2020 Geek-A-Long: Arcane Do It

Guys, I have no idea what day it is. I woke up this morning thinking it was Sunday. I went through my usual Sunday morning routine: pulled out La Masa de La Madre (my trusty sourdough starter) to come to room temp, so I could bake later; fed the cat; made coffee and a bagel. And then I sat down with my Switch to play Animal Crossing: New Horizons only to learn that no, I would not be buying any turnips from Daisy Mae to play the Stalk Market this week, because Sunday was YESTERDAY.

For those of you who have no idea what Animal Crossing is all about, just know that this was devastating.

For those of you who are currently playing Animal Crossing and are like, “Oh dang, but did you remember to sell your turnips since you clearly have no grasp on time anymore?!” Yes. I sold them for 242 Bells earlier in the week after paying 94 Bells. Thank the gods!

Anyway, since Megan-Anne only writes the GAL posts on Sundays when I go, “Hey, girl. It’s Sunday. Gimme a post.” She assumed I had decided to write something for this weeks square, which, to be fair, I’ve done before. Buuuuut, that means I have to write a post now…

And I got nothing.

Usually, I ruminate on a GAL post for a couple of days before I sit down to write them, but I have done zero ruminating. So, here are a couple of quick paragraphs about magic, even though I probably could have written something more pithy if the pandemic hadn’t robbed me of my ability to recognize the passage of time. My bad.

In ye olden days of Dungeons & Dragons, magic was split in two. There was the Divine, magic gifted from gods or holy powers, and then there was the Arcane. Arcane was power that you pulled from the universe. Why was there a difference, you ask?

I don’t know, and I never paid attention to it.

I always saw it as two different ways of doing the same thing, like getting water from the tap versus water from a pitcher. Divine or Arcane, it didn’t matter; the enemies were still burned with fire, whether from Fireball or Flame Strike. In fifth edition, there is no functional difference if you get your fireball spells from being a Wizard or a Cleric of Light. 

Some settings define magic a little more. The Forgotten Realms has a concept of the Weave of Magic where spellcasters access the threads of reality and twist and knot them into the shapes needed to alter the world how they want. That’s right. All magic is basically knitting. Well, fiber work at least. And some people crochet while some people knit, but both can produce the lovely shawl that is the fireball spell doing 6d8 fire damage in a twenty foot radius. Beautiful.

Whether you’re knitting, crocheting, or cross stitching this square, you can download the Arcane Do It (D10) pattern here. Instructions and charts for both knit and crochet are listed in the pattern. When you’re finished making it, don’t forget to Instagram your squares at us @lattesandllamasyarn with the hashtag #geekalong! Want to hang out with other people making the blanket? You can find moral support in the Geek-A-Long group on Ravelry here.

~ Jac

In case you are from the snooty sourdough community, no, I am not “using up all your flour” with my “pandemic baking.” La Masa de La Madre is two years old. So, you can just calm the fuck down. And while we’re at it, let people love baking!

Does it suck that I’m out of yeast with no prospect of scoring any in the foreseeable future? Yes.

But I also have a mature starter and plenty of time to adjust my usual recipes to utilize its natural leavening magic.

Also, if this super long sign-off has taken you off guard and you suddenly feel compelled to make sourdough, I highly recommend it! It’ll take some time for you to get it going, but our current situation isn’t going to end until there is a vaccine, so you should go for it. We’ve got nothing but time. I recommend starting with King Arthur Flour’s Sourdough Starter Recipe.

Just remember that when they say “discard,” that doesn’t mean you have to waste it and dump it in the trash. They have a lovely list of sourdough discard recipes for you to use it in. I use them to “wake up” my starter once a week, so that I can bake sourdough bread.

Now that La Masa de La Madre is mature, she lives in the refrigerator five days out of the week. On Sundays, I pull her out and make pizza dough with the discard. Monday mornings, I make another batch of bagels for the week using discard. Then, later that night, I set up my sourdough and get it ready for the next day. For a long time, this was my go-to sourdough recipe. La Masa de La Madre is in the refrigerator by Tuesday mornings and will stay there till Sunday. Admittedly, this long-standing arrangement has made my husband a bread snob, but it’s a small price to pay for such deliciousness.

If you do plan to go on a sourdough adventure, get a kitchen scale. Trust me. Measuring by volume instead of weight will effect your bakes tremendously. PUT THE MEASURING CUPS DOWN. My baking game definitely leveled up after I started using a kitchen scale regularly. Of course… you are a knitter, so you probably already have one for weighting leftover yarn balls. I don’t know why I’m trying to convince you of its merits, so that you’ll buy one. Just use it, okay?

~ Jac

Good-bye for real this time.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider making a donation to Child’s Play Charity. Here is a direct link to our official donation page benefiting the charity. Please help us raise $1,000 this year. No contribution is too small! Wanna make your donation go even further? Lattes & Llamas will donate $1 for every skein of Geek-A-Long Yarn purchased.