In record time
And now we shall blast through a hat in near record time... Fairly sure this will actually take a smidge of yarn from the second ball, but we'll start with just one (mad tosh's A.S.A.P. in No Farewell, just because someone out there is wondering). Casting on over two needles is absolutely and completely fine, see previous rant on this here or here or here...they're all basically the same. And this brim is lovely, but there is a limit to how much excitement one can wring out of an inch of plain ribbing. But never fear, actual things will start [...]
An awful lot of bother
Ok, let's do the absurd behind the scenes thing. This is the destruction wrought upon my living room in the process of taking those ridiculous photos. That's my barrister bookcase, with the top lifted off and the glass door removed (you can see the door resting on the dining room chair I dragged in to hold something or other at some point in the process). Getting the door off requires emptying out the shelf so you can flip it over and take a screwdriver to it, hence the stacks of books and plants everywhere. Once you've got the door off, [...]
Notions
When I first had the idea for this pattern, I knew that I wanted to have pictures of a tiny tray holding a collection of lovely knitting notions. There was just one problem. I didn't actually have a collection of lovely knitting notions. I have the sort of knitting notions that can be best described as very functional. Which is fine! You might even say they're lovely in their own way. But wow is there something special about fancy tools. So I asked for help! I put the call out on instagram to see if there were any notions makers [...]
Corralled
I am a person with some very well defined weaknesses. I like strong, black tea (with unholy amounts of cream and honey). I like shiny rocks and mossy sticks (yes, I have a pet furry stick that I water and treat as a house plant). I am completely susceptible to sarcastic notepads. And I love anything that promises to wrangle other objects into some semblance of order for me. Cute jars, tiny tins, little trays...they're all irresistible. Which is why it should surprise no one that I've finally given in and knitted a whole bunch of tiny trays. In fact, [...]
I can bring blocking into anything
Here's that little shoulder patch after it's gone through the washer (and dryer...pajama sweaters do not generally get air dried folks). Take a look at the difference between freshly mended and after several washes. I actually like it much more now that the yarn has plumped up and fuzzed out a bit, so I am super happy with this. But it is a beautiful example of...wait for it...why swatching and blocking are so damn important. Bear with me here. Swatching is to let you know how your fabric is going to behave before you go to the trouble of knitting [...]
Chicago screws…or…
You know that thing? That thing where you learn about a new tool or contraption and then you have IDEAS! ALL THE IDEAS! Yeah...well here's a new thing you should know about. They're called chicago screws (they're also apparently sometimes called sex bolts, but I'd feel weird walking into the hardware store and asking for that, so chicago screw or barrel nut works better for me...but I bet you don't forget 'sex bolt' if you need to look this up again later). They're a two part fastener where one part looks like a screw with a flat tip, and [...]
Yarn
I tend to make tiny things with yarn from the scraps bin. One of these days I'm going to give myself permission to just go buy new yarn when I want to make new things (even if they're tiny things). I mean it is a legitimate business expense. But somehow I haven't yet quite managed to talk myself into it. And using yarn out of the scraps bin means that mine are all out of different yarns (though I do at least make a token effort to make them out of yarns that look pretty together). But somewhere out [...]
Options
See, I told you there was more than one way to put these together! There are, in fact lots of ways to fold these up. I'll have the four I've shown here (two in the previous post, two in this one) in the pattern, but I'm totally sure you clever folks will come up with bunches more I never thought of. Everything is on track for the pattern to come out Tuesday (you know, standard 'as long as nothing truly dreadful happens to me or mine over the next few days). Do the mailing list thing if you want [...]
Proof
Ahem...see...I told you it would be cute when it was done. Mostly because little trays just ARE cute. Same rule applies to little tins and tiny bottles actually. Basically, if it's small and you can put things in it to make yourself feel like you may someday be as organized as you think you should be, it's irresistible. At least to me. It's possible you are less easily amused than me and have higher standards. A couple of preemptive answers to questions I suspect might come up... Yes there will be a pattern (there's almost always a pattern...I can [...]
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