Patchwork

I have done some spring cleaning over at my Etsy shop which has been sadly neglected over the past couple of months, as I was so poorly before Christmas and then became pre-occupied with G's birthday quilt.

I've just listed some great little patchwork lavender sachets like this one.

I raided my scrap basket for fabrics in my favourite sort of spring flower colours - pinks, lilacs, creams and the occasional dash of red.  The sachets measure 10cm square and are stuffed full of my Mum's homegrown French lavender, which smells gloriously pungent thanks to all that Mediterranean sunshine.  Just a little squeeze of the sachet fills the whole room with the smell of lavender.  Go and take a look at them here.

My mind has been on patchwork in more metaphorical ways too.  I am currently figuring out how I can get back into work over the next few months, and have been struggling with some conflicting claims:

• my accountancy training, which I would like to keep using in some way
• the need for flexible, local and part-time work which will fit around the rest of the family
• my creative life - sewing and writing - which perhaps should also be incorporated into my working life in some way

I've been tumbling over all these thoughts for a few months now and not reaching any useful conclusions.  I am also increasingly intimidated by the actual process of looking for part-time work in such a challenging economic climate - writing a good CV, filling in application forms and actually working out what jobs are out there.

In the New Year, help and support came in the form of a phone call from Women Like Us - a recruitment agency (currently, sadly, only based in London) that specialises in bringing employers and mothers who want part-time work together. 

At an hour long coaching session at Women Like Us earlier this week, my new career coach and I talked about patchwork, and she pointed out that taking a new direction in my working life may not be a bad thing.  My career overall may end up resembling a patchwork quilt - with some very different fabrics in there - but if there is a common thread holding them together, that's okay.  Not surprisingly I liked this analogy very much.  I came away from our session very motivated, with much food for thought, and also with a list of nicely practical things to do before our next meeting.  If you live in London and are looking for part time work, or a part time employee, I can't recommend Women Like Us highly enough.

In other news, excitement for G's 40th birthday on Valentine's Day is building rapidly.  I have a whopping great leg of lamb marinading in the fridge ready for a family party tomorrow, and this afternoon I am making a start on the first of two birthday cakes.  Pubs, fancy schmancy restaurants and top secret presents are also involved!

Happy weekending everybody!

Today

Today was a day which made me think very deeply - in a good way.

The contents of my green satchel this afternoon - full and only semi-organised, like my state of mind.

I ate my lunch in the sunshine, sitting on a bench in the churchyard at Southwark Cathedral.  I love the jumble of rooflines and little spires at this cathedral.  It feels properly ancient and it is - this is the oldest cathedral building in London.

After my lunch I headed back to East London to pick up the car and collect the children from school.  I was a little early, and instead of killing my time knitting, as I usually do, I just sat in the car and took photos of myself in the vanity mirror instead.

It was very therapeutic.

10 things

• Graham's birthday quilt is finished.  A week ahead of schedule, which means that it took me five full-on weeks from start to finish.  I've been remarkably modest with photos of it so far (ahem...) so here are a few more.

• He loves it.  Phew
• I've given it to him a week before his birthday, but I'll still take it back off him on Birthday Eve and wrap it up!
• I made Baileys Choc Chip Scones this afternoon.  Yes, you read that correctly.  The recipe is from Ruth Clemens, a finalist in the Great British Bake Off last year, and goodness me, what a recipe!  They actually taste like Baileys.  So good.
• O and I went to see the Royal Ballet's production of Giselle yesterday.  It's only on for another couple of weeks, but if you can manage to get tickets then do.  It was incredible - so romantic that it actually left me in tears at one point.  And I have never seen or heard a standing ovation quite like it at the end. 
• Now the quilt is finished, I am in a frenzy of excitement about what to make next.  Pyjamas for the children are top of my list.  And then some shirts for me, some more cushions for the house, and some bits and pieces for my poor neglected Etsy shop.
• Maybe I should reverse that order and sort out the poor neglected Etsy shop first?
• I have been trying (really very hard) to read some Virginia Woolf.  But sadly it's proving unreadable.  So I may have to fall back on the Cal Patch book, which finally came through on my reservations at the library, and which is proving well worth the wait.
• I came back from the supermarket, and without being asked C unpacked and put away all the shopping, and then made me a cup of tea.  I thought back to those seemingly endless toddler years and wished I could go back in time and tell myself that this day of genuinely helpful children would come.  I don't think I would have believed myself though.
• We're all loving The Human Planet - genuinely some of the best television I've seen in years.  I do like a nice bit of quality tele in the evenings.

Splash of colour - February

Although I've mainly been looking at greens, browns and oranges this week, there has been a little bit of extra colour too.

Hyacinths on the mantelpiece - belting out fumes of deliciousness

A tiny crocheted pincushion that my sister-in-law gave me, studded with colourful pins

Both of these pictures are my contribution to the last of Silverpebble's Splash of Colour weeks.  There are so many wonderful, colourful photos in the Flickr pool now.  This has been a great, cheering winter project - thank you Emma!

Quilted leaves

All I see these days - in my waking hours and my dreams - are leaves.  Fabric leaves, scattered on the quilt, piled up on the arm of the sofa, under my needle, and drawn onto squares of fabric - waiting to be cut out.

But ten minutes ago, I finished.  The leaves are done.

I took the two pictures above at lunchtime today, when the sun was streaming through the windows and I was curled up in the armchair, with my lap full of quilt, stitching as fast as I could.  There were still a few leaves with pins in them, waiting to be stitched.

And below, here it is in it's full unfolded glory.  Taken with the flash, at nearly 11pm, but still looking damn fine.

Tomorrow I'll be adding some machine quilting to the green and brown borders.  Then over the weekend I am going to make and attach the binding.  I'm aiming to have it all done by Sunday night.  Wouldn't that be good?  That would make it five weeks from start to finish.  But I mustn't get carried away - I'm not quite there yet.

I counted the leaves.  Of course I did.  There are one hundred and thirty one, which represents true love on a major scale.  Very appropriate for his Valentine's Day birthday.

A 24 hour knitting distraction

In the middle of quilting leaf, after leaf, after leaf onto G's birthday quilt, I decided yesterday that I needed a break.  So I picked up my knitting needles for a quick distraction, and decided to knit a solution to a hair problem that had been aggravating me for several weeks.

I change my hairstyles as often as I can afford it, and at the moment I have long hair - well below my shoulders.  I'm happy with long hair (although I'm dying to have a fringe cut in again), but it's been causing me problems on my winter walks.  If I want to wear a hat, I need to have my hair down - you can't wear a woolly hat over a ponytail or a bun.  But if I wear my hair down it blows all over my face, and much as I love long hair, I HATE hair in my mouth. Ack.

Last week I agonised the whole way along the Regent's Canal to Gill, and the whole way round Kew to Tracy and Kristina, about my hair/hat dilemmas.  I had hair in my mouth, so stopped to put my hair up.  Then I had a chilly head, so my hair came down and my hat went on.  Then I got hair in my mouth, so stopped to take off my hat and put my hair up.  You get the picture.  So did they.

When I got back from Kew, Kristina very kindly emailed me a link to this pattern on Knitty which was the absolute perfect solution to my hair/hat difficulties. 

Calorimetry is a headband designed especially for the problem I have been moaning about wrestling with.

I knitted it exactly to the pattern requirements, in Rowan Pure Wool Aran yarn in the sage shade.  It took me only a day to knit, and was such a fun, easy pattern on two needles.

The headband is fastened by a button at the base of the neck, and I was so happy to be able to use this fine button which Anna gave me - I think it comes from the lovely Cowboys and Custard.  Choosing the perfect button is always a favourite part of any project.

But the very best thing? It fits, and it works!  I LOVE it!

It covers my ears, and keeps them toasty warm.  It covers the top of my head, and keeps me warm there too.  It lets me wear a lovely high, swingy ponytail.

And it even keeps pretty earrings on display. 

I really don't think I've ever knitted anything quite so satisfying in such a short space of time.  Happy days.

The List Writer's 25 favourite things to do in London

Inspired by all your lovely comments on my Wedneday walk along Regent's Canal this week, I have finally put together my list of 25 favourite things to do in London - something I have been meaning to compile for ages.

You can have a look, and download the list, from Google Docs.  There is a link directly to it on the right hand side of this blog, or you can click here.  I'd love to know if you do (or have done) any of the things I love so much - do you agree with my list?

Wednesday walk #3

For today's walk, Miss Moss Stitch and I tried out another long, eight and a half mile route.  I can't say my legs are any less achey than they were after our Olympic walk, which was a similar length, but perhaps it takes longer than three weeks for these muscles to adapt!

We started at Little Venice, which is just outside Warwick Avenue tube station, close to Paddington rail station.

Little Venice is a canal junction surrounded by great, grand houses, where the Grand Union Canal joins The Regent's Canal.  It was a lovely, dramatic and open place to start our walk.

Little Venice

Setting off along the Regent's Canal, with the Maida Hill tunnel in the distance

Big houses, along the Regent's Canal at Little Venice

The rather sinister entrance to the Maida Hill canal tunnel, by Little Venice

We set off from Little Venice and walked all the way along the canal towpath to Victoria Park. Along our route we walked around the edge of Regent's Park, through London Zoo, past funky, hippy Camden, to new building works near St Pancras and King's Cross, through Islington, and on past Hackney and finally ending at Bethnal Green.

This whole walk was fantastic, and we didn't tire of admiring (and photographing) all the covetable narrow boats, moored along its length.  Most of them were beautifully maintained and decorated with flower pots, doilies, chintz curtains and dumpy little chimneys.

The Chagall, with solar panels on the roof

Sweet Emily at Little Venice

Even the pontoons are kept neat - pots of daffs and jerry cans by Regent's Park

A narrow boat taxi, at Camden Lock

Bags of coal, piled onto the red roof of a narrowboat in Islington

With boats, come mooring posts and rings.  I hate standing too close to canal edges - those black, still waters are rather sinister - but still managed to take some pictures of my favourites.

"you are beautiful" in Hackney

Mooring ring, at King's Cross

This one in Islington reminded me of an overflowing pint of Guinness

In Islington the canal goes through a tunnel which doesn't have a towpath, so pedestrians need to come up to street level for about a kilometer, and follow the tunnel above ground before descending back to the towpath.  Dotted along the pavement, every few steps, are little markers to show you that the tunnel is still underneath your feet.  I liked the simple, unmarked blue ones best, but also loved how there were several different designs.

For that last photo, Gill kindly sacrificed some of her drinking water to clean mud off the plaque so I could get a good picture!

And as with all our other walks so far we passed plenty of oddities, as well as plenty of pretty things to photograph. 

In Camden we saw a cow on a balcony.

At Kings Cross we saw the sweetest little lock keeper's cottage.

There was some very good graffiti in Hackney.

And we learnt that the people of Islington have been very poorly.

It was an excellent walk, which we both really enjoyed.  We are planning on doing it again in the summer, when the trees are in leaf - it will look completely different, but probably still test my leg muscles as much.

The only part of the walk I didn't enjoy so much was creeping through the dark, cramped tunnels under the bridges which are dotted along the towpath.  Here we are walking through Eyre's tunnel, at Lisson Grove.  Just listen to how spooked I am when I walk over some loose paving slabs, and then my relief when we get out into the daylight again!

Spiced raisin bread

Okay - as requested, here is the recipe for spiced raisin bread!

I usually make this dough in my bread machine and then transfer it to a loaf tin and leave it for a second rise before baking.  You could of course do the whole thing by hand or the whole thing in a bread machine.  More details on method follow below.

Ingredients

• 1/2 teaspoon dried yeast
• 400g strong white bread flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon milk powder (optional)
• 15g butter
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 heaped teaspoons mixed spice, allspice or cinnamon
• 6 tablespoons raisins
• 280ml water

Method

If you are using a bread machine, bung all the ingredients in, in the usual order (for my machine, it is yeast, then flour, then other dry ingredients, then water - but machines do vary).  Put on a dough setting, then remove and knead briefly.  Put into a 2lb loaf tin (see here for my thoughts on imperial sized tins!) and leave to rise. 

If you are making by hand, combine the yeast with the water (from the hot tap), sugar, salt and milk powder.  Leave for 5 minutes to activate the yeast and then stir into the remaining ingredients with a wooden spoon.  Tip out onto a floured surface and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic.  Put the dough into an oiled bowl and leave to rise until doubled in size.  Knock back and transfer to a 2lb loaf tin for a second rise.

Once the bread in the tin is risen, transfer to a hot oven (Gas mark 7) and bake for 35 minutes.  Tip onto a wire rack to cool.

I love this bread toasted and spread with just butter.  O likes it with honey, and C favours it with apricot jam.  G will eat it with anything!  It makes awesome bread & butter pudding, and I have high hopes for the French toast from it tomorrow.  Enjoy!

Good things

Good things on a sunny Friday:

• Quilt progress.  I have sewn dozens of leaves already, and am not sick of them yet. This is promising.

• A backlog of Americana and Food Programme podcasts on my iPod to keep me company while I sew.
•  A lemon drizzle loaf cake for the weekend.

• This really lovely spice mix, from Anna.  I've been adding it to everything I can think of.

• But mainly spiced raisin bread.  This is the last of the midweek loaf, and today I made another so that we can have spiced raisin French toast for brunch this weekend.

Good times.