Take Two
The green mitt from the other day was destined for a rip. It was just a wee bit too baggy, and I wanted the lace a the cuff to be a bit deeper. I went down a needle size, which snugged the mitt up just enough. I also added one more lace row to the cuff, which worked much better with the cowl. I'm pleased to report that I didn't repeat the blocking mistakes I made on the cowl. I knew that the secret to maintaining the all important curled edge was to put the pins a few rows in, [...]
What Would Madame Defarge Preorder
If you've been reading for a while, you know I was lucky enough to contribute a pattern to Heather Ordover's upcoming book, What Would Madame Defarge Knit: Creations Inspired by Classic Characters. Heather is the mastermind behind the Craft Lit podcast, and this book is a perfect next step on her path to being appointed benevolent dictator for life. Heather's pulled together a lovely group of designers (I'm still not sure why she let me in...shhhh, don't tell her I'm making this up as I go along!), and has created an absolutely fabulous book. Today, in celebration of Charles Dickens' [...]
Not My Strong Suit
So the plan had been to put this pattern up on Monday. But it's ready now, and I don't really do patience if I can help it. Also, there might just possibly be something else going on on Monday that I'll want to squee about. So I'm putting it out now. Handy thing, making your own schedule. These are, of course, the magical, sanity-saving, purple hats. One is for me, and one has made its way into the post to head off to my mom. The first of these was cast on within hours of getting my hands on the [...]
Book Giveaway
Hey, know anybody who might want a sock knitting book and some yarn? The lovely Laura Nelkin from Schaefer Yarn is having a wee giveaway of the book and a skein of Nichole in the color Chamomile. My love of Nichole is well documented. If you've not had a chance to use it yet, this might be the perfect excuse!
A Shift of Perspective
Generally, I'm anti-ad. Almost always. That's why it took me nearly 2 years to set up a mailing list and why I've sent only a tiny handful of messages to it. I figure if you want to find me, you'll come here. I shouldn't intrude. But the other day...I got what is now my very favorite ad ever. Ya know what makes an ad better? If it has yarn in it. Ya know what makes an ad even better than that? If it has your very own book in it. Which is exactly what I saw when I opened the [...]
The Limits of my Love
I love y'all, really I do. I confess my frequent knitting failures to you, I reveal the alarmingly bowl-like shape of my head to you, and I spend inordinate amounts of time taking pictures on my porch (baffling my neighbors in the process) so that you can know what I'm knitting. But today, I found my limit. Right now the thermometer on the side of my house says 24 F (that's -4 C for the rest of the world). That's not actually all that cold. It's not balmy, but it's manageable. But it is also windy. That, too, I might [...]
Coruscate
The pattern for the Coruscate hat and mitt set is (finally) out. This was my first slouchy hat, and you watched it grow and watched me figure out how to block it to achieve proper levels of pouf (it turns out that the secret to blocking success was a giant but short bowl). I finished these way back at the end of November, and have been using them ever since. But it was only yesterday that I had my lovely friend Lauren over to model them for me. They look much more stylish on her (on me, they look warm [...]
That’s Better
I have embraced the idea that blocking is not stretching. It is smoothing. Adjusting. Nudging into place. It does not need to be a hugely violent process. Once I got that notion through my head, the reblocking of the cowl went much better. See? Wee curly lettuce edges, just as I wanted. Order is restored to the universe.
Nemesis
So I'm just really bad at blocking. The grafting was fine...fiddly, slow, demanding of a certain amount of focus...but more or less fine. (Full confession, there's one stitch where I was weaving in my ends and was off by 1/2 a stitch, but it's really hard to find and will never show when it's worn.) The blocking, however, was my undoing. The whole point of this exercise was to preserve the frilly, curly, curvy, round edge that appeared as I knit this. In blocking, I somehow turned all those lovely curves into jagged points. Now it's still cute, but it's [...]
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