Hey Cupcake

We are having a gala w/ our symphony concert tonight and the members were asked to bring some "sweet treats." Since I love baking mini cupcakes I'm totally in! I haven't gotten to experiment enough w/ icing, so I went to town making little music notes on each one! I had leftover lemon butter cream from the last time I baked cupcakes, so I whipped up some chocolate icing to frost them w/ then put the notes on that. I just hope they are small enough that you don't get a weird taste of lemon w/ the chocolate. But if they do, oh well! I'm sure people will love them since they're completely adorable :)

My cupcake book also has a recipe for making rolled fondant and petal past. In the future I need to test those for really making sugar toppings. They require liquid gelatin, though, which my little grocery store down the street almost definitely doesn't have! I did find that my new tea strainer doubles really well as a sifter. I've been trying to find ways of not using a sifter since I neither have one nor a place to put one if I got one... The tea strainer method is a bit slow, but gets the job done! It's not like I'm making mini cupcakes for an army anyway.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Sleigh ride

Flowers & Wine

Almost Valentines Day!

I wanted to make a dress for going out on Valentine's Day w/ Drew :)
Here it is:



Pattern: New Look 6865
View: E
Size: 12
Mods: none
I really wanted to make a gathered neck, puffy raglan sleeve, sack dress and it took a little while to find this pattern. Glad I did! Despite it being completely shapeless it's exactly what I wanted :) Now I just need to get a nice big black belt. I'll wear it with my nice black knee high boots and tights.
We are going on a sleigh ride and out to dinner, so I just hope I don't get too cold!

I may die of Foot-in-Mouth Disease, but I hope not.

Sometimes when I'm reading blogs and talking to people I start thinking that they are snarky and sarcastic all the time. And when I'm reading things or talking to them it's all really funny, so then I think it's totally ok to be like that all the time. The truth is very likely that they are not like that all the time, but only in the moments that I happen to commit to memory. This leads me to my next point. I should not use examples of various moments created by many different people strung together to create an acceptable attitude for myself.
Note to self: less snark, more romance, lightheartedness, and a grasp on reality.

Ok, that said (necessary or not), it has little to do with knitting. Sorry! And I have no new pictures.
Good news. I'm in the middle of Odessa and it's SOOO much better for that yarn than the Pi thing was! Pi would probably work really well in a solid wool which is decidedly not what I'm knitting with at the moment. I hope to finish the hat over the weekend or on Monday in order to get it on its way to the recipient. I'm not going to hand deliver it or even mail it. I'm going to send it with our Symphony manager since she goes for visits regularly.

Chemo Hats

Mikael's hat is done and looks as good as purple and gold can. I think he'll love it. I really like how the brim folds up and stays - we can thank the cotton for that. Might have to have Kris dye some more and make one for myself :) Wonder if she can handle crimson and gray?
Mom is going to give Mikael's mom the hat whenever she sees her next, but she's not sure when that will be. So hopefully soon I'll be able to report what he thinks.

I received the yarn for Sarah's hat. I was really hoping that it would be more tropical looking, but it's not quite what I had hoped; beautiful yes, just not what I'd hoped.
I started knitting the Pi Chemo Cap from Elann for this, but the cotton/bamboo blend shows all of the increases too distinctly; even with the busy yarn the increases still looked awful. Plus the construction was too weird for me. I like to gradually increase the crown of a hat to create a pattern or make them hard to see. Anyway, I'm now using Odessa by Grumperina. (You can find it on Ravelry, but it used to be on MagKnits and that doesn't exist anymore)