Less than Picturesque
Have you seen those blogs that make their authors' lives look hideously perfect? The sort where every dinner is nutritionally balanced, gluten free, organic, free range, ethically sourced, and served on a beautifully decorated table in their breathtakingly landscaped back yard? Or the sort where the whole adorable family goes on fabulous ski vacations, wearing matching hand knit sweaters, and the only thing brighter than the snow is their perfectly straight teeth? Or maybe the kind where someone says 'I woke up one morning, wrote an ebook on a whim, and by dinner time I was running out of places [...]
Stacked
You know what this means don't you? (Well yes, yes it does mean my entire front yard is covered in a foot of snow and is a featureless, frigid whiteout of despair...but that's not exactly what I had in mind...look at the yarn instead of the background.) It means it's almost photo shoot time. The next photo shoot is in early April, and these are all the yarns I've used in it. Running top to bottom we've got Bare Naked Wools, Vice, Quince, SweetGeorgia, Frog Tree, Phydeaux, Elemental Effects, Alchemy, Blue Moon Fiber Arts, Manos, Uncommon Thread, Lorna's Laces, Anzula, [...]
Tools, the travel edition
As I was packing my knitting bag for our recent trip, I realized that a rather substantial proportion of the stuff I tote about with me for travel knitting aren't things you're likely to find in your local yarn shop. Sometimes you can get a version of them in a yarn store, but the yarn store version isn't quite as good. And some of it is just stuff you won't find there. So since I've finally gotten my knitting bag to the point where it's pretty much perfect for me, I thought I'd share what's in there! You can see [...]
Cataphyll (plus giveaway)
Way back in 2013, I had a lovely little pattern in Interweave's Sockupied magazine (it showed up in the Sockupied book too and even made the cover...I was unreasonably pleased). Ever since then, I've had folks asking when they'll be able to get this one as a stand alone pattern. I'm delighted to say that you can get it right now! Cataphyll is now available on ravelry. I sort of adore these. Most of the leg is nice, easy ribbing (which means they'll fit beautifully), but there's also a column of lovely leaves down the outside of your ankle to [...]
Cerise, Second Curls KAL
We're doing knitalongs for the patterns in Curls, and it's time for the second pattern in the book, Cerise. Now, I’m also a big fan of relaxed knitalongs. I am not a fan of stress or hard deadlines, so we’re going to make this easy. All the details for this one are over the KAL thread in my ravelry group. But the gist is knit this pattern over the next two months, show it off and talk about it in that thread, and some time after the KAL ends I’ll send someone who posted a picture of a finished project [...]
Helper Kittens
I believe I've mentioned the importance of bins to my organizational scheme. They really are quite central to the overall structure of my world. Each book gets two bins, one for the yarn and swatches, and one for the finished pieces. Watching the bins fill and empty is how I mark the progress of the books. And yet, at the moment, I find myself with two empty bins (because Curls just finished up, and the next book is all ready for its photo shoot and so put tidily away, Curls 2 is in progress, and the yarn for the book [...]
Grand Plans
You know what happens when you have a business? You order a lot of weird stuff on the internet. A lot. Like, say, 500 buttons. Because you simply need 500 of that button. For perfectly reasonable and valid reasons. And because they're pretty. Psst, that's a few dozen...500 is way bigger (and looks less pretty in a pile). This project is going to be fun...
Last Call
One tiny administrative announcement. The paper copies of Ne'er-Do-Well Knits are just about sold out. A tiny handful remain, and I expect them to all be spoken for in the next few days. Whenever I run out of a paper book, I always hear from folks who are sad they don't have a physical copy. If that's you, this is your official last call on this one. Grab it now if you want it! When they're gone, they're gone (though it will still be available in electronic format).
Pattern Writing for Knit Designers (review and giveaway)
There seem to be a handful of jobs everyone secretly thinks they can do. Run a bed and breakfast is one, open an adorable little bookshop is another. For knitters, their daydreams are often a bit more yarn focused. Many of them seem to flirt with the idea of either having their very own yarn store or designing knitting patterns. Three out of the four of those sound amazingly hard. They require you to have some sort of physical building people can visit, and they likely require the help of lawyers and accountants and insurance professionals and quite possibly a [...]
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