This is Marie Wallin’s gorgeous Aisling pattern. After the first year of the pandemic, when I could only focus on knitting socks, I found that by doing KALs supported by knitters close to me, I could tackle stranded garments. In fact, we three friends got together and decided to knit something really beautiful. Aisling is a multicolor version of Marie Wallin's original, two-color top Nigella. Buoyed by each other’s excitement, we ordered kits from The Woolly Thistle. I believe Marie Wallin's website now also has kits here. We each chose a different size. While my friend on the right @valbou... Continue reading

Insert photo of screen capture: project page I have recently been learning to alter stranded patterns to fit my curvier figure and thought it might be helpful to post what I’ve been doing to help others who want to accomplish the same thing. Marie Wallin’s gift box 3 of British Breeds yarn arrived in May, and my mother-in-law immediately started in on knitting Ottilie, which takes all 24 colors of yarn in the gift box. This is a boxy shrug that was written one-size-fits-all. However, I was concerned this would swallow my figure, so I altered the back of the... Continue reading

How is glucose used in the body? When a person eats something, the body breaks down the carbohydrates from the foods that we eat and make them into glucose for our body. A good analogy for glucose is the gas for the car. It helps us stay active when the... Continue reading

Doctor Richard Bernstein's method was created when he was 45. He advises patients to eat fewer carbohydrates and take smaller doses of insulin. This is important because a low carbohydrate diet allows the patient to stay in the “honeymoon phase” that allows the pancreas to continue to operate although it... Continue reading

What is Type 1 diabetes? Type 1 diabetes is thought to be caused by an autoimmune reaction (the body attacks itself by mistake) that destroys the cells in the pancreas that make insulin, called beta cells. This process can go on for months or years before any symptoms appear. Type... Continue reading

After many months of spending most of my time indoors last year, it seemed necessary to knit some flowers. I imagined blooms everywhere inside my little office, and I ultimately chose the pattern Flower Child by Nora Gaughan. For those of you who find it safe to navegate Ravelry, my project page is here: Seventies-inspired knits seem all the rage these days, but I was mainly attracted to the ingenious design of this pattern. I have never knitted a back or front in five separate pieces before and it seemed like a great challenge. The only issue is that I... Continue reading

Piuma Mitts by Heather Zoppetti Hello! How have you all been during this difficult year? What have you been knitting lately? I have really missed you readers and our chats about knitting style. Knitting has been such a wonderful source of joy for me and my family and I spent much of the pandemic knitting scores of teeny tiny gnomes and unicorns I could give away to family and friends as a bright spot in a dark time. I particularly enjoyed sewing matching bow ties, skirts and knitting tops for my nieces and nephews for our family reunion this year!... Continue reading

For me, crafting has become a power for good in my experience of dealing with the pandemic. I live in the Bay Area, where there have been forest fires all around us and the number of COVID cases is somewhat high. If you let your thoughts dwell too much on what is actually happening it can be overwhelming. So it is a unique opportunity to channel restlessness and anxiety into creating pieces that illuminate the darkness. So I started seeing the image of a dark garden. The background of the fabrics I will use will be mostly black but there... Continue reading

As my longtime readers know, I have often struggled to find a winning combination where a handknitted sweater shows off a handsewn outfit or vice versa. Even my latest outfit, the Unst cardigan paired with Simplicity 2444, was not ultimately satisfactory. As I looked at the photos later, I realized that the neckline of the sweater did not harmonize with the neckline of the dress. The mismatch looks a bit sloppy. I'm sure blocking the right top edge of the cardigan will help but the two shapes at the neck really don't go together. It turns out that the sweetheart... Continue reading

The above fellow is a starter gnome, looking through the white wooden fence that separates Lucia Lodge from the Big Sur coastline. The starter gnome pattern is designed by Anna Hrachovek of Mochimochiland. I discovered her adorable gnome in this video: After six months of barely leaving home, we decided to go to Big Sur, California and El Gnomo came along. My husband and I had fun photographing first El Gnomo, and then later his new friend Brinkley at Lucia Lodge, where we stayed. Everyone who saw the gnomes peering out of the foliage laughed. And I realized that was... Continue reading

I finally did it! I created an intricate fair isle knit that I am really proud of! And after all these years of eyeing spectacular versions of Marie Wallin’s fairisle knits, it was time to tackle Unst. I've wanted to knit this pattern since the very first moment I saw it. Someone had posted a photo of Marie Wallin wearing her new pattern among a group of knitting designers on Instagram and I was struck by its beauty immediately. I messaged the poster to find out the name of the pattern and then when I had the good fortune to... Continue reading

Phew! It’s been a super busy couple of weeks since I got back from Vogue Knitting Live in New York but I am determined to share my yarn haul with you since I know many were not able to attend in person and might be interested in some of these yarns! First stop at VKL NY: Fuse Fibers studio. This is a small, three-year-old company. I'm addicted to the vintage-inspired colorways but they sell out really fast. My favorite of the colorways is “The Natural Language of Flowers”, the light skeins pictured above, but even though I made a beeline... Continue reading

My one major goal for my sewing in 2019 was to try to replicate a zipper-front skirt I saw in the Chanel Fashion show influenced by computers in the Spring/Summer 2017 show: I just adored these A-line skirts with the zipper in front but had very little sewing experience and was afraid I would completely mess up the zipper. But I kept at it, sewing skirt after skirt, starting with the Hollyburn skirt pattern by sewaholic. After creating several successful Hollyburn skirts, I moved on to McCall’s 7197. This pattern features a central zipper that runs the length of the... Continue reading

Yarn, yarn, as far as the eye can see! The Marketplace at Vogue Knitting Live New York was unbelievable, and I found some wonderful colors there, such as this Green Dragon Colorway of the Merino Yak yarn hand-dyed by The Periwinkle Sheep. It is hard to find a really good green, and when you have an entire market of hand-dyers to choose from the chances go up enormously of finding exactly the color you want! Not to mention the gorgeous yarn art pieces. But the greatest aspect of Vogue Knitting Live is the amazing people that attend the convention from... Continue reading

It’s been swelteringly hot here in California so I’ve been knitting cotton lace. Everyone needs a lace vest for summer, right? It’s a light, cool piece that adds a hint of style to a dress without making you much warmer. I’ve been seeking the pattern for a white lace vest like this for years! “Peaches” by Kim Hargreaves is a free pattern that you can download from Ravelry here I discovered the pattern when we kicked off the Kim Hargreaves-along in the Stitching over the Days group, which I am helping moderate. Our knit-a-long lasts until December and we are... Continue reading

Recently I participated in a knit-a-long of the Soldotna Crop cardigan at my local yarn shop. What a great stashbuster Caitlin Hunter's design is! I used Handmaiden Casbah (blue), (Fibercompany's Road to China and Myak Baby Yak Medium (dark browns), Olann Merino dk (white flecked with pink, blue and brown) and Rowan softyak dk (pink). This top is really versatile because all of us had different figures and different color schemes but we all looked smashing in the sweater! My friend, Sylvie and I had fun finishing Soldotna at around the same time and then we wore them on our... Continue reading

I’ve been knitting Vilma for over a year and a half-- it feels strange to finished it at last! The more stranded knitting projects I make, the less motivated I feel to work on long stockinette sections. But I persevered! The worst moment was last November. I left my half-knitted sweater in the back of a taxi in Paris and it took a while to to start again. Eventually I decided I would be permanently traumatized by Vilma’s loss unless I started over. I had meant to achieve a sweater-girl style look with Vilma, in keeping with Fran Jeffries sweater,... Continue reading

Karen cardigan by Sarah Hatton + my sewn Hollyburn skirt When you knit a sweater to match an item in your wardrobe, there are a lot of advantages. You’ve worn the garment for a while and understand its proportions. Understanding the style and shape you need to complete an outfit is key. I was thrilled that Myrna suited my purchased vintage dress as planned: However, my other project was not so successful. I had originally thought, “How hard could it be to create a sewn outfit to go with my new cardigan?” Because the official design photo of Myrna is... Continue reading