No worries there then

I am new to Facebook, and floundering around it, on my page I noticed my son Alex has written an entry .... "

Wood really is slippery when wet. I just washed out, landed head first and broke a bridge with my face... My body hurts." 

So no worries there then!   But subsequent texts and a chat with Kat have allayed my concerns. 

Facebook is a mix of addictive voyeurism into the lives of others we know and have known, and harbinger of both bad and good news.  The jury is out for me as to whether I shall be a very active participant or more of a "lurker" in the background.   

Twitter is a relevation too and I tweet now and then, but do visit regularly to see what those whom I follow have tweeted.  I follow some well known personalities and some not so known, but on a craft front it is nice to have snippets from favourite podcasters to see.  Away from the podcasters Sally Bercow is Queen of Twitter!

Enough of idle chit chat, this week I am posting a couple of recipes, and an update on my own craft activities.

Next posting will be a craft related site review

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Craft Corner this week, is a very short description of how I achieve yarn from raw fleece.  

The fleece in these pics is Jacob Fleece which is a mix of brown and white, and it arrives to the spinner in an unwashed state.

  So its best to find the rear end and remove any residue there as soon as possible! It also will have various bits of vegetation stuck to it. The next stage is to get it ready to spin "in the grease".  I spin unwashed fleece that still has its natural lanolin in, but it needs untangling.  

Each lock of fleece is combed with a metal toothed dog comb and when the lock is combed it is stored for spinning

I spin with a short draw on a traditional wheel

but  am trying to master spindle spinning. , when I have filled a spool on the wheel it is transferred to the Lazy Kate

  and when there are two full spools on the Lazy Kate the final yarn is plied on the wheel.  The spools are initially spun with the wheel turning clockwise, but when they are plied together the wheel is spun anti clockwise.  It doesnt matter how thick or thin the final yarn is going to be, it is always made up of two strands so that when finally knitted it lays correctly and doesnt have a bias.

Once plied it is wound into hanks.

It now needs to be cleaned or "scoured" and each hank is washed in warm water to which biological washing powder has been added, this removes the excess oils from the yarn.  (If showerproof yarn is required, then it would not be washed too thoroughly at this stage so it retained more lanolin).  Then it is rinsed in cold water and this helps to fluff up the yarn.

Finally it is wound into balls of wool ready for knitting, some crafters use a special wool winder and create attractive cakes of wool, but I am still in the "old days"!

Then finally it can be made into something!  In the final picture the white tam and the tam opposite to it have both been knitted from yarn I spun.

      

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Wot No Lentils?

Occasionally I will share recipes that I have tried and tested.  But quantities may not be to the gram/ounce, as most of my recipes are suggestions rather than cast in stone instructions, and therefore often many of the ingredients will be "optional" too.  

So with the warm weather in mind, conventional salads can become boring, and this makes a slight change to the norm:- 

SUNRAY SALAD

Ingredients: Watercress, bananas sliced lengthways, orange/satusma segments, pieces of walnut, sliced cucumber, stoned dates. A sprinkle of rosewater if available.

Method:  Lay out all the watercress on a round plate evenly. Place sliced cucumber all round the edge of the plate, and lay lengths of banana from outer edge to centre of plate so it resembles the rays of the sun.  Place in spaces between the banana slices the walnuts pieces, stoned dates and orange segments.  If rosewater is available then sprinkle on prior to serving.  The rosewater is a nice touch but not an essential.

SCOTCH TOMATO,

Instead of burgers try:

ingredients: 1 packet of Sosmix made up as packet directs, or any other vegan/vegetarian sausage substitute, tomatoes, breadcrumbs

Having made up the Sosmix, wrap each tomato in the Sosmix, and roll the Scotch Tomato in breadcrumbs.  Bake in hot oven at say No5 for 20mins or until golden brown.