I did a couple of useful things at the weekend. One was to pick strawberries on the way home from visiting my friend Ratbert. It was such a lovely afternoon that we stopped at the local Pick Your Own to see if they had raspberries. Apparently raspberries would not be ready until next week, but they did have strawberries. The reason I wanted to pick the fruit was to make jam, and it happens that I have never made strawberry jam, so I decided to pick strawberries anyway, and go back to get raspberies next week.
We hulled and halved the strawberries, and put them in the freezer on trays of foil to keep until a more convenient jam making opportunity should present itself.
I moved home late last year, and one of the things I left behind at that time was a dresser. It is made from a single ash tree, and was made for me when I bought my first flat. This weekend I arranged to collect it, and with some assistance carried it up two flights of stairs to its new home. On Sunday afternoon I spent a happy few hours organising things in it. I think it looks great, and I'm really happy to have it with me again.
I promised pictures of my felt swatches, and here they are. This one is in Rowan Scottish Tweed DK, and the red and brown background is knitted in stocking stitch;the spiral is embroidered in chain stitch before felting, and the bobbles are made by marbles tied into the knitting while it felted.
The second swatch is in Rowan Scottish Tweed 4-ply, and it has beads in it which were knitted in and then felted; pleats which were tied in before felting, and waste silk which was hooked through the yarn before felting.
I really liked the 4 ply texture and colour after felting, and I had admired a beautiful scarf made in stripes of black 4-ply and Kidsilk Haze, with beads felted into the 4-ply stripes. I thought that a charcoal grey would look lovely knitted into this scarf, so I also bought three balls of 4-ply Scottish Tweed and two of Kidsilk Haze.
At the moment I'm still crocheting away on my floral shrug, and when I've finished that I need to do more squares for my Babette blanket, and I also plan to knit Queen of the Waves, but maybe after that...
4 comments:
you can make jam in your bread maker too, if you haven't the time to stand over a jam pan
Your dresser is beautiful. What a wonderful thing to have shared your life with.
I remember that dresser in your flat. I have still got my pine dresser that is now at least thirty years old. I remember when we bought it back in the seventies, people were sniffy about "new pine" but I thought, one day it will be old pine - and now it is!
Awesome dresser. Nice strawberries. I am sure you will tame the jam. And those knitted squares are awesome! I could never make anything that pretty.
You will tame that Queen. I am sure about it.
Post a Comment