My younger daughter got married at the end of June to a fellow who has many pursuits, among them a detailed interest in meteorology. The two of them have jobs whose work doesn’t end when they leave the office, and they stay up late and wake up early to complete it. They are sleepy people … More Madison Wisconsin USA January-December 2023
It seemed in September 2022 like something I could knit on the machine with plenty of time to spare before my younger daughter’s birthday in late November. It was a blanket design by Nicky Epstein that I saw once in my friends’ activity on Ravelry, made up of garter stitch squares in different colors, sewn … More A Year and a Quarter Later
I have been using modular machine knitting techniques for some time as a way to create design elements while extending the width limitations imposed by a 200-needle knitting machine bed. Until now I have avoided concocting designs that had half of the neckline knitted vertically and the other half knitted horizontally because that requires one … More Goldilocks and the Three Shirts
When I got married decades ago, I was very tempted to get married the way my parents did when they were 22 and had no money, in a rabbi’s office with next to no guests, no catering, no band, nothing but the legal essentials. But I thought that I might be sorry later on if … More Not-So-Scary New Toy
Monogamy has a specific meaning in knitter jargon: it means working on one project at a time until the project is finished. Before I retired, I was a monogamous knitter, and it was satisfying to me to focus all my thought and knitting time on the project and seeing it steadily grow. Then I retired … More Polygamy
There’s a sentence in the Duolingo German course that’s intended to be funny because it’s deprecating to grandmas and knitters: My grandma’s riskiest hobby is knitting. After absorbing the condescension, ageism, and sexism implied in the sentence, I concluded that it was actually true in my case, because some of my projects are wild and … More Zebra Kurt
Junko Okamoto is one of my favorite knitting designers, but I’m not usually an early adopter of her patterns based on the sample photos illustrating her patterns. Her sample sweaters are usually very minimalist, knitted in monochromatic neutrals, with understated, deemphasized details. When I saw her pictures for Hana, I didn’t have much reaction to … More A Season of Junko
Being BFF’s with the owner of a thriving yarn store has tangible perks for a dedicated knitter. Many knitters, and I’m one of them, accumulate more yarn than they can ever knit during their time on earth. We call it SABLE, an acronym for “stash acquisition beyond life expectancy”, and it sounds like a joke, … More Melissa’s Largesse
Although I’m newly inspired by the creative possibilities of crochet, I continue to have a knitter’s sensibility. Most basically, I have not come to love the appearance of crochet’s basic building block, the double crochet stitch (U.S. terminology). Reasonable people can disagree, but I think it looks sloppy and clumsy in its straight-up form and needs … More Knitting to Crochet: Abby Is Still Mine
The Interior of My Brain: A Knitting and Fiber Arts Blog 