Fiber Fool

Crafty:

• For those of you who love all things stationary related (and who isn’t lusting after new stationary supplies with all this back-to-school talk?) check out these downloadable vintage hankie-inspired papers.
• If you pack lunch for someone you love and want to be more green yet insulating too check out Maya Made’s answer - a woolen sack made from a re-purposed blanket to insulate and carry stainless steel lunch boxes.
• For you sheep lovers out there, Lillyella has a great mini round up of sheepy things (mostly from Etsy).
• Are you an RPG geek and a crafter? Check out this column on using the craft skill more thoroughly (written by a college classmate of mine)
• While I think we are lacking in shelf space more than storage space, if you are in the opposite situation here is a great solution for storage on shelves.
• Since I’m on about books, check out these two ways to give old books a new life as jewelry or as a loom.
• Who would have guessed there were 37 ways to wear a neck scarf?

Photography

• I’m loving this DIY lens cap keeper which includes several downloadable templates.
• A great article from Nikon on why braketing either exposure compensation, shutter speed or flash power is a good idea (info applies to non-Nikonians as well).
• Adorama has a video with some helpful tips for taking self-portraits (handy for profile pics as well as FO pics for Ravelry). The tips cover all levels of camera equipment.
• A frequent photographer for Pixie Purls has started a series on photography for knitters. There are currently 2 posts, with a link to the next one at the bottom of the first post.
• Troubled by noise in your photos, Light Stalking has some tips for minimizing it. This is my biggest pet peeve of my point and shoot.

Cooking:

• Confused about the convection setting on your oven? Check out this article.
• It seems more people are jumping on Drew’s bandwagon that everything tastes better on stick - including pop tarts & cookie dough!
• If we had any peaches left I’d have to try Smitten Kitchen’s Peach Shortbread or Shivaya Natural’s Peach Pound Cake with Raspberry Glaze.
• Ever wonder what the best way to cook your vegetables to retain the most nutrients is? Rodale has a quick run-down.
• We had wax beans in last week’s CSA and enjoyed this salad with roasted red pepper and tomato and it is surprisingly low in calories yet really tasty.

Wishes:

• I’m loving this Large Sprout handbag from Queen Bee Creations.
• This eco-journal with kitchen utensils on the covers would be great for taking baking and cooking notes in!
• I’m really loving all things mustard right now and this canvas bag is to die for, especially since I’m pretty confident I can’t really pull off mustard except as an accessory.
• How neat is the idea of a felted flower ring? Too bad I find adjustable rings completely uncomfortable.
• I had been thinking I wanted a Shoot Sac, but after seeing one used at SIL3’s wedding I am definitely in lust! That was the first time I really changed lenses mid-shoot too…

That’s probably more than plenty for this holiday Monday. If it wasn’t enough and you’d like more links check out Chris’ Friday Linkity.

One more thing - I’m going to be working through Will Write for Food and have set up a private Google Group for sharing the exercises etc. We’ll be doing a chapter a week with completion of at least one exercise per chapter and constructive criticisming/editing suggestions on other’s exercises expected. So far two others are joining me. If you are interested just leave me a comment and make sure your e-mail address is correct and I’ll get an invite sent out to you. Right now I’m thinking we’ll start in a week, on the 13th, but I’m somewhat flexible if not everyone will have a copy of the book by then.

Well, I didn’t mean to be away from the blog, but it kind of happened. I worked the entire holiday weekend - not as hard as a normal weekend, but I specifically set some time aside each day to get some work done. I did read some good books though!

Anyway, I’ve been spending a ton of time on the computer which doesn’t have my shoulder/neck very happy. I’ve been drafting patterns and charts. (And wasting some time on Plurk.) But, I’ve also been doing a bit of housecleaning here on the blog.

• Changed the front page of the “Fiber Shop.”
• Added a page about my history and philosophy. Check out, as I’m pretty sure everyone will learn something new about me/Designedly, Kristi.
• Added a list of retailers of Designedly, Kristi patterns.
• Updated the Frequently Asked Questions.
• Updated the Fiber Art Classes page to reflect upcoming classes I’m teaching here in Fort Collins.
• Added a page with more info on Private Knitting and Spinning Lessons.

I’ve got some interesting posts percolating in my head, but not the time or energy to pull them together as I would like them to be. I’ll be back more regularly next week, but probably not on my former daily schedule.

A week or so ago the everbearing strawberries started flowering and now it seems the wild ones are also flowering. DH and I may actually get to share a picking this year rather than trading on and off!

I’m a little worried I’ve killed some of my seedlings during the hardening off period. I should have listened to my gut instinct and kept them in the spot where they get shade come about 11am, despite the fact that they were up to the point where they needed more sun. Some are looking good and I watered this morning and moved them to the spot with morning sun and afternoon shade in hopes of aiding their recovering from the hot weekend in nearly full sun. I have my fingers crossed.

The greens bed that Emma dug up after our planting is surprisingly doing much better than the second one we planted the next day. I’m not quite sure why. But that first one is looking good and growing by leaps and bounds. We have a handful of radish that have come up. Something’s wrong with the carrots and quite a lot of the radishes as well. I wonder if we didn’t freeze a bit too hard at the wrong spot in development? We had problems with carrots last year too. We only got two. Oh well, it’s all a learning process, right? And last year my first year and we bought a lot of our plants. So I’m taking big steps with year with seedlings and direct sowing and such.

The heat has arrived which is of course good for the garden, but not great for my mood or our sleeping. We’ve been in the 80’s all weekend and look to be for most of this week. The house even started the day out at 72 degrees this morning. That doesn’t bode well for late afternoon :-/ Next house has AC!

I got the north beds all weeded and nearly ready for planting the seedlings into next weekend. I just need to get some compost worked into them and get a lot more mulch than I used last year! I did manage to sunburn an interesting shape on my back, but the positive news is that it shows that my range of motion for both arms is now equal, which means PT has been a success, LOL! They really need to come up with a good way to apply sunscreen yourself to your back!

May time with family and friends through this coming week fill your heart with light to last through the remainder of this dark season!

Anyone good at behind the scenes web stuff? I have someone stealing content from my blog and I cannot find a contact for them. I’ve tried Who Is but it doesn’t turn up any useful info to get in contact with the thief or the company providing the web hosting, it just tells me who it is registered with.