Work-in-Progress Progress!

Posted on June 12, 2020 by Crafty Kath

It’s three months (ish) since we went into lockdown and I have tried to get through the large bag of partly made projects I had hanging around back in March. Twenty items really is too many to have left so long, but I really am all about the knitting / crochet and not the stuffing and sewing.

Having finished the three lockdown lions a few weeks back, I have been steadily working through the other bags and boxes of pieces and my menagerie is growing once again. Most of the creatures are from kits I’ve had from either Let’s Knit or LGC Knitting and Crochet magazines, and are great for making something a little out of my comfort zone or for little gifts for friends and family. I have enjoyed making most of them. I do find that sometimes the instructions can be a little vague – sew legs to body, for instance – so I do make a point of studying as many pictures of the finished articles as possible before committing to the final positions of limbs and features.

So, what have I managed to finish over the last few weeks then?

From LGC Knitting and Crochet magazine, I have made,

Amy the Donkey (design by Hannah Cooper)

Easter Bunny (design by Nicola Valiji)

Safari bear (design by Sarah Louise Read)

and a knitted chick (design by Sachiyo Ishii)

From the Let’s Knit kits, I chose

Sparkle-dash the unicorn (design by Steffi Hochfellner)

And I finally finished an Aldi, So crafty kit of a hippo.

I hope you like them as much as I do.

There is still a way to go, but the pile is steadily reducing which means there is more space in the living room – I actually found my sewing machine this week, which had been buried under two bags of yarn. So there’s something else to do, hmmm, what to make next……..

Happy crafting

Chocolate fix needed

Posted on April 10, 2020 by Crafty Kath

Hello again and I hope you are enjoying the start of the Easter weekend. I find the joy of the weather at the moment is making me wish to be out in the countryside. I am very lucky in where I live as I look out onto fields and less than five minutes walk from here we are on a lovely riverside walk down to a country park. It’s a lovely place to be and I can’t wait to be able to get back there again soon.

In the meantime, I am finding great comfort in baking! I think I am not the only one judging by my social media feeds. This week I have had a go at a couple of new recipes, the first being some chocolate chip cookies. I found this recipe printed out in a folder in the kitchen. It’s obviously one I’ve found on the internet somewhere, but I have no idea where. So apologies to whoever’s it is.

Ingredients

100g brown sugar
125g unsalted block butter
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp salt
225g Self Raising Flour
200g chocolate (any kind!)

Method

Pre-heat oven to 200 oc Place butter and sugar in large bowl and mix well

Add the egg and vanilla essence and mix again

Sieve in flour and salt to mix and combine well.

Cut the chocolate, but not to finely and add. Mix together then roll balls of mixture to about 2cm by 2cm and place on a baking tray with baking parchment on. Be careful not to put the cookies too close together.

Place in preheated oven for 7-10 minutes. Repeat until all cookies are cooked.I use different kinds of chocolate and add nuts. For double chocolate cookies simply replace 50g flour with 75g chocolate powder.

It’s a very simple recipe and with my desperate need for chocolate it was just what was called for. I followed the instructions and I had a sneaky try of the cookie dough – very tasty indeed and would go brilliantly with some ice cream.

Whilst the cookies taste very nice, I think I should have flattened them a bit before putting them in the oven, as they look a bit more like mini rock cakes than cookies! I did add some flaked almonds and used a bar of dark chocolate as well as some dark chocolate chips.

Whatever they looked like there aren’t many left so they went down very well in the house, particularly good with a cup of tea!

Today I was inspired to try a microwave mug cake as I was sent an e-mail from Nando’s! It’s amazing how many of the e-mails I am actually looking at, that I would normally just delete. I’ve been curious about these little cakes for some time and a little dubious about them actually working. Anyway, it was time to have a go and while I didn’t have any Nando’s sauce in the house, it was worth making the cake without it.

I was very pleasantly surprised with how quick and easy it was. So much so I had to gatecrash my husband’s virtual team chat to show them all! It was a bit dry and would definitely benefit from being eaten with ice cream but it was a different accompaniment to my afternoon brew in the sunshine.

Enjoy the rest of the Easter weekend.

Stay safe and happy crafting

2017 is flying!

Posted on June 30, 2017 by Crafty Kath

I can’t believe where this year has gone and it’s almost July already! It’s been a rather odd year for me and I’ve been busy with all sorts of things that I haven’t had time to sit down and write anything. So I’ve grabbed a few minutes and thought I’d have a catch up and see what’s been going on.

I had a rather rotten end to 2016 and start to 2017 as my back went and I was unable to stay in any position for long, so I was a bit grumpy (to say the least), well lack of sleep will do that to you! So I’ve been trying to do some back strengthening exercises every day to help, but it still twinges every so often. I also spent several weeks on physio and hospital check-ups following my broken foot last July.

Anyway, I seem to be hospital free for the time being (fingers crossed) and I’m back to my weekly tap class which is great fun. I’m also back crafting again and have spent the last few weeks and months busy making all sorts of items for orders and for our own use at home.

I ended last year making loads of legwarmers for the girls at dancing, and this year has continued the trend. Since Easter I’ve been knitting frantically, furry wrist cuffs and legwarmers for some the girls taking part in a ‘Cats’ number both for the annual dance show and for competitions.

These feel lovely when knitted up, but depending on the yarn used I found them quite difficult to make. The white ones were made with Eskimo yarn and that knitted up quite nicely, but I used some eyelash yarn that was really difficult to keep count of my stitches. They did all look lovely on the girls though and made the outfits. Alice has also asked for some now as she’s obsessed with white!

So I’ve beenknitting quite a lot over the months, and managed to get in a bit for my family. I always make the children something to play with at the end of the egg hunt we do at Easter, and this year was no exception.

This year the three children found a knitted egg cosy character with a chocolate egg inside. These are made from a free pattern of Jean Greenhowe that I’ve ad for ages and never got round to making up before. They are easy to do and they were very popular, so I introduce you to Holly, Eggy and Steven! They certainly has plenty of adventures on Easter Sunday, poor Steven was lost several times, but he was eventually found and went home with his new best friend!!

Easter also involved quite a bit of baking which was shared with family, friends and neighbours.

Mother’s and Father’s Day meant a lot of card crafting and my large owl cards were very popular.

I made these in a variety of papers and love the different effects they create. I also enjoyed making the triangular backgrounds and took this further making some cards for men.

I love the monochrome set of card and toppers and when matched with the Hunkydory rainbow mirri card they really shine.

For Father’s Day I made a collection of cards for Hearts for Homes in Ramsbottom.

I fancied doing some more origami and made these using an old Papermania set of men’s papers, but I had to do some owls too and loved using these old maps.

Well it’s time to head off to work now, but I’ll be back soon with some more ramblings of a middle-aged crafter! Have a great day.

Happy crafting

Easter activities

Posted on March 31, 2016 by Crafty Kath

We’ve had quite a lot to do this Easter holiday and this week Alice has been entering lots of competitions in our local shopping centres. First the small independent shopping centre, Millgate, ran a competition to design an Easter egg, the first prize is an Easter egg and an egg for everyone in their class at school.

I love watching Alice doing this type of thing. As the deadline is at the end of the week, we went for a cuppa to give her time and space to do her design entry. As usual I had my ‘big’ bag with me which has a box of crayons and some coloured pencils in – I feel this is a real sign of being a Mum!

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Last week we entered the Easter egg hunt on The Rock shopping complex. There always seems to be something like this on there in the school holidays, and it’s something different to do outside. Surprising though, this time Alice won the first prize – a month’s tuition at Explore Learning and an enormous Thorntons Easter Egg filled with Millies Cookies!!! So we collected the prize this afternoon.

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I think we have one happy little girl this Easter holiday and we might just have to share the egg and cookies around friends and family!

Happy Chocolate Eating!
x

Easter Holidays part 2

Posted on April 17, 2015 by Crafty Kath

Well the Easter holidays have not quite been the fun packed couple of weeks we hoped for. We have had a pretty traumatic month all in all. Having just got through my beloved little cat Stella passing in March, and then being rushed to hospital for a week, we have again been left distraught as we have now lost our other gorgeous cat, Guinness. It has been a tough couple of weeks and it has left us all rather empty and finding it difficult to do things around the house.

Having said that we have tried to do some things over the break, many of which have involved being out of the house. It’s just been too empty.

Crafting hasn’t been at the top of our list, however, I have encouraged my daughter to make a little diary for her homework. I think she’s done an amazing job. Her marking of Guinness’s passing is lovely.

I’m feeling a bit lost at the moment and hoping to get my mojo back soon.

Happy crafting
x

Easter Holidays

Posted on April 7, 2015 by Crafty Kath

Easter holidays are tough for me this year as I love chocolate and cake and I just can’t have any! But baking is also one of the best activities for the school holidays. So with my daughter eager to make something for her friends and family, I helped her out with her idea of making chocolate nests.

This has got to be the easiest ‘baking’ ever! I let her be in charge and tell me what I needed to do. So she broke up shredded wheat into a bowl. I was tasked with melting the chocolate over a pan of hot water and once melted I poured it into the shredded wheat bowl. She then mixed it all together. I had bought some Easter themed cake cases and little sticks from a local pound shop and they set the cakes off a treat. The little nests were then made in each case and some chocolate eggs added to complete the nest effect.