A SCARF AND TWO CAKES

I turned twenty four on Saturday (twenty four!). I've not been back to my Mum and Dad's since April so it was great to go home and celebrate. I also took some pictures of the scarf I made for my Mum's birthday earlier in the year, partly because I forgot to do it at the time, and also because everyone knows that if something's not on the internet, it never existed.

It's a great little pattern, based around an eight row repeat. The one I made isn't quite as beautiful as the original on the Purl Bee (I used acrylic) but, until my earnings match my knitted yearnings, I can't really complain.

The rest of the weekend was spent eating (mostly pub lunches, trifle and birthday cake - below, not sure why there was a pig on it), drinking and pottering about Manchester.

We also went to the vintage fair on Stockport Market on the Sunday, and bought an old Robert's radio for £25. It's gorgeous, sounds amazing and, obviously, I'm now planning how to furnish the lounge around it.

But enough birthday talk; you can't always have a pig and ganache adorned cake. You could always have an oaty ginger cake though. So, as promised, here is the recipe for my Mum's ginger cake. 

It's just the thing to perk up an unhappy child on a family walking holiday in the Yorkshire Dales (not that I'd know anything about that) or  scoff with a cup of tea. And it always tastes best after a couple of days.

Some cake-related advice:

I'm not sure how old the recipe is - my mum got it off my auntie, who wrote it on the back of a Christmas card. The uncertain origins of the recipe are also reflected in the slightly vague measurements... I'm not really sure what would constitute a 'large cup' (this, perhaps?) but I just use heaped measurements of a regular American measuring cup.

The method itself is bit unorthodox too - it's probably something to do with the lack of eggs. You soak oats in milk for a couple hours and, in a separate bowl, rub the butter into the flour as if you were making a crumble. Then, you add the rest of the dry ingredients and heated golden syrup. Finally, you stir bicarbonate of soda into the milky oats (I guess this is what makes the cake rise) and stir the whole lot together. I tend to bake mine in a loaf tin lined with foil as the mixture inevitably explodes a little in the oven, so making a lip with the foil around the edge of the tin helps to keep it in check. It also makes it dead easy to wrap up afterwards.

Finally, it's egg-free, so perfect for little sickly allergy-prone children such as myself. It'd be easy to switch to a vegan recipe too - try soya milk or water instead of regular milk and use Trex or a similar hard vegetable fat to replace the butter.

Some unrelated advice:

Don't drink bleach.

Ginger Cake

1 large cup porridge oats

½ pint milk

2 large cups self raising flour

¼ lb butter (cubed and straight from the fridge)

2 tsp ground ginger

½ cup golden syrup

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

☞ Soak oats in milk for 2 hours (or more if you have time)

☞ Rub butter and flour together and mix in sugar and ginger

☞ Melt golden syrup in a pan, add to dry mix and stir together

☞ Stir bicarb into oats and milk, and add to other ingredients

☞ Mix! Spread into chosen baking receptacle

☞  Bake for around 1½ hours, until golden on top and cooked through

RECENTLY

Sooo it's been about two months since I last posted. Sorry about that.

I've been writing this while watching the England-Italy match. I think a lot of people could probably do with some light entertainment about now, so, in the name of diversions, I've basically filled the post with photos.

A disclaimer: I realise what this looks like. Contrary to popular belief, I don't spend all my time making cakes.

Eating:

Pecan toffee cheesecake (left), ready to be smothered in cream and shards of toffee for a friend's birthday house party. Awesome recipe. Also mini jammy sponges (right). With a parasol! Dave was in Barcelona last week with work (I know) so I made some little cakes for his return using tiny pie tins.

Cheesecake brownies (left) and a carrot cake with cream cheese icing (right). Technically, the brownies were a bit of a disaster - the cheesecake layer made it difficult to tell if they were cooked (they weren't) but they still tasted nice. I made the carrot cake (another Dan Lepard recipe) when Dave's parents came to stay a few weeks ago. Trying to do the icing in a heat wave wasn't easy, but I think I managed alright.

For the diamond jubilee, we embraced the clichés and went to a garden party, complete with bunting, cucumber sandwiches, summer dresses and linen suits. Surprise, surprise, I made another cake. Victoria sponge again, this time filled with strawberries and blueberries which were also arranged into (something resembling) a Union Jack on top. The lads that were throwing the party recently took some ex-battery hens under their, er, wing and they let them have a little wander round the garden while we were sat outside. A piece of cake was left unattended and the chickens went mad for it, although you can't help feeling that there is something morally dubious about hens feasting on eggs...

Listening to:

Some tunes I've recently been enjoying through my cake-induced stupor...

1982 by Scraps - I heard this on Lauren Laverne's show on 6Music last week and I think it's rather jaunty. I couldn't really find much about the band, but there's an EP available on what looks like their record label's page. I dunno. Have a gander.

Origins by Tennis - I love this song. Tennis were one of those bands that I'd been aware of for a while but, for whatever reason, never got round to listening to. This track's off their second album 'Young and Old', which came out earlier this year. If you remember the old Windows 95 layout, their website's worth a look too.

Knitting:
This Rowan 'Wonky' jumper. So far, I've finished the back and have just made a start on the front. The back is looking a bit small. Cropped jumper? We'll see.

The wool is some I've had lying around for a while - I bought a big pack of the stuff in a John Lewis sale a couple of years back with the intention of making a cardigan. Suffice to say the cardigan was never finished and I've been chipping away at the wool ever since for projects like this snood, so it was quite nice to find a pattern which only required a limited amount.

So that's pretty much it, really. See you in another two months, I expect...

PS In other news, I finally finished my course pack!


PPS You can now follow my blog with Bloglovin! Yep.

PROJECT SOCK

Earlier in the month, I wrote about my small-scale ambitions for the year, one of which was knitting socks. I am pleased to announce that I am now the proud creator of my first pair!

Overall, I found it surprisingly straight forward. I'd read so many things online saying how turning the heel is feared by those new to sock-knitting and, whilst in the same breath they'd insist it was nothing to worry about, the idea became a self-fulfilling prophecy in so much as I thought there must be some foundation to this anxiety. Because I am young and a bit impressionable, I instinctively became a little terrified. Fortunately, turning the heel really isn't the part to worry about. No, it's the bit immediately afterwards when you have to join it all back together again.

Fortunately, there's plenty of instructions and videos around to set you back on track when your confidence wanes. I also found it really helpful to keep notes of what I was doing to ensure the two socks were as identical as I could make them.

After having a gander round online, I settled on this 'Crusoe' stranded stitch pattern on Knitty. The resulting socks are more-or-less a size 4, which is perfect for me/my sister, but could be a little tricky if your feet are of the size of any normal adult. Admittedly I didn't test my gauge, but I still used the larger pattern and there does seem to be a bit of a consensus online that it comes up rather small. But as I said, with our child-feet that wasn't really a problem, and it's an easy enough pattern to increase (you just need to work in multiples of four).

I used King Cole's ZigZag 4ply (shade 745, apparently) which cost me £6 for 100g/493 yards/448 metres. I was slightly surprised by the price (probably because I'm a bit of a stinge) but it's worth bearing in mind that I've not even used half of this, so plenty left to make another pair. The more I knit, the more I realise that you don't always do it to make something that costs less (especially if you're partial to soft, fancy wool) but to create something that's more than just the sum of its parts. This is a case in point - I don't think I'd ever buy a £3 pair of socks as an impromptu gift (bit weird on several levels), but making a pair for the same price seems like a smart thing to do. It's not too ostentatious, but just big enough that you know there's been some real effort put into them.


So, verdict on making socks: good. They're really satisfying to knit and exactly the right size project to keep your interest piqued throughout (I finished these in a week without too much effort). I could also feel myself improving as they progressed, which is always nice. So don't be afraid, try socks today! A-thank you.

PROJECT SNOOD

A topical knit if ever I saw one. Using this pattern from Paper Sensei, I created this rather cosy little snood (cowl?) for my lucky, lucky boyfriend. It's the first time I've properly used intarsia for an entire piece and, whilst the tension was a bit tighter than I would like, it worked pretty well.

I concede that it does look a little 'handmade', but I'd like to think it's more Cath Kidston than About A Boy... right? Right.

I'll get some more pictures up soon... yes, that is an Instagram photo. Find me @nicrodge !

DRYNUARY

(See also 'The Janopause')

This post has nothing to do with drinking. It is referring instead to the definite lack of anything on Crayon Maison recently, and more tellingly, my inability to think of a better heading. But this is a new year! And these are all things we (I) can work on.

EVERYONE makes resolutions, and blogs seem to be covered in posts outlining what it is they intend to improve and include over the coming year. Since this blog is quite apparently still at the dummies and nappies stage, any projection of what I intend to improve this year would be of little merit; perhaps the best thing would be if I could actually post with some kind of regularity. But let's not be hasty.

Given that today is the 2nd of February, we are now past January entirely, so many well intentioned resolutions will already have fallen by the wayside. Call me a coward but, now I've got past the first month, I can actually state my intentions for self-improvement this year with some certainty (see, I tricked you! It is a resolutions post after all!)

1. Learn to crochet

I consider myself a fairly competent knitter, but I have no idea whatsoever how to crochet. My attempts so far have been... mixed. I understand the stitches, but since I'm not really familiar with how a crocheted piece should look, it's proving a little tricky. 

As we speak, a copy of Stitch 'n Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker by the very clever Debbie Stoller is finding its way to my little Bristol home, care of Amazon, my bank account and Royal Mail (possibly).

I already own the original Stitch 'N' Bitch and, whilst some of the patterns aren't exactly fashion-forward, the instructions and techniques are so clear and comprehensive that it's a little knitting bible. No doubt my crochet skills will come on leaps and bounds! We can only hope.

2. Knit socks

Let's be honest, this isn't a million miles away from the first resolution. But I've got it into my head that socks are the thing to make this year, and that I'll have completed a pair to send to my sister in Germany before she moves back to Manchester in the spring. This is furthered by the fact that, after a fairly mild winter, it has suddenly become FREEZING round here, so I can only imagine what the temperature will be like in Bonn (I checked, it's currently -5ºC, with a low for the week of -14ºC). She definitely deserves socks.

There's an abundance of excellent (free!) patterns on Ravelry.com (4,720 on my last check), and I am brilliantly supplied by two great shops - Sew 'N' Sew in St Nick's, and Katze, 2 minutes away on Gloucester Road - to pander to all my wool and needle needs. I initially tried making a pair on circular needles, but realised almost immediately that the length I was using was only going to work for someone with calves the size of a cow. Fetch the double pointed needles!

3. Paint and draw more

Pretty self-explanatory. I used to draw a lot, now I don't. Maybe I'll join a life drawing club?

4. Watch less rubbish television, eat fewer Wispas etc. etc.

What?! This is a general resolution; today is my day off.