Author: denisemor

Now that the technicolor dream vest is done, I am a bit scattered, project-wise.

I’m shopping around for a pattern for my 1300 yds of sportweight Chone yarn, but until I hit upon the perfect thing, I’m
playing around with some new tiny circular needles (8 in length- super short tips) I picked up back in January.

It’s taken me a while to get a feel for working on them, but now that I’m getting the hang of it they sure are faster than working on doublepoints! Just finished my first sample mitt-

So I guess I’ve got to make another to match.

I’ve also gotten a smidge more shearing done on Esther-

It’s amazing how fresh and white she is underneath- and she really likes being able to get good neck rubs now 🙂
Her neck wool is so lovely-

Was also able to get a small amount of Dottie wool to blend it with to make some more of last week’s squishy two-ply yarn. I’m working it into a nice, simple garter stitch cowl. Dottie’s got so much wool on her- and she doesn’t appear to have felted over the winter, so that’s a nice surprise-

One other fun thing that I’m playing around with is making felted Peeps.

Here are my first two just after shaping/wet finishing

and now that they have little eyes

I’m pretty pleased with my first attempt. Don’t have any idea what I’ll do with them- but they are just so cute and fun.

Took a few days off last week to take advantage of the unseasonably warm weather and play at home with wool.

First priority was putting the finishing touches on the vest- buttons and loops

It is now officially done! And I am so pleased.
Really love how the color transitions worked out, and how the buttons pull it all together 🙂

( I know that one is upside down, but I just liked how the light fell on it from that angle )

And with the vest complete, I took a break from knitting to try my hand at making some cute little project bags

I got two done, and have the fabric and zippers ready to go for three more-

Was fun digging in my fabric stash for color combinations.
I made the medium size- which should be about right for a hat or cowl or pair of socks.

Also did a bit of fleece washing- from top to bottom- Chone, Heidi, Marta

Now, for a very brief time, I can say that I am all caught up! No raw fleece in the house! (until the pasture folk are ready to give up their coats)

And speaking of that, I did talk Esther and Dottie out of a little neck wool yesterday.
Just to let a little of that spring air in.
Was pretty messy, as neck wool tends to be, but after trimming and picking out the crud, I ended up with two nice little muffins.

Which turned into one squishy little skein.

Think this is the first time I’ve blended the two girls’ wools together. Maybe now that they’ve worked out their issues and become buddies they can cooperate on a sweater 🙂

Yesterday I set out to try my hand at baking a lamb cake.

We recently got the lamb cake pan re-seasoned, and I was anxious to give it a go.

Armed with what is supposed to be the original recipe that came with the Wagner cast iron lamb molds.

Recipe For One Cake

1-1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
1 cup sour milk
1 tsp soda
a little salt
2-1/2 cups flour
1 cup nuts
1 tsp cinnamon and cloves and nutmeg (I used 1 tsp cinn, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/4 tsp cloves)
1 cup raisins
1 tsp baking powder
1 skewer and 2 toothpicks
Cream sugar, butter and eggs, add milk, soda, flour, salt and spices. Mix well without
beating. Fill face and ears of mould (these must not have nuts or raisins in them).
Add nuts and raisins chopped fine and floured, and the baking powder.
Fill pan level, place a toothpick in each ear and the skewer in the neck.
Fit upper pan on and bake in moderate oven for one hour or more, or until upper pan comes
off easily. Let cool in lower pan.

Icing
1-1/2 cups white sugar
2/3 cup water
whites of two eggs
flavoring
1/4 lb. shredded coconut

Boil sugar and water until it threads. Beat whites of two eggs stiff, pour syrup over eggs,
beat until cool. Ice cake all over and throw on the coconut. Use raisins for the eyes and a
piece of candied cherry or raisin for the mouth.

I prepared the mold well with crisco and flour

Filled the head and neck first and reinforced with a chopstick and two toothpicks

then filled the rest of the front mold, placed the back on top, and baked at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes.

It came out of the mold cleanly (yay!)


But I should have left it in the oven longer.
The inside was not baked. 🙁

So I didn’t bother to frost it.

But what was baked was very tasty. Spicy and sweet.
And the head and neck very very solid with their reinforcements baked in.

I think that in addition to not baking it long enough, I might have overfilled the front mold as well, which kept the center from being able to cook correctly. (there are no vent holes in this mold)

I’ll give it another try sometime very soon. And hopefully have a chance to try the italian meringue frosting as well!

Vest update:
It’s off the needles!

I have quite a bit of tidying to do- steek edges and loose ends, buttons and button loops, then blocking. But I’m really pleased with how it’s coming together!