The Yarn Spinner
Zoe Ashton-Worsnop crafts old school style by spinning her own yarn. The UK based crafter loves the relaxing and addictive nature of this art. How did she get into this you ask? Zoe explains, “I learnt to crochet about 2 years ago and from there I discovered people like Heidi Kenney from mypapercrane.com and Lexi from Pluckyfluff. I fell in love with their yarns and I wanted to be able to crochet with yarns like theirs but as I was at home with not much money I couldn’t afford to buy any for myself. I met a lovely old lady at a local craft fair who spun and she kindly taught me how to spin on a drop spindle and also gave me two spindles and some roving. ” Zoe has been spinning ever since and her beautiful multi-colored yarn can be found on her site along with pictures of her antique spinning wheel, “Lilian the Louet” (Click on Mango Yarns/Tools). Link.

For any of you Second Life makers who have been itching to create the ultimate virtual home there are a couple of bidding wars over on Ebay. Both
Paul writes “You must have a million comments about the Exploratorium, but this place is the ULTIMATE Makers utopia. These are profesional makers who create exhibits from old, new, rare, common, bizarre, etc. objects and products. There is an entire set of exhibits made from Mac SE computers, old PCs, spectrum analyzers, etc…It’s Science at its “Makiest”.”
“Edible Estates is the brainchild of Fritz Haeg, who has made it his mission to replace the water-guzzling, pesticide-drenched grasslands of American front yards with functional, fruitful plots filled with all things edible. The first lawn revival took place in Salina, Kansas, where a family offered up their conventional front yard for transformation and vowed to maintain the garden as a living, thriving edible installation.” [
Ravi has a good round up on why Ubuntu Linux is a good way to get started with Linux, I usually hand out the live CD version to friends who want to tinker or install on an old computer, he writes “Ubuntu is fast on its way to becoming a peoples OS. I have always wondered what is it that makes people embrace Ubuntu over other Linux distributions. After some pondering, it struck me that the USP (Unique Selling Point) of Ubuntu is its user friendliness. Ubuntu is a distribution targeted at the non-techie crowd – those that want to get their job done and not spend time tinkering with the OS.”
Chris writes in about this very Maker-friendly exhibit “Nostalgia and Technology: Embracing the New through Art and Design explores the way in which traditional forms and artful designs have been used to introduce revolutionary new technologies into the domestic space of the people of their day. The exhibition begins with a re-creation of a 17th-century cabinet of curiosities and subsequently highlights key moments in the development of new technologies, such as electricity, sewing machines, typewriters, point-and-shoot photography, radios, televisions, automobiles, space exploration, atomic energy and wearable technology. The exhibition ends with a 21st-century mirror image of the cabinet of curiosities, where 17th-century objects have been replaced by their modern counterparts.” 