Crochet and lemon cake

19th January  

For me crocheting is both an individual occupation where you can loose yourself in the rhythm and before you know it several hours have passed, that is if the family will leave you alone. Or indeed crochet can be a social activity whereby people come together to create in an atmosphere with like minded people, chatter and laughter,  a must as is cake!

For the past couple of weeks I have been hosting a crochet course and as you can probably guess where there is more than one crocheter there really should be cake.  I have been asked to include each week the cakes that we scoff during our Thursday evening and must apologise that there is only one photo for this week, not thinking to blog about it before now! 

Week one, the ladies learnt how to chain and how to make treble crochet stitches along with that we all ate lemon and blueberry cake...

Lemon and blueberry sponge cake 

You will need:

♥  175g/6 oz butter
♥  1 to 2 tsp of finely grated lemon rind
♥  175g/6oz caster sugar
♥  3 small eggs
♥  175g/6 oz self raising flour
♥  1.5 tbsp lemon juice
♥  extra lemon juice for moistening the cake

for the Lemon curd, this needs to be made in advance, if you do not have time, buy a jar?!?!?

Lemon and blueberry cake and crochet

♥  225g/8 oz sugar
♥  3 medium lemons
♥  100g/4oz butter
♥  2 large eggs

for the Lemon icing
♥  225g/8 oz icing sugar
♥  lemon juice

Blueberries for filling and decoration


1  Cream together the butter, lemon rind and sugar until soft and light.  
2  Gradually beat in the eggs, lemon juice and  adding in a tablespoon of flour with each egg, to avoid the mixture curdling.
3  Sift the remaining flour and fold in gently and carefully into the mixture, try not to loose the air.  You should have a slow dropping consistently to the batter.
4  Divide mixture evenly into two 7 or 7.5 inch tins.
5  Bake in a moderately hot oven about 180 degrees Celsius/350 degrees Fahrenheit, for approximately 18 minutes or until firm to the touch.  Allow to cool in tins.
6  Once the cakes are baked I place a fine skewer into them and then drizzle in lots of lemon juice, more the better, I think.  This adds extra lemon flavour but also ensures the cakes are lovely and moist.
7  Once cool spread a generous amount of lemon curd over one half and sprinkle liberally with fresh blueberries.
8  Place top layer over the lemon curd and blueberries.
9  Sift icing sugar and mix with lemon juice to make a thick consistency icing sugar. 
10  Spread over the cake and decorate with blueberries on top.

To make the Lemon curd:

1  Grate the top zest of the lemons very finely, taking care not to use any white pith.
2  Squeeze out all the juice from the lemons.
3  Put lemon rind, juice, butter and sugar into a heat proof basin.  Stand this over a pan of boiling water and heat until the butter and sugar have melted.  Lower the heat, so the water is no longer boiling.
4  Whisk the eggs, stir into the lemon mixture and cook slowly until the curd coats the back of a wooden spoon.
5  Pour into hot sterilised jars and seal as jam. 

♥  Enjoy and  let me know if you make it  ♥

Crochet lessons

17th January

I absolutely love Thursday evenings. Having ladies coming into my home to crochet is fast becoming addictive. I love sharing my passion and seeing others becoming 'hooked' it is so very exciting. This week was week 2 in the making a blanket course and I decided to dive head first into a stich not designed for beginners.  Was I being foolish as three of the six on the course had only started crocheting 8 days previously in our last lesson, but I thought in for a penny and all that...

There were grumblings and little moans of angst as we began and one was heard to say, no don't like this can I go back to last weeks stitch, but I beat them with my crochet hook and lo and behold by the end of the session everyone had cracked and admitted to being rather chuffed at having learnt a new stitch.  Me... a very proud mother hen!

Only having learnt how to crochet 8 days previous,
 the puffy spike stich has been mastered.

 

This person wanted to complete further cosy stripes before adding
in the new stitch, but made a sampler of the puffy spike stitch

 

This rainbow coloured blanket will only be in cosy stripes,
but each week this crocheter will be making either a sampler
of the new stitch or as this week,
making a cowl with the puffy spike stitch

 

A successful row of the puffy spike stitch was achieved

 

This person is an experienced knitter but is
hooked on the speed of crocheting

 

Towards the end of the night when some had already left,
there are often a hardly couple still wanting to crochet more!

 

We have virtual crocheters too.  This one from Canada and Linne
is making THREE blankets all at the same time, they are
 only ever so slightly smaller than the ones being made on the course,
I think Linne is winning hands down with motivation

 

Blanket number 3 by Linne, having started to add in the puffy spike stitch

 

Here is the cowl that is being made alongside the blanket using the stitch from week 2

 

It wouldn't be a crochet course run by me without cake.  This week it was chocolate and cardamom

 

To ensure that I complete my rows ready for the next lesson
and also needing to add in a few rows more of the
 next stitch to be learnt, I am crocheting every where I can! 

Already I am looking forward to week 3 and seeing how everyone is coming along.  I anticipate that each blanket will now start to take on some real individual characteristics as we have two stitches to play with and alternate with, I wonder what everyone is doing...

 

Sharpie pens, lights and a quick craft

January 13th 

A quick make for a Monday morning, tea light covers

Mondays are usually my stay at home day with a little work in the late afternoon.  Not so yesterday as I had to work most of the day.  And so you should I hear you cry, but Mondays mean #makeitsewcial days and yesterday was the first one of the year.  I really did not want to miss out and felt like a teenager deprived of her first big 'going out' session.  Never fear though, I managed to sneak in some very quick crafting time  BEFORE I set off to work!  For those of you oblivious to #makeitsewcial follow my previous post all about it HERE

With little more than half an hour what did I do on a dark dull Monday morning?  Well, my attention turned to the darkness of the morning and I realised I needed more light, that then set the old brain cells whirling and I decided to use some of the copious amounts of mismatched glasses cluttering up the cupboard and give them a Sharpie pen make over.  Have you heard of Sharpies, have you used them?  We love them in our house hold but I have had to squirrel mine away and hide them from the teenagers, I AM NOT SHARING MY SHARPIES.  I even made them their own little pouch last year! 

Last years crochet pouch, used daily

All I needed for this project was:  

Brightening up a dull morning,
decorated greaseproof paper tea light covers

old drinking glasses
greaseproof paper
Sharpie pens
blutack
tea lights


As I was crafting straight after breakfast and before work, I had little time to indulge in procrastination as to designs for my tea lights.  In the kitchen on the window sill at the moment I have a little piece of early spring in the guise of potted narcissi which are already flowering and cheering up my days.  Looking at the flowers I began to draw and colour in on the greaseproof paper.  I deliberately did not block colour and so allowed some of the greaseproof paper to show through my colouring, I thought and hoped this would be effective with the tea light shining through.

Let's not look in detail at the drawing as we all know
from previous posts I cannot draw or paint, but I still have a play

Those of  you silly enough to indulge me and who read the blog will know I love boats, so a tea light set would not have been complete without a boat too.  Sorry to any sailors out there, this is sooooo not an accurate drawing, but hey, I had very little time, who am I kidding, it would not have been any better had I had hours!

Basic basic drawing, but effective with
a light source from behind nonetheless

Then to complete the quartet, I very quickly doodled some hearts on one and hash tagged the other with #makeitsewcial and added in some crafting silhouettes of a paint brush, sewing machine and scissors.  Google images is great for line drawing and silhouette inspiration, goggle something like 'sewing machine silhouettes'  on images and you will see what I mean.

Note the paintbrush is raised past the rim
of the glass to add more interest

So in a rush to get out of the door and not be late, I blue tacked the drawn on greaseproof paper to the glasses, lit the tea lights for a quick photo, published one of them on IG (Instagram, should you wish to follow me, I can be found there as selmaeclectichomelife) so I could be a part of the fist Monday #makeitsewcial, blew out the candles and hopped into my car, making it just in time for work. 

Thank goodness there were no traffic hold ups on the way...

All four tea light covers completed in just over 30 minutes

Notice I left some of the flower
raised over the edge of the glass

I think this would be a great craft to do with children too, I can just picture children's colourful quirky pictures, they could use crayons if you are too precious with your Sharpie pens as I am!

♥  I hope Monday was good to you and you have a 'crafty' week  ♥

A Crochet Challenge for the New Year

10th January 



Playing with crochet, yarn and different stitches

In a mad rush to challenge myself and set new goals I posted on my eclectichomelife  facebook page back in November that I would be running a six week crochet blanket making course in January and would anyone be interested.  People were and it has now become a reality!  Scary stuff but a tad exciting too. Not only that but I have some people crocheting along (CAL) virtually too!!!

Having not actually run a crochet course before I had to get my thinking cap on as how best to go about it and indeed think of a blanket that would be easy enough for a beginner, challenging for an intermediate and fun and inspiring enough for someone confident in crocheting.  The aim of the course therefore would be to inspire the love of crochet.  Hope I can do it.

I set to over the Christmas period and played with oddments of yarn and produced a sample of the type of blanket I hope we would be making.  Having loved Lucy at Attic 24's Cosy CAL blanket, see
HERE , I felt I was not finished with that stitch and therefore it would make an excellent first stage to the blanket, easy enough for a beginner and interesting enough for anyone else.

Four different stitches

Having worked out what the blanket would look like, I needed to order my wool and within a couple of days it arrived.  I find choosing colour schemes perhaps the hardest thing about crochet as I like so many, but having enjoyed a neutral blanket last time, I was ready for some colour.  But, kept it to red tones only.  Hope I do not become fed up with it!

Woolwarehouse packaging, appeals to the little girl in me

Choosing colours is the hardest part of crochet for me

Using craft sticks as a reminder of the colour
 and wool being used for the blanket

In order to help everyone on the course, I thought it best if I actually began mine before the first lesson.  I chained the required 198 and completed my first row.  This would give everyone as idea of what theirs should look like.

Chain of 198 and row one complete
and ready to show at the first lesson

The evening worked well and we were a mixed bag of experience with crochet, a couple not ever having picked up a crochet hook before to one who has produced lots of items.  by the end of the evening, we had drank tea and coffee, eaten cake and everyone had completed at least three rows of crochet, some even managing four.  I felt like a very proud mother hen ;)


Cake each week has been promised, this week lemon and blueberry. 
Nearly everyone completed four rows on the first night.

Everyone has been set homework and so I too need to complete my block of crochet for this weeks blanket and make a start on the first two rows of next weeks stitch, so everyone will be able to see what we will be attempting in lesson 2...

On the fifth colour stripe, which is row 10

Using treble stitch allows the
blanket to grow quickly

♥  Have you set yourself any challenges this year?  ♥

My Attic 24 cosy CAL is finished thank you Lucy

5th January 

Happy New Year to you.  Are you able to move or are you still stuck in that comfy chair?  This morning was a shock to our household and none of us were ready for normal routine to resume.  I love the holidays, love the children being at home, love the fact we are not ruled by a clock and totally LOVE the fact that the children do not need nagging.  But alas, the alarm woke us up with a start and the 'five more minutes' moans resonated around the house.

However, I am embracing this new year and excited about the new things to discover and challenges to be faced and met...bring it on!

But before we can jump head first in to 2015, I thought I should post the last project from 2014, that of the Attic 24 cosy CAL.  I loved this project from start to finish and am a little sad to see it completed.  So, I begin a new blanket on Thursday with six lovely ladies joining me at my home. Excited does not even cover it.  I also have a hankering to make another cosy CAL in the near future with gloriously bright colours, have you seen the ones out there that people are making?  They are fabulous and all look so different yet the same.  Lucy, if you are reading this, you are one clever lady that brings a lots of happiness to 'hookers'. THANK YOU.  should you wish to make your own cosy CAL, Lucy's clear instructions can be found HERE

So with no further ado, here is my completed Scandinavian influenced colour cosy CAL blanket, hope you like it...

Desperate to finish,
this blanket will always remind me of Christmas

Just the edges left!

Blanket in situ where it was always intended

Hoping guests will find the cosy CAL, cosy

The little picot edges were fun to make

Lucy's edging instructions can be found HERE

 

I am in love with this blanket

The blanket is already well used

Cannot resit photographing outside
on my painted bench

 

In case you are interested the post with details for the painted bench can be found HERE

 

 

Neutral colours work surprisingly well with a 'pop' of colour

♥ Hope 2015 brings you joy and happiness ♥



 

Homecrafted eclectic reflections

31st December

It is a time of reflection and I am following on the band wagon.  We have had a very mixed year, with a deep loss and some unexpected hospital stays.  But, despite the sadness that is very real, the year has been and is now almost gone and we look forward. In saying that on a home crafted front this blog has gone from strength to strength and I would like to thank you all for being a crucial part of this journey with me.  thank you to all those who have commented either here or on other forums and to all of you who read but remain silent, I thank you for your time in spending here with me at eclectic, you are warmly welcomed back.

A look back at this year...

All sorts of bags

Various sewn bunting

Lots of crocheted garlands

Hearts featured heavily this year

A variety of crafts

Makes that hold things in one way or another

Items made to be worn

And let us not forget Christmas makes

♥  Sending you nothing but good wishes and happiness in the coming year, see you in 2015  ♥

Five a day post

26th December ~ Boxing Day

Today for the fist time I join in with a group of bloggers and post about five things. Amy at Love made my home began and hosted this party and I am grateful to be joining in. 

I have decided to share 5 sites with you on various social media that I follow. I would like to spread the love. Being new to the blogging world I have found the support tremendous and inspirational. To all of you I follow, sorry I could not share you all and to those I am yet to discover, I cannot wait. 

My five for today are:

For great inspiration as to what to read, you should watch out the talented writer and read her for honest fresh reviews, pop along to the Wordpress blog of Nicki. She set herself the challenge of reviewing 50 books and 50 films that she had not previously read or seen in the year she turned 50. Find her at 

http://inthenickioftime.wordpress.com/about/

On Facebook I follow a fellow Scandinavuan offspring.  Sweet Paul from America also had a Norwegian mormor (mothers mother) as I did. His page is all about the sweet things in life. Who could resist that. He writes about baking, crafting and home style in a way which has fun and flair.  Go see for yourself at

https://m.facebook.com/sweetpaulmagazine?refsrc=https://www.facebook.com/sweetpaulmagazine

On Twitter I follow a superb knitter who says she dabbles in crochet too but my word her creations are original, unique and have some wits to them. I usually end up in her blog but as I have already shared a blog with you, Twisted gets mentioned in this section. But I urge you to pop over. Her written word is so clever and never fails to put a smile on my face. A very talented lady. Find her on twitter at:

@thetwistedyarn

Of course there is also Instagram and I confess to perhaps loving this form of social media the best. It really is what it says. It's instant. The community are uber supportive and friendly and you can find inspiration immediately. Often from IG you may pop to someone's blog or begin quick snipets of conversation but the photos often just speak for themselves. I love it. Today I share with you a Norwegian baker who writes her posts both in Norwegian and English. She has many thousands, oops just checked, she has over one million followers! And they follow for good reason. Her food bakes are sublime. Don't be put off by her immaculate nails or the pastel pinks of her photos, her bakes are delicious   Find Manuela on IG as:

Passionforbaking

And lastly let's not look at electronics but good old books. I cannot get away from them despite trying to embrace new technology. I do not want to be left behind in the past but neither can I let it go. I love books to flick through, to touch and to read and admire. Christmas for me once the festivities begin still mean cook books. I love sitting down in a quiet moment over the Christmas period with a cup if tea and Christmas cake and flicking through cook books. I maybe stuffed full of rich food but I like to continue to peruse the food and wonder when I may try this recipe or that one. My current favourite is another Norwegian descendent, Signe, living in London but was brought up in Oslo as a small child. Her book Scandilicious is top of my go to list at present.  She has another great book out too. Go see what you think. 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Secrets-Scandinavian-Cooking-Johansen-Anthropology/dp/1444703927

I hope you have enjoyed my insight into some that I follow and that I may have introduced you to new sites. I always find that so exciting. Enjoy the rest of the festive season everyone. I wish you nothing but good things. 

I am joining in Five on Friday, taking five minutes from our day to enjoy five things.  Please go and visit the other people who are also blogging about Five on Friday this week.

Kristie from North of 49 Patricia from A Place For Everything  Katharine from Art-e-facts  Selma from Eclectic Home & Life  Marion from My Two Girls