from scratch

So, this week I started making mittens for my one year old nephew. His mom had requested gray mittens. I had tons of gray fiber, so I spun up some gray Icelandic wool, gray handdyed silk, and naturally gray alpaca. I made a three ply yarn. I knit this swatch. Maybe it was the cloudy weather or the bad karma around here, but I just couldn't do it to a little boy. This gray looked like a little old man and I couldn't continue. I was sad.

I went back through the emails and saw, ahh, the coat had yellow, gray and black in it. I thought, what about a bumblebee theme? I started trying that out and got this far before I thought, hmm, not machine washable, and still sort of dorky colors:


So I stopped that right away. Then, I refocused. I made myself re-examine the situation. I looked at the humongo stash and said, "Oh, sock yarn, of course, it's machine washable." I broke through the "but Joanne wanted that color yarn for her own socks" barrier (my socks will just be shorter, that's all) and here's what I knitted up.
Time: 2-3 hours total
Yarn: Maybe 150 yarns of fingering weight yarn, doubled
Mental Anguish, phonecalls, etc. in choosing yarn and thinking about mittens, which shows Auntie Joanne really loves you: about 20 hours. At least.
Cute Nephew getting mittens for his 1st birthday? Priceless, of course.

By the way, the skein of handspun gray alpaca, silk and Icelandic wool three ply is up for grabs if anyone has a better idea of what to do with it. I spun it for the nephew, so I have no further plans for it...

I've been going through a slump lately. Not feeling great, struggling with all sort of things, and feeling sort of down. When that happens, I usually remember to bake bread. It makes me feel somewhat better. I've been doing this, with largely positive results, for the last 20 years, so I've had some practice and I've made a lot of bread. Then I tried this recipe from the New York Times. This bread had possibly the best crust and the most flavorful crumb I've ever produced. It was like the $4-$8 loaves that one buys at the slow food, artisanal bread bakeries that sadly, we do not have in Bowling Green. It rocked. The two of us ate this whole loaf in less than a day. I've started making more. It's that good. This time, I'm doing a whole wheat version. What could possibly be bad about bread that looks this good?


PS: Please remember to say hi every now and again so I know you are reading and I feel motivated to keep posting. Keep me company out here in cyberspace!