Neglecting the blog is getting to be a habit. I need some motivation but I really don’t feel like sitting down to write every week that I’m still not knitting, all I seem to be eating are packaged veggie burgers and salads and I’m only baking bread, and it’s the same bread once a week for a month or so. I’m boring, people.

So, here it is.

Look at that, I made bread. The same bread I showed last time.

Oh, look, more of the same bread, just a different shape. Seriously, though, this plain white bread from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day is really good and super easy. And I’ve been using the same bowl, without washing it between batches, to mix and store my dough in and I’ve notice each loaf tastes a little better than the last. It’s that little bit of old dough that really gives more depth of flavor and a moister (is that a word? It is now, I guess) texture. I love making bread and having fresh bread every day but I’m also really lazy (well, tired, I haven’t been sleeping good, again) and this method is perfect. I can have fresh bread in about an hour and a half with about five minutes of active work time. I don’t know if I’ll keep this up once school starts, though, since I have a bread making class, we’ll just have to see.

I finished my blackwork sampler. If you look at it really hard (or not so hard, in a few places), you can tell where I ran out of one color floss and had to switch colors. There are four shades of blue here but it’s not obvious in person. This is about six inches square and done on 18 count Aida.

Here’s the beginnings of a new piece, my own design. I spent a couple days getting my chart just right and now I’m off. I worked on this for quite a while last night and made a ton of progress but I kept making mistakes and having to rip out stitches. I’m not giving anything on it away, I’m going to attempt to update the blog every few days until it’s done and then I may just pop the chart up here for free. I’ve gone crazy making cross stitch charts this week. I’ve been making them out of pictures, old drawings that I’ve done, Threadless t-shirt designs. I have a ton of floss just sitting around and I’m itching to use some of it. Expect to see lots of embroidery and cross stitch coming up. Unless I get bored with it and then I’ll just move on to something else. Maybe I’ll finally get back to spinning.

I’m dog sitting for my cousins this week while they are in Florida. I love their dog, she lived with me for three months last year and it’s been too quiet with only the two cats and Sally. Too bad it’s so hard to photograph black dogs because Chippy is so scruffy and cute.

I’ll try to think of something better for next week. Maybe I’ll make some ice cream or something.