We're jammin!

Last week my mum and I drove out to see a friend of mine who has a couple of damson trees. Armed with my trusty pink bucket, we collected a fair few damsons, so on Sunday, the jamming began!

Before....




Naturally, I turned to Delia for a helping hand with quantities, so here there's about 2kg of damsons and 1.5kg of sugar. (This is after mum took her share of the fruit!)

Last time I made damson jam, there was a slight risk involved for anyone eating it, as I didn't quite manage to get rid of all the stones. To save people's teeth, this time, once I'd stewed the fruit, I sieved it to just get the flesh and juice before adding my sugar. Unfortunately, I can't see my wooden spoon losing its rather gory red tinge any time soon!

After bubbling away for a while, I poured it into my lovely new jars and ta-da! we have jam. I reckon the jars hold around double that of a regular jam jar, but this size was the cheapest in the shop, so me being me, that's what I got! Plus I still have two unused jars that I'm earmarking for home made mincemeat in a week or two.


Not quite as impressive as Laal Bear's jam exploits, but I'm still rather proud of it!

February Lady

Ever since seeing KraftyKoala at our knitting night on Thursday, I have been obsessed with making a cardigan just like hers. She's recently finished the February Lady Sweater by Pamela Wynne, and so she turned up wearing it. I wanted one immediately, but had set a little embargo on casting on any new projects until I had finished the two baby garments that I was mid way through.

So, last night, while Captain Jack Sparrow was prancing about on the TV, I completed the second baby garment, and happily cast on. I'm only knitting in a cheap aran that's 75% acrylic/25% wool, but I'm really pleased with the results so far. I really can't see this taking me too long to complete, which is just as well, since I want it NOW! I can even see my making one for mum for Christmas if I can find the time.