The Sunroom UK: October 2011

Monday, 31 October 2011

Craftseller Magazine Issue 4 November 2011

I was asked a while ago to contribute towards an article for Craftseller magazine. The article is called ‘Etsy, Folksy and Not On The High Street – which is the best for you?’

Here I am pictured with my Dolly granny square blanket.

“Fife-based crochet artist Aileen Lochhead runs The Sunroom, a folksy shop which showcases her creations. Again, like other sellers, she has an Etsy shop as well as a religiously updated blog. She opted for Folksy to connect with like-minded UK crafts people.

“The notion of ‘made not manufactured’ is not understood by larger sites like eBay. It seems to have taken a while for this concept to come of age,”

To read the rest of the article you will need to grab your copy of the magazine. I have written quite a lot about selling crafts on these sites and will blog more about my experience and opinions soon.

Craftseller is for everyone who wants to make and sell. Make money from your crafting today with this brand new magazine featuring quick projects and how to sell them. Now's your chance to: try new crafts - knitting, cross stitch, papercraft, sewing and more, learn how to turn your hobby into a business, discover how to sell online and find out how to donate your makes to a good cause. Discover the latest best buys, useful apps and top websites with ask the experts features and reader stories. PLUS £1000 competitions and giveaways and a fab FREE gift with every issue!

Publication Frequency: 13 issues per year

You can subscribe to Craftseller here.

Saturday, 29 October 2011

Granny Square Scarf

Friday, 28 October 2011

Toffee Apples & Parkin

PLEASE BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL WHEN MAKING TOFFEE APPLES !! The mixture gets dangerously hot so don\'t be tempted to lick the mixture off the spoon otherwise you\'ll end up with a burnt mouth ! And I wouldn\'t recommend making these with young children either..just let them enjoy the end product :)

Ingredients
8 small apples (i used Golden Delicious)
2 cups white sugar
1/2 teaspoon white vinegar
1/2 cup water
1/2 teaspoon red food colouring (optional)

Method
1. Cover a baking tray with a large sheet of greaseproof paper.
2. Wash and dry your apples and insert thicken wooden skewers, lollipop sticks or chopsticks into each apple.
3. Combine the water, sugar and vinegar in a small heavy based pan.
4. Bring the mixture to the boil and add the food colouring if you\'re using it.
5. Heat the mixture to 150C and simmer for about 20 mins. If you don\'t have a sugar thermometer then just test the mixture after 20 mins by dropping a spoonful into a cup of cold water. The mixture should become hard and will crack when you tap it with the back of a metal spoon.
6.Remove from the heat and allow the mixture to stop bubbling before dipping the apples,one by one, into the mixture (you\'ll need to tilt the pan a little).
7. Rotate the apple, letting it drain a little then place on the greaseproof paper to cool down and harden.

Source - JamieOliver.com

Parkin

Recipe

Ingredients

8oz lard
1lb golden syrup
8oz Demerara sugar
1lb plain flour
1lb medium oatmeal
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
pinch of salt
splash of milk as required

Equipment required

Medium saucepan
Mixing bowl
Spatula
2lb loaf tin
baking paper to line the tin

Method

Pre heat the oven to 140℃. In a sauce pan over a medium heat gently melt the lard, syrup and sugar.

In a mixing bowl combine the flour, oatmeal, ground ginger, bicarbonate of soda and a pinch of salt. Gradually stir in the melted syrup mixture and mix together until thoroughly blended.

Test the dropping consistency of the mixture by seeing if it falls from the spatula. Add a splash of milk.

Pour the mixture into a prepared cake tin and bake at 140℃ for 1hour 45 minutes.

Cool the Parkin in the tin for 30 minutes and then turn out.

When cool keep the Parkin in an air tight container for 2 to 3 weeks before use.

Source – Woman’s Hour

Wednesday, 26 October 2011

Crochet Scarf Inspiration

Snowflakes Scarf Pattern available here.

Loopy Crochet Scarf Pattern available here.

Colorplay Scarf Pattern available here.

Thursday, 20 October 2011

The Big Stripe Blanket

Finally finished but I haven’t come up with a name for this one yet. I had thought about ‘Joseph’ given it’s a real Technicolor blanket or one of my sons suggested ‘serendipity’. Anyway this blanket was inspired by Pip over at Meet Me At Mikes.

Monday, 17 October 2011

Fall into Autumn Granny Stripe Scarf

Finally got the briefest glimmer of sunshine yesterday so I was able to get some photographs. This is an almost ‘granny stripe’ scarf. As some of you will notice rather than a triple cluster of dc’s I’ve just used double dc’s. The yarn is chunky weight and so didn’t require triple dc’s. I think the colours are right on trend for autumn fall.

I’m hoping to be able to show you pictures of my big ‘Stripe’ blanket soon, as it’s now complete. Here’s hoping for some decent light levels although looking out the window it’s almost like the middle of the night. The BBC weather forecast for here, for today is heavy persistent showers with snow on the hills. Snow….