Experiments

If this hat looks familiar to you, that’s because it’s the third one of these that I’ve knit — though you never saw the second, which I knit just last week and is already in the hands of its intended recipient. I knit the first one in 2009 as a replacement for a beloved non-handknit [...]

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Port Ludlow

While I was waiting for the needles I needed to finish my Leaves of Grass blanket, I worked on these socks over the holidays. Once the needles arrived, the blanket had my undivided knitting attention, so I didn’t finish these up until earlier this week. But I couldn’t be happier with them! They’re Anne Hanson’s [...]

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Mysteries of the East

If you’re asking yourself, “what on earth am I looking at?”, don’t worry: I’m asking myself that, too. A guy I dated in my junior year of college — years before I learned to knit, let alone spin — spent winter break that year at the Gandhi Institute in India, where he studied the philosophy [...]

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Swatches Are Lying Bastards

They may look innocent, but do not believe their lies. I don’t swatch as much as I should. I know this. Most of what I knit is lace, where you don’t really need to swatch unless you’re worried about running out of yarn. I swatch for socks, but knitting a whole 4-inch swatch always seems [...]

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You Spin Me Right Round, Baby

Friends, I have been holding out on you. About two weeks ago, I took a drop-spindle lesson — but I haven’t had time to blog about it until now. I first got this bee in my bonnet about spinning a whole year ago, when a class was announced at The Yarn Lady. As it turned [...]

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Ribs and Lace Reboot

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, before I had a blog, I tried to knit the Ribs and Lace Tank from the Spring 2007 issue of Interweave Knits. This was before I had any substantial experience knitting lace, and was near the beginning of my shift to knitting in front of [...]

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Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus

Now, I am a lover of movies that are so bad that they’re good. But Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus, which really exists, is so bad that it’s just plain bad. It does feature an octopus so huge and badass that it slaps a plane out of the sky with its tentacles by reaching up [...]

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Freeform Week 1

Here is my NatCroMo Freeform Crochet-along piece after 7 days of instructions have been followed. Everybody’s looks quite different since we are all using different yarns, interpreting the directions differently, placing the stitches differently, and using different numbers. I’m actually pretty pleased with how mine’s coming out; I’m trying to make it as aesthetically pleasing [...]

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At the Kitchen Table Doing Shots of Resignation

Friends, this Aeolian will be the death of me. What you see here is the shot glass I am using to hold my beads. I’m sure that people who use beads regularly have fancy little trays for this purpose — in fact, I’d bet you five bucks that you can buy handmade fancy little trays [...]

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Grafting Fail

One of my students recently reminded me of Fail Blog, an internet phenomenon whereby people send in pictures that give evidence of people failing at life in various ways, with the word “FAIL” emblazoned on them to heighten the hilarity and shame. I had my students write responses to the final chapter in the 1976 [...]

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