When Wristers Attack!

 

Naughty step for you.

I have discovered an issue with the phone wrist straps that I’ve been making.

They are made by crocheting two strands of beaded wire and twisting them together. In use though, the strands can come a little untwisted and after being re-twisted a few times the wire is breaking. Fortunately this only results in the loss of one bead, but the wee stabby end of wire that is left behind is no fun. I put the wristers on the naughty step and pondered.

Little stabbers.

 

I have been thinking about this for a few weeks now and thought about trying waxed thread, I have a few reels of it that I use for bookbinding (oh boy, there’s a future post in the making). The thread I have is 1mm thick which works for larger beads but there’s no chance of using the small sparkly beads that I love with it.

After searching for a couple of days I managed to find one store that sold 0.5mm thread. Only one! I ordered some in a few different colours which took an age to arrive as I guess it was not in the U.K as stated but ho-hum. I dismantled one of the naughty wristers and tried to remake it with thread. 

Colours of light 

 

The thread makes them a lot more flexible which is nice but I cannot twist two strands together, they just will not hold in the way that wire does. I ended up using the same thread to sew two strands together which highlighted another major difference between the wire and the thread. The strands made with thread are much shorter.

Remade one on the left, I'm not getting my paw through that.

 

So, I dismantled another one and instead of trying two strands I made one longer one. I didn’t like it. It was too thin and mingy. It was not giving abundance. I like the things that I make to be voluptuous and full not sad and miserly. Back to the drawing board then.

It's just not giving abundance is it, I like the purple thread though.

 

Lying in bed and overthinking instead of sleeping, as you do, I suddenly thought “why don’t I use rosary links like when I make jewellery?” I can use bigger beads so the strands are more generous and I can also indulge my favourite thing of collecting together beads in different materials to fit a colour scheme or other theme. The only fly in the ointment here is that the phone charm hangers only come with silver hardware and I like to use bronze wire for a more vintage look. It didn’t seem to matter so much on the crocheted ones but I can’t stand it with links. I thought I might try to make my own but, in the meantime, I can use a bead cap to almost cover the silver, I’m only making for myself at this point so it doesn’t matter too much.

I don't why the silver hardware didn't bother me before but it does now.

 I took the peacock colours of the wrister in current use on my phone and pulled together some beads in the same range, I quickly became aware of the weight difference as most of the beads were glass, it can’t end up too heavy or it’ll be unusable. Le sigh. I got it put together and, as usual, I had got carried away and it was too long, also it was 12g heavier than a wire one which doesn’t seem a lot but is very noticeable. I removed a couple of beads and now it is only 5g heavier which isn’t too bad.

 

It's not the best solution to the silver hardware problem but it'll do for now.

I’ve been using the new one for a few days now and I really like it. It is a lot more flexible than the wire one, it doesn’t stab me in the wrist which is nice, it isn’t any chunkier and it takes up a lot less space due to the aforementioned flexibility. I’ll make a couple more and see how they go. One thing though, I am so glad I found out about the wire before I uploaded them to my Kofi (as yet unopened) store, that could’ve been a disaster. This is why I always road test these things myself. 

It's more comfortable to "wear" than the old ones.

 

It has a nicer drape.

 

Scrunchable :)

Year of Rowan - Jojo.

 

I have finished my first Rowan pattern of the year! It’s a relatively small project but as an incredibly slow and easily distracted knitter I am still pleased with myself. It is Jojo by Martin Storey and is in the Rowan Classic Beach booklet. I’ve knit it in King Cole Fashion Aran in the shade Orkney as I had a pile left over from a cardigan I finished last year (which I was going to knit a jumper in before I thought of the year of Rowan thing).

King Cole Fashion Aran

 

It was a nice easy knit and I just followed the pattern with no deviations though I don’t really like the shoulder shaping and wondered if I might contrive a three needle bind-off were I to knit it again. I imagine the shaping has a point though and I don’t have enough technical knowledge to know either way.

Even though the yarn is 70% acrylic I still blocked it by pinning it out and steaming it. 

They reckon you can't block acrylic but you absolutely can if you're determined enough.

 

The fit is a little bit bigger than I’d hoped but as it’ll be worn over a shirt it should be okay. Here are some photos of it being modelled by the delightful Dolores.

Front

 

Back

 

I’ve started my next project; it is Thunder by Kim Hargreaves from the Rowan Plaid Collection. I don’t think I’ve picked a very good yarn as it has zero stretch and I’ve nearly pulled it out once. The fabric does have some stretch though so fingers crossed will be fine. The polo neck is the bit I’m most worried about but I think if it looks like it might be smaller than my melon head then I won’t go down a needle size for it, that’s a way off yet though as I’m not halfway up the back yet.

Early days

 

What a big fat cable, it's like a pair of slugs having a scrap.

 

This should be a relatively quick knit as the yarn is hella chunky and the needles are 8mm, which to be honest feels like knitting with drumsticks, so if it does turn out to be a bust then it won't have wasted too much time. I am hopeful it'll be fine though.

Thank Heavens For Delia!

 

Goth oranges

 

Please do not take a drink every time the word marmalade appears, you won’t survive the post.

Finally dug out the jam pan and a Women’s Institute book of preserves which had a recipe for blood orange marmalade in only to find that I would also need a bottle of liquid pectin. Flipping heck, it’s never-ending.

 

This jam pan is a lot bigger than I remember, it's like an olde worlde tin bath.

 

Got the pectin and finally it was marmalade day!

I weighed out 1Kg of oranges and added 1 (one) lemon for its super-pectin powers. I got them juiced and added that to the water in the pan and then had to slice up the peel. Now, I am a marmalade novice, I have only ever eaten shop bought marmalade, and I started over thinking because that is what I do (when I’m not just careering in without thinking at all, no in-between with me). I thought that I would just need the zesty part and not the pithy part and it was an ordeal trying to slice just the zest from oranges that had already been juiced and I was panicking thinking that I would still be at it at bedtime (note to self: start marmalading in the morning and not after lunch) so I consulted YouTube (via Freetube because YouTube doesn’t like ad blockers) and there was Delia, blessed Delia to show me exactly how to make marmalade. Thank heavens for Delia because that video saved my afternoon. I sliced up my orange peel, added it to the pan and set to simmering it for 2 (two) hours. Two hours! Definitely should’ve started earlier.

That muslin cloth was white when I started

 

This is the best pic I could get before my camera steamed up :)

After the marathon peel simmer it’s not too long a job. I got the rapid boil going, I had small plates ready in the freezer and setting point reached I turned off the heat and waited a bit before jarring it up. As you can tell from the picture I didn’t wait quite long enough though and the peel has floated to the top. I don’t mind though, it looks like some Lovecraftian horror ready to steal your toast once the jar is opened.

Beware the tentacled horrors living in the marmalade :O

 

A couple of days later I decided to have a go at lemon marmalade and being a little ambitious I thought I’d make lemon curd at the same time. I didn’t have a lemon marmalade recipe in my books though so I used one from the BBC Good Food website. This is done differently from the orange as the lemons are boiled whole, again, for two hours at which point they are a squashy mess. I made the lemon curd whilst that was going on so it dovetailed pretty nicely.

I didn't finely grate the zest for the curd as it's always a beggar to strain out, instead I used a potato peeler to get ribbons of zest and it was much easier to sieve.

 

Much smoother than I normally get it. I love this in my Greek yoghurt.

The lemons are then sliced up and the peel and all the juices are put back into the pan along with all the pips in a muslin cloth. Then the rapid boil, the testing for set point etc. It took three (3) plates to reach setting point this time. I was much more patient and set a timer so I didn’t start pouring into jars too soon and the peel is much more evenly distributed. Interestingly, while orange peel floats if it’s jarred too quickly, lemon peel sinks to the bottom.

I am amazed that I got the cloth white again after the blood orange episode.

 

I now have half a dozen jars of each marmalade and one of lemon curd which doesn’t keep as well so there’s no point going mad with it and making a load.

The peel in this one is much more evenly distributed, I'll be okay at this one day.

 

I have tried both marmalades and the curd and they are all delicious. The lemon marmalade is much sharper than Robertson’s Silver Shred which is the only lemon marmalade I’ve ever seen in a shop and the orange is sweet but with that hint of bitterness that comes from the pith.

I am definitely going to make more next year, I want to try Oxford marmalade which is quite bitter and has thick peel chunks in it. Also grapefruit marmalade, kumquat marmalade, lime marmalade.....

P.S. I am never typing the word marmalade again.