You might not have seen this bag of mystery fleece from a December post so I'm showing it again. It was a half fleece that I purchased from Doris many many years ago and processed myself. I am determined to destash this year.
I finished it in my morning spinnings (with coffee) and today was the day to decide what I have and how I want to dye it. It appears that I spun pretty consistently, but I'm not a machine and I know there is some variation from skein to skein.
I measured six samples on the McMorran yarn balance and calculated my yardage on the average of the samples.If you haven't seen one of these these, you drape a piece of yarn over the arm. In the beginning it's in the down position. You just continue to snip the ends until the arm is level, measure the length and then multiple it by 100. That's how many yards you have in a pound of yarn. Based on the weight, I know that I have a minimum of 1400 yards. At 14 wraps per inch, I will probably use a size 6 needle, but first I have to decide what color it will be.
I made these samples today and really had a hard time photo-graphing accurate color - had to Photoshop to get this, which is pretty close to true. I like about half of them but am leaning toward the gold since the gray fleece shows through. I also like the hibiscus and myrtle, though it's pretty purple.
Ian was out of cookies, and since I was in the kitchen and had to wait for the samples to steam, I made him a batch. I had never heard of palm shortening until Leigh introduced it. When I acknowledged that saturated fat is healthier than hydrogenated fat, I started trying to find some. It was harder than I had expected and health food stores didn't know what I was talking about. When I asked at Trader Joe, the clerk said to try Whole Foods, which is where I found this. Today was the day to try it out. For the first time in my adult live, I don't have Crisco in the house.
Do you know what this is? Real eggs! And I'm out now, so am going over to Mim's tomorrow to restock. The yolks are so unbelievably orange. I'm taking some fiber to process on her supercard. I dyed it today and it felted a little. We try to get together once a week. She asked me last week if I wanted more than a dozen, and I said no, because I need the excuse to come over!The verdict on the cookies with palm shortening? I ate one but can't really compare it to since I don't usually eat them. I have to say though that they were a little more "short" with better flavor. I defer to Ian - "Oh, they're tasty."
7 comments:
Crisco? Ick. Never have liked or bought the stuff. I did buy some coconut oil after Leigh's post, but haven't used it in anything yet. I don't bake much anymore because I eat too much of it if I do, but when I do bake, I mostly use butter....
Butter girl here too, I don't bake often so.....
The yarn looks great! Beautiful job dying. I like the Honeycomb, what great color.
Dyeing and cookies....two wonderful things! (Although not when combined closely....the dangers of ingesting dye and all that)
I love my McMorran yarn balance. For years I thought they were giant....but I like how a little tool helps me sort out my stash yarn so well.
Have fun!
Sue
I like all the colors but raspberry and honeycomb are my favorite.
I've never used palm shortening but I'm glad both you and leigh recommended it. I probably would have to order it if I wanted some. We don't have to many store that would stock it.
I love that you are using the McMorran yarn balance. I saw it on a thread and never knew what it was. I need to get one since I have 5 fleeces that I need to spin. It woudl be nice to know how much yeild I get from them.
I love to bake and am strictly a butter girl. I remember using margarine when I was a kid. When I got old enough to know there was a difference, I started using butter. I do love butter!
Oh! I just got my McMorran yarn balance in the mail yesterday! I haven't had a chance to use it yet but it is certainly an interesting theory - something like fractals, or something...
Butter for me too. Except pie crust and then I'm strictly a Crisco woman. T.
I'm waaaay behind on my blog reading. But I knew you were going to bake Ian's cookies so I had to come find this post! The good news is that he didn't say "crisco's better." :) I have to agree with the others,that butter really makes the best cookies and cakes. But I do use the palm shortening a lot too, especially for pie crusts and biscuits, as well as a few other baked good recipes that call for shortening. The fun part is the experimenting, to find out what fat tastes best in which recipe. :)
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