Aran Brew

Knitting and Stitching Show, RDS, Dublin, October 2009

2009-11-07T03:01:00.000-08:00

Last year I had a lovely day out at the knitting and stitching show organized by Twisted Thread so I was looking forward to this years one. I was planning to go on Thursday and meet up with some ravelry friends but alas I was struck down with a cold. I recovered enough to go to the show on Sunday. It seemed to be a good idea as the crowds weren't so bad and I got to meet a friend there too. There was a corner of the show with bargain bags of wool so she dove in and got a bargain on some lovely Rowan. I'm glad I didn't pass that stall later in the day as I'm sure there were fights breaking out as ole wans fought it out over the last few bargain bags of Sirdar Crofter.

There was much to see in the show and there were less irrelevant stalls this year. Although I'm not sure what was going on with the man who was demonstrating mops. Were they thinking it's a craft show so there will be lots of women there and they like cleaning? He wasn't getting much attention as This Is Knit's fabulous stall was across the way with plenty to distract any passing shopper from the joys of mops and cleaning. There were many Irish based shops exhibiting this year with The Yarn Room having a much bigger stand this time. Stephanie who runs this shop is such a lovely lady so I hope she did well. I convinced my friend's friend to buy a bag of merino for felting from her. The Feltmakers Ireland stand convinced her to take up the hobby so I can't be blamed for that. Lola Rose were there with some yummy Colinette yarn, I thought the mohair was especially lovely.

One of the more interesting stands was Woolfish, they had balls of merino top which they had knit into dresses and bags. They look cool but I don't know if they're practical. Top is combed fiber, which is usually spun into yarn or felted. I'm not sure knitted up top would wear very well. When top is spun or felted it gains strength and the fibers stay together and don't fall apart. So anything made from top mightn't be able to take much wear and it might get bobbly. I couldn't help thinking that if you got one of those big balls of merino and spun it into yarn it would be much better value.

This year I was disciplined with my limited budget and restricted myself to supplies for spinning. I have enough yarn to last me quite a long time so I don't need any more. A lot of my shopping was done at the Texere stall. They had lots of fiber and thread, dyed and undyed. The guy on their stand was very nice and helpful too. I got some glitter thread for plying and wrapping yarn, some lovely dyed silk noil fiber and some guanaco fiber. A guanaco is an alpaca relative with lovely soft hair. The bag from Texere was quite cheap so it may not be exceptional quality but hey it's worth it just to try it out.

I had an interesting conversation with another shopper at the stand who was also buying guanaco. She looked at me askance when I said I intended to spin it on a spindle. She seemed quite shocked that someone with a spinning wheel would even think of using a spindle. She also stated that as the guanaco was a short staple length fiber it would have to be blended before it was spun. I attempted to explain that I'd seen a good article about how you needed to spin really fast to draft short stuff like guanaco. Spindles are great for spinning fast and for spinning fine, even though I'm not a great spinner yet I can spin much finer on my spindle than I can on my wheel. Tahkli style spindles are always recommend for spinning cotton, cashmere and guanaco type fibers. People don't generally believe you when you say this and the lady I was talking to didn't seem to either. It's a pity really, I think lots of people have it in their head that wheels are the only way to spin and that spindles are inferior and fiddly and difficult.

That isn't true. Spindles are cool and people have been using them since we became people pretty much. Abby Franquemont has a wonderful article here about the history of spinning and why people shouldn't lose the ability to spin. When you have a small amount of a luxury fiber I think it makes more sense to spin it on a spindle. I think you'll get more value out of it as you'll learn more about spinning it and challenge yourself. Spinning these days isn't about speed and making yarn quickly because if you don't you won't have clothes. It's a hobby and done for pleasure. Wheels are great but they're not the be all and end all, there's a whole world of spindle spinning out there to master.

I suppose I better stop rambling on and get back to pretty pictures. This is a lovely dyed silk brick from Oliver Twists whose website I can't find. It was a complete bargain as it was half price. I'll spin this into something special. It could also be felted, I think it would make a fantastic shawl if you knew what you were doing. I also got some sparkly angelina fiber which I hope will liven up my yarns. I have some great plans for some blended yarns. They will have to wait until my exams are finished though. Real life is getting in the way of doing fun stuff with fiber.

Irish Crochet Coral Reef

2009-10-27T07:08:00.000-07:00

There are rare occasions in ones life when you hear an idea that gets you inspired and excited and gets your brain firing on all it's cylinders. For me Saturday was such a day. Margaret Wertheim of The Institute for Figuring gave a talk at the Science Gallery in Dublin about her work and the possibility of setting up an Irish Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef.

I've talked about the crochet coral reef before so when I heard that Margaret Wertheim was coming here to talk I immediately applied for a ticket, the workshop was full in the end so lots of others obviously find the idea as fascinating as I do. A number of fellow Ravelry members like Irene, Orla, Fish and Mairead came along and it was great to meet them. Orla is a woman obsessed with hyperbolic coral, I think the organizers were stunned when she produced a large bag of fabulous crochet coral.

Margaret spoke about hyperbolic geometry and how crochet was used to make a mathematically correct model of a hyperbolic plane which had never been done before. Many people switch off when maths is mentioned but that wasn't the case with this talk. Margaret is a great communicator, she explained the maths by asking us questions and showing us real crocheted examples of what she was talking about.

She then explained how coral has a hyperbolic structure and that she and her twin sister decided to craft a coral reef based on hyperbolic crochet. Like a real coral reef which is made up of millions of individual corals the crochet coral reef is made up of bits donated by lots of people. Like a real reef the crocheters adapted and evolved the basic pattern to give a huge variety of forms. Margaret also talked about how global warming and pollution are affecting coral reefs. Reefs all over the world are dying, sadly they turn from beautiful vibrant reefs into sad bleached places. In response to this a toxic reef has been created made from recycled materials and plastics to raise awareness of how waste can have a devastating effect on these fragile natural ecosystems. You can watch Margaret talk in this TED video.

After the talk we did some crochet. Those of us who can crochet started making hyberbolic planes and pseudospheres. Those who couldn't crochet started learning. The hope is that we will organize workshops and get others involved so that we can all build an Irish reef. A Ravelry Group (Login Required) has been set up to help with this, so come along and join. The reef will be exhibited at the Science Gallery. I've already made two small bits of coral. I think I might spin some plastic yarn and make some toxic coral with it. It was such an inspiring day. After it I got out my books on the emergence of biological forms to see what other kinds of things I could possibly crochet. I saw a cool article about nudibranchs in the National Geographic, I think they could be crocheted in some wild colours. I think crochet coral will be coming up again on the blog, watch this space.

My talented friend Eddie from Beanstalk has promised to help out with my blog. He's going to redesign things so I'm really looking forward to having a shiny new look.

Knitting fever and a parliament of owls

2009-10-20T14:06:00.000-07:00

I mentioned in my last post that thoughts of winter always make a knitter happy as it's time for them to take out their needles once again and wrap up in cozy hand knitted clothes.

I seem to be taking the coming cold days very seriously this year and I've knit lots of things in the past few weeks. I knit a calorimetry headscarf to go with my merino wool mittens. It's a lovely pattern and just perfect for small amounts of handspun wool. It gives you just enough warmth without being too big and bulky, just the thing to wear while walking the dog in the current weather. I know my Mum would love one so I might have to get spinning to make another.

I have another finished object to show off, yes show off as I'm really pleased with this and how it turned out. It's a cabled beret, the Rangoli hat. I knit it using handspun blue faced leicester, I had just about enough yarn to finish it, there was very little left over. I love the flower pattern on the top. It's a well written pattern with a great chart. I haven't used many knitting charts and I think this one is a good one to get started with them. I was worried when I first started this hat that it was a bit white aran Clancy brothers looking. The pattern saves it from that fate and makes it into a more modern take on a white aran hat. I think it looks quite chic when on especially as it's a bit slouchy. I can imagine me wearing this with my long black coat and boots in the winter.

As if all these new finished objects weren't enough I've started yet another new knitting project. It all started with this thread on ravelry (log in needed) where someone said they wanted to knit the owls jumper. A few other people said they wanted to knit it too and the idea of a knit-a-long formed. A knit-a-long is where lots of knitters knit the same pattern so they can help and encourage each other to get it finished. I've wanted to knit an owls ever since I saw Aileen's owls and everyone is fond of owls aren't they?

So it was that I found myself in This Is Knit buying balls of Louisa Harding's Hulda yarn for an owls jumper. I'm allegedly not spending money on yarn at the moment, if I want yarn I use my stash or spin it myself, thems the rules. The get out clause was provided by tea and cakes who had the great logic that if I really wanted the jumper and cast on for it straight away then it was ok to buy yarn for it. I figured it would cost about as much as buying a nice jumper in a shop so that was ok then. By the way the Hulda yarn is really nice, it's a wool, acrylic and linen mix and is really soft when knitted up. I'm using the black colourway as the flecks of white linen in it remind me of feathers.

For help with starting the pattern I went to Friday Fibre Fun at The Tea Garden organized by Playing with Fibre and Thread Bear. The Tea Garden is one of the cooler places I've been to in Dublin, they have lots of lovely nooks and crannies to sit in and it's very relaxed. They have wonderful posh teas, yes they're expensive but they leave you sit there and enjoy them for the whole evening. I had a fabulous darjeeling served in a lovely cute tea pot. It was a lovely evening hanging out and meeting new knitters, some of whom I'd known from twitter and ravelry, it's nice to put a face to the names. I think I will be back to Friday Fibre Fun as it's just that, fun. I get the feeling more help might be needed with my owls jumper too.

White Gypsy Brewery Tour

2009-10-09T13:18:00.000-07:00

At Septemberfest Cuilán Loughnane brewer from the newly opened White Gypsy brewery asked if we'd like to come visit his brewery for an open day. Who could turn down such an offer?

The new White Gypsy brewery is in Templemore, Tipperary. On entering the building I first noticed the two large gleaming copper vessels. Cuilán revealed that they had been cleaned especially for the occasion. The equipment came from the old Kinsale brewery which is no longer operating. These are the kettle and mash tun. There's also a fermenting room and another cold room with a lot of conditioning tanks.

As if a tour of the brewery wasn't enough there was a further treat in store. Cuilán had brewed a stout and it was time to transfer it to secondary. This however was no ordinary stout and no ordinary secondary.

It's an imperial stout which are usually strong, rich, dark, aged beers. Cuilán gave us some of the history of stout and beer in Ireland. There was a great history of local beers before the all conquering Guinness changed everything. Cuilán wants to get back to that tradition, using the old recipes, having local people drinking locally produced beer and the beer being made with locally sourced ingredients that the farmer gets a fair price for. It's a great vision and I wish him every success with it. Listening to him talk you get the feeling that here's a man who knows his stuff and will make it work.

But back to the stout, we had a quick taste of it and it's quite harsh and strong, it's not going to stay like that though. It's going to be aged and this is where some timber based alchemy will happen. We watched as the stout was filled into three oak casks, one french oak, one american oak and one a cask that previously held Bushmills whiskey. That one in particular smelled amazing, just like whiskey even though it has been empty for a year. The stout will age for six months and will make it's debut at the easter festival at the Franciscan Well. I can't wait to taste it to see whats happened to it.

After this we went outside to the marquee that had been set up for the occasion. There was a pig roasting away in the corner, it had been fed on the spent grain from the brewery. A lot of local people had come up to the brewery to check it out and sample the beer. Hopefully they were impressed and make a success of the beer in the local pubs.

I even learned how to pull a proper pint from the cask under the watchful eye of Paudi from the Franciscan Well. It's White Gypsy's IPA which is really tasty. It definitely went really well with the pork roll. What more could you want of day, sitting in the sun with friends, drinking fresh cask IPA and eating proper roast pork? I also sampled the Dunkel and the Blonde, both are nice beers but I think the Dunkel is my favourite of the lot.

It was a great day out and many thanks must go to the Loughnanes for inviting us and showing us such great hospitality.

Knitting for turning leaves

2009-09-30T07:05:00.000-07:00

I thought I haven't been knitting much recently until I put up the photos for this post. I've been getting a bit done it seems. I think it's the chill in the air that has given me the incentive to start knitting again. A knitter always starts to turn to wooly things once the autumn comes in.

First up I made a scarf from the supercoil yarn I spun recently. I cast on 12 stitches on comedy 15mm needles, they're huge. I knit in garter stitch until the yarn ran out. I sewed on a few matching buttons and use them to tie up the scarf. I found the large stitches stretched out a bit so the scarf isn't as wide as I thought it would be, that's ok. I have some lilac yarn which matches the yarn in this scarf so I may make matching handwarmers if I have enough yarn.

I am a firm believer that you can't have too many gloves and mittens. I love making gloves as they're really quick, useful and pretty. People sometimes tell me that I can get gloves for a euro in Penneys so why bother knitting but you can't get gloves this funky or unique anywhere. This is my handspun merino and it knit up nicely into these lacy handwarmers. The pattern is filigree (Rav Link) from Knitting New Mittens and Gloves by Robin Melanson. I've made mittens from this book before. This pattern was really easy and well written, it's a great book. I had lots of yarn left over which I wasn't expecting. I might something like calorimetry to go with these as I don't think I have enough yarn for a whole hat but this should keep my ears warm.

Work progresses well on the Montego Bay scarf. I've been knitting it on the bus and it's getting longer and longer almost without me noticing it. I'm mostly half asleep while knitting it in the morning so that may explain it. The pattern is easy to remember and the drape and colour of the yarn is stunning. I see people sneaking peaks at it while I'm knitting.

I haven't been crocheting much recently. I think me and crochet might need a bit of a break from each other after the shill shell shawl debacle (end of post). I look at crochet patterns and feel fear it will all go wrong again. Maybe if I give it time we can reconcile and get on well together again. For the meantime I'll keep knitting as it's solid, reliable and never lets me down. Maybe crochet is that flighty friend you know, the one who lets you down but when it/they come up trumps they're awesome.

SeptemberFest, Farmleigh, Dublin, September 2009

2009-09-21T16:27:00.000-07:00

Last year I had fun at the Septemberfest festival in Farmleigh in the Phoenix Park and I planned to go back this year. This year though there was a difference Irish Craft Brewer were invited to run a stand about homebrewing. It's a great testament to the great community spirit of ICB that from a website we now have people meeting up for tastings every month, the Brew It Yourself day was run in Cork and now homebrewing is a feature of the biggest beer festival in Ireland.

This year all the Irish Craft Brewers were present again. There were lots of nice beers to be had so we tried some out in the morning before it got busier later. I had some White Gypsy Dark Lager which I liked very much, it's a slightly less full on version of their Bock. Still caramely and rich but a bit easier to get through. Also making an appearance again this year were the guys from Tig Bhric in Kerry. This time they brought their Cul Dorcha beer which I liked. A dark chocolate porter, I really like Porter and we don't get enough of it here at all. I also had a taste of Whitewater's Belfast Black, it's a new stout. I heard from someone it was a dark lager but it's a stout. I've had a few black lagers recently like Brewdog's Zeitgeist and think it's a great summer drink. I liked Belfast Black it's a solid uncomplicated stout. My favourite on the day was Carlow Brewing's Goods Store IPA, it's fantastic, really refreshing and hoppy. I think my taste buds like floral grassy hops at the moment and this really hit the spot.

I went back to the ICB stand. The place was filling up and various website members manned the stand to chat to the masses about home brewing. There was lots of interest, from the guy who had a home bar and wanted a cheap way of supplying beer to it, to English guys wanting to make the real ale they miss from home, to people who want to set up their own breweries. People liked looking at the equipment and smelling the hops and grains. Children were especially fascinated by the fermenting yeast starter Sean had set up.

Luckily I had tried the beer earlier as the sunshine drew huge crowds out. It was amazing to see long queues of people waiting to get Irish beer, such a thing is usually unheard of. Irish people queue for beer alright but usually it isn't of this quality. In the afternoon things got really insane and the queues were about 45 minutes long for beer. Many of the brewers even ran out of beer. ICB got a bit cut off by the queues in the corner. Luckily since there were a few of us people could send others out into the queue. In the photo you can see Tim who had just returned triumphant with bottles of Hophead from The Porterhouse. Hence the smiles from Grainne and Sean.

Hophead is the first run off The Porterhouse's shiny new bottling line. It's really hoppy and citrus tasting in the bottle. I like the hot pink label and the attitude on the bottles. It reminds me of Brewdog and Wychwood with their challenge to the drinker. Advertising your tradition and Irishness as a craft brewery here doesn't seem to work. You want to pitch it to those people who want something different. Make it cool then maybe the rest of the people will follow. After a days evangelizing craft beer to the nation a few of us headed off to The Bull and Castle. Many thanks to Aidan and Ronan from Galway Hooker shouted us all a round. They are great guys and they make a smashing beer as well with it.

Sunday dawned sunny and bright. Dave had promised to help out at David Llewellyn's Double L Cider stand as they had been crazily busy on saturday. Most of the brewers had restocked and brought in extra people for the day and the queues weren't as bad. Some of the ICB people changed their hats and became bar staff at various points in the day. In the morning Sean Billings one of the founders of ICB gave a talk on how to get started in brewing. I used his articles to get started and I know lots of people on ICB have too. I didn't get to hear the talk as I was still manning the stand. Grainne and I talked to many people including one very polite Russian journalist who inquired if our husbands had got us into brewing. He was very nice about it but we put him straight.

I did sneak away for a talk on Beer and Cheese. There was a cheese stand in the beer tent selling tasty Irish cheese taster plates. But I wanted more cheese, you can never get enough cheese! Dan Fennelly and Dean McGuinness gave the talk. A plate of cheese was handed out then we were handed the various beers which were paired with four different cheeses. I looked around at the start and there were a few embarrassed looking people who had eaten all their cheese before the guys had even started talking. Didn't they realize what a tasting was about? Or maybe they just wanted the free food.

The pairings were Durrus and Galway Hooker, Glebe Brethan and Rebel Red from Franciscan Well and also with Porterhouse Hophead, St Gall with Hilden Cathedral Quarter, Bellingham Blue with Whitewater's Clotworthy Dobbin and also with Chimay Blue. Dan Fennelly had some great information on cheese and some really nice tasting notes. I loved all the cheeses especially the Bellingham Blue, I would usually go for Cashel Blue but I'll try this one in future now too. Dean McGuinness who I knew from Movies and Booze on Newstalk talked about Irish beer and the great quality and flavour you can get out there. My favourite pairing of the day was the St. Gall with Cathedral quarter, together they were different and better than they were on their own. It was a great fun talk involving two of my favourite things.

The bars were under siege for the day and the food stalls were really busy too. I got a fabulous lamb tagine pie from the Gallic Kitchen. I paired it with a lovely fresh cold glass of Galway Hooker, thanks to Aidan for the pint! A great weekend was had by all. It was great to see so many people sitting outside having some Irish food with fresh Irish craft beer. Events like this are great in changing the image of beer and drinking. It shows it can be about sensible drinking with good food and about taste rather than quantity. I was really impressed that there were lots of women sampling the beer as well. Women are completely ignored by large beer companies and it's nice to see craft brewers don't ignore half the population. We can only hope all the people who came will go out and buy Irish beer and ask for it in their pubs. Then we'll see real changes. I'm sure Septemberfest will be back next year with even more breweries present. Looking forward to it.

Electric Picnic 2009, Crafts and a Beer Surprise

2009-09-15T14:30:00.000-07:00

This year we headed to the Electric Picnic in Stradbally, we had been before in 2006 and 2007. This year had a pretty eclectic line up with a good few new bands.

I decided to dress up as I had in previous years. Some Penneys hacking was in order. I bought a mad dress for three euro. I then sewed a string of battery powered Led lights onto it. These were got in Dunnes last year at christmas. The dress had a pocket on the side and I used that to store the battery pack.

I pinned a pink brooch to the dress and paired the whole lot with pink wellies which were absolutely essential in the mud this year. There was an awful lot of mud, luckily I avoided falling over, I think my caving training helped there.

The hat is one I picked up in Penneys a few years ago. Hats are really easy to do up. I sewed on two strings of beads around the rim. I also sewed a feather to the hat. I think the outfit was great fun, especially when dancing in a dark tent. It was great at night as when you're all lit up people don't tend to walk into you as much.

Over the weekend I made a few visits to Stitchlily or Orla as she is more normally known. In the future will we all wear badges with our avatar names on them? She had a fantasic Sit and Stitch stall with crochet, spinning, sewing and knitting, basically all things fiber and stitch related in the Greencrafts part of the festival. It was a wonderfully chilled out little corner. On saturday morning I sat down and spun and watched the world go by. I also admired all the lovely mushrooms and lilies she had crocheted to decorate the area. More photos here.

On Sunday night in a break before The Flaming Lips we spotted some guys with what looked like a corny keg. It was Oliver and some others from The Porterhouse so we went over to say hello. They kindly offered us some Hophead. The only beers available this year at EP were Heineken, Coors Light and Paulaner which I hadn't been drinking so this was like manna from heaven. Heavenly it was indeed, fresh from the corny the beer was hoppy and citrusy and thirst quenching. Thanks Oliver! We also discovered that Hophead would be available freshly bottled at SeptemberFest in Farmleigh. But more of SeptemberFest in the next post.

I had fun this year at EP but I think this may be my last year there. It had lost a little of it's magic for me, don't get me wrong it was great but it's very expensive. I have to send a big thanks to the man with the tractor who towed my car out of the incredibly muddy car park on Sunday My musical highlights this time were Explosions in the Sky, Brian Wilson, Jape, David Kitt, Efterklang and Chris Cunningham.

Westley's Bog Bounty Heather Ale

2009-09-09T12:45:00.000-07:00

I went hiking in Wicklow recently with Dave and a friend of ours Katie. The dog came too, he was delighted with how dirty he was at the end of the walk. The heather has started flowering coating the whole place in a purple carpet. We collected some heather flower tips, 95g in all. I decided to make my own version of Fraoch. I know Fraoch has bog myrtle in it as well, I really like the taste bog myrtle gives to a beer. We didn't get any other herbs that day so it's just heather flavouring in there.
I used some low AA hops to bitter at the start. The heather was added at the end for aroma. The base malt should make it nicely sweet like the Scottish ales.

Grain:
3.5kg Maris Otter Pale Ale Malt
345g Amber Malt
500g Wheat Malt
230g Crystal Malt

Hops and Heather:
60 minutes: 55g Hallertau 2.1%AA
15 minutes: 1 tsp Irish Moss and a small handful of heather flowers
At end of boil: Rest of heather flowers added to the boil.
95g of heather in total

Mash:
Infusion mash at 66-67 deg C. Batch sparged.
Yeast: Safale S04

Volume: About 22-23 Litres

OG: 1.049

I'm really looking forward to seeing how this turns out. Brewing usually takes up most of a day so while I brew I usually cook something nice. This time I went for something completely new involving yeast, homemade pizza. I'd never made pizza from my own dough before. It turned out really well. I'll definitely be making it again.

Spinning some art

2009-08-29T08:11:00.000-07:00

When I first got interested in spinning the first book I got was Lexi Boeger's Intertwined. I hadn't even got a spindle yet but the yarns in this book were so cool and unusual that the book was great just as a coffee table book. I checked out the art yarn spinners group (RavLink) on Ravelry and loved everything I saw there. People like Studioloo, Insubordiknit and Velma Like Velvet have made some really inspiring stuff.

Since I'm getting better at normal spinning I thought I might have enough skill to attempt an art yarn without it turning out looking like something the cat got at.

I got a lovely batt from Rockpoolcandy for my birthday but was too scared to spin it in case i made a mess of it. I finally decided to core spin it, this involves drafting the yarn sideways and wrapping it a core yarn. Ask The Bellwether has a great tutorial about how to do this. It turned out well for a first go, the batt was really lovely and I hope I did it justice.

I loved the results of the core spun wool I decided to try out another technique from Intertwined this time supercoils. Having loads of alpaca fleece to play with is handy for trying out things like this. I had this green merino which was too green for me so I carded some of that in with the alpaca. Mixed with white alpaca it turned a pleasing minty green colour. I also used pieces of lilac merino for the coil parts.

Supercoils are fun and look fantastic when the yarn is done but they take ages to do. The yarn also has a normal part to it as well. When I finished the coil part I navajo plied the remaining single. I'll knit it up into a scarf so there will be normal fabric then all the mad supercoiled parts.

Here's some more spinning. This time normal stuff. It's this merino I got from Scottish Fibres, it's lovely and soft but I wasn't so keen on the colour of the roving. Magically when spun up and navajo plied the colours mixed and I now like it. I think this yarn would make a nice pair of mittens or a hat. It's worsted weight and there's about 84 metres of it.

More photos here.

One of my crochet projects and I have broken up. The seasilk shawl and I just weren't getting on. I wasn't sure if we were compatible for the long term partnership needed to finish it. If we could just get through a couple more pattern repeats then my doubts over whether the yarn suited the pattern would go away. My feelings about the drape not showing off the silk well enough weren't real were they? There were too many doubts, I wasn't sure. I started looking at other patterns, ones with more drape, ones written especially for seasilk. So we split. It was for the best. The shawl was frogged before I was too far in, too committed to it to turn back. The yarn is now being turned into Montego Bay Scarf.

Blog News:
The lack of blogging recently was caused by me needing to upgrade my picasa account so I could have more pictures. I'm also hoping to upgrade the template and make it all look a bit prettier in the near future.

Brewing Little and Large

2009-08-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

First brewing large. Last Saturday I went over to my friend Ed's house to help him out with his first all grain brew day. Ed's been brewing for a while. His wedding present to us was a fridge stocked with bottles of tasty beers in loads of different styles. They went down a treat at our after wedding party. A little too well maybe since Ed ended up promising my uncle he'd brew him beer and the uncle promising Ed fields of barley. He recently did a few extract brews but he thought if he was going to buy extra kit he might as well go the whole hog and go all grain. He'll need the kit if the uncle carries out the threat and lands a bag of grain up to him.

We had a lovely day brewing in the sunshine in Ed's back garden. I have kettle envy now, Ed's boiler is a huge 10 gallon one with two powerful elements in it. It heats up very quickly and boils easily. It makes the brew day so much faster, I may have to think about getting one as it takes my gas ring a good while to bring my wort to a boil. We sprinkle sparged the mash which worked really well. At the end we ended up with 23 litres of wort all flavoured with lovely Nelson Sauvin and Cascade hops. Ed's full recipe is here.

Now for the brewing little. One of things I like about brewing is how varied it is. You can have a big 10 gallon set up like Ed's or a stainless steel automatic micro brewery like some of the guys on Irish Craft Brewer or you can do like me and make tiny batches of beer on your cooker with a minimum of fuss. I have some hops and grain I want to use up before they go out of date and I had just enough extract to make a small brew. I checked my stocks after this brew and I have very little specialty grain or hops left so I will need to do an order soon.
I wrote an article about small scale brewing which goes into the other reasons to brew small batches.

For this brew I wanted to use up some golding and fuggles hops that I had for ages. I decided a mild ale might be nice. But I can never leave things alone and so I put in some crystal malt, chocolate malt and oatmeal to steep before the extract. So I think that sort of makes this a porter. At the end of the boil I put in a cup of nice strong espresso. I've had a few coffee stouts and they're always nice but I think the coffee should add something to the porter. I think I like porter better than stout, I'm not keen on the dry roasty flavour of stout and the sweet ones I find too cloying. Anyway here's the recipe.

Recipe:
Westley's Breakfast Porter

Boil volume: 10L
End volume:8-9L

Malt:
680g Light dried malt extract
Steeped grains, steeped at 66 deg C for 30 minutes
60g Crystal malt
20g Chocolate malt
20g Oatmeal

Hops:
60 mins: Fuggles and Goldings
30 mins: Fuggles and Goldings
15 mins: Fuggles and Goldings
End: Fuggles and Goldings
Cup of strong espresso

Hop amounts: My accurate scale's batteries died but there's about 5-7g of each hop in each addition. It looked like a lot of hops but they've been there a while so they might be starting to loose flavour anyway.

Yeast: Danstar Nottingham

OG: 1.045

It should yield about eight 500ml bottles. I'll just bottle it straight from the primary better bottle in a bout three weeks time. Thanks to The Beer Nut for his suggestion that this should be a breakfast beer. I think it will be a nice one to sup when the trees start to change colour and thoughts and nights turn that little bit darker.

Bag Lady

2009-08-09T08:33:00.000-07:00

So just in case you guys think I don't knit anymore here's a finished object. It's the Kemp Handbag (Ravelry Link) in Noro Blossom yarn. I saw this pattern in a magazine, fell in love and bought the actual yarn suggested which I rarely do. For this bag it would look quite plain if it wasn't for the lovely Noro with it's great colours. It was a really easy quick knit.

However it languished in the back of the wardrobe because I couldn't work up the enthusiasm to make a lining for it. Now that I have a sewing machine sewing things up isn't an onerous task anymore. I made a lining from a chocolate brown fabric my Mum had lying around. Just to explain, my Mum works in a fabric and furnishing shop so she has a lot more fabric lying around than most other mothers. In fact she wouldn't have difficulty opening her own fabric shop. I even went fancy and put a big pocket and a mobile phone pocket on the inside. I then hand stitched the lining inside the bag. The handles were ones Dave had bought for me.

It was finished and it was nice but then I decided I should really make a flap to cover the opening. When out and about using a bag it's handy to be able to close it so nobody can sneak into it and rob your wallet. So I knitted a flap and used two handmade buttons that I got in Ginger Knits, Morar, Scotland. I looked ok before the flap but I think the flap and buttons really lifts the look of the bag. I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

Beer Jelly - The Session #30

2009-08-07T02:49:00.000-07:00

This month the session hosted over at Beer47 is on the subject of beer deserts. I decided to take it literally and make a desert from beer trying out a recipe I'd been wanting to make for a while. It's from Appetite for Ale by Will Beckett and Fiona Beckett. I love this book, it's like a manual on how to match food and beer with recipes as a bonus.

I made the beer jelly recipe from the book. I used Liefmann's Kriek since the off license didn't have any Floris. I'll probably use Floris in a future version of this recipe since it's pretty sweet and comes in lots of different flavours which you can match to the fruit used in the jelly. Since I was using kriek beer I used preserved cherries from the local Polish shop, these are one of the few things you find preserved in jars from Poland that are actually nice. I also put in some fresh raspberries. Leaf gelatine and some sugar completed the ingredients.

I never knew making real jelly was so easy. I always used stuff from packets but now I've used the gelatine I'll be on the look out for new jelly recipes. A few hours in the fridge and it was all set.

We had some friends over for dinner and they tested out the jelly. We topped it with some vanilla ice cream. It was really good. I didn't sweeten up the beer too much so there was a lovely lambic tartness to the jelly which worked really well as jelly is usually too sticky sweet for me. I paired it with some Rodenbach Grand Cru. I love this beer but I do think it's one of those love or hate it affairs. It's fruity and sour and a bit complicated. I think it went well with the jelly for me. If you have a sweet tooth I think something a bit sweeter would go better with it. Or you could just drink the beer that the jelly was made from. In this case Liefmann's kriek was too expensive to buy a few of so I just used it to make the jelly.

I'll definitely make beer jelly again so thanks to the session for giving me the push to try it out.

Great British Beer Festival, Knitting flash mobs and the bearded lady, 4 August 2009

2009-08-05T11:46:00.000-07:00

This year I made the trip to Earl's Court in London to the Great British Beer Festival hosted by CAMRA. It's a huge festival which is held every year with hundreds of beers from all over the UK and an international section with beers from all over the world. Obviously if you love beer this is the place to be at the start of august. A few of us from the Irish Craft Brewer website made the trip over.

We got to Earl's Court just as it opened and we staked out a table for the day. There were a bewildering array of beers on offer in the huge hall and I only got to try a small selection of the ones I wanted to. They sell beer in pints, half and third pints at the festival. Third pints are great if you're trying out lots of beers. I also nabbed a few small plastic glasses which were handy for sharing out tastes to people. So with that and some water at the end of the day I was fairly sober when I got home. Not so good was the lack of water fonts around the venue.

On to some of the beer highlights. Stone's very wonderful IPA has lots of hops, mostly flavour and aroma ones. I really liked this as it was bitter but not too bitter. Some American IPA's have a really harsh, oily very bitter character. I don't like those beers that much, it's not hard to go mad putting loads of hops in but you do have to balance them and make sure it tastes nice at the end and that is difficult. This beer is massively dry hopped and it shows. It's really fresh and grassy and wonderful, sort of like sticking your head in a bag of hops. Fabulous freshness you can't get in a bottle but if someone starts bringing Stone beers into Ireland I will buy them. I also sampled Stone's Levitation pale ale which again had a huge amount of flavour packed into a smaller ABV.

Next up was another cracker of a beer Allagash Interlude, I really liked this one. The man serving me warned me it was a bit lambic tasting and quite sour and was about to ask if that was ok when he saw my Cantillon t-shirt. I swear that t-shirt is like some sort of secret beer code. He smiled and said 'well then you'll love this'. It's brewed with saison yeast and Brettanomyces then part of it is aged in french oak barrels. It's smells like lambic but is sweeter in character. I thought it was sort of like Orval. Not as good as Orval but in that territory which is really no bad thing at all. I think American brewers are getting more interested in the weird and wonderful way they brew in Belgium. They also have the advantage of not being constrained by tradition the way like Belgians are. They can brew different versions of the traditional styles. It's an exciting development and hopefully more interesting beers like this are on their way.

I've heard a lot about Thornbridge brewery and how wonderful their beers are especially Jaipur. I didn't get to try Jaipur but had some Kipling which their website says is a south pacific pale ale. I tasted some of Kev's and we both struggling to see why people rave about it so much. It was a bit thin and the only hops I tasted were on the finish. It probably needs more carbonation than you get in cask type beer. Galway Hooker is a muted shadow of itself on cask, I think lots of hops especially the citrus ones need a bit of sparkle to really bring them out. I know people think everything must be better on cask but that's not the case for all beers.

Other American offerings I liked were the dark chocolate and cigar smoke Alaskan smoked porter and the bright, fresh, citrus of Opa Opa's dry hopped with centennial pale ale. I also had Dogfish Head's Midas Touch but that's for another post.
From Holland De Molen brewery's Tsarina Esra was a viscous complex thing that was unlike any beer I've ever had. I didn't like their Bloed, Zweet & Tranen so much as it had this plasticine taste that you get with some wood aged beers. I also had a taste of Cantillon's bright pink Lou Pepe which was tart with more sweet fruit than their kriek. From the UK I had some Elgood's Mad Dog as I like their other offering Black Dog. It was fairly thin but was improved so much when I drank it with a Cornish pasty, a case of food and beer going really well together.

Of course it wasn't all just about drinking, through beer blogging and Irish Craft Brewer I've met lots of great people. And we really had a great time at the festival though anyone passing our table must have been mystified as to what was going on. I finally meet the lovely Ally aka Impy Malting for real. I decided to make her a beer related knitted present. A flurry of knitting ensued and the beer sweater was the result. You can see him in the picture above, he spent the day keeping a lot of very fancy beer at the correct temperature. Apologies to the poor person I spent ages explaining the thermal properties of wool to. Wool is a good insulator so it keeps hot things hot and cold things cold but I don't think I was putting it that succinctly at the time. Thankfully Ally didn't think I was mad and really liked the beer jumper, he now has a good home adorning a bottle of her home brew.

Ally had brought along some knitting needles for me since Dublin airport has added them to the list of dangerous items you're not allowed bring on a plane. We did a spot of knitting and drinking. Boak from Boak and Bailey, claims not to be able to knit when drinking, she has a point it's far too easy to make mistakes. It was great to meet other beer bloggers like Mark from Pencil and Spoon. He popped in during the day with enthusiastic reports and tips on which beers were good.

We had a good laugh when Sarah won a Good Beard Guide with a fake beard in one of the pub games, being mad as a brush she wore it around for the rest of the day. She did get some free beer and a t-shirt out of it!

Later on in the day we wandered over to say hello to Pete Brown. I don't know what he thought when two ladies with some knitting, a beer bottle in a jumper and another lady with a beard came over for a chat. I got a postcard signed to put in the front of my Hops and Glory, the book itself was too heavy to cart around for the day. He happened to remember my twitter picture of his book posing on a beach so the dedication thanks me for taking the book out and showing it a good time. We also chatted to Pete's very lovely wife, she crochets as well. It really was turning into quite a knitty beery day. People always think I'm odd for liking both but now I know there's quite a few ladies who like both knitting and beer.

I didn't get to taste that many beers but that was a good thing the next day. The craic, the Irish Craft Brewer crowd, meeting other beer bloggers and some fantastic new beers made this into a great day out. I think I'll have to go again.

The rest of my photos of the day are here.

Boyle Arts Festival, July 31st 2009

2009-08-01T07:43:00.000-07:00

On a yet another wet summers morning I set off to Boyle, Roscommon to take part in the Boyle Arts Festival crafts past and present exhibition. Deirdre O'Reilly organized the exhibition and did a really great job getting lots of crafters together in the local hall. I was there to demonstrate spinning but really it was a good excuse for a lovely day out meeting lots of people and other crafts people.

I did a good bit of spinning and I also got lots of my alpaca carded up with some green merino. People were keen to see how you went from fleece to stuff you could spin. Kids seem to be especially fascinated with the whole thing. I had quite a few people tell me that spinning on the drop spindle looked like magic. I taught a few of the kids how to spin on the spindle. Kids are great they're not afraid of messing up like adults, they just get stuck in there and they did a great job of it.

There were two other spinners there. It was great to chat to ladies who know so much about spinning. They both span alpaca. The lady in photo had the softest most snuggly crochet shawl she had made from alpaca. I must make one.

There were many crafts represented, knitting, crochet, bobbin lace making, ceramics, sewing, basket making and lots of others. There was one man who was making traditional baskets and hen coups from straw.

The bobbin lace is amazing, it's so detailed and beautiful when it's finished. The process for making it looks very complicated. The lady doing it said it's not that hard but I don't believe her. A lot of crafts people downplay their talents and say it's nothing, it easy, not true. And definitely not true in this case, lace complicated, intricate detailed stuff and it takes skill to make it. It's not popular today as I don't think us young people have the attention span and patience to make it.

There was also some fantastic Irish Crochet Lace. It's so intricate and the thread is so tiny. I don't know how the ladies who do it see the stitches and most of them don't use magnifying glasses.

I met the lovely Sara from Kittiwake Design who is selling her lovely sewn designs. I got a lovely heart from her. Have a look at her mobiles, I really like the felt mushroom one.

Full set of photographs here.

The above photo shows the most amazing piece of craft work I've ever seen. It's a large bedspread of knitted lace squares all joined together. It's beautiful and detailed. The most amazing thing about it? The lady in the corner of the picture knitted it, she started it when she was 80, she recently completed it just after she turned 100. Isn't that amazing? What a fantastic heirloom piece for her family to have when she passes it down to them.

With craft being trendy again lots of people and publishers of books are keen to point out how hip and cool craft is and how it's 'not your grandmothers' knitting, crochet etc. Which is stupid, it really is. I love talking to the older generation of people and learning from them. It's sometimes hard to talk to older people as different generations assume they won't have things in common. I've found craft is a great way to get talking to older people, it doesn't matter what age you are you can still talk knitting or crochet as it's always the same.

So crafts are a great way of bringing generations together. And here the cool new craft people are telling older people that this new craft generation is not for them, not for grandmothers in an attempt to get young people interested. An opportunity lost, craft used to be all about passing down skills from one generation to the next. Your grandmother would teach you knitting when they minded you while your parents worked. The assumption that what your granny makes is not great is a lie too. Some of it might not be to your young persons taste but people should be allowed make what they like.

The bedspread above is beautiful no matter what generation you're from, to dismiss it as 'grannies knitting' is to dismiss the work, dedication and advanced skill that went into it's making. Younger knitters would shy away from this kind of complicated lace knitting, most younger knitters (and I include myself in all this, very much so) would not take on a project that might take us twenty years to complete. And younger knitters don't even have obstacles like failing sight and arthritic hands to take into account. To finish a project like this in your 100th year is amazing. Not your grandmother's knitting? No not all, most of us will never do something as rocking as this.

Dyeing to tell you

2009-07-27T05:56:00.000-07:00

For the last day of my trip to Scotland I had something special planned. I decided my holiday wouldn't be complete without a crafty day. So I searched the net and found the rather wonderful Lilith of Old Maiden Aunt Yarns. She is an indie dyer working in West Kilbride in Scotland and even better she does a dye workshop day. Her yarn looked amazing so I booked myself in for the day before we left for home.

The dye workshop was fantastic, it was like being a kid who had just been set loose in a room full of paint and told they could do what they liked. Lilith is a great teacher, she let me play around but she was also there to answer all of my stupid questions.

First I dyed some sample skeins and I got to try out different dye techniques, different colours and different fibers. They all change the result you get in the end. I also dyed some roving as I was keen to learn how to do that since I hope to dye some of my alpaca fleece.

After a quick lunch from the tasty bakery next door I decided on the yarn I wanted to dye for my main project. I picked out a lovely soft merino/cashmere/nylon blend and dyed two skeins of sock weight yarn. I'm hoping to make a clapotis shawl from it. I decided to dye it a murky brown colour and then over dye this with a lime green colour. The colour reminded me of brackish scummy water with bright green algae growing in it, in a good way though...

I also dyed about 100g of merino and bamboo blend top. This was a dark purple colour. The bamboo doesn't take up dye as it's a plant fiber (see all the things I know now after the course) so it gives these great white streaks running through the top.

In this picture you can see my dyed yarn on the top right. It's a lovely colour kinda like tree bark with lichen growing on it. Below it are the sample skeins. The bottom left is the roving which I can't wait to spin. Also on the bottom left is a skein of Old Maiden Aunt silk alpaca yarn in the colour way bracken. I couldn't leave without buying some! It was a really fun day, I learned loads and got to take home some lovely new yarn. Thanks a million Lilith.

In the top right hand corner of the photo above are some other crafty purchases from Scotland. I got some handmade soap with bog myrtle in it. I also bought a lovely nuno felt scarf made on the Island of Eigg. I picked up a lovely dress pattern for 50p in a charity shop. I try to buy crafts when I'm away, I can't afford to buy much but it's good to show some support for nice handmade things. Handmade things remind you more of a place especially if you get to meet the artist.

Rest of the photos are here.

Beer Holiday Read - Hops and Glory

2009-07-22T13:16:00.000-07:00

When a beer nerd goes on holiday they need something to read. This year I bought Hops and Glory by Pete Brown on holidays to read and was glad I did. I spent a while reading it in the sun on the beach in Scotland. Bizarrely we had sun enough for sitting on the beach in Scotland.

The book is the story of his search for the original India Pale Ale beer. The history of India Pale Ale is tied up with Britain's imperial past and the East India company and Pete gives a very entertaining account of the history with some great characters appearing. I for one hope the word rake comes back into fashion after this book. This isn't just a story of the history of the beer. Pete in a mad moment decides to take a barrel of his own IPA to India. This is harder than you'd think and he ends up on various types of ships to get to India. The best part of his travels comes when he sails across the Atlantic in a tall ship. I won't give too much away but suffice to say there are some trials along the way.

I'm a fan of travel stories and this is one of the good ones. You get history and travel and a very affable humorous narrator. Recommended.

From washed fleece to spun yarn

2009-07-03T04:04:00.000-07:00

I think this is the funniest picture ever. So cute and look at his funny hair! I'm still busily washing alpaca fleece. I decided to wash the second batch of it in cold water which worked fine to get it clean and it ensured that the fleece didn't felt.

I had kept the locks intact when I washed the fleece so the technique I used to prepare these for spinning is flick carding. In flick carding you grab hold of a lock, hold it by the end and brush out the end of the lock to open it up and make it fluffy. Then you turn it around and brush the end you were holding. This keeps all the fibres parallel and is good for spinning worsted yarns.

I then made rolags using the rest of the fleece using hand cards. A rolag is cigar shaped roll of fibre that has been separated and straightened out by the hand carders. I had tried making rolags before and they didn't turn out too well. I think raw fleece is much easier to make rolags from.

First you charge the carder by putting the fibre on it. The fibre is all over the place at first. Then you brush the fibre by drawing one carder over the other. Keep doing this until it's all looking lined up like in the second picture. Then I transferred from one carder to the other. The Joy of Handspinning website explains this really well and has handy videos too. Then you roll the fibres into a sausage shape. The fibre gets all separated and airy when you do this.

I made a basket of rolags and then spun them on my spinning wheel. Rolags are best for spinning using the long draw technique. There's a good video of it here on youtube. It's cool that a new technology like the net and youtube is used for teaching old techniques like spinning. Anyway long draw looks kinda like magic. I tried it before using the rolags I had made that weren't great. Because the rolags weren't good I couldn't get the hang of long draw at all. The thread kept breaking and I couldn't get enough twist in.

This time with the proper rolags long draw clicked for me. Now the single wasn't the most consistent and it wanted to get very very thin but it did mostly hold together without breaking so I'm getting enough twist in. I need more practice but at least I can do it. It's a very fast technique so it's worth sticking with learning it just for that. With a bit more practice I should be able to do it so that I get the thickness I want in the single. Long draw produces a woolen style yarn which is a lovely light lofty yarn with a bit of fuzz and halo to it. It seems to suit the alpaca really well.

I decided while I was learning new things I might as well try plying this yarn differently than usual. So I navajo plied it. This is a funky technique where you can make a three ply yarn from a single by sort of chaining the yarn while you put the plying twist in. I love plying yarn and this technique makes me like it even more as it's so much fun. Kinda like crochet with a spinning wheel.

Anyway after all that it's time for some shots of the finished yarn. It's just a first test skein so it's got it's wonky bits. It's very soft and fuzzy. It might make nice hand warmers or something. I've been learning loads since I got this fleece. Probably much more than I would if I'd just kept buying prepared roving. I wouldn't have had to learn how to use the hand cards and I would probably have just given up on learning long draw. I'm looking forward to learning more and ending up with lots of lovely alpaca yarn.

Though this post would be a good addition to fiber arts friday run by the lovely Alpaca Farm Girl. Check out her blog for even more cute photos of alpacas.

PS: I'm away on my holidays for the next two weeks so I'll see you all when I get back.

Five Bags Full

2009-06-22T12:07:00.000-07:00

In a previous post I said I was contacting a farmer about getting some alpaca fleece. Well this weekend our new tent arrived so me and Dave decided to go camping on the lake near where the farmer lived. On Sunday afternoon we met the farmer at his beautiful house right on Lough Derravaragh. First of all he brought us into the field to meet the alpaca. They had just been sheared on Friday and were looking pretty silly. They're quite small fellas and very cute. They came over to see us, apparently they're quite inquisitive and they weren't scared. He says he keeps them for interest and to scare the foxes away from the sheep when they're lambing. They chase foxes and predators away. He started with two and there are now five of them.

We ended up buying five fleeces from the five alpaca he had. This included a baby alpaca fleece. It's soft, crimpy, lovely and seems to be really good quality. There are two white ones and the others are lovely orange/brown colours. He showed us a lovely throw and cushion he had made by a spinner from the fleece. They were so soft and warm, it must be lovely to be warmed by a throw made from your own alpaca fleece. In the picture you can see some of the locks.

So today I set to work processing the fleece. I took a small amount to run through the process and see if there were any problems with it. I don't want to ruin a whole load of it or make lots of work for myself so I did a trial run. Some people spin alpaca as is without washing first. I decided not to. Alpaca like to roll in the dust and you don't know what they've been rolling in and I didn't want dust all over the place and getting into the bearing of my wheel.

I emptied one fleece out on a big bag and started sorting through it. I took out any obvious dirty bits and put handfuls of locks into a bucket. I then picked at the locks and took off any short bits and dirt. There wasn't so much dirt which is great. I put them into laundry bags and then soaked the bags in hot soapy water for fifteen minutes. The water got pretty dirty and grey. I then rinsed the bags in clean water.

After this I squeezed the bags in a towel before taking the fleece out and putting it on a towel on a rack to dry. For the next go I'll probably just put the locks directly into the laundry bags. I think I'll get a load more laundry bags and wash a load of fleece in the bath. Hopefully I can get them all clean and dry so that I can store it away until it's time to spin them.

I think you can expect to hear a lot more about alpaca fibre preparation and spinning in the next while. I think all this fleece should keep me busy for some time to come.

World Wide Knit in Public Day and Some Spinning

2009-06-17T01:38:00.000-07:00

Saturday was world wide knit in public day and Dublin joined in at Stephen's Green. Sinead from Knit Inc and Diane from Chicwithstix were both involved with the organizing. Some of the knitting bloggers who made it there were Teaandcakes, bridin, Gerry Berry, She knit up that ball, ktreu and others. If I've missed you and you were there let me know in the comments and I'll link to your blog.

In the morning people met in This Is Knit in Powerscourt for some knitting on a sunny balcony. When I arrived it was all in full swing. My jumper that I knit was admired and I got on with admiring the various knits people were wearing. Hand made knits are so much nicer and more interesting than stuff you get in shops. There were some fabulous shawls on show. This Is Knit had a prize draw for the occasion too.

After a quick pit stop to get a picnic we headed for Stephen's Green. The knitters set up across from the band stand, there was a big brass band playing there so we had the perfect spot. One of the girls had made some great WWKiPD posters. It was such a fun afternoon sitting in the sun, knitting, chatting to fellow knitters, making new friends and listening to the music. We got many confused looks from passers by. Many people stopped to chat and look at what we were making. Loads of people treated us a bit like a zoo exhibit though, looking at us, taking photos but not talking to us. We're knitters, we're friendly and willing to bore you with all the details if you ask!

There were a few spinners there too. It was great to see other people spinning and it got many funny looks too. Chicwithstix is a whizz with a drop spindle. The day had to come to an end eventually and we all drifted off. It was great to meet all the other knitters and know that I'm not alone, there are other knitters about and they're making beautiful things.

I also finished off my second yarn on my spinning wheel. It was made from cloud like blue faced leicester(bfl from now on) combed top from Wingham. I spun it sort of thick and thin. I was looking for a low enough twist wool that would be all fluffy and poofy and preserve the qualities of the fluffy top. I've found that spinning is the ideal thing to do while watching tv, keeps me occupied but it doesn't take all my attention. I did two full bobbins of the bfl and then plied them together. I ended up with 178m of about 11wpi wool.

I wound the yarn off the bobbin using a set square to wrap the wool around. You can use a device called a niddy-noddy for this but I don't have one so the set square worked really well. I tied it up and took it off, washed and dried it. It's funny the finished wool changes when you ply it and finish it off. This turned into the most amazing beautiful soft wool.

I can't believe I made this myself. It's not scratchy and the thick and thin bits add lovely texture. I've never seen something like this in a commerical yarn. Machines don't make mistakes and the yarn produced from them is consistent and perfect. Which is good for certain things but I'm now seeing the charm of non perfect textured yarn. It's got such charm and life to it. Anyway I'll stop now before I sound mad. Here's the wool but really you need to squish it to get the full effect. I'm hoping to knit this into a cosy cabled hot water bottle cover.

Westley's Slip From The Hamiltonian Path

2009-06-15T13:55:00.000-07:00

I brewed up an extract beer last week. It's an American pale ale hopefully along the lines of Sierra Nevada pale ale. It's fermenting away downstairs with the most wonderful hop aroma coming from it.

Here's the recipe.

Boil Volume: 21L
End Volume:18L

Grain:
150g Crystal Malt
100g Amber Malt
20g Chocolate Malt

2.3kg Light DME

Steep grains at 66 deg C for 30 minutes

Hops:
60 minutes
Pioneer 9.2% AA 30g
Centennial 8.2% AA 10g

45 minutes
Centennial 10g

30 minutes
Centennial 8g
Cascade 4.5% AA 10g

15 minutes
Centennial 20g
Cascade 10g

Flame Out
Cascade 20g
Centennial 10g

OG: 1.044

Yeast:
Safale S04

The name and label may need explanation. We were walking along the Royal canal to see Broome Bridge. The great mathematician Hamilton had a flash of inspiration at this bridge and carved the equation for Quaternion multiplication on the bridge. The modern graffiti didn't seem to contain any such flashes of brilliance but it was cool to see the plaque commemorating the event. Just as we reached the bridge the dog decided to jump in the canal. Maybe he figured out some great doggie mathematical problem, we'll never know. I snapped a photo of the smelly soggy doggie and this became the inspiration for the name of the beer.

Meanwhile I bottled my Molly Bloom's Raspberry White Beer last week. As you can see it turned out to be bright pink in colour which is great. It tastes very unusual, quite dry from the fruit and there's lot of flowery chamomile in there which I think may not be a good thing. A bit of carbonation and aging will help this beer a lot though. It will also benefit from being cold. I might open a test bottle tomorrow in celebration of Bloomsday.

Summer Ramblings, a bit of everything

2009-06-06T16:03:00.001-07:00

Things have been busy here at Aran Brew recently.

A few weekends ago we went to Eddie and Riona's wedding which was great, congratulations guys! Read their travel blog, it's great but it does make me very jealous of all the cool places they went to see.

We were driving home after the wedding and stopped to take a look at Lough Derravarragh just outside Crooked Wood. There's a great view from above the lake and we stopped to take a look. There's a field there and as you can see in the photo there's alpaca in the field!

I got to wondering if the farmer ever sells the fleeces and then I noticed a post box. Oh dear. I got out a pen and a paper bag as I had no paper with me and wrote a note with my contact details to the farmer saying I was a spinner and asked if he ever sold the fleeces. I apologized in the note for bothering him if he thought I was mad. Which wasn't unlikely given the state of the paper and the request.

I forgot about it and presumed they had rightly dismissed me as a madwoman but yesterday I got an email from the farmer and he said he's shearing the alpaca next week. He says I can come along and buy some fleece. Real alpaca fleece in Ireland, complete result! Sometimes it pays to write random notes.

I've also been sewing a lot recently. My Mum and I made a skirt using a pattern we made up ourselves. It's really nice but I have no photos of it yet. It was harder to do than I thought but I learned loads. In the photo is the beginnings of the spring ruffle top. This is going well, I did the top of it in an afternoon. I just have to do the bottom and join them together now. Hopefully it will turn out ok. I also bought some more fabric in Ikea when I was in Belfast, it was really cheap and I might turn it into some funky stuff for the house.

I also racked my Raspberry Wheat Beer onto secondary. I sterilized the better bottle then just put the frozen fruit into the end of it and racked the beer on top of it. I used 400g of raspberries and 400g of mixed summer berries. I tasted a bit last night and I think it's ready to bottle now. It's an interesting beer, unlike anything I've ever had before. It's light and not hoppy and pretty fruity, there's also a lot of chamomile going on too, maybe too much. I'd love to dry hop this with cascade as I think it would be lovely but that would disqualify it from the ICB all grain challenge. It's a quandary as I want to enter the challenge but I also want the beer to taste the best it can.

Dave and I went away for the June bank holiday weekend and lo and behold the sun came out. At one point it was 26 degrees which is very hot for Ireland. It was the best weather we've had in two years and luckily we were camping at the seaside for it. We headed up the causeway coastal route on saturday morning having been at a barbecue in a friends house in Belfast on friday night. I can recommend the Torr Head cliff road for anyone who likes driving along tiny roads with huge drops beside them. The view of Scotland from the head is pretty cool too. I didn't realize it was that near.

We brought the dog camping with us and he seemed to love it. We stayed at a campsite between Portrush and Portstewart. I think I'd prefer Portstewart for an evening out or something to eat. Westley was even left off his lead for short bits in the campsite and he didn't run away. We brought him along to see the Giant's Causeway. We'd been told it wasn't great but we really enjoyed the weird hexagonal rocks.

The dog didn't love it when we dragged him into the sea for a swim though. We went to Downhill, it's an amazing long beach with no stones, you can park your car on the beach too which is handy. There are also decent waves to play around in. It's just a pity the dog didn't like the water more. We also discovered a good way to cool the dog down on the hot days, we gave him ice. He loved it.

I also found time to sit outside doing some crochet while sipping a lovely cold Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. We bought some beer up north as it's much cheaper up there. English ales are especially good value, in some shops there's a two ales for four pounds deal. Down south it's not unusual to pay 3.50 to 4.00 euro for an English ale.

It was a great weekend. Here's a photo taken near Carrick A Rede rope bridge. The sea was incredibly blue and clear with the sun beating down upon it. I've rarely seen the sea this colour in this country.

As we came home a friend of mine rang inviting me to go camping with her for a few days during the week. So I snuck off for sneaky mid week break. It was great to see her and her young son. He had great fun in the campsite which had a playground and a pets corner. We had a barbecue one of the nights and sat down and relaxed outside in our camping chairs. It was a week that really reminded me of what summer is all about.

Here's hoping for more hazy lazy days...

All sewn up

2009-05-14T12:50:00.000-07:00

I got a new sewing machine! It's from Lidl and cost eighty euro. I've been using my Mum's sewing machine rather too much so she got me one of my own for my birthday. It works great and is pretty simple which is better for me, when a sewing machine gets too complicated it's hard to use.

I've done a good bit of sewing over the years, as a kid my Barbies and Sindys all had couture outfits made from scraps left over from my Mum's sewing. My Mum is my secret weapon when sewing as she knows everything there is to know about sewing. She made her own wedding dress and lots of our clothes when we were kids. She works in a home furnishing shop and brings home loads of fabric with the excuse but it was cheap. I've gotten all my new curtains made by my Mum.

I want to make skirts as I never see skirts I like in the shops and they're not that hard to make. I decided to listen to my Mum who is always right about everything and make some cushions first. These are the mad looking cushions I like them a lot, they'll come camping with us this summer and brighten up the tent. I picked up the lovely colourful throw to go with them in Heatons for ten euro. I can almost sew straight but I'm really terrible at cutting straight. I can see a rotary cutter and a ruler in my future. Cutting wonky is ok on a cushion but not on a skirt.

I've got one or two sewing books recently. First of all is Sew What? Skirts. It's a great starter book about sewing as it goes through lots of techniques at the start. Then it shows you how to draft an a-line and straight skirt pattern. All the skirts are then made using variations on these techniques. The first skirt I make will be one from this book.

The other book is Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross. I love this book! It's all laid back easy style, nothing too fussy. The other advantage is that it's all aimed at the beginning/intermediate sewer. Hopefully I'll make some stuff from this.

I went shopping today and got some fabric in Fabric World on Parnell Street. I got some lovely navy and pink stuff to make a skirt and some lovely white flowery fabric to make this spring ruffle top. I also got lots of bits and pieces like thread, tracing paper and elastic thread in The Dublin Woolen Mills just beside the Hapenny Bridge. Expect to see some results on the blog in the future.

Molly Bloom's Raspberry White Beer

2009-05-07T10:56:00.000-07:00

Over at Irish Craft Brewer an all grain brewing challenge was dreamed up by SBillings. As he said

The challenge is to do a 23 litre all grain brew using 3Kg of a single base malt, no speciality malt and only one hop addition.

I signed up for the challenge and got my thinking hat on.

I've been drinking a good few wheat and wit beers recently. I like Hoegaarden a lot but that's probably because it was one of the first different beers I ever tried while living in the dullest town on earth, Eindhoven. I usually find that weiss beers are a bit too sweet and cloying for my taste. I like the spiced Belgian versions much better than the German sweet ones. Although a weiss beer is nice served cold on a hot day. Hot days seem to be in short supply recently though so drinking opportunities are limited. I like the lemon zesty taste from Hoegaarden and it got me to thinking how I could make an altered version of a Belgian wit.

I turned to my always trusty Radical Brewing by Randy Mosher and read a bit about white beers. This seemed to be the base I could build the beer on. As the challenge says you can only use 3kg of base malt and no other I needed some adjunct grain to add to the plain malt to give it some fermentables and taste. An adjunct is an unmalted fermentable grain and things like rice, corn, sorghum, wheat and oats are often used. I haven't tried an adjunct mash before so I decided to try it so I'd learn something from the challenge.

I used 3kg of Maris Otter pale ale malt, 1kg unmalted Flaked Wheat and 500g Flaked Oats. I used about 240g which was 8% of the total malt in the adjunct mash. I brought about 4 litres of water to 60 degrees celsius and then put in the grains. I gave it a stir and checked it was at 50 degrees. I left it for about 15 minutes. The stuff looked like very gluey porridge. I then raised the temperature to 65.5 degrees and left it for another 15 minutes. After this I boiled it for a few minutes. The series of temperature rests is used to break down the starches in the un-malted grains to make them more easily accessible to the enzymes in the main mash. While I was doing this I brought the rest of the mash to 50 degrees. I then dumped the contents of the adjunct mash pot into the main mash tun. It splashed a bit and that stuff burns. I stirred it up, checked the temperature was 67 degrees and left it all to mash away for 45 minutes.

I took off the first runnings and then sparged with about 14 litres of water at 77 degrees. I topped up with about 5 litres of water and the gravity of the wort at this stage was 1.039.

I boiled for an hour and the only hop addition was 40g of 4.8%AA tettnang hops at the 60 minute mark. Since this was a challenge brew it would be pretty boring if I left it at that. I decided to throw a load of spices and herbs into this brew.
Spices:
10g of chamomile flowers
1 star anise
1 tsp crushed cardamon pods
1/2 tsp ground cumin seeds
5-10g crushed coriander seeds
Zest of one lemon

In Radical Brewing Mr. Mosher reckons that chamomile is a secret spice used in Belgian white beers. I also added the other stuff just in case. I hope the cardamon comes out as not too overpowering. I find it has a washing up liquid taste when there's too much of it in a curry. It'll be interesting to see what character comes from them.

I cooled and pitched the beer with Brewferm Blanche wheat beer yeast. It's fermenting away with a lot of foam. I'm keeping the temperature fairly low as I want some yeast character but nothing too bubblegum which you can get with white beer yeasts.

Now the astute amongst you will notice raspberry mentioned in the title. Well they come later, I plan to secondary this beer over about 1.2kg of raspberries. I'm hoping the spices, yeast and raspberries will all combine to make a frothy summer beer with a nice blurry fruity spiciness to it.

This challenge was a great idea. I made a new style of beer and learned to do an adjunct mash. I also got to play with different fruits and spices. I think it's nice to make unusual beer that you can't get in the shops. I loved the raspberry lambic Rose de Gambrinus from Cantillon so this is inspired by that though this will be much sweeter and probably less fruity.

I've named it Molly Bloom. I can't wait to have a lot of fun making the label for it. Sandymount will feature, hopefully on Bloomsday.

Smug Spinning Satisfaction

2009-05-04T08:31:00.000-07:00

With my first ever yarn from my spinning wheel I had to make something and decided on a get the skinny scarf a free pattern from interweave crochet.

It's a really nice easy pattern and the scarf itself is perfect for wearing with the weather at this time of year. No sign of summer sun in Dublin yet. It spirals a bit but I've decided to call that a design feature. I'm so happy I've ended up with something wearable at end of the process of spinning the fibre and then crocheting it into something. Though as I do more crafts I find it's the process I enjoy as much if not more than the end result.

The Session 27: Beer Cocktails

2009-05-01T05:09:00.000-07:00

The Session this month is hosted by Beer At Joes and is called Beyond the Black and Tan (Beer Cocktails). In America a Black and Tan is a mixture of pale ale and porter but we don't get them in Ireland. A word of warning if you're American walking into most Irish bars and asking for a Black and Tan will at best get you a three hour history lesson from a drunk local and at worst you'll be asked to leave. I think the closest we get to beer cocktails in Ireland is when women get Guinness with a dash of blackcurrant cordial in them. Usually though the blackcurrant is just put in there until you get used to the taste and then you just drink normal Guinness.

The other time I saw a beer cocktail was when I was in Havana last year. In the Caribbean they are crazy for cocktails and in Cuba the mojito is king. I love mojitos and due to almost constant food poisoning I gave up eating and just drank mojitos for the few days we were there. We went to Taverna de la Muralla on the Plaza Vieja which is Havana's brew pub. They brew three beers and they also offer beer cocktails. One was a mojito made with their blonde ale. It's a nice if odd drink. It tasted more of mojito than beer if I remember rightly.

Dave has blogged before about the insane combination of Guinness and Red Bull that you get in Jamaica. It tastes horrible but that's not the point. We asked some barmen in our hotel what we should drink at a wedding in Kingston and they said Guinness and Red Bull so you get drunk and can dance all night. You certainly need energy if you're going to be dancing to Jamaican dancehall all night. Dancehall sounds like a bunch of power tools being randomly being turned on and off. It makes no sense until you dance to it. Though being Irish we weren't very good, all the Jamaicans are incredible dancers, even old grannies and they know all the moves to every song.

I can't resist putting up this photo again as it's so funny. It's The Beer Nut and Dave enjoying a picon beer. It's bavaria mixed with sirop de picon. I like Bavaria as it reminds me of sitting outside the Pav bar in Trinity watching the cricket. Me and my pals would come up from our underground laser lab to see some real daylight and drink a six pack of cheap Bavaria. Even better the crazy, french, obsessed by physics postdoc I worked with would go home and not come to the pub. He never talked about anything but our project and talking about resonance energy transfer in nanocrystals while slightly merry was never a forte of mine. We never knew that we could have claimed to be classy by pouring in some picon into our cans.

I really don't know many beer cocktails but maybe in honour of this session I'll try some of the ones posted by fellow session bloggers this weekend.