Sheep cookies

Every July my spinning guild has a wonderful pot luck dinner to celebrate the summer and just relax with wonderful people. I usually bring a dessert since I always come straight from work and can never swing home before the dinner. This year I wanted to make sheep cookies from the cookie cutter Scott gave me for my birthday. I always use Alton Brown’s sugar cookie recipe for any cookie I want to roll out. I find that his cookie holds the shape well and is easily amended. I make linzer tarts out of this recipe and add lime zest to pair with the raspberry jam. For these I added a teaspoon of vanilla.

I outline the cookie with some icing, I used Sugar Cookie Frosting from i am baker and americolor food coloring.



Then I flood the cookie.



Add the lighter color.



Then add details.





They were a huge hit at the dinner.

Very productive

Have you ever had one of those four day weekends where you felt like you have accomplished a huge pile of stuff? That is how I spent my 4th of July weekend, no barbeques, no parties, just me, my hubby, and hours of time to do what we wanted and needed. The weather was really iffy and the sky looked as if it would just open up at any moment so we caught a movie and decided to stay in the rest of the weekend. I baked a cake for a small work party (I didn’t get a chance to take a photo of it), made some orange sorbet which was out of this world!


This

became this

which then became this


252 yards of a dk/worsted(I haven’t measured the WPI yet) yarn spun from Funky Carolina’s superwash merino in “Sweetness.” Even though it is thick and thin in places I love how this came out. Spinning this was a bit of a challenge for me because every time I sit at the wheel my brain screams Thin! Thin! spinning something a little thicker is much harder for my to do, especially consistently. The fiber was a pleasure to spin, it drafted so nicely and the colors, which I was afraid would become muddied when plied, work together nicely. The resulting yarn is squishy and so incredibly soft that it is destined to be worn close to the body, maybe a cowl.

I also knitted quite a bit on my Apres Surf Hoodie which I think may become my favorite knitted object of all time. I know that I may be getting my hopes up since I’m only on the body of the sweater, but this pattern brilliantly combines some of my favorite things; lace, cashmere blend, and a hoodie. I’m knitting this in the round so that I can finish it faster, I will only have to purl when I split the front and back for the neck, and there will be very little seaming. The yarn is Elann Peruvian Baby Cashmere which is actually more alpaca than cashmere, in rose heather, which is lovely to work.

Plus I get to use some of my cute new stitch markers!