Just knitting a scarf …

A lovely, snuggly scarf .

I found this pattern on Ravelry:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/misti-chunky-ribs--ruffles-scarf

But I couldn’t find any of the recommended wool in Bunty’s, my local wool shop, in West Ealing.

Undaunted I had a go at re-creating it with Sirdar Click Chunky yarn, which Bunty stocks in a range of colours. I chose a lovely, classic grey colour shade 0119. 

I tried following the original pattern, and, whilst the texture of the rib worked beautifully, the scarf came out too narrow for my taste at only 3 inches or 7.5 cm across, so I set about changing the pattern to create a broader scarf that worked with the Sirdar wool.

And this is how it worked out:

I kept knitting until my scarf was a very decent 48 inches or 122 cm long, and then I knit in the final ruffle at the other end and cast off.

So if you want to recreate the look with Sirdar Click Chunky, here’s the way to do it:

Materials

1 pair of US size 13/ 9 mm needles

3, 50g balls of Sirdar Click Chunky wool

Instructions

1.              Cast on 108 stitches.

2.              Ruffle Row One: knit 2 together for the entire row. You will finish the row with only 54 stitches left on your needle.

3.              Ruffle Row Two: knit 2 together for the entire row. You will finish with only 27 stitches left on your needle.

4.              Rib Row One: *knit 3, bring the wool to the front of the needle as though you were about to do a purl stitch and slip a stitch, return yarn to other side*. Repeat from * to * across the row, ending with knit 3.

5.              Rib Row Two: knit 1, *bring wool to the front as though you were about to do a purl stitch and slip a stitch, bring wool to other side and knit 3*. Repeat from * to * across the row until the final stitch. End with a knit 1.

6.              Continue with these 2 alternating Rib Rows until your work measures 48 inches/ 122 cm or whatever length you prefer.

7.              Final Rib Row One: knit into the front and back of each stitch for the entire row. You will finish with 54 stitches.

8.              Final Rib Row Two: knit into the front and back of each stitch for the entire row. You will finish with 108 stitches.

9.              Cast off, weave in your ends and admire.

And then when I’d finished I thought I’d have a go at knitting another one for my mum, because it had been so quick and easy. She does a lot of dog-walking in a lovely bright, red coat with bright red wellies.

So I thought I’d find something that would clash nicely with her normal get-up. Bunty sold me some lovely red, tweedy Sirdar Click Chunky, shade 0112, and I got going on another scarf.

Double Ta-Dah! What do you think?

And now I think I’ll have a go at making a hat to match, if my friend Bunty still has any Sirdar Click Chunky wool left in the same dye-lot.

Have a great weekend!

Bonny x

Walpole Park and my dog-walking worries ...

Walpole Park, in the centre of Ealing, is our local park. Normally it’s a great little spot, but this winter it’s being renovated, and it’s shrunk to half its normal size (argh!). We’ve been fenced out for our own safety while they carry on with the work.

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The park adjoins Pitzhanger Manor, which was built by the famous architect, Sir John Soane, as his country house. You may have visited his town house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, which is now a museum filled to capacity with all his bits-and-bobs. Old Sir John was a bit of a hoarder, although in his day they called him a ‘collector’.

In any event the idea behind this programme of work is to restore the park’s Regency landscape. I think that sounds amazing, and I’m really looking forward to seeing the finished result, but I’d like to know when that’s likely to happen, and when we can expect to get our park back. The work is being ‘phased’, and I’ve not been able to find any firm finish dates on the Internet for when any of the phases will be finished – other than the vague suggestion of early 2014, which I would have thought ought to be sometime now.

We try to walk to and from school when the weather is nice, and when we don’t have too much games kit to lug back and forth. A quick detour into Walpole Park on the way back allows Maxi to have a run off the lead over the open grass before my workday begins. Recently, however, I’ve had to keep him tied up because of all the heavy plant and machinery that’s always motoring around in there. Some mornings it feels a little bit like we’re taking our morning constitutional in a working quarry.

The Serpentine has been drained and the ornamental gardens have been dug up with the result that it looks as though they’re trying to re-create a WWI battlefield, complete with muddy trenches in the fenced-off zone. The next photo’s a bit out of focus because even my camera was losing the will to live when presented with this scene of destruction, but you can hopefully get an idea of what I’m banging on about. And I have to say, as an aside, that the vague early 2014 finish date is beginning to look a bit optimistic. Call me a cynic, but it doesn’t look like the ducks are going to be paddling in this pond any time soon.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m not having a go at the Council or whoever’s in charge. I liked the park how it used to be, and I’m sure I’ll love it with all the fancy Regency-era improvements that have been promised. All the people who work there have been unfailingly helpful and polite to me. The vehicles drive slowly with lights flashing, and there’s usually a lookout guy walking in front to make sure that they don’t run over anyone or their dog. I’m just saying that I’m really looking forward to when we get it back again – all of it.

Bonny x

Honoré Daumier at the Royal Academy of Arts

One of my very favourite places in London is the Royal Academy of Arts on Piccadilly.

Do you know it? If you don’t, you can find it here: Royal Academy of Arts

I joined up as a friend way back when I first moved to London, and I can honestly say that I’ve learnt more about art within the walls of Burlington House than they ever managed to teach me at school.

These days I’m a huge fan of the visual arts and of art history, but when I arrived in the Big Smoke for the first time I didn’t know a whole lot about any of it. You see I’d grown up in a very rural corner of the world where we didn’t have a lot of access to museums and art galleries. At school I’d taken maths and the sciences to A-level so I hadn’t had much of an opportunity to lose myself in fine art.

All that changed, big time, when I  came to live in London. One of the many, many things I love about living here is having such fabulous art collections on my doorstep.

The Royal Academy is special, however, as its exhibitions encourage you to focus on stuff that you may not have paid much attention to before. I’ve discovered so many fabulous artists just by going along and having a look.

At the moment they have an exhibition up in the Sackler Galleries of the work of Honoré Daumier.

‘Who he?’ you ask.

I’ll confess that I’d never heard tell of him before either, but I can tell you he was a total Rock Star of a painter. He lived from 1808 to 1874, and his work reminded me very much of that of my great hero William Hogarth in that he saw things from the perspective of the little man/ woman, the normal guy, rather than the Duke or aristocrat. His work is infused with sympathy for the working poor. His brush strokes are brave and sparse, and painted with the satirical eye of a Hogarth, and in many ways anticipating the work of the impressionists.

I won’t talk on about his work, because you can read all about it on the RA website from people who know far more about him than I do, but, if you get a chance, do pop by and have a look for yourself. You’ll discover a fascinating window into the prejudices and pre-occupations of people living in nineteenth century France, but please go soon, as the exhibition closes on 26^th January.

Enjoy!

Bonny x

Wibble wobble jelly on a plate …

There’s something incredibly satisfying about a good, old-fashioned jelly on a plate. Don’t you agree? It sort of adds an air of celebration to a very modest after-dinner treat.

Ta-dah!

See what I mean? It looks like I went to a bit of an effort, whereas in fact nothing could be further from the truth. Jelly is a doddle to make with one of those jelly-cube jobbies that you simply dissolve in water, leave in the fridge for a bit, and then love the result.

Emilio, my son, is particularly enthusiastic about jelly. He’s got an egg-allergy, which tends to rain a lot on his pudding parade. However, one thing that he can (and does) enjoy is jelly.

My Mum and Dad recently gave me these wonderful old jelly moulds. I’ve had fun making regal-looking jellies with them for Emilio and his friends. We had a sleepover in our house with three of his best friends at the beginning of the month. After dinner the boys had ice cream and jellies made up in their team colours, which went down a treat.

One trick that I’ve learnt is to coat the mould in some cake-release spray so that the jelly comes out a bit easier. Alternatively you could use a sweet-tasting oil, such as almond oil, to coat the tin, or you could dip the mould quickly into some hot water to loosen it up around the edges if it’s being stubborn about coming out – just be careful not to leave it in the hot water for too long or to get any of the hot water into the jelly, otherwise it’s liable to go pear-shaped.

It’s a really simple, easy, every-day treat that helps brighten up the January gloom. Go on, have a go, and make a little person smile. 

Bonny x

Retail therapy at the London Designer Outlet Village

 I don’t know about you, but I love to bag a bargain.

From time to time I like to motor up the M40 with a girlfriend in tow, for a bit of retail therapy at Bicester Village. It takes me about an hour to get there from where I live in Ealing. The parking is free and easy, and the get-away out of West London is usually uncomplicated. There are some acceptable pit stops for lunch in the retail village itself, and there’s a pretty good play area for the little ones if they are in on the action as well. All in all I find going to Bicester easier and less stressful than a trip to the Oxford Street, with the prospect of a good deal thrown in to add to my enjoyment.

If you've not been before, you can find out all about Bicester Outlet Village here: http://www.bicestervillage.com/en/your-visit/your-visit.

Today, however, I am happy to report that we have our very own discount shopping centre under development at Wembley Stadium. I went there yesterday with a view to doing a little bit of market research. The people in the shops told me that they’d only opened a couple of months’ ago, so it’s all pretty recent.

You can find their website here: http://www.london-designer-outlet.com/

Now I have to say straight out, and without wanting to belittle this newcomer to the shopping scene, that it’s not in the same league as Bicester. It doesn’t have any of the fancy-pants, high-end labels, but if you fancy a bit of cut-price, mid-market, everyday clobber it’s not a bad place to go.

Speaking for myself I was happy to stock up on some jeans from Gap, and a couple of cashmere jumpers from M&S. I bought my usual ‘Premium Skinny Cut’ jeans at Gap for about half of what I’d have had to fork out on the High Street, and who could complain about M&S cashmere jumpers for £29.99? Not a lot wrong with that, if you ask me.

I’m a bit of a cookshop junkie, and was happy to find four places selling cooking stuff: Denby, Villeroy and Boch, Procook and Viners. I’d been looking for some traditional icecream sundae dishes, which I scored in Viners for the princely sum of £1.40 a pop. What do you think of this little ensemble?

As you can see one of them was quickly pressed into service for an end-of-the-school-day jelly treat. Someone in our house is very keen on jelly.

Nike, Adidas and Asics all have shops there for your jogging gear. As do Trespass and Tog24 for walking/ outdoor wear.

As with most of these retail villages there are no interesting, independent stores in the line-up.  I was, however, taken aback to see a Björn Borg outlet (do you remember him of hippy hair and tennis fame?). Anyway, it seems that he is now busy designing very brightly coloured (and I do mean ‘very’) underwear for both ladies and gents – or maybe they just sell his very brightly coloured range at the outlet, and he’s got some tasteful whites and pastels on sale elsewhere. 

There’s lots of building work going on out front at the complex, and the place has a just-moved-in vibe. A window cleaner, brandishing his squeegee mop and bucket, asked me how he could get to the first floor to clean the windows. I must have looked like I knew where I was going.

There are still loads of empty units. Several looked as though they were being prepared for new tenants, so I imagine that the line up of brands is set to grow.

In addition there are stacks of places to eat with a cinema complex somewhere on the upper floor that I didn’t try and visit. If you come on a Saturday morning you can leave your little ones at the football academy (open between 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m) and have a peaceful, child-free shop, which seems like a good plan.

Parking (head for the Red Car Park, which is closest to the shops) was easy and freely available – but at a price that seemed a bit steep to me. My little jamboree ran into a third hour for which I had to pay £5.50. I don’t want to sound like a tightwad, but that seemed a bit steep for where I was. Bear in mind that Ikea is at the end of the road, where the parking is free, and there’s a huge Tesco Extra not far away, where they also have free parking. All things told I felt the fee for the car park was a bit more Westfield than Wembley Outlet, and on match days the rate goes up even higher.

So what’s the verdict? Not a bad place to snoop around for a bargain, with the prospect of more and better to come.

Bonny x