I am, in the finest holiday tradition, about to hibernate for the next two weeks or so. You may imagine me slightly dazed, speckled with inexplicable glitter, cookie sprinkles stuck to my hair, pillow creases on my face, blinking at the sparkly lights, completely devoid of vegetables, completely unsure of what day of the week it is, and headed off to find the nearest kitten and mug of hot chocolate. Or, if I've napped and snacked as much as my middle aged self can manage, I'll be off to continue the holiday tradition of folding these to bring the light [...]

Look, in my defense, I was left unsupervised with a pile of buttons, an icord machine, and an as-of-yet-not-fully-decked Christmas tree. Shenanigans were bound to ensue. Because you can put anything on your tree if you do it with sufficient conviction. Y'all are an astonishingly clever bunch. Having seen this, you can, without a doubt, recreate it yourself. And I think you should! Because I have it on good authority (see, the comment section over the last few months) that many of you have a button jar (or bag, or drawer, or jug) kicking around somewhere in the depths of [...]

If you combine the inexplicable urge to fill my whole tree with stuff I've made this year, the box of buttons I found on the side of the road this fall, and an icord machine you get...a button garland. I'm tickled. Absolutely tickled. Should you wish to do such a thing yourself, there's a little walk through over here.

Hearts (they're called Palpitation) are done, so it's time to stuff them. Stuffing (or roving), rice, and plastic pellets are the three materials I've used most often to fill projects like this. And my absolute favorite is the plastic pellets.* They're heavier than polyester or wool stuffing, and they don't run the risk of going moldy or attracting bugs like rice might. Now, someone, somewhere, is currently warming up their fingers to explain, at length, why plastic is evil and they don't want to use it. To which I say cool, then please don't use it! I absolutely promise not [...]

Operation Treequest continues! These are Palpitation (in Ontheround's gorgeous yarn and hanging out in a beautiful bowl from Scout + Bean, because damn if I don’t know the coolest people who make the neatest stuff), and they’re heading out later this morning to Rampant Nonsense folks & folks who got this yarn from me earlier this year. I’m filling these with plastic pellets because I like the heft of them, but I’ll talk a bit about different ways to stuff your knit and what I like about various options over the next couple of days (and I've got a section [...]

We've been talking about blocking, and it's one of those topics that lends itself to before and after pics. So I want to show you two sets. The first pair you saw last time, and it shows the bits from Shiversome. Start with before: Then after: I'm going to assume you can all see the differences and don't need me to belabor the point too much. I want to show you what they looked like on the snowmen before and after blocking as well, but I preface this by saying it absolutely is a bit more subtle. But take a [...]

Remember how I said I was going to talk about blocking these? Yeah, well if you want to watch a couple of videos of me talking you through that, you can do that over here (the videos are public, anyone should be able to see them). The gist in blocking anything (snowmen hats, people hats, or most anything else you can think of) is 'get it absolutely thoroughly soaked, wiggle it into shape, let it dry.' Everything beyond that is nuance. But blocking takes our friends' hats from this: Which is lovely but a bit rumpled...To this: Which is ever [...]

Psst, last call for the retired patterns, I'm taking them down tomorrow (Friday) morning! I sort of love going back through the retired patterns and remembering when I knit them and where I took the photos and what my life looked like when they were the shiny new thing. I can't quite manage the thought of updating and rereleasing them all (no seriously, it makes me want to take to my bed and sleep for a month, I really can't), but oh it's fun to visit with them from time to time! Clearly I'm a sucker for a good hat [...]