Cooking again!

I appear to have managed to make three things in the kitchen (which aren't dead simple - like boiled egg) in the past 24 hours.  This is an achievement, since I haven't been cooking properly since I was pregnant.  It's entirely possible that this might not last (especially if Immy has another growth spurt), but I just wanted to record the occasion for posterity (lucky posterity).  

Yesterday, it was the rather unappetizingly entitled 'Brown Stew' from my Mum's old Stork cookbook.  I varied it a bit by seasoning the flour with paprika and adding tinned tomatoes and porcini mushrooms.  And apart from a mini mini disaster in the shape of some of it sticking to the bottom of the pan (I managed to ignore the injunction to stir it occasionally), it was actually rather yum.  I think it might have to go onto the list of keepers (dishes Marc would like me to make again).

And today I managed to make the passionfruit trifle from the BBC Good Food Desserts cookbook.  I have no clue what it tastes like yet since it's to be taken to Claire and Kev's for lunch tomorrow.  However, it smells divine and it's taking me all my self-control not to wolf the lot and make up some poor excuse for its absence.  Cross your fingers for me!

I also made the pork chops in mustard sauce from Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries.  People, you have to try this recipe!  It's so gorgeous I could probably eat it all week.  Well, not quite, but it was seriously delicious.  We had it with mashed potatoes (Nigella style made with warm cream and freshly grated nutmeg) and peas.  This too is a keeper.

No knitting,  but half the day was spent shopping and then it was Too Darn Hot and humid to even contemplate it.  Plus I was shattered.  I'm going to try and manage something this weekend.

It's infected my dreams

That's it, I think I've finally gone completely mad (something my friends have been predicting for years).  I've started dreaming about knitting.  Now, those who are Knitters may say that this is perfectly reasonable.  They may start talking about beautiful lace, gorgeous colours and the like.  And if it were that of which I had been dreaming, I would suggest they had a point.  Unfortunately, I woke up this morning realising that I had been dreaming about how to do mattress stitch.  Now, I realise that you might claim that this is at least an appropriate stitch to be dreaming about in bed.  And, in my defence, I had been reading Maggie Righetti's excellent, Knitting in Plain English the night before.  But, really.  I'm sure there's something wrong with me.  And I still can't seam neatly.

Hurrah!

Tilly's poncho is finally finished.  Here it is:



I'm reasonably pleased with how it's turned out. I had to disguise a couple of miscreant holes. And I'm not sure that the blocking worked entirely (I perhaps should have got the towels hotter and steamier). But hopefully Claire will be able to reshape it after handwashing and it will be better. Otherwise I'll email her the instructions I had for steam blocking and that should remedy it.

Now, onto my next project!

Progress on Tilly's Poncho!

I have now managed to do all of Tilly's poncho bar the hood, which I'm going to tackle this evening.  The quality of this photo isn't great (oh how I'd love to live in a house with better light), but it does show you that it's looking vaguely garment-like:



Just hoping I don't foul it all up with the hood. The pattern said to work the back until it was 14 1/2 inches, but this didn't seem quite right, so I just made it match the back (fortunately I'd been counting rows, so could work that out). The instructions for the hood say to sew it up, but I'm going to pinch Elizabeth Zimmermann's method and graft the top together (hopefully). That way it ought to look a bit neater.

Fingers crossed!

Friends, food and fun

Had a lovely day yesterday with Kev, Claire & Tilly.  We ate a very late (3pm!) lunch at Nandos followed by going back to theirs just to chill and chat.  It is nice to spend time in such relaxed company.

Speaking of Tilly, I'm now nearly half way through her poncho.  I shall be taking it over to Claire's tomorrow so that she can see the colourway.  I'm hoping that she'll like it, given that it's a mixture of sea greens and blues which, to my mind, ought to suit Tilly very well.  I decided that the pattern (the Lion Brand Hooded Baby Poncho) had too small a neck.  This may well have been because my row tension was off, but I worked in a few extra rows to compensate.  I will just have to adjust the back accordingly.  Mercifully I have a lot of that yarn, so I'm hoping that it will last.  Once I've worked the hood I will then try and decide whether I want the pocket or not.  I'm not entirely sold on the idea that two year olds particularly need pockets.  Apart from for the odd tissue, I suppose. Anyhow, I'm hoping that I'll have it completed by the end of the week.  That would mean I was a week early and could get on with some other projects.  Which will be useful given that since I've joined Ravelry I've seen project after project that I fancy doing.  And I kind of have a yearning to make yet another hat.  So that will be my reward if I manage to finish this poncho to any degree of competence.  Fingers crossed!

Waves of grief

Funny how grief works.  Similar to buses, but twice as crushing.  I just keep getting hit by waves and waves of it.  You never realise how much you love someone until they're gone.  And now I just miss Uncle more than ever.  He was like a father to me - hence why he gave me away on my wedding day.  And I'm so grateful he managed both that and to attend my graduation.  I miss him horribly - I haven't felt this much pain and sorrow since my Mum died.  And this bereavement is making me miss her, too, since she is the one who would normally have comforted me when I'm feeling this bad.  Poor Immy doesn't know what to make of me because I keep bursting into tears.  Overwhelmingly, he's also left us all a great deal of money.  It will help with the mortgage and whathaveyou, but every penny of it seems hollow because he's no longer here to see the benefits it's giving us and especially Immy.  I would rather not have the money and have him instead.  It's just such a shame that I wasn't able to visit him owing to late pregnancy and then feeding issues.  While perhaps I could have asked Marc to take a day off or tried to go at a weekend, I know he wouldn't have registered who we were and that might have been even more painful.  This is all so hard to process.  And, like a child, I keep wishing him back here because he was so dear to me.  I hope this all eases soon, I'm finding it very hard to deal with.  Particularly since I'm on my own for such long periods of time at the moment.

Boo hiss!

I appear to have caught my Uncle Alec's cold.  My nose is all bunged up, such that I can't breathe properly at all and my throat hurts.  Unfortunately, I think Immy has it as well.  The only mercy is that, since I'm breastfeeding her, she ought to be able to fight it off as swiftly as me.  

I didn't feel much like knitting, therefore, although I kept wanting to.  Then some patterns on Ravelry caught my eye and gave me a case of startitis.  So I cast on for these.  Unfortunately the pattern gives no tension, yarn quantity or finished size, so I'm just going to see how big they turn out.  I can only presume that when it says to rib for 6 inches, it means from that point rather than from the beginning, since it doesn't specify.  I'm hoping it works, anyway, since it will make a nice present for a couple of somebodies. (I'm not going to mention which particular pair since, if by some miracle they happen to be reading this, it will give the game away).

Tomorrow I'm going to try and get on with that poncho.  Particularly since rain is again forecast which will keep it cool enough to do so comfortably.  My third skein of yarn needs winding into a ball, so I will probably do that first.  But hopefully there will be enough time to get onto the front of it.  I'm really hoping I can get it done in time and up to standard.  Unlike most people, I'm praying for a cool summer, so that I can keep going with my knitting and try and improve.