I read in the newspaper last week that the "Glasgow Cookery book" is being revived , and a new edition published .
The Glasgow cookery book was the bible for (female) students of the Glasgow "Dough School" or the "Glasgow and West of Scotland College of Domestic Science" which was its proper name , and many of the recipes are still good for today. (Although I am NOT boiling my lamb shanks for 9 hours to get my stock for Scotch Broth , the new version will no doubt amend this , but my 1945 version insists on it!)
These are the recipe's my gran would have used , many of them are so familiar , although modern technology means they don't take as long to make. (Blenders , Food mixers , bread makers ....) Many of the ingredients needed for these recipes would have been available to those on the lowest of incomes , and it comes as no surprise that the first chapter is on Soups . Soups would have been a main meal for many a household in post-war Britain . Some of the recipes only use a few ingredients , and there is no "hard to find fish wine Thai vinegar or wotsit" that Nigella and Delia love to use .
I like the entry for Cauliflower soup that says " for a vegetarian option substitute two sticks of celery for the Ham* !"
* Ham would have been used to make the soup stock ,
And there is the aptly titled - Reheated Meat dishes , like Hash or Shepherds Pie .
Some of the recipes I have never heard of though - obviously belong to a different age like Fricandeau of Veal (serve with Espagnol sauce ??) and Roman Pie !
And I am not sure that the farmer supplies the lamb ingredients required for this recipe though , and I don't recall Gran making this soup either.....
Its the soup recipe at the bottom of the page - Sheeps' Head Broth !
Really don't fancy that one!!
There are my lamb shanks, simmering away nicely in the pot on the cooker, they smell so good. It's blackface lamb from a local farmer , and not only does it smell good it tastes DIVINE . Blackface sheep are the commonest sheep in Scotland , meat is great, sheep is hardy , however the wool is too rough for spinning/knitting clothing from . I am sure it must be used for something , perhaps Carpets .
Scotch Broth and Bangers 'n Mash for dinner - can't get more British than that can you ?
I am having a frogging time of late , if I am not tinking back mistakes in the Monkey Socks that I am knitting , I am ripping out whole projects - Ouch!
My latest indecision and bad knitting karma issues, is with the lovely scarf pattern from Knitspot called Fernfrost. I started out using a wonderful Skein Queen yarn of Cashmere and Silk in a lovely Teal colourway (crikey a bundle of knots would have looked great with this stuff!). I kept getting the (written) pattern wrong - so frogging ensued. Eventually I used the chart , hey presto it worked. Spoke too soon , needed to tink back . Worked again, oh no, more tinking back! ugh !
Decided it would be better as a one pattern repeat scarf (Stole has three repeats of pattern). Sigh. More frogging of the gorgeous cashmere .
Rummaged around stash and found the gorgeous aqua Unicorn , that's the ticket.
Cast on wrong number of stitches . Found out after two more froggings! Eventually got the right amount , and knitted up one pattern repeat (32 rows)
This . Is . It .
I like it . I really like it now . I am even getting into a rhythm with this pattern since I am only doing one repeat .
Trouble is , I think I really want to do three repeats of the pattern in this yarn, I like it so much.
BUT , I am talking myself into doing some gloves to match, so it will be staying at one repeat just now.
Three repeats .... now that calls for a different yarn .
How about some gorgeous Skein Queen Cashmere and silk in a lovely Teal colourway !
Vacuuming the carpets , dusting the surfaces , sorting the laundry (again !) wiping the kitchen worktops , putting some bleach down the toilets (three guys in the house only one girl , its a nightmare for me!) .
However .....
I will have a Cup Of Tea , Do Some Knitting , then fetch the boys from school .
Then ....
I will bake Muffins , with blueberries .
Just because ...
Thank goodness my boiler is installed tomorrow , it is getting a tad chilly here .
There was an article in a newspaper today extolling the benefits of knitting . It was well written , didn't fall into any "cliches" , and even pointed out that Knitting wasn't the "thrifty" option because of the hours put in to produce a finished item . The lady who wrote it was called Lorna Martin , who moved to the Shetland Isles as a child and was taught to knit Fairisle patterns by her teacher.
I liked the fact that she pointed out that although knitting is often associated with grey-haired females of a certain age , the main growth area in the knitting boom is amongst the under 35's ! Apparently sales of yarn and needles from John Lewis have increased dramatically in the last few years .
Here is the web-page of that Knitting article
At present I am trying to dramatically increase my "output" of knitting . I have started some gift knitting , amongst which are Monkey socks in Sunshine Yarns , Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes , meant for my young cousin . They are coming on a treat , especially since I had to start again after the first attempt was turning out too small . I had used 2.25mm needles , but had to go up to 2.75mm . I thought the bigger needles would make the yarn a bit lacy as it has a high twist in it , but it is turning out nicely .
I have done 4 repeats of the pattern , just another two to go before the heel. Lost a stitch last night and had to rip out a whole two repeats , ouch! Back on track now.
I've also started the Fernfrost scarf pattern although its not worth showing 5 rows done ! I am finding using the chart is easier , and I make less mistakes than I do with the written pattern . Using my Skein Queen Wisp yarn , so lovely !
Is anyone else starting some gift knitting yet ? (In my defence one of the projects is for a birthday! )
and the skies are grey!
AND my boiler has died , so a new one is needed NOW!
Just as well I finished my Icing Swirl Hat , at least my head will be warm ......
I am still recovering from a fabulous weekend in London , at the Iknit show weekend. Two days of yarn goodness and workshops!
Its great to go to something like this , where everyone openly admires the knitwear , and we all play Pattern bingo (Feburary Lady Sweater , check , Pinwheel sweater , check , Cookie A socks , check! lol )
Three of us from Flavaknits went down together , and met up with some of the girls from Tramway knitters at the event . We were a gaggle of schoolgirls , chatting non-stop even though we had been up since 4.30am on the Friday morning to get our early flight!
Thankfully I had finished my Noro Cardi in time to take it with me - it is so cosy and I love it . I will be wearing it out shortly !
The great thing about Noro is that it is better NOT to block it , as you lose some of the texture and shape . This one curls at the edges beautifully , giving it a great casual look , that looks good with jeans .
I just love the way it stripes too! This pattern was very simple , although it needed a bit of tweaking , and was great to knit at knit night or in front of the TV .
Its a winner!
Now I promised myself I would be good at the Yarn Market at Iknit , as I have a ton of stash back home just crying out to be knitted .
But I wasn't!
And yet , I could have been even naughtier...... if all that yarny goodness hadn't been so overwhelming!
Excuse the poor macbook photo's , my DS2 has pinched my batteries for my camera to use in his Nintendo Wii (Star Wars Lego is soooo addictive!)
From left to right , first up is Ysolda Teagues' Whimisical Little Knits book , which encouraged me to buy the gorgeous Manos del Uruguay wool classica yarn and Knitpro DPNS! Why ? so I could start the Icing Swirl hat ! (Still not finished , don't ask why , least said soonest mended etc. )
You can see the peak of the hat , its the dark teal knitting at the top right.
In front of the yellow Iknit ticket is the Skein Queen Cashmere and silk blend 2 ply in Teal , next to it is Easyknits alpaca/silk blend in a red colourway called O-negative . Just behind that is natural Merino/silk laceweight from Hammonds (have little pots of dye as I want to try dye-ing that!) Its not too easy to see as the button is hiding it!
Perched on one of my Knitpro DPNS is a large button in Ash wood , from Toft Alpaca , just lovely (as was their yarn!)
And the two little scrunched up bits of knitting at the front are the projects from my Estonian Knitting class , where we learned both multi-colour knitting and lace knitting .
It wasn't just all yarny goodness , the food was great too! Lovely little sandwich shop close to the halls was where we has lunch on the Friday (Joes Sandwiches) . And on the Saturday evening , we went to the Anchor and Hope pub where we had the most fantastic dinner , Venison Shank , Poached rabbit , Pumpkin Gnocchi...... and the deserts ! WOW! It was like proper home cooking! Kimmie tried the delights of the home-made Damson Gin too (the rest of us had the wine) . The staff were so helpful and pleasant which added to the experience.
It was such a great but exhausting weekend , I am just beginning to recover now , and my Yoga class helped too!
Now to start saving and training for next year!
and the dark clouds and the flash flooding , traffic holdups .... yesterday was awful weatherwise , which was a pity because it was DS2 first FULL day at school . Up until now he had been in school until lunchtime , but yesterday he got to stay for lunch ..... and so did I . Parents were invited to come along and have "school dinners" with their offspring . It was good , but not as good as I remember . Still distance lends enchantment as my Gran would say .
Today , I spent a pleasant morning with the Flavaknits girls , having a coffee and a chat and trying to finish my Noro cardi . Finally it is cast off , and now for the difficult (boring) bit , the SEWING.
But first lunch . It is quite peculiar having lunch on my own after all these years having wee ones keep me company , so something comforting was in order.
How about Beef Noodle and Vegetable soup *. My lot aren't fond of noodles but I am (got me through my student years!) I used a beef stock cube , some "heat in the pan" noodles and a load of vegetables PLUS some fresh finely chopped ginger.
Soup to warm the soul . I just dissolved the stock cube in boiling water , added the vegetables and ginger , once it was warmed through I added the noodles for two minutes , and voila ! a filling soup .
Now , will it set me up for a bit of sewing - I hope so!
* Edited to add : sometimes noodle soup requires a FORK as well as a SPOON! I have changed my T-shirt!
