Juno, Born and Raised

It's not often I get to play on words with the name of my hometown, so I'll take what I can get!

If you recall the Leeks Camel/Tussah/Merino that I spun as part of last year's Tour de Fleece, you'll understand why this yarn looks so familiar.  This is Miriam Felton's Juno Regina wrap, in 564 yards of camelid blend goodness.  I was turned on to this pattern several years ago by Tika of Largely Unrepeatable, and its been languishing in my queue every since!  I can highly recommend the pattern as travel knitting.  The edges are complicated enough to be distracting during a 7 hour flight, while the middle bits are great for waiting in lines, riding in taxis, or even relaxing by the pool (as seen below).


As a side note, this is my first lace project of the year.  10 shawls really wiped me out last year!


And, of course, my traditional 'stuck to a tree' picture.  I'm not sure where I'll photograph my shawls when we move out of this place.

Galapagos Anklets

Back when knit picks first announced its new subtly self striping Chroma sock yarn, I knew I wanted to try it.


These were a quick knit, in my usual toe-up pattern.  I used 1.5s, and its a nice, dense fabric.  The yarn is a bit fluffier than the Stroll/Essential that I'm so used to.  Chroma is a single, rather than plied, which I think helps to keep the color gradations simple and uncomplicated.  These came out to 250 yards of the Galapagos colorway for a pair of anklets.  I have plenty left, but I'll just toss it in the leftover sock yarn bin for a rainy day.

And also, we will be making these next weekend.  I'll take pictures if I can keep the kids off of them for long enough :)

A Baking-type Morning

First thing this morning, Sweet Pea came out to the living room, rubbing her eyes.  She collapsed into one of the comfy chairs, rubbed her eyes while looking up at me, and said; "Mommy, can we bake something?"  I set down my knitting and coffee (of course I was knitting...) and out came Dorie Greenspan's Baking.  An hour later we had Blueberry Brown Sugar Plain cake, not to mention several other recipes that I've been meaning to try.  Rather than string them all together, I played around with a mosaic maker on flickr (inspired by Jacey's recent faboo mosaics!) and I bring you this...

A host of fantastic things we've made in the past couple of weeks.  My recipe countdown project is currently at 199, meaning I only have 66 more to make before June 1st!  I've got a stack of magazines and cookbooks, and this might actually happen!

This mosaic includes adaptations of:
Chocolate Bark
Italian Gravy (that's a link to the book)
Marinated Mushrooms
Soy Wasabi Dip
Twice Baked Chipotle Sweet Potatoes
Blue Berry Cake
Parmesan Crackers

In other news, everyone but Sweet Pea loved the blueberry cake that she picked out.  At least the baking part was fun!