Sunday morning

I love Sunday mornings. Who doesn't? This morning we woke very late (8am is very late for us these days), feeling rested and calm, and I determined to stay in my pyjamas for as long as decently possible. Susan usually makes biscuits on Sunday mornings, it's become a bit of a family tradition, but as we were lying in bed thinking (emphasis here on the thought, the act was several minutes away) about getting up she mentioned some pumpkin scones that she'd seen in a Nigella cookbook a couple of days ago. Of course, we have no pumpkin right now (strangely, the shops are once again devoid of canned pumpkin) and it's an autumnal recipe anyway, but that got me thinking about scones. I haven't made scones for years. Years and years. Probably 15 years. So, I decided that I'd make scones for everyone for breakfast. I dug out my old recipe book and found the recipe that both my mum and grandma used to use (well, my mum still does) and 30 minutes later there were freshly baked scones making the kitchen smell fantastic and transporting me back to my childhood. By the time I got to take pictures, they'd already been predated upon.




As I'm pretty certain that grandma would highly approve of having her recipe shared with whatever small portion of the world deigns to read my blog, here it is:

8oz self raising flour
1oz sugar
2oz butter or margerine (very cold, I actually freeze mine before chopping it into tiny pieces)
pinch of salt
1 egg, whisked with milk to make the overall quantity 1/4 pint
fruit to taste (I used raisins today, but you could add cranberries, cherries, peach, blueberry, candied peel, the list is endless)

Mix all dry ingredients.
Blend in butter until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs
Blend in egg/milk mixture with a fork until you have a wet but firm dough
Add fruit, if desired

Some people like to roll their scone dough and cut sweet little rounds. I take the lazy approach and dollop a spoonful onto a greased baking tray, squish it down a little, and hope for the best. This results in rustic, smallish scones.

Bake at 425 F for about 15 minutes. My small toaster oven runs a little hot so mine were done after 13 minutes--I started checking them at 10 minutes and watched like a hawk for the last three. Your oven may vary.

So what else?

Well, I've finished my summer stint in the Writing Center and have a nice break now until the semester starts in about three weeks time. I've got a packed schedule next semester--20 class hours, and 5.5 hours in the Writing Center. But I do have all Thursday away from campus, just have to go in for my fellowship seminar at 5pm. Thursday, I suspect, will be my homework day. I'm hoping to camp out at the local Starbucks and work for hours and hours.

Knit-wise, this week I finished a scarf for Jen's youngest, Lexie, for Christmas. It's nothing grand, just a scrap scarf in shades of purple (her favourite colour). Actually, it's a little narrower than I'd have liked because I ran out of purple scraps but I think it will be fine for a 9/10 year old. Faith (her sister) is getting a similar scarf in orange--I cast on for that last night. I'm still working on the test knit cardigan and making slow progress there. I'm not super-keen on the yarn with this pattern, but I think it will work. And I'm in the middle of the craziest socks ever. I'm knitting them with my own design--although it's hardly a complicated pattern. Cookie A need not panic, I will not be stealing her sock crown anytime soon.

Getting Ahead

I've been attempting to make the most of my class-free summer by getting ahead with birthday and Christmas gifts for people, and so far I haven't done a bad job of it. We've tipped into August and I already have a few things made and stashed away. I've also discovered Pinterest which, if you haven't found out for yourself yet, is probably an even bigger time-suck than facebook. Seriously. I'm addicted and I've spent way too much time browsing other people's boards and the internet in general just looking for fun stuff to pin. Of course, I've also found dozens and dozens of things that I now want to make or do and thus am in a state of constant self-beration (is that even a word?) because I don't have the time.

Anyway, this week I managed to finish a scarf for Susan's birthday. I've been knitting it somewhat surreptitiously at work so that she doesn't see it beforehand. One of the good things about summer in the Writing Center is the quiet, which means plenty of knitting time. I love these scarves--they're made in KnitPicks Chroma Worsted, which I adore. It's beautifully soft which, in my opinion, makes it infinitely more wearable than Noro. I do love Noro but it's so scratchy and that's a huge disincentive for scarves. I chose the New England and Fossil colourways for her scarf which are a little more muted than I expected, but still really pretty.


My cunning plan was for it to match her "Dodgy Yellow Jacket" yet still be versatile enough for other outfits. I think it works. Next plan for her birthday is to overhaul and repair the aforementioned "Dodgy Yellow Jacket" which, after about ten years of abuse, is falling apart at the seams. Literally. The cuffs are frayed (don't know that I can do a lot about that on a corduroy jacket), the lining is falling out and frayed, the collar is half fallen off, and it's missing several buttons. I'm going to do what I can to at least repair the lining and the collar, and make the frayed edges not quite so tattered. Oh, and new buttons. If I can at least make it look 30% better than it does now, she'll be very happy. She adores that jacket and I adore seeing her in it.

The final part of the birthday plan is a new ring to replace the one she lost earlier in the summer. It was the ring that matches mine, that she first bought almost five years ago when we'd only met once and were busy denying the fact that we were falling for each other. Because nothing says "I'm not going to fall for you" like a ring engraved with the Hebrew for " I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine". Right. Anyway, one Sunday morning during her traditional Sunday-morning-biscuit-making, the ring went missing. Luckily, I know where she bought it from originally and I know her ring size. I should easily be able to get a replacement.

When the ring is acquired, I'm going to procure (not quite sure where from yet) a large dress box and line it with LOTS of tissue paper. Then, the jacket and scarf will be properly displayed together in the box. The ring, however, will be tied to a ribbon and put in one of the jacket pockets. I'll put a gift tag on the other end of the ribbon with directions to "pull" so that when she pulls the ribbon out, the ring will appear. Sweet, huh? Are your teeth hurting yet?

Enough of that nonsense.

I've also been busy making bracelets for Steph and Heather for Christmas. Michaels had a great 50% off deal on some specific beads (I can't remember the name of the brand now) so I bought a couple of 7" strands, added a few simple crystal beads to pad out, and made a couple of really simple bracelets. Each one cost about $5.50, which I'm really happy with. I wish now that I'd bought more beads, although they're still relatively affordable at full price.

Steph's bracelet will go with the blue and tan flower scarf I made for her:





...whilst Heather's will match the scarf I made for her:






I'm pretty happy with the results.

In other news, the test cardigan that I'm knitting is coming along, albeit not as quickly as I'd like. I've been distracted, as you can see, by shiny, pretty things. And I made myself some crazy socks.


Yes, they're ridiculous, but I love them.

Right now, I have *counts* six items that I'm actively working on dotted around the house and car.

1. Test cardigan
2. Scrap sock yarn blanket
3. Scrap cotton yarn dispenser for plastic bags
4. Crazy Felici rainbow lace socks
5. Scrap scarf in purple for Lexie's Christmas present
6. Gift stash dishcloths

I justify this by telling myself that all these projects serve different purposes in my life. The test cardigan is a commitment I made to Stephanie. The sock yarn blanket is an ongoing project to use up yarn that would otherwise be wasted. Same with the plastic bag dispenser. The rainbow socks are to stop me getting bored with the endless rows of stocking stitch in the test cardigan. The scarf is so that I stay on top of Christmas gifts. And the dishcloths are my in-car knitting to replenish the stash of gift dishcloths. See, all perfectly justified. I'm not sure that Susan agrees.

There's more to say, about sunflowers and people visiting from England, but I'll leave that for another day.