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Last Christmas I received Tilly and the Buttons book Stretch! It's full of lots of lovely sewing patterns and I spent ages looking through it trying to work out what to make. So for my first attempt I made a pretty simple t-shirt.
I found and fell in love with the material at one of my local material shops and with a day off already in the diary I happily spent the day getting reacquainted with my sewing machine.
I made sure to take my time with my prep so I had everything I needed ready. Then followed the lovely detailed instructions in the book. That's what I really love about Tilly's patterns, she gives you all the help you need, without making you feel stupid.
And I'm so happy with how its come out. If I'm honest the neckline is a little higher than I would normally wear it, so I'm going to have a play with the pattern and see if I can amend it a bit. I've already got some fabric ready for that t-shirt that's a bit more work wearable. But I'm still wearing it right now and its really comfortable.
I'm really looking forward to making lots of the projects in the book, not only will it expand my skills but also my wardrobe!
This morning I ran the Winchester 10k. My first race since the Loch Ness Marathon last September and only my 3rd 10k.
We had beautiful weather for it, brilliant sunshine and not a cloud in the sky, but with an 08:30 start it was still chilly. I was very glad of my long sleeved top and gloves.
The course itself was lovely - through the town and then out into the countryside, before coming back into town for the finish. A hilly run, but similar to what I normally run on, so no real problem for me. And a very pretty medal to add to my collection.
But I couldn't help but feel the organisational side of things let the race down. I didn't see any signage for toilets or bag drop at the start, only finding the loos by accident. And there was a distinct lack of loos which made for a stressful start - would I make it to the end of the queue before the start? Then out on the course itself I didn't see any distance markers which made it hard to work out how I was doing, and for a closed road race I saw a lot of cars.
The end was just a shambles - I had to queue for 5 minutes before I managed to collect a medal, water, banana and t-shirt. I'm not sure what the problem was but we weren't moving.
The only thing keeping me from having a moan at someone was the glow of knowing I just knocked 5 minutes off my last 10k time - down to 50:22 which is amazing! (this is my garmin time as the times haven't been published on the website yet)
I'm thinking I might like to do some more 10k races, but I don't think I'll be going back to Winchester.
This week I made a Chocolate Gateau. While the last cake I made had too much icing this one doesn't have any! Not that it really needs it, being quite fudgey in texture.
I'm getting to the end of the cakes that make good lunch box cakes, or the cakes that are in season - for instance fresh apricots are not a thing yet, and cheese cakes don't travel so well. I'll still be working through the book, there just might be bigger gaps now as I wait for events that need cakes or things to come into season.
Verdict: Quite nice, but there are better chocolate cakes in the book. Quite nutty.
This week I made a Sachertorte (chocolate cake) and Iced Cherry Shortbread. I've made the shortbread before and it's very tasty. A little crumbly but with a lovely tang of orange. This batch came out well and I could eat lots of it.
The cake came out well too. It was fairly easy to make, but her quantities for the topping were way over what we needed! She wanted a whole jar of jam when a couple of big spoonfuls would have done and as for the chocolate icing we had so much that I iced all the biscuits and still had a bowl left over! It was also very runny which needed a little management. Still it tastes good so thats ok.
Verdict:
Sachertorte: Pretty good and it lasted the week well. Just a shame the details for the icing make way too much.
Iced Cherry Shortbread: Love this! Its tasty with a nice crumble and I could eat the whole batch although its quite rich.
This week I made a Kiddies' Dream Traybake and Plum Muffins. Both were pretty simple to put together and seemed to come out well, until we tried the muffins and found they hadn't cooked all the way through. They just needed a couple of minutes more in the oven.
To be honest I've always had issues with muffins, and these were better than some that I've made!
Verdict:
Kiddies' Dream Traybake: Ok but nothing special. There are better chocolate cakes in this book.
Plum Muffins: These didn't cook quite enough so had googy centres. Tasted ok, but got left and ended up in the bin.
I fell in love with Herman about 10 years ago. I found him on Etsy and bought the pattern before I realised that I didn't actually have the skills back then to make him. He is knitted in the round - started on double pointed needles and then using the American magic loop technique.
I received a set of multiple sized double pointed needles for Christmas last year and I've done a few in the round projects now so I decided that this was the year to have a go.
And it was still hard - he is so small you don't have much to work with, and I missed a few rows and had to go back and I think one leg might be a bit longer than the other, so he's not perfect. But for a first go I'm really impressed.
I didn't realise he would be so small, but I love that. He's the sort of bear that could hide in your pocket and give you love when you need it. 'im outdoors said he's tummy button is too high but I don't care. He could do with a few more sandwiches too. But I've learnt tons and I'm looking forward to having another go.
This week I made Paradise Slice and a Cherry Crumble Cake. I've made the paradise slice before a couple of times, so already know that this is a very tasty cake with a biscuit base, raspberry jam centre and a coconut sponge topping.
The cherry cake is a new one. Pretty easy to make with a lemony sponge covered in cherry's and then a crumble topping. Have to see how it gets on over the week.
Verdict:
Paradise Slice: Really good, gets better as the week progresses. Will definitely be making again.
Cherry Crumble Cake: This was quite good, but didn't quite last the week. Interesting textures.
