Project progress, spinning, sewing

 

I was awakened at 3 a.m. late last week by the frightful yips, howls, and eery glissandos of coyotes. They were right under my 2nd floor bedroom window. It was a sudden outburst and shocked my nerves so that it took several minutes to get the chill out.

I heard them the following night close by in the woods behind the woodshed. They started their chorus when I turned the shed light on to go get the mail, 90ft away. It motivated me to go right back in the house to get the pepper spray out of my other jacket. They continued to haunt the air with their howling  while I fetched the mail and brought some wood in.

The following evening was almost an exact repeat. I haven't heard them since.

They do make a frightful disturbance.

I have finished working on the Howe sewing machine irons and must now set the project aside until the weather warms up so that I can work on the wood finish and the head. Both tasks require some strong smelling chemicals (acetone, denatured alcohol, boiled linseed oil, etc...) which fumes would be a problem so close to the wood stove, I fear. The fumes would be no good for me either, nor for the birds.

I am continuing to make progress at the great wheel. I made some important discoveries this weekend and that's boosting my confidence. Just finished plying up some more of the spinning today. 240 yards of the same wool blends. I'm going to start a scarf to go with the gloves I made a few weeks ago.

I am really enjoying spinning on this wheel.

It's time to start a new quilt. This one will be wool applique on cotton, from a pattern I purchased a few years ago, only I'll be enlarging the pattern to get a bigger quilt. Exciting! Finished cutting out the wool pieces for the first block last evening. The background cloth just came out of the wash a little while ago so tomorrow I'll iron it and hopefully get started with the sewing. The background is dark green.

The following is an excellent recipe I found in a 1979 cookbook. It's fabulous Italian recipe. A real keeper.

Orange Glazed Cake

1.5 cups flour
1.5 tsp double acting baking powder
.25 tsp salt
1 stick butter
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 Tblsp grated orange rind (the rind of one orange)
.5 cup milk

The glaze:
1-2 Tblsp rum (I used 3-4)
3 Tblsp orange juice
1 Tbsp butter
5 Tbsp sugar

[I changed the order of the instructions and beat the butter and sugar first, followed by the eggs, vanilla, and rind. Then I added the dry ingredients, and finally the milk.]

Mix flour, baking powder and salt together. Add butter and sugar. Beat in 2 eggs, vanilla and orange rind. Pour milk in slowly and beat vigorously until well mixed. (I used stand mixer to do all.) Bake at 350 degrees about 35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. [The recipe doesn't specify a pan size. I used a small bunt pan and it was just right, but took a bit longer to cook.] Cool. On stovetop, heat 3 the orange juice with the rum, butter, and sugar for about 2 minutes. Pour glaze over the cake.

Yum!!