Sunday I made cupcakes. I used a yellow cake recipe from the Fanny Farmer Baking Book. It called for shortening; I used butter instead. I overfilled the baking tin and got giant cupcakes. They smelled so wonderful. I could hardly wait for them to cool so I could frost them.
The frosting is the recipe that comes off the box of powdered sugar, not a true buttercream, which is fine because cupcakes are comfort food. In the spirit of Magnolia Bakery, I tinted the frosting a pale blue. Since my daughter is not fond of really sweet things, I didn't put a lot of frosting on each cupcake. For a final touch, I sprinkled them with "wild flowers". These were good and met with my daughter's approval of being good without being too sweet.
I finished the first monkey sock. I really like how this turned out. I've tried this yarn in other socks and always ripped them out because I haven't like the way the color has worked out. This was the right pattern for it. I'm more than half way done with the second sock. I don't know whether I'll keep these or put them in the gift box. I made these to fit me and that is a bit of a problem for gift giving since I have the smallest feet besides my mum in my family. I'll see if my daughter can get them on without over stretching them. If they fit her okay, then I can give them to one of my sisters-in-law.
This is the fifth bobbin of wine-colored merino singles. I have two pounds of this and plan on knitting sweater with the finished yarn. It is really lovely to spin. I'm spinning it over the fold, which is one of my favorite ways of spinning. I have about a pound and a quarter left to spin before I ply it. This will be good yarn for a Bay Area winter, where it can get cold without being bone chilling cold. Plus, it will be a good weight to wear indoors in Tahoe. Off to finish the second monkey.
This weekend was open studios in the East Bay. Kristine opened up the A Verb for Keeping Warm studio. It is a small piece of fiber heaven in a very cool artist space in Berkeley.
Made from the Magnolia Bakery recipe. The frosting was a very delicate orange flavor.
On the right is 2 oz. of shetland in "liberty"; on the left is 2 oz. of Blue Faced Leicester in "polished". I also got one of Kristine's cool spinning wheel t-shirts.
