Disasters in baking

Inspired by a free Craftsy video on gluten-free baking that I dipped into last week, I tried out an American recipe for gluten free oatmeal chocolate chip cookies last night.  I'm not much of a baker and the whole experience reminded me why that is.  I had to buy a range of esoteric 'flours' to make up the recommended gluten free mix.  The estimated preparation time of 25 minutes stretched to almost an hour and trashed the kitchen.  My carefully arranged dough balls all melted in the oven and merged into one giant chocolate chip pancake that was falling off the edges of the tray and burning in the bottom of the oven. At the given cooking time of 10 minutes my pizza was still molten, but five minutes later it was overcooked.  Sigh.  The result is a tupperware full of toffee-coloured chocolate chip flavoured granola.  So not a success.  Investigating online, it appears that I should have had the oven hotter, have chilled the dough, have used extra baking powder as UK powder is apparently weaker than US powder, and possibly cut down the butter.  I'm not a chemist, I just wanted some cookies :(

I was going to do some garden tidying today but luckily it's raining so I don't have to.  Instead I did some work on my Japanese dollshouse this morning.  This week I have put together some kits which make up a little toilet room in the corner of the second landing, containing a tiny sink and a Japanese squat toilet which you can barely see now it's installed. I added a towel hanging from a jump ring.

On the sewing front, I assembled block 5 of the 30s Sampler quilt that I showed cut out last week.  I'm planning to sew a padded storage bag for carrying my lace making supplies in, so I have purchased the Ansel camera bag pattern from Sew Sweetness bags.  I've cut out most of the pieces for the medium size but I'm waiting for some interfacing that I ordered online to arrive in the post.  I'm going to use Bosal foam for stiffening so I was researching tips online for working with it.  There seems to be a wide spectrum of opinion between "this stuff is a miracle that's transformed my bagmaking" right through to "this stuff is awful and it ruined my bag with wrinkles".  I think I might play it safe and not fuse the Bosal to my outer fabric directly which is where the wrinkles seem to be a risk.  I'm going to add some extra pockets inside to hold my lacemaking supplies like my light and my glasses case.

I've moved on to the next room on my Christmas cross stitch now.  We've invited the in-laws for Christmas so I'm going to be having a working Christmas rather than a relaxing one, but it's our turn to have them.  Our favourite Christmas holidays are the ones where we can just chill out for several days of crafting and hobbies, relaxing, watching films and eating/drinking lots.  Having guests means having to wear proper clothes instead of pyjamas, constantly planning/cooking meals and cleaning up, not being able to watch any TV we like, having to all sit in one room and make polite chitchat for most of each day (the in-laws think it is peculiar to have people vanishing off to sit by themselves in another room alone) and not really being able to go anywhere much as they have mobility issues and the weather's not great. My m-i-l loves 'having all the family together' like that but I just find it exhausting after a few days. It makes me realise how much my life depends on my regular craftmaking for relaxation and mindfulness. At least I can knit while I'm sitting with them.

I've left my bobbin lace pillow set up on its stand all week and have done some lacemaking while watching YouTube videos a few evenings.  Yesterday I went out to a local group for a few hours and today my lace friends are coming over so I'm getting more done on bobbin lace this week than usual.  I haven't gone back to the Floral sample I started on the course yet, I'm working to progress the previous hexagonal edging with a view to finishing it before I move on.  I don't want too many outstanding lace projects because a) I forget how to do them and b) it ties up all my 'good' bobbins so subsequent projects have to use the less desirable ones  (my teacher on the course picked up one of my secondhand bobbins and the spangle of beads fell off in her hand because the ancient wire had deteriorated).

Evening knitting this week, as well as working on the ongoing edging and on the commuter shawl, was also knitting up a free kit for a Raccoon key ring charm that came with a knitting magazine recently.  I thought it was cute although I'm not sure what I will do with it. Perhaps DS's girlfriend might like it.