Burns' Night

We celebrated Burns' Night this evening with the traditional Scottish meal... haggis with neeps-and-tatties. There was a green salad thrown in as a nod to good nutrition, but tonight was all about the meat (so-called) and starch.

Mmmmm, yum!

I know, I know. The idea of haggis is very off-putting to many. But really, the notion that some parts of animals aren't fit for eating is a fairly new one.

Our grandparents lived through the Depression years, where waste simply wasn't an option. My parents were immigrants, and couldn't afford to be picky.

Even I, a farm-raised girl of the 70s/80s learned the necessity of not wasting food of any kind.

We ate hearts, gizzards, livers... although I believe my mom drew the line at kidneys. Even chicken-foot soup showed up semi-regularly at our house.

Anyhow... I don't know quite where that little rant came from... this evening we ate haggis. And it was really really good!!

But the piece de resistance of our little meal was dessert. Naturally.

This is Cranachan.

It's kind of an unpronounceable name. Lots of hissing and spitting in the back of your throat. Most Scottish words are like that. Kind of like German.

But I digress. Again.

Sorry.

Cranachan is a heavenly mixture of toasted oats, honey (heather honey, if you can get it) raspberries, and whipped cream.

It's not a diet dessert.

But you should make some and eat it. You won't regret it.

And it's easy, too. You almost don't need a recipe. But I'll try to make one up anyhow. I based mine roughly on several that I found online, and it was amazing.

So here goes:

You'll need:

• 2 oz oatmeal (pinhead if you're in the UK and can get it... I just ran regular rolled oats through the food processor til they were not-quite-flour-sized.) 2 oz, for those who don't have a scale, works out to about 1/2 cup.
• 2 cups cream
• 1 tsp vanilla (or 2 Tbsp whiskey if you're not serving it to children)
• 2 cups fresh or frozen (thawed) raspberries
• up to 1/2 cup honey

Prepare the components:

• Spread oats thinly on a cookie sheet and toast in a 350 degree oven til they're lightly browned and fragrant. Allow to cool before assembling the cranachan.
• Whip the cream with the vanilla (or whiskey) till thickened. Set aside.
• Mash raspberries til they're chunky. Stir in a dollop of honey.

To assemble:

• Spread 1/3 of the cream on the bottom of the serving dish.
• Sprinkle with 1/3 of the toasted oats
• Drizzle with a bit of honey
• Dollop 1/2 of the raspberries on top
• repeat the layers (cream/oats/honey/raspberries)
• Spread with remaining cream
• Use a knife to slice through the layers and marble them lightly. Don't mix too much. Level the cream mixture nicely in the bowl.
• Sprinkle with the remaining oats, and drizzle with some more honey.
• Cover and refrigerate for 1 - 4 hours.

So there you have it. Eat it. Enjoy.

38 days

Seriously.


There are only thirty-eight days til Christmas. Excuse me for a moment while I run around in circles and tear my hair out.

Okay. Deeeeep breath.
I'm back.

By this time last year, I had a stack of presents already made.
This year I still don't even have a list.

But I'm still committed to making it a mostly-homemade holiday. Am I crazy?

Well, let's just pretend not.

How about I start with an advent calendar?
Here's some links to tutorials that I found.

• a recycled paper-bag box calendar 
• a matchbox drawer calendar
• a little container calendar
• a paper bag village calendar
• a craft stick tree calendar
• a tree quilt calendar
• an indescribably gorgeous artsy calendar
• a paper forest calendar
• a spool calendar
• a scrap-book-y tin calendar
• a recycle-bin calendar
• a button-y tree calendar
• a paper cone calendar
• another magnet tin calendar
• a toilet paper roll and sheet music calendar

 Now to choose which one to make. Aren't they all so gorgeous??

argh!

I hate it when I run into circumstances beyond my control!

We had a lovely windstorm last night. At least, there was a windstorm that blew through the town I live in. Our house is on the lee side of a hill, so we're relatively unaffected by most storms that come through the area. Sadly for us, though, our ISP is not located in an equally sheltered spot. So even though we barely noticed the storm last night, I was left without internet access all day today, while the power company fixed up whatever went wrong on the other side of the hill.

So, anyhow. I'm back now. Whew!

Previous giveaways can still be found here:

• ePattern from Sense & Sensibility
• fabric baskets via Sew Mama Sew
• Pride & Prejudice themed scrabble tile
• wee Tag Book and collage papers

... and today's giveaway is  a set of seven marble magnets in the winner's choice of mustard yellow/grey or teal/white. Just leave me a comment and tell me something that made you smile today.

December 14

matchbox by Becky Hunt




There are two byhand gifts today...

this gorgeous paper bag book...

and this sweet little snow-globe ornament.

And on a completely unrelated note, I am very very very frustrated with blogger's formatting... any suggestions on how to make the pictures go where I want them to??? I'm tearing out my hair here!

December 3

Happy 3rd of December!

matchbox by Chris McNeal

One more thing to tick off the list...

 

... well, after I get it to the post office, anyhow...

The knitting is frustrating the heck out of me right now. I keep running out of yarn just minutes before the end of an item, which means I have to then rip it right out and try something else. Ah, the joys of knitting with thrifted yarn. You can't just go buy more. So that's now 3 hats and one mitten that will never be seen, and 3 evenings of work down the drain. Somebody shoot me now.

Ramblings of an upset mind

Today I found out that I've been kind-of-blacklisted at a local yarn store.

I KNOW! A yarn store, right? Knitters are supposed to be kindly, easygoing people. Or so I thought.

But I was the subject of some (apparently) rather catty remarks. It doesn't feel very good.

swift: zanyshani 

What did I do to bring that upon myself? I asked (ASKED!) if I could use their swift and ballwinder to wind some yarn that I had bought online.

That's it.

When I went into the store, there were a few ladies sitting around knitting, and the store employees were chatting with them. The swift and winder were sitting idle. Nobody was even shopping at the time.

ballwinder: LollyKnit

I asked if I could wind my yarn, and was told that it would be okay, as long as it was yarn purchased at that store. I said that it hadn't been, and was told that then I couldn't wind it there. Okay, then. That's fine. And then the woman I was speaking to implied that if I came back some other time, when there weren't any other customers present, that it would be alright for me to wind my yarn then.

But apparently, after I left, there was great discussion about how I could even think that it might be okay, and what kind of a rude person I must be, and how *could* that employee  even consider my request.

So I went in again this morning, to the now-empty store, and asked if it would be okay for me to wind my yarn. That's when I heard all about the kerfuffle I'd caused.

Black Water Abbey yarn: feydesigns

I totally understand that they want to keep the swift and winder for their customers' use... but I AM their customer. I buy most of my wool there. The only reason I'd bought this particular yarn online is because it simply isn't sold in stores, and "my" store didn't have a substitute.

Now I feel uncomfortable going back to that store. Which means that I'm that much more likely to buy more stuff online instead of locally. Which is kind of sad.

soapboxing

Copyright.

So necessary these days. So misused.

What can be copyrighted?
"Copyrights protect the "original works of authorship" that are fixed in a tangible form of expression."

And what can't? Well the one that is yanking my chain these days is this one:
"Ideas, procedures, methods, systems, processes, concepts, principles, discoveries, or devices, as distinguished from a description, explanation, or illustration."

There are so many tutorials and patterns out there in 'blogland' right now that have a little copyright statement at the bottom telling prospective users that since the pattern in question is copyrighted by the author, the user is not permitted to make items for sale using said pattern. Heck, even a lot of books being published right now say the same thing.

Bollocks.

The only thing that copyright covers is the actual instructions and illustrations as written down by the author. That's it. All that copyright means is that I can't print out the pattern as given by the creator and claim it as my own, or sell it, or use it to teach a class. I can't even modify it and claim it as my own. But once I've bought it, it's mine to do with as I choose. It's called the Doctrine of First Sale... distribution rights of a copyright holder end on that particular copy once the copy is lawfully transferred.

Once I have legally purchased or been given a pattern, I have the right to sell *my copy* of the pattern (and only that copy of it!), or give it away, or lend it to someone, or burn it, or cut it up and use it in artwork, or use it to make the actual item described. It's my copy. I own it. And the item that I make with the pattern is also mine to do with as I choose. It's considered a "useful item", and as such, cannot be copyrighted.

I was blog-hopping this evening and came across a pattern for a pleated cushion cover. It is lovely. I'm considering making one. But once again, the author put a "not for commercial use" disclaimer at the bottom of the pattern. I ask you. Did she invent the concept of cushion covers? Was she the first to put pin-tucking on such a cover? I think not.

I welcome comments on this one... I know it's a hot topic. Tell me what you think!