Pear Jam

I almost had a fail on this jam but I saved it just in time.

Ingredients
550g Pear, peeled and chopped
100g Apple, peeled and chopped
6 cups of water
1 cup of sugar
30 mL of lemon juice (one small)
Bit of zest

Added fruit and 2 cups of water, heated for 45min, adding further 4 cups as it dried out. Mouled and added sugar. Heated for about 15min, didn't check quick enough and almost burned. However succeeded and ended up with one jar of sweet thick fruit spread.

I really enjoyed the hints of lemon I got, next time I will add more.

Grape jam journey in Autumn

Jam
So far I've done five batches of grape jam:

1) 1.5kg of fruit to 4 cups water, strained everything and then added 4 cups of sugar, heated for ages till it jelled, ended up with four jars of soft jelly.

2) 1kg of fruit with no water, separated innards from skins, heated innards and put through moulee and food processed skins. Used 500g of sugar, jelled very quickly after 15 min, resulted in one jar and one tiny jar of very strong jam. Followed the method of The Waitakere Redneck's Kitchen: Grape Jam

3) 1kg of fruit with 1 cup of water, strained everything and then added 2 cups of sugar, set after 15 min and produced one jar and three little jars of nice standard sweet jam.

4) 1kg of fruit with 4 cups of water, strained everything and then added 2 cups of sugar. I added some of the skins in too and it set after 30 min but stuck to the bottom of the pan and got very dark. Made one jar of slightly overcooked, slightly chunky jam.

5) 1kg of fruit, separated innards from skins, heated innards and at the same time softened skins in a cup of water over low heat.  Used 2 cups of sugar, jelled after 15 min. I put half of the skins in the jam and then topped up the jars with the remaining skins. Resulted in two jams of chunky jam. Adapted the method of The Waitakere Redneck's Kitchen: Grape Jam

I'd say that method three was my favourite method, quick, great result and good yield.

Knitting
I've just finished an Autumnal cardigan for my daughter and I'm planning a new cardigan for myself in purple Perendale wool from Skeinz.

Am I creative?

in threes: a baby cardigan size 6m, knit with Malabrigo Worsted in Applewood with Buttons for Benji buttons, Ravelry link
Knit with no creativity!

I've recentlty joined a creative Mum's group which I really enjoying attending. However I feel like a bit of a pretender as I don't really consider knitting to a pattern creative. The other Mums are painters, quilters and card makers. They choose what they are going to make, put the bits together in the colours that are pleasing and make it. In knitting I choose the yarn, choose the pattern and follow it. I do a bit of adapting but not in a creative way, just for practicality or to work around problems like gauge.

Whenever I have done psychometrics I end up testing analytical rather than creative. When I think about it something I love about knitting is doing the math for adapting gauge, where to place the decreases and how to use a completely different weight yarn than that intended for a pattern.

But surely doing a craft is creative? It just doesn't feel like it yet. If I was designing new patterns, colour work or stitch patterns I'd feel differently. I don't think I'm a pretender to do attend a creative Mum's group its just that I don't specifically have the creative urge in general. I love to knit but I'm not sure I'm creative in knitting or the other hand based hobbies I do. Analytical Mum, that's more me.

Monday Muffin: Pineapple, Orange & Ginger Muffins

Pineapple, Orange and Ginger Muffins for morning tea with a cup of Twinings Christmas Tea with milk. The tea is in Paragon Bride's Choice china and the muffin is also on a Paragon saucer, pattern name unknown but mark indicates it’s from 1921 to 1933.

The Muffins

I made Pineapple, Orange & Ginger Muffin from Simon and Alison Holst's More Marvellous Muffins, avialable from their website for NZ $13.50 as I had 1/3 can of 425g crushed pineapple leftover after making pizzas on the weekend. I didn't have quite enough for the recipe and had drained the juice so increased the amount of orange juice and crystallised ginger.

I like the flavour, not too sweet and reasonably fruity. Next time I would up the crystallised ginger and put in some ground ginger too. Perhaps it would have tasted more fruity if I'd had the right amount of pineapple but at this amount I can't really taste it.

Experimenting

I wanted to try using the muffin liners which make transportation easier, here's a side shot of unlined (left) and lined (right).

One of the results of using the liners was that the muffins became soggy, as you can see the bottom four and half in the middle on the right had liquid come through while baking. I thought it would be orange juice but its actually butter as its now hardened up. I think this is a normal thing but I do think the unlined muffins taste better due to the crust.

Make again?

Yes I would but with the right amount of pineapple, more crystallised ginger and some ground ginger. Perhaps even some ground cloves would be nice with the orange.

Granny G Podcast

One thing as a New Zealand crafter that I've always wanted was a New Zealand craft podcast. There are lots of great podcasts and blogs out there and I love many of them but just as I especially love reading blogs from New Zealanders I really wanted to listen to a podcast by a New Zealander.

I would have been happy with someone just having a 20min chat about their knitting but wow we got so much with than that thanks to the wonderful GrannyG's podcast: Crafternoon Tea with GrannyG.

Not only does GrannyG talk about her knittings she talks about her sewing, spinning, weaving, baking, crocheting (is that all of them, think so). She also does wonderful interviews of New Zealanders who are involved in the fibre arts, everyone from the very famous like Margaret Stove through to Gottland sheep farmer Hamish.

I salute GrannyG for her fantastic podcast and encourage you all to go listen.

Cast offs & WIPs & a UFO

I've had a good week, two cast offs, hurrah! I don't think this has ever happened to me before.

First was my Feather & Fan Comfort Shawl which was a way of dealing with an odd pale green fingering yarn called Daphne I didn't want to make into socks. I'm really happy with it, quite big and soft. I think it looks quite fashionable, which is awesome. I very inexpertly blocked it, but it came out alot better than before blocking.

Second was Camo Gentleman - casual socks for hubby. Nanacindynz did a lovely job on this yarn for me, I'm really going to miss her yarn when I run out. I've still got 50g left of this yarn, 150g of Party dress and 100g of Aroha though. I like the simple pattern and that the yarn colour is a bit different on each sock, one has much paler green stripes than the other.

On to WIPs

I've got serious work to do on the finishing chart of Haruni to get it done. I do hope to get it done this month but its not knitting I can do in the car or anywhere I can get distracted.

My grey Los Monos Locos (Monkey) are now my car knitting, I'm zooming through the ankle of the second one at the moment. I'd like to get them done this month too.

The very stalled Vinnlands look great but the tricky pattern makes me tire of them after one row. I think I will try and finish them before I start another pair of sock, we'll see.

The baby twisty turnies's needles have been stolen for the Haruni so its stopped at the moment. I think it looks good but I wish I'd waited to get some soft merino, but I do like the colour. I'd like to get it done by mid-year.

The matchy-matchy cardi just needs sewing up, which I'm scared of. Like picking up for the ribbing around the front, I'm sure I'll do it inexpertly and make a mistake. Again I hope to get it done mid-year.

The horrible UFO of doom is my Mum's horizontal stripe scarf, I hate it and the horse it rode in on. I might finish it one day but if I make my Mum possum socks for her birthday I hope she'll forgive me if I don't.

Ten shawls in 2010

In this first year of the ten-ties, I'm quite keen to try to knit ten shawls. This is definitely an aspirational goal and I'm happy to include the shawl I started last year. I'm really enjoying shawls at the moment, and they are perfect for all the fingering weight yarn I have collected for sock knitting.

Here's what I think I'd like to do:

1. Feather & Fan Comfort Shawl in VP Daphne 
• I'm 2/3s through this one having started in December last year
• A bit stalled as its boring now and there's no finishing chart
2. Haruni in Wollmeise Ballerina
• I've only been working on this for five days but I am going really well
• Halfway through the second out of four repeats of Chart A
• With Chart B being an exciting and beautiful biggie I'm feeling very motivated to get there
• I love the almost single ply nature of the Wollmeise, beautiful stitch definition and no splits
3. Northern Lights
• I love how this looks but it maybe a bit boring and I'm not sure if the yarn I have has a long enough repeat
• Yarn options
• NF Fruit Salad
• NC Aroha
4. Swallowtail Shawl
5. Adamas
6. Percy Shawl
7. Something else?
8. Entomology
9. Ishbel?
10. Gail?

I may come back and re-post this list with editing later on, but good motivation to do it now.