Hands Up!

The Voodoo put in a request for arm warmers and since I’d said out aloud, many times, how much I’d enjoyed knitting in the round I couldn’t say "no". So I knitted her these.

I have posted the pattern I devised to knit them as my small contribution to the generous community of knitters out there who, are committed to the free-for-all digital dissemination of their craft and genius. Long may their ideas be woven in hyperlinks, mirrored and archived in the continuum that is the internet.

Materials (to fit UK size8):

• 3 balls Jaeger Matchmaker Merino 4ply, shade 639 (actually 2 and ever such a little bit of the third)


• 1 set 2.5mm double pointed knitting needles

Cast on 78 stitches. Divide the stitches equally on three needles (26 stitches per needle).
Mark first stitch by knotting through a scrap of different coloured yarn. Knit 1, purl 1 for 8"
Next round: *k1, p1, rep from * for 14 stitches, k2tog, p2tog, *k1, pl, rep from * for 36 stitches, ssk, ssk (if you can figure it out, purl these stitches together through the back loops, if not just knit them),*k1, p1, rep from * for 14 stitches
Then knit 1, purl 1 for 1"
Next round: *k1, p1, rep from * for 12 stitches, k2tog, p2tog, *k1, pl, rep from * for 36 stitches, ssk, ssk ,*k1, p1, rep from * for 12 stitches
Then knit 1, purl 1 for 1"
Next round: *k1, p1, rep from * for 12 stitches, k2tog, p2tog, *k1, pl, rep from * for 32 stitches, ssk, ssk ,*k1, p1, rep from * for 12 stitches
Then knit 1, purl 1 for 1"
Next round: *k1, p1, rep from * for 10 stitches, k2tog, p2tog, *k1, pl, rep from * for 32 stitches, ssk, ssk ,*k1, p1, rep from * for 10 stitches
Then knit 1, purl 1 for 1"
Next round: *k1, p1, rep from * for 10 stitches, k2tog, p2tog, *k1, pl, rep from * for 28 stitches, ssk, ssk ,*k1, p1, rep from * for 10 stitches
Then knit 1, purl 1 for 1"
Next round: *k1, p1, rep from * for 8 stitches, k2tog, p2tog, *k1, pl, rep from * for 28 stitches, ssk, ssk ,*k1, p1, rep from * for 8 stitches
Then knit 1, purl 1 for 2"
At this point the ribbed cuff should measure 15” Make sure the stitches are arranged as follows: from start stitch needle1 = 14 stitches; needle2 = 14 stitches; needle3 = 24stiches
Knit 1 round
Then k8, k2tog, k8, k2tog, k8, k24
Knit 1 row
Then k8, k2tog, k6, k2tog, k8, k24
Then knit until stocking stitch fabric measures 1" from ribbed cuff

For Right Hand
To start to shape the thumb, knit round to end of needle2 then increase 1.Continue working in rounds but between the end stitch on needle3 and the start stitch on needle1 increase 1 stitch on the first and last stitch, on alternate rows until there are 16 new stitches between the end and start stitches. Transfer these 16 stitches plus the end and start stitches onto a stitch holder.
Then beginning on needle1 cast on 1(site of thumb opening),knit to end of needle3 and increase 1.
Knit for 1”
Then knit 1, purl 1 for 1" and cast off loosely.
To finish thumb: carefully transfer stitches from stitch holder to needles. Divide the stitches equally on three needles (6 stitches per needle).
Knit to end of needle3 then pick up 4 stiches at site of thumb opening on the palm of the glove ensuring that there are no holes at this point.
Continue in rounds for ¾”
Then knit 1, purl 1 for 1/2" and cast off loosely.

For Left Hand
To start to shape the thumb, knit round to end of needle3 then increase 1.Continue working in rounds but between the end stitch on needle2 and the start stitch on needle3 increase 1 stitch on the first and last stitch, on alternate rows until there are 16 new stitches between the end and start stitches having knitted to the end of needle3. Transfer these 16 stitches plus the end and start stitches onto a stitch holder.
Then beginning on needle1 knit to end of needle2 increase 2 stitches (site of thumb opening), knit to end of needle3.
Knit for 1”
Then knit 1, purl 1 for 1" and cast off loosely.
To finish thumb: carefully transfer stitches from stitch holder to needles. Divide the stitches equally on three needles (6 stitches per needle).
Knit to end of needle3 then pick up 4 stiches at site of thumb opening on the palm of the glove ensuring that there are no holes at this point.
Continue in rounds for ¾”
Then knit 1, purl 1 for 1/2" and cast off loosely.

BACK

Read More......

    The Original Ministry Of Food

Rosehip syrup, another intrepid Food For Free inspired foray into seasonal sustenance. There is a Dog Rose growing just outside the kitchen door. Though I didn't have to go very far to pick a bowlful of rosehips this does count as foraging as I had to brave icy rain and malicious, vengeful thorns. (Perhaps now I can brave the nettles for that nettle soup?).

I followed the directions published by The Ministry of Food in 1943: Rosehip Syrup recipe

I crushed the rosehips with a pestle and morter and not a little bit of sweat and tears (having shed at least an armful of blood earlier picking the rosehips). Do not be tempted to resorting to using an electrical appliance! By saving effort here you are only going to have to spend even greater effort later digging holes to plant trees to offset the carbon emissions accrued.

Do take the time to strain the syrup several times each time using a fresh piece of butter muslin to get rid of all the tiny, sharp hairs.

Once you've bottled up the syrup, the only thing to do is to make yourself a stack of pancakes.

BACK

Read More......

   Sloe Gin

On the prompt of my copy of Richard Mabey's book Food For Free the Sloe Gin recipe offered the prospect of a walk.

In our underestimation of the seasonal thirst for Sloe Gin we thought the belt of blackthorns we alone had discovered was virginal. Not on your nelly! It is frequented, and its delights and fruits plundered, by all and sundry; an important observation we have subsequently added in addendum to our folio prunus f**king spinosa, and filed under ‘k’ for f**king know-it-alledgeable local (cue banjo 4-beat strum). And, it being late in the season, most of the bushes were stripped within arm’s reach! Tauntingly, above this level there remained a veritable bird’s banquet.

It had recently rained and a gloomy frost began to set in. As we looked up into the bushes and plucked the odd, overlooked berry we were drenched in an avalanche of icy precipitation which trickled down our necks, coursed the hollows of our backs and puddled in our butt cracks. Our fingers quickly numbed and in our fumbling attempts to reach the berries we scored our knuckles on the thorns. The expedition was fast turning into something like a Tess-of-the-D’urbervillian night-of-the-dead-and-dying-pheasants-in-the-hedgerow (bloody, though admittedly without the moribund fowls).

Then, set back off the path and overgrown by Hawthorn, we spotted a sloe-laden bush that had been passed over as it was not for easy picking. We just about filled a pudding basin before squelching a hasty retreat to the car, each clandestinely entertaining the thought of investing in a crook handled walking stick and flat cap. And, coming back again next year. And, beating the ravaging hordes to it!

A perfunctory web search will bring up a recipe for Sloe Gin. As they are all much of a muchness, I’ll save you the effort:
Recipe:

• 450g/1lb ripe sloes,(even better if they are slightly bletted after the first frost)
• 225g/8oz caster sugar
• 1 litre/1¾ pint gin

Prick the sloes and pour them into a clean screw top bottle. Pour in the sugar and then the gin. Agitate the bottle to mix the sugar with the gin. Agitate once a day for a week and once a week thereafter for a minimum of two months.

BACK

Read More......

    Bread With Old Dough

The Bread with Old Dough recipe from Andrew Whitley's inspirational book bread matters The state of modern bread and a definitive guide to baking your own has become our standard home fare. Dorian our geriatric house rabbit, who lives in the cupboard under the stairs, cannot contain himself when the house fills first with the yeasty smell of dough proving and then with the smell of baking bread. He runs distracted circuits around our feet until at last he is presented with a piece of just-cooled crust which he seizes upon and carries off underneath the sofa where he can scoff it, every last crumb, unchallenged.

The process entails you keep a fist sized lump of dough back when making a loaf of wholemeal bread. Pop it in an airtight container and keep it in the fridge until you next bake bread. I keep my dough in the door of the fridge so not to freeze the yeast. The longest I've kept the dough is for eight days and I haven't killed anybody yet! Before making a fresh batch of dough remember to take your matured, old dough out of the fridge and allow it to slowly come up to room temperature. Then mix up a fresh batch and knead in the old dough. Before proving, set aside a fist sized lump for the next loaf of bread. For precise, fail-proof instructions refer to Whitley's book.

Why add the old dough? It improves the flavour of the loaf, giving it a slight tang which enlivens the base earthy, nutty flavour of the wholemeal flour. It also improves the crumb, making it less dense.

The perfect slice of wholemeal bread to accompany a soft boiled egg!"Weep"!

Read More......

   Use Your Loaf!

Organic, stoneground wholewheat flour (from Shipton Mill), water, salt and yeast. No fat, no flour treatment agent: L-ascorbic acid (E300), no bleach, no reducing agent: L-cysteine hydrochloride, no soya flour, no emulsifiers: Diacetylated tartaric acid esters of mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids, Sodium steoryl-2-lactylate, Glycerol mono-stearate or Lecithins, no preservatives: Calcium propionate or vinegar, no enzymes: Alpha-amylase, Maltogenic amylase, Oxidase, Protease, Peptidase, Lipase, Phospholipase, Hemicellulase, Xylanase, Transglutaminase. No printed plastic packaging to dispose of. Grass roots activism in a simple loaf. A call to Bakers' arms.

I followed the Basic Bread recipe in Andrew Whitley's inspirational book bread matters The state of modern bread and a definitive guide to baking your own. Admittedly as a first-off, the crust is a little overdone and it would have been more satisfying if I'd baked one large loaf, instead of two small, for a better proportion of crumb to crust. But hey I am chuffed and have put aside a lump of the dough to bake Whitley's Bread with Old Dough recipe. I can't wait.

BACK

Read More......

The Real Bread Campaign

Nothing is closer to our hearts than the salty, saccharin, fizzy, marshmallow soft, rainbow-hued memories of food that map our life experiences when viewed through the skewed kaleidoscopic, synergistic interactions of a cocktail of non-nutritional food additives: preservatives, colourings, flavourings, thickeners, emulsifiers and stabilisers, our generations, X and Y, have been inadvertently ingesting for several decades (not to mention our dose quotidienne of dishwashing liquid and toothpaste residue).

Under parental guidance, we have been brought up inured, our indifference possibly symptomatic of the neurotoxic effects of our formative diets, to off-the-shelf, pre-prepared, convenience ingredients, just-add-water-ready mixes and quick frozen meals. "Can't cook", we enthusiastically relinquish our own skills as means to culinary sufficiency and pride ourselves in exercising our uninformed consumer choice "don't cook!".

Here in the UK there is a current TV advertising campaign announcing that "Blue (Smartie) is back". If like me you immediately rushed out in a fit of nostalgia and bought a box of this crunchy, sugar-coated, chocolate confectionery only to discover that the colour of ALL Smarties is now disappointingly wishy washy (!!!) one is forced to acknowledge the creeping suspicion as to why is it that food industry giants are now removing additives in products aimed at children in a bid, as they claim, to improve their "nutritional quality"? If these additives are non-nutritional then one can extrapolate that the only reason they are doing this is in fact to reduce the toxicity of their products. Is it just possible that those kids who started frothing at the mouth, threw themselves on the floor and gnashed at people's ankles at the mere sight of additive inoculated food were not just simply more badly behaved than we were?

Since it is still considered okay for these additives to be in food aimed at adults, it is time we big kids make our own unadulterated food using ingredients of integrity. No need to to write to your local MP or quit eating altogether in protest, simply baking your own bread is grass roots activism at its most nutritious and delicious. Spend your money judiciously (food manufacturers and retailers, for all they call themselves market leaders, will bend themselves over backwards to meet customer demand) and tuck into some top nosh you made yourself with your own two hands.

I baked the white bread wheat sheaf loaf as part of The Hornbeam Centre's "Rise Up: A celebration of bread" Lammas celebration. As part of the day's events there was a truly inspirational talk by Andrew Whitley, an organic baker, who explained, as a cause of the disingenuous practices employed in the industrial manufacture of bread and the farming of wheat for bread flour production, why he had initiated The Real Bread Campaign. It is not every day that one has the opportunity to experience an eureka moment - I came away from his talk vowing to start eating real bread on a regular basis and to take the time to teach myself how to bake it. Watch this space.

BACK

Read More......

   Bramble Jam

The best thing about going brambling early in the season is the fact that there is blossom and green, reddening and fully ripe, swollen black berries to be seen growing in juxtaposition – a scratch and sniff Adriaen Coorte still life. 4 Real.

The best thing about brambling is that you don't have to read the label to check whether they are airflown, or organic free range. And there is no packaging!

Here you have it, our bramble walk in Epping Forest preserved in a darling jar of jam to save for a wintry day. The rest of it went down nicely baked in an apple and bramble pie.

Read More......