Weekend report

Happy new week to everyone out there!

Hope you've been fine.

I have been sporadic with my posts on this blog; I offer no excuses, but I will say that I have been terribly busy with all things crafty.

Here are all the things I've been doing, especially last weekend:

 Caveat - My photography skills are deeply amateur, and my camera phone sucks, so forgive the picture quality.

I cooked traditional Nigerian yam pottage, with some ugba added (that's sliced oil bean, for the uninitiated). I didn't use the recipe on the link, because it's a very basic dish that I learned as a teenager. 

You can't see it, but trust me, there's big chunks of fish buried under all that spinach!

I got to noticing all the blue around me. You ever notice how you might get a colour stuck in your mind, and then that seems to be all you can see everywhere you look?

It started with my SIBOL October swap package that arrived on Saturday (Yay!!)

My shawl hanging on the cupboard door

The curtains in my room

The bead jewelry I restrung for my mother from paper, glass and seed beads, and finally, what is fast becoming my crochet Magnum Opus...

Blue Stripes in my Monster Ripple blanket (and gratuitous shot of my tie-dye wrapper from Senegal!)

And the ripple journey so far. I began this journey over a month ago, and with other projects on the side, I'm still patiently plodding through my yarn stash, decimating it as I go. The stripes are wonderful to plan, and oddly for me, the blanket has not bored me once. So far it's 6" x 5", and counting. I want it big enough that I can snuggle my big 6" self underneath comfortably.

Can I share a secret?

I have decided to name it my nuptial blanket. Why? because it's going into my hope chest.

Delays in the deadline

Hello all.

So life has been quite crazy for me lately.

I recently got transferred to a new department at work, and my workload has quadrupled.

It's an excuse, and I hate those, so let me just apologise to all my regulars and say its totally my fault.

 

I'm still working on my ripple blanket...a few rows here and there whenever I get home and need to wind down.

 

And I have another chocolate baby blanket ta-da! moment coming soon, hopefully.

 

Fingers crossed, I should have something recycled/repurposed for you by next week. I just have to make an extra 24 hours this weekend!

 

Have a fantastic Friday, all.

 

Peace and blessings.

Giveaway!

I'm sharing this for a chance to win a year's worth of free patterns from the very talented lady behind Happyberry crochet, a lovely and inspiring blog. So hop over to her page at

happyberrycrochet.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/free-crochet-pattern-for-simple-newborn.html?m=1

And enter for a fantastic giveaway!

Peace and blessings!
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN

Two scarves finished!

So I recently completed an order for two scarves. One I found on Ravelry (a social networking site for knitters/crocheters/fiber artists), and the other I designed myself with a bit of graph paper, some trial and error and a lot of exclamations of "cussing blue barnacles!" (My current favourite movies are Fantastic Mr. Fox and Tintin, forgive me).

 

 

 

To see them both in more detail, as well as my other humble works, visit my Ravelry page and have a knock around.

 

Peace and blessings.

My ripple journey has begun

Its not an original design. Its not even a new design. Its as old as crochet itself and just as fascinating.
It? It is the ripple stitch. Since I first began to crochet I've wanted to make something rippled, but somehow never found the chance.

It always seemed to be one of those incredibly complex stitch patterns that intimidated me no end.

Until I moved into my own place.

I've lived here almost a month now, and even though traditionally we should experiencing the "August break", it rains nearly every day.

And if that's not enough joyful news, my flat is built on a sort of rocky outcropping facing the road...and by road I mean the hilly part of town I live in. It gets cold here. Very cold. Chest achingly, foot freezingly cold.

I go to bed in thick wool trousers and a sweatshirt to keep the chill out. Getting dressed for bed has begun to take on a ceremonial air, with me lining up my weapons of mass heat production (socks, skull cap, sweatshirt, cardigan, trousers and mug of hot lemon tea).

So there was nothing for it but to make myself a warm blanket. Something to cheer me up and keep me warm at the same time. I wanted something simple enough to remember, but easy on the eye so it looks fancy.

The answer? The ripple stitch, of course! Here's how far I've gotten; its about 2days old so far, and its already made me very happy indeed.

Peace and blessings!
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN

Carrot cake recipe

This is my favourite carrot cake recipe, and while it doesn't cost a lot to do (about N100 worth of carrots will give you a healthy 10inch cake), the frosting may cost a bit more, because of the cream cheese.

Or you can do without the frosting, either way works fine.

I got it here, and it's perfect as is.  Enjoy!

Peace and blessings.

Recycling fever!

So after I was done with the shepherd's pie, I found an old jump rope I don't use anymore

(too short), and decided to try my hand at making a small basket, to hold my earrings and

watch after work. I Googled "coiled basket making", and after finding just 2 tutorials that

made any sense to my little brain, I figured it out by myself, and here's the result.

 

Completely recycled, I basically crocheted over an old jump rope with black and green

acrylic yarn. Now it's too pretty for my keys and jewelry, so it sits on the center table, filled

with coasters. How vexing! Now I have to make something I don't fall in love with and use

that.

Peace and blessings.

Granny square bunting

It's Monday again.

The one day of the week I wish we could all do away with. Ah, well.

I recently moved into my own place, and thought it would be nice if I spruced it up with something crocheted, and what better than bunting?

So I made some old fashioned granny squares, and did a long chain, then single crocheted into the top of each square to attach the whole mess together.

I used pink because I'm not crazy about the colour, and I had all that yarn lying around.

Here's a close up.

The full bunting measures about 8 feet, end to end, including the ties.

Some details...

And because I know you're thinking it, I'll just go ahead and say it...yes, I went overboard!

P.S. Try as I might not to, I hate this bunting. Pink just kills it for me. I've decided to give it away to a friend who just had a baby girl. Good for Baby Iva, and great for me!

Peace and blessings!

Shepherd's pie recipe

This is a simple dish I grew up with, and I've had its various permutations in one form or another. The great thing about it is, you can do anything to adjust it and introduce any ingredient and it still tastes wonderful.

The above was my first attempt to make one myself, and it worked out wonderfully.

It's a very forgiving dish, minimal spices required, and can easily be turned out for less than N1,000 in an evening. The secret to this dish is the filling, that rich marriage of meat and vegetables swimming in a thin gravy that just explodes out of the potato crust when you cut into the pie hot from the oven!

I made this as a gift for the hostess of a dinner (?) party/meet-and-greet I was invited to, and it was a huge hit amongst all present.

So what do you need to create this wonder dish?

1. A Pyrex casserole dish (I bought mine at Spar, but you can get good, deep ones at either Shoprite or any big departjment store near you).
2. A good oven.
3. Tin foil. This is in case you want to make it ahead and freeze until you're ready to eat (I made mine a day ahead and went about my business).

And here is the recipe:

Mash
12 medium Irish potatos
White pepper
Salt, to taste
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp canned milk

Filling
1 package, minced lean beef/lamb/chicken
Half of a whole smoked chicken, shredded
5 large carrots, finely diced
12 green beans, finely sliced
1 large red bell pepper, diced
1 large green pepper, diced
3 large onions, finely chopped
2 tbsp olive oil

2 large root ginger, washed, peeled and grated

Spices
Salt
Black pepper
Knorr cube

1 tsp, Ketchup

(Optional) Soy sauce, Oyster sauce
1. Peel potatos. Soak for an hour, rinse off floating starch. You want your potato crust to turn out fluffy. Excess starch will ruin that. Immerse in cold water, add salt and put on the boil. Boil until soft (about 10minutes),drain and pour potatos into large bowl. Set potato water aside.

2. Using potato masher, mash potatos one at a time, until a rough mash has formed. Add salt to taste, white pepper, bacon bits and/or sausage bits (whatever you feel like, really! Even spring onions)and combine till you're happy with the taste. Add butter, milk and 2 tbsp of potato water a little at a time and mix well, for a smooth, creamy consistency.

3. Pour oil into saucepan or pot. On low heat, fry onions for 2 minutes, covered. Add carrots, ginger, green beans, bell pepper, and green pepper, sauteeing lightly. Add minced beef and brown, tossing constantly and breaking up any chunks by pressing with the back of the cooking spoon. Cover for 5minutes. Open and add smoked chicken, then simmer for 3 minutes to reduce sauce. Let cool.

4. Pour half of the mashed potato into casserole dish. Cover the sides and bottom of dish with the mash. Pour in the filling, leaving a 1/4inch gap from the top. Any leftover filling is fantastic in sandwiches!

5. Spread remaining mash on top of filling to close. At this point, you can cover the whole thing with tin foil and freeze the pie as is, ready to bake within the next week, or it can go into the oven immediately.

Please note that if you choose to freeze it, it MUST come back down to room temperature before its baked.

6. Set gas oven to gas mark 3. Place casserole dish on the middle level. Bake for 30 to 45minutes. Top layer of mashed potatos should be golden brown and filling should be bubbling through at the edges. Remove from oven and serve hot.

7. Enjoy!

I hope you enjoy this pie as much as I do. With minimal fat, the beauty of the dish is in the gravy, and all the textures of the different vegetables in the filling. The potatos are a great source of dietary fiber as well! Mine was all gone before it even occurred to me to take pictures, so you'll just have to manage the one I took above, pre-covering!

You can read all about the history of this iconic Irish dish here.

Peace and blessings.

P.S. This is my own version of the famous shepherd's pie recipe. I am no cooking expert, and my palate is proudly African, so it has a decidedly Nigerian twist to it (which is fine by me, and it was fine by everyone who ate it).

Recycled pencil holder tutorial

At last! A tutorial!

Sort of a tutorial; I'm not showing any steps, just telling you how I did it, though I'm sure there are similar ideas like this all over the Internet.

It was a slow Saturday (as they usually are for me), and I felt like making something, but I didn't know what. I didn't want to knit, crochet, bead-weave or bake, but I wanted to be busy, so...I recycled!

At first I was going to make a magazine basket like this, but I didn't have enough pages. Then I tried a coiled magazine bowl, but it took too long to take shape.

Truth be told, I love projects that give me instant gratification. Or at least, measurable progress. Maybe that's why I've never really taken to knitting.

And I've always been partial to crafts that give you something functional and beautiful for a few hours of effort.

I lived with my sister and her family, and her 3 boys are constantly using their coloured pencils down to a point, and then dumping them in this giant plastic tub, aka The Pencil Graveyard (because that's where, in their house, pencils go to die...it's also a favourite destination for sticky little hands digging for crayons for art homework).

Well, that Saturday, I was folding laundry when my eye fell on the Graveyard, and an empty sweetcorn tin that I've kept for only-God-knows-what-purpose, and that was it! I had my project!

Something that would be super easy, fast, and recycle, reuse and re purpose. Sweet!

It started out as this

Materials:

• Some pencils
• An empty tin and
• Some craft glue/white glue (or if you really want to recycle, make your own super bond by putting a 1/2 cup of petrol in a jar and dropping in Styrofoam until you achieve a thick, translucent consistency. This is what I usually make and use, and it works like a charm. It also helps me get rid of all that creepy Styrofoam!)

It helps to measure the pencils to be sure they are not taller than the tin, but you might want to stagger the heights for an interesting look; the choice is yours.

And this is my new pencil/hook/pen holder, half an hour later.

Sorry for the bad lighting; it was my camera phone's fault.

Helpful tips

1. Before you start, use a pair of pliers to turn down the ridge of metal on the inner lip of the tin. This edge is razor sharp (I learned the hard way), and if you have children, you don't want their little fingers sliced when they reach in for a pencil.

2. Measure the can's outer circumference with a piece of string. Lay the string flat on the floor, and line up the pencils you're using along the string, to be sure you have enough. I ran out about halfway through and had to start digging for discarded crayons to complete this project.

3. Feel free to mix up, according to your own tastes. Your imagination is your only limitation. I made mine with lead pencils, coloured pencils and crayons, all mixed up together.

And that is that! Tidied up the Graveyard and created something pretty at the same time!

There is really no limit to what you can do with craft glue and an empty tin. Now I'm off to make a pie.

Peace and blessings, and have a fantastic weekend!

 

More photos!

As I may have mentioned before, I am lazy.

So today I won't bore you with too much talk; I'll just share photos of what's kept me busy for so long.

Here are better pictures of my finished sweater...

I modified this pattern, and it fits just right now. I made it a little longer, one lapel wider, and added buttons.

It really is a lovely garment, and I am so pleased with it. Hope you try it out for yourself.

Dana Air Flight 9J 992. For the lost and unknown

Today marks the end of the 3 day mourning period declared by the Federal Government of Nigeria for the 153 souls lost on board Dana Air flight 992 on Sunday, the 3rd of June, 2012. Sunday afternoon at 4pm, death fell from the sky, taking all 153 souls with it.

Earlier that weekend, on Friday afternoon, a cargo plane from Lagos, Nigeria had crashed in Ghana, killing 10.

And on Sunday morning, a church was bombed in Northern Nigeria.
They called it Black Sunday on Twitter.

We, as a nation and a people, lost our loved ones, our children, mothers, wives, brothers and fathers.

Our hearts were broken.
Our weeping will stop one day, I know, but in the meantime...we mourn.

The fallen.
The innocents.
The Children.
And in our hearts, we honour them.

May their souls rest in perfect peace.

Any Day Cardigan (Red heart free pattern)

I've been a bit busy with my first garment.

Not my design, i found it here, and took a shine to it.

In my usual way, I just can't leave it alone however...the largest size in the pattern sheet was too tight on me, so I added some increases and modified the neckline to please my non-existent eye for style (it's a going-to-the-movies sweater anyway, so it's going to be worn in the dark mostly...who cares?),

and this is what I finally ended up with, after about a week of fussing over each and every stitch and frogging and defrogging and generally driving myself crazy...

May I present...my first garment made...well, almost; I still have the crocheted buttons to finish!

My sincerest apologies. I told it to keep still to have its photo taken, but apparently it's even more bashful around a camera than I am, because as soon as I got the light just right, the stupid thing turned around in a pout!

Please hop over to my Ravelry page to see it in it's full glory (or lack thereof, hehehe!).

Now, to finish off this cardigan, I decided to do a loop chain sort of button closure. I mean I simply made a loop of chain stitches from the buttonhole side and sc'd into the next stitch (by the way, buttonholes belong on the right for women, left for men), and sewed on the button on the other side of the cardigan. I couldn't find any nice buttons that I liked, so I crocheted some.

I had gotten shiny blue buttons, but they're so lovely, I want to string them together with something and make a necklace. So I decided to cover my boring black plastic buttons (which I'd bought to make a button coaster like this), and I think the crocheted version (next to the shiny blue plastic ones) is much nicer!

So basically I crocheted two circles, inserted an actual plastic button in between and single crocheted them together , like a button sandwich with yarn as the bread and the button as the filling, you see?

On the far right there is a tiny pouch I made on the spur of the moment. I'd just finished measuring for my buttonholes when my tape measure unrolled itself and ran under the dustiest, darkest corner under the bed.

I cursed, swore and scolded it, but it wouldn't come out.

What to do?

Of course I had to crawl under there and fetch the stupid thing! Daft tape, never knowing when to stop playing around at hide and seek! Just look at it up there, insinuating itself into my photograph! Attention whore!

Of course I had to come up with a workable solution for us both, so I made this tiny pouch for it to rest in. Now when I measure, I only bring out what I need and immediately fold it back into it's little home.

Happy tape measure, happy me!

Peace and blessings!

Making up can be hard to do...

I was supposed to post this yesterday, but slow connections and a crazy busy schedule meant I didn't actually get to a terminal until evening, and I was too tired to think up anything to say by then.

Over the weekend, in a moment of nearly Zen-like peace and stillness, I asked myself why I am so afraid of the diagonal box stitch. I've tried tutorials from this site, and even this one, but they both stumped me, mainly I think, because I didn't have access to YouTube videos, and because I just have a short attention span.

But for some reason, on this day of all days, I decided to sit down and conquer this stitch. Its actually quite simple (don't they all say that?), but comes out looking super fancy and hard to do.

So I did a test swatch, and that made me feel so happy that I decided to tackle the shell stitch, my second greatest foe. Back to Google, and 2 hours later...

The diagonal box stitch/crazy stitch.

The shell stitch.

And then I had to reapply lip balm, so I dug out my makeup bag...and realised I hadn't cleaned it, or washed it in over...well, for a long time!

So, the obvious answer was to sew the swatches together and make me a new makeup bag!

So, 2 hours later ( I hate installing zippers, and I sewed the whole thing by hand), I had this little lovely...here it is sitting next to the old makeup bag.

I bet the blue, beaten up fellow on the right is saying,

"Show off!", and the new pouch is going,

"Oh, don't hate on my abundant fabulousity, please!"

While I sat there, patiently stitching, it occurred to me that my life used to be much simpler, but it seems that as I've gotten older, I'm required to use more products to make my face even semi-presentable in the mornings. So, I put down the pouch and went off to have a private moment with my makeup...I had some silly thoughts about minimising (I have this creed that goes "if you're using more than 5 makeup items on your face every day, you need to minimise and de-fuss your routine"). Here's the state of things...

L - R: Hand mirror, 2 brown eyebrow pencils, lip balm, 2 shades of red lipstick and 1 nude lipstick, liquid eyeliner, eyeshadow, cuticle remover, 2 combs for nappy hair emergencies ;), and above: small bottle of vanilla body spray and 2 hairpins for those hair emergencies!

Wow...that's um, a lot, right?

I looked at this pile for about 5 minutes before my brain shut down again, and I had to go back to my stitching. I can declutter some other day!

I found some old mud cloth to use to line the new pouch, ( a big thank you to my Senegalese family for helping with this step!)

That mud cloth lining is really lovely. It's a woodcut looking scene of half naked villagers cavorting around a pot bellied iron pot on an open fire...maybe they're cavorting because they're cooking giant African snails?

Though why grown-ass men should be cavorting around an open flame in just their loincloths is beyond me...isn't that begging for trouble?

Anyway, before I wander off on one of my legendary and annoying tangents, here is what else I got up to when I finished the pouch...

I made a cell phone sleeve in our national colours; green, white and green. Just because I could.

And that's all about that!

Peace and blessings.

P.S.  It has just been brought to my attention that I tend to ramble on these blog posts and that I find it difficult to keep to the point. Who brought it to my attention? My good friend and repeat visitor; who occasionally edits my work...my writing work I mean. So I asked him if he didn't think it would be boring if I stayed on point, and he said a nasty unprintable thing. So I asked if he was having PMS or something, and he said something even more florid...which I found so delightful (I am always delighted by how easily I can tick him off) that I teased him for another 10minutes before he realised that I was deliberately trying to rile him up...oh, dear Jesus! I've gone off on a tangent again, haven't I?

This week in pictures...

Snapshots of the things that inspire me this week...

 The two blankets, finally blocked, packed and mailed off!

My circle of colours I got from my craft shop last weekend. I love that grey in the left of the picture and have a design in mind to use it for. Will let you know how that goes.

Scallop/Single Crochet border I designed myself for the baby blanket. And now, a word from our sponsors...

The blues, those lovely hues...

The purples, pinks and reds... like woolly flower beds...

The blacks, whites, and greys...for those oh-so somber days...

The jolly cheerful yellows, chasing away my sorrows...

The fine cottons in turquoise and gold, can't get enough of them, even if they're all sold...

A work in progress of deep purple yarn, the bit poking out is to cover my arm...

The sad little scrap waiting to be seen, brothers in arms, dull brown and bright green!

Sample square

Every once in a while, I come across a motif, design or element that's too good not to replicate. I found such a design last week.

I was browsing Ravelry, not really looking for anything specific, and I decided to search for anything made using the crocodile stitch. I turned up this gem of a square (designed by Joyce Lewis), that's going to be used in a future blanket project.

It took me about 10minutes to finish, and the key is to follow the instructions strictly. Fortunately, they are detailed and clear enough that you can't possibly go wrong once you get into the rhythm of the thing.

Anyway, enough blather...may I present, the crocheted Crocodile Dahlia Square!

Drum roll, please...

 

I love how its raised up from the square. I wanted it to look like a fat, flat flower on a bed of grass, so I went with white for the center, pink crocodile stitch petals, and the green for the backing square.

I love it!

Baby set complete

Finally finished another darling little baby set for my dear friend.

Here it is...

Shades of brown, to match the first blanket.

I made a hat, booties (my own design), and a blanket. I will share the booties pattern as soon as its been written down, tested and all the kinks worked out. I promise.