Stoneview

Moving Day

We haven't really had any hot weather to speak of but over the past week Jason noticed the a/c wasn't blowing very cool air so he put in a call to the repair guy. We might have skipped getting it serviced in the spring a time or two. It wasn't long at all after the repair guy's arrival that he reported a mousikin nest inside the unit. They'd chewed through the wire. Sound familiar? As in exactly the same report we got on the car a/c earlier this year? Ayep. Well, the mice have been evicted and the a/c is hunky dory again. Repair guy was even so kind as to show Jason how to turn off the breaker in the winter so that there's no warm spot to attract said mice again.  I think the catnip for neighbor cats campaign has just gained even more momentum.

I also worked up one more experimental batch of soap. Jason asked for something with sea salt in. I'm not ordering new supplies until the fall so I had to go with what essential oils I had on hand and since I've just done sandalwood and lavender I went for mint this time for a change of pace. The sea salt is in rather large crystals and those don't seem to have behaved very nicely. It looks like those candles we made as kids with ice cubes to make holes  when they melted. I'll give it a few days and then try it out to be sure it's okay. It does look like the soap set properly so I suspect the salt is just drawing out extra moisture.

 

The very busy day

An email from Tougas Farm yesterday morning reminded me that if I wanted strawberries this season I'd better high-tail it over there and get picking.  The siren call of fresh berries was strong enough to over-ride common sense and I managed to pick 9 pounds before my sore back forced me to stop. Most of them I sliced and mixed with a bit of sugar and lemon juice. They are now safely stowed in the freezer for a bit of summer in winter later this year.

In the afternoon I made a quick batch of lavender soap with some ground apricot kernel as exfoliant. I've never tried adding that before so I had to guess how much and when to add it but it worked out perfectly.

For dinner I pulled some of those veggie burgers out of the freezer. I let them thaw for a few hours and then heated them in the oven at 400F for 15 minutes, they were perfect. We had some fries and farmers market beets as accompaniment. For dessert I came up with a dish using puff pastry that we quite enjoyed.

Strawberry Mascarpone Pastry

2 sheets puff pastry, thawed
1/4 cup cinnamon sugar
2 tablespoons butter, softened
6 ounces mascarpone
3/4 cup heavy cream
pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon Grand marnier
3 cups ripe strawberries, hulled

Preheat the oven to 425F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and lay out the puff pastry on these. Spread with butter and dock with a fork (poke holes all over so pastry will stay flat). Sprinkle with sugar and bake at 425F until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool on baking sheet. Mix together mascarpone, cream, salt, vanill and Grand marnier until smooth. Cut puff pastry into quarters and serve topped with mascarpone mixture and then strawberries. Serves 8.

Squeaky Clean

I love when I get a special request for something I can make. I know it's much more likely to go over well when it's been asked for so I was especially pleased when someone asked me to do some sandalwood soap. Yesterday I mixed up a batch and the house is filled with the lovely scent of sandalwood. A few folks have said that the scent can really fade so I doubled the amount of fragrance oil I would normally add. Time will tell!

Mail Call

The mailman left me a plethora of goodies out on the step today. On top was a package containing 8 wonderful ounces of Rambouilet Corriedale roving from Amanda  for which I traded some soaps. I'm tickled pink about this barter. There'll be two more installments in March and April. Underneath that was a box from Bake it Pretty with candy molds for sheep, buttons and one large one that looks like a glass dish. Last but not least there was a copy of New Style of Heirloom Knitting, one of the Japanese pattern books I've been seeking for several months now.

Minty Fresh

Last time I ordered soap supplies I picked up some peppermint essential oil and making a soap with spearmint and peppermint combined has been on my todo list for a couple months now. When Debbi asked if I'd demo soap making for her daughter's chemistry project I jumped at the chance. Sometimes a little nudge is just what you need. I'd also recently read that most soapers are using about 5 times as much essential oil as I do so I wanted to gradually increase the amount and see how much more my particular recipe can take. I'll be trying out this new batch of soap this week to see how it liked it. It worked beautifully though I admit I was cautious and only increased total essential oil by about %10.

A wee bit of soap

I've been a busy bee this week and completed 5 batches of soap thus cleaning out my scent samples. As expected by a few readers, the sewing room does indeed smell pretty nice just about now!

Scrub a dub dub

While soap can be used pretty quickly after it's made it improves with several weeks of curing time during which excess water evaporates out leaving you with a harder, longer-lasting soap. With that in mind I am gearing up and making several batches of soap this week so that I'll have plenty on hand for gift-giving this holiday season. I have made a batch of spearmint which is my staple soap and then I started on using up fragrance samples I get when I buy my raw materials with Kumquat being first up. I cleared off a shelf in the sewing room so the soaps have a nice spot to cure.

The hands have it

What with all that spinning going on I need to keep my hands well moisturized so this week I've also been making lotion bars and body butter. I'm quite settled on the lotion bar recipe but I tried a new concoction for the body butter which contains hemp oil and carrot essential oil rather than the almond oil I used last time. I'm very interested to see how this new recipe does and with the cooler drier weather it's a great time to test it out.

Rubber duckie, you're the one

Last weekend we dropped by Home Depot so I could pick up some better eye protection. I've been wearing glasses but I know that's not enough. These are "splash resistant" glasses and it took a bit of searching to find the right thing. These hug your face and are not perforated like the impact resistant ones. My eyes are very safe now though I might scare the livin' daylights out of anyone coming to the door while I was making soap.

Other safety measures include closed-toed shoes and a bottle of vinegar is always handy. Yesterday I made a batch of spearmint soap is still my favorite. This morning I un-molded the soap and sliced it into bars.

Farmer's Market Season

Farmer's Market season is finally in full swing in our neck of the woods. I had hoped to take my wheel yesterday and do some demo spinning but half an hour in the heat did in my respiratory system and I wimped out to go lurk in the a/c at home. I did manage to shop and came home with some lovely things, among them a gorgeous bunch of radishes. My wheat berries burned a bit, the recipe I was using didn't call for enough liquid. I had to add more water about 2/3 through the cooking time. These notes reflect the total water I ended up using but the recipe could still need adjusting.

Radish Curry with wheat berries

2 cups wheat berries
5 cups water (chicken broth is even better)
1 tablespoon butter
salt to taste

1 bunch radishes, trimmed and halved
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon curry powder
salt to taste

Combine wheat berries, water, butter and salt in a pressure cooker and process at medium-high temperature for 45 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool until pressure releases on it's own.

Boil radishes 5-7 minutes or until tender. Drain and set aside. Return the pan to the head and add butter and flour, cooking 60 seconds. Whisk in remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat, return radishes to the pan and serve atop wheat berries.

Cucumbers with goat cheese

4 ounces goat cheese
1 tablespoon fresh mint, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon fresh chives, snipped
zest of a lemon
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1 pinch cayenne pepper
salt to taste

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and mash together until well mixed. Serve with cucumber slices.

My soap stash got rather depleted at Christmastime and I'm down to only some fir balsam soap so yesterday I made a batch of lavender. The last time I tried molds my soap was too soft and wouldn't release but I"m hoping this will go better. If all goes well I should be doing a batch of spearmint later in the week.

If at first you don't succeed...

The most recent batch of soap turned out to be quite soft. The portion in the big mold that I sliced has set up nicely in the end but the portion that I poured into the fancy shaped molds finally had to be pried out after waiting some weeks to see if it would set a bit harder. It's more humid this time of year and that's about the only factor that's different between this and previous batches other than a new essential oil. I think in the future I'll only try one fancy mold at a time and use mainly the big ones that create a loaf of soap to slice.

Scrub a dub dub

My soap supply is dwindling after gifting a great deal of it for Christmas so some new batches are long overdue. This week I made a batch of rose-scented soap. Part of that was used for a second loofah soap test, there were two sheep soaps and the rest went into my regular loaf mold. I'd read a tip that you can use heat-resistant mylar to permanently line your molds but when I Googled that I read it will sometimes stick to the soap. Instead of lining the entire mold with it I used it just on the top surface and although it did stick a little it was much easier than trying to wrap the lid with parchment paper. I think it won't work well for me as a mold liner but I'll definitely continue to use it as a lid liner.

I've been asked a few times if I would make lotion. A friend who used to do a lot of soaps, creams, lotions and tinctures told me that it was difficult to get a stable emulsion for lotion. Later I read that you must always use preservatives and those two things turned me off. Recently, I began reading about lotion bars and that seemed like a good fit. Here's the result of my first lotion bar experiment. These are made with shea butter, coconut oil, beeswax, vitamin E and spearmint oil. So far the consensus has been positive. I think these are a keeper!

Quick and dirty

I wanted to use every scrap of this lovely angora-wool blend so I planned to use a top-down pattern for my hat. Unfortunately, I forgot my "Knitting Answer" book and I couldn't recall how to do a purl f/b so half of my increases are wrong and the top looks fairly wonky. Nevertheless it's a cozy little hat that doesn't itch so far. If I haven't got a rash in a week then I'll declare it a success.

I popped the second sheepy soap out of the mold and it unmolded perfectly so I'll have to remember to let those cure two days before unmolding in future. He's pretty darn cute, no?

and now, the rest of the story

Sunday morning was a beautiful winter wonderland so we stopped to snap a few photos on the way to knitting. Later in the day we visited Quilter's Way in Concord where I was sucked in by the jelly roll quilt concept. As if we hadn't already fit enough into our weekend we also tucked in a quick batch of soap as well. A friend has been telling me about some cool soap her mom used to have which had a loofah embedded into it and I just had to give that a try. For my first attempt I precut the loofah. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to find the seams to cut the soap but it worked out fairly well. I also had a couple cute little sheep molds to try. He didn't come out of the mold very cleanly so next time I will try coating it with a bit of olive oil before I pour the soap and see if that doesn't work better.

The aftermath

Apparently the volcano soap has happened to other folks as well. As it turns out it's a result of a saponification reaction that's moving at a rapid pace generating quite a bit of heat so that the soap virtually boils itself out of the mold.

A minor eruption

Yesterday Debbi and I made one last batch of pre-holiday soap. I've read that some essential oils can pose a problem causing seizing of the soap and other problems but so far I've had good luck. This time I was trying out Ylang ylang and things seemed to go well until I put the lids on the molds. We went into the other room to look at the tops of the lemon batch and when we walked back into the kitchen the soap was erupting out of the molds! I grabbed my gloves and started doing damage control but Debbi was a good blogger and grabbed the camera for some photos. It seems like the saponification reaction was getting a bit too vigorous once the soap was in the molds but with the lids off I was able to stir a bit and things seemed to calm down again. It'll be interesting today to unmold the soap and see if it's at all useable. I won't be using that essential oil again!

I'm currently helping to test knit a sock pattern that's meant to break up the pooling and flashing that bother some folks. I goofed up the first few repeats being rather muddled of mind in the midst of an emergent sinus infection but I didn't bother ripping back to repair the damage. The socks are moving along now and hopefully I'll get past the gusset by week's end.

Suzie Q Homemaker

Place setting number 8 arrived in plenty of time for the holiday meal. I've managed to finish 7 napkins but the placemats still need to be sewn. On Friday I made a batch of lemon soap which I thought would make lovely kitchen soap. Eventually I'll try making this with coffee in place of the water and a few tablespoons of coffee grounds thrown in at the end as I have heard this makes for excellent odor removal.

I woke up Friday morning with a bit of a sore throat so I decided to make some chicken soup. As I wasn't feeling %100, I did a really simple version without many spices and this was apparently quite a hit with Daniel who's not usually too excited about my soup. Each morning I would discover a few more containers missing from the fridge and find the empties in the sink. I'll have to remember to make it plain a little more often.

Plain Jane Chicken Soup

1 whole chicken
1 medium sweet onion, chopped
4 ribs celery, chopped
4 medium carrots, chopped
1 large Yukon Gold potato, diced
1 cup brown rice
salt, to taste
1 bunch parsley, chopped
cold water to cover
1 cinnamon stick

Assemble all ingredients except the potato and rice in a large pot. Cover and bring to a simmer. Simmer 60 minutes, skimming any foam that rises to the surface, add potato and brown rice and simmer a further 30 minutes. Remove from heat. Carefully transfer chicken to a cutting board and shred meat off the bones, returning it to the pot.

Again with the soap

My next goal with the soap is to get a smoother top when I pour. This time around I smoothed it with a spatula and then put freezer paper lids beneath the wooden ones. The problem was that the corners of the freezer paper poked down into the unset soap so I couldn't really press down with the lids to make a flat top. Back to the drawing board!

On liners for molds

When I first started making soap I invested in a pair of 3-pound loaf soap molds from Creekside soaps and I haven't been disappointed with them. They came with some fantastic liners which you can also buy in quantity but since they looked like something I could do myself I've been trying to work out how to fold my own. I've gotten a bit better with each batch of soap and finally I think I can say I've been successful. At first I tried to use wax paper but that's too flimsy and it sometimes leaks making it very difficult to extract the soap from the mold. When I made the last batch I switched to freezer paper and that works beautifully. A bit more of the process can be seen here. Yesterday I was working on a batch of lavender soap to give as gifts and I'm pleased to say these liners worked perfectly. They slipped right out of the molds this morning without a hint of complaint.

Minty fresh

Monday morning we managed to sqeeze in a bit of soapmaking before it was time for Madame Purl to head home. I'd been meaning to do a batch with mint essential oil added after the trace since I've noticed that my skin is less itchy when using mint soap during the winter. This batch turned out very nicely and this morning I cut it into bars for curing.

Rub a dub dub

The homemade soap is considerably softer than store-bought and can melt away very quickly if it sits in water. In an effort to stretch it out just a bit longer I decided to try a sort of felted cover. This is just some wool that came out a wee bit too felty for spinning (thanks Mme Purl!) but is perfect for soap covers. I grabbed a handful, wet the soap, wrapped it in bits of wool, wet the wool and then scrubbed away until I was sure it was felted enough to stay intact. I'm sure it'll felt more tightly as it gets used.

  I'm pleased to report that the third time's the charm and I've finally successfully cast on my mitered scarf. Here it is about half finished already. Once it's cast on it really flies along. Daniel happened along as I was photographing it and decided to take a more "artistic" photo of it for me.

We also spotted the Hood blimp in our Saturday sky as we were out running errands.

Catching up

Thank goodness our internet is back on, I had some catching up to do!

This is another of Christine's beautiful Shetland Triangles. We blocked it out on my spare bed with my blocking board and wires Friday morning. She's pretty much got me convinced that I need to knit one of these myself. Here it is all dried with the pins and wires removed ready to be packed up and returned to her at Sunday morning knitting.

The soap got sliced up this morning and all seems to be well. Despite the adventures during processing it seems to have set up nicely. The freezer paper peeled away perfectly and the soap came out of the mold much more easily than last time.

Rubber duckie, you're the one

Yesterday afternoon I made another batch of soap. This one didn't turn out so pretty but I think it was still a success. I recalculated my batch size to use up exactly half of the container of lye thus meaning I have to only weigh out of each container once and the second time I use it there's no need to measure.  That gave me a 5-pound batch size which is nice as that's a little more standard and it divides pretty nicely between my two loaf molds. I was rushing a bit and failed to cool off the lye and oils so when I combined them I had a big flurry of bubbles that was a bit alarming. Thank goodness I use quite a tall pot to make soap in. A quick Google and I realized it was a temperature issue so I took the pot out onto the stone step and stirred until things cooled off a bit. It still traced like a charm when I got out the stick blender and most of the bubbles went away. Lesson learned, definitely need to let things cool a bit before combining. I used freezer paper to line my molds this time and that worked beautifully, much better than the leaky wax paper I'd tried in the past.

There's gold in them thar hills

While I was out running errands yesterday, my route took me right past the Woolpack so I stopped in to say hello and have  a quick browse of their used book selection. I recently learned they make no money at all off the used books so I felt like I should at least occasionally purchase something new and browsing the new books I came across Simply Socks by Anna Zilboorg. I snagged a copy for $15 only to realize this morning that this is going for $300 give or take on B&N or as low as $63 on Amazon. I had no clue I was getting such a steal!

Blogless Christine (not sadly because I don't believe in pressuring folks :P) sometimes wears a Dream Swatch headband that I always admire. I've intended to knit one for quite some time and I had not one but two nudges yesterday that seemed really like a sign that it was time to do so. I seized the opportunity to play with the new Addi Lace needles that Ingrid so kindly gifted me, pulled out the leftovers from Hedera and got busy.   The needles are absolutely fab, I'll definitely need to get more of those in assorted sizes.

My June sock kit arrived yesterday with a pattern that looks like it'll be fun to knit. I also sliced up that last batch of soap which seems to have turned out nicer than usual. The top is not concave and the texture is nicely uniform. I'll have to think about increasing the water content in future batches to see if that's what caused this result.

What is elegance? Soap and water. Cecil Beaton

Since soap class was canceled I made a batch of soap on my own yesterday. I ran short of lye but after making some adjustments to compensate it seems to have worked just fine anyway. The frog and turtle soaps are for Daniel though I don't think they'll be ready until he's back home at the end of the summer.

At the market yesterday while shopping for produce I found some lovely baby beets with their greens still intact. I picked up some steaks and Yukon gold potatoes to go with them for dinner.

Baby beets in maple balsamic glaze

2 tablespoons butter
2 cloves minced garlic
baby beets with greens, well rinsed
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons maple syrup
salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 cup toasted pecans

Melt the butter over low heat and add the garlic, cooking about 60 seconds or until softened. Add remaining ingredients except pecans to the pan and cover with a tight fitting lid. Raise the heat to medium-low and allow to steam until beets are tender when pierced with a fork, 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from heat, transfer to a platter and top with pecans.