Acorn Hats

New and improved acorn hats.  Love these, think the oak leaf really finished them off nicely.  Can't wait to see some photos of them being worn as my small people are too big to model them.  If you would like one yourself they are for sale here here on Etsy.

A hint of Autumn?

There was a definite hint of autumn these last few days.  Very strange as it still feels like it should be midsummer but a couple of the trees had started to turn yellow and the first leaves were falling.  I also spotted rosehips and a blackthorn laden with sloes.  Made me think I really should be knitting ;) !

Autumn Days

With September arriving I always find my mind turns to autumnal food.  We start back with homemade soup, cakes and crumbles.

I made a lovely apple cake from a recipe from this blog.  The cake was delicious and I totally forgot to photograph it before it was eaten!

Now that the children go and stay at their Dad's every other weekend I get a chance to cook my favourites.  At the moment this seems to always involve roasted vegetables, balsamic vinegar and melted goats cheese!

On my quest for damsons to make damson gin we found ourselves in the market.  I was easily persuaded to buy two huge tubs of blackberries for less than £2 and they made a fab blackberry and apple crumble.

Grown Up Cowls

When my lovely sister came to stay a few weeks ago I managed to persuade her to model two of my adult chunky seed stitch cowls.  They are both knitted in tweedy yarn, the first one blue and the second teal green.  Both are for sale on Etsy now and more colours will be coming in the future.

Happy Home Educating Days

We are making the most of these lovely autumn days to spend time with friends old and new and visit some great places.

If you look carefully you will spot one of my hats worn by a gorgeous little lady!

Chilli Cowl

A custom order of a seed stitch cowl and matching fingerless mittens for a lovely friend.  They are knitted in a lovely tweedy yard in  one of my favourite colours, was pretty hard for me to post them to their new home.

More Elf Hats

 A lovely new colourway for an Autumn/Fall baby hat.  It's knitted in a lovely soft wool mix yarn and the photo doesn't really do justice to the warmth of the colours.

I have also kindly been given permission to share this gorgeous photo Rachel Jefferies took of a super sweet little girl wearing my rose and white knitted elf hat.  Both hats are listed for sale but if you would like a custom order please get in touch via my Facebook page or Etsy.

Another earflap hat

With our dodgy internet getting online is proving quite a tricky procedure but has given me more knitting time!  Here is my new off-the-needles hat

The pattern is an adaption of this hat knitted up in King Cole Twist Aran.  I followed the 6-9 months instructions but did the body a little longer and a larger garter stitch rim.  I have put it for sale as unisex although it does have some cerise pink in it, the colours are really autumnal!

Autumn Twist Hat

Want to see my newest knit? I saw this King Cole Twist yarn in Bracken and wanted to knit up something autumnal with it.  I was going to try a leaf hat again but decided to do a plainer pattern so the colours take centre stage.

The pattern I sort of worked from is this one in that I only decreased every other row.  I started with 72 stitches and it has come out as about 9 months plus size.  

It is on Ravelry here and up for sale in my shop here.

Butternut Squash Soup

Well my photo prop met its match yesterday!  It had been hiding out in amongst my potatoes for long enough.  I love butternut squash and could eat it everyday but the children seem less keen but a few months ago I found a recipe that we all like.  It's the soup from My Daddy Cooks.  I love the website, and the video is funny if you get a moment to watch it.  I just use whatever onions I have in, and I found that my children will only eat it with finely grated ginger as the zingy lumps put Miss E right off.

 I didn't take a photo of the soup as it disappeared too quickly, but here is the before shot...

Falling Leaf Hat

Here is my newest creation and I have to say am really pleased with it.  I followed this Green leaf baby hat pattern to start off with but used DK so I cast on 72 stitches for the newborn size on 4.5mm needles.  I was tired when I was finishing it and misread the decreases part of the pattern and missed out the plain knit rounds.  It meant this one had a founded instead of the more pointed top but I think I actually prefer it.  Its up for sale in my Etsy shop and I'm already thinking about some other colourways!

I think it looks sort of elf-like, don't you think? I really want to try it in some variegated autumny yarn!

Baked Apples and Custard

Baked apples are a staple autumn/winter pudding in this house.  Both children love them, especially with lots of custard (and shop custard is even more of a treat apparently!).  Usually I manage to explode them so I tend to cook them with the lid on to save cleaning apple fluff from the inside of my oven but for some reason this time they didn't explode.  Mr Man even asked if that was why I was photographing them, because the children had never seen them cooked in one piece before!

I don't really use a recipe as such but I tend to grab enough bramley apples for everyone to have half an apple each (or a whole apple if cooking for adults or feeling generous!), take the core out and cut a slit all the way around the skin.  This apparently stops them bursting but it hasn't stopped mine in the past!

I then add a sprinkle of cinnamon down each hole, and sometimes a sprinkle of clove powder as well.

Next fill the holes with dried fruit.  Usually just sultanas in our house but dried cranberries and sultanas mixed are good, as are glace cherries and sultanas.  Nuts would be nice but Mr T isn't keen, and mincemeat left over from Mince Pies at Christmas is delicious, esp with a bit of brandy, although not for the little peeps.

I then drizzle over a small amount (less than a teaspoon) of honey.  If you don't have honey golden syrup or brown sugar would be good.  About a tablespoon of water in the bottom of the bowl and a small knob of butter on each apple finishes them off.

Then just bung them in the oven at Gas Mark 4 and cook for about 45 mins to an hour and serve with custard (or ice cream, cream or yoghurt)

Comfort food

There was a thread on a forum I post on asking people to recommend their families favourite autumn meals.  Our favourite meal of the moment is cauliflower cheese, which is great as cauliflowers are selling for not much more than £1 for two in the market at the moment.  Mr Man and I like lots of tomatoes in ours but the smallies don't seem to like grilled tomatoes so serving up involves a bit of tomato swapping but it works great for the adults!!

I wish I could take better photos of food, my pictures always look like some awful 70's cookbook shot.  Don't think it helps that my kitchen is like a cave with next to no natural light and I can't face trying to photo food on the table with the starving hoards present.  Oh well, you'll just have to beleive me whan I say it tastes much better than it look ;)

Autumn Bounty

 Our garden is super small, very boggy and doesn't get huge amounts of sun but since we had to give up our allotment we have tried to grow a few fruits to eat.  We have a couple of pots of blueberries which seem to be surprisingly easy to grow.

We have one blackberry plant, its a prickle-free plant and takes up what seems like no space as it just twirls around the other plants (and weeds!)

The Blackberries aren't as sweet and tasty as wild ones but they are still pretty good.

A few years ago we were given  mini plum and apple trees as a gift.  The plum tree has never so mauch as produced a blossom but the apple tree has a few fruits on again this year.  They are both in huge pots and are tiny trees but the apples are full sized and lovely.

I'm not quite sure how you know when they are ready to pick, will have to find out as I don't want to loose them to drop and become a wildlife feast!

Market Day

Today we went to the market to stock up on fruit and veg.  On days like today I am glad Miss E is still small enough for a buggy as there is no way I could have carried all our supplies without it.  Here is a selection of what we bought including Victoria plums!!!  Victorias have to be the nicest plums ever but you hardly ever find them in supermarkets.  My parents usually grow loads but their poor plum trees have got some nasty disease or pest that means there will be no fruit from them this year :(

Beginning to look a bit like Autumn

Its raining again here.  I have heard that everywhere else in the UK are having a heatwave, well it seems to have missed us and instead the garden is under water again.  Some lovely friends brought us a playhouse for the garden and both children have been an almost permanent fixture in it since its arrival although Miss E is a bit worried because its now wet!!!

At a quick visit to the market I bought home these

Damsons!!!!!  They are sitting there looking at me and reminding me that autumn is definitely not far away.  Hopefully by the end of today they will become a Damson Crumble.  If I am feeling brave I may even allow Miss E and Mr T to make it.

Whilst my sister was here I managed to complete another hat, this time I used purple for the berry section.  I ordered the wool online and when it arrived it was much more Cadburys purple than I had expected.  I'm pleased with how its turned out although I'm not quite sure what to call it, blueberry, blackberry, blackcurrant??!!  I cast on 80 stitches and it has come out almost big enough for Miss E so probably a 1-2 year size (she insisted on squeezing her head into it as she is sure one of these hats should be for her even though most days she refuses to wear anything that is not at least partially pink!).

(Sorry the photo is soooo dark but so is the house today the weather is so awful)

Sucky thumb mitts and another pumpkin

Still knitting like a mad woman here even though it was my birthday yesterday.  Have knitted a pair of fingerless toddler mitts from this pattern designed by a lovely lady.  Using self patterning yarn.  I knit a load of these last winter as both kid hate cold hands but aren't keen on not being able to do stuff with their hands.

I used some leftover adriafil knitcol. It's the Klimt colourway I think, although the ball band is long gone so I'm not certain!  I plan on knitting some more pairs in different sizes to sell on Etsy and at Make Believe but will do them in different yarn.

Another pumpkin

My first pumpkin is on the way to its new owner and I have knitted a couple more.  Another one from the same pattern but this time in the baby size and a second one in newborn size from this lovely pattern.  I'm not sure which I prefer although the berry one is much quicker and easier to knit as its all done in one piece.  I've been back online and ordered some more yarn so I am planning on producing a field full of these in time for autumn!

Mr T has been busy with his Hama beads and has made these for a custom order, they just need threading up and they will be ready to hang on the Christmas tree in a few months time.

I can smell autumn!!

Its almost my birthday and although it is still summer there is a definite hint of autumn on its way.  I have got back into my knitting and have made a very autumnal hat.  I used this pattern and made the toddler size with Stylecraft bought from this super fast online shop.  I managed to get Miss E to model it for me even though its not pink, it is a bit small for her but she does have quite a big head so I'm hoping it will fit its recipient ok.  I have decided to make a few more to sell so if anyone fancies one message me, the pattern even goes up to adult size ;-)

The pattern called for two leaves but I quite fancied a tendril instead!

Long time no see

Things have been a bit all over the place here so I had to vanish for what seems like ages.  Fingers crossed, touch wood etc I should be back to crafting now and hopefully posting again!  Ihave got to that awful part of making my flower cushion that is "the ends".  There are what seems like hundreds of them to sew in and I keep on putting it off.  I've started a new knitting project, a pumpkin hat, which I am hoping to finish in the next few weeks.  For Ravelry peeps I am using this pattern for the hat, but am doing the leaves and stem both in green.