Vegetable Garden Update July

I have accidentally let two months pass without writing about my vegetable garden. I am busy picking raspberries, loganberries and strawberries every day, and my one small gooseberry bush is fully laden. Somebody told me gooseberries and strawberries combine to make a nice jam, so they are being popped into the freezer until I have enough. The trees in the orchard are also looking good, and I am hopeful that this year we may even get some plums - there are lots of green ones on the tree.

I will start with the positives, which this is year is my broadbeans. I followed advice and picked out the tops of the plants, and not a sign of any blackfly. Also the sweetcorn seemed slow to start, but I can now see the corns husks forming.  

But I have a lot of trouble with pests this year. Despite the chickwire fence around the garden I have caught the odd rabbit inside, but even mending the holes is not going to stop squirrels, whom I have also seen. My peas were doing fairly well, and I had picked for one meal, but then found that the plants and pods had been completely eaten. The rabbits, combined with slugs and snails, mean I am on my third attempt at runnerbeans. I think the first ones were eated by a rabbit, as the stems were biten through. I now have a combination of netting, tubes with copper at the bottom, beer traps, coffee and eggshells. Throwing everything at protecting this lot!

My first courgette plants also got eaten, so I have them under a cover and with sheep fleece around. It does not make the garden look great, but it is all I can think to do. 

Seeing the seedlings that you have nurtured get eaten up is quite sad, and has made me a bit reluctant to plant things out. I have hung onto my butternut squash plants in the polytunnel, just potting them on, but decided a few days ago that it was time for them to face the big outdoors. My sunflowers are also still in the polytunnel. I must be brave, but because I lost them all last year, I am still waiting for them to get a bit bigger.

I am trying a few new things in the garden. I have two purple sweet potato plants from the village. Apparently they need a lot of water. Also growing some pak choi seedlings, which are coming along. Some lovely cosmos flowers are making the garden look pretty.

Sweet potato plant, pak choi seedling, and some of the cosmos

Other things in the polytunnel are going fairly well. I have a new friend at Oxfam whom I am swapping seedlings with, and the exchange of plants in the village continues. My friend gave me two cucumber plants, and we have just eaten our first cucumber, which was delicious. 

The tomato plants that I grew from seed seemed very slow, so I bought two plants from a garden centre. They are a little ahead, but my seed grown ones seem to be catching up. 

White onions are looking good, but my red ones have not grown very well, and seem to have had the tops nibbled off now. I had always thought of onions as a fairly safe bet. Yesterday I planted out some of the leeks. It has been so dry it was quite difficult to dib into the dug soil. I have another pot of seedlings in reserve.

Embroidered Tablecloth Blouse

This is a project I've been thinking about for a long time. I have a collections of embroidered tablecloths - some inherited from my mother, and others I've picked up over the years. I've always planning to sew with them, but the idea of cutting into these precious fabrics - and possibly getting it wrong - kept holding me back.

At last, though, I have got sewing, and I'm really happy with the result. I used the Ethel Blouse pattern, which I had sewn a few weeks ago from some old curtain fabric. I particularly like this pattern, as no tricky buttonholes or zips.

I made a few alterations to accommodate the embroidery layout, and the limited amount of fabric I had. So there is now a central seam at the front and back panels. This meant I could position the embroidery symmetrically. I also decided not to gather the peplum. A few reasons for this: first, I didn't want the gathering to obscure the embroidery, which is the highlight of the piece; second, I really was short of fabric; and finally, a peplum apparently makes me look like I may be pregnant, according to my husband! Cheeky.

I was a little nervous about cutting into the embroidery. Might it come unravelled? But by carefully placing the pattern pieces, I managed to avoid cutting through most of the embroidered sections. And by french seaming throughout, I managed to enclose all the raw edges. I really do love a french seam. 

The sleeves were made from a second tablecloth, which I bought in a charity shop for £2. I did consider using a contrasting colour fabric, but in the end, I stuck with white to keep the blouse cohesive—and true to the tablecloth theme. I love the sleeve design in this pattern, so I was glad I could keep that detail.

I think my mum would be really pleased to see her embroidery given a new life like this. And now, after seeing my blouse, my daughter has asked me to make her a sleeveless version. Luckily, I have another tablecloth in mind that I think will be perfect.

A Snowdrop-Inspired Nordic Jumper

 

For a while now, I’ve had the idea in my head to knit a Nordic yoke-style jumper inspired by one of my favourite flowers: the snowdrop. There’s something magical about them—the way they bloom so early in the year, delicate and determined, quietly pushing up through the frost and leaf litter to announce that spring is on its way.

Where I live, wild snowdrops are everywhere in late winter. They gather in great drifts along the roadside, scatter themselves like confetti across woodland floors, and pop up in garden corners where you least expect them. I find them absolutely beautiful—they are understated, and full of quiet hope.

Despite searching, I couldn’t find a jumper pattern that featured snowdrops in the way I imagined them. So I decided to design my own.

 

This jumper is knitted with double-knit wool. The body and sleeves are worked flat, then joined together at the yoke, which is knit in the round on circular or double-pointed needles. I wanted to capture the graceful shape of snowdrop petals and the soft contrast between the greens and whites that mark their arrival in the natural world.

I have to confess—while knitting the body, I kept glancing ahead to the yoke chart, itching to start working with the colours and motifs. That’s where the design really comes to life.

The pattern contains instructions for three sizes. I'm wearing the smallest size in the photos. I wanted a cosy, slightly oversized fit—something I could wear over another layer during the chilly months. The finished chest circumference is either 42/46/50 inches, which gives a relaxed fit.

My husband asks me why I am publishing the pattern now in the middle of summer. But I think knitters know to think ahead, and may well be planning a cosy garment for next winter. 

 

It’s been such a joy to knit a piece so personal and seasonal. Snowdrops remind me to find beauty in the quiet, early moments of change—and now I have a jumper that carries that feeling with me wherever I go. The pattern is available on ravelry, Etsy and LoveKnitting.

Ethel Blouse

I have been busy sewing again, and used my first ever downloadable pattern. This is the Ethel Ruffle Peplum Blouse from Tiana's Closet. This was a bit of an experiment, as I am still planning to make a blouse from an old embroidered tablecloth, but decided it was best to have a go with another fabric first. 

Possibly my favourite thing about the blouse is the fabric, which is an old curtain that came from a friend's mother. I would use it as a tablecover when I used to do craft fairs, and love the fact that it is old, a bit worn and has such soft colours. My new pasttime is looking in charity shops for interesting fabrics.

The peplum blouse was fairly easy to sew. Downloading and sticking together the many sheets of paper took a while, but probably not as long as a trip to the shops. I really like the sleeves on this pattern, which have a lovely shape. Although I like a long sleeve the elastic cuffs mean you can push these up if you need. I sewed the side seams of the body and arms with french seams, and then used bias tape to enclose the peplum seam on the inside so it would not fray. The blouse just slips on over the head, so no need for zips or fastenings. 

Very happy with the result, and I am now thinking do I go for the tablecloth blouse, or perhaps a skirt that will compliment this blouse. Perhaps faded denim. So many decisions to make.

 

Fish Skirt

Forgive the terrible photo above. I made this skirt from the same pattern (New Look pattern 6271) that I used for trousers last year. I really believe in getting value from a pattern, but am probably not going to move on to the shorts option.

I love the batik fish fabric (which was bought in Bude), but decided it had to be lined. Spent more online buying a navy cotton fabric for the lining, but it had to be done. I added pockets using the same tutorial Soften Studio, on how to sew a french seam pocket that I used on the trousers. It is really good way to add pockets and keep everything french seamed and neat. I love a pocket. 

This was the last of several attempts to photograph it. I just seem to shut my eyes in photos, look very self-conscious, or just angry. So although I look a mess, this is fairly realistic, and at least I am not in my usual wellington boots.

There is going to be another sewing post soon, as I have just discovered downloadable patterns, and am midway through a blouse.

Vegetable Garden Diary May

I have realised that I perhaps should have started my sporadic garden diary.  Seedlings are under way in the polytunnel, and I have a new friend at the Oxfam bookshop, who is doing swaps with me. So thanks to her for the two cucumbers above, and she also gave me some peas and spinach for outside.

Someone (a rabbit I think) has been nibbling things in the polytunnel, so I have had to put some of the seedlings on the table and cover the troughs with netting, and need to reinspect the fence. I am turning into Mr McGregor.

The indoor strawberries are looking good, all grown from my outside strawberries last year. And we are already eating some American land cress leaves.

Outside things are coming along. Below shows the outside strawberries, and potatoes and raspberries behind. My husband's loganberry has even more berries coming than last year, so hopefully we may get more than the one jar of jam. It has also produced another bush a little way off.

Other things planted outdoors are runnerbeans, peas, sweetcorn, broadbeans, onions and carrots (which I planted near the onions as I had heard this might help, but as usual the carrots came up, and the nearly all disappeared over night).

And below is my "scarestork". Chris Packham was on the radio talking about the reintroduction of storks to Cornwall, and I thought this year rather than the scarecrow man we usually make (which the birds sit on) I would try and made something a bit more frightening - with light and noise. We will have to see how this works out.

Reupholstered Bed Headboard

We are doing some DIY, and decided that part of redecorating my son's room meant recovering the headboard of his bed. I've not really done anything like this before, but as I used to be a teaching assistant, have had plenty of experience with a staple gun. We took off the covered buttons which matched the old headboard, but decided to pick a fabric that would contrast. We bought the fabric at Sooz Custon Clothing in Okehampton, which is the best fabric shop I have come across locally. There was an enormous selection of furnishing, dressmaking fabrics, and haberdashery, as well as some great advice about the process of covering the board. I will definitely be calling in there again.

We went for a fabric to match the look of the bedframe, which is a bit industrial looking. I've still got to fasten the frame in place, which will be a little lower and fit under the lower bar, but I think you can see that the end result looks great. To get the buttons in place I used a very long and large needle (which I found in my sewing box), which went through the holes already there in the board.