Cushion cover ~ WIP Weds

I've had four cushions from ikea sitting around naked for far too long. I've made a half hearted attempt to look for covers, but most of the shops sell cushions and covers together. Which is not very helpful. 

I decided to have a go at making a cushion cover from crochet. I tried this circle in a square one but for some reason just couldn't get the right number of stitches going. So I gave up that idea for now and went back to trusty granny squares. Just two rounds then a double crochet edging in black. I would have used white or cream for the edging but I don't have any in, so I used black. This may end up being the fugly cushion of the four.

I did a bunch of squares till it looked the right size, then crocheted them together without sewing in the ends because that's boring so why not put it off? That's all I have left to do now for this side.

I'm thinking just a big granny square for the back, quicker and less ends! Then I'll try and master my sewing machine and make an insert out of an old sheet so you can't see the cushion through the holes.

P.s. If you want to take a look at what other crafty bloggers have been doing this week why not head over to Tami's blog and take a look at the pool?

Pancake pictures

Following on from this mornings post:

The dogs got half of one each:

I found some black and some green food colouring in the cupboard, so naturally I split the batter into 3 batches and tinted two of them.

The black ones came out blue grey:

But the green ones were pretty cool:

Enjoy the rest of your pancake day!

Vegan Pancakes

Today is pancake day, or Shrove Tuesday if you are a Christian. 

I was raised loosely Christian, but it's always been about the pancakes and not the religious undertones in this house, so as a Pagan I have no trouble celebrating pancake day. Well, that would be a lie, a lot of the time I'm oblivious to which day of the week I'm currently on, so it's quite common for our household to have Pancake Wednesday instead.

Last year I tried out two different recipes. One from good old Delia Smith, and a vegan recipe passed on by a friend via Facebook. I have to say the Delia ones were very greasy, while the vegan ones were lovely and light, and you didn't feel like you were missing out on anything at all.

I'm not vegan, but I was looking for a recipe that used soya milk, as I don't drink animal milk.

Here's the vegan recipe:

Ingredients:

• 150g plain flour
• 2tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 2tbsp veg oil (I used olive oil)
• 5tbsp water
• 300ml soya milk
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 2tbsp maple syrup (I didn't have any, so missed this out)

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl, add the wet ingredients and beat into a batter. I use a whisk at this stage. Heat a frying pan and spoon or ladle small amounts of the mixture. You'll have to experiment to find the right amount for your pan. The fun part is trying to flip it over perfectly!

Once your pancake is cooked, top with anything you like, roll, and scoff the lot!

I usually choose from a combination of sugar, honey, lemon juice, or golden syrup.

What's your favourite topping?

P.s. Today is also International Women's Day, James Bond and Moneypenny have a message for you: 

Who needs men anyway?

I'm just taking a break, and a well deserved cup of tea, as I write this. 

I live in a fairly basic two up two down house, we have a front bedroom and a back bedroom. The front room used to be my mum's and the back one has mostly been mine since I was little. After mum passed away I didn't particularly want to change rooms, and as we've moved things around in the house inevitably stuff has been moved into the front room "out of the way" and then abandoned. 

I've finally decided I'm ready to move into the "grown-up" bedroom at the front of the house, and over the weekend I carted the 20 million bags and boxes out of the front room and into the back one, and got the bed set up in there. My boyfriend would have helped of course, but he was struck down with suspected food poisoning just in time to avoid it all. He's fine now, and has been out on a maths course today, so naturally I decided to drag the wardrobe into the front room while he was out. 

This is the wardrobe, solid wood. It can be taken apart but since I built the damn thing 3 or 4 years ago I really didn't want to do that all over again.

I found I could get it to move if I moved it side to side and pulled. So I got it as far as the door pulling it and found the metal carpet grip across the door was too tall to pull it over. So I pushed it back a bit, squeezed through the gap to get behind it and managed to get it over the lip with a combination of pushing and rocking it back on one edge. 

Now I had to push it across the landing from inside the back room, which went fine till it hit the bookcase and got stuck. At this point I was wishing I'd bought my mobile phone with me, as I was now trapped in the bedroom. I couldn't get it any further forward, and I couldn't pull it back enough to get out without pulling it fully back in the room. Then inspiration struck, I pulled it back in enough to open the doors on either side, climbed inside the wardrobe and got out on the landing. I was slightly disappointed not to find Narnia.

From the landing I wiggled it and pulled it till I got the wardrobe past the bookcase. I had to stand in the bathroom doorway to push it through the front bedroom door. Again fighting with a metal carpet grip, and getting stuck. But finally I got the wardrobe to it's new home. 

I'm just glad I measured everything before I started!

Of course, the back room now looks like this.....

Baby steps, people, baby steps......

Jacket progress

Whoops, where did February go? I seem to have blinked and missed it. On top of that I was convinced today was Tuesday up until about 12 o'clock...... 

Anyway, hello again. Apparently planning a wedding takes up more time than you'd think, and quickly leads to neglecting your blog. I think I've seen every purple dress currently on sale in the UK and I still haven't been able to find one suitable for my bridesmaids.

I've managed to work on the hooded jacket but haven't got as far as I'd like. Some people in the Ravelry group have already finished or are getting very close.

I've done the first 6 inches and I'm now working on the left front piece. Once you get past the first section it does feel like it's going faster.

Since it is Wednesday I've added this post to Tami's WIP pool, why don't you head over there and take a look at what other crafty things people are currently working on?