katfolio

please excuse the crappy quality. i need to get my camera fixed so i can stop using my phone

I made macarons. Yea, I said it. I finally made those candy-colored cookies that the blog world is going crazy over.

And? I failed. Sort of.

Mixing and baking? I did a great job! They came out with feet, and how I imagined they should be as far as texture (i’ve never eaten a real one) So, according to all the blogs that have documented failure, I have won.

Only, I didn’t get the color right because I was scared of adding too much moisture. Same with the flavor (they were supposed to be yellow, and lemon)

And let’s just say I learned a valuable lesson in using the right tools. I was like “who needs a piping bag?!” so I used a ziploc. Got scissor happy. Hole was far too large to do any good circles with. 

Then I had to throw 1/4 of them away, because I used too much water in my “let them steam off the parchment paper” experiment. Soggy cookies disintegrate. 

Finally, way fed up, I piped in buttercream frosting from a can and called it a day. Way too exhausting.

The good thing? I know where and how I went wrong, and they’re totally fixable.

I was reading my blog list last Thursday, as I am wont to do, when I stumbled over Creativeadoration’s post on yarn bowls. This was an entirely new concept to me, so much so that I’ve been doing research on it since I read the post. Oh, and? I bought two that day. Because I have a problem.

One, which will be the main focus of this review, was from Fred Parker Pottery, in my old Georgian stomping grounds. The other is from LAS, and while I’ll be discussing it, it will mostly be a foil for the other bowl.

Fred Parker Pottery Bowl

LAS Designs Bowl

The bowls have two distinct ways of feeding the yarn. The FPP bowl has the distinct (and distinctly cute) J or pig-tail shaped feeder, as well as offering a bottom feed hole. The LAS bowl has only the side feed hole, with no connecting line to the outer rim. Holes that don’t have an escape route are problematic for people with multiple projects (or who have habitual WIP disease like me). To get your yarn from the bowl, you have to cut the string, or suffer through and finish the project. The J-shape lets the crafter remove the yarn easily.

So, that’s one win for the FPP bowl. This particular bowl, unlike his others, also has a bottom feed hole - an experiment. While it is fun and mostly functional, I have to say I don’t think it’s all that practical. As I got to the end of my ball of yarn, it shrunk to the size of the hole and -whoops!- my ball was free. I solved this with the J-shaped feeder, using it the more conventional way until my yarn was gone. This could be solved with a smaller hole.

One thing that is entirely my fault is the size of these bowls. I can never quite visualize with inches, and I thought both would be significantly bigger. At least big enough to fit an entire skein of yarn wrapped into a bowl. But, as I said, that is my fault. 

Using these bowls, I attempted both center-pull and pulling the yarn from the outside. The balls were large (medium in my head but large for the bowls), so I had to re-size them to get them small enough to pull smoothly from the outside. Both bowls were immediately workable from a center-pull perspective.

I liked using either method, though the center-pull does have that advantage. It has a disadvantage in that the point where there is resistance from the yarn going around the interior loops can cause the bowl to reel dangerously and in a few cases fall over. I could fix this with a hand or using my feet to steady the bowl. Weighting the bottom or attaching felt to make a bit more friction might fix this.

Using the outside-pull method, there was no resistance, and everything went very smoothly. Of course, I had less yarn to work with, but there was also a certain charm in the way the ball rolled around, and it made a nice soothing noise.

Overall, I am pretty happy with my purchases. I don’t think I’ll be using the bottom hole on the FPP bowl just because of the small ball issue, and having no escape route. And both look gorgeous on my shelf with a ball nestled in them.

Pictures taken from the respective etsy shops of the sellers of these items. I claim no ownership

Edit: This review was done both for my own fun, and to help the maker of the FPP bowl. After posting, he had additional questions:

Would it be too much trouble for you to get out a tape measure and “guesstimate” dimensions of an ideal yarn bowl? Specifically I need height and diameter of mouth and bowl (if they are different). whether you like or don’t like the way I “collar in” the neck of the bowl to produce a slight narrowing to contain the ball would also be helpful. The alternative is to have a straight side more like the other bowl you tried.

As for the size, I measured a few and came up with about 5 by 4 inches as the average size of the ball (the difference was about a quarter of an inch either way). I would guess than an ideal bowl would have a mouth about the same size as the one I received (yarn balls are squishy and upon measuring it appears to be about 4 and a half on the inside) and then 6 inches for the ball to roll about in. Currently, I am measuring 5 and a half on the outside. Also, maybe make it taller so that the inside has a bit more of a rounded shape to it. While I measured the (outside) of the width to be 5.5, the height of the bowl was just shy of 3 and a half. I imagine this working out with a bowl with these dimensions:

Diameter of opening (inside): 4.5 inches
Diameter of the width (from the outside, top view): 6 to 6.5 inches
Height of the bowl: 4 or 4.5 inches

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the way you collared in the neck. That way I was able to squish the ball in and it would be fairly secure, it also helped to curb the rolling ball’s enthusiasm as it got to be a smaller diameter. The straight sided one did have one or two jump outs that enticed my puppy to come play. Plus it just looks so much more elegant.

He’s not the most handsome piggy in the world. I don’t know why haphazard looks so cute on other people’s things and hideous on my own. I am almost embarrassed to use him what I made him for. Oh well.

He was originally (in his pattern) an ornament, and riding a box with wheels. I am hoping to use him for the white elephant at work. A couple of us bought Heifer animals. I got chicks, and my box has little chicks. My neighbor bought part of a piggy.

Pig tails are hard!

Since I was old enough to start seriously thinking about what I would do when I became ‘an adult’, I’ve wanted to leave Cincinnati. I wasn’t born here, and, beyond people here that I enjoy, I don’t have any real ties to the city. 

Most people, on finding out that I live in Ohio, ask if I have a cow. Or live on a farm. Our football team is laughable, our baseball team is average, and we have no basketball team. There was a hockey team, but how could you take a team named after a Disney movie seriously, anyway? The public transit consists of buses only. Once, we tried to have a subway, but failed.  There is nothing notable or noteworthy about Cincinnati to outsiders. The few times I’ve seen the city show up in outside news were related to race riots, T.I.’s entourage being shot at, or a dude who bought his car with coins. There is nothing inherently cool about Cincinnati. Or, if I am being honest, most places in the midwestern United States. There’s Chicago, that’s about it.

If there is a restaurant to frequent, it’s probably a chain. Even our local delicacy of Cincinnati-style chili is a chain in most places. Sure, there are a few non-chains, but to me it feels as if the ratio of local/independent to national/corporate is heavily skewed, in all aspects of life- very different from what I experienced in Manhattan, or observed in my limited time in other cities such as Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, or Seattle. And I love the local/independent feel of things so much more. There is a bit of it around, but I find that I either have to leave the city (going to Kentucky is a fun night out here in Cincinnati) or go to a place I am uncomfortable being (”Oh, this is where I was mugged”).

So, needless to say, I’ve always felt the urge to get the freak out of here before I find myself “stuck”. I don’t want to think about saving up to buy a condo here because I don’t know if I will honestly be here long enough to make it worthwhile. Then I go and remember what one of my teachers told me my freshman year of college, lamenting that all of the people who have the power to change Cincinnati and shape it into the kind of place that I would enjoy living in end up moving to one of the places that’s already established as being ‘cool’.

So maybe I ought to start cultivating that kind of mindset. Stay here, find the places that I enjoy and support them, shun the parts I don’t, making it my Cincinnati. Have pride in my town (nevermind the fact that I am forced t live in a suburb of a northern county- I work there, dammit). Nurture and help that community grow. One of my favorite local artists is Julie Hill. She just did a fundraising event for ArtWorks that I missed, and now I’m kicking myself at the lost opportunity to do just that- support my Cincinnati. 

Being fair, the city is trying. New projects in Over-The-Rhine. My own company is helping to revitalize Findlay Market. There’s supposed to be a project by the river. So maybe I should stop thinking of staying here as being “stuck” and actually enjoy it. I mean, minus the shitty music, the city looks kind of cool in this video by 3 Doors Down.

Maybe it’s silly of me, but whenever I am driving (which is a lot), I always expect more of the people who sport stickers with my chosen candidate on them. I also watch the people with the other candidates’ stickers more closely to look for idiotic behavior. Honestly, the only thing I can come up with from my observations is that everyone is a shitty, selfish driver.

I am proud to say that Erica, the recipient of Lumpy Bird, has posted some beautiful pictures of him in her blog. I look forward to making more, with the added bonus of magnets in their bellies so that they stay perched at work! I’m also working on a pattern for a heart-shaped face sort of bird. Well… my mom is helping. Because that’s what moms do.

Speaking of work, I have a shelf, and soon plants! They are sitting downstairs and awaiting transport. Maybe tomorrow I will borrow the Canon and get a shot or two in. When I’m not shooting myself in the head.

So I’ve had my Amazon wishlist link in the right nav for a while now, mostly as a lark, and more frequently as an easy way to get the link that others can access, versus the link that I get as the owner of the list (I am logged in 24/7 because sometimes I NEED something at 3 am and dammit my password is long.)

One thing that’s always gotten to me around Christmas and my birthday and other gifting occasions was that it was much simpler to give someone the Amazon list, even though it might not have EVERYTHING I may want, than to give them a billion links to a billion places.

Now, Amazon has answered that need. Last night, as I added some books to my list, they offered me the option to use their Universal Gift List. It works by giving you a link that can be dragged to your bookmarks bar and allows you to add whatever page you are viewing to your universal gift list. No more emails full of links, just a one-stop place where someone can fulfill your wildest dreams… /hyperbole

The only thing I haven’t tried yet is from the gift giver’s side. Does Amazon help fulfill the order (doubtful) or just link you out to the other product’s page?

I just tried it, and it links out to the page, with a nice little graphic. You can input the price when you add it, and flip through the various picture offerings so that the purchaser can see the item before they buy it and see if it fits in their price range.

In short, and I am so not getting paid or reimbursed to say this, the Amazon Universal Wishlist ROCKS.

I have no idea where my camera cords are right now, so here are crappy phone photos of my latest creation. If you will recall:

Now, I made this, THEN read that these birds were hand-stitched. Mine was made on the machine.

Side view… sort of awkward in the breast area…

Bottom of lump. 

Anywho, Erica was the recipient of Lumpy Bird, as I called him. And I bought some things for hand-sewing one while I bought supplies for her birthday craft, which I will also post. And if she is sweet, she might post REAL pictures of Lumpy Bird.

flickr meme

Originally uploaded by kat.folio

The idea:

1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
2. Using only the first page, pick an image.
3. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker).

My Answers:

1. What is your first name? Kathryn (might I suggest you NEVER SEARCH THIS ON FLICKR?)
2. What is your favorite food? Today it’s bagel sammys
3. What high school did you go to? Ursuline Academy
4. What is your favorite color? today, lime green
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Hmm… Josh Kelley
6. Favorite drink? Double Choc. Chip Frap
7. Dream vacation? Versailles
8. Favorite dessert? Pumpkin Pie
9. What did you want to be when you grew up? Equine Vet
10. What do you love most in life? Internet
11. One Word to describe you: lol
12. Your flickr name. kat.folio

I was reading a McSweeny’s list on things this guy’d take on a desert island.

So here is my list of three things I’d take on a dessert island:

1. A spoon
2. Wet naps (no jam-hands after I abandon the spoon)
3. Something to make me not feel bloated after eating an entire island of desserts.

Remember when I said I don’t carry purses? That’s all changed now. Putting things in pockets is just not cool when you’re presenting and have a big-ass wallet in your pocket or your pants start ringing. So, I bought this purse, and I LOVE it. It’s the perfect size and slouch. 

So now that I am a purse-carrying adult, I need to live up to that adultness. One thing is being on time and making my own appointments. I bought this Filofax a while ago (after 27 Dresses… cough) But now it lives with me in my purse.

Of course, the next thing marked in it is: Sept 19th- Talk Like a Pirate Day… so maybe not so adult.

It’s no secret I am a huge slob who spills. And adults look well put together. So in addition to sunglasses, wallets, phones and iPods, this is the next item to permanently live in my purse:

After I buy it, of course…