long weekend

We kicked off some serious R and R with a party at Revolution Brewing Co. to celebrate the end of Chicago Craft Beer Week. Revolution's joint venture with 3 Floyds Brewery, barrel-aged Sodom (an imperial stout), was most definitely the highlight. We even managed to get up bright and early Saturday morning, hop into the Jeep (armed with homemade maple oat scones), pick up friends, and hit the Green City Market, one of the nicest parts of a Chicago summer.  Arugula, rhubarb, and baby salad greens made it into our shopping bag, and fantastic crepes (mmm... rhubarb compote) made it into our tummies. :-)

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happy hexagons...

Still crocheting up a storm around here. I'm using leftover Lion Brand Nature's Choice Organic Cotton yarn for Nova's ingenious ruby hexagon pattern. Long-time readers may recognize this yarn from my awesome, 70s style stripey blanket. I'll definitely need to pick up more, but it still feels good to use up all the bits and bobs.

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I'm also powering through the first sleeve for my Shalder cardigan. There are so many fantastic cardigan patterns out there right now, including Chickadee and Cria from Ysolda's new book -- I really want to finish this before I give in to temptation and cast on for another... Plus I need to start thinking about the Big Lebowski cardigan for Paul.

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My ice cream maker has been seeing some use! I made some terrific lemon curd ice cream last weekend -- I used this recipe, but simplified it by using a jar of Trader Joe's lemon curd instead of making my own. So tart and yummy -- especially good paired with blackberries.

I loosely followed this recipe for cream cheese ice cream. It's good, but very solid -- the recipe could use a little tweaking. I'll post it once it has been perfected.