One sock in

You may remember a while back that I started knitting my slow socks.  The idea was that socks take a long time to knit, so I should treat it as a relaxing, non-deadline based activity.

Recently I finished the first sock.  After 12 weeks.  Yes, it took me 12 weeks to knit one sock.  Sure I did some other stuff inbetween (move house, for instance), but that seems like a bloody long time to knit one sock.

And I starting thinking that knitted socks are really only nice to wear in winter, and if it takes me that long to knit another sock they won't get worn this year at all.

So slow sock mode is officially off, and I've set myself some deadlines so that the socks can be finished before winter is over.  I know that goes against the idea of having a slow-paced project, but in reality, I knew it would only last so long.  What can I say?  I'm an impatient knitter.

Other than knitting, I've been cooking up a storm of late.  I got the urge to cook this weekend just gone and ended up stocking up the fridge with quite a few meals.  I made:

Pumpkin, ginger and red lentil soup
Veggie lasagna/bake - using whatever veggies were in the fridge, and homemade pasta sheets
Slow-cooked beef cheeks (6 hours) with roast veg
Spicy chickpea loaf - recipe from this book which I borrowed from a friend
a loaf of bread
and let's not forget Dark Chocolate Brownies with sea salt

We still have loads of veggies in our fridge so I can feel a preserving session coming on.

What's been cooking in your kitchen lately?

No plastic packaging challenge - six months in

It's now half way through the year (yes! already!) so I thought this would be a good time to give an update about my pledge of going a year without plastic food packaging.

One of the best parts of the week - our veggie box arrives!

To quickly recap, I wanted to cut down the amount of landfill I was generating just by eating food that comes in plastic packaging.  One day late last year I had scoffed down a quick takeaway lunch (as you do) and was about to throw the plastic container in the bin when it occurred to me that that plastic container, which took a heck of a lot of resources to produce and which would be around for eons to come, was actually used for about 10 minutes.

Image from here

So how am I going with my challenge?  Generally I would say pretty good.  It certainly helps that we are members of a veggie co-op so a large amount of our food is bought in bulk (in cardboard boxes) and shared between a number of households.  We also have a refill co-op shop (the kind where you fill up your own containers with grains, pastas etc) close by, which also helps.

We take our own reuseable bags and containers with us everywhere, which can be a pain, but it's easy to be caught out.  We've found we have to be hyper-aware when we are shopping, because food manufacturers will sneakily use lots more packaging than needed, and it's common to find plastic wrapping inside a cardboard box when it is totally unnecessary.

Things we are doing differently:
- Eating butter instead of margarine
- Baking our own bread
- Making our own yoghurt
- Buying other dairy in glass containers or other packaging
- Taking our own containers when we get takeaway meals (some restaurants will look at us funny, but they will still fill them up for us)
- Asking for my takeaway sushi in paper bag and refusing the little plastic soy sauce fish
- Having a go at making our own whenever possible - pizza bases, pastry... whatever else - we'll give it a try!

Elgaar dairy comes in glass containers, and you get a refund when you return them

Food that I miss:
- Marshmallows
- Packets of chips (crisps)
- Mexican burrito and tortilla wraps - I tried making my own, but haven't really got the hang of it yet
- Puff pastry

We're not perfect and there are still small bits of plastic packaging that sneak into our house, and I've mentioned before that travelling for work makes the pledge extra tricky (especially aeroplane meals!).  But we're definitely reducing the amount of landfill that comes out of our house, and as long as we continue to be aware of packaging and try to reduce it, I think that's the main thing.

Leggings for winter

There's nothing more comfy and easy to wear in winter than leggings.  I needed to boost my casual winter wardrobe, so I bought three types of fabric for making leggings.

Now you're probably thinking that leggings are not a very exciting sewing adventure to be blogging about, however I did draft the pattern myself from an existing pair of leggings.  There is an element of risk in doing this, because you need to be sure that the stretch of both the original leggings and the new fabric are the same, or could end up with one tight pair of pants!

With my first draft of the pattern I made this black pair. They weren't perfect but were definitely wearable.  So I tweaked the pattern a bit and then used the new pattern to make this patterned pair.

 I quite like the fun colours in this pair.  The fit was better, but still needed a bit more tweaking.  Then with the final changes I made this silvery grey pair.

And there you have it - three new pairs of leggings, and a self-drafted pattern to hold onto for future legging making.  I guarantee these will get good wear this winter!

1000 new friends

We've never really needed a compost bin, because most of our fruit and veggie scraps go to these little critters - Winston and Clementine the guinea pigs.

They do an excellent job of eating our carrot tops, parsely stalks and the seedy, squishy bit from the middle of pumpkins (definitely a guinea pig favourite).

But there are a few foods scraps that guinea pigs don't eat, like potato peels, that we still had to put in the bin.  Until now!

Now, if you head down the back of our garden, by the laundry, you'll find this little house.

You open the lid, lift the newspaper "blanket"...

and there you will find our new worms!  1000 of them (or thereabouts).

We bought the worm farm on the weekend and got it set up straight away.  We are letting the worms settle into their new home for a few days before giving them some food scraps to snack on.  As if that wasn't cool enough, worm poo is some of the best garden fertilizer there is, and I have big plans for a veggie garden come spring.

Welcome little guys, enjoy your new digs!

Buttony gift

A quick and cute gift for a friend’s birthday recently – the idea came from here.  A sweet use of buttons, some leftover fabric and a wooden frame from the op-shop.  Very easy.

And another glimpse of our new home too – this little stand is on the landing at the top of our stairwell.  The stand came from Salvation Army store, I can’t remember how much it cost but let’s just say not much.

All moved in

So we are all moved in to our new home!  Yay!

 We’ve been spending the last few weeks doing the final bits and pieces of the unpacking and putting the finishing touches on the house.  I’ve also been cooking lots of lovely warm wintery dishes (I splurged and bought a cast iron cooking pot, which is being used every weekend at the moment), knitting my slow socks, and generally snuggling up on the couch.  That’s what winter is all about, right?

Of course, I was itching to use my sewing machine as soon as it was unpacked, so I whipped up a table runner and cushion covers, as our previous cushion covers were old, faded and didn’t match at all.  So here is the first glimpse of the new house – even if it is just the dining table.  It is tucked under the stairwell which leads upstairs.

We’ve been getting LOADS of mandarins in our veggie co-op delivery, being citrus season and all.  I’m not much of a mandarin eater.  Any suggestions for good mandarin recipes?  Has anyone successfully made mandarin jam/marmalade?

Dog Dog

Just a quick check in as I resume regular stitchy status post-move.

Remember early last year when I made this sweater critter for a new born little friend?  Well, my new little friend's mama sent me this photo of the little guy with his sweater critter recently.  The critter, now known as 'Dog Dog', is apparently a favourite and must be around for bottle and sleepy times, otherwise bottle and sleepy times don't happen as they should. 

How cute is that?  Totally made my day.

Back soon with a new house and craft space update.