Crafts and Cooking

Today was a long day, so tonight I relaxed and made a couple of loaves of Rudbeckia’s Buttermilk-Lavender Bread. It is sooooo good! I never bother to bake with buttermilk, even though my dad swears that it makes better pancakes than regular milk, but I tried using it here and it was really worth it. The recipe assumes you are a bread-baking person and will recognize when the “dough holds together like it should”. I found that that took about four cups of flour for me, maybe a little more, but I’m also happy with my bread dough being a … Continue reading Yummy, not purple….

You can buy these adorable Tetris Magnets, but they also look pretty trivial to make for yourself if you’ve even done plastic canvas work. I also think this Tie Top Tank looks incredibly cute and simple. I just need to finish off the one or two projects I already have underway before I can justify starting anything new….. I’m also tempted to pull out one of the smaller patterns I’ve worked up on my own and submit it to the Knit Pattern of the Day or Crochet Pattern of the Day calendar. But it is interesting to note that they … Continue reading Stuff I want to make…

A friend pointed out to me that if you are at all interested in knitting or crocheting you should wander by the Knit and Crochet Festival. I’ve never been, but looking at the schedule it looks like there’s going to be not only vendors but a bunch of classes and also some open hang-out-and-knit/crochet spaces. I’m probably going to spend tonight curled up in my comfy chair with my piles of patterns around me planning out if there are any pending projects that I’d be interested in browsing for supplies for and then heading out there some time this weekend.

WIth a major project done, the temptation hits to pick up too many new things to fill the fake void in one’s schedule. I’m working on finishing off a variation of the Cheesy Love sweater with a more argyle style pattern across the front in pastel cotton. But I also spent the afternoon browsing through my latest issue of Craft and somehow only just realized that like the sister publication Make, Craft has a weblog with great links to projects and patterns. I’ve been trawling through the archives and the following were the standouts, some of them particularly geeky…. Knit … Continue reading Something done, Something new

Oh yeah – the little clutch purses whose instructions are given here are soooo cute and also look like the perfect way to use up a moderate amount of a pretty fabric, though the designer comes at it from more from an interest in using the cool handles you can find in craft stores. The pattern seems very scalable – make a little change purse or a full sized bag – or a set of both. I’ve got some awesome purple plaid silk that I’m going to made a box-pleat summer dress out of, and I’m thinking the scraps would … Continue reading Cute Cute Cute

It’s that magical time when I geek out about the latest Knitty, this time the Winter 2006 issue. There are a few socks, which is great (Monkey is a cute pattern, and the model is wearing totally cute shoes), and the felted brown bag is awesome. But, the prize has to be Binary, which I will definitely make, and in which the pattern of 1s and 0s will definitely not be random….

I usually prefer a bland-looking plate of chocolate chip cookies to most crafty no-bake treats, but these Halloween “crawly cakes” over at Not Martha, based on snack cakes and pocky, are really adorable. You could clearly do this with homemade cupcakes, but I think the snack-cake look is a big part of their charm.