Rosemary & Chive ABin5

Every 3 months I get so busy at work that it becomes difficult to keep up with the normal household routine. Baking bread falls by the wayside and we end up eating store bought bread for a week or two.

I celebrated a lull in the work schedule by making a 1/2 batch of the master recipe from Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. I adding fresh rosemary & garlic chives from the garden, about 2 tsps of each in the 2 lb batch of dough.

Like a good golfer, I "hit a provisional" and took a photo before baking just in case the rosemary on top burned to a crisp.


Rosemary & Chive ABin5 before baking

It smelled amazing while it was baking and turned out beautifully.


Rosemary & Chive ABin5

It makes wicked grilled cheese sandwiches and is a perfect pairing with lentil soup.

HKF

It's Hand Knit Friday! What hand knits do you have on today?

I'm wearing socks knit with hand spun.


Mars Mission socks
Project info on Ravelry

HKF

It's Hand Knit Friday! What hand knits do you have on today?

I'm wearing


Almost Baroque
Project details on Ravelry

Tour de Fleece Day 16

Today I took a break from the Lendrum and took a spinning class. This was a raffle prize that my sister won at the Grand Opening for A Verb For Keeping Warm, a private 2 hour session with Michael Wade. She generously asked if it could be a 1 hour session for 2 people and when she got the okay, invited me along. Now how great is that?

But before the session started, we stopped at the shop that just opened next door to AVFKW, James & the Giant Cupcake. We sampled Love Potion and Salt Sea Caramel, then I got a box of four to go.


Cupcakes

Zingo, I was high on chocolate and icing and ready to spin!

Grace and I narrowed down the list of topics to bottom whorl/Turkish spindle spinning, horizontal drafting, Navajo plying on a spindle and Navajo plying on the fly. What a great session! We saw a variety of Turkish spindles and talked about the advantages and disadvantages (if any) of each design, I learned how to wind a cop properly, and Michael talked about different ways to initiate the spin.

The horizontal drafting was very cool. With a slight modification it made controlling the twist easier for me and I was able to handle my slippery Merino-bamboo blend better and not have my drop spindle drop to the floor.

I had never Navajo plied on a spindle before, so seeing how it was done and practicing a bit was very helpful. But the last technique totally blew me away--Navajo Ply on the Fly. You don't spin singles first and then transfer the singles off the spindle before plying. You start with singles and end up with plied yarn on your spindle. It's like magic. I'm going to finish spinning the Merino-Bamboo using this method.

If you want to learn cool drop spinning techniques, check the class schedule at A Verb for Keeping Warm. Michael is a great teacher and I recommend him highly.

I may be a spindle spinner yet. (Note, this is my first blog post tagged with the word "spindle".)

Thank you Grace & Michael, I had a great time and learned a lot!

Another favorite: Sourdough Biscuits

The sourdough starter is a few weeks old and I think I'm getting my sourdough mojo back. This is the 3rd time I've made these biscuits and each batch is better than the last.


Sourdough Biscuits

They're delicious with butter and jam and they also make a great little sandwich bun.


Front: Strawberry-Olallieberry
Back: Peach

The starter is from Goldrush and the biscuit recipe is from the Carl Griffith 1847 Oregon Trail Sourdough Starter brochure.

HKF

It's Hand Knit Friday! What hand knits do you have on today?

I'm wearing


Free Pattern

Tour de Fleece Day 11

I thought for sure Bobbin 6 would be full on Sunday, but I just wasn't able to spend that much time with my wheel. After a day of rest, I was re-energized and able to finish the bobbin tonight.


Front to back: Bobbin 6 finished today, bobbin 5, bobbin 4.

I'll let #6 rest overnight and will ply these singles tomorrow. 652 gms of fiber have been spun and there's only 260 gms left to go.

Summer in a jar

Nothing says summer like stone fruit.


Apricots

Jam captures summer in a jar.


Apricot Jam

Tour de Fleece Day 7

It didn't occur to me that all of the posts about singles would look the same. I guess that's what happens when you spin 2 pounds of fiber. Oh well, it's a heck of a lot of spinning and I'm going to celebrate it in my blog. So there.

Another day, another bobbin!


Bobbin 5 on Day 7

HKF

It's Hand Knit Friday! What hand knits do you have on today?

Warm temperatures = cotton blend socks.


Primavera socks
Project details on Ravelry

Tour de Fleece Day 6

It's yarn!


3-ply yarn

287 gms of 10-11 wpi 3-ply. It's soft but it'll get softer after it takes a bath.

Tour de Fleece Day 5

Today I finished bobbin 4 that I started yesterday. To go from this:


Bobbin 4 on Day 4

to this:


Bobbin 4 on Day 5

Took over an hour. Sheesh.

Now all my spinning bobbins are full so you know what that means--it's time to ply!

Tour de Fleece Day 4

I wasn't able to finish the 4th bobbin today, but that's okay. I still met my goal of spinning every day.

Day 4:


Today's spinning

Tour de Fleece Day 3

I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to finish today's bobbin and still have light to take a photo. That was close.

Day 3:


Front: Today's spinning
Middle: Day 2's spinning
Back: Day 1's spinning

Olalalalala

Olallieberries made an appearance at the Farmers' Market yesterday.


Strawberries and Olallieberries

Ooo, this should be good! Enjoy the 4th everyone.


Strawberry Olallieberry Jam

Tour de Fleece Day 2

Each bobbin holds ~100 gms, so there will be 9 bobbins of singles. That's daunting, but I finished another today.

Day 2:


Front: Today's spinning
Back: Yesterday's spinning

Tour de Fleece Day 1

Let the spinning begin!

This year I'm tackling 2 pounds of Ashland Bay Merino Tussah Top that I bought at Stitches West a few years ago. The target yarn is 12 wpi 3-ply. A handspun, hand knit sweater is in my future.


Tour de Fleece 2011

Day 1, bobbin 1:

HKF

It's Hand Knit Holiday-Weekend-Friday! What hand knits do you have on today?

I'm wearing socks made with yarn that I dyed using the Machine Knitting to Dye For technique.

Dye-o-rama Socks
Project details on Ravelry