Odds and Ends

 The cold snap and the effort and energy it took to get through it was insane. While you would think all that free time inside would afford a great deal of opportunity for project completion, you would be wrong. Everything took extra time to do, which burned energy and motivation to accomplish anything more than just making it through the day, quickly dwindled.

Smiling Angus

Even small things removed from the 'to do' list felt like major achievements that required celebration.

Delicious

The alpaca yarn for weaving was done at the Fiber Mill, so I drove out and picked that up. It turned out to be a lovely day, albeit a long drive. One bag of seconds, we decided to turn into batting or felt, for other projects. I'll go out and get that in a week or two.

The sewing table has seen it's use the past few weeks.  A set of 18th century pockets filled one snowy afternoon. Another was dominated by up-cycling an old quilt into a late 19th century quilted petticoat. I came across a full 9 yard bolt of woven plaid for a 1840s working dress and ordered the pattern to create it.  (I still need a nice contrasting fabric and 16 buttons.)And I made up another pair of aprons and another linen skirt.  Of course, another round of masks needed to be made. (I would never have guessed a year ago we'd still be wearing them, but here we are.)

The sewing list is no where near gone, but it is smaller.

The old knit dish cloths finally ran their useful lifespan, so I've been spending the quiet hour or so before bed knitting or crocheting new ones. Handy little things.

On the tape loom, I have 6 yards of cord in progress for my 18th century stays. The stays are a lovely bark brown and I chose the same brown for the ties with the addition of a deep mustard yellow.  It's quite nice.

On the baking front, I finally became annoyed enough with the NutriMill mixer and bread dough. I think the problem is the plastic bowl. It is so slick that the bread dough hooks grab the dough, but the dough has no purchase on the bowl and instead of getting kneaded, just slides in circles around the bowl. I found a dough machine that is usually used for making Chinese dumplings, but works just as well for bread. It not only mixes the dough, but also has a fermenting/proofing cycle that gently warms the bowl and allows for a great rise. This is awesome, as it frees up my microwave, which I was using as a proofing box. I am getting far better gluten development from this mixer than any other I've owned. Think of it as a bread machine, but without the bake cycle. (NO affiliation or profit. I bought it on my own.) It is the The Bear Dough Mixer I even used it to make whole wheat croissants! They were AMAZING!