Heirloom Tomato

What a wonderful surprise I got yesterday from Jenni - a packet of heirloom tomatoes. They're kinda hard to find.. but she brought them round to cheer me up. and they worked.

I made a little salad - the best thing about these kinds of tomatoes is that you really need no dressing at all on them as they are just so tasty by themselves. I sliced them up, put on a generous pinch of salt, and let them stew a little but to release their tastiness. Once you've left them for 10 mins or so, i sprinkled over some fresh mint and some cracked pepper. I served them up with some grilled haloumi. it was a delightful lunch indeed!

When does a yarn obsession become a yarn problem?

Last Saturday afternoon, calmly sitting at home, chatting, relaxing and then suddenly the phone rings.

It's Mhairi - "Han, Champion Wools on King St is having a closing down sale!"

"oh my god. hang on Mhairi - I'll be there in a minute, literally"

I race out the door, power up king st (thank god I live so close!) running past a few people I know not taking the time to stop and say hello, my empty shopping bag in hand. "A Yarn Sale. A Yarn Sale!!" I'm singing in my head.

I run into Champion Yarns, and start touching (and yes "D", I thought about licking) skeins of tasty wool. I started pulling Jo Sharpe balls off the shelf to work on that blanket I'm trying to finish. Next thing I knew my bag was full and I wasn't going to be eating for a whole week. A small sacrifice considering how much wool I got and how great my blanket is going to be one day.



Mhairi and Kirsty were there. I think they might of been a little scared about my hyperactive behavior. They're new to this whole yarn thing, and are safe for a bit longer before the OBSESSION starts. But they got into it pretty quickly and realised the whole conundrum of buying wool: "if I buy something that's nice, but have no idea what to make with it, is that a problem?" As previously mentioned, they are both novices at yarn shopping and came to the conclusion that it was bad to buy without planning before hand. FOOLS, what fools - BUY NOW THINK LATER. especially when there is a sale on!



I'm not going to use this post of moan about the lack of wool stores in Sydney - seriously, there's a massive hole in the market. I'll save that complaint for its own post. I think that is one of the main things I'm missing about London. For a country that produces some of the best merino wool in the world - where are all the yarn shops? where is all the wool?

First Brown St Crochet Meet up

I've finally got my Sydney crochet gals together. We had our first Crochet meet up last week. and it was fun. I made Mexican, and then we all started to crochet. We've mainly all been working on stuff for the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef here in Sydney, being arranged by In Stitches for the exhibition thats opening at the powerhouse in a few weeks... we had loads to finish. and every one's work is coming along nicely.

The girls hard at work - Mhairi, Kirsty and Erin on the crochet and Cathy catching up on some mending.

Kirsty's Coral

Mhairi's Coral - is as big as her head!

It was Erin's first attempt at crochet (another successful teaching story for me - one of these days I'm going to start charging) and I think she's a natural! With very little instruction she formed this perfect nose warmer! It took me ages to work out how to increase without going all Hyperbolic, and I was trying to teach her to do hyperbolic and she went in perfect rounds! She looks cute as a button!

Entertainment was provided by Ben, and with all the crochet and clothes mending (Cathy refused to learn how to crochet, so she mended things) combined with the soft tinkle of the piano we felt like we'd been taken back to Ye Olden Days.

Alex's finished scarf

He sure did finish that quickly - and here it is. Alex's scarf. Looks amazing actually. I think I might commission him to make one for a certain someone I know who needs a scarf.  It looks good. Props to my knit group peeps!

I wonder what he'll make next - will it be the jumper with the baby dear/bambi on it? Or a hoodie with lightening? 

A lesson and some lunch

D and I had an impromptu knitting day and some lunch on friday.

Firstly I taught her to crochet, and she made a great hat from Garn Studios / Drops Design (I've made it before as well, but more on that later). She used the yummy maggi knits tweed and it came up really well. She's a natural. Hope to see more of her creations in the future. She picked it up in no time, and was totally surprised when she finished the hat before she went home. Crochet is pretty quick sometimes.. even for a beginner.

We then headed out to Shanghai on Kingsland Rd for Dim Sum (or yum cha) happy hour. Everything is just under 2 quid each, and it totally yummy and fresh. The place is pretty cool, it's build in an old eel and pie shop, so looks kinda old-ee english cutesy. with nice tiles and mirrors. Very strange for a yum cha place. We've been a few times now and it's always been pretty good.

Vegetable dumplings made with carrot juice.

Strange goopey prawn and chive things - I think they're called Fun

Turnip cakes - they were ok, one of D's favs.

BBQ Pork Buns. They're pretty good.

Rainy Saturday Afternoon

No surprise there, but it was raining and horrible on Saturday. That's London for you. I was meant to be having some people around for dinner, and planning on making pizza dough so we could make our own pizzas, but I guess because of the rain and horribleness of the day people just wanted to stay inside. I know that I did. However, after spending most of the week inside (probably going a little stir crazy) I knew it would be good for me to get out.

D called, and we arranged to meet in Islington - have lunch at the Afghan Kitchen (which was so yummy) and then look at Camden Passage antique markets then hit Loop.

I was good - didn't see anything I wanted at the antique market (which is amazing), then we heading to Loop. Which is an incredible yarn store on Cross St. I was nervous, obviously, about walking into a wool shop. What if I had to buy something? D wanted to get some wool and circular needles. Don't worry, I gave her a hard time about buying more stuff so soon after Ally Pally (we did go over board on that adventure, I have confirmed that now), but she was convinced - she must buy more wool.

We were in there for a while, touching things, as you do. D looked at me after about 5 mins and said "Han, have you breathed since we've been in here, you look shocked?". I laughed but inside I was dying as I was ogling over all the beautiful yarns - and I wanted them! Actually I was telling myself I needed them. But I held my breath and resisted the temptation.

I did however pick up some hooks - which I'm happy about (these handy padded hooks should help with the impeding RIS I'm sure is approaching). I've wanted some like these for a while! Yay - I got to buy something in the end.

We needed some cake and coffee after that, I can tell you. Which led to lovely conversations about our directions and in life - the eternal question of what the fuck am I doing with it all and so on. With some rather lovely outcomes. And some inspiration as well.

So, all in all - a lovely Saturday afternoon. a lovely day indeed.

Crumbs & Doilies - a cupcake challenge

I like cupcakes. I have for a long time. The remind me of when I was a kid and went to birthday parties, but more recently they take me back to when I was still an editor and I'd need a break from my edit suite and head down to the farmers market at Fox Studios for some sunshine and a cup cake. A good excuse for getting outside. 

You seem to get cupcakes everywhere these days.. but I know the best ones. My mate Jemma is making these amazingly tasty and wonderfully decorated cup cakes at Crumbs & Doilies - she's selling them all over the place. Anyway, she's set me a challenge. She wants me to crochet a cupcake for her. But what kind? Her blog highlights so many different types of decorated ones.... its gonna be hard to pick one design to do... 

I guess I'll just have to add it to the To Do List of things I need to make (it's getting rather long now that xmas is approaching)

Here are some of her designs - she makes each one my hand!

Hello - Buffy the Vampire Cup cake! I want to eat you!!

Pretty little cakes.. 

Punk cupcakes - who would of thought?

All these images come from Jemma's websites and are of her own creations.

The Knitting & Stitching Show 2008

Well Well Well.
The Knitting & Stitching Show was truly amazing. I was overwhelmed by it all. D and I got there at doors open (10am) and walked out of there, well rolled out of there carrying way way too much yarn at about 5pm. Who knew you could spend so much time looking, touching, talking about, dreaming about and purchasing yarn. Actually, I kind of did think the whole day would pass quickly.

I got some amazing yarns (spent far too much money) and meet loads of great people.

Maggi Knits was excellent, such lovely ladies. I purchases this amazing alpaca in orange and some Tweed Fleck Chunky in Denim Blue

The lady from Purl (a new British alpaca wool producer) was great, I got some lovely chocolate brown DK. They had great designs there as well, I wish I had the budget to get more.

From Uppingham Yarns I got these lovely ecological Aran weight yarn. They are so soft and lovely, I might need to get more so i can make a cardi or something.

And from Socktopus I got some lovely hand painted fingering yarn from Hazel Knits and Koigu. I also made a new Ravelry friend, Erqsome which is great!

This lovely handspun and kettle dyed wool from Uruguay in greys, blacks and whites (I think it will make a great beanie), and also this chunky handspun Merino wool from Argentina.

The thing that pushed me over the edge was this amazing Chunky Baby Alpaca from bluefaced, which is so soft and amazing I just to have it - and loads of it. I think I'll need more but I'm going to try for a blanket with this stuff. It's just so lovely.

D and I had loads of fun, stopped for a bit of packed lunch, did a few workshops (which weren't great, just OK) and generally were amazed by everything we saw.

We did buy a lot!!

I can't wait for next year!!

Bike In A Box

I made this bike for Robin's bday, it's not as lovely and tidy and neat as I'd like it to be, but I think for a first attempt its pretty good. I made it while watching episodes 1 and 2 of the Godfather. L made the box for it to be mounted in - I think we make a pretty good team. I reckon we can expect more strange crocheted l'objects in boxes - they make good pressies and look cool as well.

My first pupil.

Mhairi came to stay and one of the first things she does is learn how to crochet. She picked it up pretty quickly and was pretty good.. I feel like a proud mother and think that when she heads back to Sydney tomorrow she'll be taking her crafting ways with her!

Knitting Nite #4

Not a very successful Knitting Nite this week actually as not much knitting was done. We held it at my place as we were expecting a very special guest, Minna (who is departing London too soon) alas she's been pushing the boat out a bit far lately and has a thousand things going on with the move and the saying goodbyes and the packing as well as racking up too many air miles, and she came down with flu lurgy so she didn't make an appearance.

I think the other reason that we didn't knit much is because we ate too much and got sleepy.

I made Chicken Legs cooked in Cider with onions, a recipe I got from Delicious mag.

Here's the recipe - easy and yummy

4 chicken leg pieces (the whole leg and thigh, or I have used a whole chicken for this as well, which is also very good)
500mls dry cider
4 medium onions, sliced
fresh thyme
small pot of cream, or creme fresh
fresh peas, or little gem lettuce

Brown the chicken pieces (no need to do this if you are using a whole chicken) in a heavy based pot (I use one of these), then take off the heat and pour in the cider and stir in the sliced onions. The cider should pretty much cover the chicken. Pinch of salt & pepper, and a few sprigs of fresh thyme. Put it in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees C and cook covered for 30 mins (adjust timings for whole chicken). Uncover the pot and cook for a further 10-20mins (until chicken is cooked through).

Remove from the oven, and take the chicken pieces out of the pot and rest - keeping warm. Bring the pot with the onions and cider to boil and reduce for 10mins, add in the cream and fresh peas (or little gem lettuce or both) and cook for a few minutes until veges are softened.

Serve the chicken pieces with mashed potato, pour over the cider-onion-pea sauce and some young greens (I used pointed cabbage on this occasion).

And enjoy.

D still doesn't like having her photo taken.

Knitting Nite #1

Last night D and I had our first Knitting Nite - it was fun. I started on another doll, typically it's rather odd looking. And D started work on a new scarf - then pulled it apart and started again. We chatted away and then suddenly it was nearly 11pm, time flies when you're knitting and nattering.

I can't wait for the next one.

Summer BBQ

We had a lovely friday evening BBQ with Mar & Feeb, they seemed to like my funny dolls. I couldn't put up the naughty pictures they took of them, but they are rather amusing.

I marinated some lamb chops with Greek yogurt, sumac, garlic and a touch of mango powder which were yummy - even for the lapsing vegetarian that I am.

I also made some vege kebabs with eggplant, mushrooms and onions which were marinated in tamari and mirin. They were pretty tasty - even if we forgot the soak the skewers in water before hand.

To finish some excellent baklava from the The Turkish Food Center (TFC) on Ridley Rd, my fav place to shop these days.