It's hot cross bun time

While I miss having a full kitchen, stocked pantry and baking supplies on hand, it’s special occasion baking that I miss the most.  Geoff’s birthday involved cupcakes procured from Crumbs and Doilies (delicious, don’t get me wrong).  Christmas mince pies, cakes and the pudding were supplied by various high street retailers (M&S all butter mince pies being the clear favourite).  And now it’s time for hot cross buns.

Our favourite - a good amount of fruit, a little bit of peel and just enough spice

A couple of years ago I took an Easter baking class at the Gewurzhaus, in the Prahran store which has a generously sized classroom in the rear.  Taught by a German woman, we covered a variety of European easter baking.  I’ve made both the Torta Pasquale (spinach and egg pie) and hot cross buns many times since.

Piled high at Marks & Spencer

This year, as we are bereft of baking supplies and necessary kitchen equipment it will be procured hot cross buns all the way.  The M&S chocolate chip hot cross buns have already been recommended, with lashings of salted butter – they’re the ones in the blue packet.  There are plenty of other options – more than in Australia – such as apple (rather than mixed fruit), St Clements (orange) or fig and cranberry.  We have been trying the full gamut of options, starting from 27 Feb, which we agreed was the appropriate start date.

Ibid by Maria Taniguchi

Ibid. London is currently hosting a small exhibition of Maria Taniguchi’s work. 

A series of 8 large paintings of bricks, each just pencil lines and black paint.  

 Image copyright Ibid.

Mesmerising and suggestive of movement, despite capturing something so solid. 

  Image copyright Ibid.

Free, until 2 April 2016.

Re-emergence

After a week of illness, eating soup and dry toast, and general malaise, the sun shone on the weekend and we re-emerged. 

Like most Londoners, we’re tired of the grey of winter. The daffodils and magnolias have been blooming for some time now due to the mild winter, but sun light has been a rare beast. 

Though still wearing our winter coats, we enjoyed opportunities on sit in the sunshine and soak up the rays. 

While there is still cold weather ahead of us, we can see that Spring truly has begun.

The brutalist Barbican

The Barbican is ugly.  You won't find too many who would disagree with that statement.  The buildings containing very expensive apartments are brutal, and look a lot like the much derided council estates in London. 

The apartments are the tall building in the far left

It opened in 1982, and reflects the brutalist building style of the 1970's.  There have been vague attempts to make it more attractive, but most of those changes have been removed and the buildings are mostly back to their stark selves., embracing orange, purple and concrete!

Inside the gallery space called 'Curve' there is a brilliant exhibition of miniature paintings by Pakistani artist Imran Qureshi.  The Curve, as the name implies, is an exhibition space which is effectively a curved corridor and you can't see the end of it when you enter the gallery.  

Filigree, gilt, trees.  The paintings are like jewels in the darkened gallery.  Qureshi isn't constrained by the boundaries of his canvases.  On the paintings themselves, the work expands to fill the frame with delicate droplets of paint. 

Expanding further, the walls and floor have drips of deep red pain, over which he has pained flowers and leaves.  The works are darker, more thoughtful as you go further around the bend. 

Penguins, by Anna Maltz

Late last year, Anna Maltz (aka Sweaterspotter), released Penguins, a book of knitting patterns.  The patterns aren’t slavish to the topic, but are fun and whimsical, focussing on an element or a colour to link it back to the overarching themes. As well as 11 patterns, the book contains loads of lovely photographs.   

I was lucky enough to be able to attend the book launch, which included an amazing penguin inspired cake, as well as penguin inspired savouries!  There was also a trunk show, and I was able to try on the Aptenodytes – a cardigan that I would usually bypass as the short waterfall-style fronts are not very flattering.  However, the pattern includes a couple of buttons and buttonholes – minor amendments you may thing, but essential.  This means that the cardigan fronts can be buttoned into a low hanging cowl neck, or (the more flattering on me) a relatively shallow cowl that sits just below the collarbones, which I thought looked great on me!

I have knitted 2 patterns from the book so far.  I knitted the Flower King (or Flower Power in my Ravelry notebook).  To me, this pattern has a Marimekko feel, and I am a sucker for that brand! I used a variety of yarns that I had in stash - including some Wollmeise DK for the flower.  I added an extra segment of 20 stitches, as the yarns I used were a little lighter than the yarn called for in the pattern.  Also, I had recently knit another colourwork hat using the Wollmeise DK with 120 stitches in the body of the hat, so I knew that it would fit well.  This resulted in a flower with 6 petals, which is not as aesthetically pleasing as the original 5 petals, but certainly something I can live with to (a) knit from stash and (b) end up with a hat that fits. 

The second pattern I knit is Fledgling, which is a mitten pattern in Anna’s book.  In my version the end product is socks.  I used the mitten tip pattern on the toes and altered the increase rate so that there were increases on every second row, and I simply extended the chequered pattern on the underside of the toes to go over a few extra stitches, and for a few extra rows.  I also incorporated Clare Devine’s Ossa sock pattern (more on this later, but I have a tendency to combine patterns where I can so I can knit all the patterns) for the foot and simply followed Clare’s instructions, converting to toe up, rather than cuff down.

I changed it again for the leg, as I want to try and incorporate ribbing into the legs of socks where possible. I’ve noticed that my older pairs of socks are saggy and baggy around the leg after just a short while of wearing, so I hope a ribbed leg will hold it tighter for longer.  So I modified the Ossa pattern so the slipped stitches ran up the legs vertically, rather than twisted as on the foot, to leave room for some ribbing. 

Knit in coral and grey, the little penguin’s face is not as obvious as in Anna’s lovely mittens, but I am still enamoured!

Unravel 2016

Last Saturday I met a group of 8 friends from Loop to make our way out to Farnham, Surrey, for Unravel a knitting show.  It was a 50 minute train ride through the commuter belt surrounding London, in a carriage with plenty of other knitters, so lots of exclamations of ‘I love your jumper’!

Emma and I enjoying the photo ops

 

While on the train we plotted and planned and 2 clear groups emerged – the group that wasn’t planning on buying much but was there to enjoy the day out and the group that had serious purchases in mind – sweater quantities were contemplated. I fell into the minimal purchasing group – which I stuck to, more on that later.

We arrived at the Farnham Maltings just in time for the doors to open, and we joined the decent size queue.  It moved relatively quickly, particularly as I had won a pair of tickets from the Yarn in the City podcast (thanks Rachel, Allison) and then we were off.  As with any largish group, we fragmented, heading off to the different rooms.  I think there were 5 or 6 separate rooms, including 1 large hall area, with vendors spread through out.  Mostly yarn companies, there were a few designers/magazines with stalls as well as a stall for the Brinkley Looms.  Brinkley Looms are weaving looms that operate unlike any other loom that I have seen – to warp on you turn the frame and then you insert the reed, which looks like a square rolling pin.  Tempting because the warping is my least favourite aspect of Geoff’s weaving (it’s also the only aspect that requires my participation). 

Some welcoming yarn bombing

 

Pre-lunch was wandering, touching, planning.  There was a little yarn purchasing – but come lunch time most people had limited hauls, but big plans for the post lunch burst of shopping.  Lunch was at Loch Fyne, which is a chain restaurant in the UK (but a good one).  We enjoyed a very good value set lunch with wine and lots of chatting, as our original London group was bolstered by further friends we ran into during the morning.

As well as shopping, I enjoyed opportunities to try on sample garments, chat to designers whose patterns I was knitting and find out about upcoming releases like John Arbon’s Knit by Numbers in 4ply (to complement the existing 8ply offering). Another treat at Unravel was that Jules (aka Woollenflower) was a stall holder, so I spent most of the afternoon chatting and catching up. 

 Some amazing handspun available at Unravel

A smaller group for the train ride home – a couple of the minimal purchasers had left directly after our long lunch; a couple of those purchasing more were keen to stay until the close of play.  My purchases were 2 balls of self patterning sock yarn (yes, I can buy that anywhere, but for a reasonably price and no postage it was a good deal) and the Tiny Tails from Easy Knits with a complementary solid skein of their Deeply Wicked yarn.  A colourwork shawl is in the works.  Some spinning fibre from John Arbon Textiles and a couple of spinning tools. 

Daylight

Now that we are two months passed the winter solstice, the days are noticeably longer.  It’s no longer dark while I am out running before work, and it shall soon be twilight as I leave work.  The weekend days feel significantly longer than in January, and I am pleased.

There are other signs of Spring – daffodils and snow drops in the nature strips and parks.  The smell of jasmine in unexpected green spaces in the city.  It seems too early, and although (meterological) spring will start soon, I expect that it will still be rather cold in London – after all, we experienced top temperatures of 12 to 15 degrees last May. 

But the nights will be warmer, the days will be longer.  Eventually the heaters will turn off for a few months, and one day, we will open the window and let in the spring breeze. I am already plotting how to spend my summery birthday.