would have to go to ‘mochi’ which is served at Yo Sushi. It’s a sweet, a ‘glutinous rice cake with a variety of fillings’. Not the rice cakes I’ve had in the past, those dry crisp things. No, these are soft, and pastel coloured, with a dusting of icing sugar. Quite frankly, the best way of describing them is like biting into a freshly powdered baby’s bottom. But sweet, which I’m going to assume a baby’s bottom isn’t, having never actually done that.
We also had california rolls, miso soup with mushrooms (including those lovely enoki mushrooms, which look too fragile to be food – maybe I could grow them ?), vegetable and prawn tempura, a prawn salad with a sweet chilli sauce, and the Young Chap had some very fishy-looking dish – literally and figuratively. I think there were three different sorts of fish but it looked a bit of a mess. We then strolled home, going past Chocology, where I bought a box of six chocolates for £6.75 (not bars of chocolate, please note) for the Young Chap, who ate them in less than five minutes.
Next knitting project : Gigi. I got the wool today, dark green acrylic. Will start soon, now that the baby’s cardigan is with its rightful owner – well, the baby’s dad, anyway.
They’re all still alive, I’m feeling hopeful. I forgot to bring in the trays last night so everything stayed out overnight, but they look OK for it. Am a bit disappointed in my chives – less than half of them have sprouted. However, aren’t chives the ones that grow out of control really easily ? I just fancied about a pot’s worth – not enough to even grow in the allotment necessarily. Maybe the chives KNOW they’ll be thinned out if they all grow up.
Finished the pink cardigan today. Am blocking it, hence the damp towel underneath. Am fairly happy with it, although I think the collar is a bit odd – I followed instructions, but it seems to stand up, which can’t be that comfortable for a baby.
The Amazon books arrived and I love them both ! “Sublime Stitching” is not what I expected. It’s mainly a rehash of the instructions from the Stitch-It Kit, but with hundreds of new templates. I was so impressed that I finally broke open the kit itself and started on a teatowel. I’ve done a coffee pot on one corner and am doing a cup of coffee on the other. I quite fancy making another wrap-around skirt and trying a spot of embroidery on that. Maybe one of the skirts from the “Stylish Skirts” book ? See, now I want to go into town and buy material ! And I mustn’t.
I have just potted on a few of my tomato plants. I’ve put them into the plastic bottles, making sure to poke a few drainage holes in. I also put some of the Tumbler plants into the hanging basket they’re eventually going to grow in, but I have no idea if they’re going to be happy. I tried to be as gentle as possible, to make sure I held by the leaves, not the stem, to get a space big enough to get the whole root ball in (ooh, all those roots, it was a lovely sight, just like in the gardening books) and to water afterwards. Still, I don’t know if I did the right thing. I’ll check in again on Thursday and see how they’re getting on. I’ve got more home-made pots but I don’t want to pot on the whole batch in case they die. Best to see what happens.
I finished “Gorky Park” but I think it was a great mistake to have heard excerpts on Radio 4. I knew what was being smuggled ages before it was revealed, because I remembered that bit of Book at Bedtime. It was OK but WAY too long. Also, parts of it seemed really dated, because it kept referring to customs and laws that most non-Communist countries would think odd, and it was like pointing out “Look at how strange Russia is !”. And yes, I know it wasn’t officially called Russia at the time.
Still haven’t finished the cardigan but Tubey is coming along lovely. No problem with covering the bra straps, as some knitters have pointed out, but the stripe sequence doesn’t really work if you have any sort of bust. It would have been better to do some sort of subtle short-row shaping, so that for every three or four rows(rounds) in all, you do one short row. It would have meant purling, I think (I can’t imagine short rows very well) but I think it would have worked.
Ordered two books from Amazon, which I know I shouldn’t have, but I think I’ve been very sensible recently. The first, “Sublime Stitching” is by the same person who did the Stitch-It kit, which I got last year. The second, “Stylish Skirts” was a snip, and might inspire me to do a bit more sewing. The most successful item I’ve made to date was a skirt, so hopefully I can find something new to try without going into totally unchartered waters.
I’ve been putting the seed trays outside during the day as it’s been so warm. The sunny sunshine doesn’t seem to have encouraged the celery to sprout yet, and to my horror, the tomato plants had keedled over. It turned out they were a bit thirsty – I hadn’t watered them before putting them out, in case I scorched them or something. I gave them a good drenching in the evening and this morning, they were fine.
It occurred to me – I have way too many knitting projects on the go. The baby’s cardigan (mentioned before), Knitty’s Tubey, Stitch and Bitch Nations’ Lucky wrap, some ribbed socks I’m doing in a very bright colourway and the Ruffles scarf (scroll down, on the right). It gets to the point where knitting actually seems like a chore, which is plainly wrong. I think it’s the baby’s cardi that’s clogging up the flow – I’m on the sewing up stage and I don’t want to do it. It’s such a small item that a little mistake is going to show up really easily. Bleurgh.
Filed under: Allotment
And now the chives have started making an appearance. They’re really, really small, but there are three teeny little splashes of green in the tray. The basil has got slightly bigger, and the cauliflower is nearly all sprouted.
The celery still looks unhappy though. I’ve put it out in the sun to cheer it up (in the same way parents let their babies crawl around without a nappy on) and hope the fresh air will blow away all the mouldy looking fluff on the peat pots.
My basil seeds have started sprouting, as have the beefsteak tomatoes. Am impressed, as that’s less than a week. The celery seeds don’t look too good though – the peat pots I’m using (there was a good reason for using them originally, but I don’t think I ever will again) seem to be getting some sort of mould. I’ve taken off the little plastic bottles to give them some air, but it’s not looking good.
Am going to read “Gorky Park” next, as the Radio 4 (BBC 7 ?) reading of it was quite good. A very nice librarian not only looked it up for me – the local library doesn’t have OPACs on every floor, which is a bit rubbish – but when she overheard me moaning that they didn’t have a copy, she went to look for it and came to find me. STAR librarian !
The seeds I planted last weekend are starting to sprout ! The cauliflower seeds have begun their growing journey and are white little buds at the moment, about a third of a centimetre big. They’re still under cover but if they’re worth photographing, I’ll take a picture at the weekend.
Am making a leek tart today. No recipe, but I’m going to smear creme fraiche on the cooked bottom of the pastry ‘lining’, add sauteed leeks and onions, and season the top. Maybe some mushrooms will make it, who knows. Served with broccoli. Frozen, but not for long. I can’t wait to try out vegetables I’ve grown myself !
Planted my seeds for celery, cauliflower, last of the tomatoes, basil and chives. They’re all moist but I had a bit of a problem ‘covering with glass’ as all the packets said to do. So, the trays are covered with cling film, and the individual pots are covered with… plastic bottles. I’m half impressed with my ingenuity in using the 500ml bottles I’ve been saving, but the other half thinks “Oh, that looks like bag lady gardening”. All these halved bottles covering up my organic seeds, it looks a bit trashy. And yet, I keep thinking “Reduce, recycle, reuse”. I am recycling these bottles which can then make temporary individual plant pots for the next set of seeds and then be recycled through the council’s pink bag scheme (washing them out first, of course).
Even the Young Chap has noticed how well the first sowings of the tomatoes are doing. He spontaneously remarked upon the thriving seedlings this morning. Definitely better than my first attempt, but growing tomatoes in a second floor flat with a balcony only two foot deep was never going to be that successful.
Knitting – am finishing a Debbie Bliss cardigan (cardigan with moss stitch edging) which is much simpler than the original pattern I tried. I didn’t want to spoil the book so I stupidly didn’t mark what size I was doing, and then went back to it, making the right front of the cardigan a size larger than everything else. I was going to skip it but then noticed two mistakes in the moss stitch edging. Aargh ! Had to frog it, but it looks much better for it.
Filed under: Allotment
Very little work has been done on the allotment recently. I finally dug a bed – oh, the pride ! – but it needs weeding and then raking over until it’s a slightly safer and less scary environment for my seeds to go in.
My tomato seedlings are coming on brilliantly. I have lots of Tigerella plants sprouting and the Harbinger seedlings aren’t far behind. I think I’ll plant the Beefsteak tomato seeds today, but less than the others.
I finally made a plan, and organised not only the plot, but also a rough guide as to what needs to be planted when, and whether that’s in trays or outside. And I bought a rake, so I can get on with getting the six beds I need ready. It looks as if I’m going to have two brassica beds – I didn’t realise I’d ordered that many different kinds of vegetable. I might have room for peas too, but again, I don’t know if peas are a good idea with clay soil. Maybe not this year eh ?
