Look, things feel awful.  I get it.  I do.  And I'm doing what I can to fix that.  I voted for Biden and for Sarah Gideon (because I'm lucky enough to live in a state where we will probably flip our senator from republican to democrat, and holy crap that matters so much) and for all the down ballot races too.  I'm staying home to avoid plague.  I've given money to the organizations in my community that are trying to feed hungry folks and to the organizations in my country that are trying to work against the incompetent white supremacist [...]

I didn't forget.  No really, I didn't.  I didn't forget about the houses, I just got distracted by the acorns and haven't shown you much of them.  But the houses have been clicking along just fine. And well, at this point I'm starting to have a small village. The pattern is off with testers, the photo shoot is scheduled for next week, and the pattern should come out later this month.  If you know already that you simply must make these, I want to show you what's inside mine, so you can prepare. You want to get blocks.  Or rather, [...]

If you're my neighbor, you're probably eventually going to come upon me, sprawled out full length on the ground, pointing a whole lot of camera at a very small bit of knitting and carefully nudging a clump of moss or a wisp of leaf into just the right spot.  Which is fine!  Assuming I'm not in someone else's yard or dangerously close to the road, I maintain that this is harmless. But it does give rise to a bit of chatter.  So I try to allow for a reasonable length of time between incidents so as not to stir up [...]

Just about two years ago, I brought out Hoard.  It used real acorn caps on top of knit acorns, which was adorable, and gave a person an excuse to go crawl around under trees and hunt for treasures.  But there is another way to top your acorns.  You can totally do knit caps instead.  So today, I sent out an update to the pattern with instructions for knitted tops! And they're rather endearing if I do say so myself.  Cute on their own, with bonus cuteness points if you make acorn twins! Of course the best option might well be [...]

As far as coping mechanisms go, this seems fairly harmless. I mean it's not quite as productive as the stress cleaning and stress baking I usually do. But I think I got all that out of my system in the first few months of the current crisis. But it seems the crisis is outlasting my messy corners and my need for baked goods, so now we move on to other techniques. And well, these are soft and soothing and satisfying and somehow there's always room for just one more. The pattern is Hoard (rav, payhip). Right this second it has [...]

So, if you knit your own acorn caps (instead of scampering around under the trees hunting for them like a deranged forest sprite) you can make double acorn caps on demand. ⁠⠀ ⁠You know...just in case that's something that might be of interest to some of you. Because some days you need just a tiny bit more cute to get through your day (everyone knows double acorn caps are double cute).⁠ The pattern is Hoard (rav, payhip). Right this second it has the instructions for making these with real acorn caps (which I maintain are unspeakably charming as well). In [...]

You folks are delightful.  Together we raised $2,000 to send off to my local food bank (they are a bit technologically limited so I can't show you a screenshot because I have to actually mail a paper check, and I do not love you enough to show you a photo of my checks)! And now I want to tell you a little bit about what happened when I ran this sale and raised this money.  Mostly what happened is that people said kind things, bought patterns, and shared the promotion so that others would see it and we could raise [...]

Small things are happening (yes, again). I don't have the focus for much right now (it's the rage and despair, they're hell on the attention span).  But my goodness I can do small things. And sometimes small things come out rather nicely! Ok, questions and answers... Yes, that's the Hoard pattern from a few years ago, now with a knit cap option (the original version of the pattern had you using real acorn caps, which is also hideously adorable).⁠ No, it hasn't been added to the Hoard pattern yet. But it will be (standard 'assuming I don't die first' disclaimer [...]

Things feel hopeless. Really wretchedly hopeless. I'm tired and I'm scared and I'm angry. And I feel completely helpless. And when I feel that way, the best thing to do is to find some tiny thing to do to help someone else. Mostly because it's good to help, but also because it makes me feel just a little bit less awful, and wow do I need that right now.⁠ ⁠ So from now through Sunday, Dollop and Peached are both 25% off with the code EVERYONE NEEDS TO EAT. All profits from the sale of these two patterns from now [...]