Scarf+Ice Cream=Climate Confusion

Did I mention that I finished my scarf on Sunday? I did! I have just been busy blocking it, so I couldn't post a photo until now.

I do not have great photography skills, so it was hard for me to capture the zigzag kind of pattern and the wavy edges. Especially because it has been raining all day, and there weren't any clear surfaces in my house except for this small piece of kitchen floor. The girls were in fort-building mode.

Hopefully, better photos of me exist somewhere. If you click to enlarge, I am pretty sure you will see strawberry splattered on my face and soup on my shirt. Nice accessorizing, right?

Really, though, I am very happy with this scarf. It is so soft and squishy, and it is about the perfect shade of green. And I do enjoy the wavy edges and the lacy holes, even though they made the actual knitting sort of a headache.

And here is why there is strawberry splattered on my face: I made delicious strawberry ice cream today! It involved the blender, freshly picked strawberries, and much dairy. Maybe some sugar, too. The girls enjoyed watching it swirl around and become ice cream.

Doesn't it look yummy? And pretty, too?

I threw the ice cream canister back into the freezer because I remembered how much I love homemade ice cream. Nora asked if we can make sherbet next, so I am on the hunt for a recipe. She wants lime. Any ideas?

Summer Shimmer Scarf

Well, it's summer, so I can usually be found in Mom and Dad's gazebo, either reading or knitting, while the kids swim. I just finished reading this. It was entertaining, in a sitcom kind of way. I enjoy those characters, but the storyline? Eh. But you know what? It's summer. It's a good time for sitcom reading.

And besides, I am back to knitting already. I am about halfway through the Summer Shimmer Scarf, which I am making for Finny and Donk's Craft: Along.

I started this at Knit Night on Monday and I have to say-it was a rough beginning. Now, I am not sure if it had anything to do with the fact that I was busy talking and eating while knitting, or with the presence of Heidi and her newborn son Wil, who is too cute not to stare at, but I had to rip this thing out THREE TIMES before I could get it right. I kept losing two stitches somewhere. And by the time I figured it out each time, it was not worth trying to un-knit. I just frogged it. The third time I counted and came up with 18 stitches instead of 20, I had to close my eyes and s-l-o-w-l-y count to ten. But it is all OK now. I have had 20 stitches for a long time and am halfway done.

The yarn I chose is a bamboo and silk blend and it is so incredibly soft! Clearly this will require some blocking when I am finished. Oh, and please disregard the cigarette box. Please! I reached that point in my yarn cake where everything fell apart. My dad looked over at me and said, "How do you knit when your yarn is in a big snarl like that?"

SO...I began The Great Untangling of '09. Except that this yarn is slippery. VERY slippery. So while I was trying to wind the untangled portion into a nice ball, it kept slipping off and tangling back up. I convinced my dad that it wouldn't be such a big deal if he just took his cigarettes outta the pack so I could use it for my yarn. He's a helpful guy, and pretty reasonable, so he complied with my wishes.

If this heat keeps up, I should be done with the scarf by the end of the weekend.

Me! A WINNER!

It's true! I was one of the winners of Finny and Donk's Craft: Along!

Just for the May projects. But still.

I won for the shirt and shorts I made for Dana.

I only win bragging rights, but still. I am excited.

Butterfly Shirt

Leave it to me to squeeze a project into the middle of four other ongoing projects. This one, though, only took about 15 minutes.

Dana has a thing for butterflies, and this shirt had a stain that didn't budge after an overnight soak on Oxyclean. So...I remembered back to the May Craft: along projects and thought I would give this a try. I just traced a butterfly cookie cutter. I didn't even have to sew a single stitch!

And remember back in April when I turned a pair of Dana's jeans into fancy schmancy jean shorts? It made sense to me to make this stained shirt match the shorts for a complete ensemble: shorts, shirt and purse (not pictured here). I figured she might actually wear the whole outfit, despite having a dress-only policy 98% of the time.

I was pretty proud of myself because her comment when I showed her the shirt was, "Thank you, Mama! I'm going to only wear this now!" So I guess from now on, she will either be naked or in this outfit. At least, that's her story.

Now, back to scraping old varnish. Bleh.

Pizza for the March Craft: Along

The other day, the projects for the March Craft: Along were posted over at Finnyknits. Both projects interest me this month. One is for quilted coasters. Now, I have no use for coasters since we do not own a coffee table and our kitchen table isn't really the type to require coasters. But I bought a walking foot for my sewing machine about two years ago now, and I have yet to use it. I am not really sure how. The coasters seem like a great opportunity to try machine quilting without investing much time or cash. So I plan to make those later this month.

The second project was pizza crust. Specifically, this recipe. I already had homemade pizza on our menu for the week, and I figured it would be easy enough to try a different crust.

Not being one to follow the rules in a recipe, I did make a couple of minor changes. First, I subbed 1/2 cup of whole wheat pastry flour for 1/2 cup of the strong flour (also known as bread flour). I accidentally ran out of bread flour. Oops. Second, I had to add a ton of water-like half a cup, one teaspoon at a time-to get the consistency right. Third, my children do not like pizza sauce. They LOVE margherita pizza, which is sauceless, so to get some flavoring, I always add some spices right to the pizza dough. Here, I added 2 cloves of pressed garlic and 1 teaspoon of Italian seasoning. Nothing too fancy, but it does add some flavor. Finally, I used the dough hook on my stand mixer to do the kneading. I am just no good at kneading, and the mixer minimizes the floury mess, which I appreciate.

I rolled the crust out on a pizza stone and topped it with a block of shredded mozzarella, a sliced tomato and a bunch of fresh basil. This pre-baked pizza looks so pasty. Like not very appetizing.

The finished product. There weren't any baking instructions (or, at least, I didn't SEE any baking instructions) so I set the oven for 425 and stuck this gem in the oven for 15 minutes. In retrospect, I should have checked on it sooner. It got a wee bit brown. However, it was quite delicious.

So what is my verdict on this pizza dough? It is good, but I think I will stick to my regular recipe. It isn't so much the flavor as it is the time. My normal recipe requires no rising, so I can decide to make a pizza at 5pm and we will be eating it by 5:30. Now THAT I love.

Fabric Mail Sorter

Grandma had the girls sleep over Thursday and Friday nights, so I took the opportunity to make this fabric mail sorter. I initially saw it on the Craft: blog, and got pretty excited about it. I always have a hundred different school papers for Nora and kept meaning to find a better way of organizing them. I had been sticking them to the fridge with magnets and knew it was only a matter of time before I lost something important. This mail sorter was clearly my answer. I was already planning to make it when I saw that it was one of the two February project options for Finny and Donk's Craft: Along. Sweet!

I followed this tutorial, which was incredibly well written and very easy to follow. I am the first to admit that my sewing skills are way less than great, but I still managed to make this with minimal swearing and only one date with the seam ripper. And I only burned myself once on the iron, which is a small miracle.

Here is a close-up of one of the pockets.

The whole unit. I love the fabric, but now that it is finished and hanging on the wall, I am not sure how I feel about it. It is really wild, and I can't decide if it is too- Great Grandma. Like, maybe I should have used the binding fabric as the main, and the wild floral business as the binding. Too late now! The thing is, I NEVER choose neutrals. My parka is lime green, my hat is wild, my purse is crazy... For some reason, I am drawn to crazy patterns. So probably I should just zip it and smile. And then go sort Nora's school stuff. I might make another, less wild one as a gift. It was that simple!