Tuesday is for Housework

Today has been a busy day. With S's friend coming over this afternoon I wanted to make sure the house was in order. Also, it just needed a cleaning. I cleaned all three bathrooms and ran the vacuum through the house. I also mopped the kitchen floor. Yeah, our visitor was only 5 years old, but her mom was coming to get her and I wanted the house to look presentable.

I also reorganized a few of my kitchen cabinets. I recently got an electric kettle and found that it was on one side of my kitchen (by the sink) and all my teas were on the other side, which just didn't make sense. I turned the cabinet above the coffee machine/kettle into a "coffee/tea station" and moved my baking things to the cabinet right behind where I do my mixing/'prep work for baking. I thought for sure I would go to the wrong cabinets today but actually I didn't, which tells me that things were in the wrong place before.

I did quite a bit baking today. I made a batch of mini blueberry muffins for S and her friend (okay, I may have eaten a few). I also tried out something new for me - yeast rolls. In the past I've made yeast-based bread, but that was usually in my bread machine. But S's friend's mom shared a 30 minute yeast roll recipe with me. The recipe can be found here. For my first time making them, they came out almost right. I think I didn't knead the dough enough before I let it rise the final time. I had to end up baking them an extra 5 minutes, probably because they were kind of dense. S was the only one who didn't like them. I think if they were lighter and fluffier she would have liked them more. I'll keep trying until I get them right because they were good.

I think I mentioned that I ran out of yarn making my GoT cowl. I had posted about it in a discussion thread on Ravelry. Yesterday evening I received a private message from the designer apologizing for the shortage of yarn and offering to send me another skein so that I could finish the pattern as written. That meant a lot to me, that she would offer to get me more yarn. I declined because my cowl is already done and honestly, I like the way it turned out. Mine is unique. :-) I thanked her for the offer and told her that I appreciated that she was willing to make things write. Good people do exist in this world.

I finished up a different cowl recently. I used Handmaiden's Sea Three yarn, which is a blend of silk and seacell, which is made from seaweed. It is very soft and should be warm in the winter. I just discovered that this yarn is discontinued, so I'm glad I was able to make something I like with it. I still have enough left to make a hat or a pair of mitts. Of course as I was taking this picture I discovered I managed to cross some cables in the wrong direction, but you won't be able to tell that when I'm wearing it. Also, I hid those mistakes when I took the picture.

The lighting in this picture isn't the best - the yarn is actually a little more purple than it looks here. I'll try to get a better picture tomorrow if there is some sun. It's suppose to be cold (8C/48F) and rainy tomorrow.

I am working on a pair of gloves right now - you can never start preparing for winter too early around here. I'm also working on a new shawl I'm making with 100% eri silk yarn from Belfast Mini Mills. Now that it's June, Belfast Mini Mills is open every day. I may have to make a trip out there in the next day or two to see what they have for this season. I'll do my best not to buy any yarn...no promises though!