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 →