The hat is out on both ravelry and payhip! It's called Penchant, and I have used it to shamelessly indulge my baser tendencies. First things first, if you were on the mailing list or patreon as of Tuesday morning, go check your inbox.* Now, that those official bits are out of the way, can I just say how much fun I had with these? They started with a mellow little rib at the bottom. Then I started playing with moving increases and decreases around to make the rib wander about over the surface of the hat. But the thing is, [...]

Gentle reminder, this is going out tomorrow morning (that will be the morning of Tuesday March 7, 2023, and I'm in eastern time). If you're on the mailing list, you'll get it then!⁠ Couple of ground rules/common questions ahead of time, just because every time I do something like this I get questions, and it's easier to do them all at once:⁠ If you want to sign up for the mailing list, you can do that here.⁠ If you're not on the mailing list when I send the message, you won't get the email with the hat (and I can't [...]

Wanna see what inspired the weekend's festivities? When I walked into my office Saturday morning, in the middle of a snowstorm, my photo rock looked like this. That's our friends the owl, snowmen, & fox hanging out there with their new buddy the penguin, all hanging out in a pile. And the reason the photo rock looked like that is because I was working on some teeny tiny mittens last week, and I had the fellows out to make sure they were the right scale. So when I walked in and saw that, then saw the snow outside, my first [...]

So we're having the first (and very possibly only) big snow storm of the winter. So I took a few of my favorite little friends out for a snow day and we're having a sale! The following patterns are 50% off from now until when I decide the snow day is over (which is probably some time Monday evening or Tuesday morning, depends on how long this takes to clear up). Use the code BRISK on either payhip or ravelry for 50% off the following patterns: Shiversome (snowmen): ravelry, payhip Needled (pine trees): ravelry, payhip Tufted (owl): ravelry, payhip Foxed [...]

Here's the plan, plus some bonus uncomfortable honesty, just for fun! Some time next week, I'll send an updated version of the Penchant pattern to folks on the mailing list. That's the pattern these hats are from. The pattern covers both hats but not the embroidery. Then, a week or two later, I'll send a special little supplement where I walk through how I used duplicate stitch to adorn them (and how you could do that to other knits) to folks on patreon. Here's the uncomfortable honesty bit. I'm doing this because I want folks to sign up for the [...]

I mean I did tell you this was going to be nifty. ⁠ The hats and I are heading back to the beach for photos, round two, now with embroidery. And then at some point in the not too distant future (by which I mean probably next week, but I am for sure committing to anything, because of the aforementioned panic at the thought of saying one thing and then life intervening in such a way that said thing is no longer actually achievable), the pattern should be ready.⁠ I'll lay out the plan for the pattern shortly. I'm doing [...]

Yeah, no, I meant it about that sort of greeny/gold mystery color that I can never truly name but that sings to me just the same. Especially when it absolutely glows like this. I mean how can you not love that. That's Little Skein Anne's yarn in the knitting, and her silk embroidery floss (three words that warm my cold, dead heart) too, plus some random fuzzy bits I just sort of happened to have on the top of the scraps bin that was too perfect to pass up. Oh...oh this is coming together nicely! The plan for these is [...]

Remember how I said there was enough going on with this hat to have a little something to share with everyone? Yeah, I totally meant it!⁠ One of my favorite bits about the hat turned out to be that adorable little braid at the top. I mostly love it because it's so darn cute. But I've managed to convince myself it's practical too. Because really, you don't want to weave in all those ends. It's much more fun to make a little braid. Plus braids are much less wobbly to have on your head than a pompom would be. I'm [...]

Remember how, ever since Roe v Wade was overturned, I've been saying that abortion pills are safe and effective and you can order them online in all 50 states? Well, there's a case in front of a Texas judge right now that wants to change that. The lawsuit is trying to get the FDA approval of mifepristone (one of the abortion pills) revoked. It appears to be a laughably bad case from a legal standpoint, but it's being heard by a far-right judge who is an outspoken abortion opponent, so there's every chance it will succeed. It's not clear exactly [...]