Wednesday 15 April 2009

Woohoooo! & Crochet

Firstly, Congratulations to Sarah, Martin, Jenna and Morgan on the arrival of the new beautiful addition to the family; a baby girl. She is gorgeous and the birth story in pictures takes my breath away.

Seems rather mundane to now turn the topic to crochet; but that is what I've been doing today (along with laundry - still have 3 bags of the flipping stuff). Rye's room is very light and the curtains in there barely contrain the streaming light; so I've decided to crochet a blind for Rye's room. Some time ago I picked up a tunisian crochet needle - that is just an extra long one and this project seemed perfect for it.... one slight problem, I'd forgotten how much I HATE, LOATH and DETEST doing the tunisian stitch. Its laborious and with the extra long hook very very unweildly and just not fun to do, in my opinion, plus the fabric just curls over and its very annoying and slow to work up - and I can work pretty fast.

So the plan is to really go to town and have a play with different stitches and produce a motifed blind that I'll line the back with - not sure what yet - probably pick up a curtain from a charity shop and just cut it up to fit. It will be colourful and fun and really brighten Rye's rather plain room up.

I might have a go at crocheting the alphabet too for his room and sticking the crochet letters on carboard with a pictures taken from our environment to represent each letter. Oh, and I really do want to get on with making myself a motifed crochet bag to use when babywearing. I know I have the trolley but there are times when I'd prefer not to use it.

Oh, and did I mention Sarah's had the baby? :) She is a sweetiepie and I'm looking forward to reading many blog enteries about her and her sisters.

5 comments:

Jax Blunt said...

crocheting a blind sounds like a fairly ambitious project! Every time I do tunisian crochet I end up with a diagonal edge - does yours do that or am I doing something wrong?

Like the idea of crocheted alphabet - do you mean individual letters or a blanket/ display type approach?

willow81 said...

Tunisian stitch? Extra long hooks? OMG sounds serious!!! Wow, a blind for Rye's room is a lovely idea.

I'm so thrilled for Sarah et al, and I love the name, I'm glad Martin relented, I seem to remember her saying he didn't like it!

xx

willow81 said...

Forgot to ask, do you have a particular bread recipe you use or do you just wing it?! I want to have a go and yours was delicious!!

Joxy34 said...

Jax - at the beginning of working the hoops off the hook do I pull the yarn through 1 hoop only for the first stitch and then after that 2 at a time. Seems to solve the diagonal problem.

yep individual letters that I will stick on colourful boards with photos/ maybe the odd painting myself etc -something completely unique for Rye.

Willow81 - the receipe is easypeasy:

500g of Strong flour
500g of plain flour (or semolina flour)
1.1/4 pints of hand hot water
2 tablespoons of dried yeast (Allison Dried Yeast in the tubs is fab)
1 tsp of honey or sugar
2 tsp of salt
much pepper as you like - I add a lot because I like the bread to be quite peppery.

I mix my bread in a cake mixer (heavy duty one) I add the flour, reconstitute the yeast in the hot water with the honey; add the salt and pepper to the flour and once a nice foaming head is visible on the water I slowly pour in until the dough is coming together nicely (sometimes it takes it all, sometimes not) and then I leave the dough hook to do its magic for about 5-10 minutes. Leave it to prove for a good 2 hours (when pressed the dent should not spring back) Knock it back, shape and leave to prove again for at least 20 minutes until double in size (may take longer depending how warm the room is)

Bake at 220 oc for about 20-30 minutes (depends whether you 've done one large loaf or a couple etc) - its cooked when it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. (I have a ridiculously efficient fan oven so I cook at 150)

If you like the crust softer as soon as it comes out of the oven wrap in t-towels - if not leave to cool on wrack and the crust will be very crusty.

Becks said...

Tunisian crochet? Long hooks? Hey come on I'm relying on you for guiding me through basic crochet. Don't go confusing my poor little head!
Oh and thanks for the DC edging tip for the blanket. Currently in progress and looking much neater, and firmer shaped.
Thank you.
xx