Hazy

It was a year of very high highs and very low lows. I hardly ever knew what the date was during the entire school year. Teaching was awesome, and one of my favorites! I lost a few friends and an uncle. I did start knitting the shawl that I received for Christmas, but the progress was halted by summer camps. I'm starting a month of vacation and hope to recuperate by unplugging and doing something completely different Think hiking...

Here are a few spring flower pictures to keep my tradition going. The crocuses started March 10, daffodils were open by March 15, and the willows were blooming by the 21st. Not pictured is the first rose on April 30.

New Hobby Unlocked

Watch out world! I do in fact have a new hobby, and it’s crocheting. Thankfully, I already have so much yarn to use, but may need new patterns, kits, and hooks. Who is scared for me?! (Me. I’m scared! Haha!)

When I started teaching my niece to crochet a few weeks ago, I idly started knitting a longer thin strip. It looked like the brim of a hat, so connecting it in a circle seemed like a good next step. Picking up stitches was pretty easy and then I improvised the decreases. I’ll have to pull up a video to see if my strategy has a name. 

Trying it on after every other round was helpful to see if I was deceasing at the right pace. I started decreasing every 11 stitches for 6 rounds, then decreased every 4th stitch every third round for several rounds. Finally the decrease was at every stitch, making the top of the hat a little hole-y, but I’m pondering whether to add a Pom Pom. 

Fun, no-brand yarn has interesting color choices, but since it was free, I’m calling it “whimsical.”

And for my record keeping, some spring flowers that are blooming around the house. 

March 28

March 25

March 22

March 20

March 13

March 13

This tree came down in a storm on March 15, and our neighbor saw it and shoved it into the woods with his tractor. My neighbors are amazing!

Friends, Foes, and Flowers

The Herd made some new friends this past weekend! They were excited to get some grain snacks. The girls are looking wistfully at Dark Star’s good fortune. 

Not to worry though, Cherise stepped right up for her turn at the bucket. Peggy-O did not partake, though it may be a bit hard to see with that mop on her head.

One thing they all agreed upon was that those dogs are under suspicion. The alpacas are standing guard and have a few choice scary clickety-clicks to share with the four-legged guests. 

But not to worry, those girls were tied up safely at the other end of the pasture, enjoying a snooze and the occasional wrestling! (And super adorable. I did not capture a still shot, sadly.)

Finally, here are some spring flowers to mark their dates of bloom. March 25

March 10

March 15

Enjoy the changing season!

Sourdough Side Quest

A few weeks ago I was tasked with baking bread for a large family gathering. I had not fed the sourdough starter for many months, and after its first meal, it gave a decidedly understated one-bubble burp. So I was forced to look up a bread machine recipe that would allow for discard starter while rehabilitating. 

I ended up using THIS recipe and immediately started experimenting. I used one cup of whole wheat and two cups of white flour. The bread turned out well. The second time I used one cup of white, one cup of whole wheat, and one cup of rye flour and also added sunflower and flax seeds when the knead cycle beeped. It turns out I flew too close to the sun. The bread was very dense and moist. Still edible, just not my favorite. The third version I made, I put all of the ingredients except the yeast and salt into the baking pan and stirred it to combine. Then I let the dough rest overnight before adding the last two ingredients and starting the bread maker. The loaf turned out tall and fluffy, but with plenty of structure to handle cold butter. Now, I’ll just see if I can add more whole wheat and some seeds. That loaf is pictured below in the bottom left corner. I also think THIS bread recipe might have some merit as it uses more sourdough starter. 

 

After the starter had refreshed itself, the fourth discard was ready to be used in my mom’s famous recipe. It was the first time I tried making bread with my new KitchenAid, and the size of the bowl was perfect for handling the half recipe. I can use the paddle for the first stirring since it is a very wet dough, and then the dough hook for the second knead. Because I was able to use the machine, the dough was able to “show” me that I needed to add another half cup of flour. I usually bake a very dense and moist loaf using this bread recipe, and this time it turned out much better. After trying the overnight sourdough resting with the bread machine dough, I think I will try the same with this recipe and see if there is a lighter texture as a result. The three loaves were delightful!

Finally, since this is an early spring, I just want to mark the dates the crocus and daffodils first bloomed: March 1 and March 19 respectively. It’s a gorgeous day today, so I’m off into the yard to get some gardening started!

Striped Flax

My first finished object of 2022 fell off off the needles on March 16! I’ve eyed the Flax pattern for a while and was scared to make the adjustments for DK weight yarn. One day I just started knitting the third smallest size and then kept increasing the raglan seams until the yoke was long enough for me to start sleeves. 

In addition, I added the garter stitch panels on the ribs to match the garter stripe on the top of the sleeves. I made decreases for the waist and a few increases for hips at the very end.

The sleeves show where I started running out of different colors as the knitting neared the bottom of the sweater. I wisely decided to start knitting the sleeves as I completed stripe sets on the body. It was nice to not get bored on sleeves at the end also. Noted, for future top-down sweaters…

Over 23,000 Flax sweaters are listed on the Ravelry project page. It’s a very basic pattern that you can “play” with easily. I might make another some day as well.

At the very end, these were my leftovers. I think I did pretty well on the stash busting!

And right on cue for a cozy sweater finish, we have Spring. Picture was taken on March 20. Of course we had bone chilling 18* on Monday and a balmy 75* today, so who knows if these flowers will still be nice for the beginning of April.

Red Bud Jelly

Imagine my surprise when one of my Facebook friends posted about making jelly from the flowers of the Eastern Red Bud tree! As you can see by the faint, yet prolific, fuchsia hue around my backyard, there are many flowers to harvest for such a project!

So I set about gathering six cups of the blooms. It was a little sad to strip the trees, but this tree is pretty invasive, and I gathered from the ones where I don't necessarily need more seeds to take root next year. 

You pour six cups of boiling water on top and steep the flowers for 24 hours. The infusion results in this incredible shade of pink!

Kind of fancy-looking in a wine glass, and I *may* have added some Malfey gin con limone after I sampled the taste of the pure juice. The juice was delicious both pure and enhanced! The juice does have a tiny bit of a bean after taste, which is not surprising as the tree belongs in the bean family.

The jelly was easy to make. I used this recipe. The jelly took a few days to really set, so have patience. I put it in the fridge a few days to speed the process.

Delicious product enjoyed on some home-made bread with butter! Yum! The taste of the jelly is not as distinctive as the juice, but sweet and light. You can't beat the fun pink color!

Enjoy the warming weather, and hope that you are safe and healthy!

Nice Rug!

It's Yarn Along day at Ginny's blog, so I decided to keep my monthly streak of posts going. Do go see what all the other crafty people are making (and reading) this month by clicking here.

After finishing my baby watermelon dress last month, I also just finished an ultra chunky rug out of our homegrown Suri alpaca rug yarn. My cat immediately found it, and he looks very possessive here. My Ravelry notes are here.

These rugs are soooo comfy to stand on while brushing teeth or perhaps cooking in the kitchen. I made my husband one last year, and it is holding up well and is a treat for weary feet at the end of a day.

I'm not sure what to work on next... I have a few knitting projects that are in the "deep winter" category and need finishing. I might be ready to do a lighter cardigan, like Amiga, though. My reading at this point in the year is strictly in the musical score department. My school is doing "The Little Mermaid" in May and I get to conduct the pit orchestra this year! Woohoo! So much work, but so much fun!

In other news, some early Spring flowers are starting to pop up in the yard. I'm not sure we're finished with snow and cold, but it sure is delightful to spot bright colors amidst all the grey and brown again!

Have a wonderful month, and see you all next time!

A Bit Early

The sights of Spring are all around… but so early.

The only thing that's late is the egg-laying from our chickens. The older chickens are almost 5 years old, so not too surprising.

And there is that late-season snow storm predicted for this week. We'll see, we'll see...

Better content soon… or later. Hard to tell these days… 

Sputter

It's been a crazy month filled with contests and concerts and celebrations and auditions and interviews. I feel like life kind of sputtered to a halt while all of that was going on. Today was the last day of school, and I decided to wander out of the cave that is my office and take stock of my yard. Apparently lots of things have been happening in my absence.

I'll be back with more after a long nap. And when I finish writing the last of the pesky emails still on my to do list...

HAPPY SUMMER!