Our cabled friends are all set to come back next week! And as always, I'll make some copies available through the Community Supported Pattern fund. The Community Supported Pattern fund is the best way I've found to balance a couple of conflicting truths: - One, things are hard right now and a lot of folks don't have any extra room in their budgets for little luxuries. - Two, sometimes when things are hard, those little luxuries can mean a whole damn lot, more than they have any right to. - Three, selling patterns is how I pay my bills, and [...]

Monsieur Levon and Miss Fizzy have graciously assisted me in The Washing Of The Sweaters.* If you wish to read a lengthy exegesis on the process, including how often I wash my sweaters, what goes in a load, why I regard my washing machine as a glorified sink, and what detergent to never ever ever use on wool (or god forbid listen to me talk about the process while I wave dirty laundry in your face), you can do so! ⁠ Alas, it does not fit in an instagram post. Not by a long shot. (And, because of how the [...]

Ok so can we talk about cables? And how, if you work them over the right kind of ribbing, they do *this*? Because that is pretty nifty. That's two sides of the same hat (I struggle to call them the right side and wrong side because clearly neither of those is wrong). And you don't have to do anything extra or fancy or hard to make the cables do that...just do The Normal Cable Thing (set some stitches aside, work a couple stitches, work the ones you set aside) over the right kind of ribbing. It sort of feels like [...]

Ok we're going to do something weird. We're going to do a load of laundry together. More specifically, we're washing a bunch of wool sweaters.⁠ ⁠ I asked on patreon if folks wanted me to flip the camera on and chat a bit about how I wash my wool sweaters and why I do it that way, and the answer was a resounding yes. So that's what we're going to do.⁠ If you have any questions about washing wool sweaters, leave them either on the matching instagram post or the patreon post (it's public, anyone can see it) and I'll [...]

So, the frayed spot on the edge of that rug? Yeah, I'm going to show you how I fixed it! But first, a bit about what happened and why I'm ok just fixing it myself rather than going to a pro. So, this rug was not originally these colors! It was originally much darker and mostly red and navy. Somewhere along the way a rug dealer shaved the pile and bleached it. Now, wool rugs are sturdy. They can take a lot of abuse. But bleaching weakens the fibers. And weakened fibers + friendly robot vacuum + helpful kittens means [...]

So I suspect a few of you probably recognize this! It's Constellate, which is by far my most popular hat pattern (it's actually my second most popular pattern ever, second only to the stars). And yes, yes its appearance on my needles is a very good sign that it will be coming back in the not too distant future! Because here's the thing...this hat lends itself to a couple of variations. For example, the original was just done in one color (and it looks fantastic like that), but it does something kind of magical when you work it in two [...]

Ok, as promised, here's the front side of the hat. The hat which recall you are not to get too attached to because the yarn went and did something dastardly to me. And yeah, we'll talk about what that was at some point!⁠ But it took it's sweet time revealing its nefarious intentions to me (aka after I did a whole bunch of knitting and took a whole bunch of photos). And, so as not to completely waste all that time and effort, I have decided to bring you along for the whole ride.⁠ In part because I have to [...]

I’m trying to get in the habit of doing a little housekeeping post once a month. The theory is that it will give me a place to run down what’s going away, what’s coming next, and what’s in progress. Plus show off a little non-knitting something or other because we cannot live on yarn alone. This month that's floral syrups. Because the tree in my front yard has exploded and I am duty bound to capture all the joy of the first spring flowers so I can remember it as long as possible. If you want to see how I [...]

Should I be this amused with this thumb? Nope. Am I? Yup. Do I secretly suspect some of you share this character flaw? I mean honestly, at this point I assume you wouldn't be here if you didn't... Someone please tell me that nifty thumbs are to mitts as spiffy crowns are to hats so I feel less alone? Because really, that's the only explanation that makes sense! The mitts (and the hats from the last few days) are Decorum & Comportment and are in all the usual places!