New Year New Blog Look

While the snow fell last night and this morning I sat down and finally did something that I've been meaning to do... well for about a year now.

I've changed the look the my blog!

I've loved the simple clean style of my template, I just wanted to use the space a bit better and add some customized personality.

So I switched to three columns from two and added a new custom header.

I know nothing about html so I'm really surprised how simple this all was with the help of a few great tutorials.

Phew!

Have a Wonderful Weekend!

Some Changes to Cupkins

Some of you may have noticed that the first Monday of January came and went this week without a Cupkins post. Those of you who read Ready, Set, Craft! regularly know that Joanne has been taking a bit of a hiatus from blogging recently. So sadly, although we've loved collaborating over this past year and four months, we've decided to put Cupkins on hold as well. Thank you Joanne for being a wonderful Cupkins partner!

This brings me to my second announcement...

The theme aspect of Cupkins has always pushed me to create recipes I wouldn't normally ever think of. Some of the things I'm most proud of came out of themes I thought might be impossible.

Strawberry Chocolate Champagne Muffins

But I've also been having a lot of fun outside of cupkins exploring the broader world of edible crafts.

St. Patrick's Day Pot o' gold Cupcakes

And In the past year and a half, I've enjoyed making some special cakes.

Birthday Gifts Cake

Carousel Cake

So I'd like to combine all of this into one new feature called:

Sweets -N- Treats.

I'll still be working with a monthly theme, but I won't be limiting myself to just cupcakes and muffins. I'll be focusing on all sorts of edible crafts and themed recipes. And I'd also like to feature other bloggers from time to time.

I'm very excited about this new addition and I hope you'll join me as I explore the world of edible crafts!

Knitting Errata- I guess it's nice to know not me!

I'd classify myself as a pretty average knitter- I haven't tackled a lot of things I'd like to accomplish but I know enough to teach other people how to knit. I am by no means an expert and still have stumbling blocks (but I guess from what I gather, the experts still have stumbling blocks from time to time too).

Turns out though, one of the stumbling blocks in my progression as a knitter might be coming to realize that the mistakes might not be my own.

That brings be to Knitting Errata, which is the nice way of saying: The pattern we gave is screwed up. It's not going to work, no matter how hard you try. Doesn't matter how many times you knit, frog, reknit, curse, count, check the pattern, curse again. It's just not going to happen!

I've known for a long time that errata existed, and I guess the smart thing to do would be to check for an errata each time I start a new pattern (and perhaps that's what expert knitters do). But I tend to be of the mind that if it's printed in a book or a pattern sold to me and it's going wrong, that I'm doing something wrong, not that the pattern is flawed. I have a certain confidence in the experts who wrote the (expensive) book and the people who test the patterns. And I don't think I'm alone here. As an average or even new knitter I think your first though is- I must be doing something wrong.

My first tip to check for an errata on this particular pattern should have been that I found a mistake immediately while looking it over quickly... what I didn't expect is that there would be 4 more errors in it.

While checking for corrections I was shocked to find about 10 or 12 more patterns and stitches in the book it came from with pretty major errors. But mistakes are human, and we all make them (I certainly make enough of them, there's probably a typo or grammatical error in this post somewhere)... so I think the realization that the mistake might not be my own is an important stumbling block to get over in my progression as a knitter. (That, and checking for corrections at the start might just save me some time and aggravation!)

After ripping it out this last time I think I'm on the road to rights... hopefully!

If you'd like to check your books and patterns for corrections here are some useful resources:

Interweave

Knitblog

Knitter's Review Forums

Vogue Knitting

Knitting Central

Sixth&Spring Books

You can also do a search for the publisher of the book, designer or yarn company that provided the pattern. Even searching the pattern or stitch name with the word corrections can produce some results.

Good Luck!

Glass Classes Update

Thought I'd update you on how my glassblowing classes went. They were really fun but truthfully the heat was hard to get used to. I think with more regular exposure I'd eventually get used to it. Although it's never something I'd want to do in the summer... so I'm probably not ever going to turn into a full fledged glassblower.

Here are pictures of four paperweights I made (2 clear and 2 blue).

And here is the first glass I made.

I have a few more items that I made which are still at the studio and unfortunately some of what I made was lost in the shuffle of so many people moving and removing pieces from the annealer (which is like a kiln where you leave the hot glass to cool slowly so it doesn't shatter).

I'm really happy I tried it, thanks for the great birthday gift hubby!