The chocolate 'twas that died......

Oh, not really. That's dramatic license. I fell foul of a few things - the most important being that if a recipe states a cooking time, you should be prepared to double it at least. Especially when the instructions on how to tell if the thing is cooked are as vague as this. I did give the thing an extra twenty minutes, until it was cracking and in danger of burning around the edges, but even so, the beautifully ris and domed creation had sunk into a volcanic crater by the time we came to serve it, with a very soggy if not quite molten centre. And to call it chocolatey was an understatement - my teeth shrivelled and died on contact. It did taste ok, I suppose, if you like that sort of thing, and fortunately one of us did to the extent of having a second slice, gawd knows how his stomach coped. The rest was relegated to the freezer (where it is not going to improve) because the DSM couldn't quite bring himself to chuck it in the bin. I suppose he was right....

To more creative matters. I have finished, finally, the first pearl spiral necklace.



Again, I am really pleased with it. Not quite as neat a construction as the green one, because I had the pattern down by then, but it has tightened up quite nicely, and looks very dramatic. It was a brilliant kit, and Charlene's instructions are fantastic. At first glance, they look quite impenetrable, but if you let yourself trust what she is saying and follow the instructions to the absolute letter, the thing is a breeze and comes out very well. I may have to be tempted by another one of her kits some day.


Other than that, I spent quite a lot of yesterday evening spinning the alpaca and silk I got this summer from Adelaide Walker. I find alpaca a little tricky, it does have this tendency to either take too little twist and drift apart, or too much and turn in to wire. I am so far pretty much treading the middle path on this, and I think it is going to be ok when plyed. Yes, I know, I should sample the plyed, finished product before going any further, but....we shall see. I am intending it for the Landscape shawl that I kept coming across in blogs, and which I think looks a)great and b) within my capabilities.

Should keep me busy through what is promising to be a long, grey winter.