public service announcements

- Knit Picks is having a sale! I ordered enough Andean Silk in "leaf" for the aran bag from a few posts ago. The plan is to line it with some pink and green print fabric from Heather Bailey's Freshcut line.

- This French cross-stitch website features lovely free patterns available for download. Check out the "grilles et diagrammes" section first.

- I'm making this delicious and incredibly easy " very strawberry cheesecake" for a knitting/crafty party tonight. If you don't mind the unnatural ingredients of Cool Whip, this is the perfect fruity dessert to make in advance when you don't want to heat up the oven.

No-bake freezer desserts are my new summer thing. Don't get me wrong, I love a good rhubarb crisp, but it irks me to heat up the kitchen. Here's what I made for a BBQ last night:

Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Pie

Oreo pie crust
Breyer's peanut butter cup ice cream, slightly softened
2 T. peanut butter
crushed/crumbled peanut butter cookies (substitute oreos or choc. chip cookies or omit)
Hershey's chocolate syrup

Spread peanut butter over bottom of pie crust. Layer ice cream on top, filling crust just under half way. Sprinkle cookie crumbs. Drizzle chocolate syrup. Add another layer of ice cream and smooth gently with spatula. Top with a drizzle of chocolate syrup. Freeze, covered, for 2+ hours.

The concept is incredibly versatile. Here are a few more ideas:

- mint chocolate chip ice cream with a layer of peppermint patties and chocolate syrup
- French silk ice cream with chocolate cookie crumbles and hot fudge sauce

Alas, April Snowshowers

When I got home on Monday there was a surprise Easter package from my SP10. She sent me a cute fluffy little bunny, plus some beautiful spring photographs and a card. She's quite the photographer. I'm putting these up on my bulletin board to help me think of spring. Snowflakes have been swirling through the air for the past few days, so spring has seemed a bit far off. Thank you!I stitched borders on these guest towels. They're a gift; they're not exactly my style, but I think that the recipient will appreciate them.
Progress is being made on my sampler now that my embroidery floss order has arrived.
If all goes well I'll post my first FO for this round of Project Spectrum within the next couple days.

still life with sock

Best. Colorway. Ever.

I followed a blog link to the Cider Moon website, and next think I knew I was entering my credit card number and rubbing my hands together with glee in anticipation of my lovely new yarn. Their customer service was great, and they even threw in a goody bag of little mini skeins of yarn to sample!

This is Glacier, a DK-weight superwash sock yarn, in "Winter Twilight." So beautiful, and so quick to knit. I'm using a free pattern off the Cider Moon blog: Campfire Socks. At this stage I far prefer DK to fingering weight. Plus thick socks are great with all my clogs. I'm trying out different DPNs, too -- KA Unicorn bamboo. They come in a very convenient 6" length. Compared to my usual Clover bamboo needles, they are shinier, pointier, and slicker (but not in a bad way), and they have a much nicer feel. They are more pliable and less prone to dents and dings than Brittany birch DPNS, which I like to use in larger sizes.

So far Cider Moon gets two thumbs up from me. I'm really wishing I had ordered the June Carter and Casual Friday colorways, too.

Fleece Artist Soft Mitts are done! They are soft, fuzzy, and lovely. Fleece Artist is very generous with their yarn in this kit. I was able to get three adult size mittens out of the kit. I'm sure that you could use one kit to make matching adult and child mitts. The kit is a bit pricey, but if you tend to lose mitts or if you like to be matchy-matchy with a little one in your life, it doesn't seem quite so bad.

My cross-stitch project is coming along quite nicely, although I have run out of some of the fancy schmancy overdyed Crescent Colors floss already. Time for a little online needlework shopping!

Mitten

Upon realizing that my Fleece Artist Soft Mitt would fit only someone with serious Man Hands (alas, my husband is not into fluffy dark pink mohair mittens), I ripped away and quickly reknit on smaller needles (US 7 rather than 8). I also shortened the length of the mitt and the thumb by 1/2" each. The thumb is still f$%&in' huge, but I just didn't have it in me to rip it back. I would highly recommend doing some extra decreases at the base of the thumb.

I really love this yarn combo -- Fleece Artist Mo and Blue Face Leicester, so I wasn't even too crabby about reknitting. It's lovely to knit with.

My cross-stitch roots have been calling out to me. Cross-stitching is much easier on my wrists and hands than knitting, so it's a nice break. I especially like working on samplers that have some white space to them. I don't like the look or feel of projects that have every square covered.

Here's the start to "Forest Snowfall" by Nikki Leeman at Country Cottage Needleworks. I really like her designs. She brings a Shabby Chic aesthetic to samplers that often have a primitive aspect.
Here's a picture of what it should look like when done: