Hanging Hand Towel Pattern

Hallo Every-one...here is a pattern I have modified to make a knitted cotton hand towel that you can attach to the oven door handle or a towel rail.

I've used Bendigo Woollen Mills' 8 ply cotton, it is a rather thin 8-ply and 4mm/UK size 8 needles. 25 to 30 gms was all it took. If you don't have 8 ply cotton you can use 2 strands of 4 ply together.

Cast on 9 stitches
Knit 5 rows
Row 6 K4, yarn fwd, K2tog, knit to end.

Knit a further 22 rows.

Increasing starts now~
K2, yarn forward, knit to end.
Repeat this row until you have the desired width for your hand-towel...I went to 46 sts, you may wish to make it wider.

Main body and to keep the hole at the edge~

K2, yarn forward, K2tog, knit to end
Repeat this row until you have the desired length.

K2, *yarn fwd, K2tog, K1* to end.
Knit 2 rows and cast off.

Sew on a button and it's done

My gorgeous buttons come from Sharyn at Buttons B Busy on Facebook

Shoulder detail

Close-up of top

Hope you enjoy making one or two, they would make a simple last minute gift perhaps? Stripes would be fun or use a variegated yarn. If you don't have 8ply cotton then you could use 2 strands of 4ply held together.

Love from Sue
xx

A Little Preserving

I been really enjoying making jams, marmalade and chutney again recently, putting away small jars for Christmas gifts and to share with my family.

We had lots of small limes this winter but they are so small and so full of pips that they are no good for juicing so I looked for an Indian lime pickle recipe to try. I came across this beautiful blog and chopped my limes ready for the salt. After three weeks they had released a lot of juice and become quite tender...there is no water added, can you see the level of the juice? There are 20 small limes in here in quarters...

I knew the recipe would be too hot for us so I reduced the chilli to one green one and measured out my spices...

so before I forget what I did....after 17 days of sitting in the salt as shown in a previous post the limes were tender so I assembled the spices etc. I knew the above recipe would be too hot even for me so I used a heaped dessertspoon of red chilli powder, one large green fresh chilli and 3 cloves of garlic, crushed. Subbed in a teaspoon each of cumin seeds, mustard seeds and smoky paprika and 1/2 t turmeric3 tender lime leaves.
Fried off the whole seeds, crushed garlic and chilli, then the dry spices with a splash of water to prevent it sticking. Tip in the whole jar of limes and juice and the leaves and stir to coat well. turn off the heat and then bottle once cold. It was almost too hot to taste but I'll try it again after a week or two in the 'fridge.

It made about 1 and 1/2 jars as the limes had reduced a lot in size. Look at that gorgeous colour!

Cooking time is very short and the recipe produced just over one Bonne Maman jam jar. I left it to sit in the fridge for 2-3 weeks before trying it...it is very hot but delicious...

My next venture was the Blood Orange and Port recipe from my new book, Small Batch Preserving. I used sherry instead of port as that's what I had...it also made just over one jar. I didn't cook the first batch for long enough as I was frightened of it burning so all the pieces of peel floated to the top. This jar is much better and suitable to gift. It's a beautiful colour from the two blood oranges, one lemon and 1/2 cup of sherry...

We had lots of lovely lemons from Mum's neighbour, Steve, so I preserved a few jars of them, just quartered and rubbed in salt and left to cure, tip the jars once a day to cover the fruit. Once ready you rinse off the salt and the pulp and chop the rind to add to salads, couscous and anything else you would like a lemony flavour...

In my last post I showed you the huge pawpaw that our neighbour Nong had grown. Well there was more yesterday, over a kilo and as much as we like it fresh I wanted to make another Indian style chutney and found this lovely recipe from the Australian Women's Weekly magazine. I halved this recipe and just half of one of my habenero chillies(lethal!) and made these 3 jars today...

It's not too hot and has a lovely sweetness to it.
Then I printed a few paper labels to glue on from this gorgeous blogger.

 It's very satisfying to make your own preserves and certainly saves money too especially if you grow your own fruit and I love the bright yellow and orange colours in the pantry.

Last Friday was the 6th birthday of the wonderful Down to Earth Forums. We had a virtual tea party where we set our our best china etc and drank a cuppa while contemplating what a huge impact it has had on the lives of it's members...here is my photo...Nana Gardner's tea set, mugs from the British Museum, knick-knacks from the op-shops, seedling in odd containers and a hand knitted throw rug. Poor old Twitch has had conjunctivitis in one eye so has been having cream in that eye each day, he is a trooper!

So that's all from me for now, happy to say Mum and Dad are home from their holiday...here's Mum...somewhere in the tropics!

Bye bye for now
xx

Small Table Make-over

I do spend far too time reading design blogs and beautiful home blogs etc but living in this doll's house rental and having little taste limits me lol

Yesterday I went over to the op-shop looking for candles and containers for pot plants and spotted this sad little table for $4...it is sturdy pine but needed work on the top...

I didn't want to paint or varnish it so decided to glue fabric on instead...this print has sweet bunnies on it and was a gift from my friend Claire in Queensland.

I unscrewed the legs..

Drew a large circle with the aid of a ruler, about 10cms larger than the table top...

 I used PVA craft glue to stick the fabric just to the top surface at first, I smoothed it out carefully and left it to dry while I watered the pot plants...

Next I glued the sides down, pulling it evenly around and then I glued the excess fabric to the under-side of the top. While the glue dried I washed the legs thoroughly and then screwed them back on....

Oh...you can see that I work in bare feet, Helen tells me it is called Earthing...

Ta-da!

The last thing I did was to mix 50/50 PVA glue and water and brush it over the fabric to help protect it a little and also to ensure it was completely glued on...

It takes up very little room but will be useful when we have visitors and it looks so cute! Go me!

Also yesterday neighbours spotted a snake in the front gardens so every-one was most excited all afternoon, re-counting the tale and telling of another snake that came out of the drain several years ago. Oh! And the one that was under Jean's bed all night...apparently Jean was a good egg about snakes and was quite un-concerned!

The view from our front door, the snake was in the garden under Nong's paw-paw tree. We all shared a 6 kgs paw-paw this week...what a whopper and so lovely and sweet...home-grown lime juice squeezed on is my favourite way to eat it...

That's all for now, we're looking forward to the Football Grand Finals tomorrow, go Eagles.
Hope you have a lovely weekend too
Sue
xxx

A Diamond Wedding Anniversary

Today is Mum and Dad's 60th wedding anniversary, we wish them beautiful day and are so grateful for the wonderful couple they are and the loving family they have created.

From this blessed union have come two children(Ian and I), 6 grandchildren and 6 great-children.

The wedding took place at St Mary's Priory in Lancaster where Dad's parents had married about 28 years before.

L-R Nana Kelsall, bridesmaid, Uncle Tom, bridesmaid, Uncle Ken, Dad, Mum, Uncle Alan, Auntie Jessie, Uncle Bob and Nana and Grandad Gardner...

They went to London for their honeymoon...

Congratulations to you both, enjoy your special day
xox

Pretties In The Garden

Low 20s today and very sunny so the flowers are out in force. I've done a little weeding and pruning and snail squashing and have some photos of my 'pretties'!

gorgeous kalanchoe , new this year, called Tinker Bell

Bluebells from some bulbs Dad gave me years ago

No idea what these are or how they got into this pot but they are very happy

mini rose has so much new shiny growth

Roma tomato is growing well too

beautiful, fragrant freesias come up from bulbs every year

buttery yellow freesia

one of the last Indian limes

this could be elephant ears, a gift from the grandchildren years ago too

one of Nadia's succulents

a Docker's Pansy, named for the colour of our local football team!

my cherubs, a gift when I retired

hurray! my dill seeds have sprouted

shady front porch

Fire n Snow poppies that have self-seeded  every-where

one perfect daisy

these "stuffed shirts" made me laugh at the local op-shop.

All is well here, we're having a family lunch on Saturday at Elizabeth's to celebrate the up-coming 60th Wedding Anniversary of Mum and Dad's, it will be lovely to get every-one together to share a meal as it's been a while since we did that.

Hope all is well at your place too,

Love from Sue

Bean a Bit Busy

but here is my new favourite recipe

I have no idea where the inspiration for this creation came from but I love it! Any seasonings could be swapped for the peri peri sauce(I bought Woolworth's Select brand and love that too)

1/3 cup wild rice boiled for about 20 minutes and then a cup of basmati rice(any rice will do) added and cooked until tender. Drain very well and leave as long as possible to dry out as with regular fried rice.

Finely chop and sauté in a large fry-pan...

an onion
half a red capsicum
a stalk of celery
two cloves of garlic
a cup of chopped spinach/silverbeet/kale

Either drain a tin of your favourite beans or use 2 cups of ready cooked beans(I used tinned 4 bean mix this time and home cooked white beans last time) and heat them through, season with either 2-3 tablespoons of peri peri sauce/soy sauce etc etc AND the juice of one beautiful home grown lemon(if possible)

add your cold, dry rice and mix well until it is hot, check seasonings and add chopped fresh herbs.

It's a very versatile recipe that has been around since Adam I expect but there is a good reason for that...it's cheap, tasty and nourishing and you can mix and swap to use whatever you have on hand.

All is well here, blogging mojo has gone AWOL again but we're all well

Big Love as Jamie Oliver says!
Sue and Co
xx

And From Elizabeth in Appreciation

An epic shout out to my awesome family, friends and even the random strangers who have bent over backwards, in hell and high waters, to help me this last week.

I was just downstairs watching my big brother pressure cleaning my now empty garage…nearly $500 on a skip and 10hrs of labour later (unofficially, he's officially my favourite brother; just keep it on the down low, I don't need my other bro hearing about it)…

My Mum whom I almost drowned and sent home wearing a towel over the weekend…the Olivers (half of whom I almost drowned) whom have a bright future in furniture, toy and bike delivery (great rates too)…my incredibly generous Grandparents whom have a bright future in bunk bed assembly…Bree who may or may not have gone to work this arvo looking like my Nubian Cabbage Patch doll after spending all day in my sooty garage…Mandy & Co. for the mattress delivery and giggles (we had a ball camping out that first night)…

I've been totally overwhelmed with everybody's generosity, offers of child sitting (crazy bastards, you know who you are!) and furniture/appliance offers, new bikes, etc, etc. I'm totally feeling the good vibes coming in from Britain, Canada, a drill site somewhere up north, Bunbury, strangers on local FB pages… you're all incredibly, amazingly, unbelievably awesome and I can't ever repay you. And if I've forgotten you, don't feel bad; I can't even remember what day it is at the moment.

Family, nothing more, nothing less

xxx

House Fire and Twitch Pics

What a looong weekend....on Friday morning an electrical fire started in the garage of my daughter's home...it destroyed everything in there but fortunately the car and motor bike were out. Gone are a fridge, beds, the childrens' bikes, a dryer, baby photos, sewing machine, all her husband's tools and his guitar and amp, 3 of Elizabeth's best paintings and lots of other things but no-one was injured so we are very grateful for that. Unfortunately the smoke filled up the garage next door and caused a great of damage to the two valuable cars parked in there and the fireman had to break open the roller door to gain entry to turn off the power...

DD was in the process of moving out and got the keys to her new flat that afternoon so we have the spent a cold weekend moving her into there...family and friends quickly rallied and delivered 4 beds, a fridge and lots of kitchen equipment so we are very grateful for their work. You know who you are.
Even 7 yr old Baxter came over with another bike and some Lego and other toys for Caleb and David.

David is not staying under the bed btw

I'm having a quiet day at home today, baking muffins for Joe and for Elizabeth and my grandsons...I am using my Mum's recipe and my Nana's big spoon...five generations of love in that bowl and that makes me happy. 12 muffins are mixed berry and 12 are date and pear...Mum's recipe is here but these days I use 1/3 cup of apple puree/sauce instead of the oil. I put chocolate drops on the top of the second batch but they burned...learn something new every day!

Chilli sauce guaranteed to put hairs on your chest!

Our neighbour's pawpaws/papaya are huge now and this is only one of her 6 trees...she grew them all from the seeds of a pawpaw she bought locally...

I finished a knitted bunny in the Fremantle Dockers football colours for some-one who loves rabbits and the Dockers ;)

Yesterday evening I glanced outside and saw Twitch sitting in the mint planter so that he could reach the chilli bush...he was eating it's leaves! Joe grabbed the camera and took these lovely photos and Twitch made my day with his cuteness...

 He looks like a toy when he stands on his hind legs...it's called periscoping and rabbits often do that to see better or to reach tasty treats as in this case :) He's very cheeky and you can see he's fully recovered from EC illness he had recently.

Time to wash my baking dishes now, hope all is well in your neck of the woods,
Love from Sue
xx