Fiber Fool

February this year has been a rough one. Last February was too. For different reasons. Both Februarys included last minute trips to MN due to good airfare prices. Despite many positive things from this month such as the trip to MN and Gaston’s lovely goodbye it seems all of it has been somewhat shadowed over by pain. I don’t like to go on about my chronic pain issues here much. I’ll mention it briefly so you understand why my posts are a little flatter than normal or why I may not be commenting on other blogs too often or replying to the comments you’ve left and then I leave it at that. I suspect the those who see me in real life on a regular basis have realized that it has been a pretty rough month for me. I’ve pretty much been on that pile of drugs above for most of the month. It seemed the most representative image of the month.

As for how 365 is going? I kind of dropped the ball this month. I didn’t miss any days until I went to MN and that kind of broke my habit. Then I came back and was out of the habit and was dealing with all the pain stuff and it got easy to let a day slip here or there. We also did little entertaining this month because the house has been stinky so that left me with little to photograph. Well, little photograph easily anyway. We all know my fall back photo subject is food! But, March is a new month and there is talk of a food related gathering for Purim this weekend instead of fika so hopefully March will be filled with more pics.

Thanks to everyone who helped me out yesterday! I have downloaded the manual for my machine. Not that is was particularly helpful for more than identifying the accessories, but now I’ve got it when I need it. Also, thanks for the buttonhole encouragement. If I’m lucky you’ll get to see what I’ve made as ECF and FO Friday.

Over the weekend my distraction project to help keep me pacing myself on the cotton knitting was sewing. The project I’m working on required a few buttonholes. I have avoided buttonholes like the plague. I was scared of them. I don’t have a fancy machine. In fact, my sewing machine is a pretty bottom of the line Singer that I bought on a whim from a Wal-Mart in 1997 or 1998. But it did come with the appropriate foot and it has the 4-step settings to form the buttonhole. It was so much easier than I have built it up to be in my head!

When I dug out the accessory packet for the sewing machine I discovered that more or less the only parts I knew what they were for was the buttonhole foot and the brush for removing lint! In the moves I’ve made since I got the machine the instruction manual has disappeared. Above is the foot that confuses me the most. At least it looks like a foot for the machine. That said, it doesn’t have an accessible pin for snapping on the machine like the other feet. Can anyone enlighten me on the purpose of this piece and how I attach it to my machine?

Perhaps it is connected to the machine with this piece that I also cannot identify or figure out?

This one I can put on my machine. I’m just unsure of it’s purpose. The stitch guide is to the right so I’m guessing you have to position the needle to the right when using it. Is it a zipper foot? Or is that skinny one the zipper foot? Perhaps I need to look into replacing my sewing machine’s manual, huh?

You get a wonderful inquiry e-mail about knitting a project for pay. It is a fun sort of project, but from what you know about knitting construction you suspect there is likely intarsia involved. The project is knit from 100% cotton. You’ve never knit intasia before. Do you accept?

Of course! It is knitting for pay, right? I did accept and that means the knitting going on the end of last week and this week I can’t share with you really. Though here is a shot of the inside of one of the areas of intarsia. I’m not sure if it is the extra “stuff” going on at the join of colors that makes it appear great from the right side despite the fact that it is unforgiving cotton or if it just wasn’t the big deal I was making it out to be in my head. Either way I’m about to wrap up the main knitting on this project.

Because it is all cotton knitting with a deadline I’ve had to develop a way to keep me working on it in smaller chunks so I don’t aggravate my hands and wrists. My technique was to introduce a different sort of project to work back and forth on so I’ll give you some glimpses of that later in the week.

In house news, DH has one side of the *last* interior door to varnish and we’re done with doors and frames for the time being! Yeah! The frames for the master bedroom and bath are unstained and hence unvarnished, but we decided to wait to stain the frames until we could open up and air out. The varnish smells, but it isn’t nearly as bad or as lingering as the stain. I can’t wait to have the kitchen back! :-)

Since we rearranged the kitchen a tad and made it easier to get to the stand mixer I’ve been doing more baking. This week I got a hankering to make this bread recipe I had run across on the Light & Tasty web site. However, we didn’t have quite the ingredients we needed so I started tweaking a tad until I ended up with a completely different recipe all my own, LOL!

Kristi’ Rustic Apple Cranberry Bread

Yield: 2 loaves
Oven Temp: 375 degrees F
Time: ~3 hours, including rise times

• 2 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water (110° to 115°)
• 2/3 cup applesauce
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup warm 1% milk (110° to 115°)
• 1/2 tablespoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter, added to warm milk to soften
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg, separated
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 - 2 1/2 cups whole wheat bread flour
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 1 teaspoon caraway seeds
• 1 tablespoon cold water

The bowl of the mixer dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the applesauce, milk, sugar, butter, oil, salt, egg yolk and 2 cups AP flour; beat until smooth with paddle attachment. Switch to dough hook attachment and work in enough whole wheat bread flour to form a firm dough. Stir in cranberries and caraway seeds. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 4 minutes. Place in a bowl coated with vegetable oil, turning once to coat top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; divide in half. Shape each portion into a ball approximately 6 inches in diameter. Place 4 in. apart on a baking sheet lined with a silpat liner or parchment paper. Cover and let rise until almost doubled, about 45 minutes.

In a small bowl, beat egg white and cold water; brush over loaves. Bake at 375° for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.

Note: This is great toasted with a touch of butter or margarine. I think it would also make a wonderful grilled cheese with cheddar or swiss cheese. You could even dress it up with some caramelized onions and a few thin slices of apple.

I did manage to get a second episode of FikaCast up on Fat Tuesday. It was a tad late in the day, but it was still Fat Tuesday! I have to say I like Garage Band. I’ve still got some to learn about it, but overall it was pretty awesome. I love how easy it was to set up “chapters” to the podcast and change info and images so you can see in real time whose music you are listening to and such. If you don’t have iTunes or other podcast aggregator, you can listen to the podcast right from the web site.

In this episode I share the long and varied history of semlor or Fat Tuesday buns. There is music from some Norwegians and a Swede - two of the groups have music available from iTunes and/or Amazon! I also review an unusual mystery by Swedish author, Kerstin Ekman. In the show notes I also include the semlor recipe I have settled on as well as links to a couple other options should you feel the urge to give them a try.

I know knitting content has been lacking in these parts. My shoulders/back/neck are still bothering me so I haven’t done much spinning or knitting. There has been a lot of computing in bed, reading cooking magazines, reading novels, and dozing on and off due to muscle relaxers. I’m trying to figure out what to do. The PT I got a referral for is all the way across town, which isn’t comfortable since I drive a stick shift. Plus, they aren’t listed as a provider with my insurance company. The insurance company just gives me half a dozen names and no info about them. I’d like to know who is specialized in neck/shoulder stuff. *sigh* I hate insurance company run-around! I suppose I’m going to have to make another appointment with my regular doc so she can look over my insurance list. Yeah, another $20 co-pay that accomplishes nothing. Don’t they realize what great sock yarn they rob me of by making me do that?