Alas the best laid plans and all that

Well I enjoyed regular blogging for a bit then pfffft. Sorry about that but I know how important breaks are.

Burt also agrees that breaks are very important. He is highly disappointed that I have started going out into the world again. Highly disappointed! Who would not want to stay home and knit with Orange Ball of Love? He does want me to point out we have been working hard at being less ball like. He is down a pound and a half and does not resemble a walking basketball anymore. We are so proud of all the work that we had his teeth cleaned. And now he is five teeth lighter too. 

Grumble grumble too soon Momma too soon to be joking about my mouth when the stitches are still in. 

Never fear Burtie Dear I will show them pictures of what I am knitting to amuse them other ways.

I am in need of some bright green to counteract the brownness that is New Mexico this year. I mean New Mexico is totally The Land of Enchantment but with humidity in the single digits, temps rising and forest fires ranging, I can admit I miss rain and green things, right?

Yes Momma it is Ok to admit it is very dry here, but hey weren't the blooms in spring just beautiful?

Let's talk about that sock instead. I was going to knit it plain as it is such a fantastic varied color I thought a pattern would compete too much with it. Once I got a bit into the plain knitting I knew it would look best with a bit of a wave show off. I was also missing having a new fancy sock so I dusted of a pattern from a few years ago Spring Forward Socks by Linda Welch. I remembered these being very fun to knit a while back and came back to them.

Hard not to say I was right. Alas I have been working on other things and I have only managed to knit half a sock so far. So yeah the pair of socks a month is running way behind. I don't want to admit I think these are the March socks for 2022.

I also don't want to admit that April and May socks are not faring any better even though they are plain knit socks. Hey I never said I had to knit a pair a month just 12 pairs in a year.

This is where I show you what has been distracting me from sock knitting; blanket and shawl knitting.

The baby blanket that I should really call a toddler blanket or even Grandma blanket is even bigger than this picture. I am working on the second to last color and it is lovely. So lovely that it may have to stay at Grandma's house instead of going home with the kid. As I heartily love Grandma I have endorsed this plan.  I do have a lovely picture all spread out with Mellie, the knitting inspector, proudly approving in the middle of it. I will be sorry to see this go but happy to see it home.

Oh the shawl is a little bit of a struggle for me. Remember these pretty colors?

Well they have slowly been turning into this puzzly bit. It will be a rectangular shawl and has been a bit of a stretch for my knitting style. I think I will enjoy it but I cannot say I enjoy cutting yarn and weaving in ends in the middle of a project. Also bobbles are my knitting abomination! I do not like knitting bobbles! I do not like knitting them at all! 

I ended up knitting one section at least five times. The count would just not work for me. So this project is scheduled to come out of time out later this week. I hope we can be friends for a bit before it turns on me again.

 

Ahh the struggle is real

I am pumping myself up to start looking for a new job. Oh my goodness I thought selling myself to an employer was hard in normal times. How the heck am I going to do this three years into a pandemic?

Sigh, want to see how fierce I look on the trail?

Pretty darn fierce with my sunscreen not rubbed in, three non-matching hand knits and my new big sunglasses! You should see me in my sun hat! Rawr!!!

Now for a sneak peak into a MKAL, that as always I am late joining. What all my excuses were really good for starting late. Hard to start when you don't have the yarn! (And a bunch of other things, like time.)

Hmm I wonder how I ever managed to pick my colors for this... yep when you don't know what colors to choose look at what you're wearing and get some inspiration. I was wearing this lap quilt that a friend's mom made. Are those not fantastic colors?! I feel better now talking about knitting.

Back to the idea of selling my skill set to an employer. Seriously how to people get excited about interviewing and typing up who you are into one sheet of paper? Oh my goodness I am such an introvert. But hey that is one of my positive traits too. I like to focus in on a situation and work it till it is done. I am an excellent worker bee I just need to find the right hive for me. 

No really I need to value myself as much as I would tell anyone else to value themselves. I deserve to work in a good place for a good wage. Someplace will be lucky to have me working for them. I just have to do the not fun stuff of matching us up in the meantime. 

OK that was a good pep talk now can I go knit some? I am only three colors away from being finished with baby blanket for my friend's 2.5 year old grandchild. Hey I got the project when the kid was 1.75 years old I'm doing pretty darn good considering.

No really I am going to go knit now, for real.

Petroglyph National Monument

We have been enjoying getting to know our new area in New Mexico. The other day we took a little trip to find Petroglyph National Monument. We do truly live in the land of enchantment. 

You could think of petroglyphs as ancient road signs or ancient graffiti. But they are cultural carvings in volcanic stone. They are a migration map of cultures on the move. They have been defaced, used for target practice, and stolen. When development threatened the area a group started taking a study of them. They expected to find and catalog hundreds and instead found thousands. Monument status was given quickly to reduce further damage but we did see some defacement. Unless class of 98 meant class of 1898. (No I didn't take a picture of that one.)

I should have taken more petroglyph pictures but do you see that sky. I don't think I will ever fall out of love with the New Mexico sky.

Those are the Sandia Mountains in the distance. I'm falling as much in love with them as I am the beautiful sky. Yes I know that is a lot of brown and I will always miss the lush greenness of Oregon, but you gotta love the one you're with. Brown is a beautiful color in its own way.

The volcanic rock starts out light and oxidizes to that beautiful deep grey color.

Our friend J of previous sock worthiness posts came to get a sunshine fix, boy do I think we fixed her up good with sunshine that day. Never leave the back of your neck exposed.

 One of the first things we did here was get sunglasses. It is a far more comfortable beauty with sunglasses. We were over dressed for the day but that sun sneaks up on you. At least my knitwear is getting a workout here. But that is another post for another day. I love that shawl it is easy to wrap up in and get cozy and unwrap and get cool with. 

Taking care of yourself and others

We have started health plans for all of us. We all need to get more exercise and lose some weight. Yes I know it is not fun to talk about lifestyle changes, but here we are. 

The kittens are on board with one of their changes. Da Bird needs to come out more even if it hurts a bit it is good to keep all the legs moving.

Momma tell them I killed the bird several times before you took this pic!

I'm not lazy just hard to capture in motion.

Great action shot Burt!

Yes I know Momma. I am a very photogenic kitty!!!

I found a recipe for ginger curry scones. Yes I know it sounds a bit odd but they were fantastic. I also know that scones are not on the healthiest foods you can eat list, but they have tumeric in them so they have just a touch of anti inflammatory properties in them. Plus our heat went out and the oven helps keep it warmer in here. That is my story and I am sticking to it.

After any workout it is time for a nice rest and recharge. Mellie and her arthritis seem to be doing OK. She has good days and bad days. The cold certainly does not help but snuggling with big bro does till you crowd him off the chair.

We make a great bobsled team! If by bobsled you mean nap-chair team.

So try to stay warm out there and in here and remember to get up and move. Get more steps in every day and take care of yourselves and others.

Sock knitting and repair

Wahooo! My January socks for the hubby got finished in January. I am on sock knitting schedule. This yarn is vacation yarn bought on our trip to Czechia in 2019. It was a gotta buy something purchase and now I wish I had bought more. The shop was definitely a yarn store but it was full of what I would call baby knitting yarns. Fine weight in pastels. Luckily I found this Best Sock yarn. And the kicker is I think it was inexpensive yarn too. No like really inexpensive. Well at least hubby can enjoy these lovely memory socks, even it he is not getting more Best Socks Czechia socks.

Vlna Hep New Best Socks 

I am mostly on schedule for my February socks too.  Aren't these fantastic colors? I know they look a bit Chistmasy but as a person that still has their Christmas tree up I am not worried. He will wear them all year round. Especially if they keep landing at the top of the clean sock pile. Good thing my guy is not terribly picky.

Story time... before we left Oregon I found out my friend J has roughly the same size feet as me. Actually a bit smaller which worked out well for her since I had socks that had shrunk some with normal wearing and washing. She went through several small piles of "these don't quite fit me anymore" socks and took home about ten pairs. 

I received a text and photo of one of my socks had "sprung a leak.' She had not snagged it on anything and confirmed she was washing and drying them properly. She was very concerned she was doing something wrong and "did not want to get put in sock jail!!!"

We talked back and forth and we think it was just due to wear. I had knit them in 2009 so she "was a grand old dame" that had put in her time. I offered to convert to wristlets for her but J passed since they would be too big. 

A few days later I received another photo saying she loved this particular pair but they too were running thin and have limited sock time left. They were knit in 2007. By now I am starting to suspect some of the socks were not too small but pulled from the wearing rotation due to pending doom. Naah they were too small, my feet and ankles have spread a bit in the past 10 to 15 years. Turns out I have two skeins of the same yarn in my stash. So J will be getting her third pair of bespoke Yarnkettle socks. And most likely a fourth pair since the other colorway is named Crazy Woman. She thought I was teasing her when I mentioned I have two skeins of that yarn in my stash. I said nope I am offering. Followed by excited hand waving and me me me!!!

Burt was not concerned he knew Auntie J was sockworthy the whole time. Auntie J is a good, caring and responsible person, she must be good with socks like she is with kitties.

While that was going on in Oregon, I had two pairs "spring leaks" here in New Mexico. These were put back in the rotation after the move and could not handle that last little transition. I have a bit of leftover yarn from my Adriene swap socks but I don't think it is enough to reknit two toes... maybe I will just have to use a different color and do some contrast toes.

There is no leftover yarn for these, I never even had enough to finish them the first time. Good thing I have a bag of leftover sock yarn to pick from. And with reknitting there is less pressure to make them look perfect I can choose any wacky combo that strikes my fancy. 

 

So if I reknit sock toes does that count for my 12 pairs a year? Or is that another tally? Must I repair 12 pairs a year too? Aww heck I don't need more rules for my knitting. I just want to KNIT HAPPY, so I will.

Taking it Easy

My poor little girl is on bed rest orders. She has limped her way through the weekend. Thursday she was fine when I got up in the middle of the night. A few hours later she would not come down the stairs. I set up a temporary area up there and started watchful waiting. 

By noon she seemed a bit better till she did come down with us for lunch. Yep she picked a snow day to start having issues. I made an appointment for today to establish with a vet anyways. Thank goodness for Chewy's chat with a vet service. 

 

Update: We have seen the vet and she has arthritis. She had some treatment and felt a bit better. We are coming up with a plan to treat a very skittish cat that has never liked being picked up, and is too smart for her own good as far as eating stuff that will help. Little Miss is of the opinion that all doctored food must be doctored with poison not medicine to help her. Medicine and poison are the same words in her world. Sigh, it may be a long journey.

A Baking Journey - Ciabatta

I have always been highly entertained by books and catalogues. I think the most entertaining gift I received at Christmas was the the toy catalogue. I could imagine how I would play with all the toys. Hours and hours would pass with me happy entertaining myself. Guess I always was an introvert, shocking I know.

As I grew older I could entertain myself the same way with cookbooks. (Oh heck any book would do, but today's story is about cookbooks OK?)

I have spent many an hour looking through my most comprehensive baking book in my collection, King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion. It is an aspiration baking book to me. Ranging across pancakes, crackers, bread, pies, cakes, cookies, puddings, crumbles, scones, biscuits and dang near everything else but the kitchen sink. 

I think I received my copy as a Christmas present from my MIL or my mom, in one of the first years of my marriage. Sorry I don't remember which it was I'm just happy they indulged my love of books and dreaming.

Anyways back to today's story. I have poured over this book and thought of all the wonderful things I could bake then selected a recipe and was promptly intimidated. Some days I just get overwhelmed with all I could be doing so I just don't. Other days I select a recipe and read through it and think to myself I could just bake something I know, maybe there is a reason some of this is not baked anymore. Some of it is just a big ol' faff.

Since we have been watching Great British Bake Off (GBBO), my sense of hey we should try that has been over stimulated. (I am still not making puff pastry!) A wild hare caught me and I decided to try making Ciabatta. I mean it looks so wonderful when they make it on GBBO.

Luckily I only read the first few steps to make the biga and let it develop overnight. Hey I can do that, mix a bit and let it do all the work for you. Ha! This was an all day recipe. Mind you it was not work intensive but an all day recipe. 

My biga developed overnight and turned into this wonderful smelling, bubbly concoction. Nothing like bubbly bready stuff to make you feel like baking in the morning.

We followed the directions and got my trusty Kitchen Aid kneading the dough. Now this one I do remember, Mom bought my Kitchen Aid as a wedding present. She has been my trusty companion through good and bad baking. Luckily for Hubby there has been more good than bad. It finally formed a wet slappy dough and it was time to start the waiting.

 

I mean come on isn't that gorgeous? Nothing like bread dough to make you feel all powerful and baking queen-ish.

This recipe had us knocking down the dough every 45 minutes, for 3 hours. Honestly is there much better than sinking your freshly washed hands into fluffy, stretchy, yeasty goodness?

I made D take pictures next to my favorite spoon rest. I love that thing so much I got a second one. Every time I see "I licked the spoon" I giggle to myself. 

He took a glamour shot after the final in bowl prove. Don't you just want to sink your hands in there?

We shaped them and left them to rise on another of my MIL Christmas gifts a Silpat mat. Loved it so much I got myself a second one. One of them gets used every weekend for scone making. I even made some twice baked potatoes last week on them too. I love having the right tools for the job at hand. 

The weird part of the recipe is that you spritz water into the oven to create steam while baking. I'm not sure how effective this technique was for us but we did it each time. I have used a hot pan that you fill with water right after the bread goes into the oven.

 

Loaf One

 

Our results speak for themselves. We had a fun afternoon together creating this lovely Ciabatta. It may not be perfect but it is great for a first attempt. D found a recipe that takes less time but honestly this was a nice way to spend a Sunday with my Hubby. Burt was rather put out by all the up and down. He has some pretty strong cat napping skills though and was able to recover from each disturbance. 

Loaf two

Underside of loaf two

Don't worry D got to participate as not just the photographer too. He knocked it down at least once and he figured out sitting them near a window in the sunlight would make a nice proving place.That final prove was all him.

 Not perfect but still great especially for a first effort. Now onto Focaccia and crackers. 

Is it wrong to try making Christmas Scones in January? I think I am still going to try them out too. We still have to do a Jelly roll, and fig bars and...