Another week spinning and baking

 150 grams of Icelandic done in a single, lopi style.  It's worsted weight at about 10 wpi. It's pretty and it's soft, really soft.  I will actually use this for something knitted.  While I could have made it thicker, I know that I just wouldn't use anything heavier than worsted weight.  It was fun to spin.  Normally I gravitate to fine yarns for weaving, so forcing myself to spin at a thicker grist is something I have to do once in a while

A spontaneous suggestion to visit a local antique mall on Sunday for a quick walk through ended up with me finding this treasure.  It was late in the day and we really only had the time and energy to do one of the three floors.  Sitting on a shelf, beckoning me was this red lamp.  It was labeled pink but really, that ruby colour in the photo is pretty accurate.  It isn't exactly the same as the lamp with the milk glass shade, but it's pretty darned close.  With a new wick, it will be functional.  That means that most of the lamps are actually able to be used.  I'd like to find a place to get a couple of replacement hurricane shades, a replacement burner for the one that is seized up and a bunch of wicking.

I played around with a recipe for Currant Buns from the Ladies New Book of Cookery, 1852.   When I take recipes and make them using weight of  ingredients, I tend to have great results.  Transferring the weights to cups has been at times challenging because our flour is different than others.  It seems to be heavier at times and absorbs much more liquid.  I've found this sometimes with modern recipes as well.   My biggest problem was that my yeast was getting old and I chose the day it was a high of -23° outside to bake bread.   That meant that no matter how hard I tried to stoke the fire, the rest of the house wouldn't get warmer than 52°.  Even though I proofed the yeast and it was fine, it took all day for the dough to rise, even in front of the fire.  The buns were fruit heavy and really tasty but I'll have to make them again on a warmer day with fresh yeast.   I'll definitely halve the batch too since it makes way too much for one family to easily eat in a couple of days.