Today I invited a few fiber friends to come over and spin with me. I only asked four folks, and one teen got the flu, one adult friend had to work midnights, one teenager was with her dad this weekend…

…but I did get my house cleaned better than it has been in a while (I’m still loving that dishwasher). Eventually, my friend Tony did come over for a few hours.

We ate homemade soup and pumpkin bread, then he knit sox and I spun a bit of beautiful multi-greens-and-turquoise superwash that will eventually be sox for me and for my mother. Someday. (I’ve never knit anything from my handspun though I’ve spun maybe a pound and a half of fiber in a little over a year). We talked about wool and yarn, spinning and knitting, and all sorts of creative and entertaining subjects. We had a great time.

My mom sent me a recipe for pumpkin bread that she had clipped from the Lakeland, Florida newspaper. There are many retirees in that town, so this was a no-egg (low cholesterol) recipe. That made it perfect for me, because I’m sensitive to eggs. It was so thoughtful for her to send the recipe, because she knows I’m very fond of pumpkin. It must be because I was born the day after Thanksgiving!

The recipe was set up for three loaves, a bit excessive, so that gave me permission to play liberally with the ingredients, adding some and subtracting others, as well as changing quantities. With some adaptations and a few changes, I got a largish single loaf. It was totally wonderful and quite simple to make. Here’s my version of the bread:

Crusty Pumpkin Loaf
2 cups Flour
1-1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Ground Cloves
1-1/4 tsp Cinnamon
1-1/2 cup White Sugar
1 small can (1-3/4c) Pumpkin (not pie mix)
3/8 cup Vegetable Oil
1-1/2 tsp Vanilla (real Mexican Vanilla is superior if you have a Mexican grocery)

Preheat oven to 350F.
Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
Mix in Pumpkin, Oil and Vanilla (I used a wire whisk, slowly).
Pour into 1 large greased and floured bread pan.
Bake 1 hour until toothpick comes out clean.

(There is no picture today, we ate the bread so fast there is nothing left to photograph!)

I’ve turned both heels on my top-down two-color sox for publication. I have to mail them on Monday, but tomorrow I’ll have many hours in the car going to and from a party with Brian’s family. As long as I remember to knit an inch or so back and forth between the sox, I shouldn’t have any troubles getting these done. Countdown!

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