Easiest Chocolate Ice Cream

I don't have a great picture of this ice cream. Here it is mixed up and ready to go in the freezer. No ice cream machine needed. This is David Lebovitz's Easiest Chocolate Ice Cream Ever. This is wonderful while watching the financial news. I can imagine a scoop of this in a milky-coffee drink. It is also wonderful just leaning up against fridge.

Photographs and Technology

Look closely at the chairs here. I am thinking of photo transfers appliqued onto pieced landscapes. The photo appliques could be on the inside of one of those quilted carryalls. Every time you open your bag it is like opening one of your own slide shows. I keep thinking of the Mad Men episode about Kodak's Carousel.

When is dressing a jar?

I have lost the magazine where I saw this idea. I have done this with plastic spray bottles for diluting cleaning liquids, but it wasn't this pretty. I used a Sharpie to mark lines on an old peanut butter jar to guide kitchen helpers when making salad dressing. Imagine this with those art store glass paints - painting the whole jar except for a bottle silhouette window. I wonder what else I could use this for - limeade ratios? The French press? A glass teapot?

Tri-color Monteagle Bag

I am inspired by the bags on Ravelry knit with stash and remnants. The Summer before last I knit dozens of these out of linen, cotton, and hemp. I now see that my leftovers bag contains a lot of tri-color possibilities. There's also the nylon cord option for swim-laundry-bath bags. In the bottom of the runcible bin I've thrown some saved bits of cord and twine and string, the kind that comes on packages and out of little desk drawers. There is an idea brewing down there with buttons and bits of pink paper and silver foil.

Mason-Dixon Felted Candy Corn

I love the Felted Trees in the new Mason-DIxon book. With my bag of leftover green yarns I am set to create a forest. But all I can think right now is - candy corn forest.

One Arm Waving

I'm on the second sleeve of Cafe Bastille. This is one of those knits that could become an obsession - a bulky cable sweater in every color with every neckline. I should do mini versions for the little Lears. 

Baby gift stalls

Thank you for all the comments! I'm plugging away on the little baby wrap wishing it were done so I could start the embroidery. I have been thinking of Hideyuki Oka's book "How to Wrap 5 Eggs." I check it out of the library ever so often to go over all the gorgeous Japanese packaging - some fancy - some farmers' market sensible. I would like to wrap my gifts in this elegant natural way.

Mason-Dixon Knitting: Outside the Lines

The new Mason-Dixon book is out today.  Make yourself a pot of coffee and find a little something to munch on, because once you open this book you will not be able to move. I'm so proud to be included in this wonderful book. There are over 30 patterns - women's coats to tiny felt trees.
Not only are the patterns wonderful as written, they inspire other creations as well. Cristina's Via Veneto Table Runner in something silky would also make a lovely wrap. The Margaret sweater is so adaptable, and the embroidery directions would create an incredible baby blanket. The Belinda wrap in two shades of linen would make a wonderful window hanging. All the blanket patterns could be used for smaller projects like pillows or the felted bag. Kiki Mariko is driving me crazy - a rug, a bag, a floor pillow, a slipcover, a king-size bedspread! I want to make the tiny girl coat, Fern, for myself, but I can see it as a long wrap as well using the same shades for the stripes, but something like Silky Wool or Rowan's Summer Tweed. I'm going to use the Superfestive Lantern pattern to cover artsy Ikea lamps. I haven't even talked about the stories, the techniques, the top-down sweater, the Jane Austen dress and shrug - and the potential holiday gift items, like my Monteagle string bag available here. 

Saturday with the dudes from Nerdistan

We toured the new California Academy of Sciences this weekend. It is different from the Natural History Museums we have visited in Vienna, New York, and Chicago. I cannot forget the albino alligator resting behind the seahorse railings. At the aquarium we saw this starfish and thought he would make an excellent pillow. Even softer would be the black velvet and fur ball behind him. I think the chocolate chip star fish will inspire a dessert. Perhaps we will start an ocean theme in the livingroom - with a jellyfish lamp and an octopus pillow too.

Watch band

I want to make a series of beaded watch bands that I can quickly change - seeds, Sculpey in the shape of old bones, those little silver charms at the bead store. The only thing holding me back is "connectors". I'm going to go through Bead Simple again and make a shopping list. I also love those teeny macrame bands - wouldn't that make a simple band? 

Embroidered baby wrap

Inspired by an old Debbie Bliss pattern, I'm using Barbara Walker's top-down directions for a baby kimono. I'm going to embroider it with something wonderful from The New Crewel. This may be the prototype for my own kimono. 

Double Indemnity

Yikes this was good! I don't know how people can get away with lines like these: "Maybe I like the way his thumbs hold up the wool." For an excellent post on this and photos see Needled.

Executive Suite

Get a load of William Holden's house! I like this one. Go designers!

Cafe Bastille Cables

This lovely Silkroad Ultra is finally becoming a wonderful sweater. Yarn this marshmallowey can be tricky, like the Michelin Man, like football pads. I've always loved this pattern because real waiters modeled it for the cover of Interweave Knits.

Pimp my armoire

About this time last year, I was contemplating a carrel; it looked messy. So once again I am fixing up our armoires. Each one holds the promise of an entire extra room. Pictured here is the beginnings of a young Lear's private library - much like the Duke d'Urbino's "cabinet". We are planning covered bulletinboard panels on the doors, a fold-down desktop and customized cubbies for stationery and supplies.

The Minimalist Cooks Dinner

I love this book. My Cafe Bastille sweater is coming along, but it is too hot to even pick it up. I'm going to start some socks and listen to the speeches.

Gansey complete

I knit the collar during the closing ceremonies. The color in this photo isn't true. I may knit another of these for myself. I usually don't knit sweaters in pieces, but I needed this one to be portable. I do not like sewing seams or fitting the sleeves. I will go back to picking up stitches and knitting sleeves in the round. My favorite way to knit a sweater is from the top down, a la Barbara Walker. That way I can be sure I have the shoulders and armholes fitted correctly before I take on the bulk of the sweater. But I also like being able to knit in pieces here and there.

Readymade Eames cabinet

I checked out the Readymade book - a collection of DIY ideas from the magazine of the same name. I love this Eames-ish cabinet made of discarded drawers. Gansey front is finished and blocking! This weekend I'll sew it together and knit the neck! What next?!

Gansey back complete

I'm knitting away on the front now. I love this Ultra Alpaca - the heathered colors are wonderful, the softness, the warmth! This Olympic knitting project has gone so smoothly (except when I knit the sleeves two at a time and 8" in realized I wasn't increasing and had to frog it all). I've never planned so well for a project. Since the starting time was set for the first day of the Olympics, I took my time swatching, blocking the swatches, gathering the supplies, setting it all up in a picnic tin by my tv chair. I'll have to do this again!

Wool 100%

Did you see the Mai Tominaga interview in Vogue Knitting? I nudged this ahead of Double Indemnity as a little break in the Barbara Stanwyck festival. I am only and always working on my olympic knitting, but I can't wait to start some of the projects in A Fine Fleece. I've hit upon an idea for my PIF gifts, and I'm thinking about Christmas gifts.

Green sleeves

Well I have a sleeve, and the other is coming along. I'm heavy into terrariums. The honey wine was dumped and that empty glass gallon jug is calling to me on the porch steps. I also want to macrame some hangers for jars so they can hang in the window.

Christmas in Connecticut

This was a nice movie - it got me thinking about Christmas gifts. I've always wanted to make a pile of mittens for gifts - each pair connected by a long ribbon. Then I'd have to think of a game where everyone stands on one side of the room and chooses a mitten, and then unravels the tangle to the other mitten? No, I think it has to be some sort of team sport, and that ribbon has to be elastic, a slingshot game. I have to think about this while I continue my Olympic knitting.

Library day

We're having company tomorrow. I have to come up with a dinner menu, and then I have to cook it. (Usually, I come up with the menu, and Mr. Lear cooks it!) So I checked out both of the Barefoot Contessa cookbooks and I'm just going to pick something, shop for it, and make it - sweep the toys into the nursery, put some rosemary in a vase, and pour myself some wine. I once read a story by a Georgetown hostess in which her caterer mixed up the dates and a half hour before cocktails called to give her the bad news. She simply called Popeyes, ordered a ton of fried chicken and biscuits, and placed it in the caterer's silver serving dishes.

Lavender ice cream

This dish of lavender ice cream goes out to Sel & Poivre. I think this batch marks the moment I gave up my silly feelings about fancy flavors. Now, I'm Gary Cooper once he discovers the beauty of 1940s NYC slang. I adore lavender ice cream! Yesterday I made Guinness milk chocolate. Next I'm going to try goat cheese! My copy of The Perfect Scoop is due this week, but my bookstore has promised me one by Thursday.

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.