When I was little, I had this hat. This hat was long — at least as long as I was — and pointy, and it was striped in blue and grey with a tassel on the end. It was long enough to use as a scarf and a hat at the same time, and it tapered over the whole length until it was as pointy as one of those icicles on the tip of the eaves at the end of winter that almost reach the ground. It was a ridiculous hat, and I loved it so. Continue reading
Firenze set: the inspiration
So yesterday I released a couple of patterns, and I foolishly promised a “gripping conclusion” in the form of a post about their inspiration. Oh, hubris. Well, I don’t know how gripping it will actually be, but here goes.
Firenze
Believe it or not, I have been designing lately. In fact — and this is just between you and me, you understand — I published a couple of patterns just today. Not only that, but I’ve put them on sale for a couple of days to celebrate their release (details at the bottom).
A bed for a lion
This here is Chicken-leg Al the Wonder Cat. You may remember him from such posts as An Elephant in a Day, Which Inexplicably Disappeared to Some Place Called Canada, Which is Weird Because Clearly it was Mine, Lady, it’s Raining, Would You Let Me IN Already, and A Brand New Thing for Me to Sit On.
A perfect mail day
I love it when a plan comes together.
It’s all in the details
Even here in the Dirty South, the cold is coming. Well, as much cold as we get here, which by Northern standards is more like a brief flirtation with the idea of being chilly. Still, the air has gone from soft to crisp, and I’ve been here long enough that I get whiny at anything below about 45 Fahrenheit (that’s around 7 Celsius for the rest of the world). (I’ve also been here long enough that I describe temperature in Fahrenheit, though I use the ‘double it and add 30’ conversion from Bob & Doug McKenzie* to make sense of it.) Here are the latest preparations for the eight week onslaught of not-being-quite-warm-enough. Continue reading
Just because you can, it doesn’t mean you should (or will).
Some time ago (a timespan measured in years), my sister had a big birthday. Big enough that I offered to make her something special for it. More than anything, she wanted a shawl. A square, lace shawl. A square, lace shawl in black. Coincidentally, I was in the mood to make just such a shawl, so I was delighted. We chose a pattern; I ordered the yarn; the shawl was all but made. Right?
Tiny things for tiny people
As you may have noticed, there has been a lull in creative activity at the Casa de Cusser these days. We’re getting my mother-in-law’s house ready to sell, and because I used to paint houses for a living and therefore can’t stand the thought of hiring someone else to do it, I volunteered to do the painting. To no-one’s surprise, this turned out to be a much bigger job than I expected, partly because I am very, very fussy about painting, and partly because it’s been a while and I am slower than I used to be. What has surprised me about this task (beyond the fact that it never seems to end) is the amount of creative energy it sucks out of a person. At the end of the day, all I want to do is sit down with someone else’s pattern, preferably in garter stitch, and binge-watch murder mysteries. This has not been great for writing or designing, but it sure has helped me make a dent in the backlog of gift knitting, especially tiny, fast baby knitting. Fair warning: there is an awful lot of adorable ahead. Continue reading
Into the deep end
As you may have noticed, I’ve been collecting fleeces. You may also have noticed a dearth of projects made from said fleece. Okay, there was the hat, but what about the other eleventy pounds? Am I opening a fleece museum? Had I run out of places to sit? No, though now that you mention it…wait. No. That would be silly.
E. Elliott Knits 