Spin, Cook, Knit, Rawr!

So I accidentally ordered, paid for and took delivery of a new spinning wheel. Oops! I had been to Diane Mulhollands Superspin class and it renewed my interest in wheel spinning. I had a go on the Joy wheel and it just felt awesome. Afterward my mother said to me "keep an eye out for a cheap one then" when I talked about the Joy. I said "I don't need one I have a wheel already" and her reply was "when have you ever made do with just one of anything?"

I thought "I'll show you - I don't need no stinkin Joy wheel!" then I just happened to search and came across Wingham Wool Works which upon enquiring had a double treadle version in stock. They had the bag in stock too. Somehow my debit card took a beating and two days later this arrived:




I love it to pieces and have already spun my first 100g of Corriedale. Pictures of that to follow - it isn't great but its Okay. It will be used to make a slubby beret by the gorgeous Ysolde :)

So getting right into the spirit of making things, I had been chatting to Natalie over at The Yarn Yard and discovered she had a recipe up for Oatmeal Biscuits. This recipe is the one I have been searching for! I had this recipe years ago but lost it - I've been searching for it ever since then I came across The Yarn Yard and the recipe! Oh my god it has been YEARS since I tasted these. Mum used to make them and they were just delicious - she would throw in some museli to make up the batch and it would just add that touch of yummy.

So I set out to make my first Oatmeal Bikkies in a long time. They were too chewy, I'd added too much Bicarbonate of Soda and I had not baked them long enough. They had an aftertaste which was the bicarb - still I said to mum "I'm going to make several test batches till I get this right, we'll eat them all - test batches and all" and she said "thats the best way to find the perfect combination" so the first batch were prepared:

Butter, Sugar, syrup melting in the pot Mmmm



The oats ready to go into the melted mixture and some Museli thrown in for added taste n texture:



Raw Biscuits on the baking sheet:



The end result, melted into eachother and ran all over the pan but boy even with the Bicarb aftertaste these were good. Comfort eating at its best!!!



So in keeping with that, mums friend Kathleen came around and showed me how to make Soda Bread! Yummy rich brown soda bread made in the Irish traditional way. I'll write up the recipe and post it here but for now, here are the pictures of the Soda bread in the making:

Adding buttermilk to the mix:




Preparing the tin for baking:




Putting the bread on the pan before scoring it and baking it:




And the finished, baked, hot yummy Soda Bread:





So we paid for Kathleens time with a barter system - two fresh organic corn cobs yum! :)





I needed another quick project to do - I finished the dream in color shrug and had yarn left over. So I tackled Calorimetry and was surprised to find this thing finished in just one evening. Needs a button adding but here it is - it reminds me of a big cheesy grin!:



After all the cooking, I took a little break and who did I spy in the garden stalking along? The lovely Miss Kitty! Rawr!: