Crafts and Cooking

I haven’t finished my 2002 book list yet, but I just put together the Screenshot 2002 Photo Album of all of the images from the past year’s entries. I’m pleased with the collection as a whole. (If you’re interested, there is also a 2001 Photo Album.

Weather Photography is worth checking out for the images alone, but there’s also a really nice, and expanding, collection of articles about techniques for photographing weather and nature. There’s some good technical weather information as well, on selected topics (the photographer is a atmospheric physics grad student). I love his ice photos, but was most impressed by the lighting photos – reading the technical information behind taking them was very enlightening.

Lots of real world holiday fun and little time on-line leads to a lack of updates. Watch this space for upcoming quilt pictures, though. I am having a ball with my second bargello pattern (self designed – woo!) but I’m using a borrowed Husqvarna Viking rather than my familiar and beloved Brother and I do not like it’s personality quirks, even though it is supposed to be a wonderful machine. The bobbin hates me – it will neither wind nor feed happily.

To borrow a phrase from a friend of mine, I am insufferably proud of my latest craft achievment. I’ve been on a bit of a knitting kick after discovering Elizabeth Zimmerman’s books and falling in love with them, and I just finished my first sweater. It’s the “Ski Sweater in Color Patterns” from Zimmerman’s book Knitting Without Tears, which I would recommend to anyone looking to get beyond scarves and learn some intuition for garment design (the third word in the title lays the stress on the “e” rather than the “a”, in case you’re a smart alec like my … Continue reading Multi-color Knitting

I’ve only done a very little bit of beading, using a loom, but now I learn that you can crochet with beads, and I’m getting visions of a whole new type of craft supply I could start hording. Not good. I’ve been oogling the beaded chokers and purses at Victorian Crochet and reminding myself I really don’t need a tiny beaded purse, no matter how cute they are. Perhaps just a few beaded snowflake or bell ornaments….

I always think that cooking at home will get me better food than if I go out to eat, but I’m fascinated, in a sort of apalled way, by this free preview of a cookbook full of recipes from chain restaurants (sorry, only available as a zipped PDF file). Not only can you learn to make your own McDonald’s Big Mac or Hooter’s Buffalo Wings, they also have recipes to make your own Girl Scout Samoa Cookies, Clark Bars, and York Peppermint Patties. [via Book People]

Last week became “vacation” week, starting off with work-related travel, and closing with the long weekend, during which I did some reading, and a lot of quilting, resulting in the items to the right, of which I am prodigiously proud (this is only my second quilting project). The one on the right directly followed a pattern, but the one on the left is my own adaption – I thought the coordinated pair would look more interesting than an identical set.

I link to, it should be Eric Harshbarger’s LEGO website – his projects are linked in his right-hand sidebar and they’re all to good to pick one to highlight here. He does both sculptures (including these immense Simpson’s figures) and mosaics (like this 6′ x 8′ Mona Lisa). He’s so good, he makes his living building these sculptures. If you’re willing to go to more than one LEGO site, though, check out Andrew Lipson’s Lego Page [via which I found Eric’s page, and which I found via #!/usr/bin/girl], particularly his section of beautiful mathematical sculptures. He’s also got some cool … Continue reading LEGO Art

I kept thinking I’d do something more interesting with these images, but with it nearly being July, I’m going to give up and declare my photo album of images used in Screenshot entries from 2001 complete. Each photo has a link back to the archive page on which it appears. While they’re not all good, there’s a few in there I’m very happy with, and a couple of fun panoramics too.

Housekeeping days around here, both in reality and cyberspace. I finally updated my commenting code, so if you noticed the problems with HTML tags in them, that’s hopefully fixed. Around here, I hung a ton of photos, baked a lovely blueberry pie, and finished seasoning my new frying pans. I didn’t get around to making my new curtains yet, though. I mean, I’ve been pretty swamped by actual work around here too lately. By the way, a comment below reminded me that some people don’t like cast iron because they were told you can’t wash it with soap. You absolutely … Continue reading Seasoning Cast Iron