Author Archives: JC
A couple weeks back, my laptop went kaput. No coaxing from the local Mac doctor could revive it. I was told that replacing the hard drive (to the tune of about $250, installed) would make it functional again, but I took the sudden death as A Sign: after four years, it was time to ditch […]
Lately I haven’t been knitting much because another project has grabbed all my interest, but I still need to have something on my needles, you know? So I’m futzing around with a crescent-shaped shawlette. The idea is to have a pretty scalloped pattern along the bottom edge – namely, this one: – and to fill […]
Staying power
By JC | June 28, 2012
Whee! Unicorn just released its TNNA Top Books list, the list of bestselling books at the industry’s top trade show. Charts Made Simple ranked as #8, after being out for over a year! Now that’s some staying power. 🙂 Several other publications from Visionary Authors also made the list, including five of the top ten. […]
Last month while at Churchmouse I scored a couple skeins of Loft: Oh, such lovely stuff. For a month, those skeins sat on my coffee table where I could pet them daily, and imagine what they might become. Last week I finally wound them into balls, and got started swatching. First up, basic garter and […]
It can be a little weird to teach a class while knowing that another teacher is scheduled to teach essentially the same class at the same event. For instance, I’m not the only one that teaches seamless set-in sleeves or introductory lace at Stitches events. And if I recall correctly, the last Sock Summit featured […]
Did you catch The Yarn Thing podcast this morning? (Yes, yes, I know I should’ve reminded y’all about it yesterday. My flimsy excuse was that I was out of the house and away from all computers practically all day.) Marly and I had a grand time talking about disastrous first projects, not knowing that designing […]
Fitting
By JC | June 5, 2012
Remember how I said the Be Sweet Skinny Wool clearly wanted to be brioche? The Fyberspates Scrumptious Lace clearly wanted to be lace. And not just any lace: I pictured it looking fabulous in Estonian lace, complete with nupps. I was wrong. Lace, yes. Estonian lace, sure. But nupps? Not so much. Working my first […]
Mark your calendars: next Tuesday, June 12th, I get to be part of Marly Bird’s The Yarn Thing podcast! We’ll talk about Charts Made Simple (“what? that old thing again?”) and whatever else pops into our heads. Ooh, my first live interview… I hope I don’t sound like a dolt! In other news, registration for […]
Playing around
By JC | May 29, 2012
Lately, I haven’t been able to commit to any long-term projects. Shoot, I haven’t been able to commit to anything bigger than a swatch. But that’s okay. I like swatching. Case in point: along with a number of my fellow Stitches teachers, I volunteered to create swatches for the Great Wall of Yarn at next […]
Alchemy
By JC | May 11, 2012
Blocking is such an awesome thing, isn’t it? It can take a ruffled mess like this: And turn it into this: The lace opens up, the peak at the center top disappears, and the ruffled edges turn into smooth scallops. One long blocking wire took care of the top edge, but the scallops required pins. […]