I invite you to commemorate my second anniversary of being diagnosed with cancer by making a conscious effort today to limit your exposure to cancer-causing agents and activities and increase those activities that fight it. So, maybe spring for organic produce at the market, take a long walk, choose a vegetarian option at dinner, and stop by the library to check out this book.
Have a happy, healthy day!
Recently, we both faced large projects in need of finishing — Virginia, a sweater pattern; me, a pound of roving. There were days when it seemed like neither of us would actually finish. But, even with projects that seem to drag the most, there’s always a possibility of finding that nugget of inspiration to push you through to the end (even if what motivates you is just getting it off the dining room table).
Virginia’s project, a pattern in Berocco #228 called “Nopareil,” was knit with some beautiful Blackstone Tweed.
Sometimes projects take on a more generous amount of inertia, making forward progress more of a slush. From what I overheard, this also must have been aided by choices made by the designer, in terms of construction, details and a collar that would not end.
Still, all in all a nice sweater.
My own project was spinning up a pound of roving. If you have been a regular follower of ScratchCraft you may have noticed a drop in the number of spinning-related projects. I have started to kick things back in to gear, but got a little ahead of myself when deciding to tackle a 16 oz. blend of Pygora, Wool, Mohair and Silk.
All told, I spun approximately 1050 yards of 2-ply yarn. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a lovely fiber making a lovely yarn. But, if you aren’t spinning regularly, 16 oz. can feel like it’s taking forever (must be some sort of fiber equivalent of ADHD). At any rate, it’s done, and I think Virginia already has a sweater idea brewing.
My motivation to finish came with the arrival of my installment of fiber from Hello Yarn. This is “Scorch.” I knew that in order to dive into this luscious 4 oz. pile of goodness, I had to free up the spools.
And, now I can — tonight, in fact.
These last two weeks were a bit of a rollercoaster ride, starting with the adoption of a new family member, Juniper Tulip.
Twenty-four hours later we had to bring her back to her foster family, both Virginia’s and my allergies were making it nearly impossible to give her the love and attention she deserved. Though heartbroken, we were glad to hear that she was promptly adopted by a large family on some acreage – giving her plenty to do, lots of love, children to herd (being part collie) and lots of room to run around. It’s amazing how quickly we bonded with her. She will always be our dog, even if we only had her for a day.
But, it’s back to the two of us. And, nothing says things are getting back to normal like enjoying dinner while watching a good show on the tele.
Weeks seven and eight had a lot of snacking, baking, beautiful night skies and the beginnings of our vacation plans.
Can’t believe it’s already been eight weeks since the new year.
I’m sitting here Sunday morning, hunkering down as the second snowpocalypse begins outside. I was up early, warming up the house with baking bread. Specifically, I was attempting to make buns, being once again discouraged by the mile-long list of ingredients in the store-bought varieties.
These appear to do the trick (we’ll be testing them out later today as they sandwich a black bean burger with sautéed onions and mushrooms), and they were super easy to make. I modified an existing recipe to work with the ingredients I had on hand. The recipe is as follows.
Combine and heat to about 120 degrees :
Mix together in a separate bowl:
Then, add wet ingredients to dry ingredients, including 1 egg. Mix thoroughly, then slowly combine about 2 to 2 1/2 cups white flour and knead until dough is smooth and elastic (I used my KitchenAid stand mixer for about 2 minutes). Take dough and pull apart into 10 to 12 pieces, which you then roll into a ball then place, slightly flattened, on a baking sheet (or, in my case, a silpat covering a baking sheet). Let rise for 30 to 40 minutes and bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 15 minutes (or until golden brown).
One of the biggest satisfactions of making food from scratch is the total control over the ingredients. I’m not sure why sandwich buns need high fructose corn syrup, or any of the other “enhancements.” These may not have the shelf life, but chances are they will be long gone before they expire.
Still on the topic of essentials, I’m happy to say my spinning wheel has been getting some use (not quite the 15-minutes a day I had hoped to accomplish in the new year), enough to finally finish some lovely 3-ply yarn.
This is spun from some handdyed Corriedale that Virginia picked up for me from cloudlover (at last year’s Shepherd’s Harvest festival). I navajo-plied the yarn, yielding approximately 370 yards from a little less than 5 ounces of roving. I believe a pair of socks are being planned with the yarn.
And, speaking of socks, Virginia has been working on several pair (as usual), one of the most recent are these:
Knit following one of Charlene Schurch’s four-stitch reticulated patterns in her book Sensational Knitted Socks. These are made with two colors of Jawoll “Aktion.”
Well, I’m off to make some lunch, and to draw in some energy for the piles of snow that will need to be shoveled over the course of the next 24 hours.