frayed at the edge

A domestic day

As always, today was taken up with all things domestic (except for the laundry, which I did yesterday!!)  I am going to visit Stuart on Wednesday, so I offered to make chilli con carne for dinner.  I thought I would cook it today, as I think it tastes better if it matures for a day or two!

 

I know that looks like a very big pot - but there is some for Malcolm as well!!  Of course you can't have chilli without all the extras

I also did some 'baking' - this is loosely based on a recipe I saw recently in a magazine - no-cook chocolate brownies

Very simple - a bought cake, butter, chocolate and sultanas (there should have been golden syrup as well, but I don't have any!)  This is so easy - melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over a pot of hot water

crumble the cake into a bowl and add the sultanas. then once the chocolate/butter mix has cooled, stir it in

Line a baking tin with clingfilm (I used only half the amounts of the original recipe, so instead of a square tine, I used a loaf tin) and press the mixture in.  Pop it in the fridge for several hours.  Once it is firm, cut it into squares (quite small ones, as it is very rich!) and dust with icing sugar - yum, yum, yum

Once all the cooking was done, I sat down to finish off a shawl I have been knitting for Malcolm's sister, Jennifer.  It's just a little shawl - more a shaped scarf.  The edging is knitted first, then stitches picked up all along the edge.  The shaping is achieved by knitting short rows.  It's knitted in aran, so was very quick to do.  By the time I finished, it was starting to get dark, so I had to use the flash to take the photo, so the colour isn't true - it's a lovely soft slate grey, with little hints of heather colours through it

I am so pleased with the shawl, I am going to knit one for myself!!
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

Shadow Shot Sunday

Yesterday we went to the village of St Abbs, over on the east coast (you can read about our day out in yesterday's post).  Malcolm went for a walk along the clifftop, and took lots of shadow shots for me .........

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

we both think this rock looks like a scary stone monster's face!!

 

I hope you enjoyed these shadow shots - do pop over to Hey Harriet to see more (and one of my shadows from last week is in the montage!!).

  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A grand day out

First, of course, I have to start by revealing the Christmas cake, after it was unwrapped!

mmmm - rich and delicious!!  Several times between now and Christmas, I will drizzle brandy over it, so it will be even more moist.  In the past there have small disputes over the icing of our Christmas cakes, as I don't like marzipan, but this problem has been resolved - no marzipan under the icing, and marzipan fruits on the top for Malcolm!!

While we are on the subject of cakes ..... of course there was cake yesterday at patch'n'chat - in fact there were two -

 

a border tart

 

iced ginger bread

Yes, I had a piece of each!!  We could have eaten them in style, as the table in the shop has been laid to show off Christmas place mats

If you would like to make these mats, do check out Borderland Fabrics' website, to get in touch with the shop to buy the fabrics.

 

Now on to today - we set off this morning for the village of St Abbs over on the east coast.  It was a beautiful morning and we had a lovley run over.  We were heading to another event organised by local wool shop Woolfish - a cornucopia of all things woolly.  Malcolm came in to have a cup of coffee, but then he left me to immerse myself in all the wonderful woolly goodies.  (he went for a walk along the clifftop - taking lots of photos for me, which you can see tomorrow in Shadow Shot Sunday!!)  I haven't yet taken photos of the things I bought, but of course I did take photos of some of the stalls.  First is the exceedingly colourful stall of my lovely friend Lindsay 

Every time I see Lindsay she has made all sorts of different, interesting things, and they are always beautifully presented.

The next lot of loveliness was on the stall of Janis Embleton - all sorts of super handwoven delights

And then I succumbed to the most beautiful hank of pure silk lace weight yarn from fyberspates - I will have to knit something very special with it

Unfortunately the llamas and alpacas weren't there today - I know I showed you photos of them when we were there in the spring, but you can never have too many photos of such lovely animals!!  
  

 

 

Weekword

 

 

We know this is a picture of the moon (taken in my back garden on Tuesday night), but just imagine when man (and of course woman) first walked the earth .... 

There are two people sitting huddled round a fire one dark night, when the clouds part and they see the full moon.  The first one says 'Oh, look at that HOLE in the sky.  It must lead to another world.  The white light is so beautiful that it must be a world filled with hope and happiness, peace and love.!  The other one says 'I agree with you that it is a HOLE in the sky leading to another world, but can't you see that the white light is the smoke of many fires, burning all who enter there.  It must be a world of punishment and destruction, misery and despair'.

Did they see the worlds that today we know as heaven and hell?

 

To see other interpretations, visit Linda Sue

, who picked this week's word - she has a list of everyone taking part.

 

I hope you all have a lovely weekend - we're off to St Abbs tomorrow for a day of all things woolly!!

Under wraps

I didn't have the best of starts to today!  I had an appointment at the Borders General Hospital - a follow up to a previous appointment for the 'face ache'.  Malcolm came with me, as he knows I really don't like hospitals!  The first annoyance was not being able to find a parking space (we had to park outwith the hospital grounds - probably about quarter of a mile away - not a problem for us, as we're fit, but not much use if you're really ill).  Then, we sat and sat ... and sat!  Although my appointment was for 9.40, they were already running an hour behind!!  I saw the consultant for five minutes - how are you, much better thank you, that's fine I don't need to see you again .......

Never mind, things got decidedly better after that, when we called in to the tearoom at the Old Melrose Furniture Studio .  There was a welcome fire burning in this marvellous old range

 

 

On the shelves behind my chair were just a few of the wide selection of antiques and collectables available in the adjoining shop

 

And of course, there was food and drink!!  Malcolm had a wonderful cup of coffee, I had an excellent pot of tea, and we both had a toasted teacake with butter and jam (the eagle-eyed among you may notice that Malcolm had already tucked into the jam before I took the photo!!)

 

I'm sorry not to have answered the questions about the shawl before now, but I kept forgetting to take a note of the pattern number and the yarn when I was in the studio - for several evenings I have sat down with the laptop to write this drivel informative blog and thought 'oh bother', I forgot that info again!  So here it is .... the pattern is Sirdar3983, the yarn is Patons Fairytale 2ply (baby) and as for how long it took me .... I didn't work constantly at it, and I did do most of it on holiday - I suppose it took me eight weeks of knitting in the evenings.

So, what is the thing that is under wraps, as mentioned in today's title?  This afternoon I baked my Christmas cake - but it was only just out of the oven when I was ready to do the blog, so you will have to wait until Saturday (because tomorrow it's Weekword) to see how it turned out

 
 
 

Up from the depths ......

........ of the knitting basket!  Now that the shawl is finished, I thought I should see what UFOs were lurking at the bottom of my knitting basket.  Fortunately there were only two - and I have now finished one of them

 

Fingerless mits, knitted in beautiful sock wool which I bought from my lovely friend  Helen .  I can wear them covering most of my fingers for warmth, but if I need to do something, then I can roll the edge back

 

I should have put them on at eight o'clock this morning, as it was rather chilly when I went out to take this photo of the moon

 

We went up to Selkirk this morning, where this turret caught my eye - but Rapunzel was nowhere in sight!

 

We had lunch at the Lochcarron Visitor Centre - the last time we were there it was raining too heavily to take a photo of this quirky piece of topiary - today it was lovely when we went in for lunch - but I thought I would wait until after lunch to take a photo - and, yes, it started to rain as we came out!!

 

On the way home, we stopped in the carpark at Homebase to take a photo of Ruberslaw, the hill behind our house - fortunately the sun had come out again!

 

When we were on holiday, my friend Lorraine looked after the house and watered the plants for me - but I forgot to bring this one in from the studio - oops!  But I think it still has a certain appeal .....

 

There are very few flowers left now in the garden, but this little rose managed to survive the heavy rain

And finally ..... the mystery has been solved as to why an Argentinian blog kept showing up in my stats.  The writer got in touch to say that she surfs the Web to find tutorials to include  - and she did say she would remove mine of I didn't want it included.  However, as it is a link to me, I don't mind at all - unlike the time when someone had photos of one of my quilts on her website, without saying it was mine!!  Do pop over and have a look at the Argentinian blog - there are some good links (it's not all in Spanish!)

And finally, finally, I started the baby quilt this afternoon - but which fabric did I use - you'll have to wait to find out!!
 
 
 

 

 
 
 

Where was I?

Oh yes, I was in the middle of my post yesterday when the naughty little gremlins crept in!!  Malcolm had been trying to sort things out for me, but things still aren't quite right - it's just so annoying!!  Never mind, let's get on.

Before we went to Carlisle last week, I washed the baby shawl and blocked it using the wires I bought recently - they make things so much easier!  On Saturday I threaded pink ribbon through the eyelets ....

 

I took the photo on my favourite chair!

 

detail of the ribbon

 

I bought this book on Sunday - not just for the recipes, but because I couldn't resist a book with such a daft title!!

 

and if you think that's daft ....

 

dafter ......

 

and the daftest footnote!!

 

Yesterday (Monday) we went out for a walk after lunch.  Usually we head up the  hill from the house, but we went downhill for a change!!  I'm glad we did, because we saw these beauties!

 

 

Today we went to visit Malcolm's Dad.  We took him to Newbiggin for lunch.  He wisely stayed in the car when we went for a walk ......  it was just a bit windy, and the sea was a bit rough

 

We saw a bird that we didn't recognise - it was quite far out, so even with maximum zoom, we still can't tell what it is - if you know, please leave a comment!

On the way home, it started to rain and the sky looked quite dramatic.  The next two photos were taken from inside the car (what, you expected me to get out in the rain ... don't be silly!!)

It's funny when it's raining, but you can see blue sky!  Well, I'm exhausted after all that catching up - I'm off for a browse round all your blogs!!  Blogspot/blogger is refusing altogether to let me comment just now, so please don't think I've deserted you - of course I think everything you write is wonderful and your photos super!!
 

 

 
 

 
 

Felting fun

Yesterday afternoon was wet and miserable, so I was happy to spend the afternoon in the studio, playing with my purchases from The Woolclip

From left to right, handmade felt pieces, felted wool offcuts and hand-dyed, combed Blue-faced Leicester tops.

I decided to make a lavender heart, using the following

a charity shop jumper, which I felted in the washing machine, heart shaped cookie cutters, some of the tops, scissors, a chalk marking pencil, a block of foam with a small mat to put under it and felting needles.

I used the bigger heart as a template to cut two hearts from the jumper (because it has been felted, it doesn't fray).  I put one heart on the foam, put the smaller heart shape on it, filled it with some of the tops ..... then comes the good bit - you just keep stabbing it with the needle until the fibres mesh together!

I then put the two hearts together, and needled them round the edges to join them, leaving a small gap

Next, I stuffed the heart with lavender (our own lavender from the garden - I wish you could smell it!!)

Then, I had to choose embroidery thread, to blanket stitch round the edge (although I had needled the edges together, that was just to hold it together until I stitched it)

Having stitched it, I decided to add a fun button in the middle of the heart - and what better then a little pink sheep!

 

I have more to tell you and more photos to show you, but the gremlins have crept in again!!  Hopefully it will be resolved by tomorrow!

 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Shadow Shot Sunday

A mixture of shadows today!  The first one has a bit of camera shake, as it was taken at night with a long exposure - the shadow is cast by the security light in the back garden (which was probably activated by the neighbour's cat!!)

 

 

The next photo is perhaps more a silhouette than a shadow.  The sparrows were assembling in the hawthorn tree in the front garden ready for breakfast from the bird table.  The house faces west, so the pink you can see in the sky is actually a reflection of the sunrise!

 

 

Who knows what lurks in the shadows at the foot of these steps in Carlisle Castle - perhaps the ghosts of old soldiers .......

 

 

Well, I won't be taking any shadow shots today, as it is raining steadily - winter is definitely here!  To cheer myself up, I shall head over to Hey Harriet and see lots of lovely shadow photos taken in the sunshine!!