

.......that's what I've been doing, since 21st January when I cast on a cardigan. I'd had nine balls of lovely alpaca yarn sitting in my stash for three years and had never found just the right pattern for it - until 21st January when I happened upon Deco, written by Kate Davies who is a fabulous designer.

I want to knit all of her designs and have even treated myself to her new book Colours of Shetland, which is a beautifully written book with lovely evocative background pieces written about the inspiration behind each design and beautiful photos taken in Shetland.

There's lots of great colourwork knitting in the book and sweaters involving steeks - and I'm actually contemplating knitting such a scary thing before too long.

So, back to Deco (which isn't in the book but is a Ravelry download). I cast on just under three weeks ago and have knit and knit and knit in every possible spare moment and today, finally, I got out to buy buttons (purely decorative) and press studs  (to do it up with) and wide velvet ribbon (to line the buttonbands) and two hours later they were sewn on and now I'm wearing it and I'm never taking it off!

There's a bit of story behind the yarn. I bought 4 balls of it in a yarn shop three years ago, then found another 5 in a different shop six months later. Last week when I panicked and thought I might run out I looked online - it's a discontinued yarn - and found a shop with 7 balls left, so I bought all of them....just in case. So that's three different bundles of yarn, three different shops, over three years....and they are all exactly the same dye lot!! I know!!

Of course, I finished the cardigan with 5g left of the original 9 balls of yarn, and didn't use any of the 7 new ones....cough cough....

There's been little by way of craftual activity other than Deco - a little spinning, a little playing with the sewing machine, a little sock knitting but nothing that I was excited enough to blog about.

My Minx has been continuing her Weekend Pudding project - there's been a very chocolatey cheesecake, a totally gorgeous chocolate marble cake, and a white chocolate and strawberry cheesecake. This girl of mine knows no fear - no recipe looks too complicated or too full of ingredients as far as she's concerned.

Today she's made choux pastry and has presented us with this - Mary Berry's 'Paris Brest':

I might just have to allow myself a tiny slice :o)

Keep warm, keep dry and happy knitting!

Moogs xx

Kingley Vale

It's amazing how sometimes doing something as simple as going for a family walk to a lovely place on a beautiful sunny and cold day can totally recharge the batteries and set you up for the week ahead.

We've all had a busy weekend and really should have gone kitchen shopping today but when we awoke to a glorious clear and frosty morning we just had to get out there. So, after a morning of pottering we had a quick lunch and then piled into the car and headed east.

Our destination of choice was Kingley Vale, a National Nature Reserve and one of the biggest natural yew forests in Western Europe. The trees here are incredible - some over 2000 years old, making them among the oldest living things on Earth.

These gnarled and twisted ancient trees give the place such a spiritual feel, really connecting you to the earth. These trees have stood here since Roman times, through the Norman invasion and the massive changes of the Industrial Revolution - this really fills me with awe. If only they could talk!

As we walked through the most ancient grove of yew trees we could hear the sound of chanting, and there sitting on a low branch of one of the biggest trees was a man, chanting and meditating, complete with josticks, the scent of which only added to the spirit of the woodland. I could totally understand someone wanting to meditate here - I could not think of a more perfect place.

The yew trees grow through the vale and up the steep slope to the chalk grassland at the top of the downs. We enjoyed a strenuous climb up the slope, serenaded by a pair of buzzards calling, and were rewarded with stunning, far-reaching views from the top, looking right across Chichester harbour and over to the eastern tip of the Isle of Wight.

At the top of the slope, the path takes you around the hillside to two ancient burial mounds. A large family group had laid claim to the first mound and while the parents chatted the children quite literally threw themselves into a long game of roly-polys (as we call it) - rolling down the sides of the mound, getting delightfully filthy and rosy cheeked in the process.

I was surprised my two didn't give it a go, as they usually love a roly-poly! Instead, we all stood atop the second mound and soaked in the views and filled our lungs with the fresh, clean air and it felt truly good to be alive. My very nearly teenage boy, who hadn't even wanted to go for a 'stupid walk' rewarded me with a great big beaming smile.

Our walk continued around the hill and down the other side of the vale, through younger yew woodland and then back along the farm tracks to the car. Before we set out Mr Moog had decided to pack a flask and some teabags and we were so glad he did, because getting back to the car and a hot cup of tea was absolutely the best way to round off a truly special afternoon.

Then, as the sun started to sink, we took a gentle drive home and arrived back to a delicious dinner all ready in the slow-cooker. We were treated to a fabulous pud too, as Minx had opted to make Saturday pudding on Sunday - white chocolate and strawberry cheesecake. Delicious. I had to try a bit, for quality control purposes.

Hope you've had a lovely weekend.

Moogs xx

Saturday Pudding Minxy style

My Minx loves nothing better than being busy in the kitchen, preferably baking something sweet and involving as many bowls, spoons, trays etc etc as possible.

I've mentioned before that our kitchen is tiny (but not for long - hoping for news on this soon!) and more than one person in there at a time makes it severely overcrowded and that, coupled with the fact that I invariably get left with a huge mess to clean up, means I'm not always as willing as I really should be to indulge her desire to crack out the contents of the store cupboard.

However, last weekend whilst staying at M-I-L's we picked up a couple of fabulous new bargaintastic baking books - two for a tenner at WHSmith folks!

Minx spent the rest of the weekend pouring over the pages, salivating at the deliciousness within and reading out the name and contents of virtually every recipe. She wanted to go straight home and cook every single one but I suggested she choose one a week to bake, to make it more special (and cheaper for me!), and got to telling her about the wonderful Saturday Pudding blog posts that my dear friend Mrs Stashbasket used to tempt us with - and which are sorely missed, Michaela...hint hint!

So, we hit upon a plan. If she agreed to actually read the recipe properly (!) and clear up properly after herself (!!) I would willingly provide ingredients for a weekly dessert of her choosing and her making.

Armed with her two new recipe books Minx set herself down to choose her first attempt....and promptly decided to cook from a different book entirely that my good friend Maggie gave to me ages ago! I have no idea where my girl gets her fickle nature......

She chose White Chocolate and Raspberry cupcakes and, if I say so myself, she made a fantastic job of them. So, without further ado I give you 'Minx's Saturday Pudding #1':

I've had a tiny tiny nibble for quality control purposes ( still sticking to that diet like glue!) and I have to say they're pretty tasty, although we all find the actual cakes from this book a bit dense for our liking - due no doubt to the higher than normal proportion of flour. Minx's verdict: will do them again with a lighter cake mix.

According to Minx next week's offering will be from the Green & Black's book - unless she changes her mind :o)

I've been plodding on with the Granny Stripe blanket and have now managed to do 32 colour stripes. This really is a perfect mindless project for hooking along to a good film and it keeps my knees lovely and warm. I got three stripes done during The Hunger Games last night....

....about 70 more stripes to go, I reckon!

In other news, do take a look at Ali's new blog for her Compound Word Project. I'm playing along and it's a great reason to crack out the camera for something completely different. Starting on Monday Ali will be posting 10 diptychs over the course of the week and you can guess the answers and win prizes!

love Moogs xx

Monster blankets and spidery cakes

Well, so far so good. We seem to be having a very happy half-term week off, although it would be nice if my daughter could manage to stay in bed beyond 6.15am!

The days have been full, with long dog walks, buying enormous new school shoes (size 9 for my boy!!), getting ready for Hallowe'en and treating myself to a couple of gorgeous new skirts because none of mine fit me any more. I cannot tell you how exciting it was to try on four skirts and have them all fit - five sizes smaller than before!

There's been no spinning, knitting or sewing but there has been oodles of crochet. The Flowers in the Snow was finished two days ago - after two years of lying neglected the last 80% of it was done in two days!

Naturally, whilst racing to finish this blanket my brain was already planning the next one. So, within minutes of sewing in the last end of Flowers in the Snow I had started the foundation chain for another crochet blanket. A Granny Stripe blanket using the tutorial from Lucy at Attic 24.

The idea is to use up all those leftover colours from previous crochetings. That's the idea. The reality involved a quick trip to the local wool shop for a ball or five of other colours that I felt I was lacking!

(this is day one - it's now four times as many rows longer)

It was supposed to be throw sized, to have by the sofa, but something happened and I may have forgotten to stop when doing that foundation row. The throw became a monster of a blanket big enough for our king-size bed. I've done 8164 treble crochet stitches and reckon I have at least four times that many still to go!

Minx has been busy in the kitchen baking for Hallowe'en. We decided against sweets for trick or treat this year and I gave MInx full reign with the food colouring, so we have bright blue cakes with bright green and black icing. Some small children will need scraping off the ceiling after eating these :o)

Happy Hallowe'en to all you trick or treaters out there :o)

xxx

p.s. have just realised stoopid blogger has been putting some of your comments into a folder awaiting moderation, so please don't think I've been ignoring you, I just hadn't realised you were there!

September?

Well, I hadn't anticipated taking quite such a prolonged blog-break but after my last post our summer got much busier than expected.

We've had visitors, lots of visitors. The children were whisked away to London by dear friends of ours and I was lucky enough to have a whole day all to myself.

Naturally, I ignored the housework in favour of sewing, crochet and doing more sketchbook work. 

 Minx caught the arty bug and spent many happy hours sketching - talking non-stop the entire time, of course.

In fact, that girl of mine talked non-stop for the whole five and a half weeks!

She even managed to squeeze in plenty of bickering, arguing and niggling with her beloved brother.

She went back to school yesterday, and headed straight off on a whole week residential trip.

It's very quiet here this week!

Despite the noise, she did redeem herself with the odd bit of baking.

It seems I'm all but redundant when it comes to fairy cakes these days, being required only for oven lighting and the fetching and carrying of ingredients :o)

She can do a mean chocolate brownie too, and her ginger biscuits were a resounding success. I've come to realise this girl of mine is at her happiest (but not quietest) when she's busy doing - preferably busy doing with me by her side, lending an ear to the continuous stream of chat that she emits.

We both got rather heavily into making bracelets a couple of weeks ago. This cute daisy bracelet is from a very old beading book that's been gathering dust for rather too long.

It took about an hour, with Minx chit-chatting next to me....

....are you noticing a bit of a theme to my summer?

During my one and only day of silence this summer, I managed to finish off a bag that I'd been crocheting. I was hoping it would be mine but the mother in me ended up giving it to Minx, to make up for her having a poorly day the week before - she  must have been ill that day as she was quiet for about three hours!


She loves her new bag.


Hasn't used it once.


If it had been mine I'd have almost worn it out by now!

The penultimate week of our summer break saw us spending a very relaxing, and surprisingly dry, day on the beach with my lovely friend Trashy, while various children and dogs kept themselves entertained :o)



Old black dog, exhausted by the silly puppies.



So, before you know it, September is here. Another lovely summer has been and gone. There's the chill of Autumn in the air and it's back to work for me and back to school for them, although for my boy it's no longer junior school but the big and scary world of secondary education. Yup, my baby started secondary school today. I watched him go into school with his shiny new uniform, looking far too grown up and wandered back home with a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye.

Now, if you would kindly excuse me, I must go and throw the computer through the window - blurry Blogger has gone all 'new and improved' while I've been away and I can't get my words or photos where I want them....grrrr!!!

Happy blogging!

xxx

Eye candy

There's something very precious indeed about a day off.

A day all to yourself.

A day when you can indulge yourself.

A day when you choose to ignore all but the most necessary of housework and laundry.

A day when you find yourself making beautiful things worth sharing.

A day when you can make your bloggy friends scroll down a billion times to find out what the heck Mrs Moog is whittering on about ;o)

The first day since waaaay before Easter when your day off plans have not gone awry.

The next bit may shock you........I haven't knit even so much as a single solitary stitch today!!

I know!!!!!

Who would have thought it?

I have, however, baked.

You HAVE to make this - no really - you HAVE to! Another perfect recipe for those manky eating apples.

Believe it or not this is an apple cake. An incredibly simple, awesomely deeeeelicious, crumbly-sweet-bestwhenstillwarmonlyatinybitleftthreehourslaterthankstoMrMoog-apple cake.

I found the recipe on the internet. I was terribly hi-tech and took the laptop into the (tiny) kitchen (being too eager to stop and write it down) and followed the recipe 'live'.

Unfortunately, my techno-tastic abilities stopped there and I forgot to save the link - although I did remember the recipe and wrote it down ten minutes after it came out of the oven (do wish I could link to the brilliant cook who posted this recipe but I've resurfed and can't find it).

Here's how to make it:

8oz self-raising (all purpose) flour

pinch salt

1 heaped teaspoon ground mixed spice

3oz margarine

10oz sugar OR 6oz if you use manky eating apples

8oz peeled and sliced apples (cooking or eating)

1 egg

Cream sugar and marg. Beat in the egg. Add the flour, salt, spice and chopped up apple. Mix together. This makes a stiff mixture and at this point I lost the faith and added a splashette of milk.

Okay, all topsy turvy in recipe terms ....by now you should have preheated your oven to gas 4 or 350degrees or whatever your oven does AND you would of course have greased and lined a 7 to 8 inch round cake tin.

Then you can turn that big glob of far too dry looking appley cake mix into your pre-prepared tin.

Once it starts to brown on top place some greaseproof paper on top to stop it burning (this bit REALLY worked!!!) and let it cook for 1 to 1 and a quarter hours. Stick something pointy into your cake and if it comes out clean it's cooked....if not give it a little longer.

When I took mine out of the oven I immediately sprinkled sugar over the top.

Have a slice with a cup of tea about twenty minutes later. You might as well cos by the time the bu**ers have been home for five minutes there'll be none bl***y left ;o)

Luckily I have four more manky apples just a-waiting my bakerly skills tomorrow!

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Remember that bit about not knitting?

You'll be mighty relieved to know I haven't gone a whole day entirely yarn free. However, I must warn you this has not been a day for posh and natural delicious sock-yarn. Today has been a man-made kind of a day.

Today, thanks to me spending far too much time looking at crochety loveliness on Ravelry in the wee small hours of this morning, I have got my ergonomic hook and my big posh Primarni-darling it only cost me £6!!!!!!CathKidstonlookeelikee (IMHO)-bag of acryliano yarn out of mothballs and have exercised my carpel tunnels with a mahoosive bit of grannying.

Some hours later I have two of these ten inch squares done and another three on the way. We're heading for a blanket here. At least that's the plan!

This next photo is an entirely gratuitous shot to show you just how perfect my little world is ;o)

Happy hooking!

xxx

Spicy apple muffins

A sudden urge to bake muffins combined with three rather manky looking dessert apples has resulted in possibly THE most delicious muffins I have ever made.

I adapted a banana muffin recipe and tweeked a bit, by adding a dollop of homemade rhubarb and apple jam and plenty of spice.

Thought I'd share the recipe.....cos I'm not sharing my muffins!

Moogsmum's Spicy Apple Muffins

Makes 12

What you need:

200g (7oz) plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Ground cloves and ground cinnamon, to taste - I used just under a teaspoon of each.
3 manky dessert apples
1 heaped dessertspoon jam - I used homemade rhubarb and apple but apricot would do
150g(5oz) granulated sugar
1 egg
75g (2 1/2 oz) butter, melted

What to do:

- Preheat oven to 180 degrees C/ gas mark 4. Place 12 paper cake cases in your muffin tin.

- Sift together the flour, bicarb, baking powder and salt, ground cloves and cinnamon.

- Peel and finely chop the apples. Place them in a saucepan with the jam and about a tablespoon of water. Heat gently over a low heat for a few minutes just to soften the apples a bit.

- Puree the apple mixture - I used a handheld blender for this. It doesn't need to be too smooth, just not big and chunky.

- Combine the apple puree with the sugar, egg and melted butter in a large bowl.

- Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and combine well.

- Spoon mixture into muffin cases and bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until springy to the touch.

- Lovely served warm with a hot cup of tea :)

Note: to make banana muffins, substitute three mashed ripe bananas for the apple and jam mixture and omit the spices.

Enjoy xxxx

Monday?

I seem to have blinked and a whole week went by!

I'm pleased to say Monster is much better. He had a very heavy cold but no sinister flu symptoms and was packed off back to school after a couple of days driving me mad.

I then spent the rest of last week catching up on work, as I'd had to cancel several meetings thanks to sneeze-boy. Only eight working days left and the holidays begin - woohoo....I can't wait!

Just a gazillion reports, numerous meetings and lots of cruddy worky I.T. problems to wade through first.....not to mention school disco, sports day and awards ceremonies to attend.

Still, there's six lovely weeks of long and lazy get-ups to look forward to.

The summer reading library is well stocked and thanks to Jo, I now have two extra books and some sustenance to enjoy :)



A brief foray to a local charity shop last week, saw me come home with a very pretty little cakestand - to which we added homemade Rocky Roads.... purely for the sake of providing blog-fodder, you understand ;)



By Friday night I was desperate for a little creativity. A pink cotton curtain from the Scrapstore and a bag of scraps from Cinnamon Kids, teamed with an old crochet doily, were the perfect ingredients for a pretty new cushion for our bed.



Yesterday, I was forced ;) to stay at home with Monster as he just didn't feel like going on a bike ride. So, while Moogsdad and Minx disappeared for the afternoon, Monster and I settled down to a gentle few hours pottering.

I'd developed a sudden overwhelming urge to crochet something circular.......



.....and rainbowy......

......and finished at 11.30 last night.....another bl***y cushion, as Moogsdad calls them.

What is it with men and cushions?

Don't hear him complaining when he rests his weary head on them after a long day's breadwinning!

.......and the reverse of the bl***y cushion

I now have to resist the siren call of my crochet stash and put my mind to teachers' presents and a birthday present for Minx's friend........any suggestions gratefully received!

Have a lovely week :)

xxx

A little cookery and hookery

First off, I need to fulfill an obligation. Having promised to write a review on my blog in return for a free box of Abel and Cole organic fruit and veg, I feel it's only fair that I do so.

As I said previously, I have wanted to try an organic box scheme for ages. I was really pleased with the selection in the A&C box and the contents lasted us for several lovely meals. I think our favourites were the sweet carrots and new potatoes. In my opinion, the broad beans were delicious - not an opinion shared by the children but then that doesn't surprise me, as I wouldn't go near a broad bean until I was at least 20!

The lettuce was very tasty and crunchy - and any less crunchy bits were enjoyed by the chickens.

The watermelon went down a treat, as did the apples. I wasn't so impressed with the bananas, which didn't seem to last very well, and soon went black. However, not one of them went to waste, as they were turned into banana cake and banana custard ice cream.

I think the thing that struck me most of all, is how determined I was not to waste any of the fruit and veg at all. Every little bit got used up and I also made much more imaginative meals than usual.

It's so easy to get stuck in a rut of buying the same veg every single week from the supermarket, or even the farm shop. Having the choices made for you, really does encourage you to be a bit more creative and lot less wasteful.

So, will I be placing an order? Most definately, but possibly not until autumn as we'll be living off the homegrown veg for the next few months. This week we have mostly been eating mange tout :)

Now then, now then....onto something pretty.

Baking for the cake stall at Saturday's school fair.



I really enjoyed the school fair this year. Could have something to do with the fact that I was right next to the Pimms stall?

In lieu of anything sewey, I have been very busy with the hook this week. I find crochet extremely therapeutic when I'm feeling slightly wound up....let's just say, my Dad is still in hospital, my brother's family have swine flu and Dad is not helping my brother by helping himself!

So, over four evenings last week, I made a little hooky cushion - edged in cream, because I started making this knowing I had only one ball of the turquoise and the yarn shop no longer stock that colour.



Once that was done, the hook was in full flow, so I made a few pretty squares for hooky cushion #2.



I've just got the back to finish on this one ....but seem to have become distracted by some gorgeous rainbow sock knitting....

There are plans afoot for a full day of sewing this week - and about time too!

I'm now going to water my poor parched veg patch - phew, it's been hot today - 26 degrees inside the house ....no laughing you southern hemisphere types!!!

I know some people who are too hot when it hits 20 degrees :)

Hope you have a lovely week, whatever the weather xxx

Sewing is done and housework studiously ignored

There are times when housework is best ignored in favour of more pleasant pursuits. After two days with Moogsdad at home finishing up some DIY, the house was looking less than delightful.

Did I whizz round tidying up the mess that he created? Did I battle to maintain a modicum of organisation amid the increasingly overwhelming chaos.

No, I did not!

I spent an evening making myself a lovely new bag :-)



With a pattern from artsycraftybabe and spotty fabric, gifted to me by my lovely bloggy friend Kitty, that was a perfect match for some flowery stuff I bought ages ago....

....and a very contrasting lining of Kokeshi doll fabric, this bag has made me very very happy :-)

This is the first time I've followed a pattern to make a bag ( I usually make up my own) and I was really pleased with how easy it was. The bag is a good size too, with loads of room for all my doings, including my sock knitting and library book.

I bet even this lovely new book would fit in there...

I've seen this on other blogs for ages and tried to resist but it was no good - the promise of recipes for homemade butter and homemade curd cheese, not to mention fresh pasta and sourdough bread had me hooked! Of course, the fact that it's co-written by my hero Hugh F-W makes it essential reading as far as I'm concerned ;-)

Mind you, I may not follow his example on last night's River Cottage Summer. Somehow, slug soup or satay slug just doesn't do it for me!

Nope, I'll stick to something much safer...like bread made with flour from our local windmill....

...and planning the weekend's meals with a fantastic box of free organic fruit and veg from Abel & Cole.

I've been dithering over trying an organic veg box scheme for ages. So, when I was offered the chance to try one for free, in return for reviewing it's contents, I said a big 'Yes, please!'.

It arrived bright and early this morning and I was amazed how excited the children were about a box of veg!

So excited, in fact, that they took some of it to school in their packed lunches.

Cheese and salad wraps, using veg box lettuce, and a slice of yummy mini-watermelon.

We used more of the contents for tonight's dinner. Jersey new potatoes, broad beans and carrots were sampled and all were delicious.

Even Moogsdad was moved to comment on how tasty it was. Not bad for a man who only normally comments on how good a meal is if it involves oven chips and a fried egg ;-)

xxx