Ahem. You can absolutely work the fancy bit with a contrast color. Just in case that's something you might ever find yourself wanting to do. This is a swatch for the new version of Constellate that should be out late this summer. You'll be seeing more of it as we get a bit closer, but for now, I'll just say that if you happen to get your hands on some long slow color change yarn (this is one of Seven Sisters Arts' color wheels) between now and then, you'll be able to do some magic tricks with it!

May's housekeeping post is up! Wander over that way to see what's coming next and for the best non-chocolate cookies I know how to make (some sort of gingersnap hybrid but with more ginger and less snap because I'm sorry but crispy cookies are an abomination).

Ahem. Yes please. I told you it would work out! That's the yarn from the last post swatched up to make a new version of Constellate. And oh, oh this is going to work out well. Very well indeed.

What? Me? A problem? Too much yarn? I have absolutely no idea what you might mean...⁠ This is the absolutely gorgeous yarn (Seven Sisters Arts' color wheels, which I am helpless to resist) I got to replace the yarn that went and played tricks on me a little while ago. I got two sets of two (that's why one of the balls you see there is slightly lighter than the other, one set of two is darker, one set of two is lighter), and I have A Plan. ⁠ I've used this yarn before and I adore it and I [...]

Here we go, here's a look at what that line and what it does on the crown! Like I said, I actually sort of love it all on its own (in addition to finding it useful given all the embroidery that happens on this one). I think it does a really lovely job of sort of marking out the shape of the decreases at the top. If I ever get around to doing a collection of different crown decreases, I could see using a technique like this to mark out one set of the decreases, just to make the structure [...]

You know those comments that, in the past, would have wrecked your mood for days? But now you just shrug and go 'eh, some people are like that?'⁠ ⁠ Because that's what happens when I get comments about my prices these days. And I kind of love it. It feels like growth!⁠ But it didn't happen overnight, and I know lots of designers still feel bad when they get these. Seeing other makers talk about their experiences with comments like this has helped me tremendously over the years, so I try to talk about it when I get them.⁠ ⁠ [...]

There is no need to be alarmed. The tentacles pose no threat. Reports of tool use and escape attempts remain unsubstantiated. Please remain calm. The situation is under control.

Remember how I said you run a little line of the color you use on the brim all the way up the side of your hat? Yeah, there are a couple reasons for that!⁠ First, it just looks cool (I'll show you the tiny starburst it makes on the top here shortly, or if you look back at yesterday's post you can catch a glimpse of it). But it also does something practical!⁠ You see, when you're knitting in the round, you’re actually working in a very shallow spiral (that’s why you get a weird little jog at the beginning [...]

Expound is out on both ravelry and payhip! It's a perfect way to turn little bits of leftover yarn into something absolutely magical, and it's 15% off with the code STITCHED for the first few days it's out. Look, no one is more surprised than me. But it turns out, the way to get me to enjoy relatively simple knitting (this is almost all stockinette worked in the round, and you can't get much simpler than that) is to let me embroider all over it the very moment I'm finished knitting. Somehow this takes something I used to regard as [...]