while I was away.........

.......I did some knitting.  I never need a break from knitting, so I was happy to fill a bag with yarn and needles for those quiet times between walking, biking and enjoying the food and wine of France.  We had a great holiday - more on that in another post - but I thought I'd show what I made and what I am currently making.

You may remember a request from a friend a few weeks back, well this is what I have made so far.

Composite by Pekapeka patterns

Two strands of Regia sock yarn held together for this oddments hat

Leftover yarn from the Composite top

Hundreds also by Pekapekapatterns

made this little hat to match the Hundreds cardi

I have now cast on a couple of patterns yet another Pekapeka design

Then a Debbie Bliss unisex coat for Jess

Gus is growing so fast that I have been given back  sweater I made him to have extra length added to the body and arms!!  He's going to be long and skinny.

Whilst on the making front, I have been doing some preserving - 16 jars of damson jam and 4 of Delia pickled spiced runner beans

I have plenty to do and that's a fact, more preserving, gardening, cleaning ..........and on it goes.  I now need to sort some photos for the next post

Cherry ripe

It has been a bumper year for the cherries in our garden, in fact in the time we have been here I don't remember so many.  Even the birds can't cope with them.  Peter and I picked 10lb this afternoon and hardly made a dent.

This batch is destined to become jam and I just used 3 lbs to make cherry gin!!

This is the cherry gin - 1 lb (454 grams) washed cherries,you can leave in the stones, 4 oz (100 grams) of granulated sugar, 70cl gin.  Just pop them into jugs, jars whatever as long as you can give it a stir now and again until the sugar dissolves.  Cover, then give a shake when you think about it.  Leave for 3 months maximum 6, then strain off into clean bottles, you can add more sugar at this stage if you wish.  Drink and enjoy. Up to you what you do with the cherries....

We also plan to make Sweet Pickled Cherries which are great with duck or gammon.  The recipe we have is from the Joy of Pickling by Linda Ziebrich.

I shall freeze some for later use and also make pie filling and/or pies

Think of me tomorrow as I stand a pit all these cherries.