U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance now regrets famously sneering at “childless cat ladies.” Too late. Besides making an ass of himself, he also made himself the face of an authoritarian hierarchy that fears cats because cats don’t respect authority, and he feminizes a fondness for cats because patriarchal authoritarians fear women. There’s plenty to say … More No Kings Yes Cats: Soft Protest #3
Part Two of my “soft protest” knitting took much longer to make than Part One, even though Part Two was a machine knitted garment, and isn’t machine knitting supposed to be quicker than hand knitting? My second garment protesting the new authoritarian takeover of American democracy is less explicit than decorating a sweater with words … More Soft Protest Part Two
The political fiber artist Lisa Anne Auerbach posted a work-in-progress on Ravelry a couple of months ago, with an invitation to other knitters to join her in their own interpretation of her idea. Her idea was based on a link to an article in the New York Times that listed words that the Trump regime … More Soft Protest Part One
My jaw dropped when I first encountered Steampunk, a Finnish-language pattern by Hanne Piirainen for leggings with elaborate stranded patterning of flower-like gears interconnecting over the entire fabric of the garment, with two strategically placed focal points: on the crotch and on the butt. I posted the project to my Ravelry group “The Interior of … More If Not Now, When?
I’ve been flirting for some time with the idea of Hønsestrikk, a style of knitting developed by the Danish knitter Kirsten Hofstätter in the 1970’s as a protest against the yarn companies’ linking of garment patterns with yarn purchases. Hofstätter promoted and popularized personalizing basic sweater shapes with stranded motifs that were meaningful to the … More When Will This Sweater Be a Crime?
I was very productive during this year’s Swatchathon, thanks to the nervous energy I needed in order to live through the events of January 2021. The topic of this blog is fiber arts, so I don’t get into politics that much, but I am a very political person and I don’t avoid the mention of … More January 2021 Swatchathon
The fall season tends to be the busy season for many knitters, and it is for me too, because our family birthdays have clustered in November and December and because my sisters and I get together for Thanksgiving. That’s when I want to give knitted things to my sisters because I can get photos, and … More Love in the Time of Covid
In March 2020, Covid-19 came to town and it really hasn’t left. We thought it would, back in March, if we stayed inside and knitted, and it would have left if we hadn’t had a president like Homer Simpson who got bored with waiting for the curve to flatten after about five seconds and said … More It’s The End Of The World As We Know It. I Bought Yarn
A couple of weeks ago, my husband and I were invited to a meet-and-greet for a Baltimore City Council candidate, hosted at the home of a woman I didn’t know named Phyllis Brent. Miriam, the friend who invited us, told us that walking into Phyllis’ house for the first time would be a very special … More Came For the Politics, Came Back for the Art: Phyllis Brent, Mosaic Artist
I’m kind of timid, or possibly lazy, or both, when it comes to expanding my machine-knitting skills. That’s probably because machine-knitting is only one of my interests, not an exclusive obsession. I can’t seem to make time to sit down and watch a video, then practice the skill until I master it. (But the January … More From Witch to Jester
The Interior of My Brain: A Knitting and Fiber Arts Blog 