Fiber Arts Friday: Too Many Projects?

The other day, Hubba said to me.... "So you have 6 knitting projects in work.  How do you decide which one to work on?"

I laughed and pulled each one out and told him about the purpose/benefit/challenge of each project... and then talked about a few of the others that are in the planning or waiting stage.

So yes, there are six active projects, and many more in the queue.  

• Some are simple so I can work on them when my brain is tired (which is most of the time) or when I only have a few minutes available.
• Some are small so I can work on them when I'm on the road, in a waiting situation, or when it's hot outside.
• Some are much larger so they provide warmth while working on them.
• Some are about commemorating something.
• Some are about doing something for someone else and therefore have a rough deadline.
• Some are about learning new skills or achieving a challenge.
• Some are crochet, or spinning, or weaving, so they use my hands/arms/body differently than knitting.
• Some have periods of intense focus, so they release my brain of clutter.
• Some are meditative, which allows my brain to rest, which then often leads to forming solutions to un-related, complex problems.

I choose which to work on based on my physical needs, personal goals, and time available in the moment.

This is a visual manifestation of how my brain works...  I am always thinking about and planning much more than what is physically in front of me.  Which means my ToDo List is always way too long.

My current Day Job has these benefits as well, but this has not been true for most of my career.  So making has been a way for me to be myself when the Day Job did not allow or value it... and all of it was put on hold while we were moving recently.

This whole conversation was sort of mind-blowing for Hubba.  He chooses a project and works on it 100% until it's complete, with little room for other things.

We know this about him.  We call it All-or-Nothing or All-in.  ;-)  But I think this is the first time he truly understood how my wiring works.

All that being said, I think 3-ish active projects is the sweet spot for me.  The good news is that most of these are past the half-way point, so this number should be coming down in the next few months.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!

Sourdough Bread

I love bread.  I mean, I LOVE bread!  Especially Sourdough bread.

So I have toyed with the idea of making my own sourdough starter over the years.  I even received a starter from a friend a few years ago, but I just wasn't able to do the care and feeding with everything else in life.

So now with staying at home due to COVID-19 and not travelling due to being laid off due to COVID-19, I've been thinking about it more.

I've been doing very well with my home-grown Kombucha and we're in a good routine now.  So I feel I have space in my mind for another fermented pet.  ;-)

I'm using the instructions from Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, but starting with a 1/2 recipe.  Since there are only two of us, and Hubba doesn't eat much gluten, I don't need a huge starter.

This is a 100% rye flour starter per the book's suggestion.

Day 1 - July 4:

Day 2 - July 5:

The start looks interesting.  There are small air bubbles forming already and it's growing in volume.

Per the recipe instructions, I moved the Day 1 start to a second jar.

As mentioned above I'm making a smaller start and I want to keep the entire starter in this 1/2 gallon jar size, so I added only 1/4 cup each of rye flour and cold water.

The move was quite messy, so I think I will keep the remainder in the same jar.


Day 3 - July 6:

It's very interesting to watch this culture grow and shrink each day.  It is very much like having a pet.

You can see from the markings on the jar that it had grown to a point above the label in the last 24 hours.

Using the same jar as yesterday, I added 1/3 cup each of rye flour and water.

Day 4 - July 7:

I remembered that I have a wide-mouth funnel with my canning equipment, so I used it to transfer the culture to a new, clean jar today.

I added a 1/2 cup of rye flour and a little more water today.  The mixture is soupy, which the instructions say it should be.


Day 5 - July 8:

We're starting to have a good amount and I think the frothing period is starting to wind down now.

Day 6 - July 9:

I forgot to take an after-feeding photo.


Day 7 - July 10:

Day 8 - July 11, First Bake:

I have about 3 cups of finished starter.

So I took 2 cups for a loaf and added 1/4 cup of rye flour and water to the remaining starter.

I forgot to photograph the start of this loaf, but I greatly enjoyed kneading this dough.  It's been a long time since I made a loaf of bread.

I have made quick biscuits and pizza dough, but this was a different, wonderful, almost contemplative experience... slowly kneading a dough for 15 minutes.

After doing the math to reduce the recipe to 25%, I added somewhere between 3.5 and 4 cups of all-purpose wheat flour, salt, and water to my 2 cups of rye sourdough starter.

Ready for proofing...

First check at 4 hours...

Second check at 6 hours...

It could probably rise a bit more, but I'm anxious to eat this bread... I baked it for 47 minutes at 350F.

It's definitely bread.  It's definitely sourdough and the rye flavor is coming through.  I will make a point to slash it deeper and ensure there are no creases when set to rise next time.

The crust was a little tough so I think I need to make a more humid environment for proofing next time... and maybe consider two rounds, even though the recipe only called for one.

I'm really happy with this first loaf.  It was delicious with dinner last night and will go well with the meals I have planned for the next few days.

The next round of starter is already in progress.

Fiber Arts Friday: Merry Christmas

So.... my intention was to post about a Christmas present today.

I've been working on it off and on for the last couple of months and have been very close to being complete for a few weeks.... but I've been doing more ripping out than finishing.  :-/

So finally last weekend, I decided that I was not going to finish this project.... at least not for this Christmas.

So today, you get a cryptic post from me, hoping that all of your holiday making was successful.

Happy Hanukkah, Christmas, soon-to-be New Year, and Fiber Arts Friday!

Brewing Kombucha at Home

Hubba loves Kombucha.  I like some Kombucha.

With Hubba's love, we've been bothered by the number of bottles going to the recycling bin.  We had tossed around the idea of making our own, but hadn't really gotten beyond talking and a small bit of reading.

Then my friend Kristi offered that she had some SCOBYs that would be ready to share, so I jumped at the chance.  First, having the starter rather than beginning from scratch and second, having Kristi's wisdom available made the whole process a little less scary.  ;-)

The donated SCOBY made it home in one piece and I set it up on a shelf in my office and covered it with a towel.  It's supposed to be kept in a warm, dark place, out of the way so it doesn't get disturbed and away from fruit, for some reason.

I left it there for nearly two weeks, checking on it occasionally.  It was exciting to see the "baby" SCOBY being formed.

I tasted it for the first time on day 12 of brewing.  It was a bit vinegary so I plan to start tasting the next batches sooner.  Also, as we approach summer and the house gets warmer, I expect the Kombucha will brew faster.

I pulled together two flavoring/recipe suggestions, made our next batch of black tea (Pekoe I brought home from India a few years ago) and brewed two 1/2 gallons.

Since I needed to reserve 2 cups of Kombucha from the first batch, that only left about 48 ounces available for flavoring.  I decided to use two pickle jars we had set aside a while back... Everything I read had me concerned about using soap and chlorinated tap water for cleaning and I'm not exactly sure how the "rinsing in vinegar" thing works yet.. at least without using large quantities of it.  The pickle jars are short enough to fit in my regular soup pot for water-bath sterilization... no soap, no vinegar and no bad bugs. :-)

The Grolsch style bottles are often recommended, but I also found resources that said both canning jars and re-using other jars is acceptable... as long as the head-space is minimized, the pressure is less likely to build up too much that the risk of "rapid seal failure" is minimized.  So far, so good.  ;-)

We had our first taste of the flavored Kombucha on Friday.  Hubba, who had been a skeptic about the whole process proclaimed with a big smile, "It tastes like Kombucha!"

A few resources I've found helpful: Delicious Obsessions, Food Renegade, Weston A Price, Cultures for Health, Fiber Fool.

Repaired: Clothesline

Filed under the category, "I have no idea what they were thinking" is the clothesline at our house.

First, the location is weird... right in the middle of the yard and set on a sidewalk that goes nowhere.

Second there was a plastic-coated wire for the line which was rusted and broken.

But since the posts are not easily moved, I decided to at least make it useful.

I found some cotton cord at the hardware store and Hubba helped me tighten the line.

I'm not certain how often we will use the line since we have livestock, some of our neighbors have livestock and we're very close to a dairy.  So sometimes the aromas are not what you want on freshly laundered clothing, but at least we now have a place to hang our stinky work-out clothes outside.  ;-)

Making Stuff: Skirting Table

I've wanted to make a skirting table for quite sometime.  So finally, I picked up the supplies and put it together.  But before we get too far, I feel I must apologize to anyone who is a skilled wood worker.

I have no delusions regarding my wood working skills.  This project is not square, nor is it plumb.  It does not have any rabbits or dove tails.  No milling, sanding or staining was done.  This project is functional, but in no way should it be considered beautiful.  :-)

The finished skirting table sits across two folding tables.

L-brackets hold the frame together.

Two hinges hold both frames together.

Welded wire fabric is folded over and stapled to the frame.  Handles are screwed down over the top.

Folded up for storage.

Holding our largest alpaca fleece.

Hopefully next weekend will be warm enough to begin skirting the fleeces I mentioned last week.  :-)

Supplies
4 pieces of 4ft 1x2 wood board
4 pieces of 2ft 1x2 wood board
16 sq ft of wire fabric plus extra for attaching to the wood frame
16 L shaped brackets
2 hinges
2 handles
screws
staples

Tools
hand saw
staple gun
screw driver
tape measure
wire cutters

Time Spent
10 minutes drawing a sketch and making a list of supplies
1 hour selecting the supplies at the local home store.
2 hours putting it together

Working with my Hands

I love working with my hands.

I love spending time in my brain too.  But sometimes, I feel a need to work with my hands.

I suppose it's part of the reason I became a mechanical engineer.  Working with machine tools, getting dirty and building stuff were all things I loved to do.

Of course the reality of being a mechanical engineer is that I did not physically build stuff very often.  It depended on the company and project.  Some products I was able to build entirely and some I only wrote the instructions for how it should be built.

I have been able to do a lot of planning and designing which I also enjoy, but it means as my career progressed I have become further removed from the end product.

As my distance from the end product grew, so did the time in my head.  Which made the need to work with my hands grow stronger.  This is part of where Alpacamundo comes from.

Working with animals and fleece is very tactile.

As a shearer I am working with animals as well as mechanical tools.  It's a very physical and dirty job.  It's one I love very much. 

As a spinner, knitter and weaver I am working with my hands as well as designing and planning.  I can do these almost anywhere which means I can still get my manual fix when I'm on the road.

For now, I am focused on improving these skills but I like the idea of spinning, knitting and weaving on commission.

Making Stuff: Compost Bin

I have been thinking about composting quite a bit lately.  In Albuquerque, we composted all of our yard and food waste together in a passive bin.

Here in Northern Colorado, there are raccoons, fox and other wild animals that would be interested in food scraps and we didn't want to invite them over with the alpacas on site.  So we haven't been composting our food scraps.

Which brings me to those neat little composting bins that you can get from a garden or home center.  They seem to make composting easy.  They're tidy.  They're not beautiful, but they're not ugly and they speed up the composting process.

I wanted one.

But they are expensive.  I mean, really expensive for what they are.  I looked at several, but could not justify $100 - $250 for little more than a plastic bin.  So I decided to make my own.

We already had a trash can with a locking lid, but we were using it to hold trash.  So I went to a home store and picked up a new can on wheels for about $20.

I washed out our old can and drilled random holes in it with the largest drill bit we had.  There are holes on the side, bottom and top.

I put the can near the back door to the garage.  It's still not beautiful, but I don't think it's ugly either.  We've already started to put vegetable scraps and coffee grounds in it.