Merino by the Pound

This is next up on the wheel:

The label wasn't terribly informative.

But if I had to guess, I'd say this was Ashland Bay dyed merino, probably in "Riverstone."

Fiber Windfall

I got a lovely little spindle from my friend Jess, who's decided spinning's not her thing right now.

I'll try to give it a good home. She also gave me some beautiful local BFL. This is Neighborhood Fiber roving in the colorway "Mt. Pleasant."

I do like Neighborhood Fiber, but I'm also a fan of the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood.It's on one end of the awesomest bus line in DC, the 42 (and also it's elusive sibling, the 43).There's great pupusas to be had there. And it's not too far from Columbia Heights, with its rarest of rarities: urban big box stores!

Happy Ending

The "happy" roving is all spun up.

I didn't quite make it up to bulky. It's 113 yds of "mostly chunky." But I think I'm heading in the right direction.

Spin Happy

Next up on the wheel will be 4oz of Falkland wool from Fat Cat Knits in the colorway "happy."

I bought it at Maryland Sheep and Wool. I think it was last year's festival, but it may have been the year before that (wool fumes aren't good for the memory). Here it is after a bit of predrafting.

I'm still striving for more intentional spinning, rather than the whatever-fine-weight-I-end-up-with spinning I've been able to do. So let's say I aim for a chunky or even a bulky single with this wool. My mantra will be "less treadling, less drafting." Let's see how it turns out.

Ghost of Festivals Past

I spun a bit.

If the receipt I found in the bag is indeed the receipt for this fiber, this was 3.8 oz of llama for Botanical Shades, purchased at Rhinebeck in 2009. 

Tunisian Squares

I'm working on squares for this blanket. So far I've made 4 squares of Tunisian simple stitch and 4 squares of Tunisian crossed stitch. They may look well-behaved.

But inside they're just waiting to snap!

These are going to be so much fun to sew together. I can already tell.

One Spiced Up Tart

I found a giant bag of Krusteaz sugar cookie mix at costco that only cost $5. I thought I'd try it with some of the recipes online that call for sugar cookie mix. I made Betty Crocker's apple cheddar-n-spice cookie tart yesterday

You'll have to pardon the foil. The missing springform pans have yet to rematerialize, so I lined a regular pan all the way around with foil to make sure I could get that sucker out of there after baking. For the crust, the only modification I made was to leave out the cardamom, since I didn't have any. I improvised a lot on the filling.

• 1 large apple, peeled and chopped
• 5 oz raisins
• 5 oz sweetened dried cranberries
• 6 T brown sugar
• 3 T all purpose flour

The resulting tart was really good. Next time, I'd halve the brown sugar, since the Craisins weren't as tart as I thought they'd be. I think the nice thing about this is that it's a great way of using up whatever fresh or dried fruit is sprouting mold or gathering dust in your kitchen. It's like a fruit crisp, only with a fancy schmancy crust that you didn't have to work very hard to make.