Dyann Knits

Happy Earth Day

Do something nice for Mother today!

This week's favorite book

I'm still thoroughly enjoying the last book I mentioned (for the "weekly" installment... er, um, about a month ago -- Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes A Day. It's been great to have a fresh warm baguette for dinner now and then.

And what works well with baguettes? Soup! This week's favorite book is actually a book that has been a favorite of mine for nearly a year now: Soup for Every Body by Joanna Pruess

I love this book. Of the 59 recipes in the book so far I've made 13 and have plans to make just about every one of them. They are pretty simple, fairly quick to make and so delicious. Tonight's selection was:

Curried Turkey and Spinach Soup

And doesn't it look nice with that baguette?

Exchanges

I've signed up for another scarf exchange. The Sixth International Scarf Exchange is well underway. This time around is exciting in that neither the person I'm knitting for nor the person I'm getting a scarf from are from the U.S. In fact, neither uses English as a primary language .... we're putting the language translators of the net to good use...

After the usual agonizing over patterns and yarn, I settled upon the Japanese Vines scarf pattern.

It's a very nice pattern and I think it pairs nicely with the chosen yarn -- Bloomfield, a silk/merino blend from Heritage Yarns. This the the leftover skein from the shawl I knit for Jae. As you may or may not recall, I ran out of yarn with about 3 inches left to go on the border. I got this skein of yarn to finish it up.... even though it was slightly a different dyelot from the original two. This reminds me that perhaps I didn't post pictures of the finished shawl. Unfortunately I didn't get very good photos of it before I sent it off. But you can see it on Jae herself here.

I'm off to a good start with the Japanese Vines, having completed 5 of 15 repeats of the 32 row pattern.

Not too long after starting this, I realized one reason why I like the pattern so much -- it reminds me a bit of the pattern I used a couple of exchanges ago -- the Tilting Ladders pattern from Barbara Walker.

If for some reason I change my mind about this scarf, I've also been working on the Muir shawl. It's coming along nicely, though a bit slower.  The yarn is a silk/wool blend from Chewy Spaghetti in the Lucky colorway.  I've only gotten through 2 of the 13 repeats... which probably means this isn't a contender for the exchange.

RockChalk

The Madness Continues... one more game

Vacation Recovery Mode

I'm back from Napa. If I could have figured out a way to stay there forever, I think I could manage to do so quite happily. Frankly it was fabulous. Great friends, food, wine and weather. Here are a few highlights.
A view from our hotel window in SanFransisco.

the first course on the Wine Train

The Champagne House -- Domaine Carneros

dinner at Bouchon

Our digs for a couple of nights -- the Cuvaison house. Look, flowers!

A lunch at The Girl and the Fig in Sonoma

and yes, I did get Fifi done -- finished it just before this picture was taken.