Knitting Continues on the KAL

It's so easy to just pick up the needles and knit.

KAL with Donna Druchunas

I'm participating in a Mystery Mitten KAL on Ravelry with Donna Druchunas.

Words to describe my wool:

• from Belfast mini mills
• my homespun
• Navajo or chain ply
• worsted weight
• warm colours
• not enough contrast
• doesn't match anything I have

Progress so far on mitts:

The Roving. Merino, Silk, Cashmere, Mohair

The Single

My Norwegian Wheel

 I have a corner in my kitchen where I placed the dog beds. It's in the above picture behind the wheel and at the window. It was easy to put the dogs' place there, but I really intended it for a wheel and chair. I haven't decided what I will do.

And now it's time for a tea and either a little knitting or some spinning since I managed to spend the morning on my computer.

It's nice to have something I can show for the results of the day. And my looms are awaiting attention. I have a small floor loom I would like to get a scarf warp on this week.

November Endings with Bread, a New Approach

I put off the two bedroom painting projects to nurse myself back to health. I have had a sinus cold/infection for two weeks now and just when I think it is easing off I have another night of coughing and sleeplessness. Sometimes that leads to a hot lemon and honey drink to steam the discomfort away with a book or more knitting. More often than not, it's a book I choose just in case my groggy mind leads me to a knit mistake I would have to frog back.

The book I read was 'Slade House' by David Mitchell. This is the first book I have read in a long while that really had a well written writing style. Thank you David! Sort of a ghost story, but more complex than that.

I am also researching one of my other hobbies of bread baking. This time with Peter Reinhart's book - Crust and Crumb. I used to make the best tasting bread. It looked beautiful, but it really had a wonderful flavour. I haven't been able to capture it in the last few years and I blamed the modern grains we have to work with. Modern grains may very well be part of the problem, but perhaps my methods have slipped too? So I read Chapters one and two word for word and only occasionally looked ahead.

Well I started yesterday's bread making off differently. I started with a 'biga style' preferment. I mixed up a few pounds and let it age and do its flavour development at room temperature for 6 hours. I took off a pound, broke it up into small pieces in my large mixing bowl and added my fresh ingredients for two loaves worth. I put it through two risings and one final proof before the bake.

I monitored the internal temperature of the dough and the final bread; something I haven't done before. Final temperature of the loaf just out of the oven was 207 F degrees. Actually it should have been 185F according to the book, but it looked good.

The aroma of the bread coming from the oven at the 20 minute mark, I thought, was different and more pleasant than any of my previous breads. It was baking at 350F for 42 minutes. The loaves were for sandwich bread, so not a fancy artisan loaf. When they were removed from the oven, I tipped them out to check the colour which was good and set them on racks to cool.

By now, it is 10pm and the house smelled really good! I was supposed to wait 2 hours, but my husband had to have some right away, so we tried it immediately. I am fortunate to have some 'farm butter' in the house at the moment, so we cut into the loaf, sniffed it, examined the crumb and did the taste test with the 'farm butter'.

It was delicious! And the flavour of the other loaves (I can only describe it as yeast and alcohol) I had been making the last few years was not present in this one. This one was sweet tasting and had a wonderful texture and flavour. A definite success. I'm a believer in the science and chemistry in bread baking.

I can't do this post without a bread picture. A little lopsided, but unique.

Multigrain Sandwich loaf

For the Hands

I've been knitting these using a fingering weight cabled yarn I bought on a cone with unknown fibre content. I did a burn test and there is wool in it because it self extinguished.

I would probably never knit a mitt using anything without wool in it just for the warmth factor alone.

I love playing with colour, whether it's yarn, dye, fiber or paint and decided right now that I would like to produce some mittens.

My favourite knitting projects are sweater, socks, mittens, and fingerless gloves. Scarves are too boring because there is no shaping usually and I'm not into shawls too much-I'd rather weave them.

One of my favourite books for mittens is Robin Hansens 'Favorite Mittens'.
Here is a project I made from that book.

p. 142. Chipman's Check Wristers

And these are Deep Ocean Mitts from 'Alterknit Stitch Dictionary' by Andrea Rangel.

Colourwork Mittens

I am currently working on 'Deep Ocean Mittens' from the Alterknit Stitch Dictionary by Andrea Rangel.
A little bit of a challenge, but I think I've got the hang of it.

Topside of Deep Ocean Mitt

Palm of Deep Ocean Mitt

Here is an update. I just finished the right mitt. This shows it not yet wet finished, so I expect the stiches to move around and even themselves up. The yarn I am using is a mystery yarn. The structure of it is cabled - which means that it is 2 two ply yarns plied together to make one very strong yarn. It is fingering weight and suspecting it is wool or at least a wool blend, I did a burn test on a piece of it.

After lighting it with a match, it self extinguished very quickly. The ash was black and melted a little, so there must be some nylon in it. It is a worsted spin and the stitch and colour definition in the mitten is really nice for showing off the two colours.

My two colour knitting technique needs some practice and refining.

I love the thumb knitting here.

Fall in PE

The fall of 2017 has been a beautiful one - many trees in a blaze of glorious colour on a background of blue sky and few white clouds. If that sounds boring to you I assure you it's not. It's a really great time of the year filled with colour and I thrive on colour; I can't get enough of it.

Colour is like chocolate for me. Of course I like chocolate, no - I love milk chocolate. It's a toss up which I like more. I think colour because there are no calories.

That's why I like love picture painting, spinning, knitting and dyeing.

At this very moment, most of the leaves are off the trees except for a few yellow ones. I'm not sure what type of tree holds them. We have three very young oak trees and they turned a lovely deep red. We have a flaming bush at the corner of the house and it was brilliant crimson.

The temperature has gone low enough to give us frost at night then warmed up again to 22 or 25, then down to 18. The air is different here. I know it will get really cold, but somehow it is different. I can really feel how the ocean regulates the temperature. They say that about the great lakes, but it always felt either stifling hot or freezing cold in Ontario. Yah, I know, just wait for winter. Okay.

I've made a sweater, slippers, socks and now I am working on some colour work mittens. That seems to be what I'm interested in right now. So for the next while that's what I'll be doing - colourwork.

Bluejay feeding

Uppsala Slippers

Made with Scarfie. Paton's Leaflet #5002

A striking pic of our neighbour's place before barn removal.

I'm still unpacking and arranging my sewing room that also has my weaving yarns. My soap, lotion and makeup stuff will have to go in the basement after the heating is installed. It's a very small 8X8 room with two really large doorways and a window. Hardly any wall or floor space. Organizing there is a tough, difficult job.

I'm still painting and will begin on the bedrooms soon. The kitchen - well, I'm building myself up for that.

On the house end part of the news, well Greenfoot has insulated the attic and basement and is in the process of drilling. The 'unit' was delivered just this afternoon. This is so exciting!!

For dog training...well Bob has kind of been suspended until he gets his barking under control. This week with the workmen around here, I can see leaps of improvement with him. He's still not ready for class, but coming along well in my opinion. The ecollars we have are working well.

That's about it for now. Time for tea and cookies from a really great bakery in Brudenell. Sorry, don't know the name of it. Bye for now.