A tad annoying.....

...but absolutely typical for me 😒  We had some dry and sunny days last week when I could have got out into the garden.  Unfortunately for yours truly, though, I somehow managed to hurt my neck.....just by sleeping, it seems 😏  I woke up last Monday with a bit of an ache in my right collarbone, which by the next day had transformed into a very painful neck!  A regime of Nurofen, paracetamol, Deep Heat, heating pads, plus trying not to move my neck and shoulders too much (easier said than done, as I'm sure you can imagine 😳) over the next few days meant that the pain gradually subsided.  It does feel very much better than before, thankfully, albeit still a little bit "twingy".  I've therefore erred on the side of caution for a change, and not ventured out to do any work in the garden just yet. 

I wasn't totally idle, though, as I managed to get the scrap blanket finished that I mentioned previously.  Granted, it's not the prettiest blanket in the world but by 'eck it's warm and cosy 😊  I used two strands of yarn, and it's mostly Stylecraft Special double knit.  There were also some odds and ends of other yarns, such as Scheepjes double knit and some Aran-weight which I think was Cascade.  I tried using the latter by itself but it didn't seem quite thick enough, so I added a strand of a very lightweight yarn that I had in the stash ~ possibly a laceweight ~ which seemed to create a similar thickness to the two strands of double knit.  I also had some boucle-type yarn, which I was able to use by itself.  I can't say that I enjoy crocheting with this type of yarn as it's not always easy to see where the hook needs to go!

I finished off with three rounds of half-trebles (US half double-crochet) to make a border ~ and to use up a little more of the yarn, of course 😄  

I ended up going from this.....

to this, so I'm pretty pleased to have whittled down the oddments so well.  I shall just keep these to one side and add other odds and ends as they come along until I've got enough to make another scrap blanket 😄

I also finally got round to putting all the bits and pieces into the bathroom basin cabinet.  I told you that I had bought a couple of narrow wooden crates from Etsy, and they now have all the cleaning materials neatly stored in them on the left-hand side of the cabinet.  That's more or less what was stored in our old cabinet, apart from what was in the very small drawer, along with a few things that were kept in the cupboard in our little utility area. 

 Everything else is now neatly stored in the right-hand side of the cabinet, along with the remaining "bathroom" stuff from the cupboard in the utility area.  The bits and pieces on the top shelf are easily accessible, but I've put the things on the lower shelf in a basket to make them easier to access.  The only bathroom things left in the utility cupboard are the towels, as there just isn't enough space in the cabinet for them.  It means, though, that I now have more space for all the spare laundry liquids, etc, that were being stored in the cupboard in the kitchen lobby area.  All in all, I'm pretty pleased with all the rearranging that I've managed to get done 😊

I'm now busy working on Special Project One which I will be able to share with you at a later date.....if you get my drift 😜  I was going to get cracking on the dolls house but have decided to leave it now until the New Year.  I do have some other little projects that I'd like to do, though, which I'll be able to share as I work on them.

The next job, now that my neck is feeling less painful, is not craft-related at all so watch this space for this year's Larkin Christmas Pudding 😍

Use it up!

There comes a point in a yarn-hoarder's life, though, where she does have to actually use up some of the stash.....if only to allow the bed in the guest bedroom to be recognised as a place for sleeping rather than a convenient surface to "store" said stash 😱  I felt I shouldn't shock you too much, my lovelies, by showing you a photo of the yarn hoard.....not least because I also have plenty of the woolly stuff stored in the base of the guest bed, too 😁

So I've decided that the time has definitely arrived when I should make some lovely things with my precious yarn and show you the end results rather than the stash instead ~ and, of course, during the autumn and winter is the ideal time to get cracking on these projects, plus it's a tad less embarrassing 😉  And let's face it, with the weather as it is at the moment I'm certainly not getting out into the garden anytime soon 😏  The teensy wee pile in the photo above is just a smidgeon of the hoard, simply odds 'n' sods that are leftovers from other projects.  I thought I'd start with these whilst I mull over what to make with the other yarns that I have more balls of.

I decided to start with a simple storage basket, which I thought would be handy for the bits and pieces I have gathered for some hand-sewing projects that I'd like to have a go at.

I used three strands of yarn held together: one Aran-weight and the other two double-knit.  I can't remember what size hook I used ~ possibly a 7mm 😕  I must admit that it was a bit hard-going on my hands and if I'd been making a blanket, say, then I would probably have used a larger hook.  As it was a basket, though, I wanted it a bit firmer.

I think I should have made it a tad smaller, to be honest, as it is a bit floppy!  I also managed to add in an extra stitch or two on some of the rounds.  As it's just something simple that I made for myself to use up some yarn oddments, I decided not to bother to frog it and start over ~ not least because of the soreness of my hands LOL

The basket didn't use up very much of the oddments, so I'm currently making another version of the "ordinarily extraordinary blanket".  I'm using a 5mm hook, with the yarn doubled-up, so it's growing quite quickly.  I'm not sure if I will have enough of these oddments to finish the blanket, as it's a fairly large one for the sofa.  However, a few months back I made a start (not that I've progressed very far!) on one of the Special Projects that I mentioned at the beginning of the year, so I'm sure there will be yarn leftover once I've completed it to add to the oddments pile 😄 

Beware the YouTube rabbit hole!

image from Magnific.com

As promised ~ and before I forget again 😏 ~ here in no particular order are some of my favourite sewing and refashioning YouTube links:

https://www.youtube.com/@StephanieCanada

https://www.youtube.com/@gettheetothestitchery

https://www.youtube.com/@rachelmaksy

https://www.youtube.com/@shesewsseams

https://www.youtube.com/@AshLG

https://www.youtube.com/@tmyershandmade978

https://www.youtube.com/@HandCandylady/videos

https://www.youtube.com/@b_stephanie

https://www.youtube.com/@AnnasKitchenAndStitchin

And lastly, although he's not a sewing/refashioning YouTuber, I really love watching Jude's weekly videos about life in his cottage and garden:

https://www.youtube.com/@rewildingjude

Hope you enjoy them all as much as I do 😊

"Proper" sewists.....

image from Freepik.com

.....may I humbly suggest you look away now 😉

In a previous post, I threatened suggested I might humour the latest whirrings of my little butterfly brain and have a go at sewing myself some clothes.  But Sharon, I hear you ask, in your very-nearly-65 years on this planet have you actually ever sewed a garment???  Not so as you'd notice, nope 😏  Do I then hear you sigh and ask: but presumably you're going to plough on and have a go anyway???  Yup, I most certainly am 😏  No doubt your final question (before closing your eyes and wondering if I've finally taken leave of what little sense I had left) will be: are you going to take sewing classes and do things "properly"???  To which my answer is "have you learned nothing about me at all whilst reading this blog???"  Of course I'm not, my lovelies, I shall just blunder forth making it up as I go along and hope for the best 😏

Having said all that, though, I have found myself going down the proverbial rabbit hole of sewing videos on YouTube and have found some that I think are fab ~ I will share them with you in a future post 😊  I have also come across lots of ideas on Pinterest (many of which I've pinned to my boards, as you will see if you click on the link on the right-hand side of this page 😉), along with various tutorials from blogs that I have stumbled upon in my travels.  So I suppose in all fairness I'm not going into this new adventure totally clueless theory-wise, but it's certainly not something that I've had actual hands-on experience with!

There are a couple of reasons why I'd like to try making myself some clothes.  The first is that I really like the idea of making something from scratch, in a style and fabric that I like, instead of "making do" with what fits me and doesn't cost a small fortune 😉 

I'm finding that I am increasingly drawn to more colourful, perhaps slightly "eccentric" styles.  Mind you, to be fair, I've always had a hankering for the styles that I've saved on my Pinterest boards but haven't had the courage to actually dress in that way.  When I was young I think it was the thought of just fitting in with what everyone else was wearing rather than being confident enough to dress in my own style.  Then as I got older and put on more and more excess weight, it was a case of hoping that no one would notice me if I tried to blend into the background.  Of course that is a ridiculous way of thinking because no amount of dark clothing is going to hide the fact that I am a very big woman ~ albeit one who is currently over two stone lighter than she was 😊  I finally reached the point where I just thought "sod it" ~ hence my upcoming sewing adventures 😁

As I mentioned above, I am still on my weight-loss journey.  I have got clothes in smaller sizes but will definitely need some more in each size as I go down the scale.  I'm thinking that elastic waists on skirts and trousers, and billowy, breezy styles in tops and dresses will be very useful to bridge at least a couple of sizes ~ perhaps even more.  I also like the idea of upcycling clothes so hopefully I won't be having to send too many things off to the charity shop!

I mentioned in that earlier post that I'm going to start by making myself a skirt as I hadn't found anything that appealed to me.  Well, since then I have come across two that I really liked.  I couldn't make up my mind which one to buy though ~ so I've bought them both 😄  One has an elastic waist and the other is a wrapover-style, so I'm hoping that they will see me through some smaller sizes as I shed more weight.  I had also found a skirt from JD Williams (where I get most of my clothes from) that has a shirred waistline.  It's a size smaller than I was wearing and fits really nicely.  I think it will be fine for the next couple of sizes down.  

When I was sorting through my smaller sizes recently, I found a skirt tucked away that I had completely forgotten about.  To be honest I don't know why it was in the next size down pile as it easily fits me now.  In fact I'm going to have to alter it as it's a bit too long now that I'm not quite so "bloated".  It's in a border print fabric, so I'm going to hack it from the top.  It's got an elastic and cord waistband at the moment, so I'm going to cut that off and make a new waistband just with elastic.

This means that instead of just having one skirt, I now have five 😏  Despite this I think I will still start off this sewing lark with a skirt ~ or perhaps to be slightly more accurate, a petticoat to wear beneath my new skirts.  That way I will be more comfortable wearing said skirts once the weather starts to get cooler again in the autumn ~ layers are definitely the way to go, methinks! 

We've got such a lot to do out in the garden this summer that I may not have the energy to start my sewing adventures for a few months, but never fear as soon as I do you will be hearing all about it, my lovelies, so brace yourselves 😉

Tentative plans for 2026...

I've got a few ideas of things I'd like to make during this coming year but as you all know, my lovelies, I can be very easily knocked off-course into an entirely different direction!  So let's say that these are extremely tentative plans, just to be on the safe side 😉

I would definitely like to make more gifts during 2026 and, as I mentioned earlier in the week, I do have a few ideas percolating around in my little butterfly brain.  I've been meaning to make at least some of the gifts for Beverly's annual Christmas Every Day shenanigans virtually every year since I started the tradition ~ alas, I haven't managed to get myself organised to actually do so yet 😄 I would like to remedy that situation this year so will be hunting through my books for suitable things to make.  I'm certainly not aiming to make all 24 of the gifts, but nevertheless it would be nice to sprinkle in a handful of handmade items throughout December.  I do already have a few ideas of things I could make, and I'm sure looking through my craft books will throw up even more 😊

I've got four "big" projects planned for the year, two of which are blankets, and I've spent some time trying to decide how I want to make said blankets.  I have a specific "theme" and colour scheme for one of them (Special Project One) and the other is to be yet another stash-busting exercise!   I thought that I might as well use the same pattern for both, though, as they will end up looking totally different to each other because of the different colours I'll be using.

You have no idea, my lovelies, just how many motifs I pondered over until finally trying out these three 😳  I quite liked all three, especially the cute little hexagon at the bottom, but they all seemed just a tad too small ~ I really don't want to have to spend weeks and weeks making these blankets!  I used double knit yarn to make the samples but I really don't think they would have been large enough even if I'd used Aran-weight to be honest.

 The top hexagon is by Annie Design Crochet, whilst the square and tiny hexagon are both by Bunny Mummy.  They are all perfectly nice motifs but none of them really "called" to me.  Then I remembered that amongst the patterns in Jane Brocket's The Gentle Art of Knitting (where my favourite crochet chevron blanket pattern comes from), she has one called The Starburst Flower.  It's basically a granny square with a pretty flower centre comprising of puff and cluster stitches, with each round in a different colour.

Again, it's a lovely pattern but I found it just a little too fiddly for something that I really want to grow fairly quickly 😉 

In the end I mashed together aspects of some of the different motifs I had come across to make the one I've decided to go with.  Now, I'm definitely not claiming that this design is original as I've no doubt that someone, somewhere, will have had the same idea ~ it's just that, unfortunately for me, I didn't come across it when I was doing my humungous trawl of motifs!  I want both blankets to look like non-specific-flower flower gardens ~ if you see what I mean 😄  I used some Aran yarn from my stash with a 5.5mm crochet hook to make the sample, and it ended up about 5" square.  I used one colour to represent the centre of the flower, another for the two rounds of petals, and a third to turn it into a square.  The "petals" could be made in two different colours, which might look very pretty if they were two shades of the same colour ~ pale and deeper shades of pink, for example.

Anyhoo if you'd like to make these flower squares, here's the very simple instructions:

Round 1: chain five and join to make a circle.  Chain four, then make 15 double-trebles (US triple crochet) into the ring: 16 stitches in total.  Join in the top of the starting chain four and fasten off.

Round 2: join the "petal" colour between any of the double-trebles and chain three; make one treble (US double crochet) in the same space; chain one.  Make two-treble clusters, separated by chain one, between each of the remaining double-trebles.  Slip stitch across to the first chain one space.  16 two-treble clusters in total.  

Round 3:  chain three in the chain one space, and make a two-treble cluster in the same space; chain two.  Make three-treble clusters in all the remaining chain one spaces, separating these clusters with chain two between each.  Slip stitch into the first cluster and fasten off.  16 three-treble clusters in total.

Round 4: join a new colour in any chain two space.  Chain three and make two trebles (US double crochet) in the same space.  Make three trebles into the next space.  Make three double-trebles (US triple crochet), chain two, three double-trebles in the next space ~ this creates the first corner of the square.  Make three trebles into each of the next three chain one spaces, then make the second corner.  Continue the pattern round to create the square, and fasten off.

As you can see, I am definitely not a crochet designer ~ it took me a fair bit of trial-and-error to come up with a simple motif that I liked, and I don't think I'll be going "off piste" again anytime soon 😄    

It's hard to believe that we are halfway through January already, so I will have to get myself organised (😏) as I've got a lot to do this year!

Changing my mind.....yet again!

No further updates on Beverly's jumper, I'm afraid, but I will have to stop procrastinating soon and get it finished.  I haven't really progressed with the leftover Aran yarn blanket, either, as my butterfly brain has been rather preoccupied with yet more things to make 😏  At least the shawl is coming along, though!  

What I didn't tell you in my previous post was that I had actually started to make this shawl a few weeks back, using more yarn from the stash.  I can't even remember when I actually bought this yarn but I'd never got round to using any of it.  It's King Cole Authentic cotton mix double knit (50/50 cotton and acrylic) and I bought three 100g balls of a few different colours.  I had a look on the Wool Warehouse website and couldn't actually find a yarn called "Authentic", although they do have a King Cole yarn called "Simply Denim" which looks very similar.

Anyhoo, I decided to use up the Black Denim shade to make this shawl.....

and really wasn't keen on how it was looking, most likely because black is definitely not one of my favourite colours 😳  The photo above probably doesn't show the colour properly ~ the lighting in the dining room wasn't what you'd call brilliant, as we've now gone from heavy snow to gales and heavy rain instead!

Another of the colours in this King Cole batch was Red Denim, with red once again not being a colour that I am particularly fond of and one that I very rarely wear.  So what's a girl to do???

Well this particular girl decided to combine the two shades together to see how that looked 😄  Of course I then had to use a larger hook (7mm) and decided to use a different pattern too!  I remembered the corner-to-corner shawl I made for my Mum a few years ago and decided that was the way to go with this one.  I really like corner-to-corner as the work seems to progress at a very satisfying rate of knots.  Once it's reached an appropriate size I'll work across the top to make a straight edge.  I probably won't bother to give the other two sides of the triangle any kind of border, as it's just meant as an extra layer to keep the draught off my poor aged neck and shoulders 😉

I mentioned at the start of this post that I've been thinking about other things to make.....I've got three big projects in mind (and no doubt I'll get side-tracked by smaller ones, too, over the course of the year!) and will share the "big" plans in an upcoming post 😊  

Resistance is futile...

...the force is too strong 😏  I find it really, really, really hard to just have one project on the go at any one time ~ a new pattern appears or a fresh idea pops into my poor little butterfly brain with alarming regularity 😄

I have managed to finish the "patchworky" stash-busting blanket, though, so I think I deserve a gold star for that ⭐ I've had another shuffle-round of our blanket collection and this latest addition is now residing on the sofa in the living room 😊 

Nope, it's not a giant antimacassar 😄  You may recall me chopping and changing my mind over the blanket I was making for our niece for Christmas? Well, I had a fair few of those humungous 400g balls of Aran yarn left and rather than just adding them to the ever-increasing stash, I decided to plunge straight in and make a blanket with them.

 The yarn (from Wool Warehouse, naturally 😉) is Sirdar Hayfield Bonus Aran Tweed in Honeycomb (which is what I ended up using to make Michaela's blanket) and Haze, along with Sirdar Hayfield Bonus Aran with Wool in Mill Blue, Light Natural, Green Heather, and Purple Heather.  I hadn't been keen on the colours placed together once I could see them in "real life" as it were, but I thought I might like it better if I alternated the colours with the Honeycomb shade to keep them separated.  I did order a little more of the Sirdar Hayfield Bonus Aran Tweed in the shade Plum to even out the balance of lighter and darker colours.

Once again I'm following my favourite chevron pattern from Jane Brocket's The Gentle Art of Knitting.  The original pattern uses a lot of different colours, as you can see in the version I made for my friend Olive which used twenty!  This time, though, I'm just using six "colours", each alternated with Honeycomb as a "neutral".  I'm using the colours in the same order throughout, and following the number of rows for each shade that is specified in the pattern ~ I really like the randomness of the number of rows and think it works well whatever colours are chosen.  I'm hoping to use it on our bed when it's finished but will probably need to frame it with a wide border to make it large enough to be a coverlet. 

This is going to be a pretty big blanket once it's finished, so needless to say I am alternating it with other projects ~ no, I still haven't finished poor Beverly's jumper.....but now that I've restocked my dishcloth stash, I have started making a shawl for your's truly 😄  

Flat-pack.....joy???

image from Freepik

We've been intending to change our dining table and chairs for a number of years now, and finally got round to doing so before Christmas.  The set we had (which wasn't actually a "set"!) was only meant to be a stop-gap whilst we had our old house on the market.  We wanted something a little less bulky than the pine set we had had for years as it rather filled up the dining room, and naturally we wanted to make the house look as spacious as possible 😉

To be honest I had never really been keen on the dining table, not least because of the configuration of the legs which meant that we could never get the chairs pushed right beneath it.  The chairs were sort of okay but were awfully heavy ~ plus they really needed seat pads as they were very unforgiving on one's nether regions if they were sat upon for any length of time 😯

We also have a second television in the dining room along with an easy chair and footstool, and a side table.  By the way, I know that the walls look pretty horrendous but please be assured that they have been thoroughly cleaned of mould.  Unfortunately the staining just won't shift anymore than this.  Be prepared, my lovelies, as I'm afraid you're going to see more of the damaged walls and woodwork in this room further down the page 😯  One day we'll finally get round to having this room gutted and redecorated, but in the meantime let's all just ignore how horrible it looks 😉 

It took a lot longer to finally find a set that we liked, and was also suitable for the space we have, than we thought it would!  In the end we found something to fit both criteria from an online company called Grain & Frame, who would both deliver up here and for a reasonable cost.

It is very well made furniture but did come flat-packed ~ which is always a tad fraught 😏  To be fair, the table and seating bench both went together very quickly and easily.  The chairs, though, were a little more difficult but we got there in the end!

Most of the time it's just the two of us, and on the odd occasion when we do have company it's not usually more than two or three extra people.  We therefore decided to go for the 4-6 seater extendable table, in the dark oak shade.  Of course this is a totally different shade and wood to the cabinet against the wall.  Now,  to be honest I'm quite happy not having matching wooden furniture shades but eventually we hope to be able to house the crockery and my blue and white china collection that's in the cabinet elsewhere.  The intention is that this will be our "forever" dining table set, so we decided to go for the wood and shade that we liked best 😊  

It's a simple design and as you can see, the extension leaf is completely removeable.  We don't need the longer length on a day-to-day basis, so we have stored it away to use as and when it's required.  It's so nice to be able to slide the chairs all the way beneath the table!  Plus with the added bonus of them not having high backs like the old chairs, the dining room seems much more spacious than before 😄  

We decided to just have four chairs and make up any additional seating which may be required with a bench ~ which doubles-up very nicely as a side table 😏  Whilst it's longer than the old one, it isn't as deep so has created more "walking space".  It's also taller, so the little footstool now slides right out of the way when it isn't being used.

Of course, we are now a tad paranoid about protecting the tops of both the seating bench...

and the dining table 😉  At some point I will get another tablecloth.  This one is perfect for if we need to use the extension leaf but it is a little long and cumbersome for day-to-day use.

As you can imagine, we are very pleased with our new furniture.  The old chairs have gone to a new home, and we will ask Restart to collect the two tables (which are currently residing in my craft room!) when the weather is better 😊

Not a lot going on...

...mostly just crochet, to be honest 😏

I came down with a cold a couple of weeks back, and didn't start to really feel better until this last weekend.  It seems to have been just one "health" thing after another this year, although I shouldn't really complain about getting a cold I suppose.  I haven't had much energy so have kept myself occupied with crochet and reading!  

I've made good progress with Beverly's sweater, though, despite feeling sorry for myself 😉  I confess that I've been putting off sewing all the pieces together, but I really must get on with it.  Because of her shift patterns and no public transport on Christmas/Boxing Day, we won't be spending Christmas Day with her.  Instead we are having Christmas dinner early, on the 20th, which will be a combination of both Christmas and Adrian's birthday which is on the 18th December.  I'd really like to have the sweater finished by the 20th, so I really must stop procrastinating!

I also managed to surprise myself by getting Beverly's annual "Christmas-Every-Day" packages wrapped and numbered in very good time!  I didn't feel well enough to take the little packages over to hang them up this year, so instead I put them all in a very large Christmassy bag for her to take one out each day which Adrian delivered when he went over to Kirkwall last week.

 

I know it's a tad naughty but I've started another project, which has sidetracked me from the sweater 😄 I'm still trying to use up more of the leftovers stash, so pulled out an assortment of the colours that I have the most of to make a patchwork blanket.  It's a Dottie Angel pattern, her "ordinarily extraordinary blanket", which I have made before.  It's a simple pattern and grows satisfyingly quickly.  My squares are 23 stitches wide by 14 rows high which isn't as large as those in the original pattern, but I like the way these smaller squares look so "patchworky" ~ very satisfying 😊

In other news we've had our first proper snow of the season, which gave me the ideal excuse to continue hibernating 😏  Thankfully it didn't hang around too long but I expect we shall see more before next spring.

We've also been lighting our log-burner in the evenings.  It's so lovely, very cosy, and nice not to have to sit bundled up in thick cardigans/sweaters!  We were very thankful for having this extra source of heat last week when we had a power cut one evening.  It didn't last more than a couple of hours but it's amazing just how quickly the house cools down once the heating goes off 😳

 

One project finished...

and another one begun ~ after a few false starts 😏

You may remember my post last month, my lovelies, bringing you up-to-date with my crochet projects.  Well, I've finally finished the gift blanket I seem to have been working on for ever 😉  

The yarn is Hayfield Bonus Aran Tweed in the shade Honeycomb; it's a 6% viscose, 20% wool, 74% acrylic mix.  Corner-to-corner works up pretty quickly and I felt it only needed a very simple edging, so just added two rows of half trebles to finish it off.  I'm very pleased with it 😊   

My new project is using up some more of my yarn stash ~ I'm making a sweater for Beverly 😳  As you can see from the photo, this is King Cole Drifter double knit, in the shade Ohio (a 69% acrylic, 25% cotton, 6% wool mix).  I bought the yarn from Wool Warehouse a long time ago and it seems to have been discontinued.  It is, as the label boldly declares, a very soft yarn indeed and is lovely to work with.

However this is the first time I've ever attempted an actual garment ~ apart from some very simple dolls' clothes ~ so I'm not too sure how long this will take to finish 😄

It's a simple pattern (Yarnsmiths Cedar Sweater), though, comprising of rectangles with very little shaping so fingers crossed it won't be too traumatising!  Having said that, I still managed to get myself into a bit of a muddle with the gauge swatch 😏  The pattern calls for a 4mm hook but when I made my swatch I had too many stitches across the row.  So for reasons that I cannot for the life of me fathom, I tried again.....using a 3.5mm hook!  Naturally, I ended up with even more stitches and I'm a tad embarrassed to admit that it took me a few minutes to realise that I actually needed a larger hook 😳  I tried again with a 4.5mm hook and thankfully it was third time lucky.  I still hadn't finished being daft, though, because instead of making my starting chain with a 5.5mm hook, I used a 5mm one instead ~ then found myself wondering why the bottom edge was resembling a banana!  I also managed to mis-count the starting chain, and ended up one stitch short. I managed to add an extra stitch, though, by somehow fudging an additional chain ~ don't ask me how I managed it as I've no idea to be honest!  Oh well, I got there in the end 😉

Do you like my stitch markers, by the way?  They are cute little teapots in lots of different colours 🫖 I'm adding one at each tenth row so that I don't have to keep counting from the beginning.

The pattern uses Yarnsmiths Merino DK Superwash yarn in four different shades but I wanted to use up some more of my stash, hence the King Cole that I'm working with.  I got Beverly to choose which yarn she liked the look of, and this is what she selected ~ green is her favourite colour.  

And finally, I thought you might like to see the lovely carnations that Adrian bought me last week.  I ordered some pink ones from Tesco with the weekly delivery a few weeks ago, but they were quite disappointing in that they didn't seem to last very long.  These came from the Co-Op, though, and their flowers generally last quite well.  Pretty as Miss Schlumbergera's blooms currently are, it's still nice to have some cut flowers in the house 😊

It's that time of year again!

image from Freepik

It's hard to believe that a whole year has gone by since I was last posting about my annual Christmas pudding-making!  I made half as much again as the original Larkin Christmas Pudding recipe this year, but obviously the method is exactly the same no matter how much you make:

340g/12oz sultanas

340g/12oz raisins

170g/6oz cherries, halved or quartered

227g/8oz finely chopped mixed candied peel

227g/8oz plain flour

1 level teaspoon ground ginger

1 level teaspoon mixed spice

1 level teaspoon nutmeg ~ freshly grated if possible

454g/1lb soft brown sugar

227g/8oz breadcrumbs

284g/10oz shredded suet ~ beef or vegetable, whichever you prefer

6 eggs, beaten

142ml/5fl oz stout, such as Guinness

142ml/5fl oz brandy

grated rind and juice of 1 orange

142ml/5fl oz milk (approximately)

Grease whatever size of pudding basins you would like your finished Christmas puddings to be.  This recipe will make enough to fill four, one pint, pudding basins each one of which will give about six servings.

Put all the dried fruit into a very large bowl, along with the stout, brandy, and the rind/juice of the orange.  Leave to one side.

Sift the flour and spices into another large bowl, then stir in the sugar, breadcrumbs, and suet.  Beat the eggs in a separate bowl. 

Now's the time to work those biceps and start adding the dry ingredients to the wet, three or four spoonfuls at a time, stirring well after each addition.  Last year I made the recipe twice as I was making double the amount of puddings.  This year, as I was "only" making half as much again, I decided to throw caution to the wind and attempt to fit a pint into a half pint pot as it were ~ it wasn't easy, as I'm sure you can imagine 😏 I should have been more sensible, especially as my toe was hurting so much, and I ended up having to sit down for a while every so often.  Anyhoo, I'm sure you would be much more sensible than me my lovelies 😄

Getting back to the recipe, when you get towards the end of the dry ingredients you will have to make a judgement call on how much milk to add.  I find that this varies from year-to-year, depending on how absorbent the dry ingredients happen to be and also if I've slopped in a tad more stout/brandy than I'd intended!  The mixture should be a soft dropping consistency. 

Divide the mixture between your well greased pudding basins.  This year I made one large pudding along with five smaller ones.  As I've told you before I used to faff about with a doubled-up sheet of greaseproof paper, pleated in the centre, to cover the puddings.  A couple of years ago I had a brainwave and used cake tin liners instead, and have continued to use them ever since as it's much easier.  Depending on what I have to hand, I then hold said liner/greaseproof paper in place with either string or an elastic band.  You use whichever method suits you best 😊

I also used to either use a pudding basin net or make a string handle to lift the puddings in and out of the steamer.  Now I just don my trusty rubber washing up gloves as I find it easier.  Just make sure to take care when removing the pudding as the basin will be very hot, and there will also be a lot of steam.

The old aluminium saucepan belonged to my paternal Grandma and it only ever gets used for steaming puddings.  I've had the steamer for donkey's years; the poor thing is a tad battered as it had been dropped a number of times over the years on the quarry tiled floor of our old kitchen!  It's still perfectly serviceable though so I don't see any need to get a new one 😏

Bring the pan of water to the boil and place the pudding, in the steamer, on top; turn the water down to a low simmer.  Depending on the size of basin used, the puddings will take 5 to 7 hours to steam.  I steam my one pint puddings for 6 hours each, and the larger ones for the full 7.  To keep an eye on things, I set my timer for one hour at a time so that I remember to go and check on the water level in the saucepan.  Keep it topped up as necessary with boiling water from the kettle.

At the end of the steaming period, take the pudding from the steamer (remember to take care!) and discard the cake liner/greaseproof paper.  Cover with a clean tea-towel and leave on one side to cool.  

When the pudding is totally cold remove it from the basin, wrap in a double sheet of greaseproof paper or baking parchment, then wrap again tightly in cooking foil.

The puddings should be stored in a cool, dry, place, or they could even be frozen if you'd prefer.  We usually freeze what's left of the pudding we have on Christmas Day.  You'll have to remember to defrost them thoroughly before reheating.  With all the sugar and alcohol in them they should keep well in a cool, dry, place, though.  We have one at Christmas, obviously, but it's also our family tradition to have another at Easter.

When you are ready to eat your Christmas puddings, they can either be gently steamed for about 1 1/2 hours or reheated in the microwave ~ I take the latter route as it's simpler when there's so much other cooking going on.  I really can't tell you how long to reheat the pudding in the microwave as it's very much a trial-and-error process depending on your own particular machine.  I heat the pudding on full power for five minutes, then in short bursts of a minute or so until it is thoroughly hot all the way through.

Serve your pudding with whatever your family likes best: rum/brandy butter, cream, a white (brandy or rum, perhaps) sauce, custard, ice-cream, etc.  We like to have ours with either cream or a white sauce flavoured with brandy.  I make the sauce very simply, rather along the lines of packet-mix custard ~ just substitute cornflour in place of the custard powder and add brandy to taste!

You can tweak this recipe to your heart's content with the proportions and varieties of dried fruit, so long as the total amount remains about the same.  You could also have a little less fruit and add in some nuts.  You can use rum instead of brandy if you would prefer ~ I use brandy as I'm really not keen on rum.  Make the recipe your own by using the fruit (and nuts) that you and your family like to eat.

Enjoy 😊