I have previously described my The Interior of My Brain Ravelry group as my brain trust. No matter what the question is, someone has an answer or a creative solution. We also inspire each other with projects that spark questions in other members’ minds that we want to work out in our own way while … More Johanna’s Jacket: The Knitalong
I have mentioned my sister Nancy in my blog posts. She’s the jewelry genius sister whose work has enhanced my own work in some of the photos I have used to illustrate my garments. She has been making jewelry for years, and since she can’t figure out how to price her work in order to … More Nancy Levine, Jewelry Genius
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
Every January for the last four years, I have dedicated the month to making swatches for projects or learning new techniques. Other years, I have been able to spend all my knitting time just swatching, and I have ended up with a good pile of little bits of fabric come February. This year, not quite … More January 2020 Swatchathon
When I first saw Katarina Brieditis’ knitted face pattern, the earworm was automatic and instantaneous. Without even thinking about it, The Doors’ song “People Are Strange” started playing in my brain and has stayed there for the last seven months: People are strange when you’re a stranger Faces look ugly when you’re alone Women seem … More Faces Come Out of the Rain
When I first started knitting faces using Katarina Breiditis’ face pattern, my plan was to knit a few faces as practice for a more complicated conceptual piece, in order to learn the structure of the features and use the structure as a jumping-off-point for my own adaptations. Then I would join the practice pieces together … More DNA
Yarn talks to me. Its colors tell me stories about time, place, and memory, and sometimes it tells me about the Big Issues in Life. It doesn’t happen because the colors are pretty. It happens because the colors have a message. In fact it’s more likely to happen when the colors are strange, even unappealing … More Love and Death
The last time I machine-knitted a scarf, then dyed and felted it, what I learned from the experience was what I wanted to do differently the next time using different dyeing methods and better-honed techniques using the knitting machine and its tools. As a permanent beginner in my machine-knitting skills, that earlier scarf taught me … More I Love the Fiber Goddess and the Fiber Goddess Loves Me
I liked my original idea. I still do. It was going to be a machine-knit version of a felted, dropped-stitch scarf pattern called “Les Miserables,” which has a deconstructed look that attracts me, but not enough to suffer through hand-knitting all that stockinette. After machine-knitting it and gently felting it, I was going to fold … More The Fiber Goddess Said, Forget Your Idea, This Is Better
Over the past nine months I have been experimenting with the basics of plant dyeing using scavenged materials. The thrill of uncovering beautiful colors hidden inside ordinary plants that I never noticed before, or food waste that I would have thrown away without a thought, could almost have distracted me from the fact that I … More What Happens After You Dye?
