TOP 100 CRAFTS SITES
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| How-To: Recycle a Sweater for Yarn Shortly after I learned how to knit I read about how one could recycle a sweater for the yarn. Sweet! Cheap yarn I thought! I went to the Salvation Army and picked out a sweater I thought would be good for recycling. Huge, an XXXL, and 100% cotton. It was all cream colored and pretty nice. I took it home and gave it my best shot. Which failed pretty miserably at first. I wasted so much yarn that first time around. I still got enough to make into a sizable bath mat. I used the pattern from Mason Dixon Knitting (what a great knitting book).After a whole lot of trial and error over the last three years, I've been able to get the recycling of sweaters down pretty well.First you need to pick out a good sweater. Read this article | Comment on this article blog.craftzine.com |
Book Review, Recipe, & Giveaway: Savory Baking Savory Baking: Warm and Inspiring Recipes for Crisp, Crumbly, Flaky Pastries by Mary Cech, photographs by Noel BarnhurstAs it gets colder this autumn, what could be lovelier than a leisurely weekend day in a warm kitchen? Baking at home is fun and rewarding, but there are only so many cookies and cakes you and your family can take. All that prep time and careful attention should yield a delicious and healthy meal with which to feed your family or guests, not just a guilty pleasure! I don't have a big sweet tooth, but I love to bake, which is why Savory Baking by Mary Cech is the perfect addition to my cookbook collection. The book starts out with an overview of ingredients, equipment, and techniques specific to baking, to ensure your success. More so than stove top dishes, it's important to know what to expect in a baking recipe, so the overview of crepe, souffle, and doughs techniques is empowering.This book is full of inspiring dishes, broken down more by what type of pastry they use than what course they're for: quick breads, flaky pastry, rustic cobblers and betties, puff pastries, cookies, and, finally, sides and sauces. The gorgeous photos tend to draw focus to those particular recipes, but, really, every dish sounds delicious. Baking can be a time-intensive endeavor, so while I wish the book included time estimates for each recipe, I loved reading through the 75 delectable possibilities for this review.The best part of reviewing a recipe book is the cooking (and subsequent eating), clearly. I decided to make the Cambozola Pear Cream Tart, and enlisted the help of a foodie friend. Read the full article for the free recipe! Baking is a great team-cooking activity, since there are usually different concurrent tasks to be done. It's a great time of year to make this recipe, since the pears at the market will be close to ripe enough already. We used Gorgonzola dolce instead of the suggested Camembert-Gorgonzola hybrid, Cambozola, since it looked really good at the Italian market, and both of us love the flavor. We used slightly more than the recipe called for, and the flavor came out delicate and subtle. I think next time I might try a little more cheese, even, to balance with the delicious walnut crust. The most challenging part of this recipe is working with the dough, which is crumbly and delicate, making it easy to overwork, and hard to get into the shell. Tarts are forgiving, though, so perfect placement in the pan isn't critical, as patching up cracks and holes is much easier than with a flaky pastry dough. Besides licking the filling-covered spatula afterward, my favorite part of this recipe was laying out the pear slice in the shell in a sunflower pattern. It's like a pretty little secret hidden under the cheesy filling.This is great for the intermediately skilled home cook looking to expand his/her repertoire of favorites. The tart I made required that I know how to toast walnuts (dry in a pan is how we did it), separate eggs (crack the whole thing into a bowl and pick up the yolk with your fingers), handle fancy cheese (remove the foil but let the food processor handle the rind), and work with delicate dough (I used a big cake mover to transfer it to the tart pan). Many of the recipes in Savory Baking are sure to become family holiday favorites, and this book would make a fantastic gift for the foodie in your life who's looking for a new set of ideas to tackle. It's inspiring because of the clever ingredient combinations and "why didn't I think of that?" touches that really satisfy the itch to make something lovely and delicious. Check out my Flickr set with more pictures from the making of this recipe.Book Giveaway Time!Three lucky CRAFT winners will win a copy of this book, Savory Baking! Leave a comment on this post telling us why you want this book. Make sure to enter your email address in the form field (won't be published). All comments will be closed Wednesday, October 28th at noon PDT. The winners will be announced on the CRAFT Twitter feed later this week. Good luck!Read this article | Comment on this article blog.craftzine.com |
Holiday Crafts coming to Morristown Armory Dec. 4 (Morris NewsBee) MORRISTOWN – Holiday Crafts at Morristown returns Friday, Dec. 4 through Sunday, Dec. 6 to the armory on Western Avenue for its 19th year, displaying contemporary work from 150 artists and crafts people from across the country. us.rd.yahoo.com |
Bazaar Bizarre Day Two Sheena, Laura, and I had a great time yesterday hanging out and working the CRAFT table at Bazaar Bizarre San Francisco. We ran into old friends, did some holiday shopping and talked to a lot of crafters and makers. It was great to see and hear all the projects that people are working on. I was very inspired talking to everyone! You can see all my photos from Sunday on Flickr.I also taught a workshop on making photo and paper ornaments. Everyone had a great time cutting up photos and scrapbook paper. I loved seeing the different personal creative twists that were put into each ornament!Read this article | Comment on this article blog.craftzine.com |
Velvet Slippers Sewing Pattern By Nancy MinskyThese glamorous velvet slippers can be yours. Whether you are padding around your home in a pair of jeans, PJs or dressed elegantly, just slide your feet into the comfy velvet, gaze down at the pretty lacy bows, and enjoy the pleasure of handmade splendor!Download the PDF Pattern(Note: Right click to save this PDF to your computer.)About the Author:
Nancy Minsky has recently published Denim Revolution: Dozens of Ways to Turn Denim Cast-Offs into Fashion Must-Haves, a craft book filled with fun projects to recycle cast off jeans into fashionable, "new" clothing and accessories. A graduate of Parson's School of Design, where she has also taught fashion sketching, Nancy loves handmade, sewing, recycling, sketching and fashion. You can read her craft and fashion blog at: 21centurydressmakers.blogspot.com.Read this article | Comment on this article blog.craftzine.com |