I’ve decided to buy a toaster oven to use in the dye house (OK, it is a garage really). I like to work out there so that chemical things stay out of the kitchen, but also to keep the house smell free. I have been using slow cookers, but they don’t allow control of the temperature, only the time. If you want to use things like madder, control is key.

I also plan to use it for baking polymer clay, and heat setting silk paint. I’m happier doing this sort of thing in the kitchen, but sometimes there is an odd smell.

First problem I didn’t manage to plug it into the extension lead properly. Next problem – it has an inbuilt timer, which I assumed was an optional extra. Wrong. If the timer isn’t on, it doesn’t get hot.

At first I was fine, because the instructions said to set the timer for 5 minutes to get the hobs to the correct heat. As I need to heat gradually, and make sure nothing got above 60 degrees C, I was happy that things weren’t getting towards boiling point. But then I realised nothing was happening at all.

Then I re-read the instructions and realised my mistake.