So, when I said my brain likes exploring variations on a theme, I really did mean it.⁠ Remember I showed you the hat? And then I mentioned I'd been working on a little sampler with variations of the stitch I used on the hat? Yeah, that's the first picture.⁠ Because you know, at least mildly photogenic.⁠ But the great whacking pile of stuff in the second picture? That's the current state of the thing I'm putting together to explain the variations shown in the sampler. Less photogenic, but wow is it rather nifty.⁠ Never let it be said I'm not [...]

There are abortion pills in my medicine cabinet right now. Because if I get pregnant, I want an abortion. And I live in America, so I can't be confident I'll be able to go to a doctor and get one. If you or someone in your household can get pregnant, I think you should probably have abortion pills in your medicine cabinet, too. Medical abortion is safe and effective. You can order abortion pills online from Aid Access right now, even if you're not pregnant, even if you live in a state with abortion restrictions. If cost is an issue, [...]

Do I feel slightly bad saying this over and over again? I mean yes, but let's be real, I'm capable of feeling slightly bad about more or less anything. Because there's nothing like the internet to expose you to a wide enough swath of people that someone will be mad at you for literally anything you do or do not do. But I'd rather feel slightly bad about mentioning something than feel slightly bad when someone comes along and says they missed it. ⁠ So, for what will be the penultimate time (because yup, yup I am going to do [...]

This is all set to come out next week, and I want to talk through it a bit in case you want to have your yarn ready and waiting!⁠ All the drama in this hat comes from the embroidery, the hat itself is very mellow.⁠ When you’re embroidering on your knits, you want a smooth fabric that lets you easily see your stitches. I find that blown yarns (mesh tubes with bits of fluff blown into it) give a smooth, even fabric with great stitch definition, as do many single-ply yarns. Don't fret, you can absolutely use plied yarns if [...]

See those diagonal lines there? Yeah, they're made by slipping a stitch on one row, then working that stitch through the back loop on the next row. Which gives you a column of twisted and elongated stitches which are rather fetching (plus, you know, doing some stuff to make them go meandering off to the side). They're also where I'm going to embroider on this. The plan is to use that lovely blue at the bottom there to duplicate stitch over them. Should be rather fetching if it comes out how I expect! ⁠ But first, alas, I have to [...]

Psssst, this is your occasional reminder that the star book is coming down at the end of the month!⁠ Right now, anyone in the Utter Nonsense or Rampant Nonsense tiers on patreon can download the book. On February 1, it comes down and there won't be anywhere to get it for the foreseeable future.⁠ I may eventually put it up for sale somewhere else, but my best guess is that won't be until September (because that's when the days start getting shorter here and I have to make the most of whatever light I can get). And if I do [...]

So, we've been talking about embroidering on things to mend them, and we've been talking about patterns where the plan from the beginning is to embroider on them. But there's something else you can do. ⁠ You can totally decide to embroider on a pattern that didn't originally call for it. That's what I'm going to do here.⁠ This pattern (one of my discontinued ones) didn't originally call for embroidery, but it lends itself to it rather nicely. And since I know I'm going to stitch on it later, I cast on with the color I'm going to use for [...]

For reasons I cannot adequately explain, much less justify, one of my very favorite things about the envelopes is embroidering the tiny little heart on as a stamp at the end. I fully acknowledge that this may very well amuse only me, that the rest of you may be regarding me with something between pity and a certain bemused perplexity. But my official policy these days is to just do the stuff that makes me happy as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else (as evidenced by my having added some of those very same embroidered hearts to the knitted [...]

So the hat? The embroidered hat? Yeah, it has a lot of ends. Because, well, every piece of yarn you embroider with has two ends, and that's just how yarn works, and I'm not actually cool enough to change the fabric of reality. However. I can give you something else to do with at least half of those ends. I ran mine out the top and braided them then tied them in a knot. The braid's much lighter than a pompom, so it doesn't feel heavy or flop around when you move your head like pompoms sometimes can. Plus it's [...]