Crochet Fingerless Mittens

It must be something to do with the change in temperature but I had the urge to get out my crochet hooks and have a go at something.  I haven't done any since 2016 how ridiculous! Where has that time gone? So back then I taught myself as best I could  with library books and YouTube and created this Floral wreath  it hangs on the wall near my sewing table.  Well as it has been so long I had to get a book out again to jog my memory, I chose a beginner book by Emma Varnam and decided to make the fingerless mittens.
My first pair are a bit odd in size, I think my tension was varying, the second pair I have made for my son as he said he would still be able to use his phone in them.  My younger son also wants a pair in grey so on with those now, it is nice to be able to make something for them.

I went to fetch this yarn  yesterday after my son said he wanted black, I could barely see what I was doing!  It really made a difference trying to work in a dark colour and was maybe not the best choice for a beginner but they are definitely better then my first pair which turned out a bit bumpy, but wearable.

The black ones I made a bit longer, I seem to have trouble when I get to the end of a row deciding which one is my last stitch so any tips would be appreciated, I end up checking lots because I am uncertain.  With knitting you have a definite number of stitches on the needle that can be clearly seen I find with crochet the stitches are harder to spot.  All you old hands at it will be laughing but I tried putting a safety pin at the ends but that seemed to confuse me more so I took them out.

This is the pattern I used...

This is the book from the library...

I got the yarn from Hobby craft and it is  Women's  Institute acrylic 100g, you got three balls for the price of two making it £1.50 a ball is that good?  As it is not something I buy usually I have no comparison, I know I got some from there a few years ago when I did the wreath and a few bits from the charity shop.   Also if anyone can point me in the direction of some more good beginner projects that would be great, I don't really want to just do blankets as we have the dogs and little claws will get caught in them.  

While I was getting a bit of crochet finished earlier I listened to Henry James The Turn of the Screw this was a really good dramatization of this story,  I read this a few years ago and enjoyed it, just earie enough without being horrible if you know what I mean.  I don't like actual horror but good old fashioned ghost stories can be enjoyable.

That said, I  had to put down one of the books I got from the library because it was too disturbing 'Alice' by Christina Henry, I got one hundred pages in then stopped, there are some images you just don't need in your head!  I did read The Chimp Paradox by Dr Steve Peters over two days.  I enjoyed that, there was  lots of information in there that makes you think and question your thoughts, I am about to start 'Uprooted' the good thing about getting them from the library is I don't have to feel bad if they are not for me, I can just stop and move on.

I am going to have another browse on the BBC radio 4 website to see if there are any other dramas I can listen to while getting on with things, any audio book suggestions I can get on there? My only problem with that though is that if I don't like the voice doing the reading I can't listen.

Minerva Post and Eating Out

I should have added this link yesterday but I forgot! So here is my link to my Minerva post, lucky dip bag.  These are some of the items I made during the summer using this fabulous surprise bag, I have since made a black dress also that I blogged about here, top to dress pattern hack using some more of the fabric.

Today we have been out for lunch to The Botanist in Sheffield, this is not something we do a lot but it was a little celebration.  I have to say I am starting to be in agreement with my husband that eating out is a total waste of money.  I know that I sound like a real grump but honestly after a main meal each you do not expect to still be hungry, especially at thirty odd pound!  That is half of the weeks food budget so really I was not impressed. My meal was a Malaysian curry, basically a very watery soup with the tiniest bowl of rice you have ever seen.  My husband had a kebab that had four small pieces of lamb and a few bits of red pepper and onion, with a side of skinny sweet potato fries (one very small potato.  Funny thing was that his dish came with this tiny bowl of sauce and a lady accompanied the waiter to ask if my husband would like assistance in pouring this sauce over the kebab??  Why I am not sure, maybe to justify the price, anyway he said no thank you he could manage! 

Needless to say we did not stay for desert and when we got home he had a bowl of cereal, how bad is that? The food was tasty don't get me wrong but you shouldn't feel hungry after paying for a meal.

Up to now I have always maintained that yes it is a bit expensive but for special occasions we see it as a treat, today I feel a bit like we were mugged!  I think for future celebrations we may do food at home, a nice walk and a drink in a pub to finish it off and let that be it.  We have found some nice deals where you get two for one meals in the past, perhaps we should leave the over priced food to those who don't mind.  

  

I have a pan of pasta on the go now, got to fill that space! Some nice cherry tomatoes and some olives, better than anything I ate today, you live and learn don't you.

On a thriftier note I did collect five books from the library today that I ordered last week, two of which I was looking at in Waterstones last Saturday but no way was I paying £8.99 a piece for books I may have finished in a couple of days.  That is some nice quiet reading for the coming weeks. 

     

Homemade Naked Bars

I have got into a bit of a habit of picking up these Naked bars when I go shopping...

Now I do like them  and it is great that they are all natural but at £2.50 for four they are a bit much for what they are.  I have been telling myself that as I don't eat cake or biscuits it is ok to pick these up as they are handy for work.  The truth is I know these things are easy enough to make I just need to get back into the habit of making them.

 

As I have been home awaiting a delivery I thought I would get on with that, I haven't tried to imitate that flavour as I have gone with what I have in ingredient wise for today.  I may try that flavour on another occasion.  

There are various recipes for oat bars floating around out there but they all seemed to require something I did not have on hand, so I have made my own version using up what needs eating.  This seemed like the best solution.

Here are mine, and I chose to bake them for a little while rather than just have them raw as many recipes suggest, this was mainly due to the moisture form the bananas and raspberries in mine.

Fruit and Oat Bars

140 g oats

130g nuts (ground in the blender) walnuts & almonds

200g prunes

70g raspberries

2 bananas

3tbsp cacao powder

water to blend (just enough to mix it but not too wet)

Blend the nuts in the blender then add to the oats, blend the prunes and raspberries with a little water so it makes a puree, mash the bananas. Add the cacao to the mixture and give a good stir, push it down flat into a tray and score the pieces however big you would like them. I chilled it for ten minutes then baked it on 190 for twenty minutes. 

I have tried one and they are very tasty, I didn't add any additional sugar as that is my taste so if you feel you like things a little sweeter or want them to taste more like shop bought treats then add some maple syrup I will leave the amount on that up to individual tastes.  I think they are spot on without it but then my tastes have changed over the last few years, the Naked bars may be in fact a little too sweet but I have been lazily going for the convenience of them.  I am going to separate each of these with a small piece of baking paper and freeze them that way I can get one out each day for work to keep me going late afternoon. 

As you can see from the above picture I managed to cut it into fourteen pieces, I weighed one and it was 30g maybe a touch over and that is the weight of the Naked ones so I can see that these are going to be much better value and less packaging.  My mixture may change occasionally based on what I have in or what I fancy so I will keep you up to date with any modifications.  For now though this recipe was a hit so I am going to get those in the freezer before I am tempted to just sit eating them.  

Minerva Makes

Today I have a dress featured over on the Minerva crafts Blog   it is for the scuba floral dress I made follow the link to read the full post.  You will have to scroll down a little I am the third project they have on for today.

I have since worn this to go out in as it was a little warm to wear when we were having the heatwave in the summer months.  It is ideal for now though as this fabric is quite thick, I also thought it would be good for straight skirts for the Autumn/ Winter months so why not have a look at what other scuba fabrics they have on offer.   As it is grey and damp now looking back at that picture makes me crave the summer, oh well may as well embrace the boots and tights season instead.

It was a bit of an effort getting up in the dark this morning, I read somewhere that you should make your breakfast a treat so that you have  something to look forward to.  As I generally have the same porridge most days I am not quite sure how this will work but it might be something to think about.
There is a whole movement of people getting up at 5am when they don't need to just to enjoy the peace of the morning. I had enough of that when the children were babies but it would be good to manage 6am consistently on work days just to have a bit of a chilled morning, it is generally the alarm at 6.30 making me sad so some work there is required. I find I can manage a couple of days of jumping out of bed earlier but then  I slip back. The SAD clock does not work so don't waste your money, I found it just starts to come on brightening the room  about half an hour before the alarm actually goes off and therefore steals more of your rest.

There has been a run of poor books recently so I haven't been able to get my teeth into any of them,
I started reading the sequel to The Bear and the Nightingale and it was no where near as good and I gave up about half way through, I started The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night, but after the first few pages I decided that was a bit disturbing and perhaps not for me so I put that down too.  This evening I will start Any Human Heart by William Boyd, it was picked up at the charity shop for 75p so wish me luck with that one. I do like to have a good book on the go and recently they have been disappointing.

Five Frugal Things

I have decided to do a frugal things post this week as I have been reading a few on blogs over the past week, I particularly like Shoestring Cottage as she does a lot of these over there and it gets you thinking how you save each week. There are lots of these types of posts out there and of course you find you have more in common with some more than others depending on your interests and so on.  So here goes mine and just a few things I have found frugal and useful this past week...

• A free origami pattern over at Michelle patterns this is a lovely little butterfly and ideal for using up fabric scraps. Make one in paper first so you know what you are doing then it is just a case of choosing two fabrics to sew together then repeating the process.  It only takes a couple of stitches to keep the whole thing in place once it is folded, it could be used to embellish bags, add to a bouquet or as a brooch.  I also think it would be a lovely little craft activity for a girls party. Here is my first go at this, I'm sure there will be more...

• A trip to the charity shops that resulted in a bargain find of a wool dress, now ok this did involve spending money but at £7.50 it was too good to miss, it looks like new, is incredibly soft, it doesn't need an iron after washing (on cool) and after researching the label Edina Ronay it turns out it is a really good make.  I am not a label fan but it felt such good quality that is what prompted me to look it up. So feeling pretty pleased with this winter dress.

• Another thing I did this week was to print off another recipe to add to my own personal recipe book, I was having a browse on amazon at cook books and I almost bought a used one but then I remembered I only ever like a couple of recipes from each one I own or borrow so what is the point? Something I started doing a little while ago is to print off recipes and put them in a folder, I keep my favourites here now and if they are not a success they don't make it in.  This guarantees that this is one recipe book where I know we like everything in it.  This week it was a sweet potato and kale chilli, very good and one to keep.

  

  The recipes are all from different sites, whatever I spot while browsing and fancy trying.
  

  

  
  

  
  
•  In relation to that the next frugal thing is the three ready meals I have in the freezer from that recipe. I may take one or two to work for lunch or it will be something that is quick to heat up for when I come home from work.  I like to make sure when I am cooking my meat free meals that there is at least one portion left over to take for lunches, as we eat differently here that at least ensures the time and cost are efficiently used.

• I started another course on Future learn this time it is analytics and to be honest it is a little bit dry for me, I will finish it and quickly choose something more fitting.  I thought it was something I should understand a little better, but being a creative type all the data is sort of sending me to sleep!  I know there are those of you out there who are creative and good at that side of things but for me it does not excite.  I have learned a little bit already as you always do whatever you try but the good thing is this a great way to try free study in something you would not normally do.

I'm sure there were other things I could have added this week but these were the things that came to mind, I did a very fast shop actually on Friday and that resulted in a lower than usual bill.  We may find I have forgotten something as the week passes but I'm sure it will be fine.  I must do that as a matter of routine in future get in and out with my list as fast as I can, that way I will be saving time as well as money. I always enjoy reading how everyone else has kept the costs down from day to day so please share in the comments, I also noticed I have a couple of new followers so welcome to you and thanks for reading. 

Butterfly Wrap Dress

I spent a quiet day today as it has been quite grey and I thought I would take the photographs and write my post for Minerva Crafts so that is finished.  I also had to take my dress in a little as I mentioned yesterday I cut it out larger to accommodate for it not being a stretch fabric.  Well there was no need as that pattern was quite generous. I put heels on to take the photos and couldn't wait to take them off!  Why did I ever wear such instruments of torture? That said if I had a special occasion I would probably put them on to look properly dressed, how strange we women are.  As I generally don't have any special events to attend my feet are safe for now.

Here is the dress on the mannequin, I save the main post and photographs for Minerva.

This was a Kwik Sew pattern and came together well, had I not opted to cut the larger size to begin with I feel it would have fit first time.  It does recommend stretch fabric but this poplin worked really well.

I also took in a pair of jeans this morning, they are a favourite pair that fit well but are a little big at the waist. I unpicked the waistband at the sides, ran the side seams down a bit up to the rivets then cut through the waistband to remove a little there.

I did this on both sides, they are very stretchy.

 I just pinned it over to where I wanted it, then topstitched it on the outside.

 They are spot on now and no more working their way down when I'm out dog walking.  I like to try and save things, they are a little faded but that doesn't bother me, black jeans are never true black for long are they. 

Thursday Thoughts

I have one incomplete garment, two pending and a couple of repairs but hey it is the weekend for me now ( four day week ) so I will be getting on with those straight away.  There is this thing that I do where I feel I mustn't post anything until I've finished each project, of course this is not all the time but I go through phases of this.  As a result that sometimes means I have an absence of over a week, so today I am going to share what I am up to even if it shows a slovenly lack of getting on with stuff this week. (Ha, ha)

 So first up I have one dress cut out and ready to stitch dress for a Minerva post in a lovely butterfly fabric, it should be a quick sew now. That will be my job for the afternoon along with endless cups of tea.  I am thinking it may be a bit floaty now for Autumn, but still hoping a good few layers will see it through the seasons.

I have gone for this wrap dress pattern and it was one of the gifted patterns that my friend gave me.  It does actually say it is for stretch fabric but I wanted to use it so I have opted to cut a larger size and allow a little extra around the sleeves.  I hope that does the trick.

Yesterday I received my order form Minerva crafts this time I had decided to treat myself.  A nice unusual check to make a pair of trousers and a plain brown for a tie waist top to go with them, I also bought a pattern as trousers need a level of accuracy around the bottom and as these are to be smart trousers (I hope!) I will use a pattern this time round.  When I made the  mock jumpsuit here I just made my own pattern as they were slouchy trousers.

I have had my eye on that pattern for a while. In addition to those items I have a few broken zips to replace.

One thing I did complete this week was a bit of baking, I haven't done any for a while but I have decided to try one new thing a week from my various books, Vegan and Gluten Free Baking being my favourite at the moment as things tend to come out well.  I made the Vegan Ricotta cake ( not ricotta at all ,rather cashews and dates, or in my case prunes!)  This was a really soft springy sponge and as any of you that bake gluten free will know, that is not always case. It was baked in a rectangular tin then cut into portions when cool. It was gone in two days so that is a good sign.

This week my son has suggested we make the pumpkin pie, he is suddenly interested in cooking so I want to nurture that interest therefore that is what we are making.  I have to confess I have not seen a pumpkin yet and it is October, maybe I have had my eyes closed?  We will have a good look  around on Saturday. 

While on the subject of food I watched another episode of eat well for less on the laptop while doing my ironing.  I can't decide if it as all completely false or if there really are people spending those ridiculous amounts on food and not knowing!  I mean how can you not know? You are always expected to pay at the end of a shop so how can any of these couples be so clueless as they spend a week, a month or a year.  I love the idea of showing people how to get away from all the convenience foods  but some of these families are spending more on food than  some families have to get by on for a week to cover everything.  I am not sure that it is helpful for them to see others mindless spending then chuckling about it.  Sorry, having a little rant there. 

Off now to get stuff done.