“Make us a crazy-bright, Mexican-inspired blanket!” they said.
“I think I can do that,” I said. “I think that might be fun!”
It was. It really, really was.
Yarn: Quince & Co. Osprey, pattern: making it up as I go along, with a garter mosaic stitch panel from Barbara Walker’s book Mosaic Knitting.
…than I’m off again. It feels like I just got back from DC (wait, I did just get back—I’ve only been home a week), and I’m packing to head up to Toronto. This trip is for fun: my sister, who lives up in the T dot, is getting married to a lovely man, and the clan is gathering for the event. My other sister has rented a cottage, so there will be city time and lake time and family time and time with old friends from the punk rock stompin’ around town years. Many of my internet friends are gathering while we’re there (for another wedding—apparently it’s the thing to do right now), so there will also be time with old friends I’ve never met in real life. And there will be knitting. I got shockingly little knitting done during TNNA, and hooboy, am I going to make up for that in the next couple of weeks. (See above re: lake time: there’s a whole nine glorious days of it.) Of course, most of it will be work knitting, but that’s my favourite kind of work, so I don’t mind one bit. Continue reading
Just a quick Friday post heading into the long weekend, because a couple of things are done, and I’m like a kid with a new drawing wanting to show everyone.
First, the final spinning tally for this year’s Tour de Fleece.
Remember this?
It’s the blanket I started for my nephew, Galactus, Eater of Worlds. Well, I took Jacqui’s excellent advice and blocked it, and it still looked wrong. That pattern with a plainer yarn or that yarn with a plainer stitch — either would be lovely. That yarn and that stitch together were just too much fancy all in one place. Perfect for a shawl, maybe, or the bottom of a summer top, but for a baby blanket? No. I started again. Continue reading
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
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).
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
Over the last few months, I’ve mentioned a collaborative project with an indie dyer whose work I really admire. Well, here it is: the Saturnalia Infinity Scarf, in colours by Astral Bath Yarns. Mmmm…red and red.
Home! I am home. Hello, home. I missed you so. It was wonderful to spend so much time surrounded by family and old friends, and to walk around my old stomping grounds (and boy, did I walk. Everywhere. Vancouver is great for that.) Still, there’s no substitute for being in your own space and sleeping in your own bed, and I missed himself and Chicken-Leg Al the Wonder Cat. Continue reading
E. Elliott Knits 