Rosy Valentine's Cocktail Recipe

It's time for another free cocktail recipe! Jeni has been experimenting with gin this month to bring you something delicate and delicious for Valentine's Day.

Gin is an interesting spirit because each distiller creates the flavour of their individual product by using a slightly different mix of ingredients. Juniper the defining element of gin (after alcohol!) but notes of lemon, rosemary, cucumber and rose are just some of the different botanicals used to create gin. For this recipe, Jeni chose Hendrick's as it goes particularly well when paired with cucumber.

Rosy Valentine's

1 measure (25ml) of Hendrick's gin
1/2 tbsp of sugar syrup
A few drops of rose water.
A slice of cucumber
(a few blueberries if you want to make it pink)
A healthy splash of tonic water (we think Fever Tree works best here)


Mix Gin, rosewater, sugar syrup, and blueberries (if using) in a cocktail mixer filled with ice.
Strain into a glass and garnish with the slice of cucumber and top up with tonic.

If you're enjoying our monthly cocktail feature, you might want to join us on Pinterest where you will find ideas for more cocktails as well as recipes to make a simple sugar syrup used above. It's always good to have some delicious cocktail recipes up your sleeve for the next knit night you host with friends. 

We're taking our cocktails onto Instagram again this weekend with the hashtag  #cocktailswithFyberspates

SourDough

It was over a year ago that another real passion of Jeni's began to leak into the Ravelry group, FOOD. After lots of chat on Twitter about the Sour Dough starter that she would be making, a Sour Dough along started in the Ravelry group, enabling baking and all kinds of chat about the perfect bready accompaniments. 

 

It's back! Chatter picked up again thanks to a brilliant cookbook that we're recommending you add to your wishlist if you're a serious bread fan. Dan Lepard is a baking genius and his books have taught many of us on Team Fyberspates where it is at when it comes to baking techniques. They just work, every.single.time. So the book that's got us all chatting again? The Handmade Loaf. 

Jeni popped back up on the thread last week and shared this picture of her potato bread bloomer made with a very different sourdough starter and got everyone back on the sourdough wagon- it's lush! Sour dough starters are a mixture of water, flour and natural yeasts which can last for years if kept fed and loved. It's what gives sourdough bread that distinctive twang and the name 'sour'. 

 

This starter however uses raisins and yoghurt which makes for some pretty lively starter thanks to the natural yeast in raisins, and the yogurt adding bacteria and acidity. We can't share the recipe here due to copyright but we can urge you to grab a copy and get baking this holiday season. 

 

Bon appetit!

Next Month's KAL

We've had a lovely time knitting along with each other in the Fyberspates group on Ravelry and there's some gorgeous FOs already (more on those later). There's still time to enter if you haven't aleady though so get kniting!

 

To give you a chance to prepare yourself and your stash for next month's KAL, here's what we'll be creating in Fyberspates yarn: a choice of two hat patterns from the very lovely Buttons and Beeswax. You can choose from either Autumn Gold or Gwithian for your chance to win a skein of Vivacious DK. You could knit both of course as double entries are allowed (heck, multiple entries if you're that speedy)!

 

(c) ButtonsandBeeswax

Autumn Gold is a lightweight, 4 ply lace hat, great for Fall and Spring when there’s a slight chill in the air. For those of you looking for more of a shorter, beanie style hat, there is an option to start decreasing early. The hat is knit in the round, and instructions are provided written and charted for both right handed knitters and left handed mirror knitters.

 

Autumn Gold requires one skein of our fingering base, Rural Charm BFL Silk Cashmere. This 100g skein is made up of 70% Blue Faced Leceister, 20% Silk and 10% Cashmere with a yardage of 439 yards. It benefits from the sheen of silk, the softness of cashmere and the strength of BFL to give great definition. Lucky for you there's currently some in stock!

 

(c) The Knitter Magazine

Those after a quicker knit could choose Gwithian, a sunburst pattern in a gloriously rich yellow colour is guaranteed to put a smile on your face every time you see this hat! The lace pattern is worked in a DK-weight merino yarn from Fyberspates, called Vivacious, which provides excellent stitch definition. The pattern is written for three sizes so could be a great choice for getting ahead with the gift knitting. See? We think of everything!

 

 

Vivacious DK in Deep Aqua

This hat calls for one skein of Vivacious DK, our bouncy 100% Superwash Merino base. This skein comes with a yardage of 251 yards per 115g skein and guess what? The Merino is suishably soft next to the skin for a non itchy brim and with all this bad weather, it's good to know it's superwash. It's in stock now too!

 

 

There will be more more updates in the group about discount codes, where to get your patterns and of course, lots of chatter so please come and cast on with us on 1st November 2013.  

 

Fit for a Feast blog tour - in conjunction with Jimmy Beans

When I went to TNNA in January, I didn't realise I was going to meet such lovely people and get involved with all sorts of turkey shenanigans this autumn! I've been working with Jimmy Beans for a short time and having such a blast with them! When they asked me to take part in their 'Fit for a Feast' holiday celebration suprise, I couldn't wait to get involved. I had to dream up a colour for soemthing special inspired by holiday feasts.

Some of you know me quite well, so it will be no surprise that my colour had to be inspired by some sort of holiday drink! I chose Mulled Wine. For those of you who already partake in a warmed glass at Christmas or on a cold December evening, you will have a good idea of what's to come for the colour. The rest of you that have never had it, you will just have to wait and see! It's pretty though. :D My favourite recipe for Mulled wine is one of my Mum's, and it just reminds me of the holidays. I am due to cook a Thanksgiving dinner this year for 2 of my lovely friends, and I can assure you there will be Mulled Wine to acompany it.

Find out more about Fit for a feast on the 16th of NOV when all will be revealed on the Jimmy Beans Blog!

Jeni