Thank you, everyone. The Internet is safe for now, but there remains much to be done.
Don't back down. Keep the pressure on your representatives in Congress, and spread the word. SOPA and PIPA (and ACTA, an international agreement that is slowly evolving into similar legislation) are still on the table, and they'll be back.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Stop SOPA. Stop PIPA.
This post will remain, long after the blackouts of January 18th have come and gone.
SOPA and PIPA are closely-related bills in the US legislature that, if passed, will cripple the Internet. They are scheduled to go up for a vote on January 24th.
This is not a drill.
Google: End Piracy, Not Liberty: sign the petition
StopTheWall.us: protest about PIPA directly to your senator
Learn about the bills (SOPA, PIPA) and make yourself heard.
SOPA and PIPA are closely-related bills in the US legislature that, if passed, will cripple the Internet. They are scheduled to go up for a vote on January 24th.
This is not a drill.
Google: End Piracy, Not Liberty: sign the petition
StopTheWall.us: protest about PIPA directly to your senator
Learn about the bills (SOPA, PIPA) and make yourself heard.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
WARNING: blog has reached critical mass
Alright, damnitall, here we go:
I need to get my online data organized. First off is this blog, which IS still alive, honestly. It's connected to my private account and a webspace where I host designs for clients, though, which is less than optimal. Also, it is ugly. I can't design the space here the way I'd like to without circumventing a bunch of Blogger rules and garbage. Vehement MEH.
SO, with everyone's merciful understanding and forgiveness, please know that things are going to go royally haywire for a little while. I intend to leave everything up and accessible for as long as I can, and I will make any hot switches in the shortest length of time possible. That said, there are going to be broken links here and there. In the end, things should seamlessly redirect to wherever I decide to drop them for permanence... fingers crossed.
In the process, I will be permanently deleting some posts. These will generally be the posts that have nothing of interest to anyone, anywhere, anyway. (All the "oh crap what happened let me fix this sorry brb" posts, for example.) Anything that contains a pattern, tutorial, or experiment will remain online and fully accessible by the end of the cleanup. The current links to PDF patterns and diagrams, however, will break. I intend to replace them with a forwarding image.
Lastly, I will establish a secondary blog for some of the things that I would have previously posted here. I think. Maybe. Let me think it over. (If you're only here for patterns, don't worry; you'll still be in the right place.)
Postscriptively, happy new year to everyone. :3 I hope you've all had a great first week.
I need to get my online data organized. First off is this blog, which IS still alive, honestly. It's connected to my private account and a webspace where I host designs for clients, though, which is less than optimal. Also, it is ugly. I can't design the space here the way I'd like to without circumventing a bunch of Blogger rules and garbage. Vehement MEH.
SO, with everyone's merciful understanding and forgiveness, please know that things are going to go royally haywire for a little while. I intend to leave everything up and accessible for as long as I can, and I will make any hot switches in the shortest length of time possible. That said, there are going to be broken links here and there. In the end, things should seamlessly redirect to wherever I decide to drop them for permanence... fingers crossed.
In the process, I will be permanently deleting some posts. These will generally be the posts that have nothing of interest to anyone, anywhere, anyway. (All the "oh crap what happened let me fix this sorry brb" posts, for example.) Anything that contains a pattern, tutorial, or experiment will remain online and fully accessible by the end of the cleanup. The current links to PDF patterns and diagrams, however, will break. I intend to replace them with a forwarding image.
Lastly, I will establish a secondary blog for some of the things that I would have previously posted here. I think. Maybe. Let me think it over. (If you're only here for patterns, don't worry; you'll still be in the right place.)
Postscriptively, happy new year to everyone. :3 I hope you've all had a great first week.
Friday, November 4, 2011
Damnitall.
Something snapped in the overburdened monstrosity of a template I have been using on this blog for a long time, so MEH. I intend to redesign the whole thing this weekend.
...and then post new stuff.
Don't be afraid of any weird errors you see here for the next however many days, thanks. m(-_-;)m
...and then post new stuff.
Don't be afraid of any weird errors you see here for the next however many days, thanks. m(-_-;)m
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Zzzzzzz...
....zzzzzzz....
...GAH! WHA! WHA?!
WHERE AM I
WHAT MONTH IS IT
OH CR*P I AM WAY BEHIND ON EVERYTHING
Translation: I am both lazy AND I have been sick, and I really need to update. Sorry. Stay tuned.
...GAH! WHA! WHA?!
WHERE AM I
WHAT MONTH IS IT
OH CR*P I AM WAY BEHIND ON EVERYTHING
Translation: I am both lazy AND I have been sick, and I really need to update. Sorry. Stay tuned.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
What the Felt (or, good places to buy wool felt online)
I'm shopping for felt. This is what I do to relax after utterly failing to make chicken stir-fry (apparently).
Also, I find it soothing to write reports comparing the online retailers of products for which I shop after utterly failing to make chicken stir-fry.
Yep.
I rated these on a less-than-scientific system, mind you; most of these players sell a wide variety of sizes and blends, but I make small stuff and I don't need 100% virgin unicorn wool. Ergo, the target is for the smallest piece for sale with one dimension of at least 12", with a blend of minimum 20% wool.
The Felted Ewe
I didn't do the math for these: they were either too jumbled up, too expensive (but still pretty to look at), obvious places to look, or temporarily closed (Felt-o-rama will re-open in January 2012).
Also, I find it soothing to write reports comparing the online retailers of products for which I shop after utterly failing to make chicken stir-fry.
Yep.
I rated these on a less-than-scientific system, mind you; most of these players sell a wide variety of sizes and blends, but I make small stuff and I don't need 100% virgin unicorn wool. Ergo, the target is for the smallest piece for sale with one dimension of at least 12", with a blend of minimum 20% wool.
The Felted Ewe
Colors: 26Commonwealth Felt
Wool percentage: 20% ~ 35% wool to rayon
Thickness: unknown
Size: 12" by 18"
Price: $1.35 each
Per square inch: $0.0063
Shipping: $7.00 US, more international
Colors: 60+Weir Crafts
Wool percentage: 20% ~ 35% to rayon, 100% wool and bamboo/rayon available
Thickness: unknown
Size: 12" by 18" (and 36" by 36")
Price: $1.79 for 20%, $1.89 for 35% ($9.39 for square yard of either)
Per square inch: $0.0083 for 20%, $0.0088 for 35%
Shipping: $8.15 and up
Colors: 15Erica's
Wool Percentage: 70% to rayon, 100% wool and 50% bamboo/rayon available
Thickness: 1/16"
Size: 9" by 12" (larger sizes available)
Price: $1.75 each
Per square inch: $0.0162
Shipping: $4.99 and up
Colors: ~90Wool Felt Central
Wool Percentage: 20%, 35%, and 70% to rayon, 100% wool on same page
Thickness: 1/16" for rayon blends, 7/64" for 100%
Size: 9" by 12" (larger sizes available)
Price: ranges from $1.05 to $1.50 based on color and blend, $2.15 for 100%
Shipping: ~$3.00+, varies widely depending upon size of order
Colors: 98Other Places to Find Felt
Wool Percentage: 20% ~ 35% to rayon
Thickness: 1/16" for rayon blends, 7/64" for 100%
Size: 12" by 18" or by the yard (continuous)
Price: $1.75 each, $8.50 per yard for 20%, $9.50 per yard for 35%
Shipping: $5.99+
I didn't do the math for these: they were either too jumbled up, too expensive (but still pretty to look at), obvious places to look, or temporarily closed (Felt-o-rama will re-open in January 2012).
Colonial CraftsAND NOW I WILL EAT MY SAD CHICKEN STIR-FRY AS PENANCE. (〒д〒)
A Child's Dream
Create for Less
Felt-o-rama
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Experiment: A Mess (Poured Fondant)
My sister needed to bake up some cookies to send to a friend, so I suggested a method of decorating that I'd wanted to try for some time now: poured fondant. It is, in essence, the same thing as glace icing, but instead of adding more liquid, you heat it up juuust a little to get the sugar to a liquid state, then beat the mixture briefly to force the recrystallization of the sugar to remain fine and even. This supposedly allows you to simply pour it over whatever baked good you're trying to decorate for a solid, even layer. It sets quickly by cooling, then locks into a matte sugar shell within 24 hours.
The recipe is fantastically simple:
Disclaimer: Those cookies with clean-cut edges in the back of the image were achieved by literally carving them out of a sheet of hardened fondant sludge.
In brief, this is a hard process to control. Even with twice the water called for in the recipe and increasing the temperature all the way to 105 degrees F, the fondant was never thin enough to really pour over the cookies. It was more like laying down sugary tarp that kinda draped over the sides of each cookie and made indistinct sugary lumps of all of them. I'm not quite sure why this happened, but I suspect either the distinct lack of humidity in the desert or the cheap confectioner's sugar I picked up at Walmart is to blame.
One more try, dipping the cookies into the fondant while keeping it over steady low heat. They do this with cupcakes, the Internet tells me.
...dipping 0.25" thick cookies into hot sugar sludge = not the most fun thing ever. SIGH.
Maybe I'll make petit fours someday, but I won't revisit poured fondant until then.
This will be my last attempt at decorated cookies for a while as I get back to posting patterns I have neglected for a long time.
* I really wanted to photoshop David DeVore into that image, but alas, I have neither the time nor the skills.
The recipe is fantastically simple:
6 cups confectioner's sugar
1/2 cup water
2 Tablespoons light corn syrup
1~2 teaspoons extract flavoring as desired
food coloring as desired
Mix everything in a pot over low heat to 92~100 degrees F, pour over something edible.
Here's the mixing...
...and, uh... the aftermath of the pouring.
Disclaimer: Those cookies with clean-cut edges in the back of the image were achieved by literally carving them out of a sheet of hardened fondant sludge.
In brief, this is a hard process to control. Even with twice the water called for in the recipe and increasing the temperature all the way to 105 degrees F, the fondant was never thin enough to really pour over the cookies. It was more like laying down sugary tarp that kinda draped over the sides of each cookie and made indistinct sugary lumps of all of them. I'm not quite sure why this happened, but I suspect either the distinct lack of humidity in the desert or the cheap confectioner's sugar I picked up at Walmart is to blame.
One more try, dipping the cookies into the fondant while keeping it over steady low heat. They do this with cupcakes, the Internet tells me.
what the Internet tells me
real life*
...dipping 0.25" thick cookies into hot sugar sludge = not the most fun thing ever. SIGH.
Maybe I'll make petit fours someday, but I won't revisit poured fondant until then.
This will be my last attempt at decorated cookies for a while as I get back to posting patterns I have neglected for a long time.
* I really wanted to photoshop David DeVore into that image, but alas, I have neither the time nor the skills.
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