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.

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.