Ravellenics, Love and the Results.

I absolutely love the Playful Day Group on Ravelry. Something happened this week that totally proved to me that I am lucky enough to have the most awesome listeners and readers that I could possibly hope for.

When I saw a post from a group member, requesting that we register a team for the Ravellenics I was cautious. I want people to feel that they have ownership over the Playful group but this Winter Olympics has the most bitter of flavours and I quietly kept out of discussion lest I spoil the merry making.

Then I saw a brilliant blog post. It actually made me stop everything I was doing, quietly reread it and then said aloud a big, fat 'YES!' Lilith from Old Maiden Aunt Yarns said exactly what I was thinking: I want the fun but how can we party and play when Russia's government is currently allowing systematic violence and hatred against the LGBT community. Not just turning a blind eye, but actively encouraging it. I can't condone violence, I cannot ignore the hurt and pain that others are suffering. This hurt the Russian government is causing its' people doesn't just end there sadly and I for one I'm glad that I am a woman living in London raising a family and not Moscow right now.

Lilith has created fantastic rainbow dyed yarn and pledged to support Stonewall for every completed project and skein bought for her team. I've had the pleasure of working with Stonewall before, and was impressed by their proactive stance on ending discrimination and hatred in schools. They are a remarkable charity and their transparency in the way they run and operate all levels of their organisation is impressive.

I shared the piece on the thread and explained my reservations up until this point and the response was something like this:

Isn't that great? How apt? How Playful AND representative of how I'd like to play this Ravellenics. I was so thrilled.

Instantly pledges began from donations based on total yardage, completed projects or team members. I'm all up for that. So I'm inviting you to come knit something Playful and keep the true spirit of human achievement in the centre of this Olympic season. Let's do this!

Quick Pork Lasagne

I made this quite some time ago and it was a pretty good success. Playful Tot adores pasta and mince so I was taking a fair guess that lasagne would be a hit. The only problem is the amount of time a truly great lasagne takes. Bechamel, sweated onions, ragu.... there's no avoiding it, Italians love indulgent food and this mama simply doesn't.have.time.

So I pondered things and thought through a few cheats. You can of course, do it old school and make the Bechamel from scratch and save time by making up the mince mix in batches to freeze so that you simply need to defrost and layer when the time comes. I'm all about time saving in the interest of a good hearty family meal so play with this as you will.



Here's my quick version of Pork Lasagne. As always, I've made this baby friendly so al the family can enjoy it. Feel free to season heartily.

Ingredients
For the mince:
500g Pork Mince
2-3 tbsp Olive Oil or cold pressed Rapeseed Oil
2 onions, chopped
2 tsps dried Rosemary
1 pepper, chopped
100g Baby Spinach
2 tbsp Tomato purée
1 tin chopped tomatoes (400g)
400ml Low salt veg stock

For the white sauce:
400ml whole milk
2 tbsp Cornflour

Lasagne Pasta Sheets (I used half a pack of pre cooked pasta sheets, 375g per pack)
Handfuls of grated cheese

Method

1. Brown the pork mince in 1-2 tbsps of oil, then with a slotted spoon, remove from the pan onto a dish and place to one side for later.
2. Sweat the chopped onions until nicely translucent.
3. Add the rosemary, pepper and baby spinach and keep moving over a gentle heat for 2-3 minutes.
4. Stir in the tomato purée before adding chopped tomatoes and stock.
5. Leave to simmer and in the meantime make up the white sauce: heating milk in a pan, keeping 2-3 tbsp in reserve. Mix the cornflour into the reserve milk first before whisking into the warmed milk until smooth and thick.
6. Brush a large oven proof dish with oil and layer up: pasta, mince mixture, white sauce twice over.
7. Cover the top in as much grated cheese as you can stand and bake for 30 minutes.




Enjoy!

Handspun Heaven

Right before Christmas, I received a package that can only be described as an early Christmas present. Nestled amongst samples of Lo-Lo hand balms, David's teas and some pretty yummy chocolates were these two fabulous skeins. Let me tell you, pictures in the current monsoon weather we're enjoying, do NOT do them justice.

This has left me with two dilemmas. First, what on earth should I knit with them? I adore handspun but thus far it's all gone into the 'Golden Stash', the collection of skeins too precious to pick the perfect project for. I do not want this to happen but yet.... they're perfection itself. Any ideas?

The second problem is the issue of how does one reciprocate? I want something so amazingly mind blowing that the person knows how much I understand the value of handspun.

I wonder how much Benedict Cumberbatch is going for these days?

Resolving not to Resolve

It's that time of year isn't it? New year, new start, new resolutions. I'm dire at them. Really. I once achieved a fantastic year of knitting when I challenged myself to learn all these new things like sweaters and cables and socks and I had a sort of sponsor via a knit friend. We rewarded each other with amazing packages whenever we accomplished a goal we'd set out. You can see the list here on my project page. It was ace. I've achieved absolutely nothing like it ever since.

When it comes to my knitting intentions in 2014, I have so much good stash and so many good intentions. I've got knits crushes galore and I just want to knit all the things. Oh but I have a Playful Tot and work from home without childcare. Tricky.

So rather than make a mountain of goals I just thought about what it is that I might like to achieve this year. Stash enjoyment is high on the agenda once more because I've really got some good stuff in there! I want to work with it and if I do eventually get my much covetted spinning wheel, I want to feel there's room for fibre in the stash and that I have knit lots of things that I've always wanted to make before I start splitting my already precious time further still. There will always be new patterns I want but I hold this mental list of favourites that could really do with some working on now. Do you do the same?

So I spent a joyful hour queueing a ridiculous amount of projects. Chances of knitting all of them? Pretty slim but I did tag them with stash I have, stash I could overdye, stash I could add to in order to complete them and stash to splurge on as a treat. I'm attending a few events this year and I'm going to try to only invite yarn for the 'splurge' section into my stash so it has an intended purpose and the correct yardage (a major failing of my stash I've realised). The yarn that I'm not sure about can be gifted or overdyed. Yes, I'm crazy enough to try to dye over some pretty fancy yarn. If it's something I keep hovering over because it's just not exactly the shade I had hoped, I should play and try to improve it. I used to love dyeing so it's time I got the dye pot out again and started relearning what I once enjoyed so much. It's just trapped potential in those skeins otherwise and I have some patterns that I really want on (and off) my needles!

So stash curating and dyeing. What else? Photography. Urgh, I missed my camera so much in 2013 and when I take more pictures, I blog better and I'm more creative I've noticed. It's time to dig out that SLR and relearn the settings (there's a theme here have you noticed?). It also will spur me to block and photograph some finished objects. I can't believe I still haven't shared my Girl Crush Sweater for example. To be fair, the light has been dire thanks to the typhoon we've been enjoying. Yuck.

So I guess my theme is consolidation and making what I have work. I don't get much slack so I should refocus on what I already have.

Oh and did I mention that sewing machine in my loft room? Yeah..... that needs to happen this year too. Time travel anyone?

Episode 46: For Auld Lang Syne

Show notes:

Autumn Leaves (A Song For Boo) By Reed Maxfield can be purchased from itunes here. 

Songs:

Auld Lang Syne by Joel Rakes, available on Noise Trade