Tomato Jam

 

Keeping up with Jack's garden could become a full time job! He has a lot of cherry tomatoes at the moment, so I thought I'd make some jam.

I used this recipe.  Another recipe that I'd looked at suggested squashing the little tomatoes as they cooked. I used a potato masher to do that, which worked really well. Two pounds of tomatoes made two jars of jam and I've managed to reduce the number of tomatoes lurking on the windowsill and in the fridge. 

Bottling Beetroot

 

I've been bottling beetroot from Jack's garden. I don't even like beetroot, so I see a lot of beetroot in Jack's future! 

Trinkets

 

Thanks for yesterday's guesses - all will become clear!

At last I've been able to book a table at a fair. It's a Halloween fair on the 31st. Halloween is not really a thing in Southern Africa, but any excuse for a party will do.  I know that small items often sell well at fairs, so I've been making little Christmas tree decorations. They measure just over 3 cm across, a little over an inch. They have a circumference of 5 beads. I've joined them with an invisible join and put a ribbon through for hanging. 

Any Guesses?

 

Can anyone guess what pixelated picture is going to emerge? 

Ten More

 

 Ten more masks decorated with tatting, that is. There are some interesting experiments here. I hesitated to use a couple of them, but really, they're not doing any good languishing in the tatting tin, it's better to make use of them! I'll leave mask making for a bit, until most of these have been sold. 

Pixelated

 I know that Pinterest is open to criticism, but I do like the way it enables me to come across 'new to me' techniques in all sorts of fields. The latest 'ooh I must try that' was pixelated crochet, or pixel crochet. It consists of small crocheted squares joined to make a picture. A kind of cross between crochet and cross stitch. As with cross stitch, you can use a lot of shades and go for a subtle effect, or go for simple and bold. Better start with simple and bold at any rate! There are some amazing pictures of blankets out there, like this one. But I'm starting with a cushion cover, simpler than this one which is also spectacular. 

I couldn't find any instructions, so I had to experiment and learn by experience. My first square, using trebles (double crochet in American) was too large. Using a half treble (half double crochet) was better. I'm crocheting over the starting thread  and using the end thread to sew the square to the next one. That was fine on the first row, but on the second I realised there would be places where I'd be using a green thread to join two grey edges. The solution is to sew from the back to minimise the appearance of the thread. It'll take a bit more work for the picture to start to emerge. 

More Masks

 

It's fun looking through my tatting tin to find bits to sew onto masks. Some of the pieces wouldn't work as 'stand alone' pieces, but are fine sewn onto fabric.