Crafty Ways With Wool; A Day Out in Hampshire

We took a little trip to the Smallholding at Tufton to check out an event they put on with the Hampshire Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers called Crafty Ways with Wool.
As a knitter, I haven't always given so much thought to where my yarn comes from. It's almost as abstract a concept as my dinner coming from the farm to my fork. It really opened my eyes to a whole new world of textiles and it was fascinating to see how a fleece can become yarn.

Spinning Demonstrations.
Geno and me, meeting the baby alpacas! (He's such a good sport!)
Wool, yarn and dye samples.From fleece to swatch.

Some of the sheep on the farm.

In case you needed to know your shetlands a bit better!

IntroducingThe Worried Bird Quilt Top (or the Summer Vacation Quilt)

Just because I haven't been blogging for the past year, doesn't mean I've stopped with the making things. I'm sure any blogger can relate to the tale of woe: life just gets in the way after a while. I'm a college lecturer and when school is in session, it often interferes with of all the things that I'd rather be doing.


That's the thing with being a teacher. Everyone always laments the fact that I get summers off, but they don't realize how many hours you cram in when you're in session. You need those breaks to be human! So you could call this my summer vacation quilt since I started it last summer during my break to the soundtrack of Animal Collective and Ben Gibbard/ Jay Farrar's Big Sur tribute album. I only just finished it this week by adding the outer border during this year's summer vacay to this summer's tunes from some old favorites: Fleet Foxes' Helplessness Blues and Gillian Welch's Harrow and the Harvest. And how happy am I to finish a quilt top! My very first one!
The pattern is based on one by Piece O' Cake Designs that I saw in American Patchwork & Quilting when I was visiting my Mama on a trip back to the US last spring. Don't you absolutely love their work? If I could only be that good at applique! The design was called Vintage with a Twist and the banner on the magazine screamed out No Rules! No Rulers! and I thought... that sounds pretty good to me!
I didn't actually use the pattern inside, I just sort of eye-balled it. I probably should have followed instructions for my first quilt top, but hey, it said no rules! The fabric is from a layer cake by Moda which I can't remember the name of other than it was designed by Mary Engelbreit. A quick google search says it was Basket of Flowers. What DID we do before google, eh?I decided to applique with felt for a couple of reasons. First, no rules! Remember? Second, it was what I had on hand - for some reason I never seem to buy solid fabrics! Finally, it was pretty easy to work with for a first timer, and I have to confess that I cheated by using fusible web instead of properly appliqueing the birds and the trees. I'm still learning, give me a break! I think the results are great! No rules!

Geno says he feels sorry for the little birds. Why are they so sad? What are they worrying about? I really didn't intend to make worried birds when I embroidered their eyes on, but this is how they turned out!
Leave it to Bisbee to supervise my photography session. Did you notice he was peeking over the wall in the photos above?

It's not perfect, but it's my first quilt top and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out! Now for the quilting! I'm going to attempt to do this by hand. Did I mention that my sewing machine has only one speed - light speed! It's American and I haven't bothered to get a voltage converter, so it only goes on super speed. That's why I'm sticking to hand quilting... wish me luck! No rules!

Woah. It's been a long time

I clicked on my blog link from my Ravelry account this evening and blogger told me that my blog was up for grabs! I decided I ought to update even though I haven't in over a year! OVER A YEAR! Nutso.
Things are good. Busy. What a year! I was laid off work late last spring, spent a week in the hospital with an infected cat bite, got a new job in Hampshire, commuted to Hampshire from Warwickshire for six months and we've been in our new place down here now since January. Since then we've had good friends visit from the Left Coast and I spent two weeks on safari in South Africa!

Meanwhile, I've been crafting. I've been in the garden. I'm in love. Details will follow, I promise.

New Year, New House!

I thought it was about time that I showed you around our new place! As most of you know, despite the fact that I haven't posted anything in months (and now you know why!), we moved nearer to Stratford over the Halloween weekend.

Plus, my mom won't get off my back about sending pictures back to her! So here goes!
In order to give you the full experience, I thought I'd start from the beginning, so that you can see the place as you walk up the drive way. Impressive, no? Let the walking tour begin!We've got the flat to the left of the front door.... I'm not really sure of the history of the place, the estate agents described it as 'baronial', which I thought meant that a baron once lived here, but according to dictionary.com it just means big. Fit for a baron.

I guess, that's me. So.... Come on in!As you walk in the front door, it sort of knocks your socks off. What with the red carpet and the creepy, important looking geezers in the paintings on the walls.

Yes, that was a 15 foot Christmas tree you saw in the foyer.
Note the really creepy guy on the wall to your right. His eyes follow you around the room, I'm sure of it. Anyway, take a left and you're at our front door.Go through the door and this is your first impression of our flat, which I have to admit isn't all that exciting. But we're working on it....Look left and you see the only real downside of the place, the galley kitchen. But for what we lack in space in the kitchen the rest of the flat makes up for in spades.Okay, so now you're walking into the front lounge, or the 'Great Room' as the real estate agent called it. Since it's hard to get it all in in one shot I'm taking you panoramic style around the room. Are you ready?First, we have to say hello to Steve, our Beta. And his mates the three amigos (I'm aware that there's five of them, but three just sounds so much better.) There are also two small catfish in there, Mustafa and Aziz. That fishbowl is a real melting pot.Okay, now you're looking immediately left of Steve and the table to the fab fireplace. Unfortunately, my old school X-mas paper chain chose that moment to dive off of the mirror over the mantleplace. Character, right? Sorry about the lighting in here, English winters....Continuing to your left, you get to take in the scale of the room. I think these are 20 ft ceilings with the fancy shmancy chandeliers and window fittings. Look! Cat furniture.And there's Geno, being a good sport.Now you're looking back the way you came in.Back out into the hallway, look left and there's the loo, swing left and....You're in our bedroom, there's an en suite complete with a bidet(!) just through that door on the right. There's also another bedroom about the same size that currently is a box room, but will very soon, if all goes to plan, be my sewing/crafty room! Yay!
Well, that was it.... Oh! I still need to take you outside. We're in about 2 acres of maintained grounds with little hidey holes like this one above.
Did I mention the swimming pool? Doesn't exactly look inviting in the middle of December does it? But all my neighbours assure me it's heated and really nice in the summertime!Here's looking back down the drive way toward the farm land beyond. We're about a mile outside of Wellesbourne and another mile to Moreton Paddox and Moreton Morrell - where I work, by the way! I have a 5 minute commute! And when the daylight returns in the spring, I'll be on my bike. I know, wimpy, right? We're over the hump now, with Winter Solstice a week behind us now, we get a little more daylight every day. At the mo, it's dark when I wake up and dark when I get home from work and I don't trust all those college kids flying down the road not to run me down in the dark!

Okay, now you've seen it. So, what do you think? Want to come over for a swim?!

Happy Birthday to The Queen Bee News!! (and a recipe for Little Ray of Sunshine Cupcakes)

Happy birthday to my little outlet!! Can you believe it's been two years!? I know!

To celebrate, I thought I'd let you in on my little secret recipe for a sure fire way to warm up even the hardest of hearts or the coldest of feet after a long late autumn hike. These taste just like pure sunshine. I promise.

Note: a fantastic UK/US Imperial/Metric converter for recipes can be found here.

For the cupcakes:

225g or 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
225g or 1 cup caster sugar
225g or 2 cups self-raising flour (or add 1 tsp baking soda if you don't have self-raising)
1tsp baking powder
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence

For the Frosting:
115 g or 1/2 cup unsalted butter
225 g or 2 cups icing sugar
1 tsp orange essence OR 1 tbsp orange zest
Food colouring -- orange and yellow
Coloured sugar
Jelly Beans, gum drops or other candies of your choice!

1) Turn on a suitably sunshiny day record for singalong fun eg Vampire Weekend, The Shins, The Noisettes, Hot Chip etc or anything just a little bit Motown (it's just impossible to be sad with a "doo wop doo wop" in the background). AT ALL COST avoid the likes of Bon Iver, Elliott Smith or Nick Drake.
2) Now that you're happily singing along let's make some cupcakes! Turn the oven on to 170 C / 350 F and line your muffin tin with 18 cupcake cases.
3) Combine all the cupcake ingredients in a large bowl and beat with an electric whisk until smooth and pale, about 2 to 3 minutes. Spoon the batter into the cases, filling them just over half full.
4) Bake for 20 minutes or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean when you prick the centre of cake!
5) Boogie down while wiping up and getting on with the fun part, the icing!

1) Prepare the icing by beating the butter, icing sugar and orange essence (or zest) until smooth. Divide into two bowls.
2) Add a tiny amount of food colouring to each bowl and beat until mixed well. I urge you to start of with the smallest amount you can manage -- you can always add more to go darker, but you can't go back to pale! I use a toothpick and gel based food colourings.
3) Here's the fun part. Allow the cupcakes to cool on a rack for at least 15 minutes or so. The frosting will melt if you put it on too soon. Be patient! Do a little dance, make a little love, take the dog for a walk, organize your jelly beans -- anything to resist the urge.
4) Finally, once cooled the decoration can begin! Spread the frosting on the cupcakes, finish with coloured sugar and jelly beans! Get creative, if the flavour of sunshine doesn't cheer you up, decorating these little beauties definitely will!!

Got a thing for chocolate? Want to try a variation of this recipe? Go Chocolate Orange!
Using the exact same cupcake recipe, add 4 tbsp of cocoa powder to the mix and substitute 1 tsp of orange essence for the vanilla and 1 1/2 tbsp grated orange zest. Once mixed add 100 g or 3 1/2 oz of plain dark chocolate chips. Oh yeah (read with my very best Barry White voice).

For the frosting, we're going full on Chocolate Butter Cream:
100 g (3 1/2 oz) of chopped plain chocolate (I find 70% works best -- try Green & Blacks or the co-op for those of you in the UK)
2 tbsp double cream
50 g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
100 g (1 cup) icing sugar

1) Put the chocolate, cream, butter in a small sauce pan over low heat. Stir gently until combined -- DO NOT let it go to the boil. (Chocolate does funny things)
2) Remove from the heat and stir in the icing sugar until the mixture is smooth. Swirl onto cupcakes and top with orange coloured sugar and a slice from a Terry's chocolate orange. Bon appetit!

It's that time of year again.

The nights are getting longer. And colder. I'm pulling out the scarves and cardigans and layering. The skies are crisp blue and there's just the beginnings of a nip in the air. That can only mean one thing. It must be knitting season!

A couple nights ago, I started knitting Cedar a doggy sweater with the Noro Kureyon odds and ends in my stash and some general guidance the Cowl and Howl pattern from the original Stitch n Bitch book and inspiration by this strapping young lad who I found while browsing Ravelry. Watch this space for progress pics!(Photo GFTC flickr)

Although now I'm feeling a bit selfish (and a bit chilly!), I want some new knits for me!
Here are the next project contenders. I need you (yes, you!) to help me decide where to start!(Photo: Knitty)

The Riverbanks hoodie from Knitty Fall 2009.
(Photo: Ravelry Christine73)

These fair isle fingerless mittens from Interweave Knits.

(Photo: knitty!)

Quant Headband -- Knitty, Winter 2007. (The force is strong in this one.)

Photo: Ravelry Kathy Noth

The #13 Tasseled Earflap Hat by Kathy Noth and published in Knit Simple, Fall 2007

So... what do you think? What's the next project gotta be?

Psst! Are you on Ravelry too? Isn't it divine? Look me up, I'm thequeenbean!

No cats in these hats!

I made it to my first British wedding this summer.
I was enamored by all of the hats most of the women wore.

Here's the mother of the bride!
Here's a chicken-egg sort of question -- which do you think came first, the dress or the hat?

I even got in on the action! I felt soooo Jackie O!
Here's one of the boys.And last, but not least, the bride and groom!

The wedding was in June, but as any of you who manage to check this space regularly are well aware, I have been out of action for a while. Geno's off on an adventure tonight, so I've got the house to myself, a glass of red wine and full control of the remote! It's also given me a chance to catch up with you. So how was your summer?