Steel Kitten

The back

The knitting pattern book containing Martin's Christmas present finally turned up Thursday afternoon and I managed to make a start on the back on Friday morning. 

Last night I finished it. 

The needles were smoking ;-))

All told, the back took me nearly 14 hours to knit, which is slower than I thought it would. I was hoping for 10 hours. I managed to sneak in 2.5hrs of knitting at work on Friday - a combination of my usual early morning start plus my lunch hour - then a further 3 hours knitting Friday evening. Then I got up early and managed to do another 2 hours yesterday morning and 6 hours yesterday evening while watching the Omen trilogy one after another on Film4. 

It's not pinned our or blocked yet, which is why the edges look a little uneven and curly.

And where was Martin in all this evening knitting? Actually sitting in front of me on the computer with his back to me. Last week he asked me to knit him a beanie hat for Christmas in colours that matched his Fairthorpe so he could wear it to events, so I told him I was knitting him 'something' and he couldn't turn round.

Bless him, he warned me every time he had to leave his chair so I could hide the hat he thought I was knitting and scuttled out of the room with his back to me so he couldn't see it. What a sweetie. 

I will knit him the hat he wants after the sweater - I wouldn't want him to be disappointed on christmas morning - but he's just mentioned that it would be nice for me to maybe knit his father a nice jumper for Christmas.

Gulp!! 

I'm not sure my fingers can take all this.

It's done, done, done...

...and it's enormous to boot. A veritable barrage balloon of olive green wool.

I tried it on last night and managed to get it over the tops of my shoulders too, but I played around and rearranged and got it how I like it. I prefer to wear it as a ginormous scarf that I can yank up over my head at a moment's notice, rather than put it over my shoulders, but should I need to defend myself against bitter winds I have the option of shoulder warmth too.

Always good to have options.

I ended up doing three rows of single crochet on each end in an attempt to get it's unruly curling behaviour under control, although on reflection I think I should have used a crochet needle half a size bigger. It feels a little stiff. I won't change it though.

And I learnt how to do a mattress stitch as well for the seams. How about this for 'seamless'? The join is actually directly down the middle of the picture.

It's done so I can now wear it. Just in time so I hear. Jack Frost will finally be nipping at our noses this week and hopefully start to reset the garden clock. My plants don't know whether they're coming or going at the moment.

As for Martin's jumper, the wool turned up last Monday, but as of yet I still don't have the pattern. The first supplier I tried let me down and waited five days and three emails from me before telling me it was out of stock and had been for some time. After getting a refund, I tried a second supplier on Thursday and was assured something should be with me within 5 days. So I may actually get to start knitting this at the end of this week.

That doesn't leave a great deal of time if you take blocking into account. Tres worried.If the pattern had turned up last week I would have had the back done by now.

The three Christmas knitting items I referred to before are now also done, bar a little end weaving in for neatness. I actually saw my niece yesterday (her 16th birthday - good grief I feel old now) wearing something I knitted for her one Christmas and I was so shocked I nearly had to be picked up off the floor, however it has kind of galvanised me into more knitting/crochet for Christmas. I have spied a couple of likely items that I could do of an evening when I can't do Martin's jumper as he's with me in the room and nosy about what I knit. Nice to have a husband so interested but a pain when you're trying to knit something for him!

Four rows and a bit of crochet

 

I am so close to finishing that cowl I am almost beside myself with impatience. Just four rows to go before I bind off and then I can wash, block, sew it up and then crochet the edging to it. Arrrrrgggghhhh!!!! I don't want to work, I want to knit!

As it turns out I didn't get the two full days of knitting I wanted to do this weekend. I forgot that as Martin was out for the whole weekend, it fell to me to go out and do all the little chores we would normally do in preparation for the next working week.

So I made trips to Tesco, had tea with parents, cleaned out the grate and set the fire, then cooked up a storm on Saturday. On Sunday I did the usual weekend housekeeping, baked brownies and large sausage rolls for Martin's lunch, and then in a suddent fit of action decided to attack the entire ironing pile in a frenzy. There's always a massive flurry of ironing activity in the run up to Christmas to get everything done and put away neatly to create more space (for stashing pressies!). Normally this doesn't happen until December, but I decided to get it out of the way early just in case I'm ill again this year. I even had a quick sort of the drawers and wardrobes, and yanked out all of the summer clothes to go into storage.

So by the time everything was done and I sat down to knit it was 7pm on Sunday!! Where did the weekend go?!

So...I intend to complete the knitting during my lunch hour today ready for gently handwashing it tomorrow and then blocking.

Finally!

Could not stop knitting lust

I tried really hard to sit on my hands but it's no good. I am about to start a new knitting project.

Rather than for me this time, it will be for Martin. For Christmas. Nothing like a deadline is there!

Every morning I get into work two hours early. Recently I've been watching a variety of programmes on various iplayers (at the moment it is the 1980s classic Day of the Triffids on BBC Worldwide) and knitting away with a small vat of tea beside me. That's what got me thinking this was a perfect place to knit up something on the quiet for Martin (he doesn't read my blog so I'm safe. I think).

Every Christmas Martin gets a new sweater, normally a chunky effort with zip neck from M&S. This year I thought I'd knit him one instead. After a search through Ravelry I found the perfect pattern in the Patons Australia knitting book Jet Mens. It's just stocking stitch and rib with some decreasing, all things I have done before when knitting sweaters. Never split for a neckline though but shouldn't be too hard. The only thing I have to watch for according to other knitters on Ravelry is the length of sleeve which can be too long, so I'll measure up against Martin's existing jumpers to get the right size.

I ordered the pattern and wool today, the latter of which is a lovely 70% wool and 30% alpaca, and both should turn up at some point next week.

Until then, I'll keep knitting away on my current projects. Martin is out on the Fairthorpe stand at a car show this weekend so I have two full days to knit like a crazy women and finish off my projects.

Two out of the three Christmas presents I wanted to do have been completed this week (Yay! Go me!), and the last will take no more than a few short hours to complete. My cowl is so very close to be finished I anticipate that it will be done and sewn up by the time the wool for Martin's jumper turns up next week.

So come on then, are you knitting for Christmas and who for?

Knitting frenzy

 

Well the knitting is coming along with great gusto. I've been sitting here this morning watching Ade in Britain on the ITV iplayer and clicking away, much to the amusement of my boss.

I'm nearing the end of the huge cowl, which I'm now positive will swamp me, but at least I'll be warm and if I want to make the hole at the front round my face smaller I can do something completely daft like thread pull ribbons through. I'll look more togged than a baby, it will stretch to my navel and probably only have my eyes showing, but I will be warm. She says again at the risk of repeating herself, warmth was the aim of this bit of knitting, not style, although I am hoping the mojo of all the cowl knitters that have gone before me will rub off and a little chic shine though (don't pee on my bonfire with the rude truth please. Not yet).

However, I did start some more knitting this weekend for Christmas presents, which I'm storming through at the moment. I cannot show you too much, but I can show you this:

 

I have numerous balls of this type of yarn in various colours, so my poor female family members are about to be inflicted with one of 'these' each. "God help us", I hear them cry in anguish. Too late.

As if that wasn't enough, I'm now planning the next two projects and have commencment lust.

Ambitious they are. Frightened I'm not.

The first is this French cable jumper by Bergere De France. As the song goes "I knew I loved you before I met you." I fell in love with cables last year when knitting mittens and want to progress my skills on this 'relatively' simple jumper. No it is! Honest! I've seen the pattern.

The second is a Rowan pattern called De Havilland. Not sure what my hips are going to make of it, but the sleeves and the neck are calling to me.

 Also de Havilland was a plane manufacturer that made a number of very stylish aircraft between 1920 and 1964, so it is a passing nod to my husband's love of aviation.

Yes, in an effort to deflect him from my lack of wifely devotion and near-constant and irritating needle clacking of an evening I am willing to kiss butt in any way I can.

BUT I must not be overwhelmed by commencement lust - I must finish what is currently on my needles first.

I.Must.Finish.What.Is.Currently.On.My.Needles.First.

The curse of the former owner

 

Just for this weekend I abandoned my plans for housekeeping domination and decided to spent a good chunk of time finishing off a couple of outstanding jobs at Steel Towers.

I decided on Friday that as long as there wasn't a torrential downpour the next day, I would spend Saturday afternoon finishing the fence painting out the front. I think I got more wood preservative on me, but after 4.5 hours the fencing was complete by late afternoon.

Quick pitstop for an espresso...

...and I decided the time had come to get back upstairs and start on the back bedroom again. All the walls in house have plaster in various states of disrepair. In some places it has blown and fallen out, in others it is crumbling and needs stabilising. However the majority just has crazing which can be filled with a good basecoat of paint containing an elastic polymer and with the added bonus I can easily see what cracks needed to be dug out and filled.

Unfortunately it was not to be. I was denied.

From the second I started rollering the stuff on I could tell all was not well. The paint wouldn't stick to the walls. More than one swipe of the roller over one spot and the stuff started to lift off. I perservered for about half a wall and then gave up in disgust when I realised why.

The cowboys that used to own this house had painted the walls with diluted glue (PVA), presumably because they thought that was how you sealed plaster. You NEVER, EVER put glue - diluted or otherwise - on a wall to seal and prime new plaster or to 'help' wallpaper move around while you are hanging it. Two things happen. First of all, PVA is water based and will reactivate on contact with any substance containing water, such as wallpaper paste or paint, rendering the whole thing a bloody mess. Second, if by some miracle you do get the paint on relatively successfully the paint has nothing to cling onto so it sits there hovering above the PVA layer until some time later - sometimes weeks, usually months - it peels off.

Even worse was to follow.It became clear on closer inspection of the ceiling that the paint was simply lifting off in chunks because they had also used glue on it too. So our previously painted ceiling was starting to come away in sheets. Dear God did I swear profusely.

On the wall, I have to scrape off the whole bloody mess and reclean the area with white spirit. I'll have to forgo the basecoat and fill in the worst holes and cracks by eye, and then simply wallpaper over. But the ceiling will have to be stripped back. I can actually slide a wallpaper scraper between the ceiling and paint and it simply comes away. If I want anything to stick to that ceiling, I'm going to have to sand the plaster, paint using an oil-based undercoat and then emulsion. Very messy and time-consuming.

Either way, the Cowboy Former Owners are still with us after being here nearly seven years. May the fleas of a thousand camels infest their butts for what they've done to this house in their ignorance.

I was so upset I went into the kitchen and cooked visciously for 90 minutes to calm down. You can tell it was a bit viscious by the jam slopped out over the edge of the tarts where I'd thrown it in. From height. At speed.

And yes there was a slight problemo with the jam roly-poly as well, but nothing cramming it into my mouth didn't fix...

In praise of the humble jam tart

 

I feel sorry for jam tarts. When faced with their glamourous and voluptuously decorated cupcake cousins they look like the pantomime equivalent of Cinders. But ask anyone about jam tarts and they'll admit they have a place in their heart.

I haven't made a batch for a long time, peferring to make larger cakes that could be portioned up or perhaps fairy cakes that could be iced. However, after making a batch of 24 jam tarts at the weekend on a whim, I was surprised by just how popular and well enjoyed they were this week. I made them Sunday night and by this morning there were two left.

Martin's father has had a regular supply while in hospital, and for someone who has a bird-like appetite and is a bit ho-hum about cakes, the jam tarts were polished off two at a time at speed about 10 minutes after we walked in the door. Martin obviously loves anything sweet and particularly liked these as they didn't crumble while he was eating them and he could carrying on sorting letters with his other hand.

So, in praise of the humble jam tart, here's the recipe I used based on a rich flan pastry. This has much more fat than a normal shortcrust pastry  and does make it more delicate and difficult to cut and shape, so you might want to try normal shortcrust or even a shortbread pastry base. You can also use different flavour jam, but beware! Don't be fooled by how cool the pastry on the tarts might feel after they've been on the rack for a while after cooking. The jam is still so hot after 20 minutes it is capable of burning and removing lip skin. I speak from experience ;-)

Jam Tarts using rich flan pastry (should make 12-16, although I like thin pastry so I stretched it to 24)

• 8oz plain flour
• 6oz butter/marg
• pinch of salt
• 2tbsp sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon water
• jam for filling

Sift the flour into a bowl with the salt. Cube the cold butter/marg and rub in the fat with the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the sugar, beaten egg and water and using a fork lightly work the pastry until it comes together. Lightly kneed (don't overwork it or the pastry will be tough) the pastry on a floured surface, warp in clingfilm and put in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.

Lightly roll out the pastry on a floured surface, bearing in mind that it will be stickier than a normal pastry and more delicate to handle, and stamp out circles to match the size of your jam tart/fairy cake baking tray. Grease and flour the tray if necessary (mine always needs it as they have the odd scratch from over zealous evicting of cakes using a knife!) before lightly pressing the circles into each hole. Add a scant tsp of jam to the centre of each, being careful not to overfill the cases as the jam will leak out over the edges.

Put in a oven pre-heated to Gas Mark 5/6 and cook for around 15-20 minutes until the jam is bubbling. Gently remove from the tray and put onto a wire rack straight away.

Then WAIT for 30 minutes or so before attempting to scoff or risk losing your lip print and the skin on the roof of your mouth.