I closed my last post, Birthday Knitting Season, with unfinished business, some of which I have finished. I completed my older daughter’s birthday sweater and got it into the mail 12 days before her birthday, which hopefully will be enough to get to her in time. I’m pleased with it aesthetically and technically, and I’m … More The Monsters’ Birthday Party
I have a big, huge, overwhelming yarn stash. It happens. I’m not the only one. That’s why so many people write “stashbuster” patterns, and I just made two of them that actually did make a tiny dent in my stash. Many months ago I was attracted to a pattern for a crocheted and felted rug … More Sisyphus Meets My Stash
After spending most of 2018 hand-knitting stylized faces for two pieces of wall art, DNA and Faces Come Out of the Rain, I thought I was done with knitted faces, until my Ravelry friend Rebecca Yaker created a machine knit version of the pattern and generously shared her recipe with me. I made a swatch … More Are You Really Going to Wear That? In Public???
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
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
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
Everyone is familiar with the way people rationalize eating things they know they’re going to regret by telling themselves half cookies don’t have calories or holidays are for overeating. Knitters are familiar with a variation of this kind of logic when they visit yarn stores in other cities and add to their SABLE (stash acquisition … More Teachings of the Fiber Goddess and the Zen Master
A line sticking straight up. A line sticking straight out. Nothing simpler while simultaneously nothing more variable, and maybe that’s why it’s such endlessly fertile ground for the ideas that I turn into stuff. Right angles were the basis of the hand knitting I did all during the summer, and they’re following me into the … More All the Right Angles
Not every successful machine knitter is a genius, but for me, machine knitting is a much more intellectual process than hand knitting is. It requires very careful calculations before starting a project because there’s no way to try on a work-in-progress while it’s hanging on the needles of the machine, and it isn’t possible to … More Trust the Numbers!
Last fall my curiosity turned toward the variety of visual things that can happen when a vertical line and a horizontal line meet and intersect, and while I was thinking of squares, I bought some very beautiful yarn made by Flying Goat Farm, a local Maryland goat farmer and dyer. The yarn was their Zephyrette, … More Back In the Box
The Interior of My Brain: A Knitting and Fiber Arts Blog 