***Originally published on December 9th, 2011***This time of the year holds a really weird energy for me.  Right around now of every year, when it feels like the whole country — both online and off — is deeply entrenched in fall and holiday craziness and shopping frenzies and steaming hot beverages in mitten-clad hands, I jump right on the bandwagon, promoting gift ideas and commiserating with the woes of endless gift lists that we just didn’t get an early enough jump on.But in reality, I don’t personally celebrate any of these holidays, and haven’t since sometime around middle school.&nb...

***Originally published on July 31, 2015***This is a pattern that had been in my queue for a looooong time before I finally cast on for it last year.  In fact, I wound up the yarn for this one back in 2013, and had been sitting on a fat cone of it for years until the time was finally right.And, while many parts of the project are relatively mindless — easy stockinette knitting at a fairly small gauge — there are other parts that do require some serious concentration.  The radial yarn-overs, which give this pattern its distinctive eyelet holes, force you to kee...

***Originally published on April 4th, 2014***There are so many ways to increase stitches in knitting — you can knit twice into the same stitch (often notated as KFB — knit into the front and back), you can do a yarn over and treat it as a real stitch on the next row (which leaves a hole in your work — this can sometimes be a beautiful design element!), or you may run into the terms “M1R” and “M1L,” which stand for “Make 1 Right” and “Make 1 Left.”The M1R and M1L is coming up a lot as I work through the Color Affection Shawl, which uses 1-2 of these increases on every single row.Often...

Originally published on September 11, 2015This was a super fun cowl that — appropriately named — took me all summer long to finish! In actuality, the reason I named it the Summer Chevron Cowl is that while it’s long enough to wrap around your neck twice, and has enough alpaca in the mix to keep you warm, the yarn is balanced with both linen and bamboo, which keep it breathable and not-too-hot on those summer evenings. For this pattern, I wound up equal amounts of all 3 colors, as they are distributed evenly throughout the pattern.The pattern is free and can be found right here.  T...

Originally published January 30, 2014One of my good friends is due in April, and after having just finished a crocheted baby blanket for my cousin, I decided I wanted to knit this one.  And you know what I haven’t made in forever??A Log Cabin Blanket!    So, I wound up five different colors of semi-solid yarn (I used a bamboo/acrylic blend for these — each one is 3 strands bamboo + 1 strand acrylic so they’re exactly the same weight, and they all look nearly solid). The beauty of log cabin blankets is that — unlike most any other square knitting project, it begins...

Originally published August 14, 2015You may remember seeing The Holbrook Shawl in some WiP posts about a year ago, as I was knitting it for my good friend’s wedding last June.Most notably, it was a blocking feat of pretty epic proportions.Of course, at the wedding itself, we were all far too busy celebrating to even think about taking some nice photos of Kate wearing the shawl (it was a warm day, and Summer Solstice to boot, so she didn’t end up wearing it for much of the evening).  But, I just recently received some of the official photographer’s shots, and can now share the finished pro...