Author Archives: JC
I just spent a week in London at Knit Nation, and all I have to show for it is this: Oh, don’t get me wrong. Knit Nation was a blast, as you can see on the other teachers’ blogs. I just couldn’t be bothered to record it in photos. (Go ahead, call me lazy. It […]
Jumbotron
By JC | July 25, 2010
Recently I haven’t been blogging about interesting knitting projects because… well, because this is what I’ve been knitting: Oodles of I-cord. Yards and yards of I-cord. Knit by hand, because I don’t have a knitting mill that lets you crank out the I-cord by the mile. And when I asked my knitting buddies if anyone […]
Tempe
By JC | July 23, 2010
It’s official: this September I get to teach at Tempe Yarn and Fiber. I’m looking forward to it—I’ve heard all kinds of good things about the shop. The weekend of September 23-25 will feature Bind-off Bonanza, Chart Reading, and Chart Writing, which I’ve been teaching a fair bit lately. And I get to dust off […]
Too much
By JC | July 22, 2010
You know you spend too much time thinking about knitting when you try out a new dental floss, and it shreds… …and the first thought that runs through your head is, “Must’ve been loosely plied.”
That depends
By JC | July 15, 2010
Another bit of early feedback on Charts Made Simple questioned how mosaic charts are drawn: If the mosaic is worked on a base of garter stitch, should the chart squares have a bar or some other sort of “purl” designation, to indicate the garter ridges? In other words, does stockinette mosaic use different symbols than […]
In the past few weeks, I’ve sent an early draft of Charts Made Simple to a few knitters, and asked for feedback: Does the book cover what it should? And does it do so in a friendly, encouraging way? Some of the responses have been fascinating. (And some scary, like the one noting the utter […]
A quick fix
By JC | July 3, 2010
I’m a sucker for completing projects, for crossing items off my to-do list. Making progress isn’t enough: I need to finish projects on a regular basis, or I get as antsy as a junkie going through withdrawal. So, in need of a quick fix, I turned to my UFO pile. Sad to say, I found […]
Last weekend was Black Sheep Gathering. As usual, it was a blast and a half. I missed out on the Sheep to Shawl competition, but I got to watch Judith MacKenzie McCuin at work in the fleece judging—wow, what an education! (Judith, how do you hold so much fiber info in your head??) Wandering the […]
Flow
By JC | June 14, 2010
Designing is lot like puzzle-solving. How do you get all the pieces—the yarns, the colors, the stitch patterns, the shaping details—to fit together into a cohesive, appealing whole? My favorite part of the puzzle is getting the stitch patterns to flow into each other, and into the space made available by the shaping. It usually […]
For the past couple weeks, I’ve been adding illustrations to Charts Made Simple. The goal has been to get the manuscript ready for review next week: four friends have graciously agreed to look at this early draft, and tell me where it still needs work. Having that deadline has, understandably, lit a much-needed fire under […]