Pearls of Potential

I need your help! Do you have any ideas on what I can make with these strings of beads? They're pearlescent white, made of plastic, held together with string and intended to be used as a Christmas tree decoration.


My Brother asked me if I wanted them just after Christmas and a light immediately went on in my head saying 'I can make something with them'. Yet they've been sitting abandoned on the top shelf of my bookcase for 3 months and now I'm feeling like a hoarder.

So let me know! Do you have any ideas or is it time to give/throw them away?

Knitting Nannie

This is Lillian, my Nan. She's been knitting since she was a child, which seems to be a hereditary thing as she taught my Mum and my Mum taught me. Somehow making knots in bits of sheep to make pretty things is something my family (on both sides) are pretty good at. Now at the age of 84 and having lost her sight completely she's still going! For quite a few years now she's been knitting squares in garter stitch (50 stitches wide) to make patchwork blankets. Once she has knitted enough squares my Mum sews them together and knits a decorative edge so they're ready to be used.

Now you might be thinking 'why on earth does their family need so many blankets?'.

We don't keep them. All the blankets that my Nan knits (which she estimates to be around 60 in the past 10 years or so) go to charity, and more specifically Naomi House in Hampshire. Naomi House is a hospice for terminally ill children and they're opening a new department soon to provide the service for teenagers too.
The staff, children and parents are really glad to receive my Nan's blankets and they've even offered for her and some other ladies who knit for them to go and visit, to see what the hospice is all about. If you want to know more about it then go HERE. They've also got charity shops in Andover, Boscombe, Cosham, Eastleigh, Fareham, Southampton and Winchester so look out for those too.


Anyway, I just wanted to show you how clever and kind my Nan is to knit so many blankets for the children at Naomi House. She's showing no signs of slowing down and is working on another square right now; there's pretty much no stopping her!

Fruity Face

Yesterday I watched the first episode of James Wong's 'Grow Your Own Drugs' series. One of his recipes was a Kiwi and Papaya face mask which may sound like any old natural recipe but this one had a difference - the fruits both contain an enzyme that breaks down proteins, and they do it very well. Meaning that the facemask *should* remove all the dead and dying cells and leave you with a fresh layer of skin.

I suffer from eczema, which was described as 'really quite bad' by my doctor (I wasn't too happy about that) and it's on my face so I'm always on the look out for something completely natural to make my skin look fresher. No harm in giving this one a go. Here's how James recommends you do it...


Ingredients
1/2 a kiwi
1/2 a papaya
Juice from 1/2 a lime
1 sachet of vegetable gelatin



Method
- Cut kiwi in half. Peel the half you're going to use.
- Mash kiwi using a sieve into bowl. Add juice from half a lime.
- Cut papaya in half, scoop seeds out of half you will use and peel.
- Mash papaya on chopping board with fork, then with sieve into a different bowl.
- Mix in veg. gelatin and heat over saucepan of boiling water. Stir constantly.
- Heat for 3 minutes and remove, still stirring.
- SLOWLY add lime and kiwi juice, stirring until mixed.
- Leave to cool (or until warm) and apply to face, leave for 10 minutes to 1 hour.

So here I am, about 40 minutes on with a stiff face, looking like I've had a fight with a tube of St. Tropez. No sign of the eczema disapproving although my eyes have been stinging a bit from the lime juice. Time to wash it off...

Verdict
Very impressive! As I hoped my skin feels soft, fresh and not at all irritated. Just half a papaya, half a lime and half a kiwi made enough mask for about 3 applications, so considering all the ingredients cost around just £1.75 I'll definitely, definitely be making it again. It's much less messy than my usual porridge oats, banana and milk concoction and frankly it works a lot better. Mum saw my skin afterwards and said she's noticed a difference, so she's off to use it too!




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Back Online but still knitting

Well the 'Gods' of Virgin Media bowed down, apologised and gave my Dad a good offer so I'm back with speedy Internet and no excuse not to do work anymore.

Meanwhile, I've been averaging a square a day for my patchwork blanket, so I'm up to 10 squares now. I'm basically going through the 'Vogue Knitting' book this Simon bought me and learning all the new knitting stitches (so far simple texture stitch and flying geese are hits).

I'm not sure how much longer I'll carry on with that though as my Nan has just been given what must be about 5000g of bright red wool. Along with the two 700g balls of pink wool she was given she said it was all a little intimidating and has given the red monster to me, so I'm thinking a big knitted red car with moving wheels or a thick hooded coat with sewn-in mittens may be coming up. This will be my very first attempt at writing my own knitting pattern so bear with me while I try to get it perfect. I'm aiming to have quite a few baby clothes knitting patterns on this blog over about 6 months. I might also include some video tutorials and photo tutorials of free knitting patterns and knitting stitches for beginners (which I consider myself to be too, so we'll be learning together). In the meantime, here's a picture of my cat Louie enjoying the patchwork blanket so far...

Internet problems

We're having some severe internet problems here with no idea of when they'll be rectified. While I'm connected via wireless dongle with no images and limited data usage, but it's not very enjoyable and I'd rather work offline. This mean I get more work done, therefore have more free time and free time means knitting, hooray!

So while internet problems usually spell bad news for blogs it would seem that this one will come in fruition much quicker, providing I'm not spending all my free time shouting at Dad, who's shouting at someone down the phone.

A quick note to knitters: Simon bought me a book called 'Vogue Knitting' for my birthday and it's my new bible. I highly recommend it if you're a beginner or only know the basics. It's mostly a guide to wool, tension and different knitting techniques (how to knit pockets, different styles of collar, ways to cast on/off etc.) but there are 3 or 4 patterns by some well known designers in there that are worth tackling.

Oh, and follow me on Twitter: LucyAnnabel

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