I love watching watercolour artist Karen Rice's YouTube channel where she often demonstrates a loose, semi-abstract style involving the concept of "happy accidents", those unanticipated developments that end up producing a beautiful result. My latest sweater, based on Tincanknits' "Strange Brew" formula, shows that Happy Accidents occur in knitting design too.  Mods to the top-down formula: - Cast on the full number for the top of yoke pattern as I wanted a wider neck. I worked the suggested short rows. - Chose garter rib since I didn't want colour patterns at sleeve and bottom hems ..read more

Technology is always changing and forcing us to change along with it. When I first published the Wheatsheaves Scarf, it was my first attempt to chart a knitting pattern with Excel. I simply plugged the chart directly into the pattern, not realizing that when it was converted to a pdf some people would have difficulty printing it. Eventually I caught on and de-activated the pattern, meaning to come back and deal with it. Then we had a move to a new house, a pandemic, and our two kids who left home. A lot of stuff happened. Then Microsoft Office support was terminated. For a while, I tried switc ..read more

It's a sunny, cold March morning and I'm trying not to think about the photo of blooming trees sent last week from James in Dublin. To make matters worse, we're under a winter storm warning. However, I'm warm and cozy in my new Beverley. I've paired it here with Dress #2 from 100 Acts of Sewing and my own Pembroke Scarf in Regia sock. The pose is meant to illustrate the lovely unbroken seed stitch panel up the sides and along the underarms. I had been concerned that the cable would prove bulky in a drop shoulder, but the lightness of the yarn (Cascade Eco+ knitted at 3.5 sts per inch) prevent ..read more

 Here are the first decent photos of my new design, "Beverley".    The body is knitted in the round, bottom up; sleeves are then picked up and worked seamlessly top down. Simple. Now the work of grading and preparing the pattern for release begins.  P.S. I installed the spring snaps onto my new Parchment Coat (not as bright as it looks here), and took it off my back for a few moments to grab this pic. I might not take it off again until spring ..read more

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 The Parchment Coat is almost there. Just need to apply these spring snaps (not ALL of them). In the meantime, I've been wearing my coat all morning, given winter's return. After all, it's only the middle of February. We all know that winter's grip on us has a way to go before it runs out. I considered a fire in the living room, but then realized I had the coat almost ready and waiting, and I've been nice and cozy since donning it. A definite win in the sewing department. So happy with the fabric I chose, which works well with all the other makes in my photo: the Hedgewood Sweater, my ..read more

Most days I knit for about half an hour -- in the evening, when all the household jobs are done and I'm a little tired. I don't, however, tackle those bits of knitting that require actual thinking at night. That way lies disaster. Since I'm at the point in my new seed stitch and cable pullover where the sleeves are being launched and I need to count, calculate, and keep an eagle eye out for the improvement of small details, I'm knitting in the morning. I am a morning person. It's taken me weeks to get this far with this project. I started it before Christmas, then put it on hold, then picked i ..read more

 This morning I made fabric origami.  As I wrote yesterday, when I need lots of bias tape I like to use the "continuous" method to churn it out. There are lots of YouTube tutorials on how to do this, but once you master it, it's amazingly quick. Above, you can see the chalk lines I drew that would allow me to cut yards and yards (metres?) of 2" bias tape for binding my coat. Then, I filled up my steam iron and, using my Clover bias tape maker, I turned it all into this.     Ignore the fact that my phone camera wants to make the background grey instead of navy. Next, I sewe ..read more

It's not often that TWO projects move along on the same day to the stage that they can be tried on. Not finished, mind you, but joined together sufficiently that they can be put on and checked for fit. First up, The Coat, as I've come to think of it. Actually, it's Closet Core's Parchment Coat. Here it is at midday today. All the major seams have been joined, although not all have been pressed, as you can see. After trying it on, I laid out my bias binding to see if I had enough, but alas, I will need to begin my next sewing session making more. I use the continuous method, in case you're cu ..read more

For a long time I've been thinking about sewing a quilted jacket. Grainline Studio's Tamarack Jacket epitomizes this style. NOT A PRIMARY COLOR's Tamarack, described here and made from a thrifted sheet, is delightful,  as is the heavily hacked version shown in this post from Grainline. You can see that this is not a quick project. You need to cut out three of everything (outer fabric, batting, and lining), quilt each piece, then sew and bind the whole thing (after making approximately sixteen yards of bias binding). So, this has been a sort of fantasy project, not one I've been in a rus ..read more