Hi Craftsters!  My coworkers recently purchased 12 binders from the university bookstore just to cut out part of the front panel with the university logo and put it on their machinery.  Now they have 12 binders (of this sort:  http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_SPM74448430P)  each with about 1/3 of their front cover cut out.  The plastic is good quality and fully intact on the back, and the binder ring mechanism is just fine.  So perhaps you could help me brainstorm some ideas to save these 12 binders from a landfill.

Hello there craftsterites! 
I confess, I have been away from these lovely boards for a long time.  A very long time.  I blame the sweetly seductive Ravelry site for coaxing me away with its multi-variable knitting pattern search engine..... but, I was brought back to my senses when I completed a non-knitting project and thought, "Where shall I post this online?"  And there was Craftster, my first love, welcoming me back to its halls of multi-faceted crafts and reminding me of all the clever uses there are for those boring old household items that I was *horror of horrors* about to throw out! 

But, I digress.  Let's get on to the bag!

This was a request by a friend of mine.  It can be difficult to make things for boys, so I settled on denim fabric for the outside, and a nice soft green flannel for the inside.  I used the classic and wonderfully elegant Nintendo Messenger Bag Tutorial found on this site, and it worked like a charm.  The symbol on the front is from the anime Code Geass.  I stitched it on before sewing the bag together.  It was bigger than I thought it would be, but he's a boy in college and likely needs the extra space for his textbooks and such.  He was absolutely thrilled, so that means this project was a success. 

Onto the pictures of my geeky creation!

Whee, my first post in the edible crafting section!

It was my birthday a couple weeks ago, so I decided to take on some ambitious food projects for my party guests.  One of these was that I made home-made fortune cookies for the first time, and they turned out pretty good, but my fingers got a little singed since you have to fold them right out of the oven.  I used this recipe and it tasted just like the ones you'd get at a restaurant (and I also strongly endorse their suggestion to fold the cookies using light cotton gloves).  I saved some batter and had each of my guests write a fortune, and made a small batch while they were there with their own fortunes and then passed them out which turned out to be a fun activity.  The baking time on these is the trickiest part since if you bake them too long they're too stiff to fold, but if you underbake them they stay kinda chewy and don't have a good crunch to them.

The cake you see in the picture below was made by my friend for me (she said she didn't want me making my own cake, hehe) and it was delicious!

My favourite project however, was my Totoro cookies.  I made this recipe: Rolled Buttercream Fondant
Having never made fondant before, I was very pleased with how it turned out.  I substituted almond extract in place of the vanilla it called for, which was extra yum!  The base of the cookies were just a plain sugar cookie recipe.  I made each of the little totoros by hand, and they turned out super cute!  Hope you like 'em  =)

A while back I came across this post here, and knew I had to cozy my cables in addition to my ipod.  My headphone one isn't quite finished, but after the marathon of finishing my iPod cozy last night, I felt victorious enough to take a picture and post it!  The pattern is Grumperina's free ipod cozy.  I thought I'd use it since I had a bit of Manos sitting at the bottom of my stash waiting to be used.  I sewed plastic under both the screen and the click wheel since mine turned out a bit bigger than I thought, and the sewing keeps the apertures the right sizes and shapes.  The symbol on the back of the cozy is from the anime Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion.  More details on my blog if you're interested!

This first scarf most people in the doubleknitting KAL have seen.  It was my first doubleknit project, and turned out very nice.  The random pattern in the middle was where I got bored and decided to improvise.


This next one I made for my brother.  The space invaders aren't typical invaders because I patterned it after a hat he owns.  I think he found the hat at a thrift store somewhere.  I basically copied the pattern and colours from there, except for the one bottom bit....I was knitting it away from home and kinda ran out of blue yarn, so I made a little picture of my brother instead 

I've been starting to amass a little pile of FO's, so I thought I'd post a couple of them here.  First is a pair of Knucks from Knitty that I made for myself.  These knucks were special for a couple of reasons.  They were my first time ever knitting in the round, and trying out dpn's.  They were also my first time modifying a pattern.  If you look closely at the picture below and count the fingers, you'll notice that I only have 9 (unfortunate run-in with some farm machinery when I was two years old) so I've never been able to wear gloves before.  I knit the left one of these to fit my hand, and it turned out really well.

I used Bernat Denim Style, and it isn't quite as stretchy as I would have liked, but it's nice and cozy.

The second FO isn't quite as exciting.  I made the basic dna pattern with a seed stitch border, using Lion Brand Wool Ease.  It's a solid scarf, and it will definitely be very warm.  I hope the friend that I made it for likes it....

I visited my LYS for the first time yesterday, and though I nearly fainted from the prices, I wanted to buy something awesome to commemorate the trip, which was very pleasant overall.  So I picked up a skein of Manos del Uruguay, which I love.  It's so beautiful, and I'm happy for it to be my first foray into "nice" yarn.

This is my first time working with wool, and also my first time working with handspun yarn.  I've noticed that there's quite a variation in thickness along the length of the fiber.  Some places it's so thin, I'm afraid that if I tug too hard I'm going to break it.  So my question is twofold.  First, how fragile is this yarn?  If I knit too tightly will I inadvertantly snap it?  And secondly, how do I tell what patterns I can use this for that call for a certain weight of yarn?  Should I just knit up a guage swatch and try to estimate the average?