After washing and drying the blanket, I looked closely at the binding and decided it was, alas, too far gone to save. So I took it off. That meant sitting on the deck with a seam ripper for half an hour or so and just snapping all the little stitches holding it on. The underlying fabric is sturdy enough that I'm not worried it's going to unravel, but I might still do something to those edges (more binding? stitching? pinking shears? we'll see...) to make them a bit sturdier/fancier. I know some folks will be scandalized (the satiny binding on [...]

So the current Rotating Collection is all about slippers, and we've got a couple more to add to the club! There's a new pair coming shortly, but first I want to update and bring back one of the retired favorites. And I want you all to help me pick. Should we bring back Quiescent (that's the gray ones with the strap) or Abeyance (that's the green one with the loop)? Both are lovely! But both came out before I'd switched to the current way I do patterns, which means they need some updates before I bring them back (sigh, the [...]

The thrift store gods smiled upon me once again! Or at least I think so, and feeling like good things are happening is a more fun way to go through your days... I found a huge (big enough for a double bed), pink, vintage wool blanket at the thrift shop for a whopping twelve dollars. Now, the binding on it has absolutely seen better days! It's frayed and worn. But it's probably also older than I am, and I'm certainly a bit worn around the edges too, so I have no room to judge. I've sent it through the wash [...]

Remember when I said I was going to be away for a couple days earlier this month? Yeah, I was down in Vermont to see a show by my very favorite band (The Mountain Goats, if you know, you know, if you don't know, you're in for a treat). And while I was down there, I stopped by a place called The Makery, which is a thrift shop for arts and crafts supplies. I was hot and sticky and tired and faintly cranky, and just about to leave, empty handed, gently grumbling about all of the above, when I saw [...]

I posted the other day about the lovely yellow sweater that seems determined to cut off my blood supply at the armpit and my plan to thwart its nefarious intent through the power of knitting and stabbing sewing. This is a much worn and oft washed cotton sweater, so the trickiest bit was actually getting the stitches holding the panels together to come loose (a process you can watch over here if you're so inclined, it's a public post). On some garments, if you nick the thread in the right place, you can actually just pull and it will unravel [...]

August's Notable Nonsense packages are on their way to folks. I always feel faintly bad putting all the pretty packages in trash bags, but the postman has told me that's what makes things easiest for them, so I am prioritizing doing what the folks doing the work say makes things easier over what makes the prettier picture. Speaking of the postal system, I am in the middle of figuring out what the shipping options are for the thing I want to do next. But once I know a little bit more, I'll come back and we'll talk out what we [...]

So I have a sweater, a problem, and a plan. The sweater is this lovely yellow, cotton, store-bought number. The problem is that there's not quite enough room in the armscye, so it ends up being weirdly tight in the armpit (do I feel weird saying this? yes! am I likely to be the only human being in the entire world who has ever felt like the armpit of their top was too tight? I must assume not...). The plan involves knitting a little diamond shaped gusset out of some spectacularly well matched yarn (also cotton, so they should wash [...]

There are a lot of packages to go out this month, so I dragooned some dear friends into an afternoon of envelope stuffing, built a tower of laundry hampers (no really, this whole business runs out of a dozen laundry hampers, it's by far the easiest way to store/sort/lug/corral everything) and everything is just about ready to go in the mail! The plan is to officially close this month's Notable Nonsense signups at the end of the day Tuesday, grab the address list first thing Wednesday morning, spend all day Wednesday printing labels, and hand these over to the postman [...]