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Bread : simplest method

This is the simplest way I know to make yeast bread.  Four ingredients: flour, water, yeast, salt.

Here I have used 3 cups all purpose flour,  1 1/2 cups warm water,  3/4 tbsp regular granulated yeast, 3/4 tbsp coarse salt.  The amounts are approximate;  go with what 'feels right'; bread is a living thing that 'converses' quite nicely.

I swish some hot water around in the stainless steel bowl to take off the chill, then put in the warm water and dangle my fingers through it, testing the temperature.  If it feels too warm then I continue to finger comb it until it feels right;  if it is too cool I tend to pour that water out and start again;  it is easier to cool down and keep the amount than try to add water to warm it up.  Next I'll put in the salt and give it a bit of a stir with the intent of starting to dissolve it; other times I add it together with the yeast and flour.  And stir it all up.

Until it looks like this.  Takes about a minute. The dough gets scraped off the spoon and a cover put on the bowl.

Now it gets left on the counter for an hour or two.  It feels as if I am giving it time to rest rather than trying for a  specific rising.  At times I have gone out on errands and left it. 

If I don't intend to use any of it after this resting period I will punch it down, set it on the counter while I wash out the bowl, return it to the bowl and put it in the frig.

This day I did use half of it. 

I wet my hands with water, scooped the dough off the counter, divided it roughly in half, put one half back in  a smaller bowl and put it in the frig, oiled an eight inch baking pan and put the other half in it like this, pressing it down with wet fingers. 

I grated some garlic and sprinkled it on top, sprinkled on some coarse salt, scattered some dried French tarragon over all.  I  poked a few dimples into the dough at this point and dribbled a bit of fragrant olive oil into the hollows.

 Then I let it rise on the counter for thirty minutes or so and baked it in a 450 degree oven for about half an hour.
I had to cut it while it was just baked - the kitchen smelled great -  the texture reminded me of ciabatta - but it was definitely foccacia, which is what I had wanted. 

With a mixed green salad and some Irish cheddar it made a very nice dinner. 

The remainder got cut into rectangles and put into the freezer.  Popped into the toaster oven for half a minute or so they are as good as just baked.

Here is what the second half of the dough looked like after a week in the frig.  At times I have glanced into the bowl of dough and used a wet hand to deflate it, turn it over, return it to frig - once I did this three times in a week for some reason.  This time it just sat from day one to day seven (it may have even been eight or nine).

I wanted buns.  Crusty plain buns.

With wet hands I scooped dough out of bowl and began to divide it in half, then half again.  Four was the number of buns I was going to get dictated by the size.  I oiled the muffin tins and popped them in, using a few motions to round the dough first.

Here is how they looked after about forty minutes of rising and just before being put into a 400 degree oven for half an hour. 

I put some hot water into the empty spaces.

Dah dah.  Some delightful sculpture occurred.

They have more a dense bread texture and are quite heavy.  Without the addition of the salt and spices and oil as in the foccacia the simple flavour of the bread is offered.  And a wonderful aroma. They are delicious and again freeze and reheat as if fresh.

Update : Potholders

You really need two potholders to lift hot things out of oven.  (Note to self: do not throw out a pair of anything until both units of the pair have been replaced!)

First potholder got made ages ago.  Second more recently.  The second one (right) is also made from the felted sleeve of a wool sweater (thift store rescue), two layers, with needle felting of fleece and some extreme embroidery.  I wanted to retain the curly aspects of the fleece so felted it lightly.  And the little bits of wood are twigs from the Australian bushmint plant which is highly fragrant, wood as well as leaves. 

Baking is on the list of things planned for tomorrow.  I am prepared......

Teeny tiny tutorial : Sweater to purse

The sweater was a thrift shop find.  I think it must have been knit for a doll.  All I had to do to turn it into this little purse was stitch up the bottom and the ends of the sleeves, crochet  a strap and attach this  to a pair of knitting needles which serve as a handle. 

I've used the same technique on other interesting sweaters.  

Slug

I came home from the Deli to find this on the step.  I said hello.  It said hello back.  We both went about our day.

Update: wearable garden

This wearable garden (originally posted here) is getting to the end of its time, I would think, but this is also what I was thinking a few weeks ago so it may continue to surprise me.  That is the sunflower on the left and the flax on the right. 

When not being worn it hangs above the kitchen sink and gives me pleasure whenever I see it.  I can also keep an eye on it and dribble in some water when the leaves begin to droop.

I am wondering what kind of wearable garden to plant next.  Any suggestions?

Beads!!!!!!!

I  couldn't  find a listing for Bead-rollers Anonymous in the phone book;  besides it was a Saturday afternoon.  So I decided to just continue to roll beads and figured if I were still at it on Sunday morning - at least in a continual session - I would have something to worry about.

At a garage sale I came across the Carl Larsson 2006 calendar with its thick glossy pages and gorgeous colours;  I have a book of his paintings so the calendar was raw material.

Before too many minutes of being back home I was cutting up that calendar and rolling beads.

I've done this many times before - rolled beads - and loved it.  So - once again.....

Basically you are cutting a strip of paper, rolling it around something like a knitting needle, gluing when you get to the end of the strip, removing rolled paper from knitting needle - dah dah - a bead!

A kids book in the library many years ago alerted me to the fact that different shapes of beads will result from changing the shapes of the strips.  Here I have used mostly triangles but have been experimenting with right angled triangles as well as isosceles  etc. and cutting off the point on some and rolling the leftovers from cutting the triangles.  Oh, do try it!  It is so much fun. 

The piece of stiff muslin ripped into strips with a bead or two strung on it is a try to see about making a door  curtain  from that material (have to see what happens when I wash out the sizing) and using beads randomly on it to give it weight and interest, possible interspersed with simple knots.  That is also the reason for the large beads which could be used at the very bottom; the pointed ends can be trimmed flat.  It is still very much in the "...wonder what would happen if...." stage.  And since the doll adventure is very much in progress I am wondering what would happen if I made a round bead and then some long ones and.......

  Brown paper bag material got rolled into beads and turned into earrings which I like for their simplicity;  they could have designs drawn on them but so far I  have left them plain;  etching them using the sun and a magnifying glass appeals but I haven't gotten around to doing that yet. 

These are fabric beads rolled from the same fabric I ripped to knit the bag with.  I made them ages ago but I think I glued the material onto a piece of paper first. 

I can imagine a room with beads large enough so that people could walk through their centers....wouldn't that be something.  What could be used for them.....recycled carpet?.....pasta dough?........junk mail glued together and then cut into triangle?.........

If you roll beads, I would like to hear from you. 

Knitting on arms using men's ties as the yarn

Over many years I have been collecting ties at garage sales and have perhaps  a hundred, oh, likely more.  They have been used in various projects, two pieces of artwork.  The last piece of art resulted from a sudden awareness that ties were lengths of fibre.....one can knit with lengths of fibre....one would need large knitting needles to knit with ties as fibre....my arms were large knitting needles.....

The challenge, of course, was how to throw the yarn while knitting;  a third arm not being an option I devised a way of using what I had at the ends of  my arms - my  hands.

Here is how to do it.

Gather a bunch of ties. 

Join them together narrow end to large end.  For this demonstration I have pinned them but for the art piece I used French knots to attach them.  For this I chose randomly from the pile.

Randomly does not mean without awareness.  I pay attention to the colours, the textures, the look and the feel, the way they go together, the price tags!  (I usually pay 50 cents to one dollar for ties at sales)  

When they are joined together, I cast them onto my arm as I would yarn.  And then I begin to knit.  Here there are four stitches on my left arm.  I will reach through that first stitch, hanging over my thumb, with my right hand, reach down to the dangling tie/yarn, pull it back up through that first stitch and slip it onto my right arm; this is now the first stitch on the first row.  Continue along row.
Four stitches now on right arm. 

Now I knit from left to right, putting left hand into first stitch on right arm (the last one knit, technically the fourth stitch on the first row), reach down and catch the dangling tie/yarn, pull it back up through the first stitch, slip it onto left arm. Continue along row.  And so on. 

Here is the view of the knitting as it progresses.  I stand up to knit on my arm with ties because it helps to keep the tension more or less equal and even.  When I come to the end I cast off as in knitting:  knit two stitches, lift first stitch over second, knit another stitch, lift previous stitch over this one etc.

It's fun, it's freeing.  It puts you - literally - in touch with the fibre and the tools because the tools are your arms.  I always feel an increased appreciation of the act of knitting when I arm knit.

This is the piece I knit for this demonstration.  I did not cast it off since I would have to take it apart and sew the ties together if I want to make something from it.  It has been hanging on a hook on a door for a day or so and I have been considering what it could become.  If sewn into a cylinder and something circular attached to the bottom (a round from the sweater I felted to make pot holders awhile ago would likely work) and the end tail of the last tie turned into a handle, it would make an interesting yoga mat bag.  Left flat it could become a panel in a cool weather vest.  Tacked to a floor cloth (hessian backed by non skid material) it would make an unusual rug.   It could also be attached around a tree in the garden and become its garment.  Or......? 

Crocheting using hand as a giant (size Z?) hook

I was explaining to a friend that I would like a REALLY BIG crochet hook and was demonstrating with my hand just how BIG.  (She has a handy husband and I was wondering how hard it would be to carve one from dowel.)

It later occurred to me that I had a REALLY BIG crochet hook - right at the end of my arm!

So I got out some rope.....

This was the first try and I am hooked enough to continue.  It is quite an interesting experience.  I have knit using my arms as the needles (will post about this next week where I use men's ties as the yarn) but had never tried using hand as crochet hook. 

I made a loop, made a chain (five or six in this), and then did rows of single crochet.  The fingers, of course, are flexible so this gives the extra advantage over a hook, and you sort of scoop the fibre using mostly the dominant hand.  

I am going to have to experiment with technique because you cannot see what you are doing as clearly as you can in crocheting smaller with a hook. 

This one I did standing up and I can see the pattern emerging.

I can imagine something like this in the garden, perhaps stretched across a frame as a gate. 

Or covering an entire wall in the house, one that gets early morning or late afternoon sun and which would cast shadows.

Mostly, as always, the process  intrigues and delights me and the product(s) may remain
in thought form.

I had to try it using yarn and see if I could incorporate it into a garment.  This handspun is a rescue (whereby beginning spinners think of the thick/thin fibre as a mistake: I love it and scour garage sales for it!) and I think there is potential here but I need to try again.
This I did on my lap trying to control the outcome but I think I did better standing and letting the weight of the evolving fabric dictate the procedure. 

I can imagine something like this dancing as the 'overskirt' of a jumper.

The beauty of bubbles at sunrise

Bubbles are spheres of pure magic at any time of the day (or night!).  These were very early ones when the sun had barely appeared over the horizon, bringing out the rainbows in each bubble, capturing my shadow.

The air was cool and crisp;  late summer in early September.

Morning dew provides a surface for the bubbles to rest without breaking.

A few minutes later, back in the house, preparing breakfast, I glanced outside.
Boy, can that sun scoot up in the sky and shift the lighting....  And I saw this lone bubble.
I watched it until it burst.

Thinking about thimbles; a teeny tiny tutorial of sorts

I'm not sure what prompted thoughts of thimbles....it wasn't that I had an immediate use for one.....in fact I seldom use one....I seem to recall my mother always used one when she did hand sewing... Hmmmm.  Anyway - I started to think about thimbles and  why I didn't use one.  Maybe it was because they were stiff and never really fit properly.  Maybe I have  an  in-between thimble-sized finger.  What finger is thimble-oriented?  Third?  Fourth?  I think my mom used her fourth.  I favour the third. 

I started to think about something flexible.  Leather, perhaps.  Then a bunch of thoughts flocked together and I went and got the following materials and made this:

I still have scads of tops of  boots left over from making Pixie Puddlers and the rubber seemed a better idea than leather so I cut a circle from a top.  Then I used the awl to pierce holes around the circumference.  Next some linen thread got sewn in and out of those holes around the circle.  A crochet hook picked up a stitch between each of the holes and I began to single crochet until I got past the first knuckle join on my third finger;  a thimble that goes past that join is not possible with metal or plastic, of course, and
adding an extra dimension can lead to something surprising and worthwhile.  Or not! But always worth the "wonder what would happen if....."
This is what it looks like from the top.

I drew my bird imprint on the end; it always cheers me to sign a piece of work thusly.

I like it!  What is interesting is how you can use it from the tip of the finger but it also adjusts so the ball of the finger can be the pressure point - this is a great feature.

It is roomy at the base and I suppose for fine sewing I could make one smaller and less bulky.  But I tend to want a thimble more for heavy duty things.

It seems to want to be called a thimble bootee.