Nigella Lawson's Guinness Cake under construction.

Hard to photograph the finished cake with it's stark contrast.
That fluffy head and the dense Guinness Cake. Super moist and yum.
Fortifying.

It sits on a beautiful cake platter painted by my lovely and talented Nana - a great china painter. I'm lucky enough to have a couple of her pieces.
She's out in CA right now and just had some work in an Art show.

I love these Old-Fashioned Roses, sweet yet rugged. A little scrappy.
Runs in the family. :-)


Our Japanese Iris are blooming. Little surprises amongst the emerging daylillies. You can't believe how sweet they smell. Almost like a cartoon flower.

Soup to Nuts

All in one post we go from...

...the receipt of the May Yarn on the Month Club which contains the newsletter, a tank pattern, and yarn (clockwise from upper left):

• Bamboo by Be Sweet
  5 sts/inch on US 6s
  100% Bamboo
• Pomaire by Araucania
  5 sts/inch on US 7s
  100% Pima Cottom
• Pima Silk by Frog Tree
  5 st/inch on US 5s
  85% Pima Cotton, 15% silk
• Bali Sky Sarong by Mango Moon
  3.75 sts/inch on US 9s
  

Frog Tree is a not-for-profit that supports herders, spinners, dyers, and knitters all backed up with a Fair Trade pledge.

Mango Moon works with women in Bolivia, Bali and Nepal who dye and spin this recycled silk yarn.

I've mentioned Be Sweet before. They have great impact in South Africa with job creation and school support programs.

Auracania was started with the goal of introducing traditional products to the world beyond Chile.



... to the completed swatches. Next month I'll pay more attention and lay them out in the same orientation for both photos.

• Bamboo by Be Sweet - I knit this at 6 sts/inch on US 6s. Supple and fun to knit although it did split quite a bit. I have a skein of their laceweight mohair that I'll swatch soon. Destined for a beret (no surprise there)
  
  
• Pomaire by Araucania - This swatched at 4.75 sts/inch on US 7s. Also very soft and a beautifully subtle color change that I don't think captured well in the photo. This would be easily wearable and durable (I expect). Would be nice for some knit softies.
  
  
• Pima Silk by Frog Tree - My gauge at 5.5 st/inch on US 5s. Another winner. Soft with a nice sheen.
  
  
• Bali Sky Sarong by Mango Moon - 3.5 sts/inch on US 9s in my hands. This one's puzzling, fun, like a little yarn party, but to do with it? Could easily end up featured on What not to Knit.
  

In the future, in addition to the YOTM posts, I'll be doing monthly yarn reviews for Knit's a Beautiful Life.




Z and I recently made pizza. A big hit. Dough from Trader Joe's (so worth the long trip, for us), Newman's sauce, Shredded Mozzarella, Fresh Ricotta, and Avo.

Like that little Avo smeared face?

My advice: Get that dough as thin as humanly possible and crank that oven ALL THE WAY UP. We kept the baking sheet in the oven the whole time and transferred the pizza in and out using parchment paper and a cutting board.

I also advise reading Jeffrey Steingarten's essays - one of which focuses on trying to cook pizza on his Weber grill and getting it so hot that it melted the paint off!

He's the food writer for Vogue magazine. No really, I get it for the articles :-)

I feel like I'm forgetting something...

Here we are:
walking hand in hand,
smelling the rosies,
enjoying the journey.



The gasp of horror with the realization:
Mama Nuttn Bear has forgotten to
give Baby Bobbi Bear a bum (that rolls neatly off the tongue).


Baby Bobbi Franknbear.

Is there a Freudian correlation between this
and our current potty-training impasse with Z?



This is the promise of a new day:
Happy, pinky forgiveness and a promise to proceed more attentively.



Two other bits of news:


1) Ester Knit-a-long has launched.



And...


2) The contest and drawing.

Mia!!

Email me (nuttnbunny [at] hotmail [dot] com) with your mailing address
and Peaches is on her way to you.

Yes, it was rhubarb. Next time I will more cleverly disguise the file name (thanks Sasha :-)
I promise to post all forthcoming culinary experiments.

Thanks to all my commenters!! I really enjoy your blogs and look forward to hearing from you again!

I love sharing and am already plotting how and when to do this again.

Peaches wants you

The Peaches Beret! Just in time for Spring.

Here's the deal:

1. I heart comments.
   
   
2. It may be a gross overestimation
   but I like to imagine that there are nuttnlurkers so...
   
   
3. For my friends, frequent commenters that they are,
   because they give advice, comfort, incentive, and support, and...
   
   
4. To entice the lurkers to come forward...
   
   
5. A Give-a-way:
   
   
6. Leave a comment between now and when I next post
   (for God's sake my life is structured enough without being required to give an exact timeline, and, after all, it is my blog :-)
   correctly identifying the Leafy Goddess shown below
   (an extra credit point if you provide a supporting recipe)
   and your name will be entered in the drawing for dear Peaches,
   the last in the line of Koigu berets from the PurlBee pattern.

Who am I and how should I be eaten?

Peaches' sister Pinky (as in Tuscadero) is also complete.
I'm way up on my game for a certain someone's birthday this year :-)

Keep posted for:

1. Peachy drawing results
2. Ester KAL reports. We cast on today!
3. The Sad but True tales of Bobbi Bear Gone Bad