Nonplainjane and the Travelling Trunk

My quad city cowl

nonplainjane — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 21:04:13 +0000

My dad sent me some beautiful wool from Japan along with some yummy ramen and green tea. We are performing on the road this week in the quad cities about 3 shows a day and it is goin to be cold and exhausting, so I wanted a really warm, wooly cowl. I accidentally sewed it inside out, but I rather like the seams showing, so I might leave it! Here it is made an hour before I left for the airport!

Eye pillows for my Rioult ladies

nonplainjane — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 02:50:05 +0000

Marianna and Stacy in Rioult have been stressed about putting together our children’s show in Lehigh. I thought I would make them stress relieving eye pillows with some lavender from the farmers market! I think they will be enjoying them on our week long tour and on tours to come!

We have shows this weekend at the Zoellner center in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Pear pecan crumble

nonplainjane — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:30:18 +0000

I used an old Bon Appetit recipe circa 1999 for pear maple crumble with a few substitutions. I used pecans instead of walnuts, a few pinches of fresh ginger(zing!) and less maple syrup since the pears were so juicy.

Now it’s going in the oven.

And BAM! It smelled up the whole apartment and Dave and I up and ate it before I did my photo shoot. Patience is a virtue except when a crumble awaits you.

What is the difference between a crisp and crumble anyways?
Crisp — a deep-dish fruit dessert made with a crumb or streusel topping and baked. The main difference I see is that this one contains oats in most instances.
Crumble — a British dessert in which raw fruit is topped with a crumbly pastry mixture and baked. One reference says a crumble is like a crisp, but not as rich.
Thanks www.ochef.com!!!!

Happy 2012

nonplainjane — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 20:19:19 +0000

Made a chocolate souffle to celebrate 2012! I forgot to butter and sugar my souffle pan so it didn’t rise as much, but it was still yummy as heck.
I tried some reasonably priced trader joes dark chocolate and I’ve decided I won’t spend the money again to get some high end chocolate!
I can’t see any good reason to get a double boiler so I used this stunt double bowl on top of a saucepan. When it was all done, Dave dumped a bunch more sugar on his last few bites. Someone has a sweeter tooth than me!

Entrelac shawl for Liz

nonplainjane — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:35:55 +0000

I made this shawl as my first entrelac project and probably last. It has a basket-weave pattern to it. I used a variegated Noro yarn and I love it! It really made me happy to see my sister wearing it so well.

Silver fox sweater of 2012

nonplainjane — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 01:10:09 +0000

I loved this sweater since I first saw it in vogue knitting winter 2006! It has a beautiful silver haired lady modeling it and I hope I keep wearing when my hair glows silver!

Sweater- fail better attempt

nonplainjane — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 01:10:12 +0000

This is the first sweater I’ve ever designed with this silk mohair art fibers Kyoto yarn circa 2005. This SF yarn store doesn’t even exist anymore. This is it’s second reincarnation which I copied off my friend Naomi’s adorable turtleneck. Unfortunately I wasn’t lucid when I sewed the sleeve on, so here goes attempt number????? Luckily NYC isn’t cold yet, so I’m hoping it will see the light of day in February.

Kool- aid as yarn dye

nonplainjane — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 01:01:41 +0000

I just had to try dyeing this yarn I got at the 2009 sheep and wool festival. Look aid seemed to be the easiest method and I quite like the slight cherry scent it has lent my yarn. You have to use unsweetened and make sure the yarn is soaked thoroughly. I swirled the cherry and grape flavors to get a variegated pink aka cotton candy.

Zane’s hat

nonplainjane — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 04:05:54 +0000

Zane finally outgrew his hat and siblings always en up sharing clothes, so here is my model Colin playing peekaboo. It is soft blue and black merino wool! Yummy.

iPhone cross stitch work in progress

nonplainjane — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 04:11:31 +0000

Yay! Guess who got an iphone and immediately after thought i didn’t need it, but it makes blogging so easy!I’m planning on cross stitching this whenever I’m bored or motivated do that it keeps evolving like a city map. I’ll post progress in the comments!