.......rib-sticking, heart-warming comfort food! The frost has gone and now we have raw, damp weather, with the possibility of rain later (I'm not complaining though, because it's heaps better then what it was like this time last year!). I decided to make steak and kidney with dumplings for dinner, so I started by sweating onions and mushrooms in my new cast iron casserole, which was a Christmas present from Malcolm
I put the meat in a bag with well-seasoned flour and gave it a good shake
After browning the meat ......
I stirred in boiling water and my secret ingredient
Ready to go into a low oven to gently cook for a couple of hours
While the dinner was cooking, I popped out to the studio to make the next two farmer's Wife blocks. It is so much easier to cut out the pieces on my new revolving board
With the blocks turning out the correct size
After adding thhese two blocks to the design wall, I have decided that once I have made the next two, I will make them up into a small lap quilt, then do the next batch of blocks in different fabrics
Now, a day late, the knitting update. By the weekend I had finished all the body parts for the fairy (and her skirt) .....
....... and had even knitted a second one!
I was unable to get a suitable sparkly yarn for the wings, so I decided to buy this plain (but slightly fluffy) one and add beads. The usual way to include beads in knitting is to thread all on to the yarn before you start knitting - but this is a much simpler way. All you need is a very fine crochet hook, which will go through the hole in the bead.
you then slip the stitch where you want the bead on to the crochet hook
pull the stitch through the bead
slip the stitch back on the needle and knit normally
The beads sit neatly in place at the base of the stitches
The wings are knitted in two parts
However I won't be sewing the fairy up tonight, as I am off out to the monthly meeting of Abbey Quilters. We have to hand in our embroidered blocks tonight
As it's for a challenge, I made sure the back was neat too!
You will have to wait until tomorrow to see how the dinner turned out - because I am going out, I am posting this before dinner, rather than after as I usually do!!