The arrival of Spring brings sorrow…

Spring has brought great tragedy and sadness to The Auld Woolly Alliance, in particular to Aurelie and her family. It is with a heavy heart I pass on sad news from my dear friends. They were waiting happily for the arrival of their new baby, and then… Aurelie gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. Sadly, he was too perfect for this world, and is now a little star in the sky, twinkling forever, up above the world so high…

I feel honoured to have known their wee boy, if only for a short time and I am deeply humbled that Aurelie and her family allowed me to share with them their overwhelming grief.

Bring me some Guiness, it is nearly Saint Patrick’s day.

It is March, the month that Ireland and it’s many descendants worldwide, celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day. I confess religion does not play a big part in my life and so I know little of the history behind this much-loved Saint.  On my journey to learn a little more, I came across this beautiful animation from Brown Bag Films,  it is one of a series of short films based on the 1960’s recordings of children in a Dublin school telling Bible stories to their teacher. It is so lovely I had to share it with you.  So, to hear little Mary’s heartwarming tale of Saint Patrick, listen very carefully…… Give Up Yer Aul Sins – Story of Saint Patrick 

Leprechaun Sheep

Inspired by this truly Irish occasion, we chose to dress our Wee Black Faced Sheep as a leprechaun. The pattern for ‘Outfit No 3′ is available on Ravelry,  additional information and pictures can be viewed on my design page here.

Joined by a ‘f-ewe’ friends and after a  pint or two of Guinness, Wee Black Face Sheep kindly agreed to provide us with a little  Irish dancing, this is a hobby in which he truly excels!

Along with St Patrick, leprechaun’s and Guinness,  ’Kissing the Blarney Stone’ is a phrase I have heard often and another well known Irish tradition I knew little about.  So I went to find out more….

Blarney Castle, Co. Cork, Ireland

One story tells of the goddess Cliodna who when sought for advice with regards to a law suit, by Cormac Laidir MacCarthy, the builder of Blarney Castle,  advised him to kiss the first stone he found on his way to court.  MacCarthy did as he was told,  pleaded his case with great success and won.  Thus the stone was believed to impart eloquence or ‘the gift of the gab!’  The ‘Blarney Stone’ was then built-in to the parapet of the Castle, and hence the kissing began!  At one time, it was necessary to be held by the ankles and lowered to the stone!

Kissing the Blarney Stone

Kissing the Blarney stone is a little more civilised today, (Mmmm….not to sure about that looking at the photo above!) although still not recommended for the faint hearted!

Finally, I would like to dedicate this post to some very special people.  Twice a year, accompanied by my sister, I make the journey from North East Scotland to The Glen Gallery in Northern Ireland to teach knitting workshops. The hospitality provided during our stay makes the trip a relaxing break and not like work at all!  The Glen Gallery is a treasure filled shop, nestling in the countryside close by the village of Culleybackey, County Antrim. It is a haven for crafters of any kind with an unbelievable selection of luxury fibres, Rowan, Sublime, Noro, Debbie Bliss, Araucania, Louisa Harding, Adrafil and even some gorgeous local boucle from Cushendale Woollen Mill, Co. Kilkenny. There is a well stocked library of books for sale, patterns, beads, buttons, cross-stitch, threads, ribbons, fabrics, local crafts…..the list goes on…and on.  You can even enjoy a cup of tea or coffee while your brain is concocting a cunning plan to sneak your many purchases inside your home without being spotted by your adoring (but not so understanding with regards to yarn addiction) hubby!  As well as taking care of their elderly parents, Frances and Marilyn see to the day to day running of the shop, organising events, workshops, etc.  Sister Doreen is at hand to help when required.  They are genuinely three of the nicest people I have ever met.    Doreen who often takes part in workshops,  brings with her lots of chat and laughter.  I am certain that she has kissed that Blarney Stone, perhaps more than once!

 

Procrastination, or “l’art de remettre au lendemain”

Not so long ago, I discovered that I had caught a very bad disease, here, in Scotland. My guess is that it is rather contagious, widely spread amongst knitters, and that there is no cure for it. How do I know that I caught it in Scotland? Well, that’s easy: there is no equivalent in French. So it can only come from here, right?

I had symptoms, and was not too sure what they meant. Like, for instance, I started suffering from startitis, also called cast-on-itis: a bad urge to cast on new (knitting) projects while I had already a few on the go. This obliged me to buy more knitting needles, and of course, it goes with an ever increasing stash (my other half joked a couple days ago that I probably had enough to open a yarn shop… that’s how bad it is!).

Another symptom is the stupid deadlines I kept giving to myself, and never managing any of them. You know, like “I really need a new jumper to wear at such-and-such next week. No problem, I’m sure I can manage that in [insert here your choice of 4 ply or DK weight yarn]. It’s only a matter of concentrating on my knitting for a week, right?”

Yes, you got it: procrastination is my disease. The funny thing I found out is that there is no translation in French! No exact translation at least. A close-ish one would be “l’art de remettre au lendemain”, but it’s not quite that either.

I know there is no cure, but I have decided that, really, I need to do something about it – at least, trying to control it a little. Why? Because I found out that I have a ridiculous amount of works in progress (and I don’t even want to admit how many I have – there are a few on my Ravelry project page, but not all of them are listed there…), and even many more things I want to cast on now. Not including about 10 or 12 design ideas that are at very different stages of (non-)completion: from drawings on paper to projects already charted and started, or even two which are complete but the pattern just need to be laid out and checked, or a few pictures need to be taken… See, I’m terrible. But that’s not the worse part.

Back in January, I started thinking about all I wanted to knit for my baby-to-come-soon, and for my little one too so he is kept warm with enough fitting jumpers and hats and cardis to cover the next months when, I am sure, I will have my hands a little full. Anyway, I started planning (?!) a few projects, decided on some jumpers and cardigans for my son, cardigans for the baby too, as well as a baby blanket.

And of course, I continued casting on socks for myself and random other projects, like a toy snake for my son, things like that (we all need a toy snake to use up scraps of sock yarn!)

Now, let’s talk about this blanket. It is very symptomatic of my habits and this procrastination disease… I’ve been thinking about this blanket for a while, I bought the pattern a few months ago as I liked it so much and wanted to support the designer. The blanket is a stranded pattern knitted in Aran weight, and is double sided with two different stranded designs. Well, I thought I would be wise and knit only the stranded front, and use backing fabric for the back. Proud of me, huh?

Ok, now, I mentioned it’s knitted in Aran weight: it’s meant to be a quick-ish knit… What yarn did I choose then? Yup, 4 ply yarn from my stash. A very soft, baby friendly and smooshy 4 ply. Yup. Needless to say that I had also decided to increase drastically the number of repeats of the pattern to reach the baby-blanket size, and even a little more to go up to a cot-size. But at this point, I think I’m totally fine and clever, and I have plenty of time anyway because, remember, we are in January and Baby is supposed to come in April (please don’t remind me that it’s the VERY beginning of April). Pleeeeeeenty of time!

So I cast on this impressive number of stitches on small needles, and happily knit my way through 10 or 12 rows, while watching a couple movies. And as I figured out that, at this rate, I’d be able to knit a baby-blanket-worth of stranded 4 ply in 27 days (see I had a plan!), and since it was only something like January 7^th, I could just put it aside and knit on something else, right? And now it is almost March and there are only about 30 days left. And of course I had not taken into account the time required to knit the border or to back the whole thing with fabric either (because, it takes absolutely no time, right? Just like weaving in ends in an intarsia cardigan*, you know?). So there I am. I’m sure I could let it wait a few more days “’cause I have plenty of time still and you never know, Baby Number 2 may be 10 or 12 days late just like Number 1, right?”

And for those who follow the blog since the beginning, you will certainly remember the “Maman les p’tits bateaux Vest”… Yes, the project is still on my needles. It’s all charted and partly sized. Yes I knitted a little more on it since last time I told you about it. And yes, I must admit I put it aside thinking I had pleeeeeenty of time to finish because it was a little wide for my son at the time. But I think I now have to hurry up, or it will get too tight on him very soon!

I promise, I’ll try very hard to improve myself. I’ve actually started to decrease my number of WIPs (or so I think). I’ll keep you updated.

I’m seriously thinking about joining a group like “Knitting Procrastinators Anonymous”. Do you reckon it would work?

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*A note about that intarsia cardigan: I decided to cast on this amazingly cute cardigan for my son, with a digger, a dumper, etc… And here is what I ended up with:

Yes, it ended up in the naughty corner for a while. I tried to bribe myself into not being allowed to knit more on it until I weave in at least 50% of all these ends. Needless to say it didn’t work. And I picked it up a couple days ago to knit the sleeves and join the raglan… But I’m confident: it will get done and look like a cardigan and not so much like a rug… one day!

Move over Gordon, Jamie and Hugh here comes Vince and Valerie!

Vince and Valerie

A few weeks ago when clearing out my project drawer (New Year’s Resolution No. 1) I found these two Love Chicks tucked away under some felt. With Valentine’s Day looming I emailed the design room at Rowan to see if they would like them and “Voila”, (as Aurelie would say) here they are!

Vince and Valerie are closely related to Gordon, Jamie and Hugh, whose story I am about to tell.

Way back in 2008 I was working as the Rowan Design Consultant in John Lewis, Aberdeen. Having worked as a freelance designer pre-children, this was my first job back in the knitting fold and I loved it! Rowan were preparing to launch the new Purelife brand and the first product under this new label was a beautiful organic cotton, naturally dyed and ethically produced.

This yarn was gorgeous (So sad it is now discontinued, but I do have a few balls stashed away!) Perhaps a pattern that could be given away free with the yarn purchase would help promote sales?  Keen to start designing again I picked up my sketch book and began to doodle.

At the same time as this imminent yarn launch, three celebrity chefs, Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver, and Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall were appearing in a debut TV show called The Big Food Fight. Hugh was starring in 3 episodes called Hugh’s Chicken Run where his investigations took him behind the chicken shed doors attempting to change the way Britain consumes chicken and highlighting the benefits of organic poultry rearing.

Gordon, Jamie and Hugh Chickens

It seemed only logical that my design should be for organic chicken and of course they had to be named Gordon, Jamie and Hugh!

I remain very fond of my little friends. The pattern promotion encouraged sales to such an extent that Rowan decided to publish it (along with a few other farmyard friends) in The Organic Cotton Kid’s Collection. Thank you Hugh, Gordon and Jamie, and to Marie Wallin at Rowan for giving me the chance to get back to my roots.

Happy Chandeleur, it’s crepes time!

Today, I am not going to speak about wool, yarn or knitting. I hope you won’t hold me grief for that. Instead, I wanted to share with you one of the French traditions. I mentioned it in this post last week: today is crêpes day! So I made some, and wanted to share them with you too (well, at least, the recipe!).

In France, la Chandeleur (“Candlemas”) is a pagan tradition, linked to light, although it also corresponds to a Christian holiday. For me and as far as I can remember, la chandeleur has always been the “day of the crêpes”. Celebrated on 2^nd February, it is a popular tradition of making and eating crêpes. A common belief, is that one has to flip the crêpe (making it “jump” in the air) while holding a gold coin (some also say a Louis d’or, a gold coin first introduced by Louis XIII in 1640), in order to assure prosperity for the family throughout the year. In case you wonder, I had already my hands full with managing two pans of crêpes, and a hungry toddler… so no, I didn’t flip a crêpe while holding a gold coin. And no, I don’t even know where I could get hold of a gold coin! Bad luck for our prosperity then for 2013… Luckily I’m not superstitious.

Juggling with two pans. Sweet crepe on the left, savoury crepe on the right.

Anyhow, I made my crêpes before dinner, and we had a very nice family meal tonight. To be honest, it is definitely not the kind of “meal” that should be eaten often, as there are very few fruits or vegetables involved, if you see what I mean… As a matter of fact, I made two kinds of crêpes: some “sweet” ones and some “savoury” ones. We ate the savoury ones as the main meal, and a few sweet crêpes for dessert. Yummy! And, bonus: there are a few left for breakfast tomorrow!

The “usual” ones are made out of white flour, eggs and milk. You will find a multitude of different recipes: some people add a little bit of (sunflower) oil, some add rum, or sugar, or orange blossom water, etc. The possibilities are pretty much endless. But I prefer to make mine as simple as possible, and then add whatever flavour I like on top of them. As a result, there is no clash of flavour if, say, I had added orange blossom water to the batter, and decide to spread the crêpe with some pureed fruits or jam… So, if you please, I am happy to share with you my “naked” recipe for crêpes:

For 4-6 people (-ish):
-          500 g white flour
-          6 eggs
-          Approximately 1-1.5 L milk (2-3 pints). Amount varies depending on quality / type of flour, size of eggs, how long the batter rests, and how long it takes you to make all the crêpes (it is not unusual to add some milk as one goes through the pile of crêpes to cook, because the batter tends to thicken with time).

You will also need a pan. The size of the pan does not really matter; it is important though that the pan be slick. Also a flatter pan makes it easier to flip the crêpes, but that’s not mandatory. You can also “cheat” and use a flat utensil to flip the crêpes instead of flipping them in the air.

Sweet “naked” crêpes

In a large bowl, put the flour, and the eggs. While mixing everything together with a whisk, pour the milk little by little. Make sure you get rid of all lumps, and continue diluting with milk until the batter is rather liquid. The more liquid, the thinner the crêpes! Heat up your pan. You may want to grease it very slightly with some oil, applied with a cloth for instance. When the pan is really hot: using a ladle, pour a little bit of batter (half a ladle?) in the centre of the pan while making it rotate to spread the batter evenly all over in a thin layer. Remember that the first crêpe is usually not a pretty one, because the pan is not at the right temperature in general (but it’s just as good, so just eat it! it also gives a good excuse to have a taste before everyone else). Once the bottom is cooked (the sides start to become a little brown), flip the crêpe over so it cooks on the other side, then put the crepe on a plate. To avoid it to dry, I tend to cover the cooked crêpes with another plate (upside down), to keep the moisture there. Make as many crêpes as your stock of batter allows.

Sweet crêpes with crème de marron

To eat them, I recommend using your favourite jam (spread in a more or less thin layer), pureed fruits, or simply sugar or honey. To indulge yourself, I recommend putting a crêpe back in the pan (add a little bit of butter under it so it does not stick to the pan), placing on top a few squares of your favourite dark chocolate, when the chocolate starts melting, cut half a banana on top, fold the crêpe on itself, and let the chocolate melt some more. Eat warm!

And because I have a (very) sweet tooth, I also love my crêpes with some crème de marron (chestnut spread). The only one I trust (the best one in my opinion) comes from the Ardèche region in France, and I’d like to thank my mum for making sure I never run out!

In short, just let your imagination go wild, and eat your crêpe with whatever you fancy!

Galettes de “blé noir”

I mentioned two kinds of crêpes… and all these refer to the recipe above. So you may wonder what the second kind is like. Well, it is not made with standard flour to start with. It is a speciality of the Brittany region in France and the crêpes are not called crêpes, but galettes. The flour used is called “blé noir” (which would translate as “black wheat”, but it’s not wheat!): it is sarrasin (buckwheat). Again, there are lots of recipes to make the galettes. I won’t share with you the one I used tonight, because I am still not 100% happy with it. I have made improvements to it, but I think there is still a lot of room for improvement. Once the galettes are made, they are re-placed in the pan, and there too, let your imagination go wild! I like the simplicity of the traditional “egg-cheese-ham” galette: break an egg on the galette, and break it/spread it with a fork; while it cooks, spread some grated cheese, add a couple slices of ham, salt and pepper. Once the egg is mostly cooked, fold in half and let it continue to cook a little… Eat straight away! Yummy! Of course, you can add lettuce and tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, or go for something totally different.

Right, I think I have been talking about food for long enough… At this point, either I scared you, or I made you very hungry. In both cases, I am really sorry. For those of you I didn’t scare with all this food-talk, please let me know if/when you try making crêpes, tell me what you think! And of course, feel free to ask questions if you have any!

And next time, I promise, there will be less talk, and more knitting. Well… more knitting, for sure!

Happy Chandeleur everyone, happy crêpes!

All loved up!

My love is like a red, red rose.

Today, I am the luckiest woman alive.  It is almost February and I already have my perfect Valentine. He is dark, handsome and dresses impeccably. (Although occasionally in drag!) He brings me flowers, and never has to say sorry.  He does not complain about my untidy house, or my culinary skills.  He is a good listener and never interrupts, or reads the newspaper when I talk. He does not drink or smoke (Unless sitting too close to an open fire!) He is cuddly, does not snore and takes up very little space in the bed.

Many of you will be envious of my good fortune. You will be desperate to meet my perfect Valentine.  Perhaps he has a brother, dad or son who is single?

TO MEET MY PERFECT VALENTINE

CLICK ON THE HEART

BELOW

♥

 

Along with this barefaced attempt at advertising you will receive £1.50 discount at the Ravelry checkout (until midnight GMT, February 28th, 2013) when buying the pattern for Wee Black Faced Sheep and his Valentine’s Day attire.

You have 14 days to be ‘all loved up,’ just like lucky old me! Just click here to make all your dreams come true!

Ready… Steady… Go! It’s time for Burns Night!

In France, we recover from the festive season (read: “our stomach attempts to recover from 2 weeks of over-eating with family and friends”) over a galette des rois, which, of course, is entirely calorie-free (all-butter puff pastry, and almond filling called frangipane), which we eat around January 6th for the Epiphany. Let’s admit it: it’s mostly another excuse to get together with family and friends and treat ourselves.

Less than a month later, so as to not lose our ability to delight ourselves with tasty treats, it’s “Chandeleur” time, when we have delicious crêpes… (it’s next week, my dear friends! next week!!)

Needless to say that I felt pretty much “at home” when I figured out that, here in Scotland, to recover from the festive season, people get together with family and friends to share a nice meal. I must admit with shame that I have not been able yet to attend a “formal” Burns Supper (although we have been invited a few times). Reason is simple: each time, on the invite was stipulated the dress code, and The Man has been a tad reluctant to the idea of wearing a kilt so far… So, in order to play on the “cute-factor”, I have had the idea to design kilt hose for our little one… Who knows, The Man might be jealous and ask for some too!? And then (*evil grin*), I would knit him kilt socks, but he would have to wear them… with a kilt!

In the meantime, here are special socks designed for chubby legs, just in time for tomorrow! (more information here or here on Ravelry, and a special offer too*!)

Long story short, tomorrow is Robbie Burns’s birthday: time for Janice’s Wee Black Faced sheep to polish his piping skills… and time for The Wee Lad to put his socks on!

* Special offer: from tomorrow 25th January 2013, to end of day 31st January 2013 (GMT), use coupon code “burnssupper2013″ at checkout on Ravelry for £1.00 off.