Saturday 31 December 2011

Introducing Freetime Knits


There comes a time when a knitter has to say, okay, enough, my cupboards are overflowing with yarn and I just can't hoard any more. Well, not without hoiking up the floorboards and using the recess as additional storage-cum-home insulation. 

Despite an imminent home reorganisation as I prepare for a new career as a home-based writer and designer, I'm facing the prospect of confronting my yarn stash head on and asking it what we both expect to get from each other from this point on. 

Freetime Knits are those I'll be knitting on the sly
when I probably should be working
Are we getting anywhere and making sweet handicrafts together or do we need to take a long hard look at the amount of time we spend in each other's company and decide whether we aren't really wasting each other's time a little, however fun this dalliance may be? 

Fleetingly, the thought occurs to me that I may have given up my day job in order to indulge my knitting and other obsessions. Really, though, that's just the guilt that has been drummed into me. I'm looking back at nearly 20 years of education swiftly followed by almost as many chasing a career and the elusive prospect of being settled with a home of my own. It's taken this long to be sufficiently in my own place mentally and legally. Some 'me time' is due. 

With no 'natural' career break to have kids, travel the world, write that long-promised novel or return to study, a pause is in order. I may even soft-pedal a while if my conscience allows. (Mainly, I'll probably be blind-panicking about the lack of freelance work I've managed to attract.)

What I probably won't do is stop knitting. I'll just rethink what my knitting's for and marshall my multicoloured flock into some semblance of order once my home becomes an office. My downtime - those 'resting' pauses in which actors indulge and writers perhaps blog or tweet - may well be spent idling clicking needles together. I create because I can - and because I am. 

My knits won't be commercial (I'm neither skilled nor speedy enough) and I'll try not to pressure myself heaps about knitting up a storm in order to bestow the softest and sweetest of gifts on family and friends. But if in my freetime I build up a modest pile of neatly worked stocking stitch sweaters and toys that grew in my downtime hours and could potentially be sold for a song, well, that's just me, okay. Freetime Knits from a free-spirited, newly enervated me. 

Wednesday 28 December 2011

About a bag


Mum finally has a handmade knit. The design is simple but striking, with ridges of knits and purls pulled across and tethered to create a smocked effect. Having discovered I just can't cope with lace patterns (at least not yet), smocking has been a very welcome discovery. 

The finished Daydreamer handbag
I made mum for Christmas
I used the Daydreamer pattern from Emma King's 25 More Bags To Knit and stuck fairly rigidly to its instructions. Rowan Big Wool is one of my favourite yarns, so this was no hardship. I did use slightly smaller needles than specified (12mm rather than 15mm), but both are listed on the yarn band as suitable. The yarn is a little greener than the blue-green I had in mind, but contrasts well with the pink DK I used for the smocking. 

Bag handles are few and far between, as I've found on previous occasions when looking for the ideal handle to complete a bag I've been making. I couldn't find a D-style handle I liked, so instead have U-shaped faux bamboo ones. 

Lining fabric is less of an issue, especially since a metre of a luxury fabric such as silk costs £10 but can be used for at least three projects. My sister in law recommends Indian sari shops for even better deals than my local fabric shop, Lewisham's Rolls and Rems

I used a layer of stuffing from an old pillow to make the wadding for this latest project. I'd originally hoped to keep costs down by using a vintage fabric in the form of an unwanted garment for the lining, but the silk added a luxurious touch to what was an otherwise fairly homespun design. 

I should have placed the handles a little more carefully and I think the bag is better for having been sewn up more than the original Emma King version at the top, but overall, I'm pleased with the results.
The Daydreamer bag from Emma King's 25 More Bags To Knit book

Tuesday 13 December 2011

Coconut milk panna cotta

Panna cotta seems to be very fashionable at the moment and I'd like to be able to come up with a version that I can eat myself - meaning no gelatine - and a version that will appeal to the dairy-avoiding Hindi members of my family. 

i was pretty excited to find both variations online, but actual recipes rather than anecdotal reports of their success seemed elusive. The only thing to do was give them a try myself. 

Add report here


The other fun thing about panna cotta is it's the perfect foil for caramel. Watching the early rounds of Masterchef: The Professionals made me want to give sugar-only caramel making a go - and to try out the swirls and cages that can be created with just a pan of sugar as a starting point. 

Expect some caramel-inspired comedic disaster tales some day soon.