When I started my pattern sale fundraiser to help with Hurricane Harvey relief efforts, it came from a feeling of helplessness and heartache and a desire to do something, anything, that was genuinely helpful, even if only in a small way.

Then you turned up. So many of you. You spread the word and you bought patterns and you took this little thing and made it a bigger thing and other generous fibre arts people put their backs into it* and instead of feeling helpless on my own, I feel like together we really did something.

You all came to this barnraiser, and in increments–$5-$6 a pattern!–you built something real, and I couldn’t be more touched by your generosity. I know the United Way of Houston and the SPCA of Texas will put the funds to good use. I hope the projects you make from these patterns bring you joy, and that you’ll share your progress with me and wear your finished handknits with pride.

Thank you. We did it right.

*While the Mason Dixon fundraising event has ended, others on that page are still going on. You can also donate directly: Houston’s mayor has established a relief fund, and Charity Navigator has a list of organizations that are helping with the relief effort.

Update September 8: The donations are there! It took some time to get the funds to an acceptable payment method—neither charity accepts PayPal—but the money is now where it’s needed. Thank you again.

Mostly. I think.

I’ve been meaning to redo this site for a while: the Patterns page was a scrollathon horrorshow, I felt the blog page layout could use some tidying, the About section needed updating, and I wanted to make it easier for people to contact me. The process was a bit fraught: I’m no coder, plus it’s impossible to be objective about your own work. I’m still not sure I’ve got it right, so if you’ve got suggestions for how to make this site work better for you, please do let me know, either by commenting here or through my spanking new contact page. I’ll probably do a bit more tweaking to get the site just so. Continue reading →

The Cusser Knits is due for an overhaul, so I’m going to be making several changes over the weekend. Please bear with me; it may look a bit weird while I reorganize things.

Dear past me:

If you feel like a yarn combination isn’t going to work in the first couple of rounds, and then again 18 rounds later, and you keep stretching your work out and squinting at it to see if it’s finally started to work, maybe it’s time to stop and rip the thing out. Do not press on for another 30 rounds just because you really want it to work. It’s not working. Stop it.

Love, present me, who has to clean up your mess.