The knit edition

This seems like the ideal moment to talk about some of the knitting I've been doing recently; it has, after all, been taking up most of my free time. For a start, I've just finished the emerald green jacket I've been on with since

A perfect finish

First of all, I'm indebted to a lady on Mastodon called Marie-Louise (who I think is a francophone Canadian), who pointed out that I had the tension knob the wrong way round on Adelaide. It probably wouldn't have made a huge amount of difference in use,

Adelaide, Adelaide

A rather damp (but cheerful) young postal worker arrived yesterday morning with a mysterious flat parcel, and as soon as I saw the label I realised I had Adelaide. I was quite surprised that she'd go into anything quite so flat, but once I got the box open,

Neat and trim

Well, she took a lot of painting; she and all her accessories got a full coat of Payne's Grey followed by most of a coat of silver (as in I didn't bother silvering the base, nor the inside of the roller, which is barely visible in

Feeding the 150

Every month - well, almost every month; we do take a break in August, and in either December or January (it was December this time) - our church does a bring-and-share lunch after the service. When there were only around 30 of us, this wasn't complicated. There was

Net benefits

So... the knitting is going like gangbusters; Gisele is being painted (she and all her accessories have now had their first coat of Payne's Grey, which for those who don't know is very nearly black, and I shall be going over that with silver to give

The making of Gisele

I'm not counting the Milward. I now have my first actual loom. Gisele is one of these. She arrived yesterday along with various other bits and pieces, and when I opened the box I was confronted by an illustrated instruction leaflet and a ziplock bag (quite tightly taped

Recipe rescue

My sister gave me an excellent thing for Christmas. It was another vegan air fryer cookery book; but this one is British, which means I don't have to go through converting everything into metric weights. Moreover, looking at it, I think most of the recipes have a fighting

Many a cross word

My ancient mother doesn't want anything for Christmas. Well, she has quite a small bungalow and it's full of stuff, so she doesn't have room for a lot more of it; besides, it's not as if she can do so much reading

Vade mecum

When I used to go to concerts regularly, I had a portable sewing kit. Theoretically, that meant I was able to repair any of the musicians involved. Soprano snapped a suspender? Bass burst a button? No problem. I was there. Except... somehow, it was never like that. The only person

A Christmas turkey

I hope you all had a good Christmas... as did I, on the whole. Thanks to the air fryer I was able to cook up a splendid vegan Christmas feast with surprisingly little hassle, and I even managed to source a bottle of vegan zero-alcohol Australian Shiraz. I can'

Pastime with good company

I mentioned yesterday that the Milward loom, though it's going to be useful for many things, is not really what you want for ribbons and tapes. So I asked for recommendations on Mastodon, and someone suggested the rather Heath Robinson contraption in the photo, which is the Ashford