January has been rather snowy around here. Not in a disruptive way, as it's mostly just been a light dusting, but it's been pretty cold, often windy, and the ground has been so hard that doing anything in the garden feels unappealing. I feel like I'm still recovering from the work-related onslaught of the autumn, and while I've been doing quite a bit of DIY, I've been starting weekend mornings slowly, knitting and watching YouTube videos about growing a preserving food. This month's knitting has used wool from The Inkpot. Hannah hand shears her own sheep, and is extremely cheerful. I made socks with this wool at the end of last year (I've already worn them so much I've put a hole in one of the heels), and now I've adapted a cushion pattern from this 1948 knitting book to make a hot water bottle cover with a ridiculous fringe. I've not shaped the top, because I usually sit with one hand inside the cover, and I'd only end up stretching the neck. I've been using this for a week or so now and it's perfect. The other thing I've made in January is calendula salve. Back in the autumn I finally got round to dehydrating some of the abundance of calendula flowers from our garden, which I'd been meaning to do all summer. They sat in the dehydrator for several weeks, until finally I got throwing them into a jar of sweet almond oil which had been under the sink for about five years. There were still a few flowers in the garden at this point, so I threw them, fresh, into olive oil. I turned both jars daily for a few weeks - they both turned a rich golden colour, but the fresh flowers went slightly mouldy, which I'm told is always a risk when there might be moisture left. So that jar sadly went in the bin, but the rest I strained and mixed with beeswax (which had also been under the sink for about five years), to make several tiny jars of calendula salve. I've read it's a miracle cure for all kinds of skin complaints, from chicken pox to sunburn. I don't know about that, but I can confirm it works wonders on dry skin, and on hands sore from the cold.
I've got a lot of plans for the garden this year, and one of them is to learn more about the things that are growing (whether I've planted them or not) and what they can be used for, so there might be a little bit more experimenting from me in the coming months.
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Over the years I've amassed a collection of knitted dishcloths, mostly that I've made myself. I like knitting, and these are small, easy projects that can be made over a few days, and I do like making useful things. None of them are quite right though, and I tend not to use any of them for washing dishes at all. Most of them are quite misshapen now, as I don't tend to flatten them properly when I dry them. I first started knitting dishcloths when I read about them on the Down To Earth blog. The one on the left was my first, a kind of waffle pattern, and it's the one that's the best size for generally wiping around the kitchen. The next one along came swiftly afterwards, and then the one in the bottom right, which is just straightforward garter stitch, and the one that dries the quickest and is the most flexible to use, but is also far too small. The big one in the top right is made of thicker cotton - garter stitch again, but the cotton is too heavy, or the knitting needles too small, and it doesn't dry very quickly. The multi-coloured one at the bottom was made for me by someone I don't know, a partner in an online swap. At first I wasn't sure as it's not cotton, but actually it's really hardwearing and feels far more robust than any of mine. She described is as a 'scrubbie' and that's really what it does. I'd like to make a few more - enough that I can have a big pile in the cupboard and just put a clean one out each day, without drawing on an unsatisfactory succession of shop bought ones. The cotton I have at the minute is the larger stuff, so I'm going to experiment with bigger needles for a looser weave. I do wash the shop bought ones, rather than throwing them away, but they still don't last as long as my own knitted ones. I need to figure out a better place to store them too, so I'm not rummaging around with the tea towels every time I need a new dishcloth.
I am looking forward to knitting again though, it's been a while. |
Hello!Sit down and make yourself comfortable. I'm Jenni, and I write here about our new foray into country living, which includes growing food, knitting, baking, wandering around the fields, and seeing which local cafe serves the best cake. Categories
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