The Nose Knows

 

It's been raining here so I've been able to find some time to putter here and there. One of the things I did was to cut up some wool for...

...my snowman's nose. I hadn't touched it since I put it on the frame but now he's got a face. Well, part of it. I've got to fill in all that white. 

I also finished the second wonky needle punch coaster. I really like the first one I made, it comes in very handy but I think I'm going to make this one bigger by adding another border or two on it. 

The teeny tiny needle punch project has an almost finished beet on it. I've got two more leaves and then all that background fill. It takes longer to thread that little needle than it does to punch so getting this finished will take a while. 

Fluffy Stuff

 

No. Not snow. Wool. I had a jolt of reality yesterday when I realized that the Winter Olympics was right around the corner. I like to spin while I'm watching sporting events and I really needed to get this fall project off the wheel and get something more Olympic themed on it. I have that one ball of fiber to get through before I can start plying and I think it can be done if I put my mind to it. 

Over in the spinning corner my handspun Pi shawl has been languishing. I was working on her daily before the holiday pack up. I've got a lot of that border finished but there is still a very long way to go. I did some counting and it seems I have 60 some more pattern repeats to go. Sigh...

I finally put my other wheels back together. The rickety old things can't take much jostling these days. They got a good cleaning and an assessment of the projects that are on them. I think they are both ready to be plied but I'll wait until the Olympics. I'll need an excuse to sit in front of the TV every morning and needing to sit at a wheel is a good one. 

In Betty news, she's still getting her peak feedings done which is still about 3 times a day. I've got Bettys all over the place now. One in the warmer getting her 1:2:2 peak feedings. One in the oven with the light on getting a 1:1:1 feeding twice a day and one in the refrigerator taking a break so I can practice bringing her back to life. I'm still optimistic I can do this. So much so that I bought Betty a new cast iron bread pan. This one fits better in my little oven since it doesn't have a knob on the top. If all the Bettys fail, I can still use it with my regular yeast bread recipe. That boule I made with it earlier in the week is still delicious. I can't get over the difference in crust flavor and texture simply by following all the sourdough techniques and baking in a covered dish. Old dog, new tricks.

Dog Day Afternoon

 

Have you ever seen anything more pitiful? Pup had a spa day yesterday after keeping me up all night chewing and scratching. She got a haircut, her nails done, her teeth brushed and a bubble bath. She was not happy.

Even all the sweaters I've knit her got a bath. They were really stinky. I had actually tossed them all in the trash, thought better of it and dug them out. I couldn't get the dog stink out of them just by throwing them in the wash machine. It seems acrylic yarn traps stink. It has to be soaked out. A long, hot bath in vinegar and Dawn did the trick which makes me happy as I really didn't want to be knitting more doggy sweaters. 

In the very few minutes of spare time I had, I did the math on the new towel and started warping it. I didn't get very far but it's a start. 

As for Betty, I did a lot of reading and watching videos on how to strengthen her. This site was very helpful. I'm trying a new feeding pattern called the Peak to Peak to see if it helps. I have to watch her carefully for when she has reached her maximum height and then discard around 80% of her. You then feed her a 1:2:2 ratio of flour and water. You have to do this all day long until you start seeing her bubble up in progressively shorter periods of time. Thanks to Betty I had to spend an awful lot of time yesterday dusting flour off of everything and scrubbing the floors. It's been like living in a bakery around here. 
 

First Fails of 26

 

That nasty scarf is finally off the loom. I hate everything about it. I hated working on it. I hated how the colors pooled, I hated how stiff and scratchy it is. It's Zauberball in case you're wondering. It's good for sturdy socks but not good for something you want around your neck. It's an ugh for sure.

My next project showed up in the mail yesterday at just the right time. I hate the loom being empty for long.

Cotton Clouds tempted me with a kit and a sale so this towel in the Frosty Morning colorway is going to be getting some attention when I find a spare moment. There was none to be found yesterday.

It was 62 degrees here yesterday and I made the mistake of wandering out to supervise The Mister and his chainsaw adventure and ended up doing yard work all day while at the same time....

...running in and out of the house giving Betty the attention she needed while she was in the process of trying to become bread. Those every 30 minute stretch and folds are very time consuming but I guess I got a good workout running up and down the stairs all day. It was all for nothing though because she never did her thing. My first attempt at bulk fermentation was a big fail. She grew a little but there was no jiggle, not many bubbles and after 8 hours she was just a big sticky mess. After doing some homework I think Betty is still too young to do the job. I'll keep feeding and pampering her for a while longer and try again. 

Wednesday WIPs: Attachments

 

The sleeves did indeed get attached on The Mister's Riddari. The colorwork yoke is underway and now I remember why I called this my #&%! Riddari over on Ravelry. I hated doing the 3 colors in a row thing then and I hate doing it now. I'm trying to psych myself out by doing only one row at a time while putting something interesting on TV and just resigning myself to get as much done on it as I feel like in one sitting. When I get to the rows where there are only 2 colors it feels like a holiday. 

I'm attaching a thumb onto the first of the Holt mittens. The thing on the left is the sad beginning of the Glennis Cowl. I've had to rip it back several times because as simple as it is, I still managed to goof it up. Twice. I think I've got it now for at least the next 6 inches. 

I've got new socks on the go. Regia on top, Static on the bottom. I started the Static ages ago but have ignored them for months. They are in the travel bag now so they get worked on every day that we go out. 

In bread news, I made a boule. It's not Betty. I wanted to practice all the sourdough techniques like the pinching, stretching and folding before I sacrificed Betty so I made just a regular yeast dough. It didn't go so well. The recipe I used didn't have enough water to make a pliable enough dough so I had to do a lot of hydrating to get it to do anything remotely sourdough like. I thought the pitiful little dough ball was hopeless but when I woke up and took it out of the fridge yesterday morning it had really grown.

I practiced cutting with my new lame and cooking in a cast iron Dutch oven. What I learned is that I need to take the bread out of the Dutch oven for the final 20 minute bake because.........

....I don't have a real oven. I only have this little toaster oven thing that I keep in the big oven and the heating elements on the top are too close to the bread when the lid is off of the Dutch oven. You might recall that this is my new fancy European style range from my big kitchen re-do and that we fought Frigidaire for over a year to get the oven to work. They played us out until the warranty expired and now I'm stuck with a useless oven. It's not really a very big deal since it's just the two of us. The little thing works just fine and probably saves electricity. I just have to remember to get Betty out before she gets too crispy. 

It was a decent loaf considering all the misery I put that poor dough through for 24 hours. It made some nice avocado toast. 

TNT: Possibilities

 

No. I did not finish the little doodad on the right so Christmas Quaker is still with us for another week at least. I did start the Camel and have one whole row done on the very top. It's slow going but I do enjoy it.

I dug Funky Flower out again and finished the orange flower and background section on the left. 

Dear Jane has one border sewn on. I couldn't do much more than this because....

....I've gotten one and half blocks done on the Patchwork quilt and that teeny tiny needle makes my fingers very sore from all the stabbing. In spite of a little blood here and there, I am really enjoying the process. I really thought it was a fool's errand to do this by hand but I'm thinking it was a good decision. I look forward to working on it every day.

Speaking of a fool's errand, look at this. Can you see the teeny tiny Mister over on the left? He really thinks he's going to clear all that debris from the tree removal. In reality all that means is that he's dragging it into different piles in different places in the woods. All of which is still in plain sight so I don't see the point tbh. He's trying to make me feel guilty about not wanting to go out and work with him every day. I've paid my dues with these darn trees and I'm over it. I say let Mother Nature figure this mess out. She's got more energy than I have and I have better ways to waste my time. 

First Finish of 2026

 

There is one less thing in the WIP knitting pile but there is a problem. It fits, kind of. The circumference is perfect but the length is not. I bought this pattern from Knit Picks because it supposedly uses one ball of chunky Brava but it turns out that it is not enough for the length I like. As you can see, I didn't have enough left over to do much more than a few more rows and this is a problem because...

....I have all these single skeins that I bought to make more hats to match my winter sweaters. I could order another skein of each I suppose but that's not feeling right because...

....I just got this giant box of yarn from Knit Picks. Daughter sent me a gift certificate for Christmas so I spent it on this and that. There is some Felici and some Static, none of which is terribly interesting and the yarn for a kit to make a hat and scarf set. 

This one to be exact, only mine will be in gray and black instead of the pink which I really like now that I look at it. 2026 is off to a heck of a start. Too many decisions.

In Betty news, she's been growing. A lot. Every day. It's been exciting to see her come alive but now I have to figure out what comes next. I haven't thought that far ahead because I honestly doubted I'd get this far so soon. 

I did read where I need about 100 grams of starter to make a loaf so I panicked and instead of discarding half, yesterday I kept 80 grams of it and started another jar. This is Big Betty because she is in a much larger jar. Little Betty is only about 50 grams and doesn't have much more room to grow. Big Betty has plenty of room to spread out and lives in the microwave and seems very happy there in spite of the cooler temperatures.

I've been feeling so confident that I bought a couple of bannetons for proofing. If I can keep the Bettys alive until Wednesday I just might have enough to start my first loaf. How scary is that?