TL;DR up top for anyone in a hurry: The preorder for the knitting multitools is open! You can find it right here. More info for folks who want all the details: I made these for the mail club this summer, everyone loved them and wanted more, so now I've made that happen. They pack a whole bunch of tools into a teeny tiny space, and I've never seen anything quite like them, so let me tell you all about them! They're sturdy metal cards, just a hair bigger than a credit card (about the size of a playing card, they [...]

TL;DR right up top for folks in a hurry: The metal tool cards are coming back! I've been getting constant requests for these since the summer, and I've finally found a place that can make what I want! In a day or two, I'll open a preorder. We're doing a preorder because production takes several weeks, and I want to be sure I get enough for everyone. I'll have a pack of two for $50 or a pack of five for $100. If you preorder in the first week, you'll get free bonus gauge cards (one with the two pack, [...]

Riiiight, so earlier this summer I played with indigo, dyed some napkins, dyed a bench, had a good time, made a big mess, and just sort of left everything set up in the garden and would give things another dip every time I wandered out there. And then events, as they so often do, occurred. And I got distracted. And so this was no longer the uppermost thing in my mind. And I completely and totally forgot it the bench, the napkins, and the dye existed. For a solid six weeks. While they sat out in the sun and the [...]

Ahem...please consider this a demonstration of why you need to swatch to figure out your needle size. A friend and I knit these swatches on the Exact Same Needles from different colors of the Exact Same Yarn, and look at the difference in the gauge. The yarn label says "Needle Size 3mm (US 2-3), 28sts to 36 rows = 10cm square" (that's 7 stitches and 9 rows per inch for those of us who think in inches). We both used the exact same US size 2/3mm needles (not just the same size, the actual same needles from the same set [...]

Were I to knit a sweater (which I certainly won't be doing until I learn how to use a knitting machines, an undertaking that is in and of itself far from certain), which set of colors would be the most fun? If (again, I emphasize the if of it all, no promises anywhere in sight) I were to do such a thing, I'd want a cropped, fitted sweatshirt in a pretty color with tiny bits of contrast at the edges. Think something like the insides of the cuffs, hem, and collar in the contrast, maybe something amusing where the bits [...]

Ok so the overwhelming consensus was that I absolutely must return to the thrift shop immediately and obtain every last bit of that yarn. So, um, I did. Here's the whole pile. And I'll confess, I feel sliiiiiiightly overwhelmed by this. If the scale and the yarn company's website are to be believed, this is something north of 20 MILES of yarn. This is a fairly staggering thought and not one I'm going to dwell on right now. Instead I think I'll go watch some youtube videos on how to use a knitting machine. Because winter is coming, and I [...]

Ahem (clears throat theatrically) *~*~*This Is Why We Wash Our Swatches*~*~* I knew this was going to change dramatically after I washed it, but this is even more of a change than I was expecting. This was enough of a change that I knit (and then didn't block) a second, identical swatch, just so I could show you the difference. The unwashed fabric is curly (as one would expect from stockinette) and a little crunchy (rough enough that I wouldn't want to wear it next to my skin, and I have a pretty high rustic wool tolerance). The stitches are [...]