Posts tagged: chit-chat
Myths and fabrications
By JC | May 1, 2012
Tomorrow I get to give a presentation to the Seattle Knitters Guild, and I’m really looking forward to it – but that’s a recent development. For months, I had been dreading the event. The idea of public speaking didn’t bother me – after all, I teach for a living — but the possibility that I [...]
Unsustainable
By JC | November 30, 2011
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 [...]
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 [...]
Fearlessness
By JC | November 23, 2011
Mining the NaBlogPoMo site for blog fodder worked so well yesterday, let’s try again today. Let’s tweak the prompt for November 14 and look at the question, “Have you faced fears in your knitting and overcome them?” Honestly… no. I can’t think of any time I’ve been afraid to try something with yarn and needles. [...]
The moment when
By JC | November 22, 2011
In search of blog fodder today, I checked out the NaBloPoMo writing prompts. The one for November 16 caught my eye: “What is the moment that you leave childhood and enter adulthood?” (Some say it’s when you buy a vacuum cleaner.) This is a knitting blog, though, so let’s turn the question around: “What is [...]
Never enough
By JC | November 17, 2011
The new Knitcircus is out – have you read it yet? Some of my favorite designs include the Confection Hat and the French Roast Cardi: each is a smart blend of texture and construction. And Sandrilene has a sweet cable detail along its neck opening. Then there are the yarn reviews. I’d like to fondle [...]
Best laid plans
By JC | November 6, 2011
Well, it seems Joan and I won’t be attending the Beyond Toes trunk show at Twisted today. Joan picked up a cold at Interweave Knitting Lab and is staying home to avoid giving it to anyone else, and I’m too lazy to drive up to Portland by myself. (Carpooling with Joan, we could’ve had fun [...]
Sucking less
By JC | November 2, 2011
Check out this article: “I Suck at Photoshop.” The subtitle is telling: “Except I Don’t, and You Don’t Suck at That Thing You’re ‘Bad at’ Either.” The whole idea is that no-one is really good at anything when they first try; it always takes some effort and practice. Ya gotta love the article’s tone. Here’s [...]
Been there, done that
By JC | May 6, 2011
As I started reading the latest issue of Knitcircus, I thought to myself, “I ought to send them a copy of Charts Made Simple for review.” And then I turned the page and there it was, a review of my book! Sure enough, I checked my records and, yes, I’d sent a copy to Knitcircus [...]