So I've somehow managed to refrain from talking about it too much here, but, um, I'm fond of board games. If you know me long enough in person, there will come a moment where I try and casually inquire if you, too, happen to be fond of board games. Usually people say some version of 'um, ew no, why on earth do you ask' and I have to explain about how if you haven't played them since you were a preteen, you've been missing out. Occasionally people say yes, and then I have to do that delicate dance where I [...]

As promised, a few crimes for your consideration.  These are Entrapment (the purple one), Collusion (the blue one) and Misprision (the pink one). You can use the code CRIMINAL to take 10% off any of the patterns, or buy all three together and get one free. I have a traitorous brain.  It combines a short attention span and some serious distractability with a tendency to ask 'right, so, what if we did this just slightly differently next time?' Put those three together, and I tend to find myself tearing off down rabbit holes, only to emerge, days or weeks later, [...]

Ahem. Yarn. ⁠ Now look, some yarns are easy with their charms, they show you just how delightful they are in any form...skein, cake, swatch, full sized knitting. They let you know just how marvelous they are the very first moment your eye falls upon them. ⁠ But some yarns are a bit more modest. They want you to get to know them a bit before their full glory is revealed.⁠ And had I just seen this yarn in the skein, I would have thought 'ooooh, lovely colors, very cheerful, but maybe just a bit too chaotic for me personally [...]

Did you miss them? Because I know I was missing them...⁠ ⁠These are the next round of patterns to come back out (as part of the massive pattern reformat/update project that was supposed to take up most of 2020, but then 2020 turned out to be rather more eventful than anyone anticipated, so it's been extended into 2021).⁠ They all follow the same formula, start with a mellow background yarn, then pick a nifty contrast yarn and do Fancy Stuff With Slipped Stitches. They're my favorite sort of colorwork (the kind where you only use one yarn per row), and they [...]

You know the thing? The thing where you're excited about a project, but it's a weird project and you're sort of scared that if you try and explain it to someone else, they'll smile and nod and back slowly away from you like you are a large, rumbly dog with questionable social skills?⁠ Yeah. That thing happens to me. A lot. And usually I just keep my mouth shut and do the weird project by myself and don't tell anyone about it until it's far enough along that others will be able to see its charms. Because that's safest for [...]

Finished? Yes. Subtle? No. ⁠ Then again subtle wasn't really the goal. Avoiding being mistake for a deer and shot by someone making bad choices with guns was the goal. And with any luck at all, the 'not subtle' aspects should help with the 'not shot' goals.⁠ At the very least, if it's on my head, I won't actually see it.⁠ (Once again, in case anyone is worried, I love the yarn, I have no complaints about it at all, and will happily work with it again. I am NOT being mean to the yarn company. It's just that this [...]

When this is done, I'm going to have about two thirds of the orange skein left. Which means that when this is done, I get to use that orange as my brain wants to use it, which is as a truly glorious accent on something that is gray. Because it truly is a glorious color...in smaller amounts.⁠ Oooooooh, actually remember the Interlock pattern from last year? The one where the cables have Secret Bonus Color? Like you finally gave in to your baser instincts and took a marker to your knitting? Yeah...this could be perfect for something like that. Here, [...]

Did you think I forgot The Orange Hat Of Not Getting Shot? Because I totally didn't. It's just...slightly slow going. Because sweet woolly lord but it's bright. And somehow I can only work on it for a little while before I find my eyes wanting to rest on something more mellow...like the burning surface of the sun.⁠ Just for the record, this is 100% NOT a complaint about the yarn. I selected it with the hope that it would, indeed, be eye-searingly bright. And it has done that job admirably! Should you be in search of similar levels of retinal [...]

So, I heard a whole bunch of your little villages are, in fact, seaside villages. And what does every seaside village need? Why a lighthouse of course.  Foghorn has that covered. Because I mean really, without a lighthouse, how do you have a broody lighthouse keeper with a mysterious but poignant backstory move to your town?  And if they never move to town, how will they run into the owner of the local coffee shop/used book store and begin a heartwarming romance? Or, if we're in a different sort of movie, how will they ever put to rest the terrifying [...]