Monday, May 11, 2009

Herding Cats

Don't worry, Lilah only likes carrying the stick; she does not touch the cats with it. But I love this picture, in which she appears to be a suburban cat-herd:

Yes, I finished the Mini Clapotis in time for Mother's Day, and it was even cool enough in the morning for us to wear out matching shawls:

I have approximately 27 pictures of Lilah in her shawl, but I'll just add a couple more:



Pattern: Clapotis from Knitty
Yarn: Noro Matsuri left over from my Clapotis
Needles: Size 7 circular
Details: I did fewer increase rows, and ended up with 71 stitches instead of 107. I did the pattern number of straight rows, though, and it's a bit long for Lilah, but she'll be able to use it as a scarf when she's older. She really, really likes it. We had fun wearing our matching shawls! This was a super-quick project, and used just over 2 skeins of Matsuri (I had 2 1/2 left from my Clapotis, so that was perfect!). Fun, fun.

Other knitting: I'm using up some stash yarn in one-skein projects. Right now, I'm doing an Ilene Bag in a skein of Euroflax Linen that I've had in the stash since...who knows? At least a couple of years. I was thinking of giving it away, but though of a shopping bag--Ravelry provided patterns galore, and I liked this one-skein bag. It's easy, but hard on the hands. Linen is not soft or stretchy or pleasant, and the mesh pattern is a little grueling. But it'll be over soon, and should be a good, useful bag.

Reading: Lots and lots. I just finished The Green Beauty Guide, which I didn't really like overall, but it DOES have good stuff in it, so I'll keep it. The author's tone is very negative, there are some inconsistencies, and the information is buried in pounds and pounds of text. So I have to go back through it and make notes on how to actually implement a more green approach to cleansing, moisturizing, etc. I also read the latest entries in some really good children's series, The Sisters Grimm and Percy Jackson, and the first in a new series, The Red Blazer Girls (very Nancy Drew!). Lilah hasn't been sleeping well, so I haven't been up for reading anything overly involved.

Writing: Ha.

Cooking: I did a nice lemon-swirled cheesecake. I made lemon curd using this recipe. Then I made this cheesecake recipe. I used a 12-cup muffin tin to make individual cheesecakes, but I had a ton of batter left over, so I made some more crust and used a pie plate to make a small cheesecake. The muffin pan baked about 25 minutes at 350, and the pie plate took about 35-40. It was fantastic. I didn't use all of the lemon curd, but it was still nice and tangy.

6 comments:

Holly said...

Oh! Lilah's shawl is absolutely adorable! Did she like being your mini-me? :-)

Is her dress from Children's Place? Ella has a very similar dress in the same color from there that was her Easter dress.

Hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day! And at least got to sleep in?!

Meaux said...

You and Lilah look so pretty. :-)

Anonymous said...

Oh, I love love love the twin Clapotises (Clapoti?)! You can tell she loves it, and she's glowing in that pink dress to go with it. Soooo proud to be like her mama. I adore the picture of the two of you together: you are glowing too! Such a warm, motherly gaze at your beautiful daughter. Pretty lighting, too - that one's a framer.

Ilene does look like it would drive you a bit batty, but it's a great idea. I've gotten much better about taking a bag(s) to the grocery, and it would be nice to have a "homegrown" one to boot.

You know, Lilah is going to be so set when it comes to her childhood/tween/adolescent book collection. Her mom will know exactly the best reads to prime her inevitably growing literary thirst. :)

mle said...

so precious! I hope you had a wonderful mother's day!

Stefaneener said...

Very sweet. I especially like the one where she's looking up at the camera.

The cheesecakes sound so. . . like I'd have to start running a lot more. Sigh.

String Bean said...

Oh my god! When did she get so big? The Clapotis (how do you pluralize that?) look great.

Herding cats. Ha.