Flour Power

 

My crafting life has been suffering because the Olympics has me enthralled. I'm not sure why I like to watch perfect strangers sliding down snow covered hills so much but I do so you'll find me glued to the TV all day right now. Only if something's sitting near the TV might it get picked up and worked on. Hearts and Flowers is there so it got a new purplish flower and some stems this week. I spent more time on Etsy buying more colors of wool for the other flowers than I did working on this one.

When the live events are done for the day I've been in the kitchen making bread almost every night trying out new techniques. Sourdough is a two step process. First you have to figure out the starter thing and then you have to figure out how to make a proper loaf out of it. My last loaf is getting closer but it's still not right.

Unlike yeast bread that needs kneading, the less you handle sourdough, the better.  You can't knock all the air out of it. I'm getting some bubbles but those holes should be bigger meaning this loaf was underproofed. I'm going to have to work on that. 

In spite of making all this bread, I've still got a lot of discard left over at the end of the day. Most is turned into waffles for the freezer but I also tried out a recipe for sourdough chocolate chip cookies and....

...these Parmesan Rosemary crackers. Both of these were awfully good. Too good to have around for long. I need to stop all this baking stuff and go back to just making soap. Soap doesn't pack on the pounds.

Wednesday WIPs: Melt the Ice

 

I've got whiplash. The weather just took a drastic turn for the better but it's still a mess out there. We ventured out for the first time in ages and it was iffy. Apparently, there wasn't much clearing of sidewalks happening over the past two weeks. 

The bay was filled with broken sheets of ice. I don't think I've ever seen that before. 

Speaking of melting ice, I finished my hat. Ha ha ha...it might fit my youngest Grand. It sure doesn't fit me but it is cute and the money I spent on the pattern went for a good cause. Those of you who are knitting along in bulky weight had the right idea. I wish I had. 

The only other WIP that got attention this week was The Mister's Riddari. It would be finished if I hadn't goofed up the neck. I was two inches in to what I thought it should be when I realized not only had I not changed needles but I also forgot to do the decreases. Rip, rip, rip. I'm also playing yarn chicken with that little ball of black I have left. I'd hate to buy another big skein of this yarn for just a few inches but I guess if I have to, I have to. 

TNT: Frozen

 

As I mentioned yesterday it's been so cold here that my hands have given up on me. All they want to do is hide under my shawl or work on a big pile of wool. Tiny needles are not happening much right now. I did take advantage of a sunny afternoon and finished that last big snowflake motif so Christmas Quaker is now officially packed away for the year. 

I haven't touched my official February stitching project but I did get this out again. This is my punishment project after I cut the original wrong. All that's left are the borders and I hated doing the borders on the first one so I've been putting off finishing it. It would be nice to have this done by spring so I could start something new. Ah, spring. I hate warm weather but I'm not really liking living in this land of ice either. 

Brrrr.......

 

It's been so cold here that walking around in the house is too chilly for my blood. Just the air moving around you creates a draft. The wind isn't helping. It's been howling. I tried to go downstairs and work on some Valentines on Saturday but couldn't get my hands to work for long. I gave up.

Even with the sun streaming in the windows it was still too cold on Sunday so I dug an old radiator out of storage. It warmed the room up just enough to get those Valentines finished. Even before the cold set in our electric bill was sky high so I didn't want to keep it running for long. 

I honestly don't get why the downstairs is always so cold when we have one of these and more wood than you can imagine. When I ask The Mister why he doesn't start a fire during the day to take the chill off he mumbles something about running out of wood. As if we could. 

And....with a group of 50 people who have been in a football pool all season I (as in me) was this year's winner. I ended up with an impressive 129 wins and 155 points (playoffs are scored separately) primarily by picking the same teams every week. I don't know a thing about football. I've only ever watched a couple of games in my life and they all involved Taylor Swift and what she was wearing. Now I'm in the money. $400 to be exact thanks to nothing but dumb luck. 

In the Kitchen with Betty

 

Betty and I have had some ups and downs lately. This loaf was a down. I tried a 24 hour cold proofing for the first time and ouf...all that extra fermentation made a very sour loaf. I won't be doing that again. 12 hours is the limit for me. 

Straight off that fail Betty and I tried making a few bagels. 

I was rather intimidated by all the steps you have to take. I've never boiled bread dough.

Whoops...I was caught up in something that was going on with the Olympics and let them get a little too brown in the oven.

So I split one right after taking it out to see how bad it might be and it was so good that even after protesting he was full from dinner, The Mister ate an entire half covered in blueberry jam. For the record, I did not cold proof these at all. They went in for the boil right after their second rise. 

Let the Games Begin!

 

My Olympic spin got underway yesterday while I was watching the Opening Ceremony.

I didn't get very far because this particular fiber put up a real fight. It's a very old braid and it's going to take a lot of pre-drafting to get it into spinning condition and I didn't have the patience for it yesterday. 

I was still in recovery mode from my latest Grand sitting adventure and was more interested in knitting and watching this than fighting with fiber. I love the opening and closing ceremonies and watched the live stream all day which included a lot of weird behind the scenes craziness in the morning. 

It was also another Happy Taylor Swift day as she premiered her latest music video yesterday morning. She also popped up in the Opening Ceremony wishing all the athletes good luck. 

And here we come. Love the hats....

 

..but I'm going to put this in the category of "if you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything" but I will say there's an awful lot going on there. 

It was a long wait to get to the big finish....

...but it was worth it. Ben fatto, Italia!

History Repeats Itself

 

Once upon a time I made one of these to wear downtown so it only makes sense that I make one of ......

....of these along with 6990 other Ravelers who have bought the pattern.

 I went stash diving for red yarn and I had a lot of red yarn. I think this was supposed to be a red cardigan. I've always wanted a red cardigan.

Yesterday, being our recovery from babysitting day, I had nothing much to do but sit on the couch and watch the early Olympic coverage so I got off to a good start. What are the chances I would have the right yarn and the right needle size? It was meant to be.