Posies Are Cozy

No, I’m not ripping off Alicia Paulson, just paying hommage, though if I had to copy anyone, it would be Miss P.  What I’m doing is unveiling a fresh little solution to summer’s too-strong air conditioning: the
Basket of Daisies dog sweater, worn here by the always-willing Willie.

   

I had fun doing this one, as I do love the buttons, bows and sweet, tiny things.  (I’ve tried to trace this dog sweater love to something, and I guess it goes back to childhood, and my status as a professional doll player.)  Willie loves it, too.  Last night he grabbed the sweater in his mouth and brought it to me, as if to say, “Mom!  I gotta wear this!”  Now, that’s the kind of fan club I like.

   

The Basket of Daisies is knit in Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in three colors, along with a dab of my own stash, and decorated with an assortment of buttons and a tiny bow.  It’s an easy knit for an intermediate knitter and will fit any pup with a 10 to 18″ chest.  Willie says it’s just great for dozing on the back of the sofa, but he might just wear it to his birthday party, too.  For the FREE DOWNLOAD, visit my FREE PATTERNS page.

 

Party On!

BIRTHDAY BOY

Willie’s got a birthday next month ~ the big 0-5 ~ so we had to get busy knitting for the perfect party wear.  The result: my new Party Animal Dog Sweater Pattern, now available by following the previous link or clicking on the little thumbnail to your right under “My Patterns on Etsy”.

This little cutie is an EASY KNIT, a lightweight faux wrap that I made with two strands of fingering weight yarn held together and (I used Mondial Cotton Soft Speciale Baby Solid in Shade 916) and a novelty yarn for the trim (I used another Mondial yarn, Bolero, in Shade 964, a sweet rickracky, confetti-ish stuff).  It’s knit on size 5 and 8 needles and trimmed at the end with satin ribbons, like that kind you get by the roll at Jo Ann for 99 cents.  It’s sweet and soft, and Willie knows he’s the guest of honor when he wears it.

    

NOAH AND ME

We hate the hot weather, but we love the summer food.  What did you eat on the Fourth?  We had a little cookout planned (actually, for the Fifth, but who’s counting?), when Savannah’s skies let loose with a midafternoon monsoon.  The loudest thunder I’ve ever heard, and rain falling in sheets.  Some said there had been a tornado ~ maybe.  Our power went out, and we wondered how many others were in the same predicament.  (It gets awfully hot around here with no AC in July, let me tell you.)

After the storm, I ventured outside barefoot to find our neighborhood was under several feet of water!

  

That’s my corner on the top, and the second picture is of a car stuck in the water around the corner on Habersham Street, one of Savannah’s main thoroughfares.

We ended up having our little cookout anyway, as the grill was the only thing working normally, and the front porch was the only place to sit comfortably and feel a cool breeze.  The lights came on about an hour after we finished eating.  All I can say is, thank the Lord we didn’t have to sleep without AC or our fans.

YUM!

Which brings me to a favorite summer salad, for cookout or a quick lunch or anytime.  I cribbed it from Miss Angry Chicken, one of my favorite bloggers, a year or so ago. Chunks of watermelon, chopped fresh basil, lime juice, crumbled feta cheese. Yum!

Bet I Can Make Just One

My Apologies

I’ve been MIA again.  Things have been hectic, what with end of the school year and a little something I’ll share with you next week.  Daughter had her prom two weeks ago.  Here’s my “baby”:

You can see the rest of the pictures on my Flickr page.  A great time was had by all, and we nearly went to the poorhouse with all the prom stuff.

Chipped Off

I finally succumbed to the lure of the Chip Bag, which has been in my Ravelry favorites for a while. While the result is cute, the project annoyed me. Here’s my bag:

   

I used two yarns held together ~ Blue Heron Texture (89% cotton/11% nylon) in “Leaf” and Cotton Licious (100% cotton) in “Spring Green”.  Because of the texture of the Blue Heron, I knew the cables wouldn’t show up, so I did the center cable in just the Cotton Licious (two strands) and eliminated the two smaller cables on either side of center.  The 9″ bamboo rods are from M&J Trim, and the lining fabric is Amy Butler’s “Full Moon Polka Dot” in Lime from the Lotus Collection.

Here’s my main gripe about the pattern:  It’s lazy.  First off, the pictured bag is knitted in Laines du Nord “Cleo”, but there is no gauge listed, so substitutions are iffy.  The main chart is not numbered.  Finally ~ and most irritating ~ the instructions end with “Secure your dowel or bamboo to the top of your bag with yarn …”  Um, excuse me for being dense, but HOW DO I DO THAT???  It wouldn’t be too hard to put together my own chart for a simple cabled bag like this, but, being lazy myself, I paid $7.25 to have someone else do the legwork. 

So, though I like my bag well enough, the pattern gets a C- from me.  (Oh, and now that I look more closely at the photos on the patternmaker’s website, I see she seems to have wound some yarn around the place where the bag and the wrappy thingies go around the bamboo rods, so I guess I’ll add that.)  **rolls eyes**

By the way, I have a ton of the Blue Heron left.  It was $33.50 for 367 yards, and there’s about half left.  If anyone wants it, let me know.  I’ll sell for $15 including shipping within the United States.

Summertime … and the Cookin’ Is Easy

It may still be cool where you are, but it’s summertime and the crops are in where I live.  Last week I used some of our backyard bounty to make a wonderful version of the perennial Louisiana home cooking favorite, maque choux.  My favorite all-time cookbook, “The 100 Greatest Dishes of Louisiana Cookery,” by Roy F. Guste Jr., describes the origin of maque choux:

This dish is one that was in fact given to the Cajuns by the Indians of Louisiana, the Choctaws, and was originally called matache, meaning spotted.  It is a corn dish which is in fact spotted wiht the color of the tomato pieces.  I believe the Cajuns, in their own patois, twisted this word into the French sounding maque choux.  The Cajuns brought the dish to the Creole community who quickly accepted it. …

The skillet stir-fry ~ not the Asian kind but the Southern one, in a cast iron skillet ~ is my favorite kind of cooking, and home-grown and Louisiana would have to be tied as my favorite kinds of eating.  My recipe came from epicurious.com, and it was scrumptious. I used red onion scallions, tomatoes, bell pepper and jalapeno from our garden, along with some fresh yellow corn and okra from Polk’s vegetable market downtown.  Can you beat this for easy, delicious summer fare?