String Revolution

Last month, the Oyster and I made pots! (Mine’s the one on the left.)
We were on holiday on the Dingle Peninsula (Co. Kerry), where we often stay, and I finally did something I’ve been sighing over for years: paid a visit to the Louis Mulcahy workshop in Ballyferriter. I took the Oyster with me, leaving [...]

I find it amusing that the last post I wrote, about how scared I am of marketing, was followed by nearly three weeks of dead silence.
I didn’t mean to run away, but that’s sort of how it turned out. First of all, I went on holiday to Darkest Kerry, where wireless service ranged from patchy [...]

Pay no attention to the crocuses. They are a delaying tactic.
Right. OK. Here’s the thing. I want a business.
[The Demons of Stuckification: Shame! Shame! Resign!]
I want a business in the arena of textile arts/crafts.
Until recently, I knew nothing – nothing – about business. Family-wise, it’s basically academics all the way down (well, OK, there were [...]

You remember my hopeful little boatman?
Last time I wrote about this project, I was feeling pretty confident that I’d finish it in a few days. And I might have, too. But then I took a wrong turning.

Ah, knitting. Such a tricksy mistress. There have been highs, recently, and there have also, sad to relate, been lows. Time for … Good Thing, Bad Thing.
Good Thing: Hat! Hat hat hat hat hat haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat! My first hat, no less. I love it.

A hat! I haz a hat! Don’t scoff, you who knock out Finished Objects every couple of hours, Monday to Sunday (you know who you are). I normally take aeons to finish anything, so the fact that I made this in approximately two weeks, including the swatch, is actually pretty remarkable.
It is one of the [...]

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 [...]