By Stephie, on Saturday 4th June, 2011 at 08:33 am
Half term. A week’s break from school, no money to go anywhere far from home, pretty grey, mizzly weather…it all stacked up to be a quiet, uneventful break. That doesn’t mean unenjoyable. We’ve had some lovely days walking with friends on their farm, picnicking with others down on the salt marsh, watering the allotment. I think these are the days happy childhoods are made of, the kind of memories that aren’t about one particular thing, but more about accumulated experience. Then today happened. It was pretty special and turned the week from ‘uneventful’ to unforgettable…
 Incredible  Precious  Exhausted  Kim and Dusty This little chick is the off-spring of Dusty our hybrid hen and Johnny our black Pekin bantam. Johnny is much smaller than Dusty and we thought she’d been seeing him off whenever he made advances. Obviously we were wrong! We know for sure because Dusty lays much larger eggs and this little chick began pushing its way out of one of them yesterday afternoon. It won’t think of Dusty as its mother though. No, Dusty’s too busy to sit around on a nest for three weeks, so she left that to Dolly, one of our very broody bantams.
Earlier in the week we’d asked a friend for advice on how to look after our two broody hens. Apparently we’d done it all wrong. We’d just left them to get on with it thinking instinct would take over and nature would take its course. They were sitting on their own eggs but they were also ‘stealing’ Dusty’s, rolling them onto their nests before we had a chance to collect them. We had no idea which ones were which or how long they’d been sat on. They could be there forever: each day Dusty laid an egg then the others would pinch it and add it to their clutch!
This was getting confusing so we were advised to start again. “Put the hens in separate boxes, collect the eggs everyday and store them at room temperature until you have enough. When you’re ready put them under the hen, wait 21 days and then they’ll all hatch at the same time. So we began making preparations and the first thing we did was to make a small nest box. We hunted around for bits of plywood and off-cuts of wood and I began cobbling something together something that resembles a small coop.
 Not quite a palace, still under construction! At this point Kim decided he’d remove the eggs the hens were sitting on. I heard squeals of delight coming from the chicken run: he’d discovered an egg that had begun to hatch. We put them back pronto and I decided the new coup would have to do for now, even though I hadn’t finished the small run section. We moved Dolly and her clutch to her new abode and she seemed to settle in very quickly. We waited. And waited. We left them overnight. In the morning the chick still hadn’t fully hatched and it was obvious the membrane was stuck to its feathers and it was having a great deal of difficulty getting out. I helped it along, peeling back a tiny bit of shell and membrane every 15 minutes or so. It seemed to take forever, but eventually it was free, cheeping away and trying to stand on its tiny little legs. We were over the moon, our first little chick had survived the trauma of birth!!! We tucked it up with its surrogate mum and headed off out to see friends.
By the time we got home they seemed to be doing fine. Then I thought I heard something coming from the other coup so I went to investigate thinking I’d find another egg beginning to hatch. I lifted the hen and found…
 Chick no 2!. A fully fledged 100% black Pekin bantam.  Gorgeous! Beat that for a half term holiday to remember  At this stage we don’t know if they’re male or female and we won’t be able to tell for a while, so they haven’t been named yet. We’ve got a bit of a theme going with the rest of the flock – Tammy, Dusty, Dolly and Johnny, but maybe you could come up with some names for the chicks! Let us have your suggestions and when we can sex them, we’ll select the best ones – and there might even be a small prize in it for you!
By the way, I forgot to mention that the day the chicks were born was the first day of the holiday that the sun began to shine and it really felt like summer had arrived!
Back soon
love Stephie x
By Stephie, on Saturday 22nd January, 2011 at 20:44 pm
I feel guilty: I realise I never did finish my 12 days of Christmas posts. Things got on top of me I guess, but the omission is all the more annoying because I’d planned to show you one of my favourite cushions. I’d been mulling ideas over for a while based on some pebbles I’d collected from a local beach. I played with the possibility of a simple 9 patch design in greys.
 9 patch grey and white stripes  Collecting grey and neutral fabrics  Adding some sand colours for contrast I wanted the cushion to have added textural interest and decided on raw edge strips for the patches; it reminded me of ripples in the sand, or the way the waves bleed into the sand. If that seems far-fetched to you, just think of it as the whimsical musings of a someone who’s probably not quite right in the head!
 Hand and machine quilting lines I quilted it with flowing lines that resemble the white quartz in the pebbles. I quilted it by hand and free-motion machine and the stitches are in different sizes and colours. I also included a metallic silver thread that glistens when the light catches it. It’s very subtle, but adds to the texture I was after.
 The finished cushion  It could almost have been washed up on the beach I made the back very plain, just a simple white with a few lines of top stitching and a chunky button.
 Simplicity  Top stitch and button detail on the reverse That’s it. What do you think? I really liked it – and it was hard to give it away!
love Stephie x
By Stephie, on Wednesday 29th December, 2010 at 02:50 am
I remembered I was going to post a picture of the gifts I made for friends and family – one each day for 12 days. Well I messed that up didn’t I! It’s still worth doing though isn’t it? Yes, of course it is. Here’s the first three days worth then.
 Knitted corsage with lace, beads and a sweet shell button.  Knitted cowl in Rowan's Purelife Revive. It's a silk and cotton mix and drapes beautifully, but I still couldn't resist embellishing it. Just a bit. (Click on the image to find out more about the yarn.)  Hand made chocolate truffles. I make these every year. Every year I seem to eat more than I give Click on the image for the exceedingly simple recipe. I hope your Christmas festivities are going well? Christmas day was quieter than usual here at The Old Chapel, but it felt really good not to be doing anything for a change. I couldn’t keep my hands off something for long though and on Boxing day gave in and carried on with a small knitting project I’d started – and didn’t get finished in time for The Big Day. More about that later though.
It’s a cliche, but this Christmas really has made me see how lucky I am to have such good, supportive friends. You’re selfless, caring and deeply appreciated. Thank you so much for your comments and tweets, your cards with kind words, your lengthy phone calls, your generous gifts, and most of all the gifts of your time, patience, laughter and encouragement. You lot keep me sane. Well ok, scratch that. You lot have kept me out of a straight-jacket. So far. Keep up the good work!
Lots of love
Stephie xx
By Stephie, on Tuesday 7th September, 2010 at 00:34 am
 My handy new bag I need a new bag I thought to myself. Well, actually I probably didn’t. But then again, I only have one (I’m so not your typical female am I?!) and it’s fairly small so maybe I did. I went shopping and discovered that the sort of bag I had in mind costs rather more than I had to spend. Nothing new there. But looking at them I thought, pah, I could make that myself in an hour or two. And for less than half the price. I’ve been thinking that a lot lately. I recently made myself two pairs of linen trousers for less than £50 (including all the zips and threads), which is roughly the price of one pair of trousers from somewhere like White Stuff. Result, I thought. So if I wanted a bag with the sort of money I had to spend I’d have to make one. Not a problem. And for around £10 and a couple of hours work I designed and made myself a lovely stripey number. Oh yes, lovely it is!
If I were making it again, I would of course do some things differently. I have a bad habit of ‘designing on the hoof’ – ie I pretty much make it up as I go along. Well, I start off with a plan, a pattern, but then change my mind and alter it half way through. It seems to be much the same way I do anything. I should make a toile first. Well I would if it was something important or expensive, but for something simple like this I’m happy to just go with the flow!
 I made it in one of my beloved Kaffe Fassett fabrics  and used a Suffolk puff to decorate the closure.  Big enough to hold something A4, but not too big to lose things forever. Perfect! Very simple as it may be I was pleased with the Suffolk puff detail on the closure – little things please little minds! I like the added texture and change in direction of the stripe. I also like the way I made the centre of it match the binding and inside strap fabric (a black linen). I must’ve been on a creative roll there! I enjoyed working out how to make the puff like this and thought that maybe you’d like to have a go too, so I wrote a simple tutorial which is in the next post. Let me know what you think!
I don’t know how, but it’s got to the wee small hours already, so I’ll say ta ra for now and will be back soon.
Love Stephie x
By Stephie, on Thursday 25th February, 2010 at 09:00 am
As regular readers of my rantings will know, this scarf has not been easy for me to make! So it’s with a great big smile on my face that I can finally say it’s finished But before I packed it up and took it to the post office I had to take a couple of snaps for posterity. And here they are.
It took four x 210m balls of Rowan’s Kid Silk Haze (knit double), in black obviously. The lace pattern is made by p1, y fwd, k 2 tog (on the front and reverse). The number of stitches should be divisible by 3 (I think – it seems so long since I worked it out!) and I added a garter stitch border of 3 stitches along each side and 6 rows at the top and bottom. I used 5mm needles. And took months to make it , with much swearing and unravelling along the way! I really am so pleased I persisted, because it’s turned out just lovely I think.
 Trying it out for size  Tying it differently - for size!  Just looking at it once more...  before packing it up and sending it on its way! Phew.
By Stephie, on Sunday 14th February, 2010 at 14:58 pm
And I say yippeeeee!!! I’m so, so pleased that the lacy, fluffy scarf I’ve been knitting for two months or more is almost there. I seem to have overcome the problems I had, which were many! The pattern itself is very simple, the problems have been with the yarn and the colour. I now know that when using a yarn like this it will be better to choose wooden needles, so that the stitches don’t slip off all the time. I now know to allow substantially longer times for making something new – even when it seems as simple as a straight up and down scarf. I know know that working something in black and this fine, when you’re a novice, is not easy – just try to find those stitches that have slipped off and you’ll know what I mean! I know know how long it takes, and how difficult it is, to put ‘yarn overs’ back on the needle when you’ve had to unravel loads of your knitting. I now know not to knit something like this when I’m ill and my concentration levels aren’t at their best. I now know that with perseverance I can do ANYTHING!!!! AND I know just how patient and forgiving the recipient is. I can’t wait to finish this now and send it to her, so that she can at least have an opportunity to wear it before the summer comes!
 Still on the needles, but not for long now!  Lovely lacy web.
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I'm running a 28 mile marathon in memory of Josie this February. Come and find out why.
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