When I buy yarn that isn’t already in my stash, I feel a lot of compulsion to come up with a plan for it and execute that plan promptly. As it is, I have enough yarn to last me 20 years after I die, so if I’m going to purchase yet more yarn, it needs … More Optimization
When I first started to get serious about learning how to use my knitting machine two and a half years ago, I decided that I was better off learning from videos and trial and error than I was from live people, after a number of scarring interactions with machine knitters who started off wanting to … More A Feral Machine Knitter Meets Civilization. And Dyes
I haven’t got statistics to back up my hunch, but I may be one of the very few people living north of the tropics in the Northern Hemisphere who avidly looks forward to January and is sorry when it ends. That’s because January is the month I dedicate to trying out methods I’m too busy, … More January 2019 Swatchathon
When I first started thinking about how I might blog about making the Slouching Towards Japan pullover, I thought this would be a very short post. After all, I had already blogged about making the swatch using pattern number 146 in The Japanese Knitting Stitch Bible, and I had already raved about the book as … More Slouching Towards Japan
I hate personality quizzes, the sort that try to put you in a category and ask you to choose between a and b or a, b, c, or d for your most likely response to a hypothetical situation. My usual response is “it depends,” or “some of the above,” or “none of the above,” or … More Product vs. Process
Six months ago I bought a knitting machine. I never thought I would want to mechanize my chosen handcraft with a machine that has too many moving parts for my comfort, but I did it for two reasons: I love stockinette but hate knitting it, and I have a yarn stash that is so huge it could … More Scary New Toy
About 7 years ago, Andie Luijk, the color genius and owner of Renaissance Dyeing, asked me to write patterns for yarn kits using her beautiful natural-dyed yarns. It was a wonderful opportunity. I was deeply flattered at being asked to do it, I tried really hard to design things that other people would want to knit and … More Presto Change-o, A Sock Turns Into A Pullover
My first job out of college was a position as a library assistant in a chichi Harvard Square architecture company that was responsible for some of the ugliest buildings to blight the Middle East. This job taught me several valuable lessons, listed in ascending order of importance: I didn’t want to be an architect. Aside from the … More Deconstructing the Shell Game
The Interior of My Brain: A Knitting and Fiber Arts Blog 