I spent most of the January 2025 Swatchathon experimenting with the capabilities of the LK150 knitting machine, now that I have one in both of the places where I knit with machines, at home and at my daughter’s house in Wisconsin. Unlike the machine I learned the basics on, the Brother KH965i electronic machine that … More Cats and Mice and a Red Beetle
My mission for the remainder of my life is to knit through as much of my stash as I can before I die, while also supporting my friend Melissa’s yarn shop with as many new purchases as I can actually knit up. When I finally succeed at knitting up these purchases (or to be honest, … More Grazie, Mariagioia!
There was grief throughout Knittingdom when Pom Pom Quarterly shut down as a print periodical last winter. Their patterns were flawed but the designs were beautiful, modeled on diverse people of all sizes, genders, and ethnicities, with great photography printed on the highest quality paper. It was all too expensive to sustain. But they went … More Fortuna’s Pockets
The origin for this work dates back to fall 2022, when I ran into a sweater during my daily perusal of my Ravelry friends activity that featured a sweater with a round yoke festooned with tufts of irregularly spun art yarn poking out of the surface of the knitting. It was a kind of roosimine, … More Old Weird Barbie
Last year’s January Swatchathon, my annual month dedicated to making swatches and trying new techniques, was a particularly productive one for numbers of swatches and new techniques attempted. But in terms of completed garments based on the swatches, it was a bit of a bust. I was overly ambitious. When I first started dedicating my … More January 2024 Swatchathon
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?
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
I don’t learn quickly, but when I learn something, I’m like a dog with a bone, and I find a million different ways to use the one little thing I finally figured out. Sure, everybody else who has a Brother electronic knitting machine with preprogrammed Stitchworld patterns takes it home, sets it up, figures out … More Closing the Circle
Sometimes I get an idea for a project that pushes its way to the front of the queue because a practical need requires it, or because my curiosity is urgent and must be acted on right away. That was not the case for this bug-covered pullover for my husband. My interest in it reached such … More Delirium Tremens
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
The Interior of My Brain: A Knitting and Fiber Arts Blog 