Swatch Day and Blueberry Socks

I know I said I was going to write about swatching as part of my process in the whole “Raglan Sweater Series” of posts. I lied.
I know a lot of knitters don’t like hearing the “Sermon on the Swatch.”  Maybe it’s just part of the lesson. Knitting a whole sweater that doesn’t look or fit [...]

Dyeing in History

This is one of my favorite shows… The Worst Jobs in History with Tony Robinson aka. I-have-a-cunning-plan S. Baldrick from the Blackadder series. I’m sharing the few bits from this show that describe old and ancient dyeing techniques.
Purple makers using rotten shellfish to make ‘royal purple.’

Dyeing blue with Wode
Part I (Part [...]

Needed some color to brighten up my winter

Hopefully we’ve seen the last of the snow for now. Hopefully.
I meant to post more photos from the dye work I did in December. I finally got around to snapping pictures of the more of the skeins of yarn I dyed.  Here they are for your viewing pleasure.
Note, I’ve discovered the fine art of squeezing [...]

Weekend in San Francisco

I went to SF to attend a wedding, unfortunately, I drank some chai tea drink this morning that had bad milk in it. I spent a good part of the afternoon being ’sick.’ I don’t think I’ll ever be able to drink chai again. So I was too sick to attend the wedding, and I’m [...]

I’ve been dreaming of sock knitting machines

Not literally… though I have been fascinated with the motion and mechanics behind machines that craft. The irony is we can teach or design machines to do the things that we do but they can never master our ability to change how something is produced. Machines may be able to produce things far [...]

Knitting Haiku: Bonsai Stole

Sorry… our digital camera is out of commission, so I used the web cam to shoot. I feel so technologically deprived. I’ve got two more skeins of Berrocco Bonsai to knit up for this stole. That will make 7 skeins total for the stole. Unknit, this yarn has a wonderful texture and the [...]

What to do with old jeans…knit with them?

So I found a great pile of jeans that are out of style. I thought of saving them because they actually are specimens of denim without elastic. (Still, I do believe that whomever made it possible for jeans to stretch should win a Nobel prize).  I was curious about what to do with all of [...]

Decorative felting techniques

 Just for Giselle
Needle felting is another way of “cheating at color” instead of knitting color into items that you are felting.  I found a great tutorial on the technique here and here:

Pretty felted flower (see image above): http://www.craftlog.org/craftlog/archives/001678.html
Some creative ideas in form from Bez White: http://blog.betzwhite.com/