Since 2016 I’ve set “fiber goals” as a fun way to direct my crafting for the year. I’ve come to feel like setting goals around chasing joy and doing things I want to do is important, and these resonate differently than many traditional new years resolutions that are kind of guilt-based. Links to previous years are at the bottom of the post, but let’s start with this year’s goals. Continue reading
I learned the Finchley Graft recently. It makes the same fabric as the more common Kitchener graft, but without the extra setup/end steps that make it stick out at the edges when used on, say, a sock toe. Unfortunately, I haven’t done it enough times to actualy have it memorized, and when I look it … Continue reading
My kid decided he wanted to have a “meat hat” with pixel art meat on it, so I made one to his specifications. This post has all the charts he made in case anyone ever wants to make their own. Continue reading
It’s December so it’s time to revisit my 2023 fiber goals and see how I did! You can see part 1 in my mid-year checkin post. Toys My kid has become really interested in Among Us so I made him a thing! Games have really helped him practice a lot of emotional maturity things like, … Continue reading
These are what my kid considers “normal cookies” because we make them the most! They’re also almost always what people are asking for when I get a message that goes like “remember those cookies you brought months ago… could I get the recipe?” Since I’m sending them to school for his teachers and typed up the recipe to put on the bag (in case of allergies), I figured I might as well share it on my blog at the same time. Continue reading
I typed up this recipe to accompany some cookies I’m sending to my kid’s school, so I figured it was a good time to share it here! This can make a slightly chewy gingerbread if you roll the cookies thick enough. I got this recipe from some old copy of Chateleine my mom had, probably … Continue reading
Work made me do a training on “Objectives and Key Results” which is just a business-y version of the goal setting techniques I learned in grade school: choose something big you want to do, even if you’re not sure all the steps to get you there or it’s not a thing that ever finishes, then … Continue reading
I know the yarniverse is all abuzz with a very pink movie coming out this weekend, but my kid and I are more excited about Pikmin 4, so I made some fanart at my kid’s request. Continue reading
This essay made me cry: https://lithub.com/japanese-american-incarceration-for-children-brandon-shimoda-on-reading-with-his-daughter/ I own a lot of those books. They’re mostly too long and serious for my kid still. He prefers books about dogs and animals and science and silliness. And that’s ok. The books will wait. So many of the books about people we get from in the library “mystery … Continue reading
I wrote this up last year/summer of 2022, never quite finished it, and never published it as a result. I don’t know if I remember enough here to finish writing this up properly without knitting the socks again. I don’t want it languishing in my drafts and I’m not sure when I’ll feel inclined to write it up as a real pattern. So I’m just gonna publish it anyhow and I hope it helps someone else who wants to play with a fun technique! Continue reading
It’s the middle of the year, so it’s time for a mid-year look at how my 2023 fiber goals are going! This year’s goals were: Most of these are going pretty well. Toys I’ve done a lot of these! I already talked about a few in April, and last week I finished this summer’s mystery … Continue reading
Still catching up on finished projects! These three necklaces were from a kit that had been in my stash for a while, and I wanted something tiny and colourful after finishing up last year’s year-long constellation embroidery project. I probably won’t wear them as necklaces. They’re small enough but a bit heavy and long, and … Continue reading
Last year, I decided to do this constellation embroidery sampler from Kiriki press as a year-long project, doing each zodiac constellation as it came up in the year and occasionally doing the other non-zodiac ones. (It took me a bit more than a year because I didn’t see any point in rushing during December when … Continue reading
Last summer, I had a moment where I put my book reviews on here. The first book post explains why: I’ve been taking pictures of my library returns pile and doing little reviews in the captions of my Instagram, which is fun for sharing what I’m reading right now with my mom and friends but … Continue reading
A few kid presents I made so far in 2023: Heart Amigurumi Made these for my kid around Valentine’s day (although we don’t really celebrate that one). Ravelry project link: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/terriko/heart-amigurumi Good Bear This is a Susan B Anderson pattern with a kit from her store (Barrett Wool Co.). I love these kits: they’re well … Continue reading
Some notes from the local yarn crawl’s Mystery Crochet-a-long project. Continue reading
I’m giving a talk at pyCascades this afternoon and I just wanted to share the slides for folk who like that kind of thing. PDF: https://drive.google.com/file/d/125cCmmk8k5UtfV3QajNOXml1YW5nxM2i/view?usp=sharing ODP (LibreOffice Impress) : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1u3_5LQUYYPiv9hSCbcgG_gOGn96a-di2/view?usp=sharing (Contains notes but they’re an early talk draft) Google Docs version (not the original, probably has minor formatting issues but may be easier to … Continue reading
I live in a part of the Pacific Northwest that doesn’t get *that* cold, so I mostly get by with fingerless gloves. But then I got a dog and when I’m doing the last dog walk of the night it can be a bit nippy, so I switch to full mitts, the same ones I … Continue reading
My first finish for 2023 was the Winter Skies Cowl. This was an advent kit combining West Coast Yarn with a modular knitting pattern from PNW Knit Designs. It was pretty neat to get charts on little cards for easier mixing and matching! The colour palette was listed beforehand so I knew I’d be getting … Continue reading
A pixelated rainbow quilt and also a test of the Mastodon poster I’m using. Continue reading
I’m once again spearheading the Google Summer of Code effort for the Python Software Foundation. The website is updated as of yesterday so you can read about it there and I’m not gonna write any more blurbs: https://python-gsoc.org/ Continue reading
Every year I set myself some fiber-related new years resolutions to enhance my crafting. Fiber Goals for 2023: 1. Toys 2. Hand-dyed, hand-spun 3. Complicated Cables 4. Patterns I (already) own Continue reading
I set myself 4 fiber goals for 2022: 1. rainbows 2. advents past 3. skipping the pattern 4. finish the sabbatical quilt. So how did I do? Continue reading
I bought these lovely yarns from the ChemKnits Spring Mini Series. My kid and I have been enjoying her tutorials for dyeing yarn with food colouring, and so I thought this would be a nice way to support the channel and give me and kiddo a week of videos to watch. Plus he loves rainbows. … Continue reading
Years ago, a friend named the local bat who appears in the evenings at our house “Steven.” Since I can’t identify humans in the dark let alone bats, we have henceforth declared that all bats are named Steven. Which is why it’s especially appropriate to have two Stevens on your socks. This isn’t a complete, … Continue reading
Well… So far moving book reviews to the blog hasn’t been going great, but part of that has been that I haven’t been as consistent even on Instagram. Still, here’s some cut and paste. I’m still not caught up writing reviews because my in-laws have been here all week (including coming to library day!) But … Continue reading
Two weeks at once! August 7 Quilt as backdrop even if I didn’t end up starting the embroidery yet. Here’s this week’s library returns and reads, a few days late because I didn’t feel like writing reviews. My books: Dyeing Wishes — a knitting plus a bit of magic cozy mystery. Includes a moody ghost, … Continue reading
This one’s for all the folk who might not “look” queer: the bi folk in “straight” relationships, the trans and non-binary folk who maybe don’t “look” queer to outsiders, the ace folk, and everyone else who struggles with whether they’re really “queer enough” for a LGBTQA+ space. This free shawl pattern is intended as a … Continue reading
Playdate sweater has 1.5 sleeves and I sewed the pocket linings in, but then my hands decided sleeve knitting was uncomfortable so it’s taking a break and I’m working on the rainbow shawl which has made it all the way to purple! I actually have most of a blog post ready to go with the … Continue reading
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a sucker for tiny daily packages of yarn, but my enthusiasm for opening them is a bit beyond my ability to actually use them. (Oh, let’s be honest, my enthusiasm for all things yarn is beyond my knitting and crocheting speed.) I’m glad to see a few more countdown/advent style … Continue reading
Library day + the sweater has one complete sleeve and I like the rainbow cuff as much as I hoped I would. 🌈 Kid reads: Mr. Postmouse’s Rounds was a big hit with all the details in the drawings plus my kid’s enthusiasm for getting mail. (We even play a game where I deliver packages … Continue reading