Shoshiplatypus

What’s On Your Workdesk This Wednesday?

Great news – I’ve finished the first two needle books! This marks the completion of the first four tiny carpets. On Monday the recipient of one of the needle books came for lunch and I was able to give it to her. She was absolutely delighted with it. We had had such a good discussion about the various carpets she owns and she loved it that I had taken this on board and made her needle book with that theme. We are seeing the recipient of the other one on Sunday and I’m so looking forward to giving it to her.

The construction of the needle books

This turned out to be more of a struggle than I had anticipated. I had worked out how many stitches I needed to work between the two tiny carpets that made up the front and back cover of the book, to allow for the fabric pages for the needles. However, I had not calculated for the thickness of the padding and lining, and when I made the lining with the pockets for packets of needles, the whole thing came out much too thick and the book wouldn’t close. Duh… Shoshi goes to Plan B!

Anyway, to start at the beginning, here are the pictures of how I constructed the books.

To stiffen the covers, I used some of my self-adhesive pelmet vylene. This has a sticky surface on both sides, with a protective peel-off backing sheet. I cut rectangles of this to the size of the finished front and back covers respectively.

In my stash I have some small pieces of fleecy material which came in a bag of goodies someone gave me a while back. I’m not sure why the person had cut these up and roughly finished the edges – perhaps she was making dusters out of them! Anyway, I decided the thickness was about right for the padding for the outer surface of the book covers (to go under the tiny carpets).

I stuck down the rectangles of pelmet vylene onto this fabric, and then cut out the fabric along the edges of the vylene.

The next step was to trim the excess fabric away around the edges of the tiny carpets.

I laid the padded rectangles carefully over each tiny carpet and peeled back the inner peel-off backing sheet from the vylene just enough to enable me to fold the embroidery fabric over and stick it down. I didn’t worry too much about the excess fabric at the corners because I knew I would be able to trim this back later when sewing in the lining. I was keen not to interfere too much with the fabric because it frayed so easily.

Once this was done, I was able to attach some padding on the inside. I used some of the same fabric I had used to make the book pages. I cut one rectangle for each book, to cover the area inside the embroidery fabric turnings, and going right across the spine of the book.

I was then in a position to remove the entire backing sheet from the inside of the pelmet vylene and stick the inner padding down.

It was then time to tackle the lining. I cut pieces of dark red cotton sheeting and pressed folds to create the pockets for the needle packets.

I stiffened the pocket with some soft iron-on vylene interfacing. In the next picture you can see a) the initial cut piece, over which are laid b) a piece with the interfacing ironed on, and c) the finished result with the fold in place.

I sewed the first of these in place by lightly catching the centre down onto the spine, and began to turn in the edges and pin them in place. It was then that I realised that the whole thing was coming out too thick, so I had to abandon the pocket plan. I cut the pocket part off the bottom of two of the lining pieces that I had made, and reserved the last one for the third needle book, for which I intend making the spine area wider, to accommodate the extra thickness.

The pelmet vylene was quite curved, having come off a roll, and this made the book covers curved as well. I left them for two days under a pile of very heavy books but they still came out curved! I didn’t think that it would make too much difference in the end.

After this, I steamed ahead with attaching the linings to the two books, and didn’t take any more photos until the work was completed.

When I attached the linings, I had to pull them fairly taut in order to prevent wrinkling, and this didn’t help to reduce the curve of the covers, unfortunately.

I turned in the edges as I went, and used a very fine Betweens needle to work ladder stitch around the edges. This is a magic invisible stitch! Rather than explaining how to do it in words, it is much easier to see it:

My dad once told me that this is known as a running subcuticular suture in surgery – done with dissolvable thread, this closure creates an invisible line of stitches and leaves minimal scarring. As a surgeon, he was fascinated to discover that his daughter was using the same stitch, under a different name, for her needlework! I do love these multidisciplinary approaches and have often “thought outside the box,” using materials and equipment in my art and craft from different disciplines (e.g. materials from cake decorating or florists’ shops etc, and tools inherited from Dad’s workshop).

In this case, I pulled up each stitch as I made it, rather than creating a “ladder” and then pulling it together, because that way I could maintain a much more even tension. The result was a seam along the edge of the cover which is virtually invisible. As I came to each corner, I carefully trimmed away the excess embroidery fabric and lining fabric so that there was less bulk, and the corners would lie more flat.

The end result was that because of the extra padding, and not making a wide enough spine to accommodate this, the books would not close fully and lie flat, which was disappointing. However, the problem was easily remedied with the addition of a small popper inside, to keep the book closed.

The finishing touch was to add some red cord around the spine of the book and through the centrefold of the pages, tying it at the top of the spine, and knotting the ends to form a small tassel. I stitched this cord down invisibly along its entire length, to prevent it from moving. I had bought some adorable little charms in the shape of miniature sewing machines and scissors and attached these to the ends of the cords on the first book, but disappointingly, they simply didn’t look right, so I took them off again and just left the cords unadorned – there was enough decoration with the embroidery and the result without the charms was a lot better. I am sure the charms will come in for other projects in the future so they can go in my stash for now.

Here are the photos of the finished books.

Book 1: front cover.

Book 1: back cover.

Book 1: front and back cover opened out flat, showing attached cord along spine.

Book 2: front cover.

Book 2: back cover.

Book 2: front and back cover opened out flat, showing attached cord along spine.

Book opened to show popper closure and pages.

Centrefold of book, showing cord attached.

The two books, front covers.

The two books, back covers.

The two book spines, showing the attached cords.

The two books, tented. You can see how curved the covers are.

Each book measures slightly larger than 4 in x 3 in. The padding gives them a soft, rich feel and they are very tactile and pleasing to handle. I think that the tools used for sewing should be attractive and decorative because it makes them so much more pleasing to use, and when the decoration takes the form of sewing, this is a celebration of the craft for which they were designed.

Plans for Needle Book #3

I am now working on the design for the third and final needle book. Tiny carpet #5 is at the graph paper stage. This is the design upon which it is based: it is an Islamic prayer mat. These asymmetrical patterns are designed to point in the direction of Mecca, and they usually take the form of an arch.

Here is the pattern I have made.

Food

Last week I had a lot of spare okara (soya bean pulp, left over from making soya milk) and looked up some recipes for using it. I use this a lot for thickening things like the gravy in the veg stew that we normally eat on Sundays, and if I have to extend some soup with extra stock and don’t want to lose the thickness. Okara is virtually flavourless. It is rich in protein and fibre, and is much more nutritious than refined white flour or cornflour (cornstarch) for thickening sauces etc, and is better for weight loss and general health.

I need to explore lots more recipes to find further uses for this, because I am now making a lot more soya milk. I have finally discovered how to make really good soya milk yoghurt. I have now got a starter culture that works, but the yoghurt was coming out far too runny, and separated. Some time ago I was having problems with my almond milk splitting sometimes when added to hot drinks, especially coffee, and discovered that if you blend in a teaspoon of sunflower lecithin (a natural, vegan-safe emulsifier) to a litre of milk when you are making it, it prevents this separation. It occurred to me that this stuff might also work with the soya milk when yoghurt making. I tried it, and it worked a treat! The yoghurt was set all the way through, and although there was a small amount of liquid, this could be poured off (and drunk – this whey is as tasty as the yoghurt and also full of goodness). The yoghurt can be stirred to a different, more creamy consistency if you want. I love the flavour of the soya yoghurt and it makes a very acceptable replacement for the dairy yoghurt that I used to make in vast quantities. It was my love of dairy yoghurt that for so long prevented me from finally eliminating dairy from our diet; it was the food I was most reluctant to give up.

Last week I found a recipe for okara non-meat meatballs and made some of these. I’m not going to do this as a recipe of the week unless anyone specifically requests it because most people probably haven’t got access to okara unless they make soya milk – okara is available in Japanese and Asian markets, and it is a by-product of the commercial manufacture of tofu. I have searched online for a suitable, and more readily available substitute here in the West, without success, but I understand you can buy okara flour from Amazon and that might work. However, a much simpler work-around would be to use an alternative vegan meatball recipe. I found this one which looks great. One great advantage of this particular recipe is that it doesn’t call for any unusual or difficult to obtain ingredients, but just things that most people have in their pantries anyway. I can’t tell you what it’s like because I haven’t tried it, but it certainly looks like a valid alternative. I shall continue to use my okara recipe because it is such a good way to use up all that pulp I keep generating and hate to throw away! In my recipe, you steam the meatballs, and I am sure this would also work with the other recipe if, like me, you don’t want to cook with oil, or you don’t think it’s worth putting on the oven. Try it, and see.

I flavoured my non-meat meatballs with onion and garlic, tomato puree, miso paste, Dijon mustard, herbs and a dash of soy sauce. I served them with whole wheat pasta and a simple marinara sauce, which I have chosen as recipe of the week – this versatile basic tomato sauce can accompany genuine meatballs and various pasta dishes etc.

Recipe of the week

Marinara Sauce (Quick Cook)

I omitted the white wine and added 2 tablespoons of white wine vinegar with the food processor ingredients instead. The equivalent of a 6-ounce tin of tomato paste (puree) is one whole tube – I always buy the tubes because once opened, you don’t have to use it all at once.

Here it is, served with whole wheat macaroni and my okara meatballs. Next time, I shall thin it down with a bit more stock as it got rather thick. My hubby and I both agreed it was delicious, and definitely worth doing again. I served it with some salad left over from lunch the day before, and some steamed broccoli.

Nutrition

The myth about soya and man boobs

Some people think that because soya is rich in phyto-oestrogens (plant-based substances which mimic the female hormone oestrogen), this is going to put all our menfolk in the soprano section in the choir. Nothing could be further from the truth.

These substances can be very beneficial for women going through the menopause, as I know from experience. In 1995 I had a hysterectomy and elected to retain my ovaries, not wanting to go into an instant menopause at the time, so I went on to experience this at the normal age. I was continuing along just fine, until suddenly, one day, I began getting hot flushes (hot flashes) every 20 minutes! It was like Mt St Helens going off inside me and it was awful. I was very reluctant to go on hormone replacement therapy because of the associated increased risk of breast cancer, and discovered that if you took a supplement of soya isoflavones with black cohosh, and also extract of sage, which I got from Healthspan, an online supplements company, this could really help. It took a while for the benefit to kick in, but it did deal with the problem, and I continued with these supplements for several years until I decided it was worth the risk of stopping. All was well and I don’t get the problem now. I wasn’t aware at the time that I could get the benefits from adding soya to my diet – I did try soya milk from the supermarket but found it disgusting. A lot of commercially produced stuff is full of added chemicals such as preservatives and sweeteners. Home-made is best.

I learnt at the time that the Japanese have a diet extremely high in soya and soya bean products such as tofu, and that in their language they don’t have the word for hot flush because they don’t get them!

Some people think that because the phyto-oestrogens resemble natural human oestrogen, a diet rich in soya carries an associated risk of developing breast cancer, but research has shown that the reverse is true, and that it actually tends to decrease the risk. It has also shown a decreased risk of prostate cancer in men. The mechanisms are not fully understood. It is another example of the complex interactions between the various phytonutrients present in whole foods and how they are metabolised by the body, and these amazing benefits simply cannot be replicated by chemical supplements taken in pill form.

Soya milk is more complicated to make than nut milk, which only has to be blended with water and squeezed through a nut bag. The beans must be cooked to be safe and nutritious. I couldn’t be bothered with all that extra hassle so I invested in a Soyabella soya milk making machine which looks a bit like a kettle. It cooks and grinds the beans and separates the pulp (okara) but this comes out very wet and I like to compress it further to extract more milk and obtain a drier okara.

Soya beans are a wonderful food. They are extremely versatile and can be used in many different forms which are common in Japanese cuisine. It is virtually flavourless so can take up whatever flavours you care to add, be they sweet or savoury. There are, of course, people who are intolerant to soya and must avoid it, but for most of us, it’s a very useful staple. Japanese people enjoying their traditional diet containing a lot of soya as well as large quantities of unrefined carbohydrate in the form of rice, tend to be lean, healthy, and live a long time, and suffer from very few of the standard chronic Western diseases. Unfortunately, as they become more westernised and consume more standard Western foods and eat more animal products, their incidence of obesity and common Western diseases such as certain cancers, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease is rising.

Kitties

“The Laptop.” One always has to put the kitties’ needs first, despite one’s own discomfort or inconvenience. This is what being a cat slave is all about.

Being spoilt again. My hubby makes a parcel of Ruby – a nice warm little nest.

“Please let us in for our tea! It’s cold and wet out here!”

“Pretty please?”

Clothes

The second of my multi-layered tops that I picked up from market stalls etc. This is the red one. I like it because of all the lace on it. It has a matching scarf. I am wearing my baggy black harem pants, an African bead necklace that I bought at a craft fair, and (although you can’t see them) dark red socks.

The weather is getting so much colder now – I hope I will be able to model the final top in this series before I freeze to death!! Soon be time to break out the winter woollies again… Definitely time to get that purple circles jumper completed!

Have a great creative week, everybody.