Thursday, August 27, 2009

Home grown vegetables


At the beginning of July DH and I decided to start a vegetable garden. It was bit late but we've got a few things growing and tomorrow I'll be harvesting our first courgette. The conservatory is now a greenhouse with tomatoes, peppers, chillies, cucumber and even a melon plant.

Next year I'll be better organised and start earlier. I'm hoping to grow a crop of salad leaves all winter but don't know how successful that'll be.

ETA: This is the receipe that I used with our first courgette and it was very nice.

Spaghetti with courgette & cherry tomato sauce

serves 4

200g cherry tomatoes
1 courgette trimmed
350g dried spaghetti
frylight or one cal
1 garlic clove peeled & crushed
1 bunch of basil stalks removed
2 tbsp very low fat natural fromage frais
6 spring onions finely sliced
salt & freshly ground black pepper
basil leaves to garnish

Finely chop half the cherry tomatoes. Cut the rest in half & reserve.
Coarsely grate the courgette & squeeze out the excess liquid & set aside.
Cook spaghetti.
Whilst pasta is cooking heat frylight, add garlic & courgette & cook gently for 3-4 mins stirring frequently. Add halved tomatoes & cook for 2-3 mins.
In the meantime roughly chop the basil & place in a bowl with the fromage frais, spring onions & chopped cherry tomatoes.
Serve in warmed bowls & garnish with basil leaves.

This recipe comes from an OOP Slimming World book called Fast Food and is one of our favourites.

Enjoy!

Posted by ShoZu

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Big Bad Berries Blanket

knitted baby blanket: border of moss stitch with 4 panels of stocking stitch & reverse stocking stitch. A crochet flower is sewn onto each corner
Big Bad Berries Blanket


Pattern: Big Bad Baby Blanket from Stitch 'N Bitch: The Knitter's Handbook
Yarn: Wendy Fusion. Colour Juniper Berries. Used 256g.
Needles: 5mm Knit Picks Options Interchangables
Time taken to knit: February 5th 2009 - May 24th 2009.
Size: 78cm x 73cm

Big Bad Baby Blanket showing colours of pinks, purples & silver
Big Bad Berries Blanket


Inspired by another project on Ravelry I sewed 4 flowers onto the corners of the blanket so that they wouldn't cause discomfort if the baby was laid onto the blanket.

Big Bad Baby Blanket knitted in Aran weight Wendy Fusion & showing colours of pinks, purples & silver plus crocheted flowers in each corner
Full frontal of the Big Bad Berries Blanket


I wonder how many people will find my blog for the wrong reasons with that title!

Big Bad Baby Blanket close up of two of crocheted flowers
Big Bad Berries Blanket


A friend reminded me of my rusty crochet skills when she showed me how to make these:

crocheted flowers
crocheted flowers


then I got a bit more adventurous and made these:

Meconopsis crocheted flower: pale pink centre with lilac petals
Meconopsis Flower from 100 Flowers to Knit & Crochet


Scabious crocheted flower: inner petals lilac & outer petals dark purple
Scabious Flower from 100 Flowers to Knit & Crochet


A number of friends are due to give birth very soon & it'll be given to the first baby girl!

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Current WIP's

A quick post to reveal some of the projects I'm working on at the moment:

toe up socks knitted two at a time on circular needles
Waffle House socks



Shetland Triangle Shawl in progress in a peacock blue/green 4ply yarn
Shetland Triangle Shawl


Plus some older ones. I'm trying to finish them & get down a smaller more manageable number.....

Monday, August 10, 2009

Bouncin' on the Beach

Airedale Terrier running on a beach
Oscars' first visit to a beach


Airedale Terrier running on a beach
he likes sand under his paws


Airedale Terrier playing on a beach
Wow this is fun!


Airedale Terrier playing on a beach
Got it!


Airedale Terrier playing on a beach
Mine.....


Airedale Terrier playing on a beach
I wanna take it home...


Airedale Terrier running on a beach
Wheeeeeeeee!


Airedale Terriers running on a beach
I'm gonna get you!


Airedale Terriers playing on a beach
Umph!


Airedale Terriers playing on a beach
Poor Annie!


Airedale Terriers playing on a beach
Quick recovery....


Airedale Terriers playing on a beach
Ouch!


Airedale Terriers playing on a beach
Come here.....


Airedale Terriers playing on a beach
1,2,3...


Airedale Terriers playing on a beach
Bitey face!


Airedale Terriers playing on the beach
Just keep your tail still....


Airedale Terriers playing on the beach
Hahaha you can't catch me


Airedale Terriers playing on the beach
I said keep it STILL!!!


Airedale Terriers relaxing on the beach
Annie & Oscar relaxing after all their fun


These photos were taken on location in Northumberland, England on our recent holiday & all photos were taken by DH (as per usual):


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Saturday, August 08, 2009

Kiwi & Custard

Ribbons Baby Blanket
Ribbons Baby Blanket


Pattern: Fiber Trends 'Ribbons Baby Blanket' by Evelyn A. Clark
Yarn: King Cole Smooth. Used 100g of Moss, 49g of Buttermilk & 57g of Cream
Needles: 4mm Knit Picks Options Interchangables
Time taken to knit: June 18th 2008 - May 28th 2009.
Size: 58cm x 58cm

This blanket sat for a long time ignored in a corner as 2 stitches came out at a colour change. I managed to sort it out but am not 100% happy with my fix.

Ribbons Baby BlanketRibbons Baby Blanket


It was intended for another baby but she is too big for it now so next week it'll be heading off to London as my best friend at school is having her second child in a few weeks.

Ribbons Baby Blanket
Ribbons Baby Blanket