Bramble Jelly

I am still stupidly busy spinning and sewing right now but here are some pictures of the bramble jelly that I made a little while ago. I meant to post about that earlier but never got round to it. So what with the crafting projects being rather higgledy piggledy at the moment (there's not much that is photo-worthy in heaps of part stitched cloaks) I am backdating rather at the moment.

Ingredients:

Pick as many blackberries as you possibly can! (absolute minimum, 1 kilo).

Weigh them, put in a large heavy pan, and for every kilo add a chopped apple (including skin, pips and core), the juice of a lemon, and 250 ml of water.
Bring to the boil and simmer gently until the fruit is very soft and pulpy. Mash to extract maximum juice. Strain through a jelly bag (do not force through, but allow to drip — takes ages!)

Measure the resulting juice, and add 750g organic granulated sugar for every 1 litre. Return to a low heat, stir to dissolve sugar, then bring to a fierce boil.

Boil hard until setting temperature is reached (112 C) – or until a little of the mixture, dropped onto a chilled plate, sets with a slight wrinkle.

Pour into still hot sterilised jars. Allow to cool slightly and start to set before topping with a disc of waxed paper (if you like) and screwing on the top.

This is stunningly delicious on hot buttered toast and it is dead easy to make. I got the recipe from The River Cottage site. Do take a look if you are at all enthusiastic about food and/or food production.

Have a great weekend. Pick blackberries if you can!

The Haul

Wingham Wool comes to South Wales every October and it is one of the most fun days of my year. I get to have a free sampling day, picking any fibre I like and getting to try it out on the wheel. Plus I get my years stash enhancement all in a few hours. Below is the entire haul just about fitting into my largest armchair.

There are:

• three different kinds of wool, merino (dyed in rainbow colours), blue faced liecester and shetland.
• two kinds of flax, bleached and unbleached.
• egyptian cotton.
• a cashmere and silk blend which is eyewateringly beautiful - it feels like it would melt when in contact with water, just soooooo gorgeous.
• there are two different weights of silk yarn for a warp - apparently it is just not done to use handspun as a warp thread, though of course they must have once (pre industrial revolution) but there you are.
• there is a super bulky merino yarn which, though I can spin that kind of yarn quite well, I just could not resist the colours - cherry truffle, purple heart, bed of roses and herb garden. I bought an undyed hank of this as well so I could have a play at dying my own.
• there is also a five ply geurnsey which I will also use as a warp thread.
• and finally I bought two drop spindles - one to use and one to teach with on medieval days.
• oh, and a crochet hook because you can never have too many crochet hooks, right?

I had so much fun. I learnt how to work a drop spindle properly, how to spin with just a stick, I learnt the correct way to ply, how to slow the flyer down to make even finer yarn ( and I could do pretty fine already) and I learnt how to spin flax which I had always thought was a terrible bind - water, dressing the distaff etc but it isn't - it is just a simple as spinning wool, so I was just fine!

This is the finest of the silk yarns with my thumbnail in there for scale. Yes, it is cobweb fine but it is also amazingly strong. I intend it for two projects. One for when I have spun up the cashmere and silk blend, either to ply with it or to use as a warp for when I weave it and the second as a warp for when I start weaving the braids for the girls belts to go with their medieval costumes.

If you don't spin or weave then almost all of this post must have been either bewildering and/or boring so sorry for that but this fibrey stuff really thrills me so there we are :o)

I have already started on the girls capes and belt bags for the medieval days so I will post some pictures of these later in the week. I may well be too busy to post for the next day or two so I wish you a wonderfully soft and colourful week ahead!