What is it with magicians and rabbits? I’m such a nerd that I started wondering about my own rhetorical question, and Googled it—nothing conclusive. If it’s just for the shock of pulling a live critter out of an empty hat, why doesn’t a magician go for a squirrel every now and then? Or maybe a …
New Year, New Shawl, New Projects
This should have been last week’s post; but I’m late, because this shawl just had to have perfect pictures. This is Shh! by Jennifer Weissman; a fitting way to close out the old year and kick off the new, since I’ve had it in my mental queue since late 2019. I absolutely love it. It …
Announcing Mélodies
Finally we can talk about what this pile of yarn is for! (And why it’s inside a piano…) What It’s All About The notion of a shawl collection inspired by music has been kicking around in my head for at least a year now. Originally the idea was to use general musical terms (obbligato, allegro, …
Designer Tip #4: Watch Those Swatches!
Yarn crafts are not instant-gratification enterprises (okay, maybe they can be), and neither is knit/crochet design. And, as discussed in Designer Tip #3, rejection happens. If you’ve been at the designing game for a little while, chances are you’ve got a pile of swatches in your closet or at the bottom of your yarn bin. …
Summer Forecast
As hard as it is to believe (well, for me, at any rate), summer is almost here. However, as it isn’t here yet, this is what we’ll call an extended forecast, and as such is subject to change (like when you check your handy-dandy radar app and it says “Rain in 204 minutes”—ask me how …
Designer Tip #3: Have a Backup Plan
For designers, rejections are a part of life; simply punch “knit/ crochet design rejection” into your favorite search engine for a wealth of musings, cries, and groanings of varied length. They’re a nasty shock for a young designer and nobody finds them easy to deal with (anyone who says otherwise, as Westley would have it, …
Favorite Finds: Botanical
We’ve had weeks of drippy, rainy greyness here (including a flooded driveway); and even though, as you can see from the above image, yours truly has sneaked out for a few moments of nature photography, spring can’t come too soon as far as I’m concerned. In that vein, I thought it was high time to …
Designer Tip #2: Don’t Be a Diva
While as an opera student, I can’t help but resent the associations of the word diva a little, the simple fact is that opera singers, knitting/crochet designers, human beings, and like characters tend to live up to it pretty well. And chihuahuas. (If you’re viewing this in an email, click ‘view in browser’ and you’ll …
Favorite Finds—Animals
At some point I turned around and realized that it’s been almost two months since the first installment of Favorite Finds; however, I’ve diligently cast my eye around the wide world of patterns since then and have come up with both arms full of knit and crochet treats! This post will focus mainly on stuffed …
Favorite Finds Inaugural Post—Celtic
This post will kick off what I hope will be a running series on this blog, titled Favorite Finds. The series will feature work by other designers; generally speaking these will be independently published patterns, both knit and crochet. Most installments in the series will revolve around a particular theme, such as a specific style, …