Fran Sale Stafford

What a ride

It is done. What a joyous ride this past year has been on this delightful project. I spun 26 breeds, used 25 of them, knit 43 squares but one was too small so finished it is 42 squares. It is spun entirely with my Jenkins Turks, plied entirely with them also, and put together with Jenkins spun yarn. It was a stress free goal, let me try wools I had never heard of or handled along with many I already loved. One huge thank you goes out to Lisa who started following my progress after I bought a Jenkins Finch spindle from her destash. She is in Sweden and sent me the spindle packed in Helsinge wool. When I posted about it in my blog, she sent me enough more to make two more squares with it, then when I mentioned in my blog I needed darker squares for the last two months, she sent me Jamtland and Gotland lamb. There are two Jamtland squares and one Gotland lamb square in the blanket with more to spin for another project, so she provided 1/7 of the fiber for the blanket. Now I need to find a new project. There are lots of small balls of left over yarn from this project that can be used.

As I knit the squares, I pinned tags of the breed on the squares. Tonight, hubby helped me make a chart in order by row and I removed the tags. A larger chart, perhaps a photo of the blanket with each square labelled on the picture will be made and taken with the blanket when I go to do demonstration spinning.

The last two squares were knit on Wednesday and Thursday in the car as we travelled part of the way across the state to meet up with Son 2 and most of his family for an evening at Busch Gardens Williamsburg Winter Wonderland. This gave us the opportunity to chat with the adults and their oldest daughter and get to know the younger ones better while also meeting the newest granddaughter. They have a beautiful family. The oldest wasn’t with them because he was near where we live at a multi day swim meet. Today we went by the aquatic center hoping to run into him, but there are 1000 swimmers so only the ones scheduled for time blocks are there. His mom sent us approximate times he will swim tomorrow and Sunday, so we will go back and watch him compete.

WIND!!

Sometimes a front brings a breeze, sometimes a wind, last night it was WIND. Wake you from a deep sleep wind. Being awakened by hubby who thought the roof was coming off (it wasn’t, no damage there).

This morning, it is again calm, the sun is bright, the temperature fell 40 degrees f from yesterday and will remain cold through today and tomorrow, but the damage is evident. Fortunately, nothing signicant. The back deck has a round glass topped table that I had yet to fold and store for winter and it blew off the deck and landed folded on it’s face on the rock patio under construction. Somehow it didn’t break. The huge gas grill which had blown over once before causing some cosmetic damage, blew down the hill a bit and the rusting burners destroyed, the grill plates scattered.

I haven’t gotten it back upright and up the hill, the wheels are mostly non functional and it is too heavy for me to carry alone especially since several of the frame pieces have rusted through. I removed the gas tank from it. The table is folded and tucked behind the chairs on the deck, but will be moved to the basement utility area before our first snow is expected (not counting tomorrow’s flurries).

The most damage occurred to Huck’s coop, the chicken tractor that we had placed on a cedar log raft off the ground many years ago. In a prior storm, the lift half of the top had blown off and was leaning against the side. Much of the wood is rotten, the cedar raft caved in and I had removed most of the hardware from it last summer with the idea of either replacing the rotting wood or totally dismantling it, saving the hardware cloth and buring the wood if there is a calm wet day. Last night made the decision for me. It will have to be dismantled now.

In walking around the house in the cold this morning, that seems to be the only issues. I don’t see any trees down in the edges of the fields, but I haven’t walked the woods to see if any came down there. It definitely was a strong front that blew through. It had begun when we were taking our walk yesterday, but nothing like last night.

P.S. I remade the Cranberry Orange Shortbread, this time pressed in the 8″ pan and it came out perfectly.

Results

I found a cookie recipe for a shortbread cookie with chopped cranberries and orange zest and in the picture, they baked to 1 cm thick rounds, lightly browned on the bottom. I followed the recipe exactly, the dough seemed a good consistence, it was rolled into the log in parchment paper and chilled for several hours before slicing and placing on the parchment paper lined cold baking tray and put in the oven at the proper temperature. They took about 3 minutes longer than the recipe called for and they spread out to very thin shapes that had to be cut apart.

Shortbread is one of my go to cookie varieties that I make plain, topped with dark chocolate and toffee cumbles, and I thought this. Usually, I press the dough into a lined 8″ square pan and I wish I had this time as well. They are tasty, but so soft they don’t hold together well and may not be appropriate for my planned use. There are still cranberries, I will need another orange, I have the butter, sugar, and flour, so maybe I will try again and press them in the 8″ square pan to be cut into squares after fully cooled. I need a sturdier cookie that can be put in a tin or covered and kept overnight for an event.

My December breed, Charollais for my blanket is spun and almost all plied so I can knit it into a square. The rest of that wool will be used in Gnomes, a cowl or hat stripe. The second wool for the month is a repeat, but is a very dark gray, much darker than the two samples spun before and it is a lamb fleece. This wool is Gotland and I found the lighter gray samples rather coarse, but this lamb is so soft, it will make a pretty last square.

This was taken last night before plying began and before the smaller spindle of Gotland lamb filled up. I need to start a second spindle of it and get it spun and plied as well.

Though I am unhappy with the cookie results, I have thoroughly enjoyed the year long project of sampling breeds, spun on my Jenkins Turkish spindles, and knitting them into squares for the blanket. Soon the 42 squares representing 25 breeds will be fully assembled and shown off here. It seemed so strange to spend Saturday spinning on my wheel after a year almost solely using spindles.