February 2019 – Someday I will own a sheep

Redemption

Victory is mine. My honor and dignity are restored, and I once again have the means of excellent breakfasts at my disposal.

Today my sourdough starter was benevolent

I spent the week feeding my starter religiously, determined to make up for ignoring it in refrigerator. I also baked some yeast breads, to prove to myself that I could still produce edible foods.

My confidence thus restored, and my starter thus appeased, I spent Saturday preparing a new loaf, and was rewarded.

If there is a better snack than warm, freshly baked sourdough with blueberry jam, I have yet to discover it.

On the crafting front, my knitting has been neglected this week. Even though I know it’s February, and we have weeks and weeks of cold still ahead, I am distracted by thoughts of spring.

The violets may not be sprouting up outside just yet, but at least I can stitch a few for myself.

Sourdough frisbee

In my first post I promised you failures. I am somewhat less than delighted to be able to fulfill that promise already, and yet, here we are.

I first started making sourdough bread this summer. I got a giant book with various bread recipes from Costco, and one chapter went over how to make your own sourdough bread, starting by making your own “wild” sourdough starter.

I was intrigued. I knew sourdough was supposed to be tricky, but I’ve always been very good at following directions, so I decided to give it a shot.

I filled a jar with the requisite amount of flour and water, “fed” it regularly, and soon enough it was bubbling up just as the book said it should!

My first loaf turned out beautifully, and I was convinced I was already a sourdough master.

I was wrong.

I’ve made maybe a dozen loaves since then, and my attempts have been very hit or miss. Some days I get beautifully risen, round loafs like the first one, other days my dough prefers to expand horizontally, rather than vertically.

My fleeting successes in sourdough baking keep me playing along.

Today was a horizontal sort of day. I knew something was up when after hours and hours the dough was still only bubbly, not risen, but I baked it anyway, just in case.

Sourdough frisbee. Cannot in good conscious refer to this as “bread”.

Whelp. Maybe it will still taste okay.

The best kind of knitting

My favorite types of knitting project are intricate ones. I love lace, cables, colorwork – the more the better.

Lace shawl improvised using The Magic of Shetland Lace Knitting, by Elizabeth Lovick

Tracery (vest), by Kathleen Sperling, knit in Malabrigo Sock

My closet is full of projects like these, in various states of completeness. But while I love them, more intricate projects invariably take more concentration than simpler ones. Thus, my favorite types of knitting projects are often least suitable for the majority of my knitting time; when I’m watching a movie, spending time with friends, sitting on the metro, etc.

To that end, while most of my works in progress are the fiddly projects I like so much, most of the things I actually finish are much simpler.

There are some projects, however, that occupy the best of both worlds. These have an intricate element about them, perhaps a lace edging that keeps things interesting, but then the bulk of the knitting is mindless. A perfect example – colorwork yoke sweaters.

Almanac, from strange brew by Alexa Ludeman and Emily Wessel. Knit in assorted colors of Shepherd’s Wool.

With this sweater, I can satisfy all of my desire for complicated patterning in the first part of the project, then cruise through the body (I made some excellent progress during the Super Bowl last weekend).

Much knitting can be accomplished during a football game, particularly when neither team ever manages to score.

With any luck, this may just be a completed sweater by springtime!

A matter of time

Someday I will own a sheep. It’s really only a matter of time. I love to make things, so much so that my home is inundated with projects.

If you were to walk into my room right now and casually glance around, you would find:

a spinning wheel in one corner
a weaving loom in another
assorted yarn-filled project bags on the floor (en route to the closet, I swear)
mismatched paintings on the walls
a few scraggly avocado seedlings that may not last the winter

And that’s just what’s in plain sight! That’s not counting the sourdough starter in the fridge, or the painting supplies stashed away in drawers, or the bag of paraffin wax for candlemaking under the bed.

I acquire creative hobbies and supplies at an alarming rate, and so you see, it’s only a matter of time before I decide to go straight to the source and get a sheep.

Of course, to own a sheep, I’ll likely need to be living somewhere other than a city apartment, so that day will have to wait. In the meantime, I’ll fill my days with knitting, spinning, painting, baking and who knows what else. I hope that my creative pursuits (and failures) will prove entertaining and perhaps informative. I promise to keep things interesting. I make no promises to finish projects in a timely manner.

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