Busy day today. Our trip to the shops was much more successful than yesterday (most were shut which I sort of expected but I was surprised about John Lewis and some of the other big ones). We got my othe half some skiing goggles and other bits and pieces, and I got a cushion for the cover that my granny gave me a while ago and a loaf tin. I will master bread-making this year if it kills me! There's nothing like a home-made loaf when it comes out well, and it would keep me busy and save us some money hopefully. Any suggestions for good recipes, books or tips would be very welcome.
Then I got to work on my marmalade - clementine with Cointreau which was a sort of amalgamation of a few recipes. The concept was from the Queen of Crafts book. It does seem a little silly that this lovely cheap idea (40p for all the clementines and very little for 2lb of sugar) became rather more expensive when I bought a £16 bottle of Cointreau. It is useful though, I always seem to come across cocktail recipes that involve Cointreau so now perhaps I can try them, and it's a good friend's favourite tipple so if she ever comes to visit she can help herself.
I got most of the method from Shazronnie's blog post which was nice and simple to follow, and seems to have worked well (yet to taste the finished product as I'm waiting for it to cool but I'm optimistic... so far!). I also borrowed the idea of putting lemon pips in a tea bag from Binny Cooks. It was so cute and satisfying to watch it bob around in the mixture.
I used just over 2lb of clementines, a pint and a half of water, just over 2lb of sugar and two lemons. It got me about 1.5l of marmalade and almost exactly filled all five odd-shaped jars that I happened to have in the house (after scraping out the honey and throwing away some woefully out of date peanut butter).
Then I made a couple of cushion covers for the elderly cushions that my parents' neighbours gave me when I first went to University. I rescued the zips from the original covers as they were still fine, but the silk was beyond any use I think.
I just made very simple envelope covers (mostly per the instructions in the Daily Waffle post)with nothing to tie the back opening closed, but plenty of overlap so that the cushion stays well hidden. My first attempt I must have been half asleep because I sewed two out of the three pieces the wrong side out, but it was a useful prototype, or that's what I'm telling myself. The other two came out well so now we have lots of cushions, not that we were short before.
I've also made one of our curtain tie backs, but I'll finish the other another time; I need to use the sewing machine (too lazy to do any more by hand than I have to) and I've put it away for now.
I'm going to try to swatch for another cowl now, I've gone off the Willow pattern with the Rainy Day colourway that I'm using so I need to find something else. If the next pattern doesn't suit me I might have to give up because the yarn is starting to look a bit thin from the number of times I have unravelled it!
Then I got to work on my marmalade - clementine with Cointreau which was a sort of amalgamation of a few recipes. The concept was from the Queen of Crafts book. It does seem a little silly that this lovely cheap idea (40p for all the clementines and very little for 2lb of sugar) became rather more expensive when I bought a £16 bottle of Cointreau. It is useful though, I always seem to come across cocktail recipes that involve Cointreau so now perhaps I can try them, and it's a good friend's favourite tipple so if she ever comes to visit she can help herself.
I got most of the method from Shazronnie's blog post which was nice and simple to follow, and seems to have worked well (yet to taste the finished product as I'm waiting for it to cool but I'm optimistic... so far!). I also borrowed the idea of putting lemon pips in a tea bag from Binny Cooks. It was so cute and satisfying to watch it bob around in the mixture.
I used just over 2lb of clementines, a pint and a half of water, just over 2lb of sugar and two lemons. It got me about 1.5l of marmalade and almost exactly filled all five odd-shaped jars that I happened to have in the house (after scraping out the honey and throwing away some woefully out of date peanut butter).
Then I made a couple of cushion covers for the elderly cushions that my parents' neighbours gave me when I first went to University. I rescued the zips from the original covers as they were still fine, but the silk was beyond any use I think.
I just made very simple envelope covers (mostly per the instructions in the Daily Waffle post)with nothing to tie the back opening closed, but plenty of overlap so that the cushion stays well hidden. My first attempt I must have been half asleep because I sewed two out of the three pieces the wrong side out, but it was a useful prototype, or that's what I'm telling myself. The other two came out well so now we have lots of cushions, not that we were short before.
I've also made one of our curtain tie backs, but I'll finish the other another time; I need to use the sewing machine (too lazy to do any more by hand than I have to) and I've put it away for now.
I'm going to try to swatch for another cowl now, I've gone off the Willow pattern with the Rainy Day colourway that I'm using so I need to find something else. If the next pattern doesn't suit me I might have to give up because the yarn is starting to look a bit thin from the number of times I have unravelled it!
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