Astute comment readers will have noticed I had a birthday last week (thanks for all the wonderful birthday wishes!). My family is notorious for late birthday gifts but this year they were all eerily early so it seemed more like a birthday week to me. My sister Leslie sent these lovely leaf tea cups just as I’ve had a resurgence in tea drinking and sister Heather sent this lovely tealight candle holder from Yankee Candle.
Rose never fails to send something wonderful and this year she shared some of Pia’s fabulous fleece dyed special just for me. The colorway is lagoon and these balls of fluff are the softest things. If the wheel wasn’t currently otherwise occupied these might be on it already. I received a few monetary gifts as well which I’m using to cover costs for some classes at the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival with the exception of one designated to help pay for Tarragon’s fleece this year. Tarragon was my first fleece purchase and the more I wear the gloves I made from her fleece the more I love it.
My current cell phone is kind of a lemon. It doesn’t get the best reception, frequently drops calls and is forever taking pictures of the inside of my pocket. We’re not ready just yet to get a new plan so Jason found a stripped down replacement that’ll tide me over until later in the year. I’ll miss my "Sweet Home Alabama" ringtone but I’ll miss little else about that old clunker. Jason also found the one missing year of my 50 State Quarters proof set. That gap was really bugging me! Last but not least he got me a gift certificate to the local LYS. That’ll be burning a hole in my pocket!
I think this is the nicest gift Daniel’s made for me in art metals class yet. This is his third year taking the class and you can really see how much he’s learned. I keep meaning to ask him how he got the ring such a perfect fit. The kitties are earring but they aren’t yet on earwires in the photo. This gorgeous yarn and pattern came from Christine and Crystal at knitting Friday night. The colors remind me of summer fruit (which in fact we ate Friday night, it’s summer somewhere!) and I can’t wait to knit these. I’m thinking the variegated might work well for the next Sock Madness pattern, should know in a day or two.
I grew up in south Louisiana were Easter time is also time for the amarylis to bloom like crazy along the borders of houses and encircling trees. I was so accustomed to thinking of them as a garden plant that it never occurred to me I could have them here too, they just need to be in pots. MIL sent these along and they arrived Saturday. I’ll definitely enjoy seeing their cheery faces again.
My soap supply is dwindling after gifting a great deal of it for Christmas so some new batches are long overdue. This week I made a batch of rose-scented soap. Part of that was used for a second loofah soap test, there were two sheep soaps and the rest went into my regular loaf mold. I’d read a tip that you can use heat-resistant mylar to permanently line your molds but when I Googled that I read it will sometimes stick to the soap. Instead of lining the entire mold with it I used it just on the top surface and although it did stick a little it was much easier than trying to wrap the lid with parchment paper. I think it won’t work well for me as a mold liner but I’ll definitely continue to use it as a lid liner.
I’ve been asked a few times if I would make lotion. A friend who used to do a lot of soaps, creams, lotions and tinctures told me that it was difficult to get a stable emulsion for lotion. Later I read that you must always use preservatives and those two things turned me off. Recently, I began reading about lotion bars and that seemed like a good fit. Here’s the result of my first lotion bar experiment. These are made with shea butter, coconut oil, beeswax, vitamin E and spearmint oil. So far the consensus has been positive. I think these are a keeper!
When I go to the library (and that happens often) my favorite thing to do is peruse the new book shelf. Last week I picked up a copy of "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes". There’s even a new website for questions and answers that I discovered just a moment ago when I searched for a link for the book. (Watch out for the donuts, yum!) I generally get so many books at the library that I carry them back and forth in a cloth grocery bag so I’d sort of forgotten the bread book tucked away in my little bag until another blogger mentioned how much she liked it. (I wish I could remember who that was, thanks whoever you are!) A lightbulb went on and I mixed up an enormous batch of dough. The recipes generally have much more water than usual and are meant to be made in large batches which then sit in your fridge for up to two weeks. You weight out enough for a loaf, plop it in a pan or on a rising board, wait a bit and then bake it off. What could be easier? There’s no kneading ever and that’s great for my wrist. This is the buttermilk bread recipe. I tried that one first as I had half a carton in the fridge waiting to get finished. It came out of the oven with an extremely crisp crust and a soft tender inside. We had ham sandwiches on it for dinner and Jason asked to have his "egg thing" on it for breakfast. I think we have a winner. I’ll definitely be looking for this one at the bookstore this weekend.
The crocus are blooming like mad in the garden now that the snow has melted away. Meanwhile I have been rediscovering all sorts of interesting things in the spinning fiber stash. I decided to give some laceweight a try with this merino/tencel I picked up at the Ellen’s Halfpint Farm booth last year at the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival. I split the roving in half lenghtwise and plan to make a two ply with it.
I finally satisfied my craving for ham and bean soup this week. These are some bumblebee beans I found at the local market where I can always find local dried beans. I also found an escarole like I haven’t seen before. It looked like an enormous green chrysanthemum, kind of like the Giant Ortolani on this page. I saved some of the juices from the ham to add to my soup so it needed no additional salt at all. Sometimes I add onion, celery, carrot and bay leaf while the beans cook and then toss those things out before completing the soup.
Ham and Bean Soup with Escarole
1 pound dried beans
2 cups chopped ham
1 head escarole chopped
Place beans with water to cover by 3 inches in a pressure cooker. Bring up to high pressure and cook for 25 minutes (amount of time depends on size and freshness of your dried beans). Remove from heat and allow to cool until it’s safe to open. Drain off as much excess liquid as is desired then stir in ham and escarole. With the lid off bring to a simmer and cook until escarole is wilted. Taste and adjust seasonings.
Back in January when I saw Dave’s Spin my Wheel post I considered that I would really like to spin more this year. I tend to get busy with other things and forget about it but Rose’s beautiful spinning reminded me I had some blue merino to work on. I spun half of it last month and it was long overdue to be finished. Yesterday I filled a second bobbin. My aim is a worsted weight yarn so I’m going to do a third bobbin with natural merino to create a marled effect. It’ll be interesting to see how it turns out. I was especially pleased with this since it represents a big improvement for me. The roving was nicely combed top which I used to find very difficult to spin but this went quite smoothly for me.
Astute comment readers will have noticed I had a birthday last week (thanks for all the wonderful birthday wishes!). My family is notorious for late birthday gifts but this year they were all eerily early so it seemed more like a birthday week to me. My sister Leslie sent these lovely leaf tea cups just as I’ve had a resurgence in tea drinking and sister Heather sent this lovely tealight candle holder from Yankee Candle. 
