Unexpected productivity

Posted byScattered Thinker 2 Comments on Unexpected productivity

I threw a cake into the oven this morning – having stated that the hostess should not have to worry about cakes, I rather thought I should put my money where my mouth is. So I made one of Nigella’s brilliantly quick and easy jam cakes. In the Domestic Goddess she has a recipe for chocolate cherry muffins, made with cherry jam, and a storecupboard chocolate and orange cake, made with marmalade. Apart from the preserve, the recipes are identical. Today I thought I’d make a cake version, but use raspberry jam. I made a mascarpone icing for the top. (That was, even if I say it myself, a stroke of genius.)

I cut  the still-warm cake up and potted the icing  for later application, picked up my work bag and got in the car. Phhhhttt! No juice  in the battery at all! So me and  my cake went back into the house again, sent our apologies, and made some lunch.

I set the Bitterroot shawl to soaking, and conjured up an unplanned meal. While I was stirring, oblivious to all else, Mr L arrived in the kitchen with a large cardboard box. I hadn’t heard the van arrive at all!

Inside the box was my initial “test” order from Approved Foods. I am pleased to say that they passed the test and I shall place further orders in the future. We now have a lifetime supply of instant soup (I know – but Mr L doesn’t drink tea and enjoys a mug of instant soup at tea time… no matter how many mutterings I make about salt intake etc.) that cost us under £2, plus many more strange and ridiculously cheap (- even after the delivery surcharge to the isles) items.

Organising homes for the contents of the parcel took a while.

And after lunch, I blocked out my Bitterroot in the luxury and safety of my workroom, on my new table. No more kitchen blocking and warding cats off for me. Oh, no. I have a dedicated facility. There’s posh for you.

Mind you, it hasn’t improved my blocking technique any – the spine of my shawl looks like a dog’s hind leg.

Flash photography in artificial light – poor colour representation
Wonky!
Blocking

My back is killing me now, after all that bending. I’m going to take it easy, eat raspberry chocolate cake, and knit on my cowl for a while. All safe in the kniwledge that Teddy cannot sit on my blocking. Deep joy.

Published by Scattered Thinker

The Scattered Thinker is somewhat past her prime, but not yet in any danger of giving up. In the Inter-world, she is often known as plumbum, or sometimes as ulygan. In the Real Life, she goes by the name of Beth. Beth is a roamer. She lives in a motorhome and has a backup static caravan that serves as a bolthole if needed. Bricks and mortar are very much a thing of the past. Contact Beth if you would like to correspond with paper and pen.

2 replies on “Unexpected productivity”

  1. Hi, that is beautiful and you did the beading part so quickly. Very very impressed indeed. I knit too but on a more basic level than you. I am thinking of trying to knit a shawl if I can find a fairly simple one on Ravelry. Steph

    1. I’ll be writing about this, Steph, but I’ll say it now too – Bitterroot is a very easy pattern to knit, and fast. It is way simpler than it looks and I’ll be recommending it for shawl beginners..

      There’s a group on Ravelry UK-RAK that was (probably still is) running a shawl KAL, with beginners in mind. There is much discussion in a thread there of suitable starter patterns. Lots of advice.

      See here http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/uk-random-acts-of-kindness/787360/1301-1325

      and here http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/uk-random-acts-of-kindness/717113/626-650

      Thank you for the compliment

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