Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Bread & Knitting



I have a problem with store-bought bread. Not so much the quality, because you can get some really great breads off the shelves. It's the price that really burns me. $2.99-$3.50 or more for a lousy loaf that costs .50 or less to make. This would not be such a big deal if I bought bread once or twice a week. In my house, however, we go through 1-2 loaves every day and have for years and years.

I used to have a bread machine, which I used daily for years and years. It made pretty decent bread at a pretty decent price. When it finally died last October I found that I was delighted with the freed-up space on my counter (small kitchen, not much space to begin with), so I decided to go back to making bread by hand again. About that time there was an article in the NY Times about easy bread with really great crust, and the ancient Dutch oven that had belonged to a long-deceased aunt got a new lease on life.

Voila, yesterday's breads:






Oatmeal





French


On the knitting front, I am slowly working away on the cashmere lace scarf. This yarn is such a pleasure to handle, I am in no hurry at all to finish the project.



The pattern comes from that lucious bit of eye candy, Victorian Lace Today, with some slight modifications from me.


In the meantime, I was looking at Brooklyntweed's blog and was fascinated by the baby hats he made. So I made a couple of my own. The pattern is free on-line at Hello Yarn. Really cute and each takes less than a day to make. I used two different balls of Mexican Wave from stash.

Monday, February 05, 2007

Luxury Monkey on my Back

I figured out a really great way to deal with my headache-inducing Douceur et Soie. I was at knitting group on Wednesday evening, struggling, swearing, sweating out dropped stitches and funny pattern results. Chocolate and Raspberries arrived and sat down beside me. My first thought was that the color of my yarn would look fabulous with her blond hair, blue eyes, and fair skin. Jerking the knitted piece off my needles, scattering markers all over the table, and frogging it in record time, I handed the ball of yarn to her, along with its virgin mate, and told her that it was a gift. From me to her.

That felt sooo good. It was a monkey on my back. An albatross around my neck. Cement booties on my feet. It was expensive and beautiful. It was not worth the pain and suffering.

I am now free.....free to knit with the 2 balls of Bollicina (65% cashmere, 35% silk) that have been in stash for several years, untouched until now because I was not worthy until I found a solution to the dreaded D&S problem. Out of sight, out of mind.