Fiber Fool

Despite having made some on Saturday, I made more of these delicious whole grain chai cake donuts on Wednesday. It made it feel more like a holiday/weekend even though it was just one day and DH was still up to his eyeballs in thesis editing. It also allowed me to set aside the iPhone for photography and take real photos with the dSLR (aka the “big gun”).

Next week, when more people are back to reading blogs I’ll share my recipe for these doughnuts. In the meantime, if you don’t care about them being whole grain, you can pick yourself up a copy of Lara Ferroni’s Doughnuts book and have them this weekend.

Some new to me yarn arrived on my doorstep this week. I’m starting calculations, though it still has another 0.3 g to dry yet. I figure that it is not likely the gauge will change any from that little bit of moisture loss.

I’ve been more than a little stressed out lately. And one thing that both occupies my mind so I’m not obsessing on the stressful things but gives me a break and in some cases a bit of accomplishment - it is a logic puzzle game for iOS called Marple.

I’ve been a fan of logic puzzles for a long time. I think I started getting the occasional magazine at the drugstore when I was in junior high or early high school. I was lamenting the lack of a good logic puzzle game for iOS to Drew one day. It seemed there was one that got the interface right, but they sold add-on packs of puzzles that overlapped with no documentation to buy the add-ons without buying some puzzles multiple times. Then Drew told me about Marple and I poo-poo’d it because it wasn’t a story-based logic puzzle. I grabbed the free version that includes ten puzzles and played through those ten a few times each and decided I liked it. One of the advantages of Marple over a story-based logic puzzle is that it can generate puzzles on the fly so there is nearly an unlimited number of puzzles.

The clues are in the bottom boxed area. There is a bit of code to learn what those clues mean, but you use those clues to eliminate icons in the different possible spots they can be in from the area at the top of the screen. As you eliminate possible locations the answer starts to appear and the clues become more helpful. They have a good tutorial that I played through a few times until I got accustom to the logic and you can get hints too - something I did pretty liberally at first, now almost never.

Without having to read clues (I’m a bit of a slow reader) these puzzles are relatively quick to solve too. My average speed is about 6 minutes. I have a few under 3 minutes and have had some that took me as much as 15 minutes (in those cases I usually take a break after 6-7 minutes figuring fresh eyes later will be more effective) so it is really just a quick little break. What has surprised me is that it seems I have good Marple days and bad Marple days. Who would have thought?

My only complaint which is really only due to my learning style. I “speak” words and symbols in my head as I “read” them. So having both Arabic numerals and die numbers can cause me to accidentally make a wrong move that isn’t because my logic is faulty.

Do you have a favorite escapist app for iOS? Or have you tried the new this week Yarnaby app that is a wool-centric maze-type game? I’m seriously tempted, though I often prefer to try free versions first so I haven’t caved just yet.

On the KAL front - a few people have introduced themselves and a bit of talk about yarn has begun. If you’re taking part pop on over to the thread on Ravelry and say hi!

I spent a few hours at the CSU library today. There is just something about the massive number of books and other research materials on several floors that lifts the spirits and gets one excited. I later added another 7 titles or so to that stack, but then whittled it down to 10 so I wouldn’t struggle too much getting them to the car.

I’m afraid I can’t share titles with you right now. But I’ll be spending much time with the 10 titles over the weekend and with my sketchbook!

In case you missed it last Friday, Anne of How the West was Spun gave a spinner’s perspective on Nourishing Knits. And Deb at KnittingScholar.com just reviewed it this week as well!

This pattern, a crew neck pullover with a compound raglan called Ciabatta, is very near completion. I handed of the pasted-up, fully tech edited pattern (and it’s companion recipe) over to the editor. I think I’ll go ahead and put out an update with this pattern in it since it has been so long since an update. I’m working hard on the next pattern paste-up. If it goes smoothly it may be a two pattern update. We’ll see.

Thanks for the well wishes while I was battling fatigue. Things were nailed down and some changes made and I think I’m lifting out of the fatigue thanks to an entire rest week of no exercise but Yin yoga and vitamin D supplements.

Have a good weekend! To those who get Monday off, enjoy it!

I suspect this Twain quote doesn’t ring much truer than in the Rocky Mountain region — “In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of four and twenty hours.” Certainly mountain regions anyway. It certain applied yesterday.

Just look at that drop of melted snow on the stamen!

I’m a sucker for contrast in any form - color, texture, or physical state. So I actually revel in the contrast of snow on flowers. Plus, since the snow was preceded with a good rain shower the blooms are probably safe. It worked last year. We still had a decent plum harvest so I’m not writing off one for this year. Plus, the tree really hasn’t bloomed out fully. Though I’m not certain if it will given the harsh conditions this winter.

Yes, this photo is of the same branch as Monday’s picture, just taken a week apart from a different angle!

Most years I’d likely be bitching about snow on April 14th. This year is different. We are in such desperate need of moisture, I’m elated to have it in any form. We started with a nice slow rain for several hours last night and I was surprised to wake up to snow. All told, cold surfaces like the cars gathered about 3 inches of snow before it stopped. It was very wet and heavy snow, as is the norm for late spring snowfalls. According to the city utility rainfall map we exceeded 1″ of moisture. I’m not certain what their collector set ups are so I don’t know how they handle the snow. That could be just the rainfall total as we were pushing 3/4″ at about 2am yesterday morning. Whatever the real totals, I am thankful!

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Oh, and the first surprise for Nourishing Knits subscribers will be awarded next week, so if you haven’t subscribed yet, I recommend you do so soon! You definitely do not want to miss out on this one.