Astronomy Picture of the Day has this pinhole camera image of the sun over 6 months. Exposures like this are called “solargraphs”, and the instructions for making the camera out of an aluminum can are here.

So very cool.

This is the coolest thing I’ve seen all day. I want a metric ruler to wear on my wrist! It’s the perfect complement to the stainless steel “Brass” rat. Sadly, they are currently out of stock (and they’re also $40) or I’d be giving them as Christmas (or your winter-holiday-of-choice) presents to all my hardware-hacking and sewing friends.

I’ve now tried three times for sour hard candy, and since I’ve twice made the same mistake, I think I know what it is: Despite the citric acid being a crystalline ingredient, I should really be adding it once the sugar has reached ~310F/160C.

The first time I thought I’d just used far, far too much citric acid. (Which I had. The face one of my guests made when she tried it, even after being warned that it was not fit for consumption by those over the age of 14, was enough to cause another guest to get out her camera.)

The second time, though, I used rather less (still too much) and had the same issue—browning of the candy at ~250F. More online research suggests I should add the acid and any flavors after the candy has been removed from the heat. Guess I’ll try that next time.

Edit: I tasted the results this morning. Totally burnt. I’ll try tonight adding the flavor after getting the sugar to hard-crack.

Meanwhile, pictures.

Despondent at the news that not only did Hershey buy Jolly Rancher, but they closed the Wheat Ridge factory and got rid of Lemon Jolly Ranchers, I decided to create my own candy.

I got some Lime Oil from my local confectioner (who happened to have some that needed using soon) and combined a tablespoon of it with four cups of sugar, half a cup of water, and an eighth teaspoon of cream of tartar.

The resulting candy was hard-crack when I took it off the heat—both the thermometer and the cold water test indicated so—but when I poured it into the paper “moulds” (greased baking cups and some paper plates when those ran out) it crystallized a bit. It was hard-crack, though, since the drops on the stove and the table were perfect little clear drops. Next time I will go buy some parchment paper and grease it more, and then drop the candy by small spoonfuls onto the paper, so I get proper lozenges. At least now I know that it’s not sour enough, and I want some citric acid to add. We stuck some small cookie cutters in the soft candy as it cooled—I will probably try that again. I think it also needs either more lime or more citric acid—or both!

This abacus bracelet is awesome. I am terrible at counting rows and stitches when I’m crocheting. Maybe I need to take a trip to the bead store. (Mine, however, will not be orange and red. Yuck.)

(alternately, "I made a thing!")

I’ve recently taken up crochet again, and I made some hats for two children I know—a 20 month old girl and her 9 month old brother. I wanted a picture of them, especially the brown one since I’d never made a beret before, and I’d never followed a crochet pattern before. Since they are both much too small for me, I put them on my Cabbage Patch dolls. This made me happy, so I thought I’d share.