Object of desire....

To see this is to want it.....


What is it? Click here and all will be revealed. Unfortunately, it's already sold.

There was another one and a plain one on US Ebay recently too.

I never knew sewing machines with cabinets like these existed before today. Gorgeous, no? I want one like this, so I do, preciousesss. I used to have a beloved old Singer treadle in an ordinary cabinet, but nothing like the top beauty. The plainer one is nice, but why not go for the full-on bling? And look the skirt guards, so you don't get your posh petticoats stuck in the nasty grubby drive wheel!

PS. Just found another one, and though plain it's at least in the same country. Anyone likely to be up in Fraserburgh from Edinburgh next week? With a big car?????

Righty-ho.

Okay, I bet you didn't even notice the space-time continuum warp just there, did you? Thanks, Ceallach!

Well, on with Friday then. What have I been doing? Spinning like a dervish, that's what. The local spinning Guild meets the third Saturday of every month, yup? Yup.....apart from November and December, when it all goes a bit funny. So as I discovered on Monday, the Guild meeting is tomorrow, and I hadn't finished spinning my Colour Challenge fibre, oops....

Here's the fibre....




Which is from a drum carded batt I made from these fibres.



Firts comment here is just observe how the availible light changes the colours in a photograph, as if we didn't know. The first was taken on my desk a few weeks back, in front of a very big window on a sunny day, with a fluorescent lamp on to balance the shadows, the fluorescent light option on my camera switched on and a white balance taken. Just compare to the second picture, which was taken eight weeks ago on the garden bench, natural daylight, overcast day and auto-everything on the camera. Just shows how much the reds shift in the first pix, no? That roving is sitting on a supposedly white sheet of paper.

It carded up into a very nice batt, very soft due to the merino and other fine dyed wools and with a lot of texture due to the silk roving and also some coarser pale green Shetland (?) which is providing some lovely little nubbs. I am on my last ten grams or so of the second bobbin of singles and I'd better get my butt in gear over spinning the rest and plying it because as I said I need to show this skein at Guild tomorrow. And I'll need to get it washed and dried as well, oops. Think I'll manage?

I'm also part way through spinning the Spunky Eclectic Fiber Club October fibre which is an interesting Romney wool dyed in a colourway called Goblin Eyes. I'm trying to spin this as a possibly aran weight thick and thin slubbed two-ply, but I'm struggling. Like most spinners I started off doing this type of spinning really well, then I got gradually thinner and thinner till now I have real problems making anything other than fine fingering yarns. However as I'm spinning the September fibre (Merino Tencel, colourway "Aspen") as a sockweight yarn, I thought I would try something different with the Goblin Eyes. To be frank I'm not enjoying this fibre...it feels like spinning hair, though the singles are soft enough.

I've not finished the September Club fibre either, but no rush there.



I do like the Spunky Fiber Club. If you look back through the blog, there's some really fabulous fibres and colourways and it's very exciting to get the parcels in the post. (I keep looking at her Sock Club too, but...well, budget constraints!)

Victory?

Well, yesterday it took me a bit more than half an hour to get Mairi's room even semi-presentable. More like two hours, in fact. I came out with two huge black bags of rubbish, an Ikea blue bag filled to the brim with outgrown toys for the charity shop, a box of toys to be put up in the attic in case she misses them (if not, they go to the charity shop in three months) and a box of toys which have been downgraded to garden toys ie I don't care if they get manky out there, they can get binned.

In fact I took out a lot of excess. So why is it her room looks no emptier???

It does look a bit more organised, I suppose. And one of the best things about sorting toys out again is when you reunite sets of things, they can look fresh and interesting again. Last night both kids (Duncan is eleven, you understand) spent two hours playing tea parties in her room, just because I'd found all the plastic sandwich ingerdients that velcro together to make play picnics. It was cute.

Similarly, I also made a determined effort to locate all the bags of yarn and fibre stash which has been squirreled away in the attic for some time, as protection against the builders. It was interesting to find some things that I'd forgotten about, like the two packs of Debbie Bliss Merino DK which I had obviously found on sale somewhere, since it was priced at 50p per ball. And four packs of Rowan Linen Print which had come out the 1p per gram Yarn Mountain at the Knitting and Crochet Guild, one SkipNorth. Ohh, the guilt free joys of stash shopping, lol! Lots of fibre too, especially plain rovings in a rainbow of colours from Wingham Wool Work. And little fancy bits of this and that. Enough to keep me happy on the drum carder for some months...up till next SkipNorth, in fact...

(Memo to self: Must get some of the above photographed, and on Ravelry.)

There were also several bags of old raw fleece. Now when I first started to spin I was pretty indiscriminate about fleeces and used to buy vast quantities of this and that for not a lot from Ebay. Of course then I didn't really have time to wash it all, let alone spin it, so I shoved it up into the attic where it hung around like the proverbial skeleton. Over the years I've come to the conclusion that I'm just not an oatmeal fibre girl, I like colour and a bit of glitz in my handspun! And also, there's quite a lot of variability in temperature in my attic, ranging from sub-zero in the winter to sweltering hot in August. This has done the fleeces no good at all...in fact the words "rancid", "sweaty" and "felted" come into my thoughts here. Fortunately I didn't pay very much for any of this, so I've decided to cut my losses, compost the lot and free up both space and gulit factor.

(And no, it's not worth asking for it. If it was good stuff I just wanted to get rid of then of course I'd be delighted to offer it out, but trust me, no-one wants this old crap.)

Anyway, now that I can actually see the toy shelves in Mairi's bedroom I'm off to do another round in there this morning. Target today is to remove at least 10% of her outgrown toys, if not 20%. Cruel? No, I don't think so. It can get to a point that there's so much clutter in a child's bedroom that they can't see most of what they own, or it's too difficult to get to or there's simply no room to get things out to play. Also there's no free storage space in there at the moment and she got a big hit of new stuff on her birthday last month with no-where to put them, let alone the Christmas gifts she'll get.

Update on the Storecupboard Challenge. It's going well. This is Day 7 and I've actually had quite a lot of fun with this. I've made some very nice meals that have been appreciated, I've spent about half my usual housekeeping budget this week and the cupboards are actually starting to look a bit emptier. Plenty more for next week though.

Today's menu is...

Split Pea and Ham soup with Sunflower Seed and Honey Bread. This is a main course soup, trust me. I'm very good at soups like this.
Pineapple Upside Down Cake. (From the Be-Ro book of course!)


I was a bit surprised to find not one but five tins of pineapple in the pantry, considering it's not something we eat very much. Bit like the four tins of sardines in tomato sauce, I expect. Even the cats don't much like these latter tins, unless I rinse off every trace of tomato.

Edit: Came back to post a picture of the Pineapple Upside Down Cake. Got to keep up the Yarnstorm side, no!

To date.

Mixed day today...combination of housework (urgh), fibre (maybe) and dejunking.

I did think I might go to the allotment today, but when I got up and looked round the shambles I decided I'd better shift some of it first. The layer of mess had managed to penetrate to every room, so I had a choice here...either retreat to the study with a cup of tea and feel overwhelmed, or use the FlyLady method of setting a timer and doing it ten minutes at a time. I'm not a total FlyLady fan, but this is one method that works for me. It's actually quite amazing how much you can do in ten minutes, if you really go for it.

So the kitchen has had its ten minutes...cooker cleaned, surfaces wiped down and the remains of the washing up (Hubby never quite manages 100% of the washing up) stacked ready to do after I've made lunch. Living room has had the clean laundry folded and put away, shopping from last night put away too, cat tray emptied, videos sorted and put into correct boxes and while I was doing this I sorted out a large bagful of old videos to go to the charity shop. That took 2 x 10 minutes sessions, but I count the second as dejunking, not housework.

Next stop Mairi's bedroom, which is always depressing, ick. She's a real horder of small things and they can develop into a landslide very easily. Plus she's only six, so not that great at tidying. Think I might need 3x 10 minutes there, including dejunking. Actually, sometimes I feel I need a bulldozer in there.

And after that (and laundry, dishes, cooking, cleaning the bathroom and taking the rubbish out) I'll have the remains of the day free to laze around, ho ho. Until 2.40pm and school pick up, that is. I might get a few yards of spinning done? I just realised that spinning Guild is this coming Saturday, not next, which is unfortunate because I haven't completed my Fibre Challenge (will tell you about this when I've finished) or finished preparing my short tutorial on "Your Favourite Hand Made Xmas Ornament, and How To Make It". I might of course slot this in somewhere between kids coming home, homework, teatime and Parents Night at school, which is tonight, haha. Maybe....

And my Hubby comes out with comments like "You've got all day to yourself...why are you always moaning you don't have time?" Bah. Would like to see him do all this in a day.

Where's my timer gone....?

Crumble.

I had a request for my crumble topping recipe from Woolywoman. And a query "What is crumble?" from an anonymous poster. Am I to take it from this crumble is either unknown or (more likely) called something else over the Atlantic?

Anyhow, Fruit Crumble recipe, adapted from the venerable Be-Ro Flour Home Recipes, 40th Edition.

500g g (16 oz) fruit (cooking apples, rhubarb, gooseberries, brambles or similar.)
Sugar to taste, for sweetening above. I like quite a tart fruit layer, to contrast with the sweet topping.
50 g (2 oz) margarine
100 g (4 oz) wholemeal flour
50 g (2 oz) sugar
75g (3oz)pinhead oatmeal.

(Sorry, I never got my head round US measurements.)

1 Heat oven to 190ºC, 375ºF, Gas Mark 5.
2 Place prepared sweetened chopped fruit shallow ovenproof dish.
3 Rub fat into flour until it resembles breadcrumbs.
4 Add sugar and pinhead oatmeal, mix thoroughly and spread evenly over the fruit.
5 Bake for about 30 minutes until fruit is cooked and top is golden.

Hope you like it. It's best served with custard. Very traditional pudding!

Talking of traditional, I'm amazed and pleased to discover the Be-Ro recipe book online. This too is one of these old-fashioned things that a great many of us here will remember from way back. The little Be-ro recipe books were sold in the grocers shops alongside their flours for sixpence or a shilling back in my childhood (I'm 49) or you sent away for them enclosing a stamp and three coupons from the back of the packet. I learned to bake out of one of these back in the 60's when I lived in India and Turkey. It was an interesting contrast to be turning out Drop Scones and Bakewell Pudding in scorching heat! Plus I think every home made birthday cake any of my family has ever had came from one or the other Be-ro book.

I lost mine a few years ago but wrested one of my mother's two copies from her. The 25th edition, if I recall...she's keeping the older one till she dies, she says. This is her older one, the one I remember from my childhood. (Image courtesy of the Be-Ro website.)



And here are all the others.We're still on the 40th edition, it seems, which is the one I currently have. I found it on sale in a supermarket in Wales six or seven years back. I was thrilled! Of course, all you still need to do is buy two bags of their flour and send the coupon off, but this simple method hadn't occurred to me. So mum got her 25th Aniversary Edition back, lol.

It's funny to see it on-line, belive me, because it's such a strong childhood memory for me. Of course Be-Ro flour is still a market leader and this is the 21st century, so why not? Thanks for reminding me of all this though, Woolywoman. :-)

Today is Monday.

Monday is usually Housework Day, after the ravages of the family all being home over the weekend. However as Dad & Lad were out on Saturday I got a few chores done then, and as such had time this morning to catch up with a few other outstanding things.

Such as Ebay. I'm not a regular Ebay seller, but I do like a clear out for money every so often. I have a few books and yarns I want to list today and they'll be up tonight( under seller name dmc.hodge, if anyone is that interested) but there's also a huge heap of toys and such sorted out in the attic, just waiting for me to take pictures of them and list them. It doesn't make sense for me to carry everything down from the attic, take pictures then return it all up there, so I have rigged a studio area upstairs too. Plenty of space and the light is good. Plus it ensures that the kids don't decide that they want the toys they outgrew a couple of years ago returned to them!

Studio area....



It's not exactly hi-tech, and I may refine things a bit by (a) ironing (!!!!!) that piece of curtain lining and (b) stapling it to the window frame a bit higher, but it's good enough to give me a picture as sharp as this one without using flash or having to fiddle the light balance via Photoshop. For November in Scotland that's really very good.



So for the last hour I've been taking pictures of toys. Mostly Playmobil. Did I ever mention that I collect vintage Playmobil? Over the course of several years I've amassed one heck of a lot of really rare collectable items, as well of course the vast Playmo swamp that the kids own. Now is time to get rid of some of the duplicates.

(Hmm, might write more about my sad toy collecting habits another day. I'm sure you'll all really enjpoy that!)

On the domestic front I'm pleased to report that the Storecupboard Challenge is going well, and in fact last night's casserole was one of the best I've made in ages. We adults will finish it off tonight, and the kids will have their all-time favourite of Egg and Bacon Rice with Peas, made with a very frosty looking pack of lardons I discovered in the freezer and some of the rice mountain.

Of course, another big bonus of using up all your surplus food is that your grocery bill plummets. I'm hoping that between a month of this and a good solid bit of Ebaying I'll not only be able to cover my SkipNorth costs, I'll put a big dent into the cost of Woolfest next year too, and some left over for family treats. I just paid for four Christmas panto tickets to see Goldilocks and the Three Bears at the Kings Theatre in Edinburgh, and also tickets for Mairi and me to see Sleeping Beauty at the Scottish Ballet in the New Year. (This last she will LOVE...can't wait to see her face!) But tickets for this sort of thing are seriously expensive, alas. I need some spare cash!

Back to the attic.......

Pantry.

Today I'm going to talk about my storecupboard. "Zzzzzzzz" I can hear you all go, but it IS National Blog Posting Month, folk, and I just don't knit that fast! Plus, Of course, I'm on the Store Cupboard Challenge, which will be one of my themes (NatBloPOMo suggests you have themes, so you don't run out of ideas to talk about.)

Now my actual dry goods storecupboard isn't one of these pathetic fitted chipboard thingies that make up fitted kitchens. My storecupboard is a humungous old piece of furniture, officially known as a Housekeepers Pantry.



Nice old piece of antique pine, seven feet across and at least eight feet high. No, it's not built in, it just matches the tongue and grooving very well. The upper cupboard shelves are deep enough to lay wine bottles on their sides pointing out, and the drawers can accomodate things like baking bowls and attachments for my old Kenwood. It was such a tight fit getting it through the doorway that we had to take the carpet kickbar off the doorway, to give us that last inch needed. Yes, it comes apart into two sections but it's bigger than most average modern house kitchens, at least when it comes to storage space.

It's a family piece too. My late father in law bought it at least forty years ago, second hand of course, and my first memory of it is in the kitchen of his family house. My FIL had a storecupboard overflow habit too, btw, and I remember at least one shelf being completely filled with tins of tomatoes and tuna fish. It went to my sister in laws house after he died, because we didn't have a wall big enough for it in our house at the time. When she became ill and started sorting out her affairs, as they say, she asked me if there was anything I particularly wanted from her estate. I think she expected me to ask for a piece of jewelry or one of her very pukka pieces of artwork, but I wanted the old pantry. Family piece, after all, and it's got history. After it arrived here, Hubby showed me the place he had scratched his name into it when he was little, much to the wrath of his mother!

Okay, contents. I keep china and crystal in the left hand cupboard, table linen and baking utensils etc in four of the drawers, the kids' craft stuff in one drawer and the final one is filled with random kitchenalia, like rolls of plastic bags, string, jam pot labels etc. Stuff. Which leaves "just" the right hand cupboard as the actual pantry/storecupbard.

Ahem. I'm obviously carrying on the great family hoarding tradition here, no? Siege-R-Us.



So you can tell now why I need a little clear-out, yes? Half of this stash of food is made up of regularly used and replaced items, but the other half is ...well, impulse/luxury/gawdknowswhybuys. This is what I'm aiming to use up over the next two or three weeks. And you haven't even seen the freezers. Yes, two freezers. Both stuffed to the gunnels.

Anyhow, yesterday I made....(dinners only, lunch was on the hoof).

Kids dinner menu. "Fresh" tortellini and tomato sauce (found in depths of freezer) and jelly. I have a lot of jelly. Jelly here, btw for the USA peeps, is a dessert like Jell-O.

Adults: Bubble n' Squeak made from the remnants of last nights mashed potatoes and cabbage, plus some bacon bits out the freezer. Apple crumble with oaty topping (there's a small landslide of pinhead oatmeal in the pantry) plus custard.


Today's dinner menu....

Casserole made from pack of venison and pack of stewing beef from freezer, with mushrooms, carrots, green pepper, garlic and onions, tin of tomatoes and a jar of exotic mixed mushrooms in oil out the pantry. (I have four of these left...they must have been on special offer somewhere. Any ideas for the rest?) I put some waxy potatoes and paprika in here as well, as I was working to a vaguely Spanish idea of a casserole. Remains of crumble, or ice cream.


I have to add here that the freezer level has not dropped one inch, alas. I'm keeping to the rules of not buying anything but the listed essentials, but when I was in Asda yesterday I came across one of these offers that I can't resist. Four-packs of Nestle "Fruit Cruch" ice cream bars, yummy raspberry ripple ice-cream with a yoghurt and oat coating.....not only were they greatly reduced, the multi-buy of 4-for-£* kicked in in such a way that every time you bought four packs, Asda gave you £2 to carry them out the store, rather than the other way round. Which is why I ended up buying 16 packs, and now have 64 (!)ice-cream bars cluttering up my freezer. £8($16) off my shopping and 64 free ice cream bars? Bargain!

(But not for long. Did I mention they are delicious? )