One of my favorite desserts is lemon Italian Ice, and I frequently buy the little cups of it available in the grocery store. It recently occurred to me to try to make it myself. I mean, how hard could it be?

As it turns out — not very hard at all! I googled recipes and did some research, and came up with my own recipe.

I bought 8 lemons.

Then I made a simple syrup, which is just water and sugar at a 2 to 1 ratio: so I did 4 cups of water and 2 cups of sugar.

Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally, and let it boil until the syrup is clear. Cool and chill. I put it in a bowl, covered with plastic wrap, and chilled in the refrigerator overnight.

The next day, I juiced my lemons.

I needed 2 cups of lemon juice and each lemon yields abut a quarter cup of juice, so I juiced all 8 of my lemons. The end result:

I added the lemon juice, along with a cup of water, to the chilled simple syrup.

I now have just under 2 quarts of liquid. since my ice cream freezer holds 2 quarts, this is just right.

I put the lid on, turned it on, and let it process for half an hour.

After half an hour, I had this:

Frozen lemon ice!

I spooned it into individual containers:

Put the lids on, and they are ready for the freezer!

The homemade lemon ice tastes so much better because I used fresh lemon juice.

What Loki did to help:

Today I am completing my Britta Cowl. Stay tuned!

Happy Holidays to All!

Not much to report here, except that I have worked past the halfway point on my Britta Cowl. Here you can see the purl round that makes the turning point:

Still, lots of knitting to do!

Loki is waiting for me to get off the computer so we can watch a movie together.

By the way, if you are a fan of Loki, you might want to follow me on Instagram. 99% of what I post are photos of Loki. My Instagram username is “wknits.”

First things first, the winner of my review copy of The Go-To Book for Irish Crochet Motifs by Kathryn White is “Sheeptricks” Denise, who has been emailed. Thanks to everyone who submitted a comment to be entered in the giveaway.

The Britta Cowl continues, and at this point I am just 9 rounds shy of the halfway point.

I keep meaning to show this:

This is a double ball yarn keeper, made by Chic-a. I have a number of their single ball yarn keepers and find them extremely useful. It’s a great way to keep your ball of yarn safe and clean, and out of the paws of inquisitive felines. And the double ball keeper is fantastic for 2-color projects, like my Britta Cowl.

Loki

There were a number of comments about the photo of Loki I posted in my last blog entry, re-posted here:

Loki is lying on the coffee table in my living room. He loves to snuggle up next to one or both of his humans on the couch, but he invariably gets up after a few minutes and moves to the coffee table. I think he gets too warm sitting next to a human.

The red “stick” that he is half lying on is one of his fishing pole toys that he had been playing with shortly before his impromptu nap.

The coaster is one of a set of four that was given to me as a gift. They are commercial coasters with pictures of cats on them and I have no idea who makes them — they are cork-backed so no information printing on the flip side.

Loki would like you to know that he also enjoys lying on end tables. The lighting in the photo is odd because the sun is going down and I did not use a flash.

For someone who does not crochet, I do show a lot of books on crochet here!

When I was offered a review copy of this book, I thought it was too pretty to refuse!

This is The Go-To Book for Irish Crochet Motifs by Kathryn White.

I happen to think that Irish crochet is gorgeous.

This book is divided into 10 sections:

• Stitches & Techniques
• Flowers
• Leaves
• Fill-In Motifs
• Edgings & Insertions
• Dangles
• Overlays
• Fill-In Lace
• Assembly
• Squares or Motifs

Using this book and intermediate/advanced skill in crochet, you can create, among other things, pieces like this edging:

A lovely insertion:

Pretty filler stitches:

Wonderful flowers!

The book contains more than 100 motifs, so there is plenty there to keep a crocheter busy for quite a long time.

Each motif has complete written instructions for creation, and the book has an illustrated stitch guide in the back.

Who’d like my review copy?

To be entered in the drawing to review my copy of this lovely book, please leave a comment on this blog post by noon on Wednesday, December 18, 2013. The Random Number Generator will select a recipient at that time.

Speaking of winners, the winner of a skein of Made in America Yarns’ Wayfarer fingering weight wool is “knittingdancer,” who has been emailed. Many thanks to Made in America Yarns for not only sending me a skein to play with, but for offering a second skein for the giveaway!

Work in Progress

My Britta Cowl is growing:

At this point I am a little over one-third done. This is a time-consuming knit but is so much fun!

Loki

What Loki has been doing this weekend: