This Week's Projects

I did some nifty things this week in terms of learning how to do some random things.  First, I had been in Pier 1, buying a wedding gift, and I came across a magazine basket that had been woven out of newspaper.  I took a picture of it because, well, I was sure that I could do that for free and not have to pay $30 for it.  I was deceived by my own sense of awesomeness.  Weaving a basket out of little rolls of newspaper is no easy task--it's stiff, it bends in awkward angular directions, and when you get to the end and need to weave in the ends of the newspaper, it's so tight that you need some sort of hook to weave the ends in (I used a crochet hook after I had abused all of my fingernails on the first basket).  And, worst of all, newspaper, no matter how thinly you roll it, doesn't like to be woven--it pops up and out and unweaves itself at every opportunity. I made two baskets, both are just big enough to hold odds and ends on my desk or to serve as a little yarn bowl.  Honey said I should lacquer them, but I'm on the fence about it.

I also learned how to mill my own oat flour and to make oatmeal pancakes.  I had oatmeal pancakes at the Flying Biscuit near Piedmont Park with Rocket while we waited for the guys to finish the Peachtree Road Race on July 4th.  They were pretty tasty.  When I looked up a recipe, it called for oat flour and oatmeal.  I live in the sticks; so oat flour isn't exactly readily available.  We don't have organic supermarkets or specialty markets.  We have Walmart and Piggly Wiggly.  Anyway, I looked up oat flour and discovered that it is finely ground oatmeal.  Soooooo, I threw some oatmeal into the Magic Bullet

 Then I ground it in the Magic Bullet (and overheated the Bullet and broke one of the attachments!)
 But, I made oat flour!

 
I had to do it in small batches, but I ended up with about 14 cups of oat flour.

And, the pancakes were awesome!

Finally, I finished the Serendipity Scarf and am washing and blocking it today for its big photo shoot. Fingers crossed that one of the Interweave editors is going to LOVE it and want to publish my pattern. This picture is, of course, a bathroom mirror shot (grey, misty, and a whole lot like October weather today--odd since it's been 70% + humidity with a heat index of 102 or higher every day this week) and the scarf is totally unblocked. Still, I'm rather pleased that it looks so nice with no blocking.

Now, which of my projects will I focus on next?  So many to choose from!