Mend Weekend

I've been working on a medium-term project for a while, which I'll update on next week. But this weekend, I also finally got round to mending a few things that have been needing a bit of TLC.

My combat trousers that I fixed in November were in need of a bit more attention, though less serious this time in that it was just the button that had come off. It's an odd button, as it attaches on with a wide band, rather than with holes for thread.

I'd fixed it before with some green ribbon, which hadn't lasted too long. So this time, I triple reinforced it...

Then there were my fluffy slippers, bought from Accessorize only in September. The pom-poms on one side had come off, so I used some yarn and a darning needle to do a swift repair.

All while sitting on the floor in the spare room, exercising our fat little guinea piglets... It's not much, but it's a start!

Make: Table Runner

I had some rainbow yarn left over from my Rainbow Gauntlets, but not quite enough for a real project. I searched online for some more of the same YarnArt "Dancing Baby", and managed to find some being sold in Turkey (I love the Internet!)

However, when it turned up, it was of a much poorer quality than the original yarn, especially the dye quality, so I couldn't really mix the two as planned.

I crocheted it up into five big squares anyway, and decided that the slightly chunkier yarn would be quite heatproof, so I decided to make them into a table runner.

I joined them using the Flat Zipper method described here. This method was not the fastest way to join crochet squares but I quite like the effect!

Now I just need a dining table to put it on...

Make: Baked Lemon Cheesecake

It's the first episode of my 2015 dessert-making resolution and, since we had three lemons left over from the cocktail party, a baked lemon cheesecake seemed like a good way to start!

Stage 1: make the base - using bashed up ginger biscuits and some melted butter, pressing the mixture into a 20cm tin, then chilling... With a cup of tea, while the base sets in the fridge.

Stage 2: make the cheesecake batter - whisk up a mix of ricotta, eggs, yoghurt, sugar & cornflour until smooth

De-zest the three lemons and then de-juice them - apparently 11secs in the microwave makes them easier to squeeze...

Add the zest and juice to the batter and pour it onto the base (this bit was really satisfying!)

Stage 3: the bake. The recipe recommended 40-45mins in the oven, but it was very hard to tell when it was actually done, so we gave it an extra 5-10mins to bake, just to make sure it wouldn't slosh everywhere when we took it out the tin.

Ta-daaa! And with just a short battle using a tin, two skewers, and with one expletive, we got it off of the base and safely onto the plate! I cracked out some icing sugar stencils (thank you, Lidl!) for some final decoration.

Not too shabby an effort, I think!

And the reviews? "Very light, very creamy" and "mmmmm, good..." which I would call a success!

2015 - A Happy New Year

My New Year's Resolution from 2014 was to finish all the half-started projects that I had lurking around my house. As is evidenced in this blog, I have managed to finish some projects - I've now got several dresses back in my wardrobe and ready to wear again, others that now fit me a lot better and my mending pile is a mite smaller. So those are some successes!

I've also started and finished several new projects, mostly blankets. I've taught myself to crochet and made a giant granny square blanket and also an epic patchwork Tetris blanket. I've made things for me, as well as presents for others.

That said, I've still got a way to go when it comes to projects to finish. University posters, photo books, a few more dresses, a few more blankets. A half knitted bias-knit jumper. An owl door-stop. Four balls of sparkly cream wool destined for a shrug.

So while these will give me something to "get my teeth into" in 2015, my actual NY resolution is less of a "make" and more of a "bake" - I'm going to learn how to make a selection of delicious puddings! I've never made cheesecake from scratch before, so I think that'll be my first one...

Of course, this won't stop my conventional making, mending and amending - but will help to expand my creative repertoire!

Amend: Party Frock

I bought this dress from Apricot at New Look for Christmas last year. I had the choice of a size 10 that was a bit too tight across the bust, or a size 12 that was large almost everywhere else. I decided that making a large size smaller for be the easiest option!

The three noticeable areas for amendment were arm holes, waist and belt loops.

Starting with the arm holes, this was the same kind of amendment as my blue maxi dress that I wrote about in July. I put a dart in both sides, trying to prevent the gaping.

Next up, the waist band. In needed to take about two inches out of it. One option is taking it out of the side seams, but that can pull it out of line, so it doesn't hang straight. I decided to put another two darts in here, on either side on the front of the dress. I left the bottom of the darts open, to keep the fullness of the skirt.

And finally, the belt loops. This is similar to the grey dress that I also amended, because the loops were very big and stuck out really obviously to either side. I unpicked the bottom of each loop, snipped a bit off, and hand-sewed them back on.

And all this was done just in time for the main festive event. And you can't even tell from the outside that I had to make all these changes - success!

Make: Tetris Blanket

One each of Bright Pink, Jaffa, Sunshine, Bright Green, Turquoise, Royal and Violet.

Three Black and three Charcoal.

One 4mm crochet hook.

Thousands and thousands of double crochet, single crochet, chain and slip stitches.

Nine months of evenings and weekends, train journeys, episodes of CSI, lazy mornings.

But now, my Tetris blanket is finally complete!!

I've already gone over most of the resources, techniques and design behind the blanket. So in this post, I'm going to just revel in the fact that it's complete, and I love it. This is one blanket that I am properly proud of.

 

Make: More Ruffle Scarves

We've got our Christmas charity sale at work this week, for which I have been working on some more ruffle scarves similar to the one I made for my mum in September.

One scarf uses pom-pom wool, which I've never tried before. This is Rico loopy yarn, 75% acrylic / 25% nylon. The knit-up was very similar to the normal yarn, except this one has an inside edge, where you pick up the stitches, and an outside edge, with the pom-poms.

I also used some colour change yarn to make several more ruffle scarves. This is Rico Creative Can Can yarn, 100% polyacrylic. I used two 200g balls to make four scarves, two in each colour.

Hopefully these will be snapped up at the sale, to make some money for Save The Children!