String Revolution

As a keen-eyed, sharp-witted String Revolution reader, you may just have spotted that I’m a feminist. Gender politics is one of the things that really makes my little heart go pit-a-pat, and so I post here from time to time about how it relates to crafts – Women’s Work (aka “that book I’m not obsessed [...]

Observe! Here is the Feaster in his beautiful T-shirt from my Zazzle shop. It’s unfortunately already pretty tight – I should have got it much bigger. But isn’t it great? I give you this picture by way of loin-girding, because I’m going to talk about gender normativity and kids’ clothes again, and we need a [...]

I have been swatching.
This winter just past, I have been afflicted with that whole “cobbler’s children” thing (adapted to refer to knitters). Except that my children seem to have plenty of hats and gloves – I’m the one who doesn’t.
So I’m going to make myself a hat.

Ha. When I posted about my late-night sock triumph last week, I said I’d write more about them “tomorrow, or possibly the next day”. Well. I should know better than to make rash promises, is all.
Pattern: Spring Forward socks, by Linda Welch, from Knitty (summer 2008).
Yarn: Sock yarn from the Natural Dye Studio, which may [...]

Here are Niall and I, with the baby Oyster, turning up at the Register Office five years ago, on a fine, cold Tuesday afternoon, to let the State know how things stood between us. As I said in my wedding speech at the party the following Saturday, by any sensible definition of the term we’d [...]

Spring is here!
In Ireland, spring officially starts today, the 1st of February, which is the Pagan festival of Imbolc, transmuted in the Christian era into Candlemas, St Bridget’s Day, Lá Fhéile Bríde.
And look! My birch is budding!
But that’s not why I’m slapping this streak of incoherence across your internets. No, friends, for there is a [...]

Oh, there are posts queueing up in my head waiting to be written, but this evening I must content myself with showing you some progress on my latest Oyster-inspired project. I’ve been nudging it gently along over the past few days, and it’s now at the point where I can start adding the surface stitching.
You [...]

I’m sewing another picture by the Oyster (the first one being the dragon). This one uses fabric as well as surface embroidery.
In the photo you can see me starting the reverse appliqué on one of the main sections. I’ve tacked the pattern piece behind the background, then cut out the centre to within about [...]

I joined the Irish Patchwork Society (Eastern Branch) last September, in a bid to do something about my dark yearnings.
Yesterday was the January meeting, and [trumpet fanfare, angel choir] I won a prize in the monthly raffle! This never happens. Really, never. In fact, I think this may be the first time. I was so [...]

I finished a sock! And it only took me a sock and three-quarters to do it.
As you may recall, I had to change needle size when I’d knitted nearly all of my first Spring Forward sock, because it wouldn’t go over my ankle. Keeping the cursing and wailing to a functional minimum (there are children [...]