In times like this, prayer is necessary.

*sigh*

I thought this blog might be in need of some colour-related cheerfulness. Over the course of a few weeks, I’ve caved and purchased OR handdyed some fibers to spin up for either keeps or the shop. So my fiber stash has grown somewhat considerably, even more than the stock for the shop, dare I say. What’s worse is that I haven’t had the time to photograph them all. ARGH!

On the list of To-Take-A-Snapshot are…

• Romney in Creme Brulee (8 oz) from ironjohn04
• Seawool in Delight (4 oz) from Dyeing For Colour
• Seawool in Scottish Heather (4 oz) from Dyeing For Colour
• Seawool in SR25 (8 oz) from Creatively Dyed
• 60/40 Merino-Bamboo in Evening Shade (4 oz) (FatCatKnits) from a trade on Rav
• 50/50 Merino-Tencel in Green Tea (4 oz) (Pigeon Roof Studios) from a trade on Rav

Of course, I shouldn’t forget the fibers that are supposed to be on their way or will be on their way over the next few months!

On the list of Items-To-Be-Received are…

• A fiber club installment of 4 oz of merino-silk from JulieSpins
• Next year’s 3-month fiber club installment from Ewe Give Me The Knits!

There is a perfectly good explanation for this stash enhancement…

Unfortunately, I can’t say it. You’ll find out soon enough.

…to get upset over e-dramas or e-people (read: people I have never met and can’t be bothered to meet).

Honestly, I don’t go around looking for fights and I like to think that I don’t ask for them either, but then again, what I think and feel may not be the same as others. O’well…you can’t win them all.

So it looks like gone are the days when you would be able to read juicy details of this drama, find names and so forth. Like I said…life is too short, so I think I’m off to bed now!

I must apologize for the quiet days ahead on this blog…

With the spinning, dyeing and weaving for the shop coupled with French classes as well as part-time work not to mention overall care of the house AND the short autumn-soon-to-be-winter days (and include work on some leaky bathroom faucets - well, actually, that’s Nil’s job), I’ve been too tired out to talk about anything much or less blog.

In fact, all I can think about right now is sleep and not that photobook project which I have to rush off and finish - no thanks to a 31 December expiry date and an outdated software which resulted in me having to redesign everything.

It’ll be quiet over the next few days…I hope it won’t be for long.

But I know like with every coming silence, it’ll come to an end quickly enough. Just hang on in there, ya?

I can’t talk much about this project for a variety of reasons but I just couldn’t resist sharing pics!

I still have slightly more than half to finish spinning up and then plying but isn’t this just gorgeous?

Click on the pic for a bigger view!

Nil and I woke up to what is the first snowfall for the year 2008…and later on, it became the first snowy morning of the season, the sign of many to come over the next few weeks. You see, it went from this…

To this…

Yes, the flurries have arrived!!!!

And it’ll continue on over the weekend until Monday morning. I guess it’s time to break out the jackets, hiking boots and winter wear officially. A weekend walk in the evening told me that I might just need a hat should it get breezy which it has over the past few hours…I could always knit up one but I already have too many WIPs in progress and no FOs to show for. Awful…just awful. =.=

Getting assignments like this one “alli” sure doesn’t help with the Startitis problem (starting too many knitting projects and not ending them!)

It’s been a while since I met up with the girls from the Swiss knitting group on Ravelry; the last time I met them was eons ago in Zurich and since then, I’ve always had an excuse for not showing up. Maybe it has something to do with my lacking of knitting and more of everything else. As promised, I decided to make some baked goodies for the ladies while we chat, gossip and knit away. The question, of course, would be how to smuggle them into Starbucks. But that aside.

These little babies (photo taken above with Nil’s trusty Canon camera) here are a modification of a cranberry poppyseed muffin recipe that I have in one of my baking pocketbooks. I remember seeing some poppyseed on sale at the bigger Coop stores but was too lazy to go all the way there when I bought my supplies last Saturday with Nil. So I opted for some chopped almonds instead. While preparing the ingredients, I realized that I had some hazelnut in as well so why not? The result is a wonderfully moist, not sweet muffin with a slight crunch to it - excellent for tea or breakfast…Nil even gave it his thumbsup with “it’s PERFECT!!!!”.

Note that the recipe originally called for everything in ounces but I work in grams, hence the “uneven” measurements below.

Cranberry Nut Muffin

Ingredients
113 gms unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups crème fraîche*
2 large eggs
284 gms plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
227 gms brown sugar
70 gms hazelnuts & chopped almonds
72 gms dried cranberries
1 tsp maple syrup
1 tsp honey

* I used about 3.5 dl or 350 ml of crème fraiche

Method

1. Preheat oven to 190 C or 375 F. Line muffin tins with greaseproof or baking paper so that they resemble muffin cases. Melt the butter, leave to cool for a minute or two, then beat in the crème fraîche, followed by the eggs and the vanilla extract.
2. In another bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar. Stir this gradually into the sour cream mixture along with the cranberries & nuts until the flour is coated but the batter remains lumpy.** It is okay if there are tiny lumps of flour in the batter.
3. Fill each of the prepared muffin cases with the batter (about 2/3 of the cases) and bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Test with a skewer - it should come out clean if muffins are done. Lift onto a cooling rake, brush the tops with some maple syrup & honey mix. Serve while warm or for breakfast/tea.

** DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT do this step with an electric mixer. It may and often results in overbeating which will give your muffins a dense and dry texture because of gluten formation.