Well, except for the fact that Mom’s been wiped out by a cold, and I haven’t gotten any writing done, it’s almost felt like a normal weekend. Of course, Mom’s not usually sick. She’s slept away most of the weekend–which is good for her, but highly unusual–and I really DO have a lot of writing I should be doing, but … I think my brain is still in the “nesting” kind of stage. All I seem to want to do is housework, puttering kinds of things.

Like spinning. I mentioned that I’ve been getting a lot of spinning done. Of these three skeins, just wound off their bobbins last night, one was finished in the old house, one had one of its two plies finished in the old house, but the other three bobbins of singles and the plying of two of them all happened here, just in the last three weeks. The two newest skeins are both Cormo from the Juniper Moon Fiber Farm (formerly Martha’s Vineyard Fiber Farm) share that arrived in September. And, that bobbin of finished, but not-yet-skeined yarn I brought with me? I finished it in August.

So, when I tell you I’ve gotten a lot of spinning done in the last three weeks–along with moving, unpacking, setting things up, and heading back to work? You have to believe me.

(This also explains why I’m not getting any writing done.)

It’s true, it seems a little under-plied, but I’m not really worrying about that. What I AM wondering about is how I’m going to wash it to set the twist. The sink in my bathroom is smaller than my old one and doesn’t actually plug to fill up. Or, it WILL fill, technically, but it’s not a tight seal, so it starts draining just as quickly–so soaking is not an option. The kitchen sink might work, though I’d have to dig out the plug that came with that and see if THAT was a tight fit. (We keep a mesh drain-saver in the kitchen sink that catches odds and ends like oatmeal and stray pieces of pasta when you wash things, and almost never plug it to fill it. The bathtub could be an option, maybe, except that I had to take ITS plug out completely because (1) it wouldn’t release to let the water drain without unscrewing it and removing it and (2) it’s a large, bulbous plug that didn’t let the hair-catcher I always have in my shower do its job … and catching my long hair (and Chappy’s fur) from going down the drain is very important.

I’ve started my next batch of yarn, too, though I can already tell it’s going to be a bear to photograph properly. Why? Because it’s really a dark brown. This is Sheep Shed Corriedale that I got at Rhinebeck in 2008. I figured the dark brown was about as far as I could get from the white Cormo, huh?

I baked, too. I’ve had a yearning for, well, an old birthday cake. For years, whenever I didn’t want to bake a Grandma Cake for my birthday, we’d get one from the Three Crown Bakery. They did fabulous cakes–everyone said so–and my favorite was white cake, lemon filling, and buttercream frosting. (Their buttercream was great–not too sweet, not to plain, just really yummy.) They retired and closed several years ago, but every year around my birthday, I start thinking about that cake. The fact that the “lemon souffle” hand cream I use at night smells not just lemony but sweet and lemony doesn’t help.

So, I tried making my own variation.

Well, it looks pretty, I suppose.

But, my lemon curd didn’t cooperate and came out tough and tasting over-cooked. (Which is to say, not burned, but like it was thinking about scorching when I took it off the stove. And its rubbery texture simply highlights that.) The frosting recipe I tried is okay, I suppose,  but like almost every buttercream recipe I’ve ever tried, it tastes SWEET. Not just “sweet,” but screamingly, eat-your-teeth, diabetic coma kind of sweet.

So, it’s a disappointment. And it doesn’t help that I can’t think of a single bakery around here that I would go to try one of their cakes. The Viking Bakery in Denville makes great cookies and breads, but I’ve never been a fan of their cakes. I don’t know of any other bakeries in reasonable driving distance that would give me a cake close to the one I crave every November … but this wasn’t it. In fact, if it weren’t so wasteful (and if Dad weren’t enjoying this one), I’d be tempted to just throw this away, it’s so far off from what I want it to be.

On the plus side, these loaves of bread certainly look promising!

Okay–got to go check on the pot roast and think about what to do about potatoes for supper … and hope that Mom’s feeling well enough to come down for it. She was really dizzy this morning and I ended up bringing her breakfast in bed, something I don’t know if I’ve ever done before. I even let her use the bed tray that I use as a computer desk so she wouldn’t spill her coffee. (Yes, orange juice would have been more nutritious, but the two sips of o.j. she had yesterday afternoon bothered her sensitive stomach, so … if coffee and toast was what she wanted, I wasn’t going to argue!)

• Tags: Baking, General, Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:Feels Like Normal // 7 Comments »