Author Archives: JC
Excuse me while I toot my own horn for a moment. Charts Made Simple has made two “best of 2011” book lists. Library Journal says: Knitters who are intimidated by the shorthand found in knitting charts need look no further. This sounds like dry material, but Briar’s zeal for her topic makes this title not […]
Whoa
By JC | December 6, 2011
Have you seen this? And this? Stunning Escher-inspired patchwork blankets, made all the more impressive by the skillful use of textures: ribbing for feathers, seed stitch for scales, bobbles for eyes. I’ve always loved tessellations, and I’m utterly blown away by these knitted ones. This is precisely the sort of knitted inspiration that I don’t […]
The news is out: I get to be one of the designers in the 2012 Knit Purl Sock Club. In keeping with the theme of “Masterpieces,” each kit’s colorway and pattern will take inspiration from a famous work of art. I can’t tell you anything more than that – the specific works of art are […]
Whew! Thirty days in NaBloPoMo, and thirty blog posts. (If you count this one. Which I will.) What have I learned from this experiment? Posting daily is possible. But it’s not sustainable, not if I want posts with non-trivial knitting content. I mean, really, who wants multiple blog posts that all essentially say, “Nope, still […]
Bizarre
By JC | November 29, 2011
Yesterday I was with some new acquaintances when one of ’em asked me what I did for a living. The long answer would’ve been something like “I teach knitting, and I have a book that’s an extension of the teaching, and I used to tech edit knitting patterns but I quit that to have more […]
One of the reasons I love charts is that they’re a sort of universal language. It doesn’t matter where a chart comes from – a publication written in English, German, Japanese, or whatever – I’m good to go as long as I have an English copy of the key, or a few good swatch photos […]
Yes, yes, I know I’m in the midst of an Estonian shawl, and that I just cast on for a Swirl. But that hasn’t stopped me from contemplating additional mischief, in the form of a scarf or maybe a shawl. See, DH* and I are planning to take some time off together in December. And […]
So I’ve started my next Swirl. The butterfly is leftover tail from the long-tail cast-on. I could’ve used a separate ball for the cast-on tail, except I didn’t feel like winding another skein. (I’m not keen on using the outside and the inside of a center-pull ball – that has too much potential for tangling, […]
As suspected, knitting from the center out gave me exactly the kind of hexipuff I wanted: Vital stats: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock mediumweight and 3.25 mm needles (again, as with hexipuff #1). Pinhole start, kfb increases, k2tog decreases, and pinhole finish. Working 6 increases on 2 of every 3 rounds gave the […]
Thankful
By JC | November 24, 2011
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! I’m going to keep this short (and hopefully not too sappy), but let me say that as a knitter I’m grateful for the huge selection of yarn, needles and books available these days; for the breed-specific wools we’re starting to see, and for the people keeping those breeds alive and letting us […]