Dark Daisy at last

This was knitted during Cardinal's games. I can see where we weren't doing well and I fell off the chart. I like that. I might make another pattern for the orange chairs - a big round swirly pattern.

Ball of Fire

I feel a Barbara Stanwyck film festival coming on. Then I'm going to lose this Mrs. Lear schtick and change my name to Sugarpuss, and write songs for my nightclub act and wear sequined dresses. You got that Daddy? At one point in the movie Daddy snarls, "Why don't you knit them eight little sweaters to remember you by?" and I thought, what a great idea - with little sequined labels inside the collars that read, "Hand Knit by Sugarpuss". I'd use very soft heathery alpaca blends and beautiful old leather buttons with short personalized quotes on the turned under hems. 

Twist Collective

I have no photo. I haven't figured out which ice cream to make. I'm not knitting the last inch on the Dark Daisy cushion. I'm not doing any of my chores. I'm not even dressed! I'm sitting here with my coffee and the Premiere Issue of Twist Collective - so happy to at last have found a knitting magazine for me!

Profiteroles

We had another helping of David Lebovitz's profiteroles with anise seed ice cream and chocolate sauce from The Perfect Scoop. This is a beautiful book. I may have to get my own copy when this is due.

Fisherdog sweater

This is a page from Judith Swartz's Dogs in Knits. We know several small dogs, but I don't know if they wear sweaters. I'm making David Lebovitz's profiteroles with anise seed ice cream and chocolate sauce. Actually, I made the profiteroles three times. I'm not going to tell you how much butter and eggs that is down the sink. The third time worked, and now I know how to make profiteroles. This dessert is so good it makes people cry.

Tinware window shades

I have no photo to blog, so I am picking this Country Living tear sheet out of the runcible bin. When the Summer sun blazes through the bedroom transom, I usually use baskets to filter the light, but a piece of tinware would be much better. I'm going to try pricking black paper with a pin. A roller shade of dark waxed linen would be nice for the porch door, with little grommets set into patterns like constellations.

More Dark Daisy

The dark daisy seat cushion is coming along. Today's sorbet flavor is lime. My neighbor gave us some of her handmade soaps; they lather beautifully. I'm going to have to try this - another way to preserve Summer! The honey wine is better this week, but it still needs time.

Felt so bad

I knit these soft, slightly heathered socks while in St. Louis out of yarn from Knitorious (which is a lovely friendly little brick shop on Watson). They are modeled here by a young Lear who promptly threw them in the laundry. I told myself I would pick them out the next time I did wash and throw them in the hand wash basin. But what do you know, someone did the wash for me - all the wash - and then dried it. I cannot bring myself to photograph the results.

Vanilla malt and chocolate swirl

Yesterday we made malt ice cream from The Perfect Scoop and today we blended it with the leftover bittersweet chocolate ice cream! O it was so good. Today's flavor will be ginger, this time with chocolate swirls. We are planning a birthday cake based on a scene from Carbonel. This will require thin sheets of marzipan and all the Playmobil cats in the house.

Dark Daisy chair seat

Well, I got through about a third of Kaffe's Dark Daisy pattern for the kitchen chair seat. I also got The Perfect Scoop from the library and made the chocolate ice cream. We had some for breakfast thinking back to last Summer when we saw people in Vienna enjoying their ice cream at ten o'clock in the morning! I think it will be wonderful on roasted peaches as pictured here in La Cucina Italiana magazine. I am thinking of making the Guinness-Milk Chocolate ice cream next with oatmeal praline!!!! We love Nigella Lawson's Guinness Chocolate cake - why not a chocolate stout ice cream?

Timid upholstery

Kay has me fired up for some knitted chair upholstery. So I'm going to start small with a cushion cover for this kitchen chair, using linen to knit something based on Kaffe's Jewel Square Wrap in the new Rowan. Go Knit in Your Hat has a wonderful review of the new issue with a great photo of the wrap. Wouldn't this make a great slipcover for a wingback chair? I can't knit a slipcover from linen; that would be crazy. Can you see dyeing Henry's Attic linen orange and knitting a cover with some Kaffe turquoise dots and tweedy squares? No, but I can see sewing it - orange corduroy with turquoise dots and brown velvet bits and some bronze linen. I need to go make some ice cream and let this sit in the bin while. Kay's Ravelry Upholstery group is here.

Sit and brew some more

We are home again, and the wine has been fermenting for 2 weeks. After a few sips it leaves a heavy sweet feeling in the bottom of your stomach. Every time the jug catches my eye or I hear it burp, I feel that heavy sweet lump in my stomach - horrid.

Our first night in St. Louis was my favorite - we sat outside Llywelyns drinking a local beer called O'Fallon Wheach and watching fireworks over Old Webster. The O'Fallon Brewery does not distribute their beers in California, or own Clydesdales. Sunday's news that Anheuser-Busch is now owned by InBev brought up familiar discussions about what local means. Thankfully, Sonoma and Napa are local, and I don't have to drink my own honey wine.

Mid Mod trolley car

Have you ever really studied the interior map of the Trolley Car Family? I finally picked up a copy of Amy Butler's Midwest Modern. I can't help thinking of how I would make a trolley car Mid Mod.

Schwinn Breeze

Wow, a little Liquid Silk, some fine steel wool, and two helpers and your '76 Schwinn Breeze will be so shiny! I road home from the bike shop tonight. I googled for a picture of the Vogue Knitting bike baskets and found this great knitting for bikes post at Vegan Knitter.

Blueberry muffins

We found some beautiful and sweet blueberries at the Jacksonville farmers' market. These muffins from Joy of Cooking were fine, but tomorrow I'm going to try again with a Martha recipe that uses a lot more butter and sugar. Tonight I made blueberry sauce for our sundaes, and now I'm done with blueberries.

Hankie crafts

My sister is sewing hankies into a patchwork curtain. I've seen this twice in the past few months - both times in a small window. I think a summer quilt would be fun to make this way, or a long curtain in a doorway.

Sit and brew

We are headed out for the Fourth. The honey plum wine has been strained, funneled, and airlocked. The runcible bin is a year old this weekend. I've really enjoyed hearing from you and visiting your blogs. I hope you have a chance to sit and brew some creative ideas this holiday weekend. I'll be back in a couple of weeks.

Velvet Freeze

This is raspberry frozen yogurt with a square of white chocolate thrown in by the stylist. Basically, we take a cup of sugared fruit and add it to two cups of whole milk vanilla yogurt, throw it in the machine and voila.

We all heard the first Wednesday emergency siren test today. It always makes me think of tornado drills in St. Louis. My St. Louis memory for this month is Velvet Freeze's strawberry ice cream. I used Alice Water's recipe from Simple Food for the batch in the freezer, and I think it's pretty good, not as pink, but pretty good.

More ice cream than you can handle

This is David Lebovitz's White Chocolate and Fresh Ginger Ice Cream. This is my first really good homemade ice cream made from custard. I am working my way through the ice cream recipes on his blog (The Perfect Scoop is on hold at the library, I think I'm next in line.) I had already used the ice cream maker to make a raspberry frozen yogurt, so I made this batch in a casserole dish in the freezer according to his directions.

The plum honey wine is bubbling slightly. It smells wonderful. I need more gallon containers and more air locks.

Honey wine

This weekend I'm starting a batch of honey wine with some wild plums thrown in. I'm going to turn our meyer lemons into limoncello.

Indigo evening gown apron

Cristina's PIF gift arrived yesterday. This gorgeous indigo-dyed cotton will become a long Summer apron and a tote bag. I feel like embroidering a tiny boat tossing on the waves or an octopus.

"If no one hears the dolls talking..."

"...should the book really be in the Fantasy section?" This was the topic debated by the young Lears today. This house believes - you should be careful with your dolls.

Do you remember the Japanese doll house plans in the back of Miss Happiness and Miss Flower? We are wondering if we can manage it. I have always wanted to create a doll house inhabited by the Borrowers - a good foundation of Victorian furniture with borrowed watches, candles, bottlecap pie tins, etc. Even better, would be a home made beneath the floorboards. But it is the Japanese dolls' garden I am thinking of, lit up at night and their little handmade quilts.

Bed jacket edging

The bed jacket edging is coming along. Since it is recycled denim, I'm only a little worried about shrinking. I'm mostly working on cleaning out the house for Summer. I'm tired of not having a place for everyday things.

Library day

We spent the afternoon at the library keeping cool. I found some wonderful canning books and a Georgette Heyer book. I just read about her books in Slightly Foxed. The bed jacket is coming along. I'm letting some ideas stew in the runcible bin for my PIF gifts.

Bubbly soda scarf

I'm back to working on my summer soda scarf. This will be the silk and mohair version of Jessica Prentice's Hibiscus Rosehip soda from Full Moon Feast. A while back, Kay reminded me of Ann's Bubbly Curtain in Mason-Dixon Knitting. It's brilliant - easy to scale down to scarf size, easy to knit. Here's the first part, unblocked. After a few more feet of bubbles, I'm going to try the Bottles pattern from one of Walker's books. For the next scarf I'd like to start in the middle with a provisional cast on and knit to the ends.