Well, friends and fair crafters of the blogosphere, may I confess to a certain feeling of fullness? The blogiversary cake was eventually cut and… well you can probably guess the rest. Let’s just say that I won’t be hauling myself out of this chair for another week or so. Those buttons on my waistband won’t re-attach themselves, y’know, if I accidentally pop them.
No I hadn’t forgotten that this is a knitting/crochet blog, so here’s a tiny bit of my semi-secret project, now finished and blocked, but in need of some proper photography. There’s a reason that all those stitches look so horribly wonky, and that reason involves my hatred of endless 1×1 ribbing. Sigh. Also I wanted to do a little Wee-hee! at the woven label. 🙂 Labels like this are surprisingly cheap to commission, and you can semi-customise the design to add a professional touch to your work.
Anyway, I’m writing this from deepest most rural Herefordshire, where sheep roam the hillsides and where apples are relentlessly pulverised to make cider. The Toddler Twinnage and I have just arrived to stay with my parents before the parents make another of their once-a-decade moves to a completely new bit of the country. We’ve been wandering around the garden admiring the abundance of autumn:-
…and chatting to the locals, who are of exceptionally handsome stock:-
Up the hill behind my parents’ house are bushes laden with sloes. Note the lichen growing on the dry old branches: lichen loves to grow where the air is clean. Remember the blackthorn I photographed in the spring? Well blackthorn = sloe bushes and now we have enough fruit to make sloe gin:-
Just in case you didn’t enjoy a misspent youth (my childhood chores included stirring the sloe gin each day 🙂 ), here is how to make this sweet, delicious drink. You’ll need to pick roughly a pound of sloes. (Don’t be tempted to eat them – they taste vile, though they’re perfectly harmless.) Take them home, leave your muddy wellies outside the door, please, and prick the sloes all over with a sharp knife. Put them in a large jar with 8oz of caster sugar and the contents of a large bottle of gin. (No, the gin does not need testing ‘just to make sure’.) Stir. Put the lid on the jar and place it somewhere dark. Get it out every day or two and stir gently. It’ll be ready for Christmas. I used to make this stuff every year, but have lapsed, lately.
There is so much more colour and loveliness to show you from our Herefordshire hideaway, before we head back home. And my Mum has been doing the most amazing patchwork which warrants a post all of its own. So I’ll shut up for now and get on with some knitting. ‘Til next time, me hearties.
Wait, muddy wellies live outside? I thought they had to be traipsed around every room in the house to get the mus off?
Oh! Maybe it’s me who’s made the mistake? OK, you’re probably right…. (The Toddler Twinnage would certainly agree with you.)
You certainly know how to keep your readers hooked 🙂
I’ll just try my son’s method:
IIIII WAAAAANT TOOOOO SEEEEEEEE THAAAAAT SEEEEECREEEET PROOOOJECT!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOW
Did it work? No? Hmmm. I’ll be quietly sulking in the corner then. (Unfortunately said son never does that)
*giggles* Sorry, I got distracted by life for a moment or twenty, there. Of course, the problem is that now I’ve built this project up so much, you’re thinking that I’ve knitted some giant house-cosy or cancer cure or something, when all I’ve knitted is a small garter-stitch dish-cloth. 😉
What a great cake/surprise. Your travel photos are so inviting.
Thank you on both counts. ‘Tis a pity that my parents will soon no longer live in this gorgeous neck of the woods.
Secret Project is seriously pretty from what I can make out of that titbit of a photo. Our sloe gin is three weeks old now and already tastes good enough to drink but I WILL leave it to mature properly until Christmas.
Ooooh, drinks at yours tonight, then?! 🙂
“AARRRRGGGHH!” Love a good pirate by-log. I hate gin. I am probably going to be drummed out of the Antipodes for saying that, but it’s not my cup of grog. I live in rural uppper-cumbuckance far flung Northern Tasmania but I, too, can get sloes. I have to head into even furtherest flung upper-cumbuckance to find them in hedgerows cultivated centuries ago by homesick members of the Old Blighty crew but find them I CAN. Did I mention I HATE gin? I made sloe vodka. It was tasty. Steve quaffed it with joy and I gifted the pickled sloes to my daughters to make chocolates out of. You can also use them again, after making the vodka (gin…shudder…) to make sloe port…
http://www.permaculture.co.uk/readers-solutions/what-can-i-do-leftover-sloe-berries-sloe-gin-sloe-port-and-sloe-chocolate
You can also use sloes to make cider…
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2012/jun/06/how-make-slider-sloe-cider
Where are your parents jet setting off to next? Scotland? Wales? Ireland? I, too, am working on my very own project. Secret, hush hush and no-one gets to know till after Christmas 🙂
You hate gin?! Hmmm, I might be forced to re-evaluate our previously agreeable acquaintance…
Now I DO like the idea of sloe port. I think we can maybe reach some point of agreement there, especially after a few glasses…
Thank you SO much for the links to the recipes. 🙂
Those white spirits eh? Vodka…gin…who knows what you are drinking after a few eh? We all become (alcoholic) mates and end up singing karaoke in the wee small hours and dancing on tables over a glass of sloe port. I think I just found the secret to world peace! 😉
Twisted I just knew you must have had a misspent youth – way to go Twisted Seniors! The labels are just gorgeous and such a good idea for handmade gifts and such like. I must investigate down here and see what can be found. Hanging out for the big reveal – it can’t be too far off if the label is in place ……
Ha ha, I’ve been wanting to tell you for a while that my mum (ie 50% of the Twisted Seniors) loves the comments you write here and thinks you sound mightily lovely.
Well, thank you for passing that on – it has made my morning!
Ah, can’t wait for Secret Project reveal!! Xx
You’re all going to be SO disappointed after all this build-up!
Sneak peek at your project looks awesome! I love the tag you attached! I need to get hand made tags too! Wow love the bumble bee! He looks fuzzy and adorable!! Hugz Lisa and Bear
Thank you. I’m sure the project will be a disappointment after all this build-up!
I am desperate to get labels. I adore yours! Can you tell me who you commissioned them from? Thank you!! (and lovely work also)
http://www.wovenlabelsuk.com 🙂
Thank yiu!!
I love those tags! What a great idea. Hmmm… I wonder if I could get some made before Christmas to include in my knitted gifts… And, I’m looking forward to the secret project reveal! 🙂
Well I got my labels from wovenlabelsuk.com, but I’m sure there must be an equivalent where you are? It would be a lovely addition to your gifts.
Those labels are great!
Surprisingly easy to commission and order. 🙂
Herefordshire looks gorgeous–what great photos! I’d love to make sloe gin but I’m not sure where to get sloes in the US . . . I’ll need to research that. And, for sure, your knitting, and your knitting labels, look very exciting!
Thank you, as always. 🙂 Hmm, I’m sure sloes would grow in your neck of the woods if someone introduced them. It’s not as though you’re in Arizona or anything. And sloe gin is rather wonderful…
I should look into those labels, that makes the knitting look so cool!
http://www.wovenlabelsuk.com
🙂 It just seems like a nice touch for handmade items.
Love sloe gin. Have also made sloe vodka. If you pick before the first grist do you freeze your sloes before prickling and placing in booze. I always thought you had to but if I can bypass that stage…
PS love the label.
It’s good to know that labels are available. Woven labels were a must have item for all our boarding school clothes, 40 years ago, but they were expensive, and sewing them on to everything nearly drove us all to drink. If we had had access to sloes and gin I could change the ‘nearly’ to ‘definitely’.
My parents live in Bromyard! They moved there three years ago from Southampton having never even visited Herefordshire and they completely love it!
It is gorgeous round there. 🙂
Enjoyable, as ever, and highly educational. I had to look up some of the words, like blackthorn and sloe, but not gin. We don’t have these in the states, that I know of anyway. Cheers, Ann