Child's Foxy Jumper Pattern

I've been working on this childrens'  jumper pattern for quite a while. When I look back the first small version was knitted in August, so I realise I am not working at a very fast pace. But finally the pattern is complete and published on ravelry, Etsy and LoveKnitting. The photo below shows Age 1-2 years, and 2-3 years, and the pattern comes in two more sizes up to Age 7.

I really like the little fox border, although in the last week one of our lovely chickens has disappeared. I suspect perhaps a fox, my husband a stoat, and we have also wondered about a bird of prey. But there was no sign of feathers, so my neighbour, who also has chickens, says she may have got broody and be hiding, sitting on a nest of unfertilised eggs somewhere. That would be great, but I am not very hopeful. If it was a fox I know foxes just do what they have to do to live.

Apart from the fox border the jumper pattern is really quite simple. It is knitted in 4-ply, from the bottom up. It is seamed, and has raglan sleeves. The bottom and cuffs have a border of garter stitch, although this could be altered to rib if you prefer that, and the neck is a simple roll collar. You need a small amount of two additional colours for the foxes, and a tiny bit of black for their eyes and noses, which are embroidered on at the end.

 

 

I so love these little foxes I am thinking of knitting a bigger version for myself.

Lambretta

I love seeing projects made from my patterns, and this one is special as Wendy has made a this lambretta for her husband using my vespa pattern. It is not an easy pattern, as there are a lot of little pieces to attach, and an insert to keep it rigid. She has done a great job!

Linoprinting

In the Spring my son and I did a linoprinting course, and was thinking at the time about printing Christmas cards. So over the last week or so I have had a go at this, using one of my old carvings and making a few new ones. I wasn't going to post about this, but if my friends and family do see this post they still don't know which card they will receive.

I had the idea of putting some cards in my Etsy shop, but think I need to work a bit more at my carving precision and printing, which as you can see is sometimes a bit smudgy. I printed straight onto the card, but see a lot of cards in the shops and fairs print onto cartridge paper and then mount this. Perhaps this would be better, as I have had to wash my hands between each print, and also then it would be easier to get the print nicely centred on the card.

I had a lot of fun doing this, and have some ideas for some more prints.

The robin's red breast was added with water colour

 

Final Garden Post for This Year

I thought I had written my last post on the vegetable garden for this year as the only vegetables outdoors that I am still picking are some leeks, and the sprouts that I am hoping will get a bit bigger for Christmas.

 

But I had forgotten about these little beauties - the Jerusalem artichokes. I had noticed this year their lovely yellow flowers, which were impossible to photograph because of the long stalks. They really are the no-effort vegetable, as every year up they come, and however thoroughly I think I have dug, there are clearly enough bits of tubers for the plants to come up again the next year. So I think these are destined for a nice hearty soup.

Most of the vegetable garden has been put to bed under some dark sheeting, but I have planted one area with some green manure. I can see the seedlings coming up, and these will be dug back in the spring to add nitrogen.

The polytunnel has been tidied up, and I have just one trough left, where I have planted some sweetpeas. I never have much luck with sweetpeas, but saw the tip on Beechgrove Garden to plant in the autumn so they have a head start.

There is still quite a bit to do in the other bits of the garden, buddleia to cut back. I am hoping for a nice crisp but sunny day, which never seems to come.

Medlar Fruit Jelly

 

I have been busy making jelly again. Perhaps this is becoming more of a cookery blog than craft blog. We have a single medlar tree in the garden, and other years I have not picked the fruit. But maybe because we did not have as many apples and pears as other years, this year the medlar tree seemed full of fruit, so I decided to give them a go.

I had not heard of this fruit, but apparently they were very popular in medieval times, and because of its appearance had some quite rude names. As you can see they are rather a strange looking fruit, and really quite hard. You have to pick them, and leave them to blett, which means ripen until they look as if they are almost rotten. Some I left a bit too long, but I ended up with about a kilo of usable fruit, and used this recipe on the RHS site to make the jelly. It is a lovely colour, and tastes of apples.

 

My dog is the one who loves the medlars, and if I cannot find her she will often be under the tree snacking. 

Ryeland

Could you photograph Rylan, I thought they said! And I started dreaming. My first celebrity photoshoot. Imagining him with those purly white teeth, perhaps wearing a purly white jumper, or maybe black, he often wears black. Alas, I was mistaken! 

Here is the Ryeland that I photographed. Equally lovely, this Ryeland from one of Britain’s oldest sheep breeds, originally known for Merino-like softness. It has just been launched by Blacker Yarns in their Limited Edition and Rare Breeds. If you visit their page you can read more information, and see some lovely photos of the flock that this wool came from.

 

Sloe Syrup

I have been looking at the sloes in the hedges around the field for some time now, and trying not to get ahead of myself and pick them too soon. Some books say wait until you have had a frost, but we are quite mild here, so that might be a while. But the other day I noticed that quite a few were starting to shrivel, and looked a bit like raisins, so decided it was time to pick.

My son and me both picked a colander, so we had about 3kg between us. Although I have made sloe gin other years, I decided this year it might be better to make sloe syrup. We could put this in gin, but it might also be nice to have on porridge, or yoghurt, or even icecream. It is meant to be packed full of vitamin C and antioxidants, so hopefully will ward off any winter colds.