Blue Callus

February 5, 2010

As I knit on through my commission, nothing has been so encouraging as one little chapter in one of the Yarn Harlot‘s books. In Things I learned from Knitting: …Whether I wanted to or not, the “15th Thing” is, “It Takes a Great Deal of Pressure to Make a Diamond.” In other words, those times … More Blue Callus

Cheering Up

February 1, 2010

Mondays are my day off. That should make today a day of relaxation and general cheerfulness. Unfortunately this has been dampened somewhat by a rather burdensome commission I decided to take on, for which I drastically underestimated the time commitment (or grossly overestimated my knitting speed). I’m not going to post pictures of it here; … More Cheering Up

Kirby

January 29, 2010

Yesterday I got a special visit at work from the newest addition to my parents’ family: Kirby! Kirby is a living testament that if you make a promise to a 5-year-old that they will get something when they are 8… you should fully expect them to hold you to it. Mom told Bethany she could … More Kirby

Random Wednesdays

January 27, 2010

In the tradition of the Yarn Harlot (PG-rated blog) and Mamacate (R-ish-rated-blog), I present to you a list of random things, randomly presented on a Wednesday. 1. On Monday night, we celebrated a Burns Supper! This is a celebration of Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns. Scots celebrate Burns night to remember their national poet, read … More Random Wednesdays

On NOT frogging

January 25, 2010

Yet another lesson learned, or if not learned, at least painfully reinforced. The lesson: read the pattern before you start knitting. That lovely top of a sock I showed you yesterday? It is exactly to gauge, with more or less perfect tension. It fits perfectly on a foot with an 8″ circumference, as the pattern … More On NOT frogging

Sunrise

January 24, 2010

I’ve been working at Cloverhill for about four months now. In some ways, I feel like I’ve always been here for ages. I’ve been doing everything from inventory to teaching classes, and now for the first time I get to make a shop sample. I’ve been itching for fair isle (a type of multi-color knitting), … More Sunrise

Olympic Training Camp

January 23, 2010

Okay yous guys, so the coolest thing is going to happen next month. Four years ago, for the last winter Olympics, the Yarn Harlot came up with this crazy thing she called the Knitting Olympics. The idea is this: you pick a project that will be challenging (but not impossible) for you to complete in … More Olympic Training Camp

On Frogging

January 22, 2010

I think that, with knitting, part of the idea is that you gain the ability to recognize mistakes early on in your work. That way, before you’ve done, say, a quarter of a given piece, you realize when something has gone wonky, and you fix it before you’ve invested too much time in it. Well, … More On Frogging

Meet Doris

January 20, 2010

Doris Beall, the spinning wheel. Surnamed after my two favoritest senseis in all of Tung Soo Do, and so that Jared could introduce her in a rhyming couplet. Forenamed because… Well… okay, I have no idea why. I just looked at her and thought… “Doris!” and it stuck. (Before you think I’ve totally lost it … More Meet Doris