Purple Iris

Sometime last summer, I was scrolling through a cross stitch e-magazine that I'd downloaded from the library website, and I came across an iris chart. I love purple irises, so I stitched it on a scrap of aida cloth. I loved it, but wasn't yet sure what I wanted to do with it, so I set it aside. Lately I've been thinking about making it into a pin and today was the day.

I have a pile of clothing that I picked up at the charity shop, a piece or two at a time. I would not want to wear most of this stuff, even if it was my size, because it's mostly made of fabrics that are cool to look at but would be yucky to wear. Still, I know that tastes differ and that any particular item could be exactly what someone else is looking for. For that reason, I try to buy stuff that is unlikely to sell. One of the local charity shops has a rail at the front of the store and they sell stuff for 50 cents or a euro. These are things that are damaged in some way (buttons or embellishments missing, stained, ripped, etc) or that have been in the store for a long time and are not selling. I buy things from there for the fabric, the buttons, and/or the embellishments. In this way, I get some really fun and interesting materials to work with and keep a few things out of the landfill. Yay!

Sometimes I get some happy surprises, too. Last week I was cutting up part of a small beaded satin jacket for a project when I discovered a great lining inside. I love it when things have linings because these are usually a different fabric and colour from the outside.

The fabric I used for the base of the brooch comes from a 'dress.' It was a very short dress and was strapless, so there was not a whole lot of fabric involved. I loved the colours though, and it had a lining, so it ends up being a decent amount and I usually use little bits at a time anyway. I made a sort of mini quilt for the base, using the outer dress fabric. For the inside, to give it stability, I used part of the padded bust piece that was in between layers of the dress. Then I sewed on a piece of a lace waistband from a sundress I'd picked up before attaching the cross-stitched iris. I sewed the pin to the back and I was done.

I'm wearing it now.

I guess it won't be long before the irises and daffodils start blooming, but before that, it looks like we have another blast of winter coming for a few days. We've just returned from the shop so if it gets icy, we won't have to venture out.

Hope the week is a good one in your part of the world!

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Poncho-ish

Last weekend, I finished a project I'd been working on, off and on, for 6 or 8 weeks. It was often what I worked on upstairs while listening to music or podcasts. It's an oversized sort of tunic-y poncho-ish sort of thing. 😜 I might have gotten a little bit carried away, even though I did end up ripping back quite a lot on the first piece, which was waaaay too long. I'd obviously gotten into a rhythm and just kept on happily crocheting. When I did finally hold it up to see what I had, I saw that I had to rip out about 20 rows. That's OK.

I adapted a chart in a magazine my daughter had sent me early last year to make the fabric more open--this way it's not too heavy or too warm. I wanted it to be very loose, but didn't want to have each side go all the way down to my wrists as some rectangular ponchos do, because it would be impractical to wear such a garment while cooking (too easy to get caught on a pot handle) or while trying to wear a coat and/or backpack. So I made it loose and then added some sleeve 'extensions.' It's quite a comfortable garment to wear!

I did nothing fussy here. I made 4 rectangles using the lacy stitch and a solid half double crochet (US term) for 3 rounds.

Then I slip stitched them together, two for the back and two for the front before adding the sleeve extensions.

I left space open at the top of the front, folded back the inner corners of each rectangle, and attached dark purple cloth buttons that I had in my button tin.

The yarn is Wool-Ease--a friend found 5 giant 'bonus bundle' skeins (something like 450 yards each) in a thrift store in Boston and brought them back for me--it's a bit darker than it appears in a pics. I still have some scrap balls left, so might do a hat or some arm warmers. I used a 6mm (US size J) hook.

I think that every time I wear this, I will, at least for a minute, recollect the peaceful happy time I spent crocheting it during several weeks in winter, while listening to quiet Christmas music.

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Bag It

Our daughter sent me a crochet calendar last month--it's always fun to see what the next pattern is as the days go by.  Last weekend, there was a pattern for a string market bag that can be stuffed into a little built in pouch when not in use. We have Chico bags, which are made of different material but are a similar idea, and we use them all the time. They are great for when we go to veg man or to the shop because when they are stuffed into the pouch, they take up very little room and can easily be put in a coat pocket or backpack until needed. The handles, though, are not big enough to comfortably carry the bag on a shoulder, so we carry stuff home in them with the bag hanging at our side, which is fine for the short walk home, but not comfortable for longer walks. With that in mind, I decided to crochet the bag shown in the calendar. The pattern showed two straps long enough to put over a shoulder, but not long enough to put on one shoulder, go across the body and have the bag hang on the opposite hip, which is how I prefer to carry bags, so I knew I would be adapting the pattern at that point to make it how I wanted it. I also ended up adapting the top of the bag, but other than those last few rounds and the strap, I followed the pattern and finished this afternoon. I like it, but now that I've done it, I can see how I would do things differently in future.

The pouch part, which is also the bottom of the bag, could have been slightly bigger. There is also no reason why it has to be circular and if I make another one, I might do a square bottom. This is easily adaptable--you just make two pieces the same for the bottom of the bag, then join them using single crochet, almost all the way round, but leaving a space (about 1/4 of the outside edge) open (just sc in one piece instead of through both pieces). Then you build up the bag from there. When the bag isn't in use, you can turn the bottom inside out, stuffing the bag inside.

The chain arches that form the main part get larger as you work towards the top, but I wouldn't do that again, since I ended up decreasing at the top to cinch it in a little. That's partly because of how I wanted the strap, but next time I'd make the bag part the same height, but more narrow. The mesh stitch used works well because it's stretchy and not bulky, so I'd probably keep that but just use smaller meshes.

I used mercerized cotton yarn that is fingering weight and a 3 1/2mm (US size E) crochet hook. The pattern called for postal twine and a US size F hook. It really doesn't matter what's used to make this--any yarn and an appropriate hook will work.

I'm quite pleased with my new bag--I think I'll use it a lot.

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Lost and Found at the Library

Wednesday was full of cold, rain, sleet, hail, snow--and even thunder and lightning. Our librarian, Gerard, was stuck at home and unable to get to work, due to the ice, so someone else came in to sub for him. During the afternoon, I saw that I had a CD in, but since neither Bill nor I wanted to ramble around on icy footpaths, we opted to stay in and leave our stuff there until today.

This morning it was still cold but the footpaths were wet, not icy. Off we went to the library and then to the shop to get some groceries before the next bit of snow/ice showed up. Gerard was in today and when he went to check out the CD for me, he opened the case and discovered that it was empty! He was surprised, because he said things are usually checked before they are sent out. He apologised. I told him it was no big deal. We chatted about music with another library user, who was asking me about Karl Jenkins--he'd been in the library one day when I was there picking up a couple of his CDs and remembered. I told him I highly recommended The Armed Man and Peacemakers. Requiem is quite good, too.

Later on, we saw that we had more stuff in, so Bill went to pick it up. When he returned, he handed me the CD. Turns out that the woman who took over for Gerard on Wednesday stuck it into the boombox to listen to it and then forgot to take it out, so it was there all along. 😉

I haven't listened to it yet, so have no idea what it's like. Now I know what I'll be listening to later while I'm crocheting.

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Wintry Winter

This has been the most wintry winter we've experienced in Ireland. We had quite an array of weather through yesterday and overnight--temperatures a few degrees above zero at most and a few under at night, howling wind, rain, sleet, hail, snow, thunder, and lightning. It was approximately 12:30 a.m. when the snow came crashing down from the front side of the roof and shortly afterwards that it came down in the back.

Yesterday was a good day for soup, so I made some cream of vegetable soup for supper, which we had with grilled cheese sandwiches. It was a simple soup--I sweated chopped onion, bell pepper, carrot, and garlic in some olive oil, added cubed potatoes and boiling water and let it cook until the veggies were done. I added some milk and black pepper and let it heat through, before using my stick blender to whiz it up. There was some left and today is another good day for soup, with rain sleet, and more snow expected any minute now, so I dumped the leftovers into a pot, added a can of sweetcorn and heated it through. After ladling it into bowls, I added scallion and a sliced red chilli pepper. I love soup.

This morning, I put the ingredients for some oaty wholemeal banana nut yeast bread into the bread machine. We had some of that toasted and topped with homemade ricotta alongside the soup, and I think it'll make great cinnamon toast, too! When I make bread, I can never resist hacking off an end while it's still warm and eating it with butter. Today I had a nice hot cuppa with it. It was a good day for warm fresh bread, a couple of vats of hot tea, yarn, and reading!

Met Eireann has issued an orange warning for us, so more snow, ice, sleet, hail could be on the way. Looks like we'll have a few more wintry winter days and then it'll go back to feeling like spring again. As long as I can comfortably wear my woolly bits, I'm happy enough!

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Ricotta Pesto Pizza with Chicken, Veg, and Sliced Leftover Sausage

I had a container of ricotta left from the batch I made the other day. I had a couple of leftover leek sausages. I had the idea to make a pizza using ricotta mixed with red pesto in place of the sauce, and topping it with some other stuff. Today, I gave it a try. Success! We both loved it!

I mixed the ricotta with some red pesto

and spread it on my usual pizza crust, made in the bread maker using oats and strong wholemeal flour

I sauteed 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts in some olive oil with a chopped onion and a chopped yellow bell pepper, sprinkling some Italian season in when it was just about cooked through. I spread this on the crust and sliced the 2 sausages, putting them evenly over the top.

I put cheese over the top and stuck it in the oven, where I already had some carrot, potato, onion, and garlic, tossed with olive oil and sprinkled with Italian seasoning cooking away.

 As I always try to do, I made enough so that we had enough for supper tonight with enough left for supper tomorrow night.

I hope it's a good day where you are!

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Busy in the Kitchen

In addition to the 3-ingredient (4 in my case, actually, when I added the almonds) cookies I made yesterday, I was busy with some other yummy stuff.

A few days ago, jalapeno cheese bread popped into my head. We always loved it toasted and spread with cream cheese, but now we could use homemade ricotta, which I thought would be even better. It is!

I made the batch of ricotta and saved most of the whey. I will use it for pizza crust and other dough. Turns out it's also useful to add back into the ricotta, a little at a time, as needed. I noticed as I was making supper last night that it was a bit crumbly. Today when I took it out to use for lunch, it was even more so. I added a fair bit of whey back in and stirred it well until it was incorporated and the ricotta was much creamier and more spreadable.

I made some smoked mackerel chowder for supper as well. It was a great combination of the toasted bread with the fresh ricotta alongside the chowder.

We had leftovers for lunch.  And I had some new ideas for this weekend's suppers! Yay! Here's hoping things turn out well.

Hope you're enjoying your day!

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