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
I started dedicating my Januarys to swatching in 2016. Every January Swatchathon has influenced my various fiber media for the rest of the year, although some years some of the swatching satisfies my curiosity about the technique without inspiring a project. Sometimes the swatching is just a small introduction into a method that needs to … More January 2023 Swatchathon
I’ve been flirting for some time with the idea of Hønsestrikk, a style of knitting developed by the Danish knitter Kirsten Hofstätter in the 1970’s as a protest against the yarn companies’ linking of garment patterns with yarn purchases. Hofstätter promoted and popularized personalizing basic sweater shapes with stranded motifs that were meaningful to the … More When Will This Sweater Be a Crime?
For the last three months, my handknitting life has been dominated by one pattern, knitted twice in very different colorways from yarn in my stash. The yarn that prompted my interest in this one versatile pattern wasn’t originally from my stash– I inherited it from a woman I never met, who destashed it to my … More Two-dle Doodles, a Color Study
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
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
The Interior of My Brain: A Knitting and Fiber Arts Blog 