Sourdough bread

Damn, there's a lot of bread down the drain when you make a sourdough starter. Every day, throw out half. Then, to make it into a stiff starter, throw out half. Then when that rises, throw out more than half! Then, when that rises, mix in some flour. Five hours later, fold it twice. Five hours later, fold it again. Five hours later get it ready to bake. Then turn on the ove, and an hour later, bake it. As if I have 35 hours of uninterrupted time with which to bake bread! There's not even a convenient time to sleep in this schedule!

However, it came out great. It's not too sour, but that should improve as the starter ages. The crust and crumb are really great- a thick crust and a chewy crumb, which is great. Also, if anyone wants some sourdough starter with that famous Bay Area natural yeast, let me know. Our fridge is full of it. (Jenne, one's for you!)

I did manage to find time to go on a gorgeous hike in Berkeley...


... and go wine tasting in Sonoma & frolic in a field of wildflowers.



Also, I found this on another blog, and since my copy of The Bread Bible is right next to me, I thought I'd do it.

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.
5. Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.

"Spoon or pipe the batter into the muffin containers, filling them three-quarters full. Pour a little water into the unfilled muffin cup to prevent uneven baking. 3) Bake the muffins."

It's a recipe for "Big Banana Muffins".

In knitting news, I bought delicious Brittany white-birch dpns (size 2) to use for the WWII Long Socks, and have been working away. I've got about 4". I knit 2" the other day, and another two on the way to wine tasting, but unfortunately 4 hours of "tasting" wine and frolicking with the roomies plus getting in the car does not make for a prime knitting mindset.

I'm not too into the tan, but I am starting to dig the spiral it is making. These are supposed to be thigh-high socks, but we'll see how long I can stay interested in a 2x2 rib! We did decide, while knitting in the park this afternoon, that thigh-high socks would make Mike the hottest thing around, so I better stick to it!

Ice Princess "Hatband"

Ice Princess Hatband (my own pattern!)
Note: I think this is really called a headband or an earwarmer, but apparently LP calls it a hatband, and it was designed for her. So, hatband it is. Also, while the construction is my pattern, the stitch is the Daisy Stitch from The Pattern Library's Traditional Knitting book.

Yarn: Lion Brand Jiffy in White (or any mohair-esque worsted weight)
Needles: 4mm (I used Inox 4mm straight aluminum)

CO 17 stitches (I used the standard cast on, a provisional cast on would probably work better)
Rows 1 & 3: (RS) Knit
Row 2: K1 *p3tog, yo, purl same 3 sts tog again, k1; rep from *
Row 4: K1, p1, k1 *p3tog, yo, purl same 3 sts tog again, k1; rep from *
Repeat rows 1 - 4 until headband is 2" shorter than the width of your head.
Decreases, row 1: (RS) K1, ssk, k11, k2tog, k1
Row 2 and all WS rows: K1, p to last st, k1
Row 3: K1, ssk, k9, k2tog, k1
Row 5: K1, ssk, k7, k2tog, k1
Row 7: K1, ssk, k5, k2tog, k1
Row 9: K1, ssk, k3, k2tog, k1
Row 11, create buttonhole: K1, ssk four times, k2tog, k1
Row 12: K1, p1, add two stitches, p1, k1
Row 13: K1, ssk, k2tog, k1
Row 14: purl all stitches
Row 15: K1, k2tog, k1
Row 16: purl all stitches
Row 17: cast off stitches
Decreases, beginning edge: Pick up 17 stitches from the cast on edge (or take out your provisional cast on and use those stitches). Follow pattern above for decreases, omitting buttonhole.

Sew on button of your choosing on the decreased end without the buttonhole.

The Sweater!

I finished the Buttony Sweater!

Pattern: Buttony Sweater from www.ohmystars.net (via Knitting Pattern Central)

Yarn: several skeins of Dazzleaire Mocha and one skein of Lion Brand Wool Ease in Chestnut Heather

Notes (and a close up of the buttons): I didn't swatch, and I didn't use bulky yarn, and I didn't use the size needles the pattern listed. Therefore, my sweater is pretty much completely different from the one in the pattern. Theirs is loosely knit with cotton and mine is more tightly knit with acrylic & wool. As we all know, I ran out of yarn when I went to knit the sleeves. There was a disaster with trying to get matching yarn off of eBay, but LP and I made a trip to Michael's to get some alternative yarn, and I think I like the results even better than if I had knit the whole sweater out of Dazzleaire. It looks like a varsity sweater from the 50s, a little. I've been toying with the idea of embroidering something on the right-breast area... perhaps an E. But I really love the buttons, which Mike and I bought this morning. I think they match the sleeves perfectly. There's a lot of fabric at the shoulders, which is often good in a sweater when you want to wear shirts under it, but the sleeves are too tight for many layers.

All in all, I like this sweater a lot. I've been pining for a pullover (I'm not going to wear it as a cardigan. The offset buttons would look strange open.), and this is perfect. In fact, I'm wearing it right now.

Saturdays

Yesterday was (almost) the perfect day.

We started with German pancakes for brunch- a wonderful breakfast my mom used to make on Saturdays or some Sundays before church. My best friend from high school is the only other person I've ever heard of who makes panckaes like these. They're a little like popovers, baked in the oven so they get nice a pouffy, and served with lemon butter and powdered sugar. Mmm-mmm, perfection.



After breakfast, I started knitting on the Buttony-sweater with the not-quite-matching new yarn, on the advice of my (color-blind) friend that the two colors looked the same! However, this was not the case. This necessitated a trip to Emeryville (aka the town that is actually a mall built on a landfill), which is never fun. I spent a long time looking at the yarns and finally settled on a lovely maroon color. I also bought yarn to start the long socks for Mike and I. I think both choices will turn out just wonderfully.




The red-tweed is for me and the brown/blue variegated is for Mike.

Then it rained, and we got a surprise visit from friends from the North Bay! They brought pastries and a bottle of wine the got for free off Craig's List (they actually got a whole case for free, but only brought one bottle).

The continuing saga...

I finally received the yarn in the mail for my Buttony sweater.

Even though the colors are ostensibly the same, the new skein is such a dramatically different hue that the yarn I had been using that I don't think I can use it.



If only I were more like my room mates and could either wear capsleeves like LP or make the sleeves a different color like SS.

Sigh.

In other news, I started a scarf for LP in Daisy stitch. However, after consultation, we decided to make it a headband with a cute button.



The stitch comes from The Pattern Library's Traditional Knitting, which I inherited from a friend of my mom's. It's a great book- full of different stitch patterns, insets, and fair isle designs!



I'm not yet advanced enough in my knitting to take a stitch pattern and make a project out of it- but I would like to make a sweater out of this stitch I'm using for LP. It's just beautiful.

Vacation

Sorry about the lack of posts this last week. Luckily, out of most of the people who read this, I either live with them or went to visit them this last week, so no one should abandon me for this blog-neglect.

I went to eastern CA to visit Mike's parents for a 50th birthday luau and our 1-year anniversary dinner. Both were a lot of fun- the luau was my second ever pig roast, and it was quite an event! The anniversary dinner was fun- it fell on Mardi Gras, so we (unexpectedly) got a special creole menu at the restaurant we went to. It was good, but who ever heard of a duck and sausage jumbalaya? At least the rice was good and the chocolate dessert wine was fantastic.

Even with all the driving and down time I knew would happen, I didn't take any knitting with me! I'm sort of between projects, taking a rest from cupcakes and waiting for the rest of the yarn from Ebay to arrive for my Buttony Sweater. So, I'll end with a picture of Strawberry Shortcakes beautiful shawland promise some of my own knitting for next time!

Rules for my blog. (And a near-FO)

Strawberry Shortcake and I read our fair share of blogs. And there are some things we just don't get. The "meme" is one of them. And the use of the word "teh". Is it "the" purposefully mis-typed? And why is it always used improperly (as in, something was "teh awesome")?

Because we don't understand these blog conundrums, I hereby promise:

1. Never to post, discuss, or in anyway acknowledge the existence of, memes. I doubt any of you actually care what the last thin I ate was, or when I last cried. Plus, everyone who reads this knows me and doesn't need to know supposedly "secret" stuff about me.
2. Never to purposefully mis-type or mis-use the word "the". I can't promise no typos (I consistently type "copmuter" and "Elixabeth"), but purposeful grammatical errors? Never.

(Oh, and by the way- the mittens are done! I just have to find that darned crochet hook and fix those ends)



Here they are blocking... And, a note about blocking. I've never blocked anything. Not a sweater, not a mitten, not a scarf. I read a post extoling the virtues of blocking (albeit, she was discussing lace), and decided to go ahead and block these mittens, since they were a bit small. I don't really think it did anything. The cuffs are a bit bigger, I think, but that's it... hopefully they'll stretch with wear I guess. (And I'm still not sold on the wonders of blocking)


The front!



The back! (Or is this the front? Who knows, with mittens.) Note: The pattern gives instructions for putting the year "2006" at the fingertips. Since a) it's now 2007 and b) that's pretty lame, I decided (inspired by the mittens Dogged Knits) to use the year SS was born. Plus, aren't orange and brown perfect early 80s colors?

And so ends my very first commissioned piece, and first foray into color-work. It wasn't so hard, but now I want to learn continental, so I can hold one color yarn in each hand.