For this first week of 2017, there will be two posts, although this one will not be very long, since I’ve only just begun my creative journey. I’m playing catch up on this, since it took me more time to set up this blog than I expected. I’m also not used to recording my activities on a regular basis, so that’s taking some getting used to as well. But, we’ll get there eventually, so it’s all good.
Jan 1st was on Sunday this year, which is my main day for working on projects, baking, cooking, etc. Most other days I’m fairly busy, either working (Mon – Fri) or spending time with my family or boyfriend (most weekday evenings and all day on Saturday). I’m somewhat of an introvert, although I’m social introvert, rather than a complete recluse. So, I do like to spend time with people and to go out, but it tends to drain all of my energy. Sundays are my day to recharge for the week.
This past Sunday was particularly important, as I haven’t had as much time to recharge like usual due to the holidays. Most of my Sundays since before Thanksgiving have been taken up with activities with family and socializing with friends. So, I truly enjoyed having the time on New Year’s Day to relax and just do what I wanted, rather than doing what needed to get done.
Mostly, I caught up on some TV that I’ve recorded, but not yet watched. But, I was able to be a little creative as well. I worked for a couple of hours on a sweater that I started knitting this past Fall and I made some scones to have as breakfast for the week.
The sweater is just a basic button-up cardigan, done in stocking stitch. I got the pattern off of the Yarnspirations website (www.yarnspirations.com). This is the website associated with Patons, Caron, etc. yarn and they have some pretty good free patterns available for both knitting and crochet. Since I’m only an Intermediate knitter, and I’ve never made a sweater before, I wanted to start with something relatively simple. (pattern)
I got the yarn for this sweater from a little shop in the Montrose area of Glendale, CA called Needle in a Haystack (www.needhay.com). The owner of the shop decided to retire this last summer/fall and was trying to sell the shop, rather than close it. She was having a difficult time finding a buyer and was having a going out of business sale, so I got the yarn at a bit of a discount. Luckily, she found someone to buy the store, so I won’t need to find a new place to buy really nice yarn. The store is about 2/3 needlepoint/embroidery supplies and 1/3 yarn and knitting/crochet supplies and is really cute. If you’re ever in the area, I would suggest you stop by.
I’m using a 70% Baby Alpaca/30% Merino Wool blend in a nice rich dark brown by Cascade Yarns called Highland Duo. It’s really soft and not itchy like so many wool yarns can be. I love rich, dark, deep colors and this brown is particularly nice. It’s got tones of red and gold mixed in with the brown, making it particularly striking to look at and I think the cardigan will be really pretty.
The scones I made are from a book called “Making Dough” by Russell Van Kraayenburg. This is a really great baking book, as it gives you the basics for each type of dough and then tells you how to expand on that and modify the recipes to make them your own. I made a double recipe of Cranberry/Orange scones, which produced 8 good sized pieces – enough for each day of the week, with one left over to give my boyfriend. He likes to try everything that I bake
All of the recipes in this book call for weighing the ingredients, rather than measuring them, as that is more accurate and allows your finished products to be consistently good. Using measuring cups and spoons can produce different results each time you make a recipe, depending on how well you packed the ingredients into the cups. It’s very inconsistent.
For this recipe, I added dried cranberries, as they’re always good in scones. I also added 1 tsp of vanilla extract and I used a fresh orange to get a nice, strong citrus flavor that goes well with the flavor of the cranberries. It was a medium sized orange and I zested the entire outside & added that with the dry ingredients. Then I juiced it and used that in place of some of the heavy cream that was called for in the recipe. They were so good! I’ll definitely have to make this one again, although for my next batch I have some fresh blueberries that I’m going to use.
That’s it for my creative journey for this week. I feel like I’m off to a pretty good start.