Lest We Forget

At this time of year we start to see poppies for sale.  The Royal British Legion sell these to raise money to provide welfare, comradeship, representation and Remembrance for the Armed Forces Community.  This Poppy Appeal culminates in the Remembrance Day services that I'm sure you're all aware of.

Every year I go to the Cenotaph to pay my respects and I wear my poppy with pride but this year I wanted to donate a little time, as well as my cash, so I decided to knit myself a poppy.  I've not had a lot of experience in writing patterns for others to follow (my rushed scratchings are usually something even I struggle to read) but I've had a go at putting together a pattern for you to knit your own Remembrance Day poppy.  Here goes...

I used acrylic Double Knit yarn in red and black and 4mm needles.  Tension isn't important here.


Petals (make 2)
Using red, Cast On 7 stitches, leaving a tail for sewing later.
ROW 1: Knit
ROW 2: KFB, K5, KFB (9 sts)
ROW 3: KFB, K7, KFB (11 sts)
ROW 4: KFB, K9, KFB (13 sts)
ROWS 5-8: Knit
ROW 9: SSK twice, K5, K2tog twice (9 sts)
ROW 10-12: Knit
ROW 13: SSK twice, K1, K2tog twice (5 sts)
ROW 14-19: Knit
ROW 20: KFB twice, K1, KFB twice (9 sts)
ROW 21-23: Knit
ROW 24: KFB twice, K5, KFB twice (13 sts)
ROW 25-28: Knit
ROW 29: K1, SSK, K7, K2tog, K1 (11 sts)
ROW 30: K1, SSK, K5, K2tog, K1 (9 sts)
ROW 31: K1, SSK, K3, K2tog, K1 (7 sts)
ROW 32: Knit
Cast off

This should make a "bow-tie" shape like so:

 

Once you've made another set of two petals you need to place one over the other and stitch them together like this:

 

Now things are starting to look a little more poppy-like!  The only thing missing now is the centre, which is really easy to make.

 

Using black, Cast on 20 stitches.  Then cast them off again!  You're left with a small, slug-looking piece of knitting that you need to coil up, sew into shape and then stitch it into the middle of your petals:

 

 

 To my finished poppy I also added a leaf that I crocheted from a book called "201 Crochet motifs, blocks and ideas" by Melody Griffiths.  It's actually an oak leaf but it looks ok!  I think stuck a brooch fastening on the back with some hot glue but I was very tempted to add it to a hair slide instead...

 

 

 

Bearing in mind that the Royal British Legion sell poppies to raise money I would suggest making a donation yourselves if you are knitting/making a poppy as we don't want them to lose out.  It's a noble cause and I, for one, will be making sure that The Monkey understands all about it.  I can never get through a Remembrance Day service without shedding a tear for all thise who have sacrificed for us.  There's a line that they use in the service that sums it all up:

 

"For our tomorrows they gave their todays"

 

 

I hope we never forget.

 

 

Happy knitting Dear Readers!

 

 

 

 

Devil on my Shoulder?

I know that I should really start retiring my maternity clothes now.  The little Monkey is nearly six months old but they're REALLY comfy.  Especially the tops.  So I suppose it's my own fault that I still look pregnant.  I'm a big girl, I'm under no illusions about that!  I used to get asked at least once a year by a student when I was due.  It's honestly never bothered me.

The other day I went to Tesco to do the weekly shop (other brands of supermarket are available).  I was Monkey-less and I got chatting to a woman in the queue for the checkout.

"Ooooh" she says.  "When are you due?  You mustn't have long to go now!"

To be fair, I know most women would be horrified by a comment like that and start up the internal "do I look fat in this" monologue.  Not me.  I think I may be a little strange.

With the corners of my lips curling up into a small smile I replied...

"Oh no love, I'm not pregnant.  I'm just fat."

The little devil on my shoulder started rolling around with hilarity at the look on her face.  It's hard to describe, although mortification comes close.  She really thought she'd upset me and I had to hold in my chuckles at the way she tried to back-track.  I'm not completely mean and I did try to reassure her that although I wasn't expecting, I'd recently had a baby so her mistake was completely understandable and that I honestly wasn't offended.  Bless her, she was still spluttering as she paid for her shopping and walked away.

The checkout lady started scanning my shopping and, as she picked up the chocolate cheesecake I'd got for me and The Husband, she glanced up at me.

"I'm looking forward to that", I said, patting my stomach.  "I'm eating for one".

 

The Monkey and his Monkeys

Yummy Berry Cordial

So, Dear Readers, for my first How-To I'm going to share my recipe for Yummy Berry Cordial.
The first thing you need to get is a glass bottle or two. You can use old wine bottles (it has to be ones with corks) but I like to use the pop top ones. You can get them really cheaply from IKEA. You then need to serilise them by filling them right to the top with boiling water and leave it for about 15 minutes.

Now, you need to decide which berries you'd like to use in your cordial. I've made a pure raspberry one before, and a cranberry one, but this time I made a mixed berry one so you need to grab yourself a couple of bags of frozen berries from the supermarket. I used three bags for mine and they're 500g each.

You'll now need some herbs and spices to flavour your cordial with. I wrapped up a thumb-sized piece of ginger, a bay leaf, a couple of cloves, a star anise, three allspice berries and three black peppercorns into a piece of muslin (the Monkey is now less one muslin square) and put it in a pan along with the berries and a cinnamon stick. I added two litres of cold water and turned the heat on.

As the water starts to warm you need to add sugar to the pan. Use around 800g but you can add more or less to taste so start off with less and then you can add more. When the sugar has dissolved, bring the mixture up to the boil and then cover and simmer for around an hour until the mixture in the pan has gone syrupy (like cordial, duh). Don't forget to keep checking and stirring your cordial mixture. I did once and it took me days of soaking to get it off the bottom of the pan!

When your mixture is all syrupy and the berries have gone all smooshy then you can add some lemon juice to lift the flavour of the berries. A couple of tablespoons should be enough but again, add it to your taste.

If you want to give your cordial as a gift or if you want it to last longer than a week in the fridge then you can add some citric acid to it as a preservative. You can buy it from chemist and you'll need to dissolve 20g in the cordial at this stage and then check the taste again. If the cordial is a bit too thin and runny then you can always reduce it a bit more on the hob.

Leave your cordial to cool slightly and then filter it through a seive (I put the rest of the Monkey's muslin square in the seive too) and then pour it into your sterilised bottles. You can then add labels and a pretty bow perhaps.

It's great to give these away as presents but, to be fair, the cordial tastes so good that you'll want to be really selfish! I like to drink mine mixed with soda water and ice but it's also a really good alternative to mulled wine if you serve it hot. If your tastes run to the perverse you could even try a little of the cordial syrup poured over vanilla ice cream. Mmm...